Does God Exist? Series

A Ready Defense

March 13, 2005

The Existence of God

Intro: 2 weeks ago we began a series entitled “A Ready Offense.” I’m attempting to deal w/ the 7 most common objections to Christianity. So far, we’ve looked at 2 questions: 1) What about all the people who’ve never heard of Jesus? 2) How could a good God allow innocent people to suffer?

Insert: Today we’ll look at the question of miracles – are they possible? Many Americans are willingly accept miracles. Recent Newsweek Poll - 84% of Americans believe in miracles! 79% believe that the miracles described in Bible occurred. 48% claim to have personally experienced a miracle!

Trans: Still, 21% among us just can’t accept the miracles described in the Bible.

Story: A boy came home from S.S. having been taught the biblical story of the crossing of the Red Sea. His mom asked him what he had learned in class, and he told her: “The Israelites got out of Egypt, but Pharaoh and his army chased them. They got to the Red Sea and they couldn’t cross it. The Egyptian army was getting closer. So Moses got on his walkie-talkie, the Israeli air force bombed the Egyptians, and the Israeli navy built a pontoon bridge so the people could cross.” Mom was a little shocked. “Is that the way they taught you the story?” “Well, no, but if I told you the way they told it to us, you’d never believe it!”

Note: Sometimes miracles are hard to accept – that’s b/c divine interventions aren’t that common! Or so we think. That’s why critics are always trying to explain away the miraculous in the Bible – Take the Red Sea:

Story: In college, I had a professor tell us that the Israelites crossed north of the Red Sea near a body of water called Bitter Lakes. B/w Bitter Lakes and the Red Sea there’s a marshy area sometimes called Sea of Reeds. Critics claim this is where the Israelites crossed. If that’s true there’s a greater miracle here. It would mean that the Egyptian army drown in 2” of water!

Trans: Skeptics will always have problems w/ miracles.

Note: The Real Issue is this: Does God Really Exist?

Insert: Think about it – If there is God, then there must be miracles. If God exists, miracles are not a problem. .Even if you don’t believe in miracles, but believe in God, you would still have to believe in at least one miracle: CREATION!

Trans: So the real question: Do you believe in God?

I If you want to know that God exists – Just LOOK UP!

Verse: The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or a word; their voice is silent in the skies; yet their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to all the world. Psalm 19:1-4

Note: The Bible claims that the most powerful proof of God will be found by looking at the heavens. . .

Scientists have come to believe that the universe was compressed to an extraordinary degree. Smaller than an atom. . . During the first few nanoseconds, that the universe became an unbelievably hot. In that cosmic instant, something w/in the tiny universe flashed, causing a gigantic explosion. It burned w/ a fiery heat beyond human imagination. It hurled rapidly expanding matter every direction. Universe exploded w/ such force, the echo can still be heard bouncing around in space!

Scientists claim that w/in the brief moment following the big bang. All the fundamental particles necessary for life were formed – simply amazing. . . Scientists have calculated that it happened in 1043 of a second! That’s .000000000000000000000000000000001 of a second!

Note: Look back to Psalm 19:4. The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship.

Note: Hebrew word translated “marvelous craftsmanship” is scientifically specific. Hebrew lexicographers describe the word as meaning “motion of different parts of the same thing, at the same time, in opposite directions and w/ force.” Young described the word as “to spread out or over.” Strong described the word as “to pound” or “to expand.”

Think – a perfect scientific description of the Big Bang written in 1000 BC!

II If You Want to Know That God Exists – Just THINK!

Verse: The Lord, created the heavens and stretched them out. Isaiah 42:5

Note: The Big Bang violates both the 1st and the 2nd law of thermo dynamics. . .

2nd law of thermo dynamics: Left to itself everything moves from order to disorder.

Insert: Did you ever leave you house a mess and find it organized and clean when you returned. Has your car ever replaced the gas in the tank and rotate the tires on its own – NO!