Transcript

The number of stars just in our galaxy is staggering. Scientists and astronomers say if we would count one star per second, it would take 2500 years to just count the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. And there are billions more galaxies than just the Milky Way.

If you were to hold out a dime at arm’s length, the coin would block out 15 million stars from your view in this galaxy, if your eyes could see with that power.

The distance of the stars from the earth is likewise confounding. If the earth was a grape, in proportion the sun would be the size of a beach ball and would be 163 yards away, a football field and a half.

The largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, would be about the size of a grapefruit, and it would be about 5 blocks up the road. In this scaled-down universe, the nearest star would be 24,000 miles away.

Someone has also pictured the distance from the stars like this. Say it cost a penny to ride 1000 miles, a trip to the moon would cost $2.38, a trip to the sun would cost $930, but a trip to the nearest star would cost $260 million dollars.

And then the power released in and from the stars is stunning. For example, the sun releases more energy in one second than a billion major cities on the earth, if there were a billion, would produce in a year. And that’s just released in 1 second.

The sun is mid-sized. There are trillions of stars bigger than the sun. It isn’t anywhere near as big as a red supergiant star called Antares. Fifty million of our suns could fit inside of Antares. Think of the energy that star releases in 1 second.

And then you think of them all collectively. There’s at least 200 billion in our galaxy, there’s hundreds of billions of stars in each of the billions of galaxies.

And yet the Bible describes the creation of all this energy, power, mass, from all these countless heavenly bodies in Genesis 1:16, with the single phrase, “He made the stars also.”

Like it’s no big deal. It was simple. Piece of cake. Scripture states things simply for God, because they were easy for Him to create. God is all-powerful. The energy of all the stars is still an immeasurably small token of His infinite, divine energy and power.

This teaches us that God most definitely has the power to save you from all your sins, give you eternal life, and to raise your body from the dead one day. And it also reminds us where we need to turn to find strength in this life.

Psalm 19:1: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”

Before verse 1 and the Psalm begins, we find who it was addressed to and who wrote it: “To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.”

This Psalm was to be a song of praise. The God who created the heavens and all that is within them must be the sole object of our worship and praise.

We don’t worship the sun, moon, or stars; we look past them, and we worship and give praise to their Creator, to the One who made them.

According to this song, God’s majestic universe contains a message. It is a bold announcement to all. The Psalmist shows here how the Universe is God’s billboard about His glory. The Heavens and its expanse are the work of His hands, and declare His glory.

All anyone has to do is to go out and look up at the sky, day or night, and the heavens are declaring how great God’s glory and greatness is.

David knew none of the modern data of the size of the universe, and yet when he pondered the heavens, just by looking at it, he was overwhelmed by the glory of the Lord. And we do the same just by looking at its beauty and design.

David refers to the “heavens,” plural, because there are various spheres of heaven, the first, second, and third heavens.

Here David is speaking of the first heaven, or the upper atmosphere, the heaven of the clouds, that is. And he is referring to the second heaven or solar heavens, the heaven of space, where the moon, sun, stars are.

The heavens above declare that God is all-glorious. The firmament above shows “His handywork.” In other words, it reveals that this all is the “work” of His hands.

The heavens are a declaration to mankind, that God is, that He is glorious, and that He is the Maker and Creator of all things.

The heavens declaration is multifaceted in revealing the glory of God. Its vastness declares the magnitude of God. The order and perfect timing of planetary movements declare His precision and wisdom. Their beauty reveal His splendor.

The majesty of the heavens is evidence of an even more majestic Creator. The size of the universe speaks to God’s greatness.

Astronomers often call it the “known” universe, because it’s farther than we can know and understand. The end of it will never be found. Its size though isn’t primarily to make a statement about us, although it does, telling us that we are tiny beyond description.

We see from verse 1, that the size of the heavens primarily makes a statement about God, who is even more immense and greater than it is. It’s about declaring His glory.

You’ll often here scientists say that the universe is an oversized habitation for us to live in. If the universe was created just for us to dwell, it is too huge for us.

But what if the universe’s primary purpose is to display the awesomeness and majesty of the One who created it?

What if it is to reveal the infinite size, power, and glory of the One who created it? Then the universe is just the right size. It is perfect.

Dr. Arthur Harding, in his textbook on astronomy, asked, “Who can study the science of astronomy and contemplate the star-lit heavens with a knowledge of the dimensions of the celestial bodies, their movements and their enormous distances, without bowing his head in reverence to the power and the God that brought this universe into being and safely guides its individual members?”

God’s handiwork in the heavens teaches us to downsize our estimation of ourselves, to upsize our prayers, and to supersize our faith because we have a great God. It is a privilege to be His, have a relationship with Him, and to serve Him and live for His glory.

Psalm 19:2-4a: “Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world…”

The heavens communicate truth about God to us. “Uttereth” means to pour forth, to gush.

It’s used in Proverbs 18:4: “The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a FLOWING brook.” The word “flowing” in describing a flowing brook is the same Hebrew word translated “uttereth” here.

And like a flowing brook, the heavens give a constant, unbroken, unceasing speech. The heavens show and make known knowledge continuously.

God speaks through what He has made, and means for us to hear what He has to say. As we focus on what we see when we look up, the sky and the heavens, it gushes forth with speech. And the heavens don’t whisper it, they shout continually.

God is talking to the world all day and all night, every day and every night, everywhere in the world by His creation. There is never a moment during day or night when creation ceases to speak, flow, and breathe out its witness to God’s glory.

The message God conveys through the skies reaches the mind and the heart without the means of ordinary, literal words or speech.

God means for there to be communication from His mind and heart to our mind and heart, but the means of communication, the thing that carries the reality from His heart to our heart, is not written words; it’s not spoken words. It’s silent communication.

It’s wordless words, speechless speech, voiceless voice. God is pouring forth communication to us through the sky; He is telling, proclaiming, and declaring knowledge to everyone who will stop, look, and listen, and think.

The knowledge which pours forth from days and nights is conveyed by light, color, shape, design, motion, magnitude, power, and beauty.

The message of the heavens is about God. The ministry of the sky is a ministry of communication about God. It testifies to the Person of God.

Day and night everywhere in the world God is speaking to all people about Himself. God speaks to the inhabitants of the earth by means of His creation.

Creation is God’s “wordless book,” that everyone can see, read, hear and understand. God speaks through His creation day after day, night after night, and it speaks silently, abundantly, and universally.

The speech is not about nature. We are not pantheists. We know God is not nature. Nature is not God. The heavens are not God, God is not the heavens.

It is God’s handiwork; it is not God. “In the beginning God CREATED the heavens and the earth.” They were not until He said they are. He is transcendent and greater than all He has made.

What God is speaking about in the heavens is about His existence and glory.

The heavens are declaring, pouring forth knowledge to us that “You have no idea how big we are!” and “You think we’re glorious, you should see the One who made us!”

The message of the skies is the glory of God, that God is marvelous in His perfections, awesome in His power, beyond comprehension in His wisdom.

This wordless communication is similar to what happens when we see a painting. Things come to our minds without words.

The first is that we sense immediately that this is a painting. It is the work of a human hand. We don’t have to think about it, or reason it out, or convince ourselves otherwise.

There is a kind of speech, as David put it, but there are no words. We just see it and know it: someone made this.

The second thing we sense immediately is some assessment of the painting: it is beautiful or ugly or frightening or inspiring or just eh. There is an immediate communication to our hearts without words or extended reasonings: this is made and this is glorious or it is not.

This is similar to what David means when he describes the skies as speaking without speech about the work of God’s hand and about the glory of God’s person.

God shows us the sky every day, the sun and moon and stars and clouds and remarkable sunrises and sunsets with varying colors and vibrancy, and immediately, with no audible words, we just know that this was made.

And then our reaction and the assessment we make without any effort is that it is glorious, amazing, stunning. Thus, people whip out their phones to take a picture, or they take out a canvas to paint it, or they just sit there in awe of it.

We are taught by the heavens that God exists; He is the One who created it, and we are further taught that the Creator must likewise be glorious and magnificent. So the glory of God is perceived and understood without words by the beauty and wonder of His creation.

Though creation does not speak audibly in words, its message goes out to the ends of the earth, it extends to everywhere. The message of God’s glory reaches all nations.

The implications of God speaking to everyone in the world by His creation demonstrates that God is concerned for the world. He wants all the world to know Him. He loves the world. So He pours out knowledge of His existence and glory to the world daily.

And, of course, we know that also from His Word and from passages like John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

The reach of the heaven’s voice is universal. There is NO ONE who fails to hear it. You can also see God’s glory reflected in the mountains, oceans, forests, flowers and wildlife, but not everyone who lives on earth will ever see the ocean or a mountain or certain types of animals. But EVERYONE can see the heavens, the sun and the stars.

The heavens are the most universally seen of all God’s works. And so the heavens pour out knowledge of the glory of God to everyone on earth, through their beauty, complexity, balance and order, and through their sheer size.

And there is no language barrier to this. This revelation of God is understood by all. One of the biggest barriers missionaries face in bringing the gospel to people in other nations is the language barrier. They must spend time learning the language.

But this knowledge of God in creation by the heavens comes through loud and clear to everyone, of every language. It is inescapable. In every part of this world, in every nation, in every language, the language of the heavens can be understood.

The Apostle Paul in Romans 1:20 says, “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.”

God reveals His eternal power and divine nature in creation so clearly that everyone is left “without excuse.” Every person lives every waking moment of their life under the constant reminder of God’s presence, sovereignty, and power.

But unbelief, belief in error, pride, and the exaltation of man’s wisdom can cause humanity to willfully deny God’s persistent message.

No one will ever stand before God and say they did not receive the revelation of God that comes through His creation. The voice of creation speaks of God’s glory loud and clear, and no one can miss it. People can only refuse to believe what they see and hear.

So the answer to the question, “Are people lost and going to hell who have never heard the gospel?” is yes, they are lost, because God speaks to them every single day, all day long, day and night, and they refuse to listen or they don’t seek after the Creator.

Our thinking is wrong if we think that God isn’t being fair to those in remote places who have never heard the gospel. God is speaking to them by His creation. And they have a responsibility to seek Him.

Then we further need to be sensitive to God speaking to us the Church by His Word. Because His Word teaches us that we have a responsibility to get the truth of the gospel to them, to those who have never heard in our ministry of reconciliation.

Musician Michael Card once said in an interview: Again and again in China I talked to people who had never heard of Christianity, never heard of Jesus Christ. They never heard a single word from the Bible.

Yet through nature, the heavens, and their God-given conscience, many believed in God. Not only did they believe God existed, they’d derived some understanding about His loving character because He provided food, water, and a beautiful world. One old woman after she got saved told me, “I’ve known Him for years. I just didn’t know His name.”

Creation provides us with some knowledge of God, but it does not provide the saving knowledge of God. A person can look at creation and understand that God exists, but knowing that God exists does not save a person.

A person can understand from creation that God is caring, all-powerful, wise, but knowing God’s attributes does not save either. Creation’s testimony is not enough by itself.

General revelation of God through nature cannot convert sinners into saints, but it does make them accountable. Salvation comes thru the special revelation of the Word of God and faith in the gospel of grace that Christ died for our sins and rose again.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Thus, the need is urgent to send missionaries around the world with the gospel to share Christ and His finished work, so people can be reconciled to this glorious and loving God and be at peace with Him.

The poet-king David says “their line” or the line of influence and instruction by heaven’s continuous speech and knowledge, that line “is gone through all the earth” and “to the end of the world.”

In other words, the wordless voice and knowledge of God’s glory poured forth by day and night is available to everyone around the globe. This is not a private or secret knowledge.

The moon you see tonight is the same moon that shines down on Shanghai and Moscow and London, the jungles of South America, the villages of Africa, and the barrios of the Philippines, and so on.

And that is the same moon that shown down on David 3000 years ago when he wrote this. It is the same moon that shown on all people of all times.

The testimony of the heavens has spoken to all languages, to all people, from all time. It has revealed the same thing always. It has declared the glory of God.

Psalm 19:4b-6: “In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.

“His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.”

Dominant in the heavens above is the sun. And the sun declares God’s glory.

Psalm 33:6 says, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” God breathed out the sun by the breath of His mouth.

The size of the sun God created is so big that one million earths could fit inside it.

God placed the sun the perfect distance away from the earth, 93 million miles, providing just the right level of heat and light. If the sun was any closer, we’d burn up; if it was further away we’d all freeze.

God created the sun 400 times the size of the moon but 400 times further away, so it appears the same in the sky.

The surface temperature of the sun that God created is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It has the energy of 100 billion tons of dynamite detonating every second.

And God just opened His mouth and spoke this massive, flaming ball of energy and extraordinary heat into existence. And He maintains it. It’s held by Him. Without Him, it would cease to be. Without His sun that He created, life would cease to be on this earth.

And the sun declares His glory. No one other than God could create, sustain, and employ such a heavenly body as the sun.

As the sun goes down for the night, David poetically and beautifully pictures the heavens as a tabernacle or tent for the sun. It is there that the sun encamps for the night.

David then wrote that as it arises every morning it does so as a bridegroom coming out of his tent on his wedding day, excitedly leaving his chamber to claim his bride. Like a groom bursts forth out of his house on his wedding day, the sun bursts forth and rises.

That feeling of newness and joy, of the anticipation and excitement of a married couple’s new life together, is like the start of each new day and the sun’s new journey thru the sky.

The message when the sun bursts forth and rises in its colors of red, orange, gold and lavender in the eastern sky, is the glory of God.

And then as the sun rises, David states that it becomes like a race across the sky. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other. The sun moves through the arc of the heavens like a strong man running a race.

And like a vigorous athlete running a race, it does so with power and determination, never faltering, never tiring.

The course or circuit for the sun begins at the eastern end of the heavens and continues on down to the western horizon where the course ends. Its course is seen by all who live on earth, every morning, every day, without fail, and it gives glory to God.

As the sun runs its circuit across the sky, verse 6 states that it finds no boundary from which its heat can be hidden. Its heat pervades every remote corner and crevice of the world. There is nothing hidden from the heat of the sun.

The sun serves all who live on the earth. “Nothing is hidden from its heat.” Even on the cloudiest, darkest day, the light of the sun illumines and warms the surface of the earth.

God gave the sun to provide light and heat for everyone. It is part of his common grace to all mankind.

The Lord said in Matthew 5:45, “for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good.” No matter where you live, you cannot escape the testimony of the sun, which testifies every day to a good and powerful and gracious God.

God’s majesty as revealed in the heavens makes us realize how far we fall short of Him and who He is and His glory, and how small and weak we are in comparison to Him.

And it makes us realize the wonder of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the glorious Creator of all things, coming to this world to be our Savior and die for our sins, so that we might have peace with God and then “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2).

As God speaks and reveals His glory so consistently by His creation, it makes us realize that God is faithful and that He is in control.

And as God speaks to us day by day through His creation, that in turn reminds us that He has given us His Word, and that He wants us to spend time with His Word, by which also He uttereth speech and showeth knowledge to the believer and teaches us about His perfect will for our lives.

The heaven declaring the glory of God further makes us realize that we should live for something bigger than ourselves, that we should live for the glory of God, and not try to find happiness or satisfaction in lesser things.

And the daily testimony of God’s glory teaches us to do what 1 Corinthians 10:31 says: “whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”