Our scripture reading this morning is Romans chapter eight, Romans chapter eight. The emphasis in this chapter is not so much on God creating, but on God as our father. We read the chapter, Genesis chapter eight. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mine the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature, and that's creation really, the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature or creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, Even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our body. Well, we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed unto the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified. and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God before us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So far we read God's holy word. Based on that chapter and many others in the Bible is the instruction of the Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's day nine. Lord's day nine. There in question 26, the Catechism begins to explain the first article of our Apostles' Creed, and the question is, what believest thou when thou sayest, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth? And the answer, that the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who of nothing made heaven and earth with all that is in them, who likewise upholds and governs the same by his eternal counsel and providence, is, so now the subject is, the eternal Father, or Lord Jesus Christ, is, for the sake of Christ, his Son, my God and my Father, on whom I rely so entirely that I have no doubt but he will provide me with all things necessary for soul and body, and further, that he will make whatever evils he sends upon me in this valley of tears turn out to my advantage. For he is able to do it, being Almighty God, and willing, being a faithful father. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostles Creed is a confession of faith in God. From a certain point of view, it would be good if when we say it, we would pause there. I believe in God. Not that God is triune. I believe in God, the Father. I believe in God, the Son. I believe in God, the Holy Spirit. One God. I believe in is more than merely saying I believe that. We say that about the church. I believe that the church exists. We don't say I believe in the church. I believe that there is a church, Holy Catholic Church. But when we come to God, The father, the son, the spirit, we say, I believe in this God, which is to say not merely that I believe God exists, but he is my God. He is my father. That's the sense of, I believe in God, the father. Lord's Days 9 and 10 will explain this article of our confession. In Lord's Day 9, the emphasis is on God being our Father, the creator and sustainer of all, but especially the truth that He is my God and my Father, as the catechism explains it here. There have ever been those who deny that God exists, and that he is the creator of the heavens and the earth. In the last 40 or 50 years, it has become almost a universal that there is no God, that he did not create the heavens and the earth. Man has invented the lie of evolution to push God out of his creation and say, he doesn't exist. If there is a God, he's not the one that created. God did not create the heavens and the earth. over against the evidence that is all through the creation that really cannot be ignored. Man would rather believe that lie than to confess what we confessed this morning. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. God's creating work sets him apart from everything else, certainly as the one only true God. From all phony gods, from all idols. Psalm 96 verse 5 says, for all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. That's the huge distinction there. All the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made everything. If we were to sing this morning all the Psalms that speak of God creating, making, forming, founding the earth, if we would sing all those Psalms, we'd have to sing 25 Psalter numbers this morning. Over 30 times, well over 30 times, the Psalms emphasize the fact that God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. Every service of ours starts out with a confession that really you are making. When I say, beloved congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ, then the next words are really yours. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth You can't get any better help than that, the one who made heaven and earth. And we conclude our doxology, the concluding doxology is let all that breathe their maker bless. Our confession is woven into our theology and even into our worship, God, the creator. Often in this Lord's Day sermon, much time is spent on apologetics and rejecting evolution. We've done that before, and it is something that we get in catechism and in the schools. The focus of the sermon this morning will not be so much on that, though we will treat that, but lightly. The focus this morning is on the confession that God is our Father. God is our father, a beautiful, beautiful truth. And therefore that's the trust that the catechism brings out here in the middle of this Lord's day on whom I rely so entirely that I have no doubt. You will provide me with all things necessary for soul and body. and will make whatever evil he sends upon me in this valley of tears turn out to my advantage. And so we take as the theme for the sermon this morning, the God on whom we entirely rely. Notice in the first place, God, our loving father. Secondly, God, our almighty creator. And thirdly, God, our dependable guide. God is our loving Father. And because God wants us to know Him and understand Him as best as we possibly can, little creatures here on the earth trying to understand the infinite and almighty God, because He wants us to know Him, He put into our life the institution, if you will, of fatherhood. What is a father? Right away from the beginning, God made that plain when he said to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply. And then the conception and birth of Cain and Abel and Seth and all of the children of Adam and Eve. Adam was the father of that family, the father, in fact, of the whole human race. A father in a family begets children, but he's called to do far more than that. He's the head of the family. He has many responsibilities as the head of the family. He is to lead and to guide his family in a proper way, and they are to follow lead. He instructs his children and disciplines them for their profit. He is commanded to bring up his children in the fear and admonition of the Lord and is cautioned against doing so in a way that would discourage them, doing so in a way that provokes them to wrath, inconsistently The father is one who is called to provide for the family. God said to Adam that you will eat your bread in the sweat of your brow. And that remains the calling of the father today to provide for the earthly needs of his family. He obviously is called to protect his family as much as he can from spiritual dangers and physical dangers. The Bible points out that the father is the one who is not merely the rock of strength for the family, but the one who is at the same time compassionate. Compassionate, Psalm 103, as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. So fathers of this earth, are pictures of our Father in heaven. Whatever a father is supposed to be, according to the instruction of the Bible and even the example of God, the best of fathers in this world are still only a picture, an imperfect picture, even we might say a very dim reflection. It's very important for us to remember that because fathers are imperfect, they are sinful. We must not take any kind of a negative thought about a father and ascribe that to God as if, well, that's what God is. That would not do God justice, that would be wrong and unfair. Fathers in this life are imperfect and sinful. The Heidelberg Catechism has to warn us that we must patiently deal with their weaknesses and infirmities. God is the father. That's very plain when you take that biblical illustration of Psalm 103 that says that as a father pitieth his children and a father can and does pity his children when they are suffering and and his heart goes out to them and yet his pity for his children is but a dim reflection of God's pity. The Father's pity is temporal, it's limited, it cannot really deliver out of the misery that that child is experiencing as much as he might want to, but the mercy of God is eternal, the mercy of God is infinite, and it's powerful to lift up out of the suffering and to bless So the Father's pity, as real as it may be, is truly just a dim reflection of the pity of our God and our Father. Why is God our Father? Why is it proper for us to say that? There are those, of course, who like to sing about dear God and Father of all mankind. Because God created them, therefore, he must be their father. But that's not biblical. The Catechism's answer is he is our father for the sake of Christ, his son. And there's a number of ways in which that's true. Our. Sonship and God being a father absolutely hangs on Jesus Christ for his sake. Let me show you three ways in which that's true. It starts off with the fact that God eternally chose his people in Jesus Christ. Now, before we get into that, recognize that Jesus is the son of God. The eternal father is the father of Jesus. God's own love for Jesus and His begetting is why God is called the Father. That takes us into the Trinity. It takes us into the Trinity where the first person of the Trinity is eternally begetting the Son, eternally generating the Son, never stops Never started, it was always a part of what God is, the Father begetting the Son in His own image. Jesus is the Son of the Father's love. The Father has loved Him from all eternity with an unchangeable bond of love. But now God chose us in Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, and chose us unto adoption in Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter one, rather verse five, the preceding verses speak of how we are chosen in Jesus Christ. And then verse five, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, to God himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. We are predestinated, predetermined by God unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ. That's Ephesians 1, but that's also Romans 8. Romans 8.29 says, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. He chose us in foreknowledge, so that's love. Foreknowing is love. He loved us and he predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his son, that Jesus might be the firstborn among many brethren. Same idea. predestinated unto the adoption of sons. So the love that God has for his son, Jesus, is now poured out upon all those who are in Jesus, those chosen unto adoption. That, first of all, eternal election in Christ unto adoption of children. The second way that we are sons again tied to Jesus Christ. Is that the actual adoption comes through Christ's redeeming work on the cross? Because we are born into this world in corruption. Dead in sin. Children of wrath. resembling not God, but resembling the double. There is no way that we can fit into the family of God when we look like the double from a spiritual point of view. Christ, therefore, must redeem us. He became one with his people. He was one with them eternally. in election, and therefore it was right and proper that our guilt could be imputed to him, the guilt of all his people, and that he therefore could take their sins upon himself and make a payment. But in order to make a payment, He had to become one with them, not only legally in election, but very one organically taking upon himself human flesh. With that human flesh, he was able to bear the wrath of God against his people. He became a substitute. Remember in the Heidelberg Catechism, there's three words we said so important for the understanding of the atonement. Jesus became a substitute for his people. He was in their place. And then he made a satisfaction for their sins, paying the debt. And he did it for a particular people, for those given him of the father. That substitution and that satisfaction for a particular people means it's effective. He has redeemed his people. Because of that, his people are righteous in Jesus Christ. According to John 1, Jesus gives to those people the right to be called the sons of God. He gives them that right. The cross of Jesus Christ is the effectual adoption of the people of God from a legal point of view. eternally chosen unto it in the cross. That adoption is realized in the blood of Jesus Christ. All depends on Jesus chosen in Jesus redeemed in Jesus. Now there's one more thing that has to happen. Because we may be righteous in Jesus Christ. But we still look like the devil that can't fit that can't be. We have to be changed into the image of Jesus Christ. And that happens through the work of the Spirit, begetting us, begetting us. 1 Peter 1, verse 3 says, blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again, not the first begetting, that was our father and mother, begotten again unto a lively hope. How? through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. What that means is the Spirit takes the resurrection life of Jesus and imparts that into the elect redeemed sinner That life of Jesus, that holy life of Jesus that can never die, that now becomes the life of that sinner. The sinner that was born dead in sin, utterly corrupt, is now has a holy life within him. And the spirit will continue to change him, continue to sanctify him. And ultimately, We go to heaven and we're perfected, but that body lies there in the ground. The body then has to be raised and made like unto the glorious body of Jesus Christ so that we can live in heaven with him. Romans chapter 8 says we are groaning, waiting for the adoption to wit, that is, the redemption of our body. Now the body was redeemed from a certain point of view on the cross, but this is talking about the resurrection. The resurrection when that body is raised and as Philippians 3 puts it, made like unto the glorious body of Jesus Christ. Then finally we will fit in the family of God. Why is God our father? Because of Jesus. chosen in Jesus, redeemed by Jesus, so that we are, in fact, at that point, legally the sons and daughters of God and then made into the children of God by regeneration, sanctification and the resurrection. Very definitely, God is your father. our father, the elect, and that's manifest in this life, believers, all believers call God their father. Some of the implications of that, well, everything we said about what a father ought to be is true of God supremely. He loves us. He loves us. When I came across a verse in John 17, verse 23, that's so amazing when you talk about the love of God. Jesus is praying to God the night before he was crucified. John 17, verse 23, and he said, I in them, his people, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou has sent me, and then this, and has loved them as Thou hast loved me. That that just is so amazing. Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. The tremendous love that God has for his son. The son of whom he said, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. that love that he has for his son as thou hast loved me thou hast loved them amazing love god has for us it's a love rooted in the trinity it's a love rooted in the eternal generation of the father begetting the son in love and then god loving all those who are in Jesus Christ. Again, that's the first part of Romans 29, for whom He did foreknow. He loved them. Them He predestinated. So God loves Christ. He loves Christ as the head of the church, and all those who are engrafted into Him by faith, He loves them with the same love. With the same love. Loving father. He's the perfect father. He cares for his children. Unfailing is the love of God. He delights in his adopted children. He draws them close to himself. He gives them everything that they need. This is absolutely amazing that we can make this kind of a confession. We look to God as the father who cares for us. When we're young, just children, we look up at our dad and he seems like he can do anything. Sometimes little boys boast about that. My dad can take your dad. My dad can do this. My dad can do that. Well, we grow up and know that our dad has limitations, but this father has no limitations. He can do whatsoever he wills to do and nothing can separate you from that love. That's how we concluded the chapter here. Nothing can separate us from that love of God. No matter where you are, no matter what your circumstance, His loving arms surround you. They embrace you. They hold you. God is our Father. The fact that he is able to be such a powerful father is evident from the fact then, secondly, that he is God, our almighty creator. God is the creator of the universe, the creator of the heaven of glory, and of every creature that is in it. God created them, out of nothing. Last week we saw that the creating work of God is a triune work. It starts with the Father from the point of view that within the Trinity, He's the source. He's the beginning of it. But the Father never works alone. He works always through the Son, and He did in creation. The Son is the Word, and God sent the Word, or spoke the Word, and it was called into existence. not only through the Word, but the Father works by the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit is the one that was brooding on the face of the waters, forming, shaping each creature and giving life according to the will of the Father. This act of creating is very different from the activity of begetting in the Trinity. It's worthwhile to see the difference between God eternally begetting the Son and God creating all things. Very important differences. In the first place, the Father begetting the Son is essential to His very being. If the father did not beget the son, he would not be God. That's essentially a part of who he is. Father begetting the son. He does so. That begetting is God communicating his own divine essence to the son. So that the son is equally God with the father. God does that not because he chose to do that, but again, because that's a part of his very essence, the what and who God is. Creating is a very different kind of activity. First of all, notice God chose to create. He made a decision to create. He didn't have to create. He could have created or not. But when his own mind, he determined to do that, that of course makes it necessary. But God was not under any compunction to create someone or to create anything for that matter. He didn't need to. He was perfectly happy without it. So that, first of all, creation is God choosing. And then secondly, creation is calling into existence a creature separate from God. Creating work of God is not God's essence flowing out of him so that the world is just part of God. No, the world is a creature created by God outside of himself that exists by the power of God. But the creature is not God. Very, very different. The act of begetting the sun, the act of creating the heavens and the earth. God called into existence the mass of material from which he would create the heavens and the earth. In six ordinary days in an orderly fashion, so orderly, he proceeded to call the various creatures into existence. On day one, the mass of material and then light. On day two, the firmament that would separate the things of the earth from the things that are in the universe where the stars would be. On day three, the dry land, and then from the dry land, the plants and the trees. On day four, the sun, moon, and stars to be light bearers and to be there for signs and seasons and for days and years. On day five, the fish and the birds coming forth out of the water as they were called forth. And then on day six, animals and man. Beautiful, orderly creation. The Belgic Confession, I love the description of that in article 12, just that first paragraph. We believe that the father by the word that is by his son hath created of nothing, created of nothing, same language as the Heidelberg Catechism, the heaven, the earth, and all creatures as it seemed good unto him, giving unto every creature its being, shape, form, and several offices to serve its creator, that he should also still, that he still does uphold and govern them by his eternal providence and infinite power for the service of mankind to the end that man may serve his God. Very nice brief description of creation. God created all things by his power and according to his wisdom, power and wisdom, giving to each creature its place and function so that when God finished on day six, he could look at it all and say, it is all good. It is all very good. Good in the sense that there was not a trace of evil there, no corruption, but good in the sense that nothing was out of place. This is good. Everything fits. Everything works together exactly as God had eternally planned it in his wisdom. So why did God create? Does the Bible tell us? anything. We know from the Bible that the purpose of God in doing anything is His own glory, to reveal His own glory. But consider what the quotation on the extra sheet from the Leiden Synopsis says, that it was for the glory of His power, wisdom, and goodness. The work of salvation brings out the glory of God in those ways, too, but that emphasizes His grace. When God creates, it brings out the glory of His power, wisdom, and goodness. Let's focus on those a bit. Start with God's goodness. God created out of His goodness, out of His goodness. God is the highest good, and His goodness comes out in that He determined to create creatures and then give them blessings, give them good. That is almost incomprehensible. It is so amazing the goodness God would give to his creatures. Contrast that with an evil God. Who makes creatures? Just. Because he wants to make them for his own good. and he visits evil upon them, and he doesn't care about them at all. They're only pawns in his hand to use as he sees fit, but he doesn't love them. He has no care for them. That's the way evil men are. They go involve themselves in slavery. They take other people or in human trafficking, and their only concern is themselves. How can I use these people for my ends? That's not God. God is a God who determined to make creatures and to give them amazing blessings, happiness, and endless joy. Lifting up his people really to dizzying heights into his own covenant life, into his own covenant life of love and friendship. Jesus said that to his disciples. I did not call you servants or slaves. I call you friends. You are my friends. That's a totally different idea than merely a servant. Go do this. A friend. God's creating work arises out of his goodness so that Here's where God's glory comes in, rightfully so. The creature will see the goodness. And bring forth praises. Now, the whole creation in a certain sense praises God, the Psalms are filled with that. But God created rational thinking, moral creatures to be able to recognize the goodness of God, enjoy the goodness of God, and then bring forth praise. with understanding, with understanding. So the creation of the world brings out God's goodness. The creation of God also brings out His power and His wisdom. The Almighty powers manifest the power to create, to call into existence the heavens and the earth, and then the power to sustain all things so that they exist. continue to exist and then to rule and direct all things according to his perfect plan to fit for his glory the smallest details of life all the affairs of men the power of God that is manifest that he created what he willed to create no one assisted him no one could possibly hold back and prevent him from doing exactly what he wanted to do when he created. Rightly, we do. We confess God is the almighty creator of heaven and earth. Almighty. His power, but also his wisdom, the astounding wisdom of God. When you look at the whole of the creation, or at any one of its parts, you cannot help but be amazed at the wisdom of God. Look at the whole. God said the whole of it is very good, and it is because everything fits together so perfectly. Look at the skies. Look at the billions of galaxies out there. And the planets. and how it all stays and fits and reflects God's glory. Look at the earth, the mixture of earth and water and the function of each and how it works so well together. Look at the millions of creatures that fit together perfectly in the oceans and in the lakes and in the rivers, or the unnumbered plants and animals that fill the dry land and live together perfectly in God's system. All this has been working together perfectly for six, maybe 8,000 years. Life is not fizzled out in spite of man's misuse of the creation. Life goes on. The earth supports life because of God's perfect wisdom. And that's the whole. Then look at the individual. Take any small part, a little leaf, a small creature in the dust, your own body amazingly made, and you investigate it, and the more you study, you simply come amazed with the marvelous wisdom of God that everything functions so perfectly well. Now, understand that when we confess God is our creator, and we certainly do, It speaks volumes of the kind of God and father that we have. Because the creation, the creating work of God and the creation as it exists shows the goodness of God and the wisdom of God and the power of God. If God did not create, And we still called him our God, but someone else created, or it came into existence on its own. Then what would we know about this God? What kind of power does he have? What kind of wisdom does he have? Is he a good God? That's why scripture emphasizes so much that God created. Genesis 1 clearly this chapter is literal history First day second day third day recording all the way that's exactly what happened and each day is an ordinary day limited by evening and morning and the same days are found in the create in the in the Commandment that we read this morning as God works six days and rest of the seven so you must work six days and rest the seventh and And the scripture is emphasizing God's almighty power. Even in Romans chapter four, verse 17, saying this, that God calleth those things which be not as though they were. He calleth those things that be not as though they were. You can call someone out of the next room and they come into the room because they existed. But God is able to call someone into existence who did not exist before. That's God's creating power. The emphasizing, the testimony then simply says, this is who God is. This is who our Father is. If one denies that God is the creator, he simply is not a believer. You may not say, oh, no, I believe in Jesus. I just don't believe that God created the world. And you say, then you do not believe in Jesus. Because the Jesus of Scripture created that world, but he's the word. That's our confession. God is our father. For Jesus sake. And that's made unspeakably richer by the fact that he's the creator of the heavens and the earth. What that means to us to have that God as our father. That's why we can so entirely rely upon him. And that brings us to the third point that God is our dependable guide. The Catechism speaks of whatever God sends upon me. That reminds us that our Heavenly Father directs everything. His counsel has determined everything. He definitely sends good, providing for all our needs, but He also sends evil, at least what we Considered to be evil things. But he always does it as our father who loves us. That's our starting point. Because the father you see has planned a family in heaven. And now things can get a little rough if you get a family of five or 10. Sometimes only a couple. But God has planned a family of people who cannot be counted. In his infinite wisdom, he has a place and a function for every single member. He creates each one perfectly for that place in the family. And then this life is preparation for that eternal living in heaven. According to his perfect plan, then God may take an unborn child and bring that child to heaven because his place is there and he's ready for it. God may give a handicapped child who lives for a time in this life and then God takes the child to heaven. His place is there and he is ready. God may give a believer many, many decades to live before God is prepared to take him to his place in heaven. But God is directing it, whether he sends good or whether he sends evil. He may send cancer and surgeries, take a beloved child out of a home to glory. He may take a beloved husband or wife. He may send trials that are very hard. But then we come with a confession upon whom I so entirely rely that I have no doubt. I have no doubt about this. Faith does not doubt. We struggle. We struggle when God sends evil upon us, when we have pain and sorrow and poverty and persecution and death. And He may give us such hard times that we can even go down into depression and have anxiety, and we're not even sure why sometime. Our flesh doubts, and Satan encourages those doubts. But faith does not doubt the wisdom of God or the goodness of God. It does not doubt. It trusts. It trusts. that God is dealing with us as His children. Therefore, He knows that God will turn it to our advantage. That's important. Afflictions and troubles can be wearying. They wear on us. They're hard. They make us to struggle. And yet, down the path, we know God will turn it to our advantage. He absolutely will. The Catechism is drawing from Romans 8.28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. And Romans 8.28 is set in the middle of hardship, pain. Verse 18 started it off. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed. The sufferings of this present time. He talks about the groaning that's happening in the creation. And sometimes it can become so hard that the child of God doesn't even know what to pray for. But he has the assurance in this chapter that then the spirit goes before the throne of God and makes groanings that are in harmony with the will of God. The spirit who knows God's will groans on your behalf when you do not know what to pray for. And then verse 28, which in the King James starts and, but it should be, but, but in spite of all that, but we know, we know by faith, our sight won't tell us that, but faith says we know. Faith is a certain knowledge. It's a hearty confidence that all things work together for good, all things great and small, Things that we think are good, things that we think are evil, they all work together for our good. Because God, who is almighty and all wise, is able to bring together all of it for good. And that's his goal. He is good. He wants the good of his people. And the good is not merely that we have a pleasant life here. That's what we would like. But that's a limited time, 50, 60, 70 years. God is looking to eternity. The good that he has in mind is a spiritual good. It's an eternal good. It's life with God. The promise therefore is made to all those who love him, those who love him because they are loved by him and are called according to his purpose. Can you believe that? Whatever trouble or affliction you're having in your life right now, can you really believe that that's going to work for your good? Well, you can, says the catechism, because God is almighty. He is able to do it. Nothing can prevent him. And he is willing because he's a faithful father. That's our confession. I believe in God, the Father, almighty maker of heaven and earth. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank thee for thy abundant goodness. How glorious art thou in all thy works and ways. But for us to be able to call Thee Father with absolute confidence in Thee, what a gift. Strengthen our faith so that we do that and never turn from it. And glorify Thy name from our praises. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We sing Psalm 8B. Psalm 8B. Lord, our Lord, thy glorious name, all thy wondrous works proclaim. We'll sing the three stanzas of Psalm 8B. ♪ And wondrous works proclaim ♪ ♪ In the land where radiance shines ♪ ♪ Evermore thy glory shines ♪ ♪ With the star-dust soaring high ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. When on wondrous lands I stand, When I know I'll meet His head, On His head that He should be, O let this heart in my being ♪ Praise to an exalted high ♪ ♪ Crowned with honor in one sight ♪ ♪ Jerusalem, the proudly stands ♪ ♪ For the preachers of blindness ♪ ♪ Calls to him subjection near ♪ ♪ When the sea had barren clear ♪ ♪ Lord, I, Lord, thy glorious name ♪ ♪ All thy wondrous works proclaim ♪ ♪ Thou hast made me a mighty one ♪ God send thee his glorious name, Long as the ages shall endure, O'er all the earth extend his fame, Amen, amen, forevermore. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.