Let us turn to our Bibles to 1st Timothy chapter 4. 1st Timothy chapter 4. We’ll be reading part of verse 3 to verse 5. Let us listen attentively to God’s word. 1st Timothy 4 verse 3 and following. Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving to those who believe and know the truth.
For every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God in prayer. Let us pray.
We ask for your sanctifying power indeed God Almighty as we listen to your word expounded. Praying for the spirit of God to guide us into more of your truth. As we see here behind Paul’s admonition in defense of the goodness of creation is the broader theme that there is a goodness that we can perceive and see God Almighty that creation itself has a revelation that you have embedded within it.
Not only showing and expressing your goodness and your might and your power and your existence but also God your law written especially upon our hearts even though faced by sin and Lord the practicalities of living in this world in light of your law and in light of your great glory Lord and especially the blessings that we have not only in the light of general revelation but a special revelation the word of God before us. We pray God that you be honored in all that we do as we learn anew and be encouraged to continue to receive the light of nature that you have given us. Amen.
These verses do not make much sense unless we accept that this world of God’s this creation is meant for our good and for his glory although affected by the fall of Adam and Eve its function as a source of support and of life is not gone it hasn’t been eradicated. Like an apple although diseased there is still enough of it to satisfy hunger to be even recognized as food. So in other words the poverty of man has not eradicated the usefulness of this world.
We see this in two particulars in this context marriage and food. Although the last verse focuses on the animals and plants where he picks off and his thought continues on clearly Paul includes marriage as that which is quote good and nothing to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving. The word creature here in verse 4 for every creature of God is good does not only mean animal as we typically think of it in English but includes humans as well as we see for example in James 1.18 the same word of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
In fact the word is used to include all things that praise the Lord God almighty which would include angels in fact Revelation 5.13 and every creature which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them I heard saying blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and the lamb forever and ever. And the well known text in Romans 1 of course shows that the world that the word excuse me creature includes all of nature as we use these words Romans 1.25 who exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever more. They served all kinds of things in this world as in the case of atheists in fact they served abstractions instead of God almighty.
These things are also part of what? Creation. All this to say that yes Paul’s immediate concern is with meat or food but he’s not excluding the rest of creation. This in fact is the root idea behind this word before us creature.
The result of God’s creative power so it emphasizes what? The creator creation. God made these things. Today we would use the word creation which is at times even synonymous with nature as it is in the word of God.
All this in the term of creation itself emphasizes the dependent nature of all things upon him and then nature emphasizes the inherent characteristics. So the use of the word creature or creation not only in the English you can hear the idea it’s tied to the word creator therefore dependent upon him it shows our relationship to him. The word nature even in the English emphasizes the inherent characteristics of that creature whatever that may be in this world.
It’s characteristic, it’s order, it’s relationship and it’s use of all things in this world outside of God. These are things we might call givens such as male and female, parent and child, sleep, eating, the relationships themselves between all humans, taking care of ourselves, the sciences, everything is included in the word nature as it is with creature or creation. The Westminster Confession and catechisms usually uses the phrase with respect to understanding the things of this world, creature, creation, nature uses the phrase often the light of nature to describe what is knowable through and about the things around us.
The characteristics even, their order, their relationship and their use. Because this is such a large topic because creation is a pretty large topic, I want to especially focus on three things that you can learn and see and we live by whether we always realize it or not, the light of nature as well as the word of God. The three topics are of course God, as you heard in my prayer, God’s law and living before God or everyday life.
The particulars, the details of our existence. The light of nature shows God as the first point. It’s a confessional matter.
Light of Nature Shows God
I’m going to be bringing up quotes from the confession and the catechism. I want to point out the light of nature and the corresponding idea of the law of nature or natural law that comes from the light of nature. The light of nature emphasizes the knowability or the fancy word is epistemology, the understanding of knowledge and the result of that is we see that there are laws embedded in creation even moral laws as the Ten Commandments are known and even expressed in societies for thousands of years one way or the other.
So it’s not new in our tradition, not new in our churches but they have been undermined and ignored at times over the last generation or so in the American churches it seems in particular. Some think that every issue must have a Bible verse for example and that you can never ever use the light of nature to express or explain anything. Others abuse the idea of the light of nature and turn it into a wax nose to force their favorite progressive practices.
But it’s not that flexible. There are things embedded so much in creation that your policy has got to follow them like male and female. For example here when the light of nature is showing God and God above, on worship chapter 21 of the confession we read the light of nature shows that there is a God who hath lordship and sovereignty over all is good, does good unto all and is therefore what? To be feared, loved, praised, called upon, that’s prayer, trusted in and served with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the might.
Our tradition and not just even the Protestant tradition Christian tradition in general has asserted that yes creation has fallen, the creature has fallen, nature has fallen but not so much that you cannot see or understand anything. In this particular case that there is a God, that he exists and that we ought to honor him. Without the Bible, without hearing a sermon everyone knows that there is a creator God.
Not just any God like Zeus either although they may turn him into Zeus in their imagination. We must make that clear that the God of the Bible Lord God Almighty and with that knowledge comes action as summarized in the confession here. Therefore he is to be feared, loved, praised, called upon and the like.
Question 2 of the larger catechism, how does it appear that there is a God? The very light of nature, there is that phrase again in our catechism and confessions in the works of God do clearly and plainly declare that there is a God but his word and spirit only do sufficiently and effectually reveal him unto men for their salvation. If you want to be redeemed it’s not enough to have general revelation, the light of nature, the things that we can see and know without the Bible. It’s not enough.
But it’s the basics. You’re going to have at least that. The biblical matter then, I’m not going to simply quote a confession and walk off what kind of sermon would that be? The biblical matter here in particular that God exists as we know in some of the famous passages, Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glories of God.
It was known. That’s why from as far back as we can dig in archeology you’re going to find civilizations that have some kind of religion, some kind of a God, something supreme over their culture and civilization. Romans 1.18 as we all know that they suppress or hold down the truth and unrighteousness.
They try to hide from this reality in their hearts and in their lives. Of course it’s only the Bible that shows the fullness of who God is. The Trinity for example.
You cannot find the Trinity in creation. You cannot find Jesus as the Savior in creation. In the creatures, in nature.
But you will and can find it in the word of God. That’s why it’s important to preach and spread this truth across the world. God is to be worshipped in particular fact.
Not just his mere existence. Oh, this is kind of interesting. The heavens declare God.
Yes, the greatness of science shows the precision of this creation. How these great six or seven scientific numbers must be where they are down to the ten thousandth place, decimal place, or the universe falls apart. That’s how precise it is.
So what? Now what? The conclusion ought to be you ought to honor him. You ought to fear him. You ought to love him and call upon him.
We have this in Acts 17.24. Paul’s great apologetic sermon with his pagan audience. Again the word pagan just means unbelieving back then in particular and all the false gods they had. He says there in verse 24 in particular.
This is at Mars Hill. God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands nor is he worshipped with men’s hands as though he needed anything since he gives to all life and breath and all things. This is the passage of the sermon in which he declares to them, by their own poets you know there is a God, for in him we live and breathe and have our being.
Remember that? He quotes a pagan poet. Because he thinks it’s a source, a divine source. No, not the way the Bible is, but it is a source, light of nature, general revelation.
It is knowable without the Bible that there is a God who created all things and holds it all together. And from that connection, Paul unpacks the logic of that position here in verses 24 and 25. He does not quote the Bible.
He’s working off of the light of nature and the logic therein. Since this is a God who made all things here that you see and even don’t see, don’t see all of the heavens, does not dwell in temple made with hands nor is he worshipped with men’s hands as though he needed anything. He clearly can’t need everything since he made everything.
Why would he need what he created? The fact that he created means they need him. The creation, the creature, needs God. And this is why, again, you’ll run across, you haven’t probably personally, but you dig into philosophies and the like in the past.
You go to college and I don’t recommend that, but you will see in other approaches to religions, they make these natural law arguments. But they don’t always go the full extent of it. They start going off in different directions and don’t follow through with it.
It’s not the fault of the light of nature, it’s the fault of their heart. It’s not the fault of the logic, it’s the fault of sin. They don’t want to follow down the necessary conclusion of that logic.
But Paul makes them here face the necessary conclusion of the light of nature that this is ridiculous. Not just the first table of the law, if you look at it another way here, that there is a God and you ought to honor him, but the second table. You can’t make temples for him.
Why would you? Why does he need a temple? He made the temple. He made the constituent parts of the temple so that you could build a temple for it. Why would he need a temple? Of course we know he insisted on a temple in the Old Testament, not for his own sake, but for the sake of his people to teach them about Christ.
That’s the second table of the law, isn’t it? The second commandment, excuse me, thou shalt make no other images, etc. It’s the worship of God. So even the second commandment is knowable without the word of God is the point here.
Light of Nature Shows God’s Law
The light of nature, general revelation shows beyond a shadow of doubt there is a creator who should be honored and should not be brought down to the level of man as though he needs anything in this creation. The light of nature shows God’s law, the second point. We already delved a little bit into that in the first and second commandments there.
The first table of the law is about God. The confession mentions here in chapter 20, paragraph 4, this is the chapter on Christian liberty. This is a chapter we don’t hear much about, I don’t think.
I haven’t done a poll of people teaching about this. And for their publishing we read of such opinions or maintaining of such practices as are contrary to the light of nature. Not merely and only, of course if it’s contrary to the word of God, that is the Bible’s special revelation, it should be forbidden, but they go one step further and say if it’s against the light of nature you should not be publishing such opinions, maintaining such practices.
As are contrary to the light of nature or to the known principles of Christianity, that would be in the Bible, whether concerning faith, worship, or conversation. Conversation means your life, the way you live. Or to the power of godliness.
They may lawfully be called to account and preceded against by the censors of the church. And our own confession says if you have pastors and church leaders, not even them, just anybody, publishing, back then the idea of publishing would be a very public activity, not as much as a private person being confused, a very public activity undermining the difference between men and women. It would be the very obvious example for today.
That even the unbelievers know. That’s why they’re fighting against what’s going on in the schools and everything else. Like this is ridiculous.
We know there’s a difference. Practical differences. They publish such opinions, they should be punished by the church.
So the confession, in other words, is saying Christian liberty doesn’t have no restrictions. It has restrictions. It is the domain of God’s truth is where your liberty resides.
And that truth is found not only in the word of God, but in the light of nature. The Ten Commandments are on everyone’s conscience. Natural things like male and female differences in child versus adult are also there as well, although they try to gaslight you in America and the politics and the like to tell you we don’t really know these differences.
They know them. Don’t fall for it. Don’t believe them.
They’re lying to you. They can’t but know, because they have to live this way. A lot of these differences in social interactions and relationships and the like are not explicitly in the Bible.
The history of civilization shows commonality of crimes, for example, in all the archaeology. You just dig it up and there you have it. You’ve got to protect the family.
There’s divorce laws. They make exceptions, I know. Well, the king can be the God-like thing and there’s times in which you can make breaking up of the family.
But in general, you can see enough of it there like, oh, that’s what we have and they’re not even Christian. They don’t even have a Christian background. How is that possible? It’s the light of nature.
Romans 1.32. Here’s the biblical. Here’s the proof text. Who knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who practice such things, this long list there, the prior two verses, are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
They always want to find a loophole for their own pet sin, right? They know it’s there. That list of sins in Romans 1.28, 29 and following down to verse 31 and 32 is not exhaustive but it covers a lot of detail. Murdering, lying, stealing, hating your parents, things like that.
And he concludes from that list they know these things. They practice such things and they make excuses for such things. The argument of Paul in Romans 1.2 is not that we have to go to the Bible all the time for every situation when it comes to sin and say, here’s a Bible verse showing that sin.
His argument is it’s written on their conscience. They know it. And therefore they are what? Culpable and guilty before God Almighty.
1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 1 and following. You probably remember this as I finish up Corinthians from last year. It is actually reported that there is a sexual immorality among you.
And such sexual immorality is not even named among the Gentiles. The pagans know better than you guys. What’s going on here? See that? It’s almost a dig it seems.
Come on! What’s going on? This is terrible that a man has his father’s wife. Even those today who justify abortion, for example, many of them have moved to the point that, yeah, sure it’s a human, but who cares? Here’s my reasons to kill him anyways. They just slowly become more brazen.
And in that brazenness, what are they showing? What they really always believed to begin with. What was already in their heart. They knew it was murder.
And all it was was a long series of decades long excuses. It’s not a human. Well, it’s kind of a human, but it doesn’t really count.
Well, I don’t care if it’s a human. I don’t care if it does count. Kill them when they’re out of the womb because it’s inconvenient for me.
It just slides and it shows. Wicked, wicked, wicked. They know it’s wicked.
Don’t forget that. That’s the light of nature. That’s the power of God’s revelation.
Even in the fallen state we find ourselves in, without the Word of God, they know it’s wrong. Well, that’s God. That’s the law of God.
And lastly, as I delve into the details and particulars, the light of nature shows daily living. As we know, for example, in the fifth commandment you should honor your father and your mother. That’s a very broad commandment.
Not a lot of detail because the ten commandments are a summary of God’s law. So there’s a lot of detail. What exactly does that look like? Well, the Bible itself doesn’t give you an exhaustive list.
What does that look like to honor your parents? Are you supposed to rise up, literally, all the time they walk past you? Are you supposed to salute them? There’s different ways and different cultures, as you’ve heard, of expressing, of showing publicly and outwardly your heart, or what should be your heart, that I love and honor my parents. Those are the details of life I’m speaking of here. And those are often answered by, what? The light of nature.
Not a Bible verse. The Confession writes in chapter 3 of the Confession, on God’s decrees, paragraph 2, God’s decrees covers all things in life, yet neither, quote, is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. Now that’s some technical language there.
Second causes means the things we do in this world, or the things done to us. The cause and effect that we recognize, both the physical cause and effect, you kick that ball, you’re going to hurt your toe, and the ball’s going to still move, though, unless it’s too big. Natural law, in that sense, of the sciences.
But also the moral natural law, that if you poke someone in the eye, they’re going to probably poke you back, or do something. The cause and effect. That’s what it means by secondary.
It’s called second, or second causes, because the great primary cause is God. He’s behind all of it. It’s part of his plan.
So you can work, you can strive, you can think, but God establishes all that. The language of the Confession is, yes, God predestines all things, yet the liberty or contingency of second causes, they have their effect, you can do things and make a difference in this world, is not taken away, but rather established. Without God, you can’t do anything.
I just read that last night. We’ll go over the Psalms on the weekends, in which we read, unless the Lord builds the house, they who labor, labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches and is there with the watchman, he watches in vain.
You’ve got to do it, you’ve got to work, but if God’s not behind it, it goes nowhere. That’s the idea here of God establishing the secondary causes. We don’t exist on our own.
Not even the wicked do. And so, the secondary causes, or the contingency of second causes, is everything natural. The cause and effect of working and eating and surviving and prospering and having good or bad relationships, and part of that is common sense, is also part of creation.
Also a secondary cause. In other words, God established secondary causes, God being the primary mover to accomplish His most holy will. And we run across a little bit of this question here, this morning in Sunday School class, of helping your kids grow up to have a fruitful calling or a job in life, responsibilities as adults, and one of the objections is, well, that’s God’s providence.
No, God’s providence uses secondary causes, uses common sense, that you use these things so that it can be accomplished. God accomplishes as well, in other words, through us. Or sometimes around us, or against us.
Light of Nature Shows Daily Living
That’s the important thing I want to focus here on this third point. We are to use the secondary causes to get through life, to eat, to sleep, to do what we need to get good sleep, to do what we need that we need to get good sleep, a whole chain of causes and effects to work its way to the final end of whatever we need to get accomplished. All that’s part of God’s plan, and He works and establishes these things for our good, including common sense.
A church, in other words, still has to follow social, political, and economic principles of natural law, like you need money to run a church. This sermon ties right into this afternoon. Think about it.
We don’t need a Bible verse exactly how to run a budget. The Bible and those things about the economy cover a lot of things even unbelievers know and perhaps know better than you about basic budgeting and even advanced budgeting and investments and other things not found in the Word of God, but expressed in natural, the light of nature, and in common sense. Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 1, Paragraph 6, Chapter 1, Paragraph 6, There are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and the government of the church common to human actions and societies.
Again, the most obvious thing is everyone’s got to have a budget. If you’re going to be independent of a family, if you’re going to have a bunch of guys get together and run something, often it needs something like money, resources, talent, a place to meet. Same with a church.
You can’t get around it. You can’t say, well, God’s going to provide. Somehow money’s going to fall from the air.
No, that’s not how it works. You’ve still got to get a job, sorry, not only to support your family but because you want to support the church and good causes in society. You can’t get around it.
Being a Christian doesn’t make you somehow immune to cause and effect of secondary things that God has established in providence, in our history, in our lives, and common sense. So, those are some of the particulars there. Greeting people.
You’re supposed to be friendly, but what does friendliness look like? Kind of different in every society, isn’t it? Because there’s different expectations of what it looks like. Because there’s not a long, exhausted list in the Bible. The Bible’s not legalistic that way.
Or anyway, it’s not legalism. God just doesn’t give it to you. Biblically, 1 Corinthians 11, verse 13 and following.
1 Corinthians 11, verses 13 and following. Paul appeals to nature, whether I mean nature in the primary sense of the basics of what we have around us, male and female, and honor, or nature in a derivative sense, dependent upon nature in the most primal sense, that is, culture itself being an expression of nature, that is, honoring your parents, for example, and how that honor looks. Either way, it doesn’t matter.
1 Corinthians 11. Judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that a man, if he has long hair, is a dishonor to him? He’s not appealing to the Bible, brothers and sisters, is the big, broader point here.
He’s not appealing to a Bible verse. He just simply isn’t. Because he’s saying, there’s sufficient light that these things should be dealt with in this common sense way.
1 Corinthians 14, verse 26 is a broader one, although the phrase, light of nature is not here, I think, by now I hope you realize, you don’t have to have the word to have the concept in the Word of God. Let all things be done decently and in order. There’s a very fundamental social rule that you don’t need a Bible verse for.
But Paul gave it to them because apparently with Christianity coming into its fullness in the New Testament, some confusion comes along, as we see here in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, in which they thought, we don’t have to work, I don’t have to take care of my family, I don’t have to have kids, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, because I’m a Christian and these things change somehow. No, it doesn’t. God’s salvation does not destroy the light of nature, but rather presumes and builds upon the light of nature.
Good order is needful in everything. A congregational meeting, we don’t want chaos in a congregational meeting. The Bible doesn’t talk about congregational meetings, really.
It gives some examples, there’s some voting, but the particulars aren’t there. Like, what exactly should we do? Do we need the final Bible verse to have a moderator? Some people think so. They’re wrong.
They’re confused about what it means to have the sufficiency of the Bible. Now, some people use Robert’s Rules, other people use other rules. It’s Robert’s Rules of Orders, it’s called.
It came about about 125 years ago. Whatever the case is, you want to have something so you can avoid the opposite, which is chaos and bad order, confusion and the like, and everyone talking over each other. Proverbs is another good example of everyday common sense living.
A lot of the Proverbs, in fact, are found in ancient Near East literature of that time period. Similar Proverbs about adultery, similar Proverbs about good work ethics. Because they know, if I don’t work hard, I’m going to starve.
You don’t need to be a Christian to know that. You just simply don’t. And this is important, again, in some of our circles, because there’s confusion about the importance and significance of the light of nature.
I’m picking very obvious examples, but there are some more, as it were, advanced ones I’ll bring up in the Sunday School class on sanctification. Because sanctification involves common sense living. The narrative of events I find more fascinating.
I grew up as a charismatic, as many of you recall. In charismatic circles, the spirit of God is in charge. What are you going to do with your life? I don’t know, whatever the spirit moves me to do.
It’s a terrible way to live. As opposed to, well, what did Jonathan and David do? That’s right, they learned how to fight. They actually were taught these things.
A human taught them. It wasn’t like the spirit of God said, I’m going to have a class for you right now. That’s not how it worked.
You see the miracles often. People forget. Well, the miracles were rare, actually.
This covers, I mean, David was 900 years ago. All that Old Testament stuff. Then Moses, 1200 years.
All that time that you don’t even know what’s going on. What’s going on is everyday, common life things that you have to do. Like go to school and learn how to fight.
And they do. What does Jonathan and his assistant do? They climb up the hill and sneak up behind the enemy garrison, the Philistines, and take them out. And what happens at the same time? A miracle occurs, and there’s chaos, and they beat them.
Just the two men. But how did they beat them? Well, with a miracle, Pastor. It wasn’t just a miracle.
It was common sense plus a miracle. They used good tactics of sneaking up on them. They used a weapon.
They had shields. They weren’t like, well, God’s in charge. He’s going to protect me.
No, no, a thousand times no. We do an equivalent thing in social matters. As my book highlights, if you read it carefully, I’m saying don’t be foolish with this group of people.
Even if they’re converted, you should be weary and careful of a drunkard, of a murderer, because temptation is still there. Or they can just be lying to you in a church. Use common sense as my point.
Jonathan did it. David did it. Psalm 18 and David.
It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer and sets me in high places. He teaches my hands to make war so that my arms can bend a ball of bronze.
Nobody believes that God, again, in the Holy Spirit, taught him how to use a sword. He used it through ordinary providence. But he’s blessing the Lord because God, what? Uses ordinary providence to accomplish his will.
To fight the enemies of God. Maybe in the courts. God blessed you with a good lawyer to defend you.
Great. Praise the Lord for that. God blessed him with a mind and the ability.
Instead of a sword, he uses a pen. Praise the Lord. But it’s God behind all of it.
Common sense, in other words, today. If the church found themselves in a neighborhood going down the drain, I fear, and I’ve already seen it, people arguing, well, the love of God constrains me to bring danger into my church. Physical, sexual danger.
So that I can witness to these people. I don’t believe that for a minute. Paul didn’t.
I don’t think anybody believes Paul was a coward going over the wall in Damascus. There’s a very practical example I’ve run across already in Reformed churches. That ought not to be, brothers and sisters.
God gave us the light of nature, assumes the light of nature, and argues from the light of nature through the apostles that we would do things in good order and in common sense, always with our eye on the word of God, to be sure. Always. Brothers and sisters, God has indeed blessed us.
Our Creator has so designed things that even after the fall, they know He exists. They know His will is there written upon their hearts. And they know how to have good daily living, even sometimes better than Christians.
Natural revelation indeed is a wide field of truth. But it is honoring to God above to use the tools He has given us in the light of nature and the special light of the Bible itself. Always.
To provide for our families, to learn through the teachers and pastors, to protect ourselves and the like. Let us continue to honor God above as His creatures by submitting to what He has given us, the light of nature, and to bless all things by the word and prayer. Let us pray.
We ask God that you continue to guide us, strengthen us, Lord, to be encouraged that we have in many ways, I believe, lived in the light of nature by common sense and avoiding common sense errors and dangers. But at the same time, God, there’s always still a little wiggle room, as it were, as we have disagreements exactly how to apply common sense on various and sundry things in the Christian life and even in the church. To that end, God, we pray for more of your love and more of your Spirit that we would have patience and understanding in these things.
We ask God Almighty, strengthen us, Lord, to continue to live in the light of nature and especially in the light of the supernatural nature of the word of God and the Spirit living within us. We pray by our Lord and Savior. Amen.