DOES GOD EXIST?
Imagine a family of mice who lived all their lives in a large piano. To them in their piano-world came the music of the instrument, filling all the dark spaces with sound and harmony. At first the mice were impressed by it. They drew comfort and wonder from the thought that there was Someone out there who was making music for them. Someone who was invisible and yet at the same time close to them. They loved to think of the Great Player whom they could not see. Then one day a daring mouse climbed up part of the piano and returned very thoughtful. He had found out how the music was made. Wires were the secret; tightly stretched wires of graduated lengths that trembled and vibrated. They must revise all their old beliefs: none but the most conservative could any longer believe in the Unseen Player. Later, another explorer carried the explanation further. Hammers were now the secret, numbers of hammers dancing and leaping on the wires. This was a more complicated theory, but it all went to show that they lived in a purely mechanical and mathematical world. In time the Unseen Player came to be thought of as a myth. But the pianist continued to play.
Today we are starting a series on Tough Questions and the first question that I would like to address this morning is the most basic. It is a question that I hear all the time and that many people in the world are asking. It is the question “How do you know that God exist. How can you PROVE to me that He is real.”
The simple answer to this question is that we know that God exists because he has revealed himself to us through General Revelation to all people.
Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
Rom 1:19-20 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For those demanding PROOF I cannot PROVE anything to you this morning. In a court of law you seek to prove your case through reason and witnesses. It is impossible to PROVE something absolutely, you can simply offer the available evidence and then let the facts speak for themselves. Let me offer some evidence to you this morning as to why I believe that God exists:
1. The Argument of MOVEMENT –
Natures shows us that nothing moves unless it is moved by something else. All movement requires energy to be present. So where did the energy for all movement come from?
Suppose that you were walking down the beach one day an suddenly you were hit in the back of the head by a rock. You turn around and there is a boy standing there. You ask him if he hit you with the rock but he explains “No, the rock just jumped up off the beach and hit you”. Would you believe him? You probably would not believe him because an object at rest will stay at rest until some form of energy acts upon it to move it. In other words, the rock did not just jump up off the ground. It must have been thrown or dropped from somewhere.
The universe is in motion. It contains an incredible amount of energy. So the basic question I have to ask is this; where did all that energy come from? If everything in the universe is moving then who first moved it?
2. The Argument of MINUTE DESIGN –
Nature shows us that the world and our bodies are incredibly complex. There is design to it. If something has design then there must have been a designer.
When I was in Winnipeg a few weeks ago I went out for lunch. I bought a sandwich and walked along the nature path close to Morrow Gospel Church. I sat down on a bench to eat. There, next to the bench I was sitting on, was an old tree stump that someone had carved an old man’s face onto. It was clearly not just something caused by nature. The chisel marks were clear. It was obviously created.
In university I took a degree in biological science and all I heard in my first year was evolution and it made sense to me. The further I went in school the less evolution made sense to me because the more I came to understand how incredibly complex the world around us really is.
Again, if I was walking down the beach and I found a digital watch lying in the sand I would not marvel at the fact that over thousands of years the natural processes of wind and waves had created such an intricate device. I would think that someone had lost their watch – their CREATED watch.
VIDEO – Case for a Creator
There is so much more I could say on this. I encourage you to read the book The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel or to watch the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. All around us we see the work of our creator.
VIDEO – Molecular Machines
The earth itself is so perfectly designed for life that there is no way it could have just happened. The odds of life happening by chance are impossibly small – like a tornado by chance creating a fully fuelled 747 or a monkey sitting down and randomly typing out all the works of William Shakespeare without a single spelling mistake. Something with this much design must have had a designer.
3. The Argument of MORALITY –
As I have traveled all around the world I have met all kinds of different people and what I have found is that all people are basically the same. We may look different and have different customs and backgrounds but basically we all have the same conscience and moral code. We all have the same sense of right and wrong. If God does not exist then how do you explain that? Who put this moral compass in us so that we feel guilt when we do certain things? If we are just the product of natural selection and we evolved from apes then why do we all have the same sense of right and wrong? Why are their absolutes? Why don’t people basically just live like animals without any real morality except survival of the fittest? If it feels good then do it without any regard for who you hurt along the way.
The reason for this is that the bible says that we were all created in God’s image. Within each one of us is hardwired a sense of right and wrong based upon God’s absolutes. This image has been tainted and scarred by sin but it still remains.
4. The Argument of MIRACLES –
Have you ever witnessed a real miracle? Have you experienced something supernatural that cannot be explained by modern science and the natural world? I have. I have seen people who were prayed for and were healed. All around us there are stories about miracles and supernatural things that have taken place. How do you explain that?
The bible tells us that there is more to life than just the natural world that we see around us. With all the supernatural stuff in the world we see that there must be something all around us in a realm that we do not fully understand.
5. The Argument of MY LIFE –
The reality is that God is still changing lives today. He changed mine and I have seen Him change the lives of so many others during my years in ministry. Jesus is as real to me as any person. Perhaps the greatest proof that God exists is the simple fact that we have experienced his touch in our lives. You can debate theology and science all you like but you cannot debate a testimony.
I said at the beginning that I cannot PROVE to you that God exists. I cannot prove that God is here with us anymore than I can prove to you that someone is standing right now outside that closed door. I can reason with you and offer the evidence of why I think that there is a person there but ultimately the only way that you can know for sure is to go outside and look for yourself. Then you will KNOW the truth. Why? You will know it because you have experienced it. I cannot PROVE to you that God exists but you can find out for yourself that He is there. Simply open the door and look for yourself
This is the basis for all scientific study. You form a hypothesis and then you do an experiment to prove or disprove it. You cannot answer the question until you do the experiment. The Bible says:
Rev 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
If you are here this morning seeking proof for the existence of God then may I suggest to you that you simply do the experiment. I have tried to offer as much evidence as I could. Now you need to decide if you will act on that evidence. Perhaps you came here this morning saying “show me and then I’ll believe.” Perhaps you have that backward. Maybe God is saying to you this morning “believe and then I will show you”. Do the experiment. Invite Jesus into your heart today.
Let me end today with Pascal’s Wager. More than 400 years ago, a French Philosopher and Mathematician named Blaise Pascal suggested that even if the existence of God could not be determined through reason, a rational person should wager as though God exists, because living life accordingly has everything to gain, and nothing to lose. He said that there are two possible mistakes that you can make in life. The first is believing in a God that does not exist. The second is not believing in a God who does exist. The second mistake is far greater than the first because of the consequences. Because of the infinite penalty in store for those who commit it, it should be avoided at all cost.
