Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Amen. Why don't we stand this morning as we go to the Lord in prayer?
[00:00:06] Amen. You know, it's just been so interesting recently how many funerals have been rolling around here in our church. I know Pastor Mark just got one to do this next month. I have two to do next month.
[00:00:17] And there's just a lot of people walking through grief. So I want to pray for those that are experiencing grief at this time in your life.
[00:00:24] And also I want us to pray for our nation. How many know that our country really needs to have us pray for it continuously? Amen. Our leaders need divine assistance. And I really feel that our nation needs to be turning back to God. So let's pray. Lord, we just come before you today. We thank you for your amazing righteousness. The foundation I was reading this morning of your entire leadership is based on righteousness and justice, love and truth. And so, Father, we appeal to you today that you would move with great comfort and encouragement in the lives of those that have lost a loved one and they're walking through a season of grief. I pray for that supernatural care and comfort that you bring and also the caring community and the support that we can supply. Lord, we pray as well for our nation and the nations of our world. There's so many countries in conflict. We think of our own nation, Lord. There's a need for you, Father, but many don't recognize it. And I do pray, Father, that you would open our hearts to you. I pray for a mighty outpouring of your spirit, our hearts turning back to you, Father, as a nation. May that we fall on our knees and recognize our sinfulness and our deep dependence upon you. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name and God's people said, amen. Amen. You may be seated.
[00:01:46] I'm going to have you turn in your Bibles to Psalm 19 this morning. I've finished our series on Second Corinthians. We're going to just look at a number of different messages here. Single messages, Psalm 19. And we're going to look at the entire psalm this morning. And I've entitled this message the Truth about Our World and its Message. In his provocatively titled book, From Darwin to Hitler, historian Richard Weichart examines the revolutionary impact that Darwinism had on the ethics and morality of social thinkers in the Nazi regime.
[00:02:21] Believing that Darwinism had overturned any sense of the sanctity of life and evolutionary fitness, especially in terms of intelligence and health, became the highest arbitrator of morality for the Nazis, Weikart concludes that Darwinism played a strategic role not only in the rise of euthanasia, infanticide, infanticide abortion and racial extermination, which were all ultimately embraced by Nazis. The contention that Hitler built his views on Darwinian principles raises one of the most important truths a mind can comprehend.
[00:03:02] Ideas have consequences, and when we embrace the wrong ideas, they lead to the wrong kind of consequences.
[00:03:10] And we know from history. I know it's a very well documented time. It's been a lot of movies about Germany during the rise of Nazism. I just watched a movie last night on Jesse Owens and his achievement there in the Berlin Olympics. But you know, it's just such a reminder what happens when we think the wrong way and a country that embraces that and moves in that direction and how devastating that that occurs in the lives of people and it becomes a culture of death. And I'm concerned in our own country that that's where we are there.
[00:03:51] While many people in our current society believe that this concept of evolution with its corresponding concepts of survival of the fittest, a rejection of God, or that our world has an intelligent designer and that they don't see that as being a sustainable idea, their premise is that a naturalistic and scientific explanation is the only reasonable and intelligent position that many people maintain. And how many know that's true? You know, today a lot of people, you know, you can't even talk about God. God's not even in the equation in most people's minds in our society. You know, if one is to challenge or doubt their position, they consider that unreasonable, stupid, dangerous, impossible, insane, and even wicked. How do you like that?
[00:04:39] So the dangerous people are people like us who don't think the same way. And I don't know if you noticed something, but we've coined this term cancel culture. But what I'm noticing, we're not just we're canceling everything. We cancel history, we cancel relationships. If you don't agree with me, we just cut people off. You know, we just embrace some really sad situations. There's very little dialogue today.
[00:05:05] There's just an entrenchment of ideologies.
[00:05:09] Richard Dawkins, who's an atheist like Daniel Dennett, another atheist, argue that the disposition that anybody that doesn't believe the way they do, they got a problem.
[00:05:20] Dennett's Darwin dangerous ideas.
[00:05:23] He says, to put it bluntly but fairly, anyone who doubts that the variety of life on this planet was produced by a process of evolution simply is ignorant, inexcusably ignorant. That's his take on it. Richard Dawkins wrote in 1989 in the New York Times book review, it is absolutely safe to say that if you meet someone who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid, insane or wicked. But I'd rather not consider that.
[00:05:51] So how open are people today to hearing another position? Well, Richard Milton, who, who's an atheist, he published a book called Shattering the myth of Darwinism. Now you have to understand something. This guy's just a journalist, okay? So he's just basically saying why are we closed minded to anything that may be disagreeing with this position? That's what he came up with. He said the response to his book stunned him.
[00:06:22] He said, I expected it to arouse a little controversy because it's reports on scientific research that that in itself controversial because it was dealing with Darwinism, which is really a touchy subject with a lot of people, especially the biology establishment. He said, I did not expect science to welcome an inquisitive reporter, but I did expect the controversy to be conducted at a rational level. In other words, you could actually have a thinking about these things, right?
[00:06:50] So that people would rightly demand to inspect my evidence more closely and question me on the correctness of this or that fact. That's kind of where he expected it to go. But he said to my horror, horror. I found that instead of challenging me, orthodox scientists simply set about writing me off their property. Basically. You know, Richard Dawkins at Oxford university wrote his review in the New statesman magazine and he criticized not the material, but he criticized the fact that it was even published.
[00:07:21] How was that? He said he devoted two thirds of his review attacking my publisher forth a state for their irresponsibility and daring to accept a book that would even criticize Darwinism. They don't even want to have anybody challenge them.
[00:07:37] And then the remainder, he said, was to assassinate my personal character, the writer.
[00:07:41] Oh my goodness. Dawkins is employed at Britain's most one of the most distinguished universities and is responsible for the education of future generations of students. Yet this is not the language of a responsible scientist and teacher. It's the language of a religious fundamentalist whose faith has been profane.
[00:08:01] That's pretty strong language.
[00:08:02] I mean, he's just pushing back big time. He's just saying, hey, I'm an atheist too, but you guys are not even open minded enough to discuss things that don't agree with you.
[00:08:12] Interesting.
[00:08:13] He said nature magazine, probably the most highly respected scientific magazine in the world, scented blood and joined in the frenzy. They said these intemperate responses betoke More than just a squabble between an inquisitive journalist and a couple of reactionary academics. They raise a number of important questions of general public interest.
[00:08:33] Who do you have to be to have a voice about scientific research on which large sums of public money are spent? Who decides who you have to be and in what form or by what mechanism can the voices of dissent be ever heard in science?
[00:08:49] So they're raising a question. I mean, if you don't go along with where most people are at, you're just written off. There's no dialogue anymore. You're just considered a threat or a heretic. He said it's not just outsiders who cannot be heard. It's dissenting members of the scientific profession themselves. He said. In my mailbox are letters from biologists who are concerned by the teaching of Darwinism as holy writ and from medical men whose practices have led them to make medical discoveries having a bearing on some of their evolutionary biology. They have sought to publicize these discoveries in journals such as Nature, but have been universally rejected because their discoveries are not supportive of Darwinian principles and hence counter to the ruling ideology in the life sciences. They have appealed to me, a non scientist, to help them gain publicity.
[00:09:44] So what we've discovered is simply that a hypothesis or a theory, because how many know we don't. No one has ever. Nobody was there when the world began except for God, you know, so who's going to say that they are the ultimate expert on this, right? But basically this hypothesis or theory is sanctioned as reality and truth to question is to be considered evil. People who state that they have an open mind are in reality totally close minded to any position other than than their own.
[00:10:18] I don't know about you, but I just don't relate to that because I have an inquisitive mind. You know, I read stuff that I don't even agree with. But I mean, I'm trying to understand where other people are coming from and trying to understand their point of view. I think we have to be a little bit more open minded than that. I mean, if we're so insecure that we're afraid that anything that conflicts with our point of view is a threat, you see, that's a problem.
[00:10:43] That's a problem in a free society.
[00:10:46] See, we have a major problem in our world today. We're not open to a free society anymore. We have a closed society. That's what's happening. It's closing because we're afraid that someone might disagree with us.
[00:10:57] Well, that's insecurity folks.
[00:10:59] So what does the Bible have to say about the origins of matter, life and the existence of God? The Bible never tries to prove God. I just want you to know that. Actually that's, that's you want to get. You know what the biggest problem we have as Christians, we try to prove God. Don't even try that. You don't need to do that. I think that the issue is people have to disprove God.
[00:11:22] See, we got to come at it the other way. Just tell, you know, somebody says, I don't believe in God. You say, well, why don't you believe in God? I mean, you have to have a reason for not believing in God. Let's go the opposite way. I think people have to disprove the existence of God. When I get done this morning, I hope you're going to say, wow, they don't, they are in trouble. People that, you know, try to disprove God. I think there's everything screaming at them that God exists and the scriptures teach it very clearly. So we're going to look today at how God reveals himself to us.
[00:11:57] Not only revealing himself to us, but also revealing our true condition before him.
[00:12:03] God wants to see, we need to take a look at how God sees us. You know, we're busy criticizing God. We're busy criticizing the fact that there may be a God. What about, what does God think about where we're at and what's his viewpoint? We're gonna come at it from a different angle. So the first major means of revealing himself to us is actually through creation.
[00:12:22] You know, this world that we're living in right now is a declaration of an intelligent designer.
[00:12:29] Does anybody know that? I want you to think about all the things that have to sustain life. Do you realize that if our planet was anywhere different, located wise in our solar system, life couldn't even exist?
[00:12:42] Isn't that amazing?
[00:12:44] And the fact that the way our whole system works is absolutely incredible. You know, study the human body. For example. Psalm 139 says, we're wonderfully and marvelously made. The fact that you and I can even function the way our bodies actually work is an incredible marvel. Just that in itself.
[00:13:05] Do you think this all happened by accident?
[00:13:08] You know, and then you kind of go along and take a look at the rest of this world and how it came to be and all these ecosystems that create life. Do you know, sometimes as human beings we think we have a bright idea. And a number of years ago, some people in Yellowstone decided we have, we're going to remove the wolf population from Yellowstone. And they did. They got rid of all the wolves. You know what happened? The deer population began to create such a. They began to grow in such great abundance that it was actually destroying the ecosystem of Yellowstone. And they started realizing that there's actually a documentary on this. They have to reintroduce wolves in Yellowstone in order to diminish the population of deer. Because God created a system that worked a certain way. And when you and I start tampering with God's system, we're creating trouble for ourselves. We're destroying the system.
[00:13:58] You know, as human beings, sometimes when we elevate ourselves above how God designed things, we create problems for ourselves.
[00:14:07] This creator, this is so beautiful. To me, it is so beautifully ordered. It's so marvelously developed. As a matter of fact, you couldn't even be a scientist if God didn't exist. Because God created everything with a design.
[00:14:21] And the design speaks of an intelligent designer. Listen to Psalm 19. It says this at the beginning. The heavens declare the glory of God.
[00:14:31] The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech. Night after night they display knowledge. Well, they don't talk to us in English or any other human language, but they are communicating something.
[00:14:46] If you study astronomy, you're going to have all kinds of amazing things happen. They're learning things all the time about the marvel of this universe. So they're communicating information to us as human beings.
[00:15:01] There is no speech. They use no words, no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words, to the ends of the world. In other words, they're not communicating with language, but they're communicating all kinds of amazing wonders and truth that declare there is an intelligent designer. So the psalmist states that the created world makes the declaration, there's a creator. The complexity of our world, the orderliness of creation, it demands an intelligent designer to consider that this all randomly took place takes faith.
[00:15:39] Let's just be honest.
[00:15:41] No matter what position you hold right now, we all do it by faith. Nobody was there. Nobody observed it. Science is an observation, you know, but we have nobody. Only thing we can observe is what the created world is communicating to us and what is it saying to us.
[00:15:58] True science would be about continually readjusting our findings as new discoveries are occurring and we're open to receive the new information, even if it shatters preconceived ideas.
[00:16:11] Isn't that true in the past? You know, sometimes people held onto old ideas that were wrong, and people were threatened by that no, we should be open to no. But this is what is actually being communicated to us. We need to embrace those things. You know, the ancients worshiped the creation rather than the Creator.
[00:16:28] The sun particularly was an object of worship. And that's one of the reasons why the author of Genesis describes the creation of the sun as the greater light to govern the day. Doesn't talk about the sun just as the greater light.
[00:16:42] God made two great lights. The greater light to govern the day, the lesser light to govern the night. But though we may think that we've greatly advanced beyond the ancient thinking, let me just remind us, we have many people today, we whose whole life is being shaped by the celestial rotation of the stars.
[00:17:01] Do you realize that?
[00:17:02] You see what he mean? Well, rather than trust God, they're trusting in the stars, which is called astrology. We've got all kinds of astrologists now out there telling you what your future is going to have. How many know that's true? It's big business, billion dollar business guys. And people are reading their horoscopes every day. You know, it's amazing to me, you can't look at a newspaper or even like an electronic newspaper and they got horoscopes coming at you left, right and center. And people read those things.
[00:17:31] And don't tell me people, when they're not reading them, those ideas are permeating their thinking. What they're really doing is saying that the stars are determining their future.
[00:17:40] Well, no, they don't.
[00:17:43] That's not what's happening. Now. Listen to what the Bible teaches us. Actually, God said this is actually something that was forbidden.
[00:17:51] Look at Deuteronomy. Therefore, watch yourselves very carefully so that you do not become what? Corrupt. Thank you. Corrupt.
[00:17:59] And make for yourself an idol, an image of any form or shape, whether formed like a man or a woman. So let me just pause there for a second and say, if you don't believe in God, what do you go do? You move down to the next lower level of humanity. You begin to worship human beings. And that's what secular humanism is. It's the worship of humanity. We've elevated ourselves above God.
[00:18:19] That's what he's talking about here. Or like any animal on earth or bird that flies in the air.
[00:18:24] You know, some of us may not have traveled a lot, but let me tell you something, there's other parts of the world where they worship some pretty weird stuff just tell you right now. Or like any creature that moves along the ground, or fish in the waters below. And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars and all the heavenly array. Do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things. The Lord your God is a portion of to all the nations under the heavens.
[00:18:51] So humanity moves in a direction away from the revelation of God by a false worship of creation itself. If you don't worship the Creator, you worship the creation.
[00:19:02] And human beings were created. We're a part of the creation we worship.
[00:19:09] If we will not worship the Creator, then we default and begin, as I said, to worship the creature. Historical documentation reveals how the ancients actually worshiped the material world.
[00:19:21] Oh, and by the way, it's not just ancients.
[00:19:23] Ancients. People are doing that today.
[00:19:26] Today we have people still. They're called animists. They worship creation. The animists, we go, yeah, well, those are primitive people, Pastor.
[00:19:35] Well, I'm going to tell you something. They know there's a reality. They know there's spirits out there.
[00:19:40] They know there's a power behind what they're worshiping. Those spirits are controlling a lot of things. And Paul talks about these principalities and powers. Do you know that the same principalities that have governed Babylon and Egypt and all the nations of the world are still out there governing the nations of our world? In many ways, they're affecting the thinking of people in many different countries. And then we can remember pantheism. How many know what pantheism is? It's another form of false worship where everything is considered God.
[00:20:10] You know, pantheon is everything is God, creation is God, everything is God. In other words, God is inside of the created world rather than outside of it. That's pantheistic thinking. And how many people practice pantheism? Many, you say, well, who are those people, Pastor? Well, Hinduism, for example, that's pantheism.
[00:20:29] They worship the created world. And so that's why, you know, when we talk about Hinduism, they have 330 million gods.
[00:20:37] They worship everything.
[00:20:39] You know, we say, well, that's in India, Pastor. Well, listen, folks, we have a form of pantheism right here in North America, but we have a different. We don't call it Hinduism today. We call it New Age.
[00:20:51] Don't tell me New Age isn't a big deal. People are spiritual and they're involved in pantheism. And so a lot of your neighbors are pantheists. You don't know that, but they're worshiping the created world. They're not worshiping the true and living God. They're worshiping that which is created you know, some would object and say, well, I'm not religious. I'm a secularist, I'm an atheist. I don't believe in God. But the reality is that, as I said, we're worshipers. And so who are the atheists worshiping?
[00:21:20] Themselves.
[00:21:22] And so many people are walking around and they have no gods but themselves.
[00:21:26] In other words, they're calling the shots. They act as if they're God. They're making. It's all up to them. Everything lands on them. That's why we have high degrees of anxiety today.
[00:21:38] People that feel like the pressure is all on them. I have to make things happen. I have to work, I have to provide. I have to do this. There's all this anxiety, a lot of problems with mental health issues. Why? Because we're playing God. How many know it's pretty heavy to play God.
[00:21:51] It's a lot easier to just say, you know what? There's a God in heaven who loves me. Yes, I'm responsible. I'm not saying we're not. I'm not trying to advocate irresponsibility. I'm just saying. But we recognize there's a God who loves us. He's in control of our lives, and he has our future. I can learn to trust him. I can learn to walk with him, and I can walk in surrender to his will. And you know what? He carries the burden.
[00:22:15] Amen. It's a lot different than trying to do it yourself.
[00:22:19] So people are placing themselves above God.
[00:22:22] You know what? Atheism, just the word A in Greek, no or none.
[00:22:30] No. Theism is God. Personal God, no God. Atheism is no God. When people say they're an atheist, what they're saying is no God. But listen, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
[00:22:44] See, that's what an atheist is. Now, Gerdhard Van Raitt wrote regarding the meaning of this term here in Psalm 14, One fool, when he says, the fool is not simply an imbecile, but a man who resists a truth that's presented itself to him in creation, who, for whatever reasons, did not trust in an order which would be beneficial for him, but which now turns against him.
[00:23:13] What's he saying? He's just basically saying this, that these people, instead of following the obvious trail that there's a created world that's created by an intelligent designer, they decide to turn away from that.
[00:23:26] And because of that, now, for whatever reason, and it's usually a moral reason, I don't find a lot of people, you know, that they make good, intelligent arguments. I think what the real reason is, I want to do my own thing.
[00:23:41] I don't want to be, because if there's a God, then he's my creator. If I have a creator, then I'm morally accountable to him and I just can't do what I personally want to do. And when you're in a state of sin, you don't want to comply to God, you're in a state of rebellion. You don't even realize it.
[00:23:59] So what does the Bible have to say about people who suppress the truth? Well, listen to what Romans has to say. Now Paul's picking up on this. He says the wrath of God, we sang about that. The anger of God towards humanity's sin. It's not that God hates people, but he hates the result of bad behavior or sinful behavior.
[00:24:20] He hates injustice, he hates abuse, he hates manipulation and violation. God hates all of that.
[00:24:28] He hates it when people become predators and are abusing other people. God hates that. That's injustice.
[00:24:36] It says the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven. Against all godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness suppresses truth.
[00:24:50] Since what may be known about God is plain to them. Now here's, this is amazing. The knowledge of God is plain to every human being. It says it right there.
[00:25:01] But since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them, how has God done that?
[00:25:12] For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that people are what they're without excuse. In other words, what people see, this material world is declaring there is a God.
[00:25:34] And God says because of that, when you don't believe in me, you're suppressing the truth because of your wickedness. And, and you don't have any excuse. And so every, you know, I always get this thing. Well, what happens when people don't hear the gospel, Pastor?
[00:25:48] God has made it known to them. There's a God.
[00:25:51] God has made it known to every person created on this planet. There is a God.
[00:25:57] And if you deny that, you're suppressing the truth.
[00:26:01] And one day when you stand before him, you'll have no excuse.
[00:26:06] I hear all the, you know, I've never seen a time in my entire life when there's so many excuses.
[00:26:14] It just amazes me. Everybody's got an excuse.
[00:26:18] And I keep thinking to myself, you know, if you want to live in an excuse filled world, and you want to live in a world where you're not responsible for yourself in your behavior, you're going to always be a victim.
[00:26:31] We live in a victim filled society.
[00:26:35] Everybody's a victim today. And if you're not one, you imagine you are.
[00:26:39] You create one, you create a case for yourself. I'm just a victim. It's not my fault, you know, and I can always find somebody to blame my problems on. It's never me, right?
[00:26:51] And I'm going to tell you something, if that's your attitude, you'll never be free. You'll live the victim filled life all the rest of your days.
[00:26:59] And the moment you finally say, you know what, I'm going to stop blaming people. I'm going to take a hard look at myself. We're going to do that in a minute, take a hard look at myself and say, what needs to change in me is the day freedom is going to come into your life. You're finally taking responsibility and you're going to move past being a victim.
[00:27:15] You're saying, well, you're minimizing, Pastor, the abuse or the difficulty I've experienced. No, I'm not.
[00:27:20] But I can't let those things define my life.
[00:27:23] I have to move past that stuff. I need to experience the grace of God in my soul and I need to experience God's forgiveness and then allow that forgiveness to move through my life to others, even though they don't deserve it. Because neither do I deserve it from God.
[00:27:38] Thomas Schreider says the knowledge of God is described is hardly a saving knowledge. Here Paul's purpose is to show that the knowledge of God that all people have, through observing the created order, is suppressed, distorted, so that without exception, no excuse, Paul is saying that God has declared his existence by what is seen. Alvin Plantinka, who's a Catholic writer, but he's written a lot in this area, he says this in response to people who reject God is the primary source of creation.
[00:28:11] He's quoting from Daniel Dennett. We've already quoted him. He's a God that's, you know, he's written off people like us. He maintains that this whole process, the process of descent with modification driven by natural selection, winnowing, random genetic mutation, in other words, you know, we're getting better because we're getting rid of all the mutations in our bodies. I don't know about that. It's not directed or guided or overseen by any intelligent agent. In other words, this is all happening randomly. No intelligent design.
[00:28:41] The whole process has happened without the Aid of God or anyone or anything at all like God. Can you tell this person is anti God.
[00:28:51] He goes on to say an impersonal, unreflective, robotic, mindless little scrap of manecular machinery is the ultimate basis of all the agency and hence meaning and hence consciousness in the universe. That's Dennett's position.
[00:29:07] Isn't that interesting? Okay, this is all random, guys, you know.
[00:29:12] In response to Dennett, Plantinka argues against this random idea of how life came to be. He said life itself originated just by the way of the regularities of physics and chemistry through a sort of natural selection.
[00:29:27] An undirected natural selection has produced language in mind, including our artistic, moral, religious and intellectual proclivities.
[00:29:35] Now, many atheists and others have found these claims at least extremely doubtful. Some have found them preposterous.
[00:29:43] Is it really so much as possible that language, say, or consciousness or the ability to compose great music or to think up the idea of natural selection should have been produced by a mindless process of this sort? This is an ambitious claim. That mind and life in all of its variety have come to be. This unguided fashion is of course inconsistent with Christian belief as well as other kinds of theistic belief. The theist is a person that believes that there's a personal God. For according to Christians and other theists, God has designed and created the world. He intended that I take a certain form and then caused it to take that form. In other words, God created it according to his will. He created it with a certain design in mind. God has a plan, folks.
[00:30:30] This isn't all random, you know. There was a beginning and there's going to be a conclusion. I don't know if you know this, but read the Bible from beginning to end, you're going to find that out that God started something. There was a problem that originated. God had a plan to fix the problem. At the very end of the book, you're going to see the full restoration of all humanity and creation. It's just the nature of what God's doing. He's redeeming this world. Now some people decide to opt out of God's plan, which is tragic. This is what I'm trying to get at.
[00:31:02] We now come to one of the most important elements of God's creation, the sun.
[00:31:07] Psalm 19. In the heavens, God's pitched a tent for the sun.
[00:31:11] It's like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other, nothing is deprived of its warmth. Now, how many recognize that Psalm 19 is poetry? Does anybody know that? That's part of its literary genre. I think that's important to understand.
[00:31:33] You say, well, why is that? Because poetry uses symbols to communicate abstract ideas that we need to know. Our sun is actually. We know scientifically it's a star, right?
[00:31:45] And we're part of a certain cosmos, and it brings light and warmth to our planet. I mean, if we were any closer to the sun, we'd burn up a little further away, we'd freeze up. I mean, it's just in the perfect location. I wonder how that happened. Must have been random. Okay, never mind.
[00:32:01] I just could not, you know, I got to stick that in there.
[00:32:04] As our planet is rotating around the sun, we have a sun that the sun is rising and setting. But we already know it's the earth that's going around the sun and the earth is rotating. So then we get day and night. That's how it happens. That's the scientific explanation. But now we're getting poetry here. We need to know that.
[00:32:22] So the psalmist is showing the relationship of how our spiritual lives are sustained by God's word, like the sun, which brings light, which illuminates and life to our world. How many? We couldn't survive without the sun.
[00:32:34] So the word of God brings the same to our soul.
[00:32:38] The sun is described like a bridegroom, which in the ancient world was eagerly awaited by the bridal party. It was the bridegroom that came, you know, Then it says, as the sun is seen coming from its place, impacting all who are exposed to its warmth. The point is that through the created world that God design, it calls attention to his existence.
[00:33:02] However, to know God, we need more than just what we call a general revelation. You know, creation, you know, remember, it says, it's not using language. It's just communicating existence, that there's a God that exists. But how do we know this God? How can we, you know, if God is a personal God and he's creating persons, how does persons get to know the personal God? Now I can look at the Creator in the world and say, wow, this is really neat. As I study this, you know, would to God. We have good Christians studying, you know, science and all the rest of it and going, wow, look at all the amazing things that are going on. It really points to a creator. But how do we get to know him on a personal level? Well, Psalm 19 continues on, and that's point number two. The second means by which God reveals himself to us is through his word.
[00:33:51] While the created world is a general revelation, as I've said, the Bible is a special revelation.
[00:33:59] It's personal.
[00:34:00] We're immediately shown the importance of God's message to us. Look at verse seven. I love this. The law of the Lord is perfect. What does it do? Refresh the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to his eyes.
[00:34:20] The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold. They're sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. So here it's described for us the value of God's word in our life. You know, how many know the word of God is flawless?
[00:34:44] It's amazing. You know, I've studied this book. Book now for over five decades, and I am shocked at how incredible this book is.
[00:34:53] You know what people, you know, most people that say, well, I don't believe the Bible. First question out of my mouth. Ever read it?
[00:35:02] No. Well, then don't say. You don't even know what's in it.
[00:35:06] You have no idea what you're talking about. You know, I think a lot of people are making all kinds of excuses again. Okay, it's perfect.
[00:35:14] You know what it does? When you follow it through, it'll bring refreshment to your soul.
[00:35:20] Do you know in the darkest hours, it's the word of God that's going to help get you through?
[00:35:26] It's the word of God. I'll tell you that. It gives wisdom. It's trustworthy. It gives guidance, it instructs. You know what I've discovered recently? I said to Patty the other day, I said, you know what the problem is in our society today? People lack guidance.
[00:35:39] We're growing up in broken homes. A lot of people don't know what to do. I sat down for 90 minutes this week, spent 90 minutes with a beautiful young couple. They said, pastor, we're really struggling with parenting.
[00:35:50] Can you explain to us what we need to do? And we just had a beautiful conversation. When we got done, they said, man, did this ever help us. It's going to even help us in our marriage. Because there was tensions there.
[00:36:03] They just didn't know what to do. And I said to myself, lack of guidance. People need more guidance today. But I'm going to tell you something.
[00:36:10] God can guide you. Right here in this book. You spend time here, you're going to get a lot of guidance.
[00:36:16] The value of God's word is worth more than all the money in the world.
[00:36:22] This is better than being rich.
[00:36:24] You'll feel rich when you get in. Let the word of God dwell in you richly. You'll feel rich. But you know this Word is leading you to a person.
[00:36:32] That's what's so important.
[00:36:35] How many know that? If you're only reading words, that's not enough. You have to come to the person of the Bible and listen to what the book of Hebrews tells us. Here it says, in the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the universe. Who made the universe?
[00:36:59] Well, God did.
[00:37:01] All parts of God. The three parts, the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Son is there creating the world. The Son is the radiance of God's glory. The exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful Word. You know, I don't freak out. Why? Because God's sustaining our world?
[00:37:19] You know, my confidence isn't what people are doing. My confidence is what Christ is doing.
[00:37:24] He's overruling a lot of things, folks, believe it or not. I believe it. He's provided purifications for our sins. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. Jesus is the Word of God. If we don't come to know him, then it's just another book Jesus told the religious leaders of his day. You know, you guys think you know the Bible. Listen what John, chapter 5, verse 39 says. You studied the Scriptures diligently because you think in them you have eternal life.
[00:37:49] These are the very scriptures that testify about me. Jesus is talking here, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.
[00:37:57] Life is not found in an intellectual exercise. Life is not found in just studying the Bible. Life is found when you come to the person of the book. Christ himself. And this is Christ now speaking to us. It's the Word of God speaking into our lives.
[00:38:14] Listen, John says it this way. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God.
[00:38:22] He was with God in the beginning.
[00:38:25] Through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made.
[00:38:30] He's our Creator. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That's Jesus.
[00:38:37] God becomes a man.
[00:38:39] We have seen his glory. The glory of the One and only son who came from the Father, full of glory, grace and truth. C.S. lewis reminds us it is Christ himself, not the Bible, who is the true word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring you to Christ, will bring you to him. That's what needs to happen. So with this in mind, as we look at God's word, what we need to remind ourselves is that Christ wants to reveal himself to us.
[00:39:06] Peter Craig he says, for the heavens, declare the glory of God, but it's the law that declares the will of God for mankind, the creature.
[00:39:13] What am I supposed to do, Pastor? The will of God. Why am I here? To bring glory to God? What should I be doing? God will reveal it to you. As you begin to obey God's word, God will direct your steps.
[00:39:26] It's really an amazing thing. And pretty soon God will be leading you and you'll be looking back. You see, I think it's hard when you're looking forward. Up ahead you go, I don't know really where I'm going. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. How many know they had little shoes on with little lights on their shoes? Here they were walking down the road, they could see where they were going. God's not going to show you, you know, 10 years up in advance.
[00:39:48] He's going to show you a step at a time. That's all he's going to show you. Because you and I are walking by faith. You know, God's not going to reveal to you your future. You know, what people want. They want absolute security. And I'm going to tell you, it's not found in you controlling things. And that's what most people are trying to do. It's found in you and I releasing that level of control and trusting God absolutely and allowing him to lead you day by day and step by step. And then when you look backwards, see, I can look from the vantage point back there when I was 21, when I gave my life to Christ. Now I'm looking back over 50 years and I'm going, wow, look at the way God led.
[00:40:26] I had no idea. I was just trying to be obedient every step of the way. And then I look back and I go, look at all the things, all the opportunities and all the things that God brought into my life. I would have never guessed in a million years that was going to happen. No, you walk with him day by day and step by step, you get to know him.
[00:40:43] Peter Craigie says, just as the sun can Be both welcome and giving warmth and terrifying in its unrelenting heat. Anybody experience that? Yesterday I was working in the yard. I'll tell you something. Wow, that was hot.
[00:40:55] You know, you spent five years doing yard work in that heat. You'll find out it's unrelenting.
[00:41:02] You know, so too, the Torah can bring life imparting, but also scorching, testing and purifying. How many have experienced walking with God? It's not just always a warm fuzzy. Anybody found that out?
[00:41:14] Anybody gone through a few trials? Anybody have purifying moments in your life? Ever been corrected? You ever had God chasing you? You ever gone through a time when you were just like, I don't know what's going on here? My life doesn't even make sense. Where's God in all of this mess?
[00:41:29] God's just going, oh, I'm just taking you through a purifying time. Well, thank you, Lord. You know, I've gone through seasons in my life where I said, hey, God, what's going on here? And I mean, where my life feels like it's going in reverse.
[00:41:41] I thought we were supposed to going forward. I feel like I'm going backwards.
[00:41:44] God says, no, I'm taking you through something. I'm going, am I the problem? He goes, no, you're not even the issue right now. I'm developing something inside of you. What are you developing in me, Lord?
[00:41:53] Patience. Oh, anybody here need patience?
[00:41:59] Okay, how about endurance?
[00:42:01] I see a lot of Christians, you know, they started out running the race, they're doing so good. Pretty soon, where did they go? Where are they? Where are these guys?
[00:42:08] No endurance. They're not able to have any hardship come into their life. They just kind of come unglued and fall apart.
[00:42:15] Hey, the Bible says, they that endure till the end shall be saved. So I'm just running along here. I'm just keeping my rate going. I'm going, I'm running with God, man. What's going on, God? I don't know. I'm just trusting you, Lord. It's not making any sense to me, but I'm just going to keep trusting you. And eventually you come out of it and you go, man, look at the good that it came out of it. God changed me. My character got refined, my thinking got refined. Sometimes you have stinking thinking, you know, how do you get rid of it? You know, a little pressure in your life. I'll get rid of that attitude.
[00:42:48] Right?
[00:42:49] Put a little squeeze on. Yeah, Then it goes on. The effect of God's word, it Says by them is your servant warned. Anybody need warnings once in a while?
[00:43:01] I'm going to say something to you. I am so thankful. I'm a minister.
[00:43:04] You say what you know. I'm so thankful that I've just diligently studied God's word day and night. I'll tell you why. I would have made a whole bunch of stupid mistakes.
[00:43:15] I'm being honest. I am not the brightest knife in the shelf.
[00:43:19] I would have done some really dumb stuff, but the word of God warned me. You ever have God's word warn you?
[00:43:27] I'm studying this stuff and I'm looking at it and it's looking right back at me and I'm going, okay, I get it.
[00:43:33] You see, to be a preacher you have to have these messages preached at you.
[00:43:38] Boy, that's heart searching stuff, you know. What are you going to do about this?
[00:43:43] Yeah.
[00:43:44] It says in keeping them there's great reward. I'm going to testify. God has warned me. God has rewarded me. But who can discern his errors? I certainly can't. I'm going to say something to you. Some of the stuff in your life you can't even see it's true. We'll get to that. Forgive my hidden faults. What are hidden faults? Those are the things I do every day that I'm sinning against God and somebody else. I'm not even aware of it.
[00:44:08] That's shocking, isn't it?
[00:44:10] Keep your servant also from willful sins. How about that? I know better, but I do it anyways. Anybody do that prayer? Keep me from willful sins. May they not rule over me. God, don't let these things become so dominant in my life that I become an addict to these sins. I'm addicted now. How many people are battling with addictions today? This is what he's talking about. Don't let them rule over me, Lord.
[00:44:34] Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my rock, my God, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
[00:44:48] Now I know this is psychology, but it really lends itself exactly to what the psalmist is writing about. And so I have this diagram called the Johari Window. I've said this before in the church, but I'll say it again.
[00:45:01] This was developed in 1955 by two psychologists, Joseph Luff and Harrison Ingram. And they took parts of their name and they made this thing called the Johari Window. It's based on their names. How's that and what it is is it's a little window into our lives. So here's how it comes across, and I'm closing with this illustration.
[00:45:22] There's things that are known to myself that are known to other people. We share that knowledge.
[00:45:28] That's one quadrant. Then there's things not known to myself, but they're known to you. Those are the blind spots in my life.
[00:45:36] You know, you and I have blind spots, and sometimes your spouse points them out to you and you go, what are you talking about?
[00:45:43] I don't see that it's a blind spot. Okay, Then there's things not known to other people, but it's just known to yourself. Right.
[00:45:51] That's the only person that knows is you. You and God, the only people that know this.
[00:45:56] Nobody else knows this stuff.
[00:45:58] And then there's the fourth quadrant.
[00:46:01] What's not known to anybody else. And it's not even known to me, but to God alone.
[00:46:07] So I look at this graft and I go, wow, half of this stuff I don't even know myself.
[00:46:14] So everybody in this room may think that, well, I'm doing great, Pastor. Yeah, but there's things in your life you don't know about.
[00:46:21] Did you know that? Blind spots and then there's stuff that just are hidden.
[00:46:26] I think sometimes in our lives we do dumb things because we don't even know why. You ask somebody, why did you do that? I don't even know why I did that.
[00:46:34] It's like an iceberg. It's under the water. It's there.
[00:46:39] And every once in a while, if you ever listen to some scary prayers, search me, O God, and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me into the way everlasting. You know, sometimes God will reveal to you what's messed up inside of you, and it's usually through failure.
[00:46:53] Anybody have that experience besides the pastor? Anybody else get that experience? Okay, that's embarrassing. I didn't even know I had that.
[00:47:01] God had to show that to me.
[00:47:03] So the psalmist is telling us that God reveals himself to us not only through our created world, but also through his Word.
[00:47:11] He can only reveal the true condition. He alone can only reveal the true condition of our soul. How many believe that? I believe that he's the only one. I don't even think we fully understand ourselves and why we do what we do.
[00:47:25] There's a power and principle at work within us, a sin nature that can destroy us and those we love. Only God's love and power is able to reveal and deal with our sin, as he said, who then can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep us, O Lord, from willful sins, and may they not rule over us.
[00:47:43] So here's what I'm going to have us do. We're going to stand and we're going to close in prayer this morning.
[00:47:48] And I don't want you to leave on a negative note. I'm going to leave on a positive note. You say, well, what's the positive note, Pastor? Well, the positive note is real simple. I'm going to entrust all this stuff to God.
[00:48:00] I'm going to say, God, I'm just going to give you myself fully and completely. I'm going to just open myself up to you and say, you know what?
[00:48:07] I am so glad I did this. So long ago. It was so beautiful. I knelt down here when I came back, you know, I've been here before. 10 years. Then I was gone for a little bit. Now I've been back, what, 28 years? Long time, I think. Yeah, 28 years.
[00:48:21] I knelt down right there at that pew and I just said, lord, you're the pastor. I'm just your servant.
[00:48:31] Our church has gone through a terrible time. I don't know what to do from this day forward, I'm going to let you lead our church.
[00:48:39] You just tell me what to do, I'll go do it.
[00:48:41] I'm not in control.
[00:48:43] I'm not going to. I don't have an agenda here. I don't have an ax to grind. I have nothing here. I want you to do your will.
[00:48:50] I want you right now to be honest with yourself and say, you know what, I'm trying to control things.
[00:48:56] I have a lot of anxiety in my life.
[00:48:59] I really don't know how to trust God properly.
[00:49:03] But I want to. I want to surrender anew and afresh.
[00:49:07] I think I'm understanding now. There's a lot more of my life than I realize.
[00:49:12] My life is far more complex than I think it is.
[00:49:16] You're far more complicated than you realize.
[00:49:20] Only one person really knows you. It's not your spouse. They think they do, but. But it's not your spouse. It's God. He's the only one.
[00:49:28] You don't even know yourself fully.
[00:49:32] And, you know, sometimes we think, well, I could never do this thing. Don't be fooled.
[00:49:37] I've read so much history. I've seen people turn on a dime. I go, where did that come from? They didn't even know.
[00:49:44] I think we need God's help to live, become the kind of men and women God wants us to become. We need God's help.
[00:49:52] And I want to give you the good news. He's the most compassionate, the most loving.
[00:49:58] I was reading this morning. It says my throne is built on a foundation of justice and righteousness.
[00:50:04] Wow. God says I do everything right.
[00:50:07] Do you believe God does everything right? I do.
[00:50:10] I think God is the best person to trust.
[00:50:14] I trust him above. I trust. I don't even trust myself at times. I just trust God. God.
[00:50:19] It's beyond my capability. Lord, you know God.
[00:50:25] You want to know what humility really is? It's total dependency on God.
[00:50:30] It's not walking around saying, I'm a worm. It's walking around saying, I totally dependent on you. I don't trust myself. I trust you.
[00:50:38] You know me better than I know myself. You know exactly what you want to do with me, and I'm going to yield to that.
[00:50:45] It's pretty freeing.
[00:50:47] I don't walk around stressed. I'm not living in fear and anxiety because I'm trusting God.
[00:50:54] He's my hope. He's my refuge. He's my strength. He's my wisdom. Every morning I remind him of. I say, God, you're all to me.
[00:51:01] You're the most important person in my life. There's no one greater than you.
[00:51:05] You're way beyond me. You're way smarter than I am.
[00:51:09] Why wouldn't I listen to you every day?
[00:51:12] Why wouldn't I do what you're asking me to do? Isn't this a great invitation? Why don't you just say, lord, I'm just going to come to you just as I am? I know we're all a whole bunch of Christians here, but let's face it, a lot of us are trying to manage our own lives and we're struggling.
[00:51:26] I want to help you out this morning.
[00:51:29] I want you to lay that stuff down.
[00:51:31] I want you to open your soul to God. This morning, say, lord, I'm inviting you.
[00:51:35] I'm inviting you to come in. You can search me. You can deal with me. You can do what you want with me.
[00:51:41] I'm okay with that.
[00:51:43] I trust you because I know that you're the most loving, kind, compassionate.
[00:51:49] You're the one that created me. You designed me for a purpose.
[00:51:53] I'm embracing this.
[00:51:55] I'm going to start resting in your grace. I'm going to embrace the work of your spirit. Where I have been wrong, I admit that to you, Lord, you know I don't have it all together.
[00:52:06] Just think of all the judgments we make on one another. Just how many times we're wrong, but we don't see it. We think we're right all the time. Hey, we're not right all the time.
[00:52:17] We don't know the whole story. God does so with every head bowed. How many? Just say. Just lifting your hand, say lord. Okay, I'm just turning myself completely over.
[00:52:28] You're running and ruling my life. You're the king of my life. I'm just turning it over. You can do what you want. That's fine with me. I'm not going to be afraid of you.
[00:52:36] I'm not going to be afraid that you're going to put me through a gauntlet that I can't survive. Of course you're not going to do that. I'm your child.
[00:52:42] You know, we just had a new grandson.
[00:52:45] What are we doing? We're doing everything we can to help sustain life for him.
[00:52:49] We want just the best for that child.
[00:52:53] We have an absolute love for them, folks. God loves that child more than we do. God loves you more than you love yourself. God loves you more than any other person.
[00:53:06] Let's just trust him today. With every disappointment, a lot of times you go, I don't understand why you did this, Lord. That's fine. I'm going to trust you.
[00:53:16] Work out your good in my life.
[00:53:19] I believe your word. I believe that all things work together for good, even though I don't.
[00:53:24] Sometimes it seems muddled to me, but I'm just not smart enough to handle all the muddledness.
[00:53:30] I'm just going to trust you.
[00:53:33] That's what we're doing. We're surrendering to you today. We know that you're our maker. We know we're accountable to you. But now we just give ourselves fully to you. We're resting in your love and grace and mercy and kindness. Lord, we thank you that we've entrusted our lives, our faith, families, our hopes, our dreams, our fears. We're entrusting our anxieties. We're entrusting it all to youo today.
[00:53:57] Because, Lord, you're our redeemer.
[00:54:01] You're our Savior.
[00:54:03] We thank youk for that. In Jesus name, Amen. God bless you as you leave.
