Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The First Word

Episode Date: June 12, 2023

The Bible is about how the world was made and ruined, how it was rescued through Jesus Christ, and how someday it’s going to be remade into a new heavens and new earth.  In order to trace out that storyline, we’re first taking a look at Genesis. In Genesis 1, we have the doctrine, the teaching on creation. It’s a very big subject.  Let’s look at what the Bible teaches about creation under three headings: 1) understanding the doctrine of creation, 2) practicing the doctrine of creation, but even more, 3) experiencing the doctrine of creation. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 23, 2008. Series: Bible: The Whole Story - Creation and Fall. Scripture: Genesis 1:3-25. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. How can we trust in God's goodness and faithfulness even when the answers were seeking seem elusive? In today's sermon, Tim Keller teaches on what it means to wait on God. After you listen, please take a few seconds to rate and review our podcast. Your review can help others to discover our podcast and experience the hope of the Gospel. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller. The scripture reading is taken from Genesis,

chapter 1, verses 1 through 25. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.

God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day. And God said, let there be an expense between the waters to separate water from water. So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse sky and there was evening and there was morning the second day. And God said, let the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let the dry ground appear. And it was so. God called the dry land, ground land, and the gathered waters he called seas.

And God saw that it was good. Then God said, let the land produce vegetation, seed bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit was seed in it according to their various kinds, and it was so. The land produced vegetation, plants bearing seed according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit was seed in it according to their kinds, and God saw that it was good, and there was evening, and there was morning, the third day. And God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky

to give light on the earth, and it was so. God made two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on earth, to govern the day and the night and to separate light from darkness, and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning the fourth day.

And God said, let the water team with living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky. So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which water teams according to their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said,

Breathe, be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas and let the birds increase on the earth. And there was evening and there was morning the fifth day. And God said, let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds, livestock, creatures that move along the ground and wild animals, each according to its kind, and it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds,

and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. This is the word of the Lord. You got that? Good. I don't. We're trying in a series of sermons

between now and actually through the winter and into the spring. We're taking a look at the whole Bible in one series of sermons. And we're doing that by tracing out the central storyline. The Bible is about how the world was made and ruined. How it was rescued through Jesus Christ entering the world to save us from sin and evil and death. And how someday it's gonna be remade

into a new heavens and new earth. And in order to trace out that storyline to give us an overview of the entire Bible, we're actually taking a look first at Genesis 1-4, how the world was made and ruined. Romans 1-4, how Jesus Christ rescued us, what God did about the ruin, and finally, Revelation 18 to 21,

which is how it's all going to work out. And now, of course, we're at Genesis 1. The doctrine, the teaching of the Bible on creation. When we say the apostles' creed, we say, I believe in God the Father Almighty, make a reviving heaven and earth. So it's a very big subject and it's a very big chapter. But actually this whole series is about overviews and therefore let's take an overview based

on this text of what the Bible teaches about creation. And I'd like to check it out under three headings. Understanding the doctrine of creation, then practicing the doctrine of creation, but even more experiencing the doctrine of creation. Understanding it, practicing it, and experiencing it. Now, let me tell you why we have to start with understanding because we modern people, living especially in the United States,

actually, in a modern Western society. When we read Genesis 1 and we read about how God created the world, almost immediately we asked this question, immediately this issue presents itself, evolution. What's this got to say about evolution? Are these 24-hour days? What does it say about evolution? Are these 24-hour days? What does it say about evolution now? Virtually everybody understands that the way you should interpret a text to the Bible in a responsible way so that you don't just read into it, anything you want to read into

it, is to ask the question, what was the author originally intending to say when the author wrote or spoke to the original audience. What does that word mean? What does this phrase mean? What is the purpose of that author? Not just reading in our issues, but what did the author actually mean? And everybody knows that when Genesis was written, whenever it was written, by whoever it was written by,

that person was not thinking at all about creation and evolution. It wasn't thinking at all about America's culture wars, not in the slightest. What was he thinking about? Well, we're going to get to that under point two, but I have to deal with this under point one. People say, okay, all right, but what are the implications for the theory of evolution? After all, are these 24-hour days? That would make it pretty hard for there to be such a thing as evolution. Now throughout the centuries, at least throughout the last couple of centuries, there are,

well actually all the way through the centuries, there have been Christians who understood the days of Genesis 1 as being literal 24-hour days, and there have been plenty of Christians with a high view of the authority of the Bible who have not seen it that way. And the people who have not seen it that way go like this. They say, you know, it's not that hard to understand when you read most of the scripture, the vast majority of the scripture, what, how that particular text ought to be read. So an awful lot of the Bible is what you'd call historical pros-narrative. So when you read Luke, you open the book of Luke, and you know what it starts with, it says, the author says that I've talked to all the eyewitnesses to make sure that I'm giving an orderly account of everything that really happened in the life of Jesus.

That's a historic pros-narr narrative, and you read it as such. When you open the book of Psalms, what have you got? You've got poetry. You've got songs, actually. The poetry makes itself known by its strofic nature, and strofic means its repetition refrains, and also by its parallelism, because Hebrew poetry was always marked by parallelism, patterned repetition and parallelism. So it's very easy, generally, to read through the Bible and see, where is it poetic, which case you don't take that literally?

Where is it historical prose narrative, which case you don't take that literally, where is it historical prose narrative, in which case you read it as such, and there are a few places, and I won't mention the others because, well, you know, there's a book of Ecclesiastes, and there's a few, just a few places, we're not sure what we've got here, we're not sure what we've got, the signals aren't that easy to tell, And this is one of them. It has always been so. Why? When you get to Genesis 2, it's very obvious that this is historic prose narrative.

It reads just like, this is an account of exactly what's happening. But when you get to Genesis 1, it's strofic. It's very repetitious. It's very patterned. Over and over, he saw, he said, and it was. He saw, and it was good. It was evening, and it was morning. The first day, there's refrains, there's patterns. It's not the way his narrative is written. Genesis 2 is.

And so I think, you know, what you have here on the part of one group of people is that Genesis 1 is not a history of what exactly what God did, but a song about what God did. The history starts in Genesis 2. For example, Exodus 14, a historic narrative of the crossing of the Red Sea, Exodus 15, Miriam's song about it. Judges four, actually the account of how the Israelites fought against the Syrians and the general Sissera and defeated them.

Judges five, Debra's song about it. It's a song. In the song she says, the stars came and fought against Sissera, which we don't take that literally, it's a song. In the song, she says, the stars came and fought against Cicera, which we don't take that literally. It's a song. Isn't that possible that we have what we have? Isn't that the same thing we have here in Genesis 1, a song about creation and Genesis 2, what actually happen?

That's one view. There's another view. And the other view says that even though Genesis 1 is strofic, it's not parallelism. It's got some of the marks of poetry like strofic repetition, but it doesn't have the other marks of poetry it's not parallelism. It's got some of the marks of poetry like strofic repetition, but it doesn't have the other marks of poetry, which is parallelism.

And therefore, we need to read this as literal, and therefore, it's 24-hour-day days. Now, here's what's important to know. I'm old. I've been in ministry almost 35 years. And the first part of my ministry in the conservative Christian world in America, there was an agreement to disagree about this. And people said, oh, we have different views of this.

We both have high views of Scripture. We're reading it differently. We're taking the text seriously. We're trying to take the text seriously. So we're going to have to agree to disagree. In the last 10, 15 years. That's not what's happened. What you have on the one hand is you've got people who disdain folks who believe these are 24-hour days. You have primitive fundamentalist, upscurrantists, and there's people who have disdain anyone who

doesn't think these are literal 24-hour days because they say you're an enemy of truth. And there's a harshness that's grown up in at least in the states about this, which is absolutely incongruous with everything we were talking about in our former series. And we said, if you believe you're a sinner saved by grace, by grace, by grace, there's got to be a graciousness, a humility about the way in which you treat other people, especially brother and sister believers. And I want Redeemer to be a place for that kind of discussion.

That's the way it happens. Not the way it, the way it used to be in a way. This, that's the way it has to be here if we believe the gospel and the way we say we do. But if you ask me, where do I stand? I stand with the people who say, this is a song. These aren't 24 hour days. And I'll tell you something.

All of us, no matter who we are, our goal should be to read this text. Genesis 1, and notice that when God speaks, the chaos becomes a cosmos. To come under God's word is to go from disorder to order, from chaos to cosmos. And it should be our job simply to say, I want to come under God's word.

I'm going to do my very best to hear what the Bible is actually saying. And I want you to know that I'm at the worst possible spot, because if I really wanted to completely buy into the theory of evolution, I would say all of Genesis 1 to 11 is poetry. But I don't think that's right because though Genesis 1 has all the marks of poetry, I think Genesis 2 and on is history.

So there's a real Adam and Eve. This is really going on. On the other hand, if I want to have absolutely nothing to do with the theory of evolution at all, I would believe all of it, Genesis 1 to 11 is all historic, prosynarative. I don't think that's how you can read the Bible. I think that, the way I'm telling you is I think that my best shot at what I think the text actually teaches, in which case, I'm in a difficult situation when it comes to the theory of evolution, so I'm going to move on. I'm not going to look at it anymore tonight. Because I don't think, as I said before, look at it anymore tonight? Because I don't think, as I said before, I don't think that's what it's talking about. Let me tell you what it is talking about. It's

telling us four things about the material world which have amazingly practical results. The first is, it's telling us about the goodness of creation over and over and over again. It says, it is good it is good God sees everything it's good it's good do you know how amazing that is Archbishop William Temple used to say Eastern religions say this world is unreal the physical world is unreal it's an illusion in some day it'll fade away Western religions the Greeks in the Roman said this world is bad the body is bad the material world is bad the spirit is noble and virtuous and good. And even Islam says, paradise is a spiritual world.

We leave the physical world. Only the Bible has such a high view and a positive view of the goodness of material creation. They were told, God is gonna resurrect our bodies and give us a new heavens and new earth and so Temple says, only the Bible, in visions, spirit and matter, existing in integrity forever. You literally have God with His hands in the dust and the dirt, especially when He's forming, you know, man and woman. That's amazing for the Greeks, it's amazing for the Eastern religions.

Walter Brogam and the Great Old Testament scholars says, it was intellectually revolutionary for the Book of Genesis to come and say, the material world is that good. Now what does that mean for us? Well, have you ever thought, have you ever asked this question, why is it that Jesus first miracle, his first sign, his, the rollout of his campaign, as it were? Why was the very first miracle, the first public sign of his ministry, not raising from somebody,

somebody from the dead, not healing a leper, not healing somebody blind, but throwing a much bigger and better party because he's created out of water incredibly good booze. He turns water into wine and he takes a party that was about to sort of start to dip and puts it back on the up curve. Why would he do that? Because the Bible is filled, not just in Genesis, but from Isaiah to Revelation, the Bible is filled with prophecies that say, the natural world is just a shadow that's going to be like when Jesus, when the Lord comes back. And so in Isaiah 25, we read,

in that day, the Lord will swallow up death forever, and wipe away tears from all faces. The Lord of hosts will make for his people a feast. Of the finest meats and wines, well refined, and for the Lord, and therefore the Lord God has spoken. And what Jesus is doing by making his calling card, wine and feast. He's saying, I am the maker of the universe. I'm the maker of the material creation. That's why I can snap my fingers in turn water to wine. But also, I'm gonna preside over that great feast.

I am the Lord of the feast. Of the ultimate feast, the final feast. And if you've heard the Dionysian myths about how the forest for days on when Dionysius shows up, you know, run with wine and feasting and dancing, that's kid stuff compared to what's going to happen when I come back. And therefore, the goodness of creation, the goodness of material creation is a profound, absolutely profound motivation for playfulness.

For enjoy. Everything about this doctrine, everything about what Jesus did at the wedding feast, everything about revelation, I know I'm looking ahead already. Basically, says, Christians may not lead dower stretched lives. We must not be perpetually solemn. When you realize what's coming, when you realize that a great kiss, terrific meal, an incredible sunset, is just a dim hint of what we're going to have eternally,

physical, material. Well, then we can enjoy those things. We can love those things. We've got to play. We've got to be able to enjoy ordinary life. We've got to cherish it and receive it gladly. That's the goodness of creation, but very quickly and a balance. The second thing we learn here in this chapter is the finiteness of creation.

Looking for a new way to deepen your faith and understanding of Christianity this summer? If you are, we'd like you to consider the new city of Catechism devotional. Based on the historic Catechisms of the Christian Church, this devotional offers 52 weeks of thought-provoking questions and answers that explore the foundationalisms of the Christian Church. This devotional offers 52 weeks of thought provoking questions and answers that explore the foundational beliefs of the faith. Each week includes a scripture passage, a prayer, and a brief meditation that will challenge and inspire you. Commentaries are written by contemporary pastors such as John Piper, Timothy Keller, and Kevin DeYoung, as well as historical figures such as Augustine,

John Calvin, and Martin Luther. The new City Catechism Debotional is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the hope of Christ's love with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. See the goodness creation comes from all the benedictions. Benadick means good word. He thought was good. He thought was good. He thought was good. Benadiction. But there's a second thing that's very important and also revolutionary, by

the way, intellectually about the book of Genesis in which it stands against all the other ancient creation accounts. There's only one deity. There's only one center of power. There's only one source of the creation. You know how most of you get out any of the old creation myths and accounts. They always have multiple deities, multiple centers of power, and usually the world and human beings are created out of a battle of some sort or out of some kind of cooperative effort. But here and only here, do you have an ancient

account of creation in which all the elements of nature are created. None of them are divine, none of them are divinized. God alone is to be worshiped. God alone is worthy of worship. As great as nature is, it's finite. Whereas virtually all of the ancient religions worship the sun or worship the moon or worship the aspects of nature. Because there were multiple power points as it were. Multiple centers of power, multiple deities,

but no, here it says there's only one. You know what this means? On the one hand, many ancient religions were ascetic. They said, this world isn't real, and if you want to get spiritual asceticism, do without. Don't enjoy. Pleasure isn't good for you. It's corrupting asceticism. But other religions in ancient time and secularism today

are not anti-materialistic, they're only materialistic. They're not against material nature. They say, this is all we've got. And therefore people essentially worship physical pleasure or wealth or sex or money or power. Both many ancient religions, which worship nature, and modern secularism that basically says, this is all you've got. You've got to live for money.

You've got to live for pleasure. You've got to live for sex. You've got to live for power. Christianity is neither aesthetic, asceticism, or hedonism. It neither says the material world is bad, or that this is all you've got. You can do without it because God's the most important thing. In Mark chapter 2, the man comes, or his friends bring him and say, please heal the paralytic. And Jesus looks at this guy who's been lowered through the roof.

The paralytic, what does he do? Your sins are forgiven. Isn't that interesting? The guy was laying there saying, that's not why I'm here. I can't walk, okay? Now the guy was brought in, and Jesus looks and says,

oh my son, your sins are forgiven. I didn't sign up for this blessing. I signed up for the other blessing, and Jesus is saying, I'm giving you the blessing you really need. See, on the one hand, if you have God, if you've got God, you've got what you need. Now, what happens if you have this balance? The goodness of creation at the same time, the finite nest. Do you realize what that means? It means you can enjoy it and yet walk away from it.

If somebody takes it away from you, you're not all bent out of shape. You can go for good, the good parts of the material world. You can go for pleasure. You can go for food. You can go for the ordinary comforts. But if you have to do without them, it's all right.

You're not crestfallen. You're not destroyed. Go make money. You can do a lot, you're not destroyed. Go make money. You can do a lot of great things with it. And if you don't have it, oh, well, I got God. Do you realize who you are? If you have this robust theory, this robust view of creation, really good,

so you're not ascetic. But not the most important thing, therefore you're not ahead of us. Do you know who you are? You're a hobbit. But not the most important thing, therefore you're not ahead of us. You know who you are? You're a hobbit. J.R. Tolkien does a very good job of drawing the characters of hobbits and listen carefully what he says about them in his intro.

He says they had mouths apt to laughter and eating and drinking and laugh they did and eat and drink they did often and hardly six meals a day if they could get it Nonetheless ease and peace had left them Tough as old tree roots Why they were difficult to don't or kill why why are hobbits so tough They were so unwireingly fond of good, not least because they could when put to it do without them, that they could survive rough handling by grief, faux, or weather in

a way that astonished those who did not know them well and looked no further than their well-fed faces. How attractive. We're talking about people just love the laugh, they love the party, they love food and drinks six times a day if they can get it. And if you take it all away, they're so fond of them because they can do without them. What Tolkien is actually doing is he's actually drawing because his own understanding was pretty, pretty deeply Christian of creation.

He's drawing a picture of a people very attractive because they have a robust doctrine of creation. First of all, goodness. Secondly, finiteness. Thirdly, we learn here the unity of creation. What do we mean by unity? Well, Greek philosophy was dualistic. I already mentioned this before. Dualism sees that the body is a bad thing, and the material world is bad, and the soul and the spirit is good,

and therefore they tended to pit the material world against the spiritual world. And in fact, some Greek religious actually believe there were two gods. There was a good god and a bad god, a good god, or good force produced the spirit and a bad God and a good God, or good force produced the Spirit and a bad God produced matter. Now unfortunately, the Greek dualistic view of things

has always been something out there in the Christian church. Christianity has always imbibed this, even spite of the fact it doesn't come from the Bible. And as a result, there are lots of Christians today. They're dualistic. They basically pit the Spirit against the world and the material world. And therefore they say, if you believe in God and you're connected to God by His Holy Spirit, then you're good. But everybody else is wicked, bad, terrible. You're on the side of Satan. I want nothing to do with you. I can learn nothing from you.

But that's not what you have here. What you have here is, is everything is good. God doesn't create any, both the spirit and the body are all good and everyone's in the image of God, everyone. And later on, we're going to see we're all falling. And you know what this means? To be in the image of God, and that's actually next Sunday, means that everyone, whether they believe or not, reflects God, means that everyone, whether they believe or not, reflects God, has gifts of courage, wisdom, creativity, that reflect God. Whether you believe like he, whether you believe in him or not, even believe he exists or not, you're in the image of God. And also everyone has fallen, everyone's a sinner. Whether you believe or not, even though you believe strongly or not. And you know what that means? It means that people who don't believe, because of the image of God on them, are far better

than their wrong beliefs should make them. And people who believe, because of the sin in them, are far worse than their right beliefs should make them. And therefore, there's sometimes not a lot to choose between them. And not only that, it means that you can learn from everyone. You can expect wisdom from everyone. You can expect creativity from everyone. You can expect art from everyone because God has given it to everyone

because everyone is in the image of God. There's a creational sub-stratta of incredible good in every single human being, as well as evil. And that's something that we see. Why? Because everything is good and created good, and then on top of that comes the fall. Utterly different than the dualistic approach. And there's one more thing, and then we have to move on to our final point.

The last thing we learn here is the importance of creation, the goodness of it, the finiteness of it, the unity of it, and the importance of it. And I'll just, I'll be real brief. God so loves the cosmos. You know, that's what John 316 says. God so loved the cosmos that He sent Jesus Christ to save it. He is so committed to this material creation that He was willing to take it on to this material creation that he was willing to take it on in the incarnation when the word became flesh. And as someday resurrect us and create a new heaven and new earth. Now, what does that mean? This is what C.S. Lewis said. I quoted this last week at the Open Forum.

Lewis says, confronted with cancer or a slum, the pantheist, the person that basically thinks that this world is essentially a physical world as an illusion, confronted with cancer or a slum, the pantheist can say, well, if you would only see it from a certain point of view, you would realize that this is also part of God. The Christian replies to that, don't talk such damned nonsense. For Christianity is a fighting religion. It thinks God made the world that space and time, heat and cold and all the colors and tastes

and all the animals and vegetables are things that God made up, like an artist. But it also thinks, the Bible also thinks, that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists and insists very loudly on putting them right again. Because the world is real and because God's committed to it, when we see poverty, when we see disease, when we see death, we are as committed to renovating it as He is. If you have this doctrine of creation and you see the goodness of it? You play.

You've got a great motivation to play, because you see the finiteness of it. You can handle deprivation, material deprivation, because you see the unity of it. You can learn from everybody. You don't have this incredible self-righteousness and condemning attitude toward everybody who doesn't believe like you believe.

And because the importance of it, you go to the mat to fight against injustice and hunger and disease and poverty. What a group of people who would have that view, that understanding of creation, does incredible group of people called Hobbits. And if you are just biblical enough, you might actually make Hobbitness. Now, there's one more and very important thing. It's so easy to get to the end of a sermon. I kind of there, but pretty close. And to say, now, go out there and try real hard

to build a life on the basis of the doctrine of creation. But I think there's more than just practicing it. There's experiencing it. You say, what do I mean by experiencing it? Well, why does nature move us? Why is it so moving? Even if we don't believe there's a God, it's still moving. Even if we believe like Richard Dawkins at the reason

when you take a look at certain scenery, you just feel it's so beautiful. The reason is because your ancestors knew there was food out there and that particular neurological feature because it helped them survive in their environment is now come down to you and that's the reason why you see it's beautiful. And you know what, Richard Dawkins, instead of saying, yeah, that means beauty, the beauty of the mountains

and the beauty of the landscape is all a crock, it's all stupid. No, he still enjoys it. He knows somehow that in spite of the fact that his mind says that the beauty is an illusion that it's not. John Optike has a great little short story called Pigeon Feathers. If you read it, it's about a teenager who's just afraid of death. He's just petrified that when he dies, there'll be nothing. There's nothing.

Now, I know an awful lot of people in New York that that's what they believe, and it doesn't bother them. Well, I think that the young boy, the character in this short story is much more rational. I think it is irrational, not to be scared, of the possibility that after death there's nothing, that you're nothing, that there is nothing. But one day in the story, in the presence of a piz-gen feather, and he sees the texture and he sees the color and he sees the beauty of it, it speaks to him, and it tells him there is a God and there is an eternal God. There is a God on the other side and he's comforted.

Now see, Romans 1 says that, Romans 1 says that when you see the beauty of nature, nature is telling you about God. Actually, Psalm 19, when it says the heavens, the stars, the sun, the moon, are declaring the glory of God. It's actually speaking a little bit more strongly. And when God says, in Job 38, he says this to Job when he's actually rebuking him, he says, where were you when I laid the earth's foundation, while the morning stars sang together and the angels shouted for joy?

The Bible says that the reason nature is so moving is because it's singing to us. It's singing to us about God. It's actually singing to God. It's praising God. And therefore it's singing to us about God. Now, that's really nice. Nice idea, isn't it?

But Simone Vé, the French philosopher and activist, a Jewish woman who came to Christian faith, wrote a very interesting essay about the beauty of the world. In it, she said, she adds a note. And she says, the love we feel for the splendor of the heavens, the plains, the sea and the mountains, for the breath of the wind, or the warmth of the sun, this love of which every human being has at least an inkling, okay, in other words, the beauty of the world, is an incomplete, painful love.

Because the beauty of the world makes us yearn for some universal beauty behind it that does not seem to respond to us. She says there's something, she says, the world is singing to us about something that we can't enter. We can't enter the song. Now what would that be? Elizabeth Alley at one of my old teachers used to say, Elizabeth Alley at one of my old teachers used to say, clams glorify God better than you.

He used to point to the class and say, you know, clams glorify God better than you. And he'd say, what? And she says, sure, because you know, the ocean is beautiful. A clam is fascinating. A pigeon feather. But the reason they're glorifying God is they're being exactly what God meant them to be. A clam is being exactly what God meant it to be. A clam. But are you being a woman or are you being a man? Are you being a human being that God made human beings to be? No. That's what she would say. And you know what you suddenly begin to realize? You suddenly begin to realize that there is something beautiful about nature because it's being, it's reflecting the goodness of God, it's reflecting the glory of God, it's reflecting the greatness of God, it's speaking to us of the greatness of God because it's so gorgeous

and we want to enter and we can't. Because there's something wrong with our relationship with God. But there's even more to it, I think. When Simone Vays says that it's inviting us into something that we can't have, you say, oh, it's God, right? Well, I think it's something even more specific. I think it tells us here.

The everything God does in this chapter is through his word. Have you ever noticed that? It never says, let there be light and then he went off and made light. He says, let there be light. And there was light. Everything is done through his word. Everything is done through his word. The word has power, but there's two things he does.

He creates things through his word and he blesses them. There's the creative word in which he brings it into existence, and then there's the benediction. Like in verse 22, he and he blessed them. He's enjoying them. He's delighting in them. You know, God is not saying, what do you know?

It's good. He's not discovering that it's good. He's saying it's good. He's blessing it. He's enjoying it. He's delighting in it. And of course the trees are singing, of course the birds are singing, of course the stars are singing,

because they have the delight of God. They're saying, God, delight's in me, I'm good! And we don't have the benediction. See, every single one of us in our heart of hearts, because we were built for this, we're trying to fill a vacuum. We want our parents to love us.

We want to get married to somebody who loves us. Somebody, hopefully, that we admire and, you know, we're going out and trying to do well in the world. We're trying to make money. Why? We're trying to get a bened world. We're trying to make money. Why? We're trying to get a benediction. We're trying to get other people, other things to say, you're good. You're wonderful.

You're delightful. You're incredible. That was great. But it never satisfies. Because it's God's benediction that we need. What can we do about it? I don't have to say what we do about it. I can tell you what's already been done.

John chapter one says, in the beginning was the word. The word through which everything was created and everything was blessed, but this word became flesh and dwelt among us. It was Jesus. The word of God, the creative word of God, came to earth and took the form of a human being, Jesus Christ. And at His baptism, do you know what happened in His baptism? The Holy Spirit descended, right? And He heard a voice, right? And you know what the Word was? God said to Him,

this is my beloved child in whom I'm well pleased. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. That was the first time since the Garden of Eden that any human being had gotten the benediction. The good word was the first time that a human being had earned it because he was completely in absolute, he loved God with all his heart, soul, strength of mine. He loved his neighbors himself and God looked out

and said, it is good. And he had the delight and the love of God. But just before we went to the cross, he was in the garden of Gisemin and he said, Father, I'm dying. Would you take this cup from me? And he got no answer, silence. And on the cross, he cried out, my God,

my God, what has the offer sake in me? Do you know the irony of the word of God getting silent treatment? Do you know the irony of the son of God getting silent treatment? Do you know the irony of the Son of God getting just darkness? What was happening on the cross? I'll tell you what was happening on the cross. Jesus Christ was getting the malediction, the curse, the Word of condemnation that we deserved.

He was getting the divine Word, the malediction, it says, the part for me he cursed it into everlasting fire. That was happening to him on the cross. He was getting the malediction we deserved because we've been our own Savior, our own Lord, we've turned away. We have worshiped the created order. We have worshiped wealth and power. We've worshiped everything but the maker.

He got the malediction we deserve so we can can get the benediction adherent with his life. So that when I say father, receive me not for my sake but for because of Christ what he has done on the cross. We're told in Galatians 1 that God reconciles us to him so we are holy and blameless in his sight without spot or blemish. And Romans 8, 16 says the Spirit bears witness with our Spirit that we're the children of God. You know what that means? It means that if you believe the gospel, if you come under the word of the gospel, if

you accept the word of the gospel, that's the recreative word. And the word of the gospel that says, you're received because of what Jesus has done. He loved you like this. Confess your sins. Repent, give your life to him. That's the gospel. And when you receive that gospel, in the gospel, you finally get the benediction. You finally hear it.

You finally hear God say, in Jesus Christ, you're good. You are my beloved daughter, you are my beloved son, whom well pleased, and no longer will you be out in the world trying to find it, trying to squeeze it out of your mate, your spouse, your job, anything else. You will have achieved hoppateness. You'll be able to enjoy the things of this world the same time if they are taken away from you.

Okay. I'm not amazing. The gospel is the recreative word because the word became flesh and took our malediction so we give them an addiction that he earned. And that on the one hand goes deep inside me and in you and heals our inner most hurts our support babies. It's psychologically healing but the same time that drives us out into the world because Christianity is a fighting religion because when we see cancer, when we see disease, when

we see poverty, we're going to do something about it. The doctrine of creation, have you accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your creator? Not just your Redeemer? Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You for this overview of this great, important truth, and we ask that You would help us to truly experience the doctrine of creation so we can practice the doctrine of creation. We ask the We grant this for Jesus' sake in His name. We pray, amen. Thank you for listening to today's teaching. We recognize that many of you will want to respond to the news of Tim's passing.

If you would like to know more about how to share your condolences or to share a story of how Tim's writing or teaching helped you or if you just want to know how you can pray, please visit gospelunlife.com slash remembering. This month's sermons were recorded in 1996 and 2009. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while

Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.