Who Created the Universe?

1. 0:00Heterburg catechism, Lord’s Day 9, Question 26: What do you believe when you say, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth"?
2. 0:20That the Eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them,
3. 0:26who still upholds and rules them by his eternal counsel and providence, is my God and Father for the sake of Christ his Son.
4. 0:34I trust God so much that I do not doubt he will provide whatever I need for body and soul.
5. 0:40and will turn to my good, whatever adversity he sends upon me in this veil of tears.
6. 0:45He is able to do this because he is almighty God.
7. 0:49He desires to do this because he is a faithful father.
8. 0:53Well, here in Lord’s Day 9, the catechism begins its treatment of the articles of the Apostles' Creed.
9. 0:59In Lord’s Day 8, we were taught that there is but one divine being who has revealed himself to us in his word in three distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
10. 1:10And Lord's Days 9 and 10 began to explain to us what it means to have God as our Father, the Christian's unique comfort of knowing God as Father.
11. 1:20And Lord’s Day 9 begins by telling us that the Father is the creator of the world.
12. 1:24That as we know from Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and He did so out of nothing. God spoke the world into existence.
13. 1:34He said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."
14. 1:38In this truth, according to Hebrews 11:1, verse 3 is one of the family secrets of the Christian faith. That is Hebrews 11 verse 3 says, "By faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word
15. 1:49of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible." Apart from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul says that we suppress this
16. 1:59truth and unrighteousness. Man by nature and his sin and rebellion against God, man rejects the idea that there is a God who has created him. He rejects the idea that there is a God
17. 2:12who has a purpose for him and a God who has designed him. And he certainly rejects the notion that a day is coming when all men will give an account of this this God and creator of the world.
18. 2:21And what a terrible day that will be for the unrighteous and ungodly.
19. 2:25But not so for the Christian.
20. 2:28Because the Christian has not only come to know God as creator, but the Christian has come to know God as his father.
21. 2:35According to Lord’s Day 9, the very same God who created the world, the very Him, God who upholds the world by His eternal counsel and providence, is also my God and Father for the sake of Christ His Son.
22. 2:48And so here in Lord’s Day 9, we're already introduced to this doctrine of adoption that for the sake of Christ His Son, God has become my Father too.
23. 2:59I have been adopted into the family of God, and so I share in all the benefits and blessings of belonging to Jesus Christ as my faithful Lord and Savior.
24. 3:10And because I belong to Christ, because Christ is my Savior, Lord’s Day 9 teaches me that I can trust God no matter what.
25. 3:19I can trust that God will provide whatever I need for body or soul.
26. 3:25As Paul says in Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?"
27. 3:36God will provide whatever I need for body and soul.
28. 3:39And not only that, but even when tragedy strikes, I can trust God and not doubt that he will turn to my good, whatever adversities he sends my way in this veil of tears.
29. 3:53And it's worth pointing out here in Lord’s Day 9, as well as in other Lord's days, that our catechism is very honest about world in which we live. That we stand in need of comfort implies that without God, without
30. 4:06His saving intervention, we would be utterly uncomfortable. We have no comfort apart from God as our Father. We live in a sad world. The catechism refers to this world as being or a valley of tears.
31. 4:21Because when sin entered the world, tears quickly followed.
32. 4:25In this life, we're met with many trials and tribulations, and we shed many tears.
33. 4:30And according to our catechism, these trials and tribulations come to us from the hand of our Father himself.
34. 4:37It's our Father himself who is the Lord who sends his adversities our way. He does so according to James 1, so that by the testing of our faith it might produce a steadfastness of faith. And so
35. 4:50this is the believer's confession. His resounding confession in this sad world, in this valley of tears, is "I trust God."
36. 4:59I trust Him. He'll provide whatever I need for body and soul. He'll look after all my physical needs as well as all my spiritual needs. And He'll turn to my good whatever adversity sends upon me in this sad world.
37. 5:14I trust God because He's able to do this. I trust Him because as Lord’s Day 9 says, He is Almighty God. As Jeremiah 32:17 says, "Nothing is too hard or too difficult for the Lord."
38. 5:27As our boys and girls learned to sing it at such a young age, "My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do." But here's the wonder of our adoption. Our God is not only
39. 5:39able to provide for all our needs, physical and spiritual. He is not only able to turn to our good, whatever adversity he sends upon us in this sad world, but even more than that, he desires to do
40. 5:53so because he's not just almighty God. He's also a faithful father. In other words, words that the catechism is saying is that when God sees you in your neediness, when
41. 6:04He sees you in your sin and misery, when He sees you drowning in your tears, and in this world that is a valley of tears, there is nothing that the Father loves to do more than
42. 6:15to draw near to you and give you His aid. The Father loves you.
43. 6:19indeed sees our tears.
44. 6:21As David says in the midst of his distress, he says, "You have kept count of my tossings and turnings.
45. 6:27You've put my tears in your bottle."
46. 6:30David takes comfort in knowing that in the midst of all his distress and anxieties of this life, God sees him tossing and turning at night.
47. 6:37God understands his tossing.
48. 6:39crossings and turnings, God sees his tears.
49. 6:43And those tears, far from repelling God away from David, in fact draw him closer to David.
50. 6:50Isn't it the case that when a child is sick and in the hospital, that the tears of that child draw forth greater compassion from his father's heart?
51. 6:59And according to our Cadex, and that's the way it is with our Heavenly Father as well, our tears draw forth greater tenderness and compassion from His heart as He takes compassion
52. 7:11on us, as He pities us as a father has compassion on His children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him, Psalm 103 says.
53. 7:19And so Peter says, humble yourselves therefore under the almighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your cares, casting all your anxieties
54. 7:29upon him, because he really does care for you.
55. 7:34Far from our neediness propelling God away from us, our neediness in fact draws God clear closer to us.
56. 7:42And this is what it means to confess, I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
57. 7:47This is what we should have on our minds every time we confess this truth, Sunday after Sunday.
58. 7:52I trust God because the God of the Lord Jesus Christ has become my God and Father too for the sake of Christ his Son.
59. 7:59And so I can trust Him. I can trust He'll provide whatever I need for body and soul.
60. 8:05I can trust He'll turn to my good, whatever adverse He sends my way in this sad world.
61. 8:10I can trust that He's able to do this because He's Almighty God.
62. 8:14But more than that, He in fact desires to do this because He's a faithful Father.
63. 8:19you

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