1 00:00:01,560 --> 00:00:04,040 Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Englewood 2 00:00:04,040 --> 00:00:05,920 Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina. 3 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:08,119 Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast. 4 00:00:08,360 --> 00:00:11,320 You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word 5 00:00:11,560 --> 00:00:15,120 about important issues facing your life that can guide you 6 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:21,120 according to the Bible. So I want to welcome everybody 7 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:23,120 for being here tonight. I also want to welcome those who 8 00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:25,600 are listening online. I appreciate those who do that 9 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:28,360 and, and also share this with others. 10 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:31,360 I keep hearing, let me just let me do 1 little infomercial. 11 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:34,520 I appreciate those who've been listening to the core training 12 00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:36,760 time together. This is just a continuation of 13 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:39,080 that. Even though we're moving on to a 14 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:40,760 different subject, which probably should have been the 15 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:43,480 first subject. We've rearranged some schedule 16 00:00:43,480 --> 00:00:46,400 just because we felt like we needed to continue to talk about 17 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:48,440 a few things. But also just want to mention 18 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:50,720 this, and I want everybody listening online to this too, 19 00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:54,520 that our, our Inglewood choir has put together a new worship 20 00:00:54,520 --> 00:00:58,880 CD and you can download that and, or buy the CD. 21 00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:01,760 And so I hope that you'll come by our bookstore at the church 22 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:05,120 and, and look for a way to get that, especially on Sunday 23 00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:07,160 mornings. And I know that they would 24 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:09,920 appreciate you doing that and also look forward to the 25 00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:13,040 opportunity of guiding you in worship. 26 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:15,240 For those who've been listening to other podcasts that we're 27 00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:16,720 doing, I hope you'll continue to do that. 28 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:20,520 We just recorded another one in Walking in Prayer on spiritual 29 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:22,920 warfare that'll be posted here soon. 30 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:26,640 And so we have about eight of those walking in prayer podcast 31 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:29,640 now that are designed primarily, I mean, for you while you're 32 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:32,680 walking or driving, but you can use them in your personal quiet 33 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:34,240 time as well. So I hope that you're listening 34 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:36,040 to all that. But tonight we're going to get 35 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:37,960 into a really what I call the bedrock. 36 00:01:37,960 --> 00:01:40,960 This is our bedrock. This is not only a primary 37 00:01:40,960 --> 00:01:43,480 doctor and it's the primary of primary doctrines. 38 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:46,240 And here's what we're going to do in this session. 39 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:49,400 I want to talk about the existence of God and some of the 40 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:52,760 arguments for or against the existence of God because in our 41 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:55,840 culture today, we need to have some awareness of those 42 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:59,680 conversations as well as we need to be secure in our own belief. 43 00:02:00,520 --> 00:02:04,000 And then I want in the next week or so or next time together, I'm 44 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:06,400 going to talk some about some of the characteristics and 45 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:08,160 attributes of God. We'll talk about some of the 46 00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:10,600 names of God. Sometimes that's confusing in 47 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:12,560 Bible study and you may not always know this. 48 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:15,720 Some of you've known this for a long time that in the Old 49 00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:19,720 Testament, especially when you see different words used for for 50 00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:22,280 God and, or if they're capitalized or not, they 51 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:24,640 actually refer to different Hebrew names. 52 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:28,040 And so I'll, we'll walk through some of that, but but also some 53 00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:29,800 of the attributes and characteristics of God. 54 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:33,120 But then we need to spend probably more than one session 55 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:36,720 on the Trinity. This is an issue that is often 56 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:38,680 hard to understand. There's some good questions that 57 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:41,120 were raised by some of you for that. 58 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:42,800 So we want to make sure that we do that. 59 00:02:43,400 --> 00:02:47,000 It's also a topic in evangelism and conversations with people 60 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,240 that are often, it's often hard to understand. 61 00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:53,320 There are people in our world, in our culture who are anti 62 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:57,200 Trinitarian and we need to understand what what we believe 63 00:02:57,200 --> 00:02:58,880 about the Trinity. And sometimes that can be a 64 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:01,680 little confusing because it actually is larger than our 65 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:04,600 brains will contain. But we're going to do our best 66 00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:07,040 to understand what we can about that. 67 00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:09,960 And so I appreciate that, you know, we we need truth. 68 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:13,080 I was reminded of supposedly a true story. 69 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:14,640 Now that I notice what I just said. 70 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:19,880 So I cannot I am making no claim, but supposedly this was a 71 00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:21,520 true story. Some of you may have heard this 72 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:25,240 story. A cake decorator was asked to 73 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:29,560 inscribe first John 418 on a wedding cake. 74 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:35,000 And 1st John 418 says this. There is No Fear in love. 75 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:37,360 That perfect love casteth out fear. 76 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:42,320 So that was going to be on a wedding cake, but the Baker 77 00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:46,120 misread the reference. And when the cake arrived at the 78 00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:51,200 wedding reception, it was John 418, not first John 418, but 79 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:56,600 John 418 on the cake. And John 418, which had been 80 00:03:56,600 --> 00:04:00,240 inscribed, says this. For thou has had five husbands, 81 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:03,240 and he whom thou has now is not thy husband. 82 00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:11,880 That's supposedly a true story. Now I will neither verify nor 83 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:14,160 deny, but that's supposedly a true story. 84 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:19,040 But we need truth. So at it's very root theology, 85 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:22,400 if you break the word down, is the study of who, the study of 86 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:26,680 God, theos God. And so at it's very root we're 87 00:04:26,760 --> 00:04:29,640 we're here to study God. And for us, we want biblical 88 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:32,360 theology because the word theology in general could be 89 00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:36,360 used to study other gods. And so we want to study biblical 90 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:38,480 theology. And even more specifically, we 91 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:42,240 need applied biblical theology. So not only what do we know 92 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:44,440 about this, but how does this make a difference in my life? 93 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:47,600 You know, how So what, so to speak, how do I answer the So 94 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:50,640 what questions? And so why do we need to do 95 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:52,320 this? Well, we, we've studied the 96 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:56,120 Bible and I did a session on the biblical authority that we need 97 00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:57,680 to look at. And if you missed that one, you 98 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:00,120 need to go back and look at it because it is foundational. 99 00:05:00,760 --> 00:05:02,560 But we also need to study the author. 100 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:04,560 And so we're going to be talking about that. 101 00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:06,840 We talked a little bit about the Holy Spirit in a previous time 102 00:05:06,840 --> 00:05:10,760 and we're going to come back to him later in the Trinitarian 103 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:13,640 conversation. But, but here he is because God 104 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:17,800 is the central point from from which the whole framework of 105 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:23,520 belief hubs out and, and rests. In fact, a Methodist theologian 106 00:05:23,840 --> 00:05:26,200 said this. He said that God is not one of 107 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:28,160 our religious beliefs. He is the belief. 108 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:31,160 He's not one doctor and he's the heart of all doctrine. 109 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:36,400 And so we need to be certain about how we are articulating 110 00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:38,640 who God is. I've said to you before in 111 00:05:38,640 --> 00:05:41,680 previous times that when when we start talking about how to share 112 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:44,920 the gospel, which we will together, and we start talking 113 00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:49,880 about gospel presentations in our culture here to begin with, 114 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:54,680 God says or God said, it can often be confusing to people. 115 00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:57,080 So which God, what God do you mean? 116 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:00,720 What do you mean by God? Or if we say the Bible said, 117 00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:02,800 then they're going to say, why should I care what the Bible 118 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:04,440 says? Because of their perspective. 119 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:07,920 And so we need to have a framework and a foundation of 120 00:06:07,920 --> 00:06:11,520 bedrock, so to speak, of what we believe about God, who God is, 121 00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:14,360 and why do we believe God is real? 122 00:06:14,360 --> 00:06:16,600 Why do we believe he exists? So we're going to talk about 123 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:18,520 that a little bit. Some of this gets quite 124 00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:20,240 complicated to be honest with you. 125 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:24,160 And again, should be probably a 10 week study in and of itself. 126 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:26,720 And so we're going to see what we can do here in about an hour, 127 00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:28,600 but but to see what we can do with this. 128 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:31,360 And so we need to talk about the existence of God for a minute 129 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:33,520 because there've been many challengers, as you can imagine, 130 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:36,920 throughout church history and throughout even prior prior to 131 00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:39,880 church history who challenged the idea. 132 00:06:40,280 --> 00:06:43,600 I'm going to assume that all of us in this room believe that may 133 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:46,840 not be true. I certainly pray that's true 134 00:06:46,840 --> 00:06:49,800 that for those who are attending church on a regular basis that 135 00:06:49,800 --> 00:06:53,720 we have a basic belief in God. And and and that's part of the 136 00:06:53,720 --> 00:06:56,840 issue, frankly, because that's also what the biblical writers 137 00:06:56,840 --> 00:06:59,040 did. And so one of the things that 138 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:03,800 you don't find really in Scripture is a formal argument 139 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:07,280 for the existence of God. They assumed God existed when 140 00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:10,400 they were writing. And so you don't see them 141 00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:13,400 articulating it, it in some formal way. 142 00:07:13,400 --> 00:07:16,480 You know this, that you shall believe God exists because 143 00:07:16,480 --> 00:07:18,640 although there are some passages and we'll look at those 144 00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:22,960 together, but Hebrews 11/6 reminds us of this. 145 00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:25,640 And without faith it is impossible to please him. 146 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:29,760 For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists 147 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:32,560 and that he rewards those who seek him. 148 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:35,960 So I, I begin this whole conversation, and you would have 149 00:07:35,960 --> 00:07:39,080 to begin that conversation with that lost person, atheist, 150 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:42,120 agnostic, humanist, or whoever might be denying the existence 151 00:07:42,120 --> 00:07:44,840 of God, that this is a faith issue. 152 00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:47,440 And it is a faith issue. But there's more that we can add 153 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:50,160 to it, and we want to be able to do that. 154 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:53,040 So let's do that tonight. So there have been many of those 155 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:55,240 over the years who've declared that God was dead. 156 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:58,400 I remember a few decades ago there were there were media 157 00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:00,840 presentations on the fact that God is dead. 158 00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:06,320 And I said then and I say now that that those misconceptions 159 00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:08,680 were a big mistake. And many of them since then have 160 00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:11,720 found out the true reality because they've passed away. 161 00:08:12,280 --> 00:08:15,400 And I promise you, people who have died believe in God. 162 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:20,320 But the psalmist wrote in more than one place. 163 00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:23,640 It's interesting whenever the Bible repeats itself. 164 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:26,920 And this is one of those cases because it's so important that 165 00:08:26,920 --> 00:08:29,120 it does. And so the psalmist wrote in 166 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:32,880 more than one place. We'll see. 2IN Psalm 14, one it 167 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:36,559 says, the fool says in his heart there is no God. 168 00:08:37,159 --> 00:08:40,840 They are corrupt. They do abominable deeds. 169 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:44,480 There is none who does good. This is kind of the basis for 170 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:47,000 you where you get some of these ideas that there's none of us 171 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:48,200 who are good. No, not one. 172 00:08:48,880 --> 00:08:52,960 But this was so important that in Psalm 53, verse one, it's 173 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:56,080 almost identical. He says, the full says in his 174 00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:59,600 heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, doing 175 00:08:59,600 --> 00:09:03,520 abominable iniquity. There is none who does good. 176 00:09:04,680 --> 00:09:08,000 And so as the Holy Spirit was inspiring this revelation to the 177 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:10,200 psalmist, it was really significant that they pointed 178 00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:13,360 this out more than once, that when we speak of God, we're not 179 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:15,120 just talking about some distant concept. 180 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:16,800 That's not who we believe God is. 181 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:20,360 As believers and as Christians, we we actually are talking to a 182 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:23,560 being, a real being with whom we have a relationship, a real 183 00:09:23,560 --> 00:09:25,600 relationship. So this is a very intimate, 184 00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:28,680 personal thing for us in our walk with God. 185 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:35,000 But the teachings about God or the gods is central to any and 186 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:39,160 all religions, which is why we recognize that there are 187 00:09:39,160 --> 00:09:43,480 hundreds of false religions in the world who have their own 188 00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:46,120 gods and their evidence of the way. 189 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:49,840 Sinful people without the guidance of an authority like 190 00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:54,440 scripture will always misunderstand and distort the 191 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:58,760 revelation from God. And, and because God is infinite 192 00:09:58,760 --> 00:10:01,760 and we are finite, it's also difficult for us to ever fully 193 00:10:01,760 --> 00:10:04,640 understand God. So even though we believe in him 194 00:10:04,640 --> 00:10:08,040 and we have a relationship with him, we really don't understand 195 00:10:08,040 --> 00:10:10,840 him that well. There's much about God that is 196 00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:13,040 beyond us. And that's not a guess. 197 00:10:13,040 --> 00:10:17,600 The Bible tells us that. And so Psalm 145 verse 3 says 198 00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:21,560 great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is 199 00:10:21,960 --> 00:10:24,960 unsearchable. There's no limit to it. 200 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:29,040 We, we're so finite in our ability to think and God is 201 00:10:29,040 --> 00:10:32,160 infinite and eternal. And those are words that are 202 00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:35,480 hard for us in our current timeline, in our current space 203 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:39,120 to to think through very well, which is part of the problem. 204 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:42,560 So part of the reason and some people don't believe in God is 205 00:10:42,560 --> 00:10:45,080 because they can't handle the idea of eternity. 206 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:47,400 They cannot handle the idea of infinite. 207 00:10:47,640 --> 00:10:50,640 They can't even handle the idea much of somebody greater than 208 00:10:50,640 --> 00:10:53,440 themselves. And so it becomes a burden for 209 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:55,480 them. The psalmist also write, it 210 00:10:55,480 --> 00:10:59,280 wrote in Psalm 139. He says, such knowledge is too 211 00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:00,880 wonderful for me. It is high. 212 00:11:00,880 --> 00:11:04,600 I cannot attain it. So there are things about God 213 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:06,920 that we don't know. There are things about God we 214 00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:09,000 don't understand. There are things about God our 215 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:12,160 little brains can't handle yet. And so it's interesting. 216 00:11:12,160 --> 00:11:15,680 And he goes on in that chapter to say, how precious to me are 217 00:11:15,680 --> 00:11:18,680 your thoughts. Oh God, how vast is the sum of 218 00:11:18,680 --> 00:11:21,600 them. And then Paul wrote to Rome in 219 00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:25,120 in Romans Chapter 11. He said, Oh, the depth of the 220 00:11:25,120 --> 00:11:30,160 riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his 221 00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:33,560 judgments and how inscrutable his ways. 222 00:11:34,960 --> 00:11:38,200 Therefore, before we really enter into discussion that I'll 223 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:41,120 do probably in the next session or so about some of the divine 224 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:44,480 qualities and attributes of God. We want to, we want to bring him 225 00:11:44,480 --> 00:11:48,080 that glory and it'll be, it'll be a fun lesson in time for us 226 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:49,680 to be together to bring in that praise. 227 00:11:50,080 --> 00:11:54,160 But we need to deal with some prior considerations, including 228 00:11:54,160 --> 00:11:56,880 his existence in our day and time. 229 00:11:56,880 --> 00:12:01,720 This demands our attention and, and we need to pay attention to 230 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:04,840 it so that we're equipped apologetically to deal with this 231 00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:06,600 world out there. But also I need to know 232 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:08,840 obviously what I believe and why. 233 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:12,880 And there's a difference between knowing God and understanding 234 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:14,440 God. Those things are not equal 235 00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:20,320 because of who He is and who we are and who we are not. 236 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:25,280 And so we know God based upon His revelation to us. 237 00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:28,280 Most of that we would consider would be the Bible. 238 00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:32,160 We know God because of the revelation that He has given us 239 00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:34,640 to understand those aspects of who He is. 240 00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:39,840 And so He gives us His word to help us understand Him, as well 241 00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:42,160 as the Holy Spirit to help us with that. 242 00:12:42,560 --> 00:12:46,360 And so again, I would encourage you to go back and study the 243 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:49,400 lesson about the Bible. So we depend upon God's 244 00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:56,840 communication to us in Scripture for our true knowledge of God. 245 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:02,080 But even then, and this might disturb some people, but even 246 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:06,560 then, we, we, we can only know God partially. 247 00:13:06,560 --> 00:13:09,840 We can know. We can know God truly, but we 248 00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:15,520 can't know God exhaustively, if that makes sense, we can't 249 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:17,680 handle. It's like Moses being put in the 250 00:13:17,680 --> 00:13:21,640 cleft of the rock to where the the full presence of God would 251 00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:24,320 have blown him away. It's too much, and it would be 252 00:13:24,320 --> 00:13:28,040 too much for us to actually know everything about him. 253 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:32,640 But we know what we need to know, and so does knowing equal 254 00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:34,840 understanding. That's part of the question and 255 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:36,760 the answer to that's no. It doesn't mean I don't 256 00:13:36,760 --> 00:13:39,400 understand everything about God, that God does things on there. 257 00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:41,880 I don't understand why did God do that? 258 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:44,000 We ask those questions sometimes. 259 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:47,120 The answer is I don't know why God did that. 260 00:13:47,840 --> 00:13:50,720 And that's frustrating to us. Again, in our temporal little 261 00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:54,200 timeline with our little cranial cavities, we want to be able to 262 00:13:54,200 --> 00:13:56,960 solve every problem and know every answer, tidy everything 263 00:13:56,960 --> 00:14:00,080 up, put in a little box and be able to control it and explain 264 00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:03,280 it. And so sometimes God is not 265 00:14:03,280 --> 00:14:06,680 believed in or sometimes people would say God doesn't exist 266 00:14:06,680 --> 00:14:10,800 because you can't wrap him up and bundle him up the way you 267 00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:14,680 want to. So once again, we recognize that 268 00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:17,960 in fact, Augustine or Augustine, depending upon what county 269 00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:22,720 you're from in North Carolina, he once said, if you can 270 00:14:22,720 --> 00:14:28,000 understand it, it's not God. It's not God at that point. 271 00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:31,160 So unfortunately we're never going to be able to ever 272 00:14:31,160 --> 00:14:34,240 completely answer the question that makes up the title of this 273 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:38,600 study when we talk about who is God, But but we know God as he 274 00:14:38,600 --> 00:14:42,160 has revealed himself. So we find that revelation in a 275 00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:44,120 couple of places. And I've talked to you about 276 00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:46,560 this before again, in that discussion about the problem of 277 00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:50,160 evil, because you have both general revelation and you have 278 00:14:50,160 --> 00:14:54,080 specific revelation, and we see God in both of those places. 279 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:57,200 And we'll talk more about that as we move along. 280 00:14:57,440 --> 00:14:59,760 But but we do not totally understand or know 281 00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:06,280 comprehensively that which he has not revealed to us of 282 00:15:06,280 --> 00:15:08,600 himself. And so there will always be an 283 00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:13,080 element of mystery about God. And that's frustrating to some 284 00:15:13,080 --> 00:15:15,880 humans. Humans like again, to be able to 285 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:20,440 box things up and usually control them, define them and 286 00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:21,920 decide whether they want to cancel them. 287 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,600 But even Jesus said in Matthew 11, he says, all things have 288 00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:30,440 been handed over to me by my Father and no one knows the Son 289 00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:35,200 except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son 290 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:38,600 and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 291 00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:41,600 So there's this mysterious and this is back to what we'll talk 292 00:15:41,600 --> 00:15:45,280 about some in the Trinity is is is the relationship between the 293 00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:48,560 Son and the Father. John 118 says no one has ever 294 00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:53,040 seen God, God the only Son who is at the Father's side, He has 295 00:15:53,040 --> 00:15:56,320 made him known. And so Jesus is part of the 296 00:15:56,320 --> 00:15:58,800 revelation to us. This is who God is. 297 00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:01,880 This is what God's like. We can see God Incarnate. 298 00:16:02,560 --> 00:16:04,960 So we have the word of God, the Old Testament leading up to 299 00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:06,480 this. Then we have the complete, the 300 00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:10,240 the more complete revelation of God in Jesus Christ as the word 301 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:12,560 became flesh and we have the New Testament. 302 00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:17,000 But even in the Old Testament, the prophet like Jeremiah said 303 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:19,520 this. He says Thus says the Lord, some 304 00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:22,960 of you would know these verses. Let not the wise man boast in 305 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:26,640 his wisdom, Let not the mighty man boast in his might. 306 00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:29,560 Let not the rich man boast in his riches. 307 00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:32,880 But let him who boasts, boasts in this, that he understands and 308 00:16:32,880 --> 00:16:36,800 knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, 309 00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:39,520 justice, and righteousness in the earth. 310 00:16:39,520 --> 00:16:42,720 For in these things I delight declares the Lord. 311 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:46,200 So often in Scripture, what we see is we see these attributes 312 00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:48,680 or these actions or these characteristics or these 313 00:16:48,680 --> 00:16:50,760 descriptions of God. And that's where we put together 314 00:16:50,760 --> 00:16:54,080 the mosaic of all those different pieces to say this, 315 00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:57,480 this is God. This is who we believe God is. 316 00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:01,040 And we need all those pieces to give us the most complete 317 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:02,720 picture that we can possibly have. 318 00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:05,800 And and then we just have to ask the question, So who does, who 319 00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:07,839 believes in God and who doesn't believe in God? 320 00:17:07,839 --> 00:17:09,880 Well, I'm looking at some research. 321 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:15,560 It's interesting because according to one news poll back 322 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:19,599 in 2000, and then I'm going to bring it up to date, but back 323 00:17:19,599 --> 00:17:24,240 in, 2094% of Americans believed in the existence of God. 324 00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:26,079 And that's something you need to wrap your head around. 325 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:30,080 That's almost always been true. Now, you've got to be careful 326 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:34,080 with something like that because the definition of God is 327 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:36,960 extremely varied. So don't think evangelical 328 00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:39,040 Christian biblical definition of God. 329 00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:43,520 It's just a God concept, right? But it's interesting because 330 00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:47,760 even current surveys by and and this is actually a conglomerate 331 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:52,040 of about three major research groups together that I I know 332 00:17:52,040 --> 00:17:56,440 about and access. As you look at the last two 333 00:17:56,440 --> 00:18:00,840 decades, the last 20 years, the the 21st century more or less, 334 00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:07,680 that includes even a, a decline in the percentage of US adults 335 00:18:07,680 --> 00:18:12,400 who identify as Christians, but also and then a corresponding 336 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:16,160 rise in those who say they don't, they don't follow any 337 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:19,520 religion at all. So Christianity and the decline, 338 00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:22,720 the nuns, the NONESS in the rise. 339 00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:27,520 But even during those decades, it's interesting that these 340 00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:33,920 three sources are less clear and uniform about what's happened in 341 00:18:33,920 --> 00:18:36,120 the last essentially in the last five years are different. 342 00:18:36,120 --> 00:18:37,280 Now, I don't want to confuse you here. 343 00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:39,840 Sorry, this is my statisticians brain going here. 344 00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:43,440 So up to 2020, there's a real consistency since 2020, 345 00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:46,000 something weird's going on. Something weird's going on right 346 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:48,200 now. I'm not sure exactly what that 347 00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:49,680 is. We got to go have a little time 348 00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:52,440 to figure that out. But but what's interesting is up 349 00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:58,360 until about 2020, what you'll find is, is that the, the number 350 00:18:58,360 --> 00:19:02,360 of Americans who believe in God has never dropped below 90%. 351 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:05,720 So no matter what you see in the media, no matter what you sense 352 00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:10,560 in the culture, there's still a strong God belief, right? 353 00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:16,520 And so they believe in some version of God, right? 354 00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:20,520 Whatever that is. In fact, in this, I'm glad 355 00:19:20,520 --> 00:19:22,600 you're, you know, those who are here are sitting down. 356 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:24,440 Those who are listening online sit down right now. 357 00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:31,400 Only 4% or so of Americans don't believe in God, and it's never 358 00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:35,240 been higher than that. And so we get perceptions from 359 00:19:35,240 --> 00:19:38,320 media, we get perceptions from entertainment worlds, we get 360 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:41,440 perceptions from college and universities in higher academia 361 00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:44,360 and science that would indicate to us that the number of 362 00:19:44,360 --> 00:19:47,520 atheists and agnostics and humanists are huge and and 363 00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:49,840 they're running the country and overrunning everything. 364 00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:52,840 And that's just never been statistically true. 365 00:19:53,920 --> 00:19:59,880 Now, again, who God is matters. So we have to define God. 366 00:19:59,880 --> 00:20:02,720 So just saying the word God is not going to be enough. 367 00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:07,440 We need to know what we mean by that and, and, and who we mean 368 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,840 by that. You need to understand that a 369 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:17,280 total of always less than 5% of the population in the United 370 00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:21,080 States of America actually identify as atheist, agnostic or 371 00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:24,440 humanist. In fact, the Pew Research, this 372 00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:28,640 is in 2023, a couple years ago, they found that 4% of the US 373 00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:31,640 adults self identify as atheists. 374 00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:36,640 That's a slight increase over 3% about 10 years before. 375 00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:39,040 So in the last 10 years, it's gone up by 1%. 376 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:41,640 OK. Now that's not the perception 377 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:43,120 that I know a lot of believers have. 378 00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:47,120 And so there are people who sometimes say they're atheists, 379 00:20:47,120 --> 00:20:50,440 but they proved not to be when crisis hits. 380 00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:55,800 So it's, it's interesting, even over 80% of Americans with post 381 00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:57,760 postgraduate degrees believe in God. 382 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:01,240 So this, this isn't just dumb people who believe in God. 383 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:03,240 All you smart people believe in God too. 384 00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:06,960 So it's an interesting thing that we got to read. 385 00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:12,120 Einstein believed in God. Einstein read his Bible, he was 386 00:21:12,120 --> 00:21:14,440 Jewish, but he, he, he read his Old Testament. 387 00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:18,680 And so in certain circles, it's higher. 388 00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:21,760 If you break down the population, there's a certain 389 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:24,640 circles, for example, the National Academy of Sciences, 390 00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:28,600 only 8% of those members believe in God. 391 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:32,360 And so that's where you, some of these messages come from. 392 00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:37,080 Some of these messages come from specific locations, faculty 393 00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:40,320 members in higher education, scientists who belong to certain 394 00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:43,120 guilds and things like that. And so you'll hear that. 395 00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:45,640 And so it's interesting because it's interesting that these 396 00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:48,720 scientists are like that because God reveals himself in nature. 397 00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:51,480 That's one of that general revelation. 398 00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:55,840 He reveals himself in nature and conscience and of course, more 399 00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:58,160 completely in Jesus. But if you know, I mentioned 400 00:21:58,160 --> 00:21:59,920 Romans one in a previous time together. 401 00:21:59,920 --> 00:22:03,080 But Romans 119 says, for what can be known about God is plain 402 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:05,720 to them because God has shown it to them. 403 00:22:07,120 --> 00:22:09,320 God reveals himself and they can get there. 404 00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:13,240 But atheism, atheism still puts forth arguments. 405 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:17,400 And around the world, there are other atheists. 406 00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:22,320 Historically, there's an old atheist that was famous for his 407 00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:24,400 time. For those of you who can 408 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:27,240 remember, for most of you cannot, it was before your time. 409 00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:32,320 But the, the very first, the, the Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri 410 00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:35,280 Gagarin, the first person to ever orbit the Earth. 411 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:37,680 Some of you were alive in those days. 412 00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:40,720 Some of you have no idea what I just said, but there was a time 413 00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:42,880 that nobody had ever been in a spaceship and gone around the 414 00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:45,400 world. And this was the very first guy 415 00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:48,760 to do that. And it scared this country to 416 00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:52,240 death because they felt like the Russians were ahead of us in the 417 00:22:52,280 --> 00:22:55,800 in the race, you know, so we had to get the Apollo program going. 418 00:22:55,800 --> 00:22:59,680 But the first person to orbit the Earth while he was in space, 419 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:01,440 he said, I don't see any God up there. 420 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:06,200 More recently, a professor at MIT. 421 00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:10,520 He's a professor of science, science and and technology there 422 00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:12,520 at MIT. He says science and technology 423 00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:18,240 are the gods that we serve. And then other atheists, God was 424 00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:20,600 just a projected wish of human beings. 425 00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:24,200 Or another very famous historical atheistic line from 426 00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:29,920 Karl Marx in communism, Russian communism, he says religion is a 427 00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:34,520 human fabrication and used as an opiate serving the vested 428 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:37,920 interests of those in power. And so there have been people, 429 00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:41,360 Sigmund Freud, some of you have heard that name somewhere in 430 00:23:41,360 --> 00:23:43,240 your past or somewhere along the way. 431 00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:47,120 Sigmund Freud said that belief in God is wishful thinking that 432 00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:49,960 marks the infantile stage of human development. 433 00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:55,720 So we're all a bunch of babies who probably have mother issues, 434 00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:57,320 right? Freud and that right something. 435 00:23:57,320 --> 00:24:00,920 It's been a long time since I've studied Freudian theory, 436 00:24:02,360 --> 00:24:07,560 probably won't ever do it again. But anyway, so, but they're also 437 00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:09,760 the other side of this equation is there have been some 438 00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:13,160 incredible scholars over the years who've done extensive 439 00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,080 reading, and not just from Scripture, although they 440 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:19,480 certainly do that, but they've also interviewed modern 441 00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:22,640 atheists. They've also read as much as 442 00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:26,920 they could of what modern atheists write and argue about 443 00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:29,640 and would say here's why I don't believe in God. 444 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:33,880 And they've been able to kind of capture, capsulize that for us 445 00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:39,200 in about 7 major arguments or so that are often used by modern 446 00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:42,880 atheist in denying the belief in the existence or the reality at 447 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:45,720 all of God. And so belief in God, they'll 448 00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:49,080 say, can be explained as an objectification of, of purely 449 00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:51,720 human ideals, wishes, longings or needs. 450 00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:54,240 So in other words, this is just, we just dream this up because 451 00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:58,000 we, we, we want this to be true. You know, this is something we 452 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:01,040 hope for. So God exists because we, we 453 00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:03,480 want him to exist. We feel like we need him to 454 00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:07,000 exist. Belief in God is in one way or 455 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:09,360 another inconsistent with scientific method in the 456 00:25:09,360 --> 00:25:13,680 scientific view of reality. I'll talk more about that in a 457 00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:15,680 little bit. That's it's really a funny thing 458 00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:18,400 because I have probably 2 shelves of books written by 459 00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:21,920 scientists who are Christians and I'm in high level 460 00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:24,240 scientists, physicists, etcetera. 461 00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:27,960 There's actually a movement about amongst microbiology and 462 00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:31,240 astronomy of people coming to Christ because they're looking 463 00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:34,040 at the smallest things. They're realizing that much of 464 00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:37,200 what is being projected out there is truth is not truth. 465 00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:42,760 And and then also looking at the biggest things they see, they 466 00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:47,320 see that there has to be more than what we are trying to to 467 00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:50,480 put together. Belief in God. 468 00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:55,480 The term God lacks clear univocal meaning, which means it 469 00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:58,640 can be ambiguously communicated. In other words, the word God 470 00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:00,280 means too much. It means everything, so 471 00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:03,960 therefore it means nothing. These are atheistic arguments. 472 00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:07,720 Belief in God is irreconcilable with the extended intensity of 473 00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:09,440 human suffering. We're back to the problem of 474 00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:10,880 evil God. Why? 475 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:13,760 Why could God exist when all these bad things happen? 476 00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:18,840 The sovereignty of God is inconsistent with recognition of 477 00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:21,200 the worth, freedom, and full responsibility of man. 478 00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:24,040 Somehow they think that because God's sovereign that we're 479 00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:26,160 squashed. We have no ability, we have no 480 00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:29,440 free will, we have we have nothing and and no value in and 481 00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:33,360 of ourselves that we're that we're just captives of God. 482 00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:37,800 Belief in God produces passivity in the presence of injustice and 483 00:26:37,800 --> 00:26:40,040 opposition to social change. Some of these at the end are 484 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:42,480 actually these early ones are pretty classic arguments. 485 00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:45,120 These last ones are the ones that bother me more, to be 486 00:26:45,120 --> 00:26:46,360 honest with you. It's a kind of weird. 487 00:26:46,360 --> 00:26:49,360 They're not even that theological, but but there are 488 00:26:49,360 --> 00:26:53,600 atheists who believe that people who believe in God don't care 489 00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:57,400 about injustice and, and our society, we don't care. 490 00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:01,120 And the problem with that is, is that who, who have they seen 491 00:27:01,120 --> 00:27:04,000 that from? Why do they think that? 492 00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:10,120 Because they've seen the church not care at times. 493 00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:13,920 And so, and, and this last one I think is related. 494 00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:16,920 It says it's untenable for many persons, many persons today who 495 00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:20,720 are seriously committed to the highest human values and have no 496 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:23,880 personal awareness of God. So, so in other words, you know, 497 00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:27,080 if, if you believe in God somehow you're, you're mean or 498 00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:30,520 you're not caring or you don't care about what happens around 499 00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:33,680 you in a way. And so it's, it's interesting 500 00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:37,320 where they've seen that. So everything from scientism to 501 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:41,320 the problem of suffering to responsible humanism, to social 502 00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:44,200 injustice, these are all experiences. 503 00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:48,520 One of my favorite rebuttals, and it comes from a person that 504 00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:53,200 I would almost never quote, but but Hans Kung, I don't know if 505 00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:54,640 you've ever heard that name before. 506 00:27:55,880 --> 00:28:02,280 Hans Kung is a is a Swiss Catholic theologian who was so 507 00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:05,800 liberal in his views toward the Catholic Church that the 508 00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:08,720 Catholic Church censored him. They banned him because he 509 00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:15,240 questioned a ton of very classic Catholic doctrine and so 510 00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:18,080 including papal authority. And so they they didn't like him 511 00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:20,400 at all, which is always interesting. 512 00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:21,520 So he got in trouble a lot of time. 513 00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:24,480 He never left the church to my knowledge, but he anyway, but he 514 00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:29,240 gave a classic reply to atheism. He said atheism too, lives by an 515 00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:32,480 indemonstrable faith. In other words, in other words, 516 00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:34,880 they can't prove what they believe any more than they think 517 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:37,920 we can prove what we believe. And, and they have. 518 00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:40,280 And for many, atheism is a religion. 519 00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:44,920 You know, they, they have great faith in the absence of God. 520 00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:49,280 And they push that because if God exists, it really messes 521 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:51,280 with their entire framework of life. 522 00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:53,160 And suddenly they're accountable. 523 00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:56,200 Suddenly they, they, they're going to, they're sinners. 524 00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:59,080 Suddenly they have to struggle with things that they don't want 525 00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:00,880 to struggle with. They don't want authority in 526 00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:04,280 their life, many of them. So they'd have to live by 527 00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:08,000 different standards. So like us, in a sense, atheists 528 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:10,160 believe in something they can't prove scientifically. 529 00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:12,800 So atheists are believers just like us. 530 00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,560 They just believe that they're, that we're accidents on our own, 531 00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:20,920 basically, you know, which is not where we want to live. 532 00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:25,960 So a Christian apologetics and just hang in there with me for a 533 00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:27,800 minute. It's going to get a little 534 00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:32,520 philosophical at times. Christian apologetics would 535 00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:36,200 include ideas like why is there something rather than nothing? 536 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:38,640 Let me just start with a line like that. 537 00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:44,080 Why is there anything? Why does anything exist instead 538 00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:46,880 of nothing? And that's actually a question 539 00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:49,920 about the world and creation and the universe. 540 00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:54,760 So there at least here's some 7 considerations to show the 541 00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:57,080 viability of belief in the existence of God. 542 00:29:57,600 --> 00:29:59,680 And then I'm going to get into some classic arguments. 543 00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:02,520 Let me show you a few books that I have up here with me. 544 00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:06,160 One of them is a really good book, a really healthy book that 545 00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:08,440 it that if it doesn't do anything else for you, it would 546 00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:11,760 help you sleep at night. So no, it's actually a very good 547 00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:14,040 book, but you can see that it's a bit thick. 548 00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:19,160 But if you've never read No One Like Him by John Feinberg, this 549 00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:20,920 entire book is on the doctrine of God. 550 00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:23,720 So you can see the fact that this 3 inch book that I have or 551 00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:27,320 whatever this is in my hand and I'm trying to put a synopsis in 552 00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:29,760 an hour together. You could have you. 553 00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:33,000 I have multi volume sets of people who write about the 554 00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:36,120 doctrine of God. That's not the most famous book, 555 00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:38,440 although it's a good one. And if you want to, a really 556 00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:40,280 good book just on the doctrine of God. 557 00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:43,280 Feinberg's book, he's a professor at Trinity. 558 00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:47,280 No one like him. A more interesting 1, and I 559 00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:49,640 actually referred this to one of our staff today, is called 560 00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:54,480 Reflections on the Existence of God by Richard Simmons. 561 00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:59,000 He's actually not a theologian. He comes, he works in a ministry 562 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,040 now, but he actually comes out of the business world. 563 00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:04,360 But he's a best selling author, put together several essays, 564 00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:07,400 everything from the problem of evil to the existence of God to 565 00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:09,200 arguments about the existence of God. 566 00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:13,280 It's an interesting apologetics primer, Reflections on the 567 00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:15,840 Existence of God by Richard Simmons. 568 00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:19,440 And then the most famous one perhaps would be Ji Packers 569 00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:21,360 Knowing God. I'll quote him some toward the 570 00:31:21,360 --> 00:31:23,520 end. This is a book that some people 571 00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:27,040 have probably have read or been exposed to, but Ji Packers 572 00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:31,040 Knowing God is a classic and been published I don't know how 573 00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:35,200 many times as well. So I, I, I appreciate these 574 00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:37,560 authors and lean on them for some of these ideas. 575 00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:41,480 So these considerations, just listen to this. 576 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:43,880 Some of this is just kind of pragmatic and common sense. 577 00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:47,880 It says many in today's world do believe in God, so they're going 578 00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:51,480 to be limits to these atheistic assertions about the absence of 579 00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:53,000 God. In other words, the very fact 580 00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:55,960 that you have billions of, you know, you have millions and 581 00:31:55,960 --> 00:32:01,080 billions of Christians in the world is a testimony that there 582 00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:03,400 must be something to this, right? 583 00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:07,240 This isn't just some opiate for the people. 584 00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:12,680 Secondly, when people have rejected or failed to exercise 585 00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,240 faith in a personal God, and this is an interesting argument 586 00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:20,640 that I've seen many places, they tend to make idolatrous 587 00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:24,280 somethings. In other words, they're the 588 00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:28,480 human beings have a a tendency or proclivity to worship. 589 00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:30,640 We're going to worship something. 590 00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:34,320 Feinberg himself says human beings are incurably religious. 591 00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:38,200 And so we're going to worship a rock or we're going to worship a 592 00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:42,200 tree, or we're going to worship in Hinduism 1,000,000 gods or 593 00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:43,480 we're going to worship something. 594 00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:47,520 So no matter almost in fact, you could argue and I, I'm, you 595 00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:50,400 know, my background of mythology is also in cultural anthropology 596 00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:53,880 to some degree to where I would argue that every single culture 597 00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:56,000 in the world has some form of worship. 598 00:32:57,160 --> 00:32:58,560 And so there's a reason for that. 599 00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:03,160 There's something inside of us that recognizes we need to do 600 00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:05,840 that and there's something greater than us. 601 00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:09,560 So another one, this goes in a different direction. 602 00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:12,120 Christian martyrs and other believers in God have suffered 603 00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:14,080 for and given witness to their faith in God. 604 00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:17,760 Often when renunciation, if they could just renounce Christ, they 605 00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:20,920 would have, it could have prevented their deaths or 606 00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:25,160 alleviated their sufferings. And so, and that's not just a 607 00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:27,880 church history thing. I do hope that you recognize 608 00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:31,840 that more Christians were martyred for Jesus Christ in the 609 00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:34,920 20th century than any other century prior. 610 00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:39,480 And we're on pace in the 21st century to set a new record. 611 00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:44,680 So martyrdom and persecution are higher today than they have ever 612 00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:46,760 been in the world for Christians. 613 00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:50,320 And so I know that we were shocked at the assassination of 614 00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:51,600 Charlie Kirk. I get that. 615 00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:54,520 I get, I get the the response to that. 616 00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:56,640 I certainly do. You just got to understand that 617 00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:59,440 in my world, where I live with the people I know around the 618 00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:04,360 world, I've lost students, I've lost friends, I've lost people 619 00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:09,080 who, and it's happening all the time where people are being 620 00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:12,800 imprisoned, their homes are being destroyed, they're being 621 00:34:12,840 --> 00:34:16,880 forced out of where they live and, and are persecuted. 622 00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:19,639 So just recognize that martyrdom is alive and well. 623 00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:24,320 And so the the idea here is such suffering to be explained due to 624 00:34:24,320 --> 00:34:28,679 an illusion or a projection of human wishes with with so many 625 00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:33,000 for so long go through so much. If there wasn't something real 626 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:37,600 about this number 4 Christian missionaries could also say 627 00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:41,120 people in church life have given and do give their entire adult 628 00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:43,639 lives to the sharing of the faith in God with others, 629 00:34:43,639 --> 00:34:45,920 usually crossing the barriers of language and culture. 630 00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:48,239 Why would they do that if there wasn't something real? 631 00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:52,239 Christians believe in God despite close contact with 632 00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:56,120 atheists and atheistic cultures and in spite of persecution. 633 00:34:57,560 --> 00:35:00,240 Later this year, you're going to meet a dear friend of mine, 634 00:35:02,240 --> 00:35:09,320 Doctor Combis Sahui, who is was a radical Muslim, came to 635 00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:13,600 Christ, housed church pastor in Iran, arrested, threatened to be 636 00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:17,080 killed. The church praised judge dies. 637 00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:18,920 They're terrified of him. They let him go. 638 00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:21,200 He came to work for me for years. 639 00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:22,960 I still work with him. He's going to preach for us on a 640 00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:24,680 Sunday morning here and share his testimony. 641 00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:29,000 But to think through what what the believers that we still work 642 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:33,560 with inside of places like Iran and Afghanistan and what they're 643 00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:38,040 going through. I've met many of them and know 644 00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:42,080 many of them and, and we hear stories on a regular basis of 645 00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:44,320 what they're going through. But they're not going to give up 646 00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:47,240 their faith and they don't want to leave. 647 00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:51,080 That's not the goal. The goal is to see people saved. 648 00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:56,760 Number six Christian believers have been for centuries and are 649 00:35:56,760 --> 00:35:59,360 presently engaged in various ministries designed to meet 650 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:01,560 human need and alleviate some human suffering. 651 00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:04,240 So this is a direct rebuttal of that other argument to where we 652 00:36:04,240 --> 00:36:05,600 don't seem to care where we care. 653 00:36:05,720 --> 00:36:06,880 We're doing stuff all over the place. 654 00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:08,240 I don't know if you know this or not. 655 00:36:08,240 --> 00:36:10,520 And there's moments where I need to feel like I need to say 656 00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:13,280 things because I learned that I learned yesterday about some 657 00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:17,840 things that you all don't know. And you all may know this one. 658 00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:19,640 I hope you do. But I hope you realize that 659 00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:23,840 Southern Baptists are in the top three providers of disaster 660 00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:26,880 relief food in the United States of America. 661 00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:29,520 That whenever there's a hurricane, whenever there's a 662 00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:33,520 disaster, a flood, whatever, that Southern Baptists are 663 00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:39,360 either top 2 or top three provider of food and resources 664 00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:42,040 to the Red Cross and to disaster relief. 665 00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:45,200 And that's just a little piece of what we support here. 666 00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:47,760 When you give to what's called the Cooperative Program and we 667 00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:50,400 have a budget line item where we give to the Cooperative Program 668 00:36:50,720 --> 00:36:53,360 and that's part of that money goes to help that disaster 669 00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:55,360 relief. We, we recognize that here in 670 00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:57,720 North Carolina when we talk about Western North Carolina and 671 00:36:57,720 --> 00:37:00,080 sending people to work in Western North Carolina, which is 672 00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:03,560 a subset of that. But this happens on the national 673 00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:06,840 level and even international level to where our World Hunger 674 00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:10,120 Fund, some of you, and I'm not, don't misunderstand me, I'm not 675 00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:13,280 telling you not to do something, but some of you may support a 676 00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:16,120 Feed the, a Feed a Child program someplace. 677 00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:19,720 And you need to understand that up to 60% of what you give to 678 00:37:19,720 --> 00:37:22,320 that program goes to the promotion of that program. 679 00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:25,360 Whereas because of our international mission structure, 680 00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:28,440 100% of money we give to our World Hunger Fund goes to 681 00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:32,640 actually food and medicine. And so it's if you want to give 682 00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:36,920 to help that child, give to the church and let us give to the 683 00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:40,880 Cooperative Program where your dollar will go much further than 684 00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:43,640 sometimes those individual programs that you have. 685 00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:46,920 So just recognize some of those things just about some Southern 686 00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:50,960 Baptist stuff and #7 Christian believers have been in our work 687 00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:53,640 to help affect societal reform. So some of those things are 688 00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:58,040 just, some of these atheistic arguments are just based on lack 689 00:37:58,040 --> 00:38:00,040 of knowledge. All right, I'd say ignorance, 690 00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:05,120 but that may be to me. So all that said, to get to this 691 00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:11,760 part and stay awake, keep listening and try to follow this 692 00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:16,280 and I will do my best to summarize extremely complex 693 00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:22,800 conversations in subtle and concise and easy to understand 694 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:25,680 form. This may be impossible. 695 00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:30,240 I spent, Michelle will tell you that I labored over this and 696 00:38:30,240 --> 00:38:34,240 labored over this and labored over this to get this to you. 697 00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:38,520 So there are some traditional proofs, quote UN quote, for the 698 00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:41,400 existence of God. And these proofs have been 699 00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:45,680 constructed by philosophers at various points in history. 700 00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:51,640 Some of these go way back, pre medieval OK, and they are 701 00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:56,640 attempts to analyze the evidence to show it is not rational to 702 00:38:56,640 --> 00:38:59,680 reject the idea of the existence of God. 703 00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:02,600 So these are for the existence of God. 704 00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:05,200 There are at least four of these, but there are probably 705 00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:09,640 400 subsets of these four and they have been adapted and 706 00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:12,720 argued about and debated all the way up to probably yesterday. 707 00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:16,040 OK. But it'll be interesting for you 708 00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:18,960 to know that some of your atheist friends or some of your 709 00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:21,480 non believer friends will actually be familiar with some 710 00:39:21,480 --> 00:39:26,000 of these terms because non believers perhaps study these 711 00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:29,320 more than believers do. And it might be common to run 712 00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:32,200 into somebody who understands the ontological argument for the 713 00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:35,400 existence of God. And I'll get to that one. 714 00:39:35,440 --> 00:39:37,800 The first one is let's do a couple easier ones. 715 00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:40,720 Not that any of these are easy, but some of these will make a 716 00:39:40,720 --> 00:39:44,120 little more sense easily. The cosmological argument is 717 00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:47,240 simply this. Every known thing in the 718 00:39:47,240 --> 00:39:51,040 universe has a cause. Therefore the universe itself 719 00:39:51,040 --> 00:39:56,080 must have a cause and the cause of such a great universe is God. 720 00:39:56,720 --> 00:40:00,400 OK, it's much more complicated than that, but that's it in a 721 00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:03,120 nutshell. So it's a cause and effect kind 722 00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:06,240 of argument. Cosmologically, the whole 723 00:40:06,240 --> 00:40:09,480 universe, in other words, the whole cosmos, the whole cosmos, 724 00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:13,120 everything, the whole universe, everything has a purpose and A 725 00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:17,920 cause and, and a subset of that is number 2. 726 00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:21,600 So the the teleological or teleological argument. 727 00:40:22,400 --> 00:40:25,680 Focuses on, and this is what some of you would be familiar 728 00:40:25,680 --> 00:40:28,800 with in creationism and intelligent design. 729 00:40:29,480 --> 00:40:32,800 And so it focuses on the evidence of harmony, order and 730 00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:36,000 design in the universe and argues that the order and design 731 00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:39,480 give evidence of an intelligent purpose. 732 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:42,520 And so since the universe appears to be designed with a 733 00:40:42,520 --> 00:40:44,920 purpose, there must be an intelligent and purposeful 734 00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:50,080 designer or God who who created it to function that way, right. 735 00:40:50,880 --> 00:40:54,800 And so, in fact, humans built, almost built into us is this 736 00:40:54,800 --> 00:40:59,080 idea that we, we want to understand why we are and who we 737 00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:01,040 are. And you may not understand that 738 00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:04,160 or believe that, but I promise you that I can give you evidence 739 00:41:04,160 --> 00:41:05,880 that. And one of the easiest evidences 740 00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:09,320 of that, and you may not realize this at all, that the number one 741 00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:12,480 selling paperback book in the United States of American 742 00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:17,640 history is Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life paperback. 743 00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:20,960 Yeah. And so it's interesting. 744 00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:24,800 People are longing to understand purpose and why. 745 00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:29,880 So we need and we need to seek something beyond ourself to tell 746 00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:33,200 us about our purpose, right? And this is part of it. 747 00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:36,600 So in other words, to think through this order, to think 748 00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:40,960 through this function, to think through who we really are and 749 00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:44,320 why we really are is really significant. 750 00:41:45,120 --> 00:41:47,760 And, and so this is the intelligent design. 751 00:41:47,960 --> 00:41:49,760 There's too much order. Some of you have probably had 752 00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:51,400 statistics. You've seen, you know, if the 753 00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:54,560 Earth was, you know, one inch off or three feet off or 754 00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:57,360 something, we'd burn up or we wouldn't, we'd freeze to death. 755 00:41:57,360 --> 00:42:00,000 You know, I mean, everything's just perfect for us to exist as 756 00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:02,760 we exist. The way we exist in relation to 757 00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:05,520 the sun, in relationship to the moon and the race relationship, 758 00:42:05,520 --> 00:42:11,440 the way we we rotate without any of those factors it we couldn't 759 00:42:11,440 --> 00:42:13,960 exist. And so there's a perfection to 760 00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:17,440 what's happening here. And the argument here is is that 761 00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:19,640 can't be an accident. That's that's by design. 762 00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:23,320 All right. I've told you about my brother 763 00:42:23,320 --> 00:42:27,880 some before, but I have A and my brother David who will visit 764 00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:31,360 with us someday, but he's a a medical doctor. 765 00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:35,320 He's a brilliant mind member of Mensa. 766 00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:38,560 A person has taught medicine at times. 767 00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:42,840 I had a really hard time following him in school and as 768 00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:45,920 the younger brother. But you're not like your brother 769 00:42:45,920 --> 00:42:52,440 David, are you? But anyway, I was a believer. 770 00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:57,080 He was not. And he was a very scientifically 771 00:42:57,080 --> 00:42:59,240 minded person. He was a chemistry major in 772 00:42:59,240 --> 00:43:01,000 college. He was straight A student, 773 00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:02,760 everything, valedictorian, etcetera. 774 00:43:02,760 --> 00:43:04,400 And then I have to come along after that. 775 00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:07,440 And then he gets into medical school early. 776 00:43:07,720 --> 00:43:10,840 He, he didn't need, you know, he, he had a, he was a chemistry 777 00:43:10,840 --> 00:43:13,320 major, but didn't even have to worry about that degree. 778 00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:16,200 He just got into Med school, top of his class in Med school, 779 00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:18,320 chief resident could go do anything you wanted to do 780 00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:19,880 anywhere in the world as a doctor kind of guy. 781 00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:23,400 So just a brilliant guy. But anyway, he was in medical 782 00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:27,080 school and came home and I've told some of you this story, so 783 00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:30,040 bear with me, but it's worth having again. 784 00:43:30,560 --> 00:43:33,040 And so he comes home where it's at, where it's Thanksgiving. 785 00:43:33,320 --> 00:43:36,040 I've been away. I hadn't been home in about two 786 00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:37,920 years. I hadn't seen him in a long 787 00:43:37,920 --> 00:43:40,120 time. And we're staying up late just 788 00:43:40,120 --> 00:43:43,440 talking at my parents house. And we're just, we're not 789 00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:46,080 talking about faith or Jesus or anything. 790 00:43:46,080 --> 00:43:48,200 We're just talking about what's going on, you know, in your life 791 00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:49,400 and what's going on in medical school. 792 00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:51,200 Well, they were working on the cadaver. 793 00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:55,120 They were basically dissecting a human body and learning about 794 00:43:55,120 --> 00:43:59,360 that in Med school. And and he says to me, this 795 00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:01,240 comes out of the blue. You got to say I haven't prepped 796 00:44:01,240 --> 00:44:06,200 anything with, you know, I'm, I'm transformed by the blood of 797 00:44:06,200 --> 00:44:08,840 the lamb or nothing. You know what I'm saying? 798 00:44:08,840 --> 00:44:12,160 And he says, Johnny, he goes, you wouldn't believe this. 799 00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:17,360 He goes just by studying the human hand. 800 00:44:17,760 --> 00:44:21,920 They were dissecting the hand and he says just looking at the 801 00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:26,720 human hand, he says there's so much order and so much perfect 802 00:44:26,720 --> 00:44:30,320 design to just the human hand. He said, and you can understand, 803 00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:36,120 my brother was a a Darwinian micro and macro evolutionist, 804 00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:41,720 scientifically oriented. If he couldn't dissect it or cut 805 00:44:41,720 --> 00:44:46,120 it apart, it didn't exist. He didn't have room, faith and 806 00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:51,600 religion would have been magic, you know, and and so this and so 807 00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:53,280 he just says you just wouldn't believe this Johnny. 808 00:44:53,280 --> 00:44:55,960 He goes just looking at the human hand and design and order. 809 00:44:56,200 --> 00:45:00,080 There has to be someone who created all this. 810 00:45:00,640 --> 00:45:02,040 This couldn't have just happened. 811 00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:05,480 And I said, you know, I believe that. 812 00:45:06,640 --> 00:45:09,480 And I might not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier or even 813 00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:12,960 in my family, but I knew I had a moment and I shared the gospel 814 00:45:12,960 --> 00:45:14,040 with him. And we were kneeling on the 815 00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:16,480 floor about 2:00 in the morning as he's praying and ask Christ 816 00:45:16,480 --> 00:45:18,320 into his heart. He's now an out elder of his 817 00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:22,240 church preaching some and which has been fascinating for and 818 00:45:22,560 --> 00:45:30,200 entertaining for me #3 the ontological argument. 819 00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:34,480 I cannot explain this to you. I am not adequate in my 820 00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:38,040 explanation. I just confess upfront, I will 821 00:45:38,040 --> 00:45:41,560 do my best. But this is the kind of argument 822 00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:44,120 that you read the sentence and then you go back and you read 823 00:45:44,120 --> 00:45:48,320 the same sentence about five times and try to understand what 824 00:45:48,320 --> 00:45:50,840 it really means. So let me give you as simple A 825 00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:54,120 version as I can. This is one of the oldest and 826 00:45:54,120 --> 00:45:58,960 most unique arguments for the existence of God, and it 827 00:45:58,960 --> 00:46:03,760 actually started in medieval times by a monk named Anselm and 828 00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:06,680 has been debated and changed and tweaked. 829 00:46:06,680 --> 00:46:09,920 So if you Google this, you're going to see Anselm's version, 830 00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:11,560 Descartes Vert. You're going to see all these 831 00:46:11,560 --> 00:46:14,560 different versions throughout history where people have 832 00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:17,400 adapted it, changed it, disagreed with it, argued with 833 00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:20,400 it, etcetera. Again, probably all the way up 834 00:46:20,400 --> 00:46:23,160 to yesterday. So there are many versions and 835 00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:25,680 critiques. It's very philosophical. 836 00:46:25,720 --> 00:46:27,680 It's often very difficult to follow. 837 00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:32,480 Here is 1 summary, and notice what I just said, one summary. 838 00:46:33,520 --> 00:46:37,600 So the ontological arguments, unlike other classical arguments 839 00:46:37,600 --> 00:46:40,880 for God's existence, it's not like the cosmological argument. 840 00:46:40,880 --> 00:46:44,680 It's not like the teleological argument which appeal to the 841 00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:46,400 world. They appeal to the empirical 842 00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:50,720 world, things that we can see creation, the cosmos, you know, 843 00:46:50,720 --> 00:46:55,120 design and order. It's nothing like that, nothing 844 00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:58,000 that it would include observable evidence, so to speak. 845 00:46:58,360 --> 00:47:01,720 This argument seeks to prove God's existence through the very 846 00:47:01,720 --> 00:47:04,640 concept of God himself. Now you're already lost. 847 00:47:05,720 --> 00:47:09,200 So this this is about the argument of of what a God and 848 00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:13,880 who a God is, right. And so again, it started back in 849 00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:16,440 the medieval times. And the argument begins with the 850 00:47:16,440 --> 00:47:19,480 premise. Let me make this is easy as I 851 00:47:19,480 --> 00:47:23,960 can that God is that then, which nothing greater can be 852 00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:25,400 conceived. That's a quote. 853 00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:29,600 So there's nothing greater than God that can be thought of. 854 00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:32,480 So far so good. We can't think of anything 855 00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:38,360 greater than God is the idea. And that implies that God 856 00:47:38,360 --> 00:47:43,040 possesses all conceivable perfections, including existence 857 00:47:43,040 --> 00:47:48,440 itself, because God is defined as the greatest conceivable 858 00:47:48,440 --> 00:47:50,880 being, the greatest thing I could ever conceive, the 859 00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:53,880 greatest being ever. And a being that exists is 860 00:47:53,880 --> 00:47:56,200 greater than a being that it does not exist. 861 00:47:56,960 --> 00:48:00,040 So if he's the greatest one, and a being that exists is greater 862 00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:04,080 than a being that doesn't exist, God must exist you with that 863 00:48:04,080 --> 00:48:07,680 logic. So if God only, but then that 864 00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:10,120 goes on. So if God only exists as an idea 865 00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:15,320 in the mind, then something greater could be conceived that 866 00:48:15,320 --> 00:48:18,440 one that exists both in the mind and in reality. 867 00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:21,720 So it can't just be in the mind. Therefore God must exist in 868 00:48:21,720 --> 00:48:24,800 reality, because existing in reality is a necessary 869 00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:28,400 perfection for the greatest conceivable being, right? 870 00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:32,840 So it takes you in these loops of logic, right? 871 00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:35,800 So I'm going to ask some of you all to stand up and repeat that 872 00:48:35,800 --> 00:48:44,680 to me. The last one, the moral argument 873 00:48:44,680 --> 00:48:48,080 is a little more down to earth. It says it's this idea of why do 874 00:48:48,080 --> 00:48:49,480 we have a sense of right and wrong? 875 00:48:50,320 --> 00:48:54,280 Basically, so man has a sense of right and wrong and of the need 876 00:48:54,280 --> 00:48:58,000 for justice to be done. And it argues that there must be 877 00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:01,600 a God who is the source of right and wrong and who will someday 878 00:49:01,600 --> 00:49:04,120 made out justice to people. So we have a sense that there 879 00:49:04,120 --> 00:49:06,480 are rules of right and wrong when people who are saying 880 00:49:06,800 --> 00:49:09,440 anyway do and that we would you should be held accountable for 881 00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:12,480 that. And so that's that idea of a 882 00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:16,680 just thought and morality, the idea that immorality even exists 883 00:49:17,200 --> 00:49:19,320 is a testimony to the existence of God. 884 00:49:19,840 --> 00:49:22,160 It's part of our conscience. It's part of that general 885 00:49:22,160 --> 00:49:25,160 revelation, if nothing else. But let's get more specific. 886 00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:28,160 So how do we as believers know God exists? 887 00:49:28,160 --> 00:49:31,080 How do how we think of that? And again, we come back to the 888 00:49:31,080 --> 00:49:33,520 idea, first of all, that most people do have an inner sense of 889 00:49:33,520 --> 00:49:35,440 God. And we may or may not believe 890 00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:39,480 that, but, and some may deny that, but that denial will often 891 00:49:39,480 --> 00:49:41,440 be made evident in times of crisis. 892 00:49:41,920 --> 00:49:44,960 I have met, I can't tell you the number of people who claim to be 893 00:49:44,960 --> 00:49:47,560 atheistic or agnostic or whatever they were. 894 00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:52,000 And then when trouble hits, they want me to pray for them, they 895 00:49:52,000 --> 00:49:55,280 want me to counsel with them, and they want to find some 896 00:49:55,280 --> 00:49:59,280 external source of help and they believe that they can find one. 897 00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:01,680 I can't tell you the number of people that I've had in my life 898 00:50:01,680 --> 00:50:03,480 like that. I've seen atheists saved and 899 00:50:03,480 --> 00:50:07,760 baptized in a matter of weeks, etcetera. 900 00:50:07,760 --> 00:50:11,040 I've seen atheists whose children were saved and suddenly 901 00:50:11,040 --> 00:50:14,720 their children leads them to the Lord and they are within a 902 00:50:14,720 --> 00:50:17,560 matter of, I mean, what was it when Dave, remember Dave? 903 00:50:17,840 --> 00:50:21,240 So Dave the atheist was saved in less than six weeks after his 904 00:50:21,240 --> 00:50:23,960 son was saved. So but I mean violent, almost 905 00:50:23,960 --> 00:50:27,400 angry atheist all the way to baptized. 906 00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:31,320 I can't wait to trust in Christ Dave, you know, so it's it's 907 00:50:31,320 --> 00:50:35,080 always interesting to me. Can't hope that for everybody. 908 00:50:35,080 --> 00:50:36,800 The book says that they're going to be people in the end who 909 00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:39,560 don't believe. So not everybody is going to do 910 00:50:39,560 --> 00:50:42,360 that. But again, Romans, one says, for 911 00:50:42,360 --> 00:50:44,640 the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all God, 912 00:50:44,640 --> 00:50:47,840 ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their 913 00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:49,840 unrighteousness suppress the truth. 914 00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:51,400 That's the verse I want you to think about. 915 00:50:51,760 --> 00:50:54,400 I shared that in our devotion this morning with staff. 916 00:50:54,680 --> 00:50:57,880 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God 917 00:50:57,880 --> 00:51:00,960 has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, 918 00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:04,040 namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly 919 00:51:04,040 --> 00:51:06,360 perceived ever since the creation of the world and the 920 00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:10,800 things that have been made. So they are without excuse, for 921 00:51:10,800 --> 00:51:13,480 although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give 922 00:51:13,480 --> 00:51:15,480 thanks to him. But they became futile in their 923 00:51:15,480 --> 00:51:18,240 thinking, and then their foolish hearts and their foolish hearts 924 00:51:18,240 --> 00:51:20,760 were darkened. What we see up front is because 925 00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:23,600 of sin, people suppress the truth, and that verb's very 926 00:51:23,600 --> 00:51:25,720 active. In other words, I'm doing all my 927 00:51:25,720 --> 00:51:30,560 best to squash the truth. So there's a very active, very 928 00:51:30,560 --> 00:51:33,840 active movement in the world. We have an enemy who helps us, 929 00:51:35,040 --> 00:51:37,200 and they're trying to read. They don't just reject it, 930 00:51:37,200 --> 00:51:40,040 they're going to. It's a willful suppression. 931 00:51:40,840 --> 00:51:45,840 It's an active act of willful suppression. 932 00:51:45,840 --> 00:51:48,720 I'm rejecting this. I'm going to help you reject 933 00:51:48,720 --> 00:51:50,480 this. I'm going to make sure everybody 934 00:51:50,480 --> 00:51:52,360 rejects this. It's very strong. 935 00:51:54,520 --> 00:51:57,520 Psalm 14 one again says, the fool says in his heart, there is 936 00:51:57,520 --> 00:51:59,640 no God. They are corrupt. 937 00:51:59,760 --> 00:52:02,520 They do abominable deeds. There is none who does good. 938 00:52:03,360 --> 00:52:06,080 And then the psalmist also says in Psalm 10, For the wicked 939 00:52:06,080 --> 00:52:09,920 boast of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for 940 00:52:09,920 --> 00:52:14,520 gain curses and renounces the Lord in the pride of his face. 941 00:52:14,520 --> 00:52:18,720 The wicked does not seek him, and all his thoughts are there 942 00:52:18,720 --> 00:52:21,560 is no God. Because I don't, I don't want a 943 00:52:21,560 --> 00:52:23,640 God. See, I don't, I don't want a 944 00:52:23,640 --> 00:52:25,600 God. I want to be able to do what I 945 00:52:25,600 --> 00:52:27,720 want to do in my pride. I want to be able to do what I 946 00:52:27,720 --> 00:52:29,160 want to do in myself. Control. 947 00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:31,400 I want to be able to control my environment. 948 00:52:31,400 --> 00:52:33,080 I want to be able to control my world. 949 00:52:33,280 --> 00:52:37,000 I, I also, and I get the, I get understandable arguments. 950 00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:40,240 I can't deal with the thought of all the evil out there. 951 00:52:40,240 --> 00:52:44,320 If there's a God, I get some of this, I get the real struggle as 952 00:52:44,320 --> 00:52:47,480 well. But in the life of the believer, 953 00:52:47,480 --> 00:52:50,080 obviously there's an inner awareness of God that becomes 954 00:52:50,080 --> 00:52:51,720 stronger the more we walk with him. 955 00:52:52,520 --> 00:52:57,440 And so we come to know God not as just some being, but as a 956 00:52:57,600 --> 00:53:01,720 loving father. And even though we have not seen 957 00:53:01,720 --> 00:53:05,600 him, we love him. And that's part of the faith 958 00:53:05,600 --> 00:53:09,360 issue that I started with. Peter writes about it in First 959 00:53:09,360 --> 00:53:11,920 Peter 1/8. He writes, he says though you 960 00:53:11,920 --> 00:53:16,200 have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, 961 00:53:16,200 --> 00:53:18,880 you believe in him and rejoice with joy. 962 00:53:18,880 --> 00:53:22,520 That is inexpressible and filled with glory. 963 00:53:23,800 --> 00:53:27,000 And he was writing to people who were under massive persecution, 964 00:53:28,480 --> 00:53:31,960 who were suffering because they loved him, who suffered because 965 00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:35,480 they believed in him. You know, the second thing that 966 00:53:35,480 --> 00:53:38,000 we've kind of talked about already is we do have evidence 967 00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:40,760 of Scripture and nature. That's a hard place to begin 968 00:53:40,760 --> 00:53:43,160 sometimes with people because they don't believe the Bible. 969 00:53:44,440 --> 00:53:47,240 But that doesn't mean we don't mention the Bible because the 970 00:53:47,240 --> 00:53:50,800 Bible has a power and the Bible won't return void. 971 00:53:51,320 --> 00:53:54,960 And and the Bible is our our basis of authority. 972 00:53:54,960 --> 00:53:57,840 So we'll still share the Bible even with people who don't 973 00:53:57,840 --> 00:54:01,600 believe the Bible. But we, we just preface it with, 974 00:54:01,600 --> 00:54:03,920 I know you may not understand this or believe this, but you've 975 00:54:03,920 --> 00:54:06,320 got to understand that my life is based upon this. 976 00:54:06,880 --> 00:54:10,080 So I can't ignore it. So again, you remember in Romans 977 00:54:10,080 --> 00:54:13,720 one we've read, we've seen this idea of nature and again this 978 00:54:13,720 --> 00:54:16,280 idea of some of these scientists have come to Christ. 979 00:54:16,280 --> 00:54:20,240 I've got a a book by a physicist who used to be an ABC science 980 00:54:20,240 --> 00:54:22,160 correspondent. So he wrote a book to other 981 00:54:22,160 --> 00:54:26,160 physicists that said, can a smart person believe in God and, 982 00:54:26,320 --> 00:54:31,760 and talks through some of this. But Acts 1417 says Yet he did 983 00:54:31,760 --> 00:54:35,360 not leave himself without witness, for he did good by 984 00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:39,560 giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying 985 00:54:39,560 --> 00:54:42,400 your hearts with food and gladness. 986 00:54:42,400 --> 00:54:46,040 There's a benefit even of general revelation to everyone. 987 00:54:46,920 --> 00:54:51,640 You get to live on a planet that produces and feeds you and takes 988 00:54:51,640 --> 00:54:54,600 care of you. In a way, the psalmist wrote in 989 00:54:54,600 --> 00:54:58,200 Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of of God in the sky 990 00:54:58,520 --> 00:55:03,040 above proclaims his handiwork, day-to-day pours out speech, and 991 00:55:03,040 --> 00:55:05,040 night to night reveals knowledge. 992 00:55:05,840 --> 00:55:09,600 So in one sense, everything that exists gives evidence of God's 993 00:55:09,600 --> 00:55:12,600 existence. Everything is a testimony of 994 00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:15,400 him. And I know people who believe, 995 00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:18,040 You know, I feel like I'm closer to God when I'm in the mountains 996 00:55:18,040 --> 00:55:20,720 or I'm at the beach. Now, for some of you, it's 997 00:55:20,720 --> 00:55:22,800 because you like to go to the mountains and you like to go to 998 00:55:22,800 --> 00:55:25,960 the beach, but there's a nature element there. 999 00:55:27,440 --> 00:55:30,640 But when we do believe that God exists, we're not basing our 1000 00:55:30,640 --> 00:55:34,080 belief on some blind hope. Apart from any evidence, there's 1001 00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:37,560 an overwhelming amount, amount of reliable evidence from from 1002 00:55:37,560 --> 00:55:40,640 God's works and, and God's word throughout history. 1003 00:55:42,040 --> 00:55:47,040 We're not alone in this and, and others are just evaluating that 1004 00:55:47,040 --> 00:55:49,680 evidence incorrectly. The overwhelming evidence. 1005 00:55:49,680 --> 00:55:51,880 I mean, it's kind of like somebody, if there's somebody 1006 00:55:51,880 --> 00:55:54,960 alive today who actually doesn't believe in a historical figure, 1007 00:55:54,960 --> 00:55:57,640 Jesus, they're, they're just not paying attention to anything 1008 00:55:58,560 --> 00:56:01,480 that that's beyond even biblical evidence at that point. 1009 00:56:03,120 --> 00:56:07,280 So remember that in this sinful world, God also has to help us 1010 00:56:07,280 --> 00:56:09,080 believe. It's part of it, part of the 1011 00:56:09,080 --> 00:56:12,280 salvation experience. Second Corinthians 4/4 says, in 1012 00:56:12,280 --> 00:56:14,880 their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of 1013 00:56:14,880 --> 00:56:18,080 the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the 1014 00:56:18,080 --> 00:56:20,760 gospel, of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 1015 00:56:21,240 --> 00:56:24,200 So there's spiritual blindness. I talk about it all the time. 1016 00:56:24,200 --> 00:56:27,240 I, I can't blame a lost person for being lost. 1017 00:56:27,240 --> 00:56:29,440 They're in the dark, they can't see. 1018 00:56:29,800 --> 00:56:32,080 A person who's lost doesn't know where to go. 1019 00:56:32,080 --> 00:56:34,000 A person who's lost doesn't know their way. 1020 00:56:34,200 --> 00:56:36,920 They can't see. It's too dark, it's too foggy. 1021 00:56:37,520 --> 00:56:39,640 And, and that's the world we live in. 1022 00:56:39,640 --> 00:56:41,960 It's a very foggy world, all right. 1023 00:56:42,800 --> 00:56:44,520 And human wisdom doesn't do it for you. 1024 00:56:44,520 --> 00:56:47,520 First Corinthians 25 says so that your faith might not rest 1025 00:56:47,520 --> 00:56:50,400 in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 1026 00:56:51,600 --> 00:56:54,600 So we recognize that we're dependent upon God to remove 1027 00:56:54,600 --> 00:56:58,440 that blindness, to remove the irrationality that's caused by 1028 00:56:58,440 --> 00:57:01,160 sin, the feudal Ness, the suppression of truth, that 1029 00:57:01,160 --> 00:57:05,560 irrational suppression of truth, and to enable us to evaluate the 1030 00:57:05,560 --> 00:57:09,160 evidence rightly and to believe what Scripture says and then 1031 00:57:09,160 --> 00:57:10,920 come to that saving faith in Christ. 1032 00:57:11,920 --> 00:57:14,960 And when you when you look at Ji Packer's book, Knowing God, he 1033 00:57:14,960 --> 00:57:17,240 asks a series of really important questions. 1034 00:57:17,840 --> 00:57:20,280 Let me help us with this. What were we, what were we made 1035 00:57:20,280 --> 00:57:24,800 for the answer to know God. What aim should we set for 1036 00:57:24,800 --> 00:57:30,320 ourselves in life to know God? What is eternal life that Jesus 1037 00:57:30,320 --> 00:57:32,520 gives? It's the knowledge of God. 1038 00:57:33,200 --> 00:57:36,360 What is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight and 1039 00:57:36,360 --> 00:57:40,400 contentment than anything else? It's the knowledge of God. 1040 00:57:41,160 --> 00:57:45,360 What of all states God ever sees man in gives God the most 1041 00:57:45,360 --> 00:57:48,240 pleasure, the knowledge of himself. 1042 00:57:50,240 --> 00:57:54,440 John 17 three says, and this is eternal life, that they know 1043 00:57:54,440 --> 00:57:58,840 you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you've sent. 1044 00:57:59,920 --> 00:58:04,880 But even in the Old Testament, in Hosea chapter 6 verse 6, it 1045 00:58:04,880 --> 00:58:08,960 says for I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice the knowledge 1046 00:58:08,960 --> 00:58:11,880 of God rather than burnt offerings. 1047 00:58:12,480 --> 00:58:14,320 Just going through the motions isn't enough. 1048 00:58:15,000 --> 00:58:17,120 It's going through the rituals isn't enough. 1049 00:58:17,600 --> 00:58:20,840 Just bringing sacrifices to the temple, it was not enough. 1050 00:58:20,840 --> 00:58:22,520 There needed to be more. There needed to be an 1051 00:58:22,520 --> 00:58:24,120 understanding why we're doing this. 1052 00:58:24,640 --> 00:58:28,000 Why are we worshipping this way? I need to know God. 1053 00:58:28,760 --> 00:58:33,800 So what we have said provides a foundation, a shape and a goal, 1054 00:58:34,360 --> 00:58:38,960 plus principles of priorities and kind of a scale of values. 1055 00:58:39,040 --> 00:58:40,760 How do we know what's right or wrong? 1056 00:58:41,080 --> 00:58:43,600 But what makes life worthwhile is having a big enough 1057 00:58:43,600 --> 00:58:46,160 objective, something that catches our imagination, 1058 00:58:46,160 --> 00:58:48,720 something that lays hold of our allegiance. 1059 00:58:49,120 --> 00:58:52,880 And this the Christian has in a way that no other person has. 1060 00:58:53,600 --> 00:58:57,240 We have something they don't have for what? 1061 00:58:57,240 --> 00:58:59,440 Hire what? More exalted what? 1062 00:58:59,520 --> 00:59:04,520 What more compelling goal can there be than to know God? 1063 00:59:07,400 --> 00:59:09,640 So knowing God involves several things. 1064 00:59:10,160 --> 00:59:13,040 Packer writes these four. He says listening to God's Word 1065 00:59:13,040 --> 00:59:15,960 and receiving it as the Holy Spirit interprets it in 1066 00:59:15,960 --> 00:59:20,120 application to oneself. Knowing God involves noting 1067 00:59:20,120 --> 00:59:23,720 God's nature and character as his word and work reveals it. 1068 00:59:24,520 --> 00:59:28,160 Knowing God involves accepting his invitation and doing what he 1069 00:59:28,160 --> 00:59:31,840 commands. Knowing God involves recognizing 1070 00:59:31,840 --> 00:59:35,320 and rejoicing in the love that He has shown us and approaching 1071 00:59:35,320 --> 00:59:37,520 us and drawing us into fellowship with Him. 1072 00:59:39,240 --> 00:59:44,880 So there are some foundational principles that really ought to 1073 00:59:44,880 --> 00:59:48,120 make up our belief system. So here ought to be your 1074 00:59:48,120 --> 00:59:49,800 doctrine of God. More or less. 1075 00:59:50,560 --> 00:59:53,880 These are the biblical Christian type doctrines that we ought to 1076 00:59:53,880 --> 00:59:56,000 have. God has spoken to man and the 1077 00:59:56,000 --> 01:00:00,480 Bible in is His word given to us to make us wise unto salvation? 1078 01:00:02,640 --> 01:00:04,600 God is Lord and King over his world. 1079 01:00:04,600 --> 01:00:08,240 He rules all things for his own glory, displaying his perfection 1080 01:00:08,240 --> 01:00:11,560 and all he does in order that men and angels may worship and 1081 01:00:11,560 --> 01:00:15,400 adore him. Reading a passage the other day 1082 01:00:15,400 --> 01:00:18,280 of in Luke before I finished the gospel of Luke and my personal 1083 01:00:18,280 --> 01:00:23,720 quiet time and was talking about how we'll, you know, we are we 1084 01:00:23,720 --> 01:00:26,280 going to be like angels? I've always kind of wondered 1085 01:00:26,280 --> 01:00:28,080 what it what does it mean to be like an Angel? 1086 01:00:28,080 --> 01:00:30,360 What all does that mean? One of these days we'll do an 1087 01:00:30,360 --> 01:00:34,360 angiology study. It's a fascinating thing. 1088 01:00:34,360 --> 01:00:36,560 Heaven, hell, and the hereafter study to be good one. 1089 01:00:37,600 --> 01:00:39,600 God is Savior, active and sovereign. 1090 01:00:39,600 --> 01:00:42,840 Love to the Lord Jesus Christ or rescue believers from the guilt 1091 01:00:42,840 --> 01:00:45,680 and power of sin, to adopt them as His children and to bless 1092 01:00:45,680 --> 01:00:49,040 them accordingly. God is triune, and we're going 1093 01:00:49,040 --> 01:00:51,760 to spend some time on that. There are within the Godhead 3 1094 01:00:51,760 --> 01:00:55,160 persons, the Father of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the 1095 01:00:55,160 --> 01:00:59,440 work of salvation is is 1 in which all three act together, 1096 01:00:59,840 --> 01:01:04,000 the Father purposing redemption, the Son securing redemption, and 1097 01:01:04,000 --> 01:01:05,720 the Spirit applying it in our lives. 1098 01:01:07,600 --> 01:01:10,840 So godliness means responding to God's revelation and trust and 1099 01:01:10,840 --> 01:01:14,320 obedience, faith and worship, prayer and praise, submission 1100 01:01:14,320 --> 01:01:16,920 and service. And so life must be seen and 1101 01:01:16,920 --> 01:01:18,560 lived in the light of God's Word. 1102 01:01:20,080 --> 01:01:22,880 And then over the years there have been several statements of 1103 01:01:22,880 --> 01:01:25,600 theology that had been made, summaries of. 1104 01:01:25,600 --> 01:01:27,720 Here's what the church believes about God. 1105 01:01:28,240 --> 01:01:32,600 Here at Inglewood, we constitutionally say that we 1106 01:01:32,600 --> 01:01:35,080 follow the Baptist faith in Message 2000. 1107 01:01:35,080 --> 01:01:38,520 Let me just read that article about God for a moment before we 1108 01:01:38,520 --> 01:01:41,000 close. It says there is one and only 1109 01:01:41,000 --> 01:01:46,480 one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual 1110 01:01:46,480 --> 01:01:51,720 and personal being, Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and ruler 1111 01:01:51,720 --> 01:01:54,760 of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and 1112 01:01:54,760 --> 01:01:57,920 all other perfections. To Him we hold we owe the 1113 01:01:57,920 --> 01:02:00,560 highest love, reverence and obedience. 1114 01:02:01,000 --> 01:02:04,480 The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son in the Holy 1115 01:02:04,480 --> 01:02:07,920 Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division 1116 01:02:07,920 --> 01:02:15,440 of nature, essence or being. So man I bet about didn't make 1117 01:02:15,440 --> 01:02:19,200 it through that sentence. So what is my ultimate aim? 1118 01:02:22,520 --> 01:02:27,240 What is my ultimate object? What occupies my mind with these 1119 01:02:27,240 --> 01:02:31,600 things? What do I intend to do with my 1120 01:02:31,600 --> 01:02:33,880 knowledge about God once I have it? 1121 01:02:33,880 --> 01:02:37,800 That's the question that we need to put upon others that we share 1122 01:02:37,800 --> 01:02:42,080 with. Our aim must be to know God 1123 01:02:42,080 --> 01:02:43,960 better. That's the discipleship path 1124 01:02:43,960 --> 01:02:46,240 that we're talking about on Sundays here. 1125 01:02:47,160 --> 01:02:50,000 I need to know God better. I need to know how to serve God 1126 01:02:50,000 --> 01:02:54,520 better because knowing God is more than knowing about Him. 1127 01:02:55,240 --> 01:02:58,040 It's different. It's not just a knowledge about 1128 01:02:58,040 --> 01:03:00,640 Him. And God is so completely above 1129 01:03:00,640 --> 01:03:05,480 us and we have to completely forfeit our all claim on His 1130 01:03:05,480 --> 01:03:09,360 favor because of our sin. We're dependent upon His grace. 1131 01:03:11,480 --> 01:03:15,120 So what matters supremely is not the fact that I know God, but 1132 01:03:15,120 --> 01:03:19,440 the larger fact which underlies that is the fact that God knows 1133 01:03:20,320 --> 01:03:25,080 me. That's what's amazing. 1134 01:03:27,840 --> 01:03:31,000 As one writer said, I'm graven in the palm of his hand. 1135 01:03:32,120 --> 01:03:36,160 I'm never out of his mind. I know Him because He first knew 1136 01:03:36,160 --> 01:03:39,840 me and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who 1137 01:03:39,840 --> 01:03:42,120 loves me. And there's no moment when his 1138 01:03:42,120 --> 01:03:46,120 eye is off me or his attention distracted for me, and no 1139 01:03:46,120 --> 01:03:48,680 moment, therefore, when His care falters. 1140 01:03:49,680 --> 01:03:54,080 This isn't an incredible thing to recognize if you embrace it, 1141 01:03:55,760 --> 01:04:01,680 that the God of the universe cares about you, every detail of 1142 01:04:01,680 --> 01:04:07,360 you, every thought of yours, every word of yours, every 1143 01:04:07,360 --> 01:04:11,920 action of yours. There's an unspeakable comfort 1144 01:04:12,760 --> 01:04:16,560 and there should be a deep humility in us because of that. 1145 01:04:17,520 --> 01:04:20,240 In the sense that I'm not worthy of that knowledge. 1146 01:04:22,920 --> 01:04:28,760 And yet I know him, and I don't know that I understand it. 1147 01:04:31,520 --> 01:04:34,200 I don't know if I'll ever understand it until I die. 1148 01:04:35,040 --> 01:04:38,320 Why in the world he would want to know me? 1149 01:04:40,560 --> 01:04:45,760 But he does. So I'm going to do my best to 1150 01:04:45,760 --> 01:04:48,760 help others to know that is real. 1151 01:04:51,720 --> 01:04:54,920 I can know a great deal about God without much knowledge of 1152 01:04:54,920 --> 01:04:56,120 God. And I got to be careful. 1153 01:04:57,320 --> 01:05:00,000 One can even know a great deal about godliness without much 1154 01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:02,080 knowledge of God. There are people who know how to 1155 01:05:02,080 --> 01:05:04,840 live the Christian life, so to speak, but they're not walking 1156 01:05:04,840 --> 01:05:06,720 very closely with the creator of it. 1157 01:05:07,880 --> 01:05:10,920 They know how they've studied it. 1158 01:05:12,400 --> 01:05:15,000 So in the end, the big question is what effect? 1159 01:05:15,600 --> 01:05:23,240 What change does knowing God have upon you? 1160 01:05:24,320 --> 01:05:26,160 One of the things that we'll talk about, and I've mentioned 1161 01:05:26,160 --> 01:05:28,960 this to you before, is when we we do personal evangelism 1162 01:05:28,960 --> 01:05:31,040 training later on, and I hope you'll all come back. 1163 01:05:31,040 --> 01:05:33,400 I was kidding with the pastor's the other day that that'll kill 1164 01:05:33,400 --> 01:05:35,720 Wednesday nights if I start teaching personal evangelism. 1165 01:05:36,240 --> 01:05:40,800 But on Wednesday nights when we talk about personal testimony 1166 01:05:40,800 --> 01:05:42,960 time, my personal testimony has that last bit. 1167 01:05:42,960 --> 01:05:45,760 I've told you about this before where you're asking the question 1168 01:05:45,760 --> 01:05:50,800 of of of not my life before Jesus or How I Met Jesus or my 1169 01:05:50,800 --> 01:05:52,560 life after Jesus. Those are standard. 1170 01:05:52,560 --> 01:05:54,960 My for mine has mine has a fourth that I make students 1171 01:05:54,960 --> 01:05:57,480 write about. It's a paper due in class and 1172 01:05:57,480 --> 01:06:01,080 after write about it. How does Jesus affect my life 1173 01:06:01,800 --> 01:06:05,560 today? Not what happened to you when 1174 01:06:05,560 --> 01:06:10,040 you were a kid, not happened to you back at camp when you were a 1175 01:06:10,040 --> 01:06:13,040 teenager. Wonderful and incredible story 1176 01:06:13,040 --> 01:06:15,200 that is, and it's powerful and it needs to be shared. 1177 01:06:16,240 --> 01:06:22,480 But So what if the knowledge of God doesn't affect you right now 1178 01:06:23,360 --> 01:06:25,720 and how you are approaching the rest of today and how you 1179 01:06:25,720 --> 01:06:28,240 approach tomorrow, Then you've got to ask yourself, do I really 1180 01:06:28,240 --> 01:06:32,240 know Him that well? Because it ought to impact 1181 01:06:32,240 --> 01:06:36,280 everything. It ought to impact everything. 1182 01:06:38,000 --> 01:06:42,320 Father, thank you that we dare. We're able to come before you 1183 01:06:42,320 --> 01:06:46,160 tonight. Thank you, Father, that we 1184 01:06:46,160 --> 01:06:49,520 could. We were bold enough to even pray 1185 01:06:49,560 --> 01:06:53,760 to you tonight. Thank you, Father, that we could 1186 01:06:53,760 --> 01:06:56,720 have the courage to come with that sense of boldness, with a 1187 01:06:56,720 --> 01:07:00,480 sense of total honesty because you told us that we could. 1188 01:07:02,320 --> 01:07:04,360 Father, I don't even deserve to talk to you. 1189 01:07:04,360 --> 01:07:08,600 I, I certainly don't deserve to hear from you. 1190 01:07:08,600 --> 01:07:14,400 I, I don't deserve for you to do anything for me except condemn 1191 01:07:14,400 --> 01:07:20,280 me. But Father, I pray that one day 1192 01:07:22,760 --> 01:07:25,480 when I'm standing in the back of that throne room watching all 1193 01:07:25,480 --> 01:07:28,120 these wonderful Saints from every tribe and every tongue in 1194 01:07:28,120 --> 01:07:32,440 every nation worship you. And I might be there in the back 1195 01:07:32,440 --> 01:07:38,560 with a smoky clothes on, But Father, I get to be there, the 1196 01:07:38,560 --> 01:07:40,000 Father. Maybe then I'll understand. 1197 01:07:40,000 --> 01:07:44,040 Grace. I appreciate it. 1198 01:07:44,760 --> 01:07:47,640 I depend upon it. I embrace it. 1199 01:07:48,520 --> 01:07:52,880 I expected even, but I don't deserve it. 1200 01:07:55,800 --> 01:08:00,440 So, Father, thank you for revealing enough of you to us, 1201 01:08:01,720 --> 01:08:05,760 to where we could understand enough about you to know you. 1202 01:08:07,840 --> 01:08:13,120 I look forward to spending eternity learning more and 1203 01:08:13,120 --> 01:08:19,160 understanding more. But for now, Father, there are 1204 01:08:19,160 --> 01:08:25,760 people around us who don't have anything to do with you. 1205 01:08:25,760 --> 01:08:28,479 They're not even exposing themselves to you on a regular 1206 01:08:28,479 --> 01:08:30,800 basis, Father. They, they might believe in you 1207 01:08:30,800 --> 01:08:33,880 if you asked them, but they're not engaged in any kind of study 1208 01:08:33,880 --> 01:08:35,600 like this or any kind of small group. 1209 01:08:35,600 --> 01:08:39,680 They're not doing anything to grow in their knowledge of you. 1210 01:08:39,680 --> 01:08:42,319 So help us, Father, to invite them. 1211 01:08:44,279 --> 01:08:46,560 Help us, Father, to share with them about you. 1212 01:08:47,920 --> 01:08:52,200 Help help us, Father, to show you in our lives so they can see 1213 01:08:52,200 --> 01:08:56,880 it. And help us, Father, to help 1214 01:08:56,880 --> 01:09:02,000 them to appreciate and to embrace and to celebrate the 1215 01:09:02,000 --> 01:09:06,240 knowledge of who you are. Father, thank you that you 1216 01:09:06,240 --> 01:09:11,120 brought us into existence. You have always existed and you 1217 01:09:11,120 --> 01:09:14,000 always will. Thank you for allowing us to 1218 01:09:14,000 --> 01:09:17,439 join you, even for this brief time that we're here. 1219 01:09:18,760 --> 01:09:22,600 But for the rest of time, I can't wait. 1220 01:09:23,680 --> 01:09:30,040 But until then, we got work to do, so help us please, in 1221 01:09:30,040 --> 01:09:33,600 Christ's name, Amen. God bless you all. 1222 01:09:33,600 --> 01:09:38,800 Thank you all so much. Thank you so much for listening 1223 01:09:38,800 --> 01:09:40,399 today. And I also hope that you'll go 1224 01:09:40,399 --> 01:09:42,640 to ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com 1225 01:09:42,640 --> 01:09:45,680 as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless 1226 01:09:45,680 --> 01:09:47,880 you and your families. Thank you once again.