The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
(Psalm 19:1)

Last Sunday we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Trinity. The revelation of God as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, distinct but united in one godhead, a Unity in Trinity is to be seen as the ultimate Christian truth. This morning we begin the season after Trinity, the longest season of the Church year. The focus is on Christian growth, hence the color green as this triune God works His purpose out in our lives. .

Our lessons this morning deal with the sovereign nature of a loving God as revealed in ever aspect of the created order. From the infinite expansion of the universe, to every thing that lives, to the love found in the human heart, to our social responsibility to do good works as fruits of faith and even the eternal issues of heaven and hell: all is bound up in our relationship with God as He is revealed to us.

As Trinity progresses we will deal with increasing precision with each of these topics. This morning I want to focus on the most fundamental aspect of all: the belief that there is a sovereign God.

Let us begin by contrasting the Christian with the agnostic or atheist. The agnostic believes that God is unknowable and the atheist believes God does not exist.

All three look up at the stars and see the universe in all its glory and precision. The Christian sees the universe as evidence of a Creator-God. The agnostic may concede that "something- some natural force may have created the universe, but denies it can be comprehended. The agnostic may or may not be some type of "theist" - but the practical side is that he or she really does not belive in God. The atheist, if he has any spark of life left in his conscience, he might ask himself, "How can such a vast universe exist, in so precise a condition, without a creator?" Instead he declares that all that exists is the result of infinite random chance and natural progression.

Students today are presented material that goes beyond agnosticism; they have been told there is no God. Yet the very stars in the sky declare that God exists! In fact the whole created order declares a Master Designer and a conscious blueprint.

In our gift shop we have in the past sold a little book titled Natural Theology; or; Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity (1802). This was written a man named William Paley.

Cambridge educated, Paley was a priest of the Church of England, a theologian, Christian apologist, philosopher, botanist, biologist, and amateur astronomer.

William Paley lived from 1743 to 1805. He entered Cambridge University to study mathematics, and went on to study theology. He later taught at Cambridge. In addition to Natural Theology, he wrote two other major works: The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785), A View of the Evidences of Christianity (1794). He is still widely read in the subject of the philosophy of religion.

Paley's argument for the existence of God is known as the teleological argument. The modern apologist Dr. Norman L. Geisler, gives this summary of Paley's basic argument for the existence of God:

Paley offered what has become the classical formulation of the "teleological argument." It is based on the watch analogy: If [someone] found a watch in an empty field, [he] would rightly conclude that it had a maker because of its obvious design. Likewise, when [someone] looks at the even more complex design of the world in which we live, [he] cannot but conclude that there is a great Designer behind it¹.

Dr. Geisler points out that even Darwin "as late as 1831" was deeply impressed by Paley's Evidences².

Paley was the first individual to use the example of the watchmaker as evidence of a Creator-God. Suppose you were walking along one day and found a watch lying on the side walk. You pick it up and it is ticking along in precision, keeping perfect time. You examine the watch. You might wonder how it came to be there. You might wonder who it belonged to, who made it. But one thing you would not assume is that the watch made itself. It is self-evident that some intelligence outside the watch made the watch. When we look at the seas, the rocks, and animals, and plants around us, when we look up at the stars, and contemplate the universe in its complexity- the planets and moons of our solar system, revolving in perfect precision — it is like a watch — only infinitely more perfect and precise . We must look at the universe and conclude that a great and intelligent Being made everything and set everything in motion and gave everything order. That is William Paley's argument for the existence of God — the Creator!

The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament [the skies - the universe] sheweth his handywork [the work of His hands] (Psalm 19:1). This passage of Scripture goes on to say: Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard (Psalm 19:2-3).

Commenting on these verses, Dr. Charles Ryrie says, "David reflects on the glory of God in natural revelation…Day and night the created universe broadcasts its silent but eloquent symphony to the glory of the Creator"³

It is important to note that the teleological argument for God is one of several. Arguments for the existence of God.

Among these are the cosmological argument, which states that there must be a "first cause", or "prime mover" who is identified as God .

There is the ontological argument for God, which assumes there must be a "being greater than which cannot be conceived". St. Anselm of Canterbury formulated this argument to show that if it is logically possible for God (a necessary being for all other existence) exist, then God exists.

To this St. Thomas of Aquinas added the argument from degree, which built upon the ontological argument, stating that that there must exist a being which possesses all universal properties to the maximum possible degree and that such a being is uncreated and thus must be eternal and God.

The anthropic argument suggests that basic facts, such as our existence, are best explained by the existence of God.

The transcendental or moral argument suggests that logic, science, ethics, and morality and other things we take seriously do not make sense in the absence of God, and that atheistic arguments must ultimately refute themselves if pressed with rigorous consistency.

The evidence for the existence of God is thus cumulative, a single argument for the existence of God being inadequate, but a number of them together being sufficient to bind the conscience and compel belief. William Paley's argument, from design, in this context, is the greatest indication of the existence of God. The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament sheweth his handywork" (Psalm 19:1).

It is important to note that the laws of the universe are exact — this precision and reliability reflects the faithfulness of God.

The scientific laws of God are scrupulously precise. Every atom, every rock, every animal, and every person inside the universe is required to obey God's natural law in the smallest detail. Only God, who made these laws in the first place, has the freedom to change them through miracles.

The more knowledge we acquire, the clearer it becomes that God is precise. He knows exactly what He is doing. Even the so-called "theory of relativity," conceived by Albert Einstein, is built on one exact and precise premise: the speed of light in a vacuum is always constant. Today we know that the speed of light in a vacuum is 299,792,458 kilometers per second. The fact that this number is known with such precision reveals that God is careful and exact and a Being of complete intelligence. By observation and mathematics the preciseness to the heavens can be not only observed, but predicted.

On his fourth and final voyage, while exploring the coast of Central America Christopher Columbus had to beach his worm eaten ships on the north coast of Jamaica on June 25, 1503. Initially friendly, the natives eventually stopped provided food and water or the help needed in rebuilding Columbus's ships.

By February of 1504 Christopher Columbus and his men were sick and starving on the island. But Columbus had a book with him ‐ one that listed the seasons, phases and eclipses of the sun and the moon. An eclipse of the moon was listed in the book for the 29th of February, 1504.

Columbus therefore warned that God would punish them for their refusal to feed his crew and that the moon would be blotted out that night. The Indians laughed, but when the eclipse happened, just as Columbus had predicted, the Indians trembled with fear and brought food to Columbus and his men.

Christopher Columbus had performed no miracle. He had only understood astronomy. It was God, the Designer, God the Lawgiver, who had created the heavens and ordained their precise motions. It was Almighty God who had made Columbus' astronomy book possible by His laws that govern the stars! The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament sheweth his handywork" (Psalm 19:1).

The Apostle Paul gave a similar statement to that found in Psalm 19:1. He wrote: For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20). St. Paul says that the existence of God is so obvious from the order of creation that there is no excuse for those who deny God.

The fool hath said in his heart: there is no God. (Psalm 14:1) To deny the obvious is to be a fool.

Why is it that people don't believe in God — even with all the evidence for a Creator in our wonderful, precise universe? The Bible gives us the answer: Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways (Job 21:14).

People reject God so they can live in rebellion against God and live as their own God. St. Paul writes: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful: but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" (Romans 1:21-22).

The answer is that they do know there is a God. Every single atheist knows there is a God.

Theism is not Christianity. But the belief in the existence of god is a prerequisite for being a Christian.

We often make the mistake today of assuming that we can bring people to Christ without first bringing them to the place where they understand that there is a sovereign God of the universe who has made everything and given everything from galaxies to the structure of human families their essential order.

The same God who made heaven and earth, made you and me and He holds the universe in the palm of His hand.

Go outside on a clear night and look up into the heavens and ask yourself if it takes more faith to believe that the universe was made by a God of order or a chain of random chance? Does a watch make itself?

The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
 

¹ Norman L. Geisler, Ph.D., Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Books, 1999, p. 574
² ibid., p. 575
³ Dr. Charles Ryrie,The Ryrie Study Bible, note on Psalm 19:1-2