Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 34 – June 1981

The Unfading Beauty Of God's Re-Creation

Sermon by Rev. H. W. Pennings on Eccles 3:11a & Isa 40:8

Scripture Reading: Eccles 3:1-15; Isa 40:1-11

Beloved in the Lord,

The Bible tells us that God has made everything beautiful in its time. It also tells us to enjoy life. So we do. Or, at least, we try to and like to: to enjoy life: to admire the things in life that God has made so beautifully. Beauty and enjoyment often come together hand in hand. When we sing hymn 374 our profession of faith is...

This is my Father's World,
and to my listening ear
all nature sings, and round me rings,
the music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world;
He shines in all that's fair;
in the rustling grass I hear Him pass;
He speaks to me everywhere.....
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King, let the heavens ring!
God reigns, let the earth be glad.

The earth is glad. It does declare the glory of its heavenly maker, as Ps.19 tells us.

We might not all agree on what is, or is not beautiful. For a flower which may make no impression on one person will leave another person in ecstasy. Was it Shakespeare who said, "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder"? There are people who would obtain much more enjoyment from a nice row of carrots than a rose bush in full bloom. Yet most of us will agree that a rose is a beautiful flower and that a mountain capped in snow is a wonderful sight. For...

This is my Father's world;
I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas
His hand the wonders wrought.

Let us now sing this hymn together. Hymn 374, all verses.....

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It makes quite a difference as we sing this hymn about the beauty of the world that we realise it came from an act of creation. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth..... and God said that it was good." There are many people who believe that it all came about by the merest of chance, but even other unbelievers do not believe that to be a credible belief. On the other hand, to say that God made everything beautiful in its time is an act or statement of faith. We cannot demonstrate it to be true, even although it is more than just a reasonable faith. It is beyond scientific investigation, and beyond logic, yet it is reasonable to believe that, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth beautiful in their time.

Even when sin entered into the world sin, the destroyer of everything that is good and beautiful - the flowers still grew and the trees still gave their fruit. The skies and the seas were still, in their time, their season and in their beauty, allowed to show us something of the majesty of the One who created them perfectly. This was, the Bible tells us, for the sake of the Son of God who was promised right after the sin, that sin, the destroyer, first entered into the world. God in the fulness of His mercy and grace did not destroy man and the rest of creation. For the sake of Jesus Christ, the "King of creation", the world is still beautiful, and its beauty and its seasons will not fade away until there are no more days and no more seasons - until the time has come for the greater to take over from the lesser.

For, the whole creation, with all the saints of God through Christ, awaits the time of God's re-creation when everything is made new again. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator, and the King of Creation, will renew it all, and those who believe, on the day that God has appointed. Until that great day comes, a day on which the word "beauty" takes on a new meaning for us, we can sing of the "Beautiful Saviour, King of creation".

So we sing the hymn 373, all verses....

* * * * * * * * * *

It is very important, beloved of the Lord, that when we sing about the beautiful things that God has made for us to enjoy, we do not divorce it from God's most beautiful and precious gift to man, the Saviour Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, that is what most people do. There is, in this world, still much that is very beautiful, and so much that we can enjoy. It is possible for people who know of no relationship between the creation and the Creator to enjoy life thoroughly. We all will know some people whose life is miserable from start to finish. We will meet many people who always seem to want more - who are never satisfied with what they have. So, day and night they toil and sweat for more and more possessions, often without even knowing why they do it. There are many who, by their way of life, have unstable family relationships, and others seem to drink themselves into a stupor nearly every day. There are people who spend most of their days behind bars, and others who wander the streets every night unless some social agency offers them shelter. All such misery is caused by sin - estrangement from God.

Yet there are also people who live godless lives who, seemingly at first, seem to prosper because of their sinfulness. Though they too divorce themselves from God they seem to be content with life as a whole. We will all know many such people. Scripture speaks about the misery of all people who remain in their sin, but this misery is not always visible in this life. We may have neighbours and friends who enjoy the beautiful things which God has made to show some of His greatness. They enjoy them, because God has made them to be enjoyed, yet they happily remain in their sin. We must not suppose that it is only Christian people who have the gift of understanding beauty or enjoyment. For the author of the book of Ecclesiastes, while speaking about the vanity of all things godless, writes, "I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That every man may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil - this is the gift of God."

In that same chapter three we read that God has set eternity in the hearts of men. Not, of course, so that he can understand everything that God has done from beginning to end - not that kind of eternity. But that all people can put at least some things into perspective of sorts - it is still a precious gift.

Therefore we have to ask the question what it really means that all unbelieving people have total misery in their lives; that they are totally depraved, as the fathers of Dordt put it. The answer comes from Scripture, because Scripture says that the grass withers and that the flowers fall....!

It also tells us that our own lives are like the grass and the flower. We flourish for a while, certainly - all people without exception. We experience some of the beauty of God's creation. We enjoy the friendship, warmth, hospitality and caring of many fellow-creatures. But the grass withers and the flowers fall. It all comes to an end. What, then, has been the benefit of enjoying God's wonderful creation for 40, 50, 90 years? God has put eternity into man's mind, but, what kind of eternity? Some answers may start to come as we sing together hymn 371, all verses (Wake, awake, for night is flying)....

* * * * * * * * * *

Maybe, as you were singing this hymn, it came as a surprise to you to hear of the coming of the new creation with the words "night-time is flying" rather than "day-time is flying". For that is surely a bit unusual if you do not fully understand the part of Scripture which inspired the hymn-writer. Scripture often compares our present time to the day-time, and that time when Jesus returns to the night-time. Its meaning is that now, in the daytime, we still have an opportunity to do our work, or, to come into an understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ. But, when night-time comes, it is too dark to work or too late to come to Jesus for salvation. That is quite correct. When Jesus has already come, it is too late to repent unto forgiveness of sin. Yet this hymn which we sang together is also correct. Now it is the night-time. Now the flowers still fade and the grass still withers. Now is still the time of death; it is night-time.

But the daytime is coming too. A new age is to awaken out of this darkness. God's creation is going to be restored to all its "day-time" or former glory. At that time nothing will fade and nothing will die. Our days will no longer be numbered as they are now - 40, 50, 90 years. That is because there always has been and always will be only one thing that is eternally glorious in this creation - only the living Word of the living God. At one time that living Word became flesh. Jesus came and pitched His tent among humanity for a while. The reason for His coming was to draw all the chosen children of God to their Father in heaven. He did this, as we know, by giving His own perfect obedience and sinless punishment in death as a ransom to God for our sins. This is the message of the cross of Calvary. In order that we may be assured that Jesus' cross is a symbol of our eternal salvation and sonship to the Father we have to answer Jesus' question as He asks us, "Do you love me? Do you love me more than you love anyone or anything else?"

God has made everything beautiful in its time. Man can enjoy life to the fullest. God did not make man to be in misery. Therefore it will come to an end. He tells us to be awake and ready for that time. For we will all have to appear before Him. That is as sure as the grass withers and the flowers fall. Today, while, in one way, it is day-time, a time for living for Jesus - but in another way it is night-time, with day-time just around the corner - God calls upon us to come into the fullness of enjoyment. He tells the adults and the children alike not to live just to enjoy the things that are, beautifully as God had made them for us, but to live for Jesus the beautiful Saviour and the King of Creation. For only the living Word, Jesus, can have all those who put their trust in Him to live forever.

Life is more than our earthly life-span. Life is eternal. All who are in sin and misery, even although they appear to enjoy life, will have it fade away. Unbelievers, those who see things more glorious than the way of following Jesus, He will then cast into outer darkness where there will be continual mourning.

Then, when the day-time has finally come, they will be in the night-time forever.

"The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass.” Nothing is greater vanity than to live only for today for today's beauty in creation to enjoy what is in reality only meagre pleasure in comparison to what the Lord offers us in eternal life. Jesus tells us that, where our treasure is, there our heart will be. Is your heart fixed only on this world? Vanity, vanity, cries the preacher!

But, says the Lord God in Isa 40, this is not necessary. He has commanded that there be true comfort for His people - the royal nation of God through Jesus. We can be and we should be comforted by Scripture's rich message, and we should all come into the comfort of Jesus every day again. In Jesus God revealed His mercy and grace to all those who confess their spiritual poverty.

What a comfort that is for today when it is still night-time. What a comfort, when we are reminded of sinful man's destiny by the withering grass and the falling flower. For, if we truly live only by faith, God will surely lift us over every hurdle and obstacle which we have to face in this beautiful, yet so sad world, and He will bring us into that part of eternity which He has set into the hearts of men where nothing can ever fade or fall again. Do you want that, truly? Then Jesus commands you to love Him, and trust in Him, more than in anything or anyone else. How are you answering Him from day to day?

Amen.

Note to readers:

This sermon will make little sense unless the three hymns are sung. You may like to have fewer hymns in the other part of the liturgy.