glorious triune God, you who are exalted on high, God of gods and Lord of lords, you who created all things by the word of your power in the space of six days and all very good. We bless your name that you've revealed yourself to us through the Lord Jesus Christ by your spirit and in your word. We thank you that in your word you reveal to us everything that we need to believe and to do in order to live for your glory and honor. We thank you for this summary of the teaching of your word that we have in the larger catechism. And as we continue our study, Lord, we ask that you will bless our time today and give us insight and understanding. May your spirit teach us and may we love you all the more as we consider you and your purposes in creation. And we pray these things in Christ's most glorious name, amen. Two passages quickly, Genesis 1, 1-5, and Hebrews 11-3. Genesis 1, 1-5, Hebrews 11-3. Genesis, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, let there be light, and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from darkness, and God called the light day. the darkness he called night, and there was evening, there was morning one day." And then Hebrews 11, the great roll call of faith, with the definition of faith, and then this statement in verse 3, By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible." So we concluded last week the section on God's decree, With the last kind of link question there, 14, how does God execute His decrees? God executes His decrees in works of creation and providence according to His infallible foreknowledge and the free and mutable counsel of His own will. So, in this lesson, then, we consider the questions on creation. Next week, then, we will look at providence. And I've finally kind of gotten this thing where I want it. And so if you look at those lesson goals, there's one more reminder there for you, something that I shouldn't just assume. So if you look at number seven on next week for the students to use proof texts from catechism to enforce their answers. So as I'm asking you answers or questions, what I'm hoping you're going to do in your preparation is not just me studying the question and answer, but look then at the proof text and understand how the Catechism at this point is interpreting Scripture, and how Scripture then enforces the answers to the Catechism as well as it enforces your answers as well. So in addition, today's goals are to be able to define the work of creation, to enumerate the role of each member of the Trinity in creation, to explain the meaning out of nothing, to understand the significance of the language, the space of six days, to understand the creation of angels and their work, the creation of Adam and Eve, what it means that man is in the image of God, as well then as God's purpose in all of this. So larger catechism 15, begins this discussion. What is the work of creation? The work of creation is that wherein God did in the beginning by the word of his power make of nothing the world and all things therein for himself within the space of six days and all very good. So we begin with this declaration of creation. So somebody, in your own words, tell me what creation means. It's hard sometimes, you've got the very succinct catechism to put it in your own words, but then you own it, if you can tell me. God, existing in sufficiency and out of time, started time and created all that is. through nothing but his own power, hands, words, and will. Very good. So God who is self-existent, we talked about his self-existence, his independence, remember the funny little word, aseity, created time in the beginning. He made all things from nothing, and he did so by his own word. So that's a good definition for us Author. Notice he already summarized it for us, but the language, in the beginning, what is that, what is that telling us? That there was a beginning. Huh? That there was a beginning. There was a beginning, which tells us what? There's some kind of demarcation here. What's the, what's the demarcation? If there was a beginning, what is before the beginning? Just God. is God and He is eternal. So we have the eternal God. Remember we talked a bit about that. That means He's timeless. He is. And it's not in God any sequence of time. He communicates to us. He works in sequence of time, communicates to us in sequence of time, but God himself is timeless. So, in the beginning is this great boundary line, and you could say this is the beginning of the clock of history. And it started with the very first verse here in Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now, as we say that this is revealed to us here, is creation something that we can learn from how God did it from science? No. How does science operate, supposedly? Observation, testing, retesting, and retesting. Science deals with things that are, that we can then look at and examine. But there's no way from science to go back to how these things originated. That's why we started with Hebrews 11.3. What does Hebrews 11.3 say? By faith what? By faith we understand. Okay, so it's by faith alone that we can do this. We understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God so that what was seen was not made out of things which are visible. Now that really embraces everything else that we have here up to the creation of the angels. So the first thing that we note here is that he made out of nothing. He made, they were not made of things which are visible. So the first act of creation, there is God. Now we've said the guy created time, But what else did God create? Stuff. He created everything in terms of He created the building blocks out of which He then would make everything else. So I use the analogy of a construction project. So the architect has a plan, God the Father, we're going to talk a bit more about the Trinity, has this plan, and they now assemble on the construction site all the materials. And this is what we have in Genesis 1, 1 and 2. So in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and, and I prefer to keep the, I don't, the numeric standard leaves the and out, and the earth was formless, uninhabitable, uninhabited, dark, watery mass. And the Spirit of God was hovering over that dark, watery mass. Well, this is God's construction project. So out of nothing, we refer to this as the first creation or the immediate creation, because we know that if we read Genesis, that God uses this stuff that he made on the first act of creation Out of all of this, create everything else. Now, it's still all out of nothing, because it was out of something that He made. Now, out of nothing is hard for us. It's not that there... Remember, God is. So when we say, out of nothing, we're not saying that there was some type of something. No, we're saying God is, and God decreed it, and made it. and it is the product of what God then created and made. Now some theologians will take verse one to be a heading, or even an earlier event, we're not connected with it. I prefer to take verse one and verse two as part of day one. And so what we have then is the creation of all things, but then the Holy Spirit focuses on earth because of the great goal, and that is God making man with whom he would have communion. We will come to that in yet a bit. And so, Out of Nothing is an illustration of this that Paul uses in Romans chapter 4, where he talks about Abraham receiving a son through a sterile, barren wife. And in verse 17, he promised the Father, many nations have I made you in the presence of him whom he believed, even God who gives life to the dead, calls into being that which does not exist. That which does not exist is even a better way to understand out of nothing. out of nonexistence, out of that which does not exist. And so we're immediately faced with the overwhelming wisdom and power of God. And we could just camp there, couldn't we, shouldn't we? Is that again and again the Scripture returns to this as the item for praise. For example, in Revelation, chapter 4, the great throne scene. And as God is being praised in heaven, the climax of it is in verse 11. Worthy are you, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power. Great doxology. For you created all things, and because of your will they existed. Kind of the same thing again. Out of nonexistence they existed and were created. We have to defend creation, particularly in the day in which we live, even in the church we have to defend creation. But we must never get caught up in defending creation that we forget the doxology. To God alone belongs honor and glory and power, because he is the one who created all things by the word of his power. So, now when it says made all things out of nothing, there's a formula that we have in Genesis 1. And what is that formula? It's used eight times. And God said, so there's eight, we call them fiat, word commandments. And the eight acts begin with these eight fiat commandments over two pair of three, or three days divided into two parts. And so again, we see by the word of His power what is meant by that. Now we know that it's not that God spoke an audible word, but He willed it. And He willed it, and immediately upon His willing, it came into being. Again, we should be overwhelmed with that. Now, when it says, and God said, That is not a primary reference to the second person of the Godhead, but because he is called the Word of God in Genesis and John chapter 1, and is also called the Creator. and we go to Proverbs chapter 8, we know then that it is God the Son, so I'm anticipating where we're going, but it's God the Son who now was the spokesman for the Godhead in these eight fiat acts. So immediately upon this commandment, this exercise of God's will, whatever it is, that he will came into existence. So this has some implications that I try to help the guys see in Introduction to Philanthrology and in Creation, Man and Sin. And one is, you have to have a complete, mature creation. And this answers the people that say, well, you know, God's being deceptive, that things have age. You know, what else could something that came from God's Word and we're told it was so, what could that be but a mature creation? We have trees bearing fruit. So we have stars bearing light. that in the course then of providence would take a long time to reach the earth, but immediately that there is a full-orbed creation, a full mature man who can think God's thoughts after him. And so the fiat acts with the expression, and it was so, helps us to think about maturity in the creation. And then because there's a providential link between creation and providence, as we'll see next week, that that which God will do through providential origins bears a continuity with what God produced immediately. And by that I mean that man had adult teeth, he didn't have baby teeth. he would have mature organs in the same way that they would grow and develop then in the process of conception up through birth and then maturity. So it's not wrong to speculate that a tree cut down would have had rings. because this tree would have been, in its maturity, bearing fruit. It had to have some age to it. And then God, as He creates things, will follow in a continuity because of the consistency of His work. He doesn't separate providence from creation. So the eight fiat acts are very important as we think about creation. Now I've alluded to this And I just want y'all to think some, because it opens up, as well, all the work of the Trinity. Look over at Westminster Confession 141. It pleads God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to do this work of creation. Now, I've alluded to the fact of God the Son, but let's start with God the Father. Why would we ascribe the work of creation to God the Father? Josiah, you were about to say something. He's the architect. Right, he's the architect. He is, if you remember, go back, we talked about the persons of the Godhead, their personal properties, and that the Father then is the same in substance, equal in power and glory with the Son and the Spirit, with the Father. But the Father is the acting head of the Trinity. As such, the work of decree is ascribed to Him. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. Now, we also pointed out then that any work ascribed to the One is still the work of the Three. But they have distinctive properties that are manifested. Now another principle I think I mentioned when we talked about the Trinity, when you find the name God, and in the context one or both of the other members of the Godhead are mentioned, then to whom does the title God refer? The Father. It's very important to keep that in mind as you read your Bibles. So God the Father, clearly is mentioned now in verse one, yes, the Trinity, but God the Father. We've already talked about how God the Son is here. By implication, rest of scripture, Proverbs 8, John 1 will open that up for us, that the Son, God the Son is God's logos, he's God's prophet. He's the spokesman of the Trinity, Proverbs 8. He's the wisdom of God. And thus, when God revealed himself through the prophets, we know from New Testament parallels, it was God the Son speaking by the Spirit, but God the Son speaking through those prophets. Now, where's the Holy Spirit here? He's the creative agent. But where is he in the text? In this text, in Genesis 1, hovering, brooding over the surface of the water, which speaks to us of a couple of aspects of his work. One is preservation and one is generation. And another lesson here is that when you read in the Old Testament the Spirit of God, don't ever think about the impersonal power of God. He is the Holy Spirit, introduced to us right here in the very second verse of the Bible. Now, there's other intimations in this text that speak of the Trinity. One is not as clear, and not all theologians would agree, but the name for God used here, the very first name in the Bible is Elohim, and it is plural. The word create is singular, so just as we got a lesson in Paul's bad grammar, we got God's bad grammar here in Genesis 1. It should have been that the gods, you know, they didn't create singular, they created in the plural. But that's intimated. But when we get down to 126, where we'll come in a few moments, the fiat command changes, doesn't it? It's no longer, let there be, what do we read in verse 26? Let us make. Now the language is not that there was a conversation going on, this is all determined in eternity, but God by that language is himself revealing to us that this is the crown of creation, this is what it's all about, man. But the us here, is a reference to a God who himself is in some way a plural being who is one, because God never uses the plural of majesty the way the monarchs of England do, and if we're not taking counsel with angels, he didn't make mankind in the image of angels. No, in some glorious way, he is making us, as we'll see more fully in a few moments, in his image, the one God who is three persons. Now, if you think about the work of God in creation, you can easily apply that. You do that for me to the work of God now in salvation. Or maybe I should say, in creation, apply that to salvation. How about one of you young ladies? Who decreed creation? Which person? Who decreed your election? No. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who chose us, who accomplished your salvation, who applies it to you. Okay, so you see that what happens here in creation, God the Father has the architect, he's decreed this, it's accomplished through God the Son, who is the accomplisher of God, and then is perfected and preserved by the Holy Spirit. Yes, sir? Are you going to add something later? I did do that when we talked about the Trinity, so Sam can get you that. It's posted, right? I dealt with that, we dealt with the Trinity. Thank you, that's important. So, we get not only this great portrait, this picture of God's work of creation, but we have revealed in this first chapter the Trinity and the work of the Godhead. It will become increasingly clear through Scripture, it'll come to its great fulfillment then, as we see all three persons, for example, at the baptism of Christ, where here is God the Son being anointed by God the Spirit, and God the Father speaking from heaven, again acting according to their self-assigned responsibilities as members of the Godhead. Now another important phrase that we have here in larger catechism, is he did this within the space of six days. Now there are some seminaries that actually, educated faculty wrote a pamphlet, or some seminary, but others have said this, other places, seminaries, that this is simply using biblical language, space of six days, to leave it very indefinite. I challenge you to find in the Bible, ever, the phrase, space of six days. The first place I find it is in Calvin. And Calvin is dealing with Augustine who, to highlight the power of God, said, did he do all of this in a nanosecond? And then Genesis 1 describes us in sequence of what happened. But Calvin, in refuting this idea, coins the phrase space of six days to say, no, there were six normal days in which God did this. The great Archbishop Usher, now you know he believed in the space of six days, literal days, because he's the one that has the calendar. of when all this happened. But he then popularized this, and his catechism was one of the foundational documents that were used by the Westminster divines. Usher was invited to be there because he was a royalist in favor of the king, in favor with the assembly theologically, in favor with the king politically, He didn't attend, but he was in correspondence with the divines, and they used his material. So space of six days is merely a very simple way of saying that God did this in six ordinary days. Anybody want to? Now I say ordinary. You could say solar. I'm not going to say 24-hour days, because I don't know what it was like before the fall and before the flood, because it wasn't just the earth that was affected by all of this, but the Bible wants us to understand by the word day, with a cardinal number, which means first, second, third, or fourth, that it's a normal day in sequence. Another thing you hear is that this word, Hebrew word for day, you would put it in English y-o-n, yom, is used all kinds of ways and has no distinct meaning that would simply be a normal day. Well, even very liberal scholars who are actually good Hebrew exegetes say that's preposterous. But when I first got involved in this issue, I used the Logos search engine, and I did a word study of Yom in the Old Testament. And you can do it yourself. I've challenged students to do it. Yom has one default, well, two sub-default meetings, either daylight or 24-hour day. Now, in other contexts, in plurals, there was a preposition, but, when, and stuff like that, but the context is always clear. And it never means an indefinitely long period of time. It's a perfectly good Hebrew word for saying an indefinitely long period of time. And so what's happened is when geologists, and again this is, I was thinking about this in the sermon, one of the first things from culture that came into the church in our age, well the 19th century, is scientism. And geology and then evolution began to dictate how we would respond, and many did this out of good motives. But as Spurgeon said, you don't have to protect God or His Word, let the lion out of the cage. But good motives, and began to explain away the very simple reading of Genesis chapter 1, which is what is being summarized for us in the larger catechism. Yes, sir. Good, so Genesis 2-4 is one of these idioms with Yom, with the word day. And you would think these men who teach Hebrew would know this. This is the account of the heavens and the earth, when they were created, in the day. And it's by Yom, and it simply means at the time. Not using day as encompassing all the events, this is how they would say this, all the events that took place, so here's day being used. No, it is used with the preposition, ba, in, in Hebrew, and it always is used then as an idiom. Thank you. Please, as long as you don't disagree with me. you often hear, you mentioned earlier that the first two verses would be included in the first statement. Yeah. How do you, I'm just trying to anticipate, how do you answer people who would say, well, our verses 1 and 2 are not definite, they could be some older form, right? I think I see a nod to it. You know the point. How did you maintain, exegetically, Okay, everybody hear that question in the back? So, Genesis 1-2 begins with a Hebrew grammatical form that best expresses, and the consequence was. So immediately, you don't want to separate verse 1 and verse 2, because that is how the form is used there. Verse three then begins with another grammatical form which means, and the next thing that happened was. Now I have no problem with the orthodoxy of the men that say this was, one was a title. I have a little more, not orthodox, I have a little more problem with the exegesis that would say one, two, it was also divorced from some period of time. Then there's the logical reason, two logical reasons, or grammatical. So the next thing that happened was, but now Genesis 1-2 reveals to us a created defect. It was all very good. Well, it was all good. It became very good. A created defect. And so we get that defect by God's design described in verse 2. Uninhabitable, uninhabited, dark, watery mass. What do you get then is the logical development out of that. So first, light. taking care of darkness, and with light then the alternation of day and night, and then we get the water separated from above, and then we get the water separated from the dry land, and now the dry land is made inhabitable. and then the earth is made inhabitable and inhabited, first the inhabitants of the heavenly spheres, but particularly in five and six, the various fish, birds, insects, beasts, and mankind. So there is an order there that really one thing really could not exist well with what came before it. So again, we see the unfolding. But the big thing here about the date is that the purpose of all of this, as we're going to see in 126, is for God to have communion with man. Why would he take any indefinite long period of time to do this stuff, and what was it doing? I mean, how are these things existing without the interaction that takes place by God's providence in creation? So it's all moving to this climax of man. So one more question that you'll hear, and that is, well, light and darkness, day and night without sun. Well, I like to remind people that this wouldn't have shocked the Israelites, would it? What had just happened in Goshen? There was a supernatural darkness and a supernatural light. What happened at the Red Sea? My wife and I are reading through Exodus. Here's one cloud. and one side is dark and one side is light. They would have had no problem with the reality that light exists beyond the sun, and is a supernatural light, and God begins to start the earth governing that on some type of rotation, and then as we saw in Job, he says there's a place, there's a treasure place for light and darkness. And Calvin points out that God did this once to show that He can sustain things without the sun sustaining them, but secondly because of men's propensity to worship the sun. God deliberately creates the sun on the fourth day and not on the first day. You're right, it's not the intention, but it's exactly what it does, exactly what we heard this morning. Introduce culture instead of creation, instead of description to the church. Joellen? Well, you were talking about the ultimate goal of creation as far as getting to man because of God having the communion with man. But if you take the liberal point of view, the reason it progressed so long is because in their minds, a fish is equal to man. A dog is equal to man. It's not the ultimate created being at the end. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Well, anything to dethrone God. I mean, evolution has ... it's a good illustration of what we saw in Romans chapter 1, deliberately suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. with Demarcate's sequential term. So I think exegetically, you're absolutely right. Johnny Gibson, who teaches Old Testament Hebrew at Westminster Rose, our assistant at Cambridge, he said to me once, there isn't a reputable Hebrew faculty in the world that would say other than that, they don't believe it. But they would say in Genesis 1, of course it teaches. And one of the functions of the Bible, consecutive, as God said, is to underscore that point. Yeah. Well, he's made a big difference where he teaches, too. There's been a major shift there now, so we thank God for that. Quickly, the purpose of, we saw a man, but the great purpose as we see in the confession is for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness. God does everything for himself. So you can see how this reflects the language in Revelation 4. To him belongs glory and honor and power. He did this for his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness. Well, let's move quickly to the creation of angels. This gets a passing remark In Larger Catechism 16, God created all the angels spirits. Now, all—we'll come back to that in 19— because they were initially all created spirits, immortal, holy, excelling in knowledge, mighty in power to execute his commandments and to praise his name, yet subject to change." So we begin here with the reality, and I'm going to have to wrap this up quickly now. If you look there at 2A, we know that God created the angels from Genesis 1-1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Well, heavens there would include the highest heaven, the manifestation of God's glorious presence as a created place. God himself is outside that place as his omniscient being, but he has manifested, determined to manifest himself there, that's where he's gathered angels and the souls of just men made perfect. Psalm 104.4, 148.2, but particularly Colossians 1.16, which tells us clearly that all things were created by Christ, and it lists then angels under different titles. There's not any exact biblical reference to when this happened. You can tell from what I'm saying with 1.1, I think it happened the very first act of creation. We see then in Job 34, I wrote that down, for seven, that the angels were praising God at creation. They're called stars, they're called sons of God. So I think they were created on day one, when God created the heavens. We have some of their attributes here, we see that they are spirits, and so they are finite, created spirits, but would have the attributes of a spirit, finite attributes, similar to what we saw about God being the infinite spirit. are immortal, which means they are created to exist forever. They are holy, and I like what the New King James will have in, I think it's, what, Matthew 25, 31, that Christ comes with his holy angels. They are then holy, separated from all impurity, and they excel in knowledge, they're mighty in power. And so they are superior, inferior to God, but superior to us in terms of both their knowledge and their power. Their purpose is to execute His commands, which is primarily twofold, and that is to praise Him, which is what we so often see them do, and then to serve Him. Yes, they minister to the elect, but the very... important phrase here when we get to their fall, in larger Catechism 19, God's providence towards angels, and it talks about the fall, and then it says, "...employing them all at his pleasure, in administration of his power, mercy, and justice." Now, we'll get there, we'll talk about Satan and the demons, but just notice that they're serving God not just in ministering to the elect. No, they also are ministers, even good angels are ministers of justice, but evil angels as well will accomplish God's purposes as we see in 1 Kings 22, or even in the case of Satan himself and Job. But notice the addition subject to change. This is laying the foundation that though they are holy creatures, they are finite holy creatures, and we cannot begin to explain how a holy creature would fall, but God created them with the ability to choose to rebel. And God did not give them the grace not to do that. He gave them grace but never gave them all of them, because there were elect angels, and there were not elect angels. So he obviously gave the elect angels grace not to fall, did not give that grace. I can assert that, but how do you fall without a tempter? It's a bit easier to get to Adam, not a lot easier, but a bit easier than Adam had a tempter. But they had no tempter. but they're subject by God's sovereign wisdom, as we'll see, to fall. And then 17 gets this compact statement about man. After God made all other creatures, He created man, male and female, formed the body of man out of the dust of the ground. So here's Genesis 1 to 7. Again, words of intimacy used. It's not that God scooped it up. By His word, He caused the dirt to come together. But the words of intimacy are used to show the close relationship that man has to God. Eve then from the rib of man, and he endued them with living, reasonable, immortal souls. And in Genesis 2-7, God breathed into Adam the breath of life, and that breath of life is used often to refer to the soul. And so in Ecclesiastes 12.7, the soul goes to God who gave it, the body to the earth. Elihu uses a similar expression with respect to the soul and its relationship to God. So now quickly, why did God make Eve? Why didn't God make Eve out of the dust of the earth, the way he made out? because they're not independent of each other. All right, so she's not independent of Adam, which is important for the covenantal headship that we'll talk about in a couple of weeks. She is, although they are the heads of the race, she comes from him, so he acts as her covenant head as well. If she had not sinned and he had obeyed God, she would have been confirmed in his obedience as we would have been. But Paul gives another reason. 1 Corinthians 14, when he says that women are not permitted to speak publicly in the worship service, he says this is according to the law. Now by the law, the law of God. He doesn't quote the law of God, but in 1 Timothy 2 he does. After he says that women may not have authority over men or teach men in the church, he gives two reasons, and the first is because Adam was created first. Now it's a partnership It's a glorious partnership that God has created, a helper corresponding to the needs of Adam and of all men. But it's a partnership with a God-appointed headship, not an inferiority, but a God-appointed headship. And thus, God made her from Adam's side, that she's a partner, but he made her from Adam to demonstrate the headship that Adam has, a loving partner-type headship that should look like Christ's headship over us, a sacrificial love. So those two references are 1 Corinthians 14, 34 and 1 Timothy 2, 17. So God gave Adam the soul, Genesis 2, 7. And now that language is interesting. He made him, then he breathed into him the breath of life, that means a soul, nishmath kayim, and he became a living soul. Now again, people get confused because the word living soul is also used for other animals. It simply means an animated being. The difference in us, animation comes from the soul that God put in us. Animal animation comes from their neurological system, and it's not some spiritual principle that's put into them. So because of this, man then has these attributes that are expressed here in the question 17. a reasonable and immortal soul, so alive, breathing after God with the breath of life, reasonable, rational creatures, which also would imply, as we'll see later, moral responsibility, and then immortal, or we could say incorruptible. God alone is immortal in that he is self-existently immortal. Men and angels are created immortal, but they will never become mortal in their spiritual being. And at the resurrection, at the last, the body will again. So Adam's body participated in immorality until he sinned. Immortality until he sinned. But the body turns to dust from which it came, but the soul remains forever. The souls of the dead are either with the Lord or in hell now. At the resurrection, the bodies will be raised, and they shall then live as whole people in heaven or hell. And then we get what theologians call the essential or the narrow aspect of the image of God, made after his own image and knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Now here's a good example of how our fathers knew how to read scripture. So again, Dr. Hamilton talked about reading between the lines. You have to go to what Paul writes in the New Testament. But in Colossians 3, verse 10, and Ephesians 4, verse 24, Paul tells us that in Christ Jesus, we have been renewed in the knowledge of him who created us and in holiness and righteousness of him who created us. This was part of the image of God, but this is what was then forfeited as the punishment of sin when communion with God was lost and our whole natures became corrupt. So the spiritual knowledge, well actually Adam's excellent knowledge that he had, but particularly he became spiritually blind, 1 Corinthians 2, unrighteous, and unholy. In Christ Jesus, through the work of the Spirit, we first have been illumined and begin to be able to understand God and his work and promises and scripture. We take hold of Christ by faith. We receive first his righteousness, and then the spirit of Christ indwells us, making us separate to God, holy. We begin then to grow in righteousness. So this is the great aim now of creation. This is why we're being conformed to the image of Christ, who himself is the perfect image of God in his human nature. And it's very useful, as you meditate on the Gospels, to meditate on all the various aspects of the moral beauty and the wisdom of our Savior, because as you meditate on these things, the Spirit will shape them into your own life. And then, as a consequence of being created in the image of God, they have the law of God written on their heart. What we know over the Ten Commandments was already on their hearts, we say it concretely, by creation. God spoke further words to them, but that is the foundation of our conscience. We'll start talking about conscience in Romans chapter two. That's the remnant of the law, but this shows us the grace of Mount Sinai, that what was marred in the conscience now was again brought to God's people as a gift. in the Revelation. So the Ten Commandments, the law of God on their heart, and then the power to fulfill it. Again, subject to change, but the power to fulfill, and dominion over the creation. Okay, well good. Sorry I had to rush to that last part. We'll kind of get a pace with next week. Maybe, anyway, I think we'll be okay. These kids are anxious to get out of there. So, Josiah, would you close in prayer, please? God, our Father, who art in heaven, we pray thee, Lord, that you are the maker of heaven and the earth, and that you created all things by the word of your power. We thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, who accomplished our redemption, Lord, who gave himself for us. And we thank you for your Spirit who involved us Hmm.