Answering Those Who Ask
Part 2 Theme Verse: 1 Peter 3:15
What We Believe About God And Why !
Genesis 1:1, Psa 14:1
Joke:
A couple had two little boys, ages seven and nine, who were excessively mischevious.
The two were always getting into trouble and their parents could be confident that if any mischeif occured in their town, their two young sons were involved in some capacity. The parents were at their wit’s end as to what to do about their sons’ behavior. The parents had heard that a clergyman in town had been successful in disciplining children in the past, so they contacted him, and he agreed to give it his best shot. He asked to see the boys individually, so the seven-year-old was sent to meet him first. The clergyman sat the boy down and asked him sternly,"Where is God?" The boy made no response, so the clergyman repeated the question in an even sterner tone,"Where is God?" Again the boy made no attempt to answer, so the clergyman raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy’s face,"WHERE IS GOD?" At that, the boy bolted from the room and slammed himself in his closet. His older brother followed him into the closet and said,"What happened?" The younger brother replied,"We are in BIG trouble this time. God is missing and they think we did it!"
God is missing in the lives of a lot of people ! Yet, it is not because he has not revealed who he is, and what he is like, and what he has done and is doing !
This morning we’re going to begin Part 2 of our series on "Answering Those Who Ask". The Bible says in .....
1Pet. 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
As believers we have a responsibility to provide a answer concerning what we believe, and why ?
This morning I want us to start with the pronouncement in Psa 14:1
The Bible says that the atheist is a fool ! The atheist is a fool because he has evidence of God all around him, and in him, and yet he says there is no God ! Listen to the powerful words of Paul.
Rom 1:19-22 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Rom 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Rom 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
The atheist, and all those who hold to unbelief are without excuse ! They profess themselves to be wise...but they become fools !
Bottomline: There is no excuse for not believing in God because he is manifest, and clearly seen.
However.......let me say this, and make sure you hear ! Just believing in God is not enough to have a relationship with him that will get you to heaven !
Jam 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble..
What we believe about God", said the late A.W. Tozer, "is the most important thing about us." Our belief or lack of it inevitably translates itself into our actions and attitudes.
This morning "What Do We Believe About God And Why ?" Let me share some points with you this morning.
We believe in God.......
I. As Recorded In Scripture !
a. Bible Reveals The Presence Of God !
Gen 1:1 "In the beginning God.........."
The existence of God is assumed and not argued in scripture ! This, however, does not mean that we should not be able to defend what we believe about God to the skeptics, and scoffers !
We believe in the existence of one God as revealed in the Bible !
This verse refutes atheism and it’s belief in no God.
This verse refutes agnosticism which says you cannot know God
This verse refutes deism which says that God is impersonal.
This verse refutes pantheism which says that everything is God.
It refutes polytheism which says that many gods exist !
b. Bible Reveals The Person Of God !
In the beginning God(Elohim) which is plural in number, and attached to a singular verb. This denotes the Trinity of God ! There is one God manifest in 3 persons ! God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit !
Remember in the creation of man.......the plural..............."Let us make man......"
We see the Trinity of God defined, and demonstrated in the first book of the Bible !
c. Bible Reveals The Permanence of God !
God is without beginning or end ! He is eternal !
Deu 33:27 The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms:
Psa 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Isa 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, .......
Praise God he is permanent in the sense that he is changeless !
d. Bible Reveals The Personality of God !
The Bible not only reveals to us that there is a God. But reveals also that is knowable !
In a later message in this series we shall deal with in depth the attributes of God.
e. Bible Reveals The Plan of God !
God can be known, and he reveals to us in his precious word how we can know him !
Our relationship with him is secured by trusting in the shed blood of his Son Jesus Christ.
There is no other plan ! God has not added to his plan or taken away from it. His plan is the same for all of humanity !
2. As Recognized By Our Senses.
Can one see God ? No. Does that mean there is no God ? Consider the following.....
Illust. A teacher is using the "scientific method" to teach the class about evolution...
TEACHER: Tommy do you see the tree outside?
TOMMY: Yes.
TEACHER: Tommy, do you see the grass outside?
TOMMY: Yes.
TEACHER: Go outside and look up and see if you can see the sky.
TOMMY: Okay. (He returned a few minutes later) Yes, I saw the sky.
TEACHER: Did you see God?
TOMMY: No.
TEACHER: That’s my point. We can’t see God because he isn’t there. He doesn’t exist.
A little girl spoke up and wanted to ask the boy some questions. The teacher agreed and the little girl questioned the boy.
LITTLE GIRL: Tommy, do you see the tree outside?
TOMMY: Yes.
LITTLE GIRL: Tommy do you see the grass outside?
TOMMY: Yessssss (getting tired of the questions this time).
LITTLE GIRL: Did you see the sky?
TOMMY: Yessssss.
LITTLE GIRL: Tommy, do you see the teacher?
TOMMY: Yes
LITTLE GIRL: Do you see the teacher’s brain?
TOMMY: No.
LITTLE GIRL: Then according to what we were taught today in school, she must not have one!
Though we cannot see the wind, we can certainly sense the wind ! We can experience it ! There is plenty of evidence for the wind ! We cannot see God, yet there is plenty of evidence that we can see !
Consider the following.......
Here is evidence for the existence of God from using our senses....
a. God is evident in our desire.
The belief in God has existed in every culture and every era of human history. While the beliefs may be disimilar, where does this human need to believe in someone supernatural come from...if it is merely psychological, and if evolution were correct...surely man would have evolved away from such need or desire. I have often wondered if no God exists then why does the ACLU, and atheists spend so much time trying to disprove him. Why worry about it ?
From John Gill: Aristotle says, "all men have a persuasion of Deity, or that there is a God." Cicero observes, "There is no nation so wild and savage, whose minds are not imbued with the opinion of the gods; many entertain wrong notions of them; but all suppose and own the divine power and nature." And again, "It is the sense of all mankind, that it is "innate" in all, and is, as it were, engraven on the mind, that there is a God; but what a one he is, in that they vary; but that he is, none denies." And to the same sense are the words of Seneca, "There never was a nation so dissolute and abandoned, so lawless and immoral, as to believe there is no God." So Aelianus relates, "None of the barbarous nations ever fell into atheism, or doubted of the gods whether they were or not, or whether they took care of human affairs or not; not the Indians, nor the Gauls, nor the Egyptians." And Plutarch has these remarkable words, "If you go over the earth, says he, you may find cities without walls, letters, kings, houses, wealth, and money, devoid of theatres and schools; but a city without temples and gods, and where is no use of prayers, oaths, and oracles, nor sacrifices to obtain good or avert evil, no man ever saw."
b. God Is Evident In Our Discontent.
Mankind is always wandering. Never totally satisfied ! We are always wanting more, and more ! There is always something that we do not have, or something that we want ! Yet, when we think we’ve found it....there is discontent. It has been said and I’m sure you’ve heard it many times....."there is a God shaped vacuum in each of us". Only through a relationship with God can that vacuum be filled !
c. God Is Evident In Our Decrees !
The existence of laws to govern us, and the existence of a moral code, and conscience are evidence for the existence of God
Even the thief feels like he has been wronged, and he is robbed. If a child is kidnapped and molested or a person raped, there is a natural outrage which is demonstrated. This moral conscience is something which is innate given to us by the Lord. It cannot be explained biologically !
If we are mere products of chance or evolution and we are ruled by the philosophy of "the survival of the fittest" then why do we sacrifice for each other ! In areas such as courage, dying for a cause, love dignity, duty, compassion, and mercy........where did it come from ?
Illust. Cody
d. God Is Evident In Our Diversity !
To me...the fact that we are diverse, and different despite the fact of billions of people speaks of a deliberate act of creation with intentional desire that we all be unique !
e. God Is Evident In Deeds Unexplained
Could you explain to me a miracle ? Doctors believe in miracles. Yet it is beyond their ability to explain !
f. God Is Evident In Direction !
The earth is spinning right now. And while it is spinning, it also is rotating around the sun at a speed of 67,000 miles an hour ! Who put it in motion ? Can movement be produced without some type of force ?
Can change occur without some agent of change ?
j. God Is Evident In Design !
The Humanists say that life formed millions of years ago when just the right were became mixed, and just the right amount of energy was present ! This kind of garbage is taught everyday in the classrooms in America as factual, and yet, in order for something to be scientifically correct it has to be recreated in the laboratory. Chemists have tried to produce this same magical formula for life in the laboratory, and have failed miserably. In fact during all of human history, there has never been a substantiated case of a living thing being produced from anything other than living things !
A fellow by the name of Hoyle coined the Big Bang Theory. In 1981 he said that supposing that the first cell originated by chance is like believing a "tornado swept through a junk-yard and assembled a Boeing 747 from the materials located there."
Illust. Mt Rushmore
How did the faces of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln get there ?
"The complexity of the simplest known type of cell is so great that it is impossible to accept that such an object could have been thrown together suddenly by some kind of freakish, vastly improbable, event. Such an occurrence would be indistinguishable from a miracle." Evolutionist Michael Denton
The notion that... the operating programme of a living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial soup here on the Earth is evidently nonsense of a high order. Evolutionist Fred Hoyle
How about evolution ?
Would you believe the following ...........?
A model-T Ford is left in a parking lot over a period of one hundred million years. Through that time the car has slowly transformed into a fully operational Corvette 2000, complete with the leather interior and a sunroof. Do you believe that could happen ?
That premise does not even begin to describe the theory of Evolution...you see evolution
is if the model-T Ford sat there for one hundred million years and it became a fully functional laptop with an 800mghz processor and all the goodies you could imagine already installed on it.
That is evolution, the transition from one species to a completely new species. If you don’t understand that, then think about what it would be like if you met up with a quote "caveman." You would be completely alien to each other, and because of advanced forms of medicine and our knowledge, you would most probably look and act differently. Yet you still belong to the same species, just different "models." Evolution would be a blender becoming an elevator inside a building.
When was the last time you heard the odds of evolution actually occurring? Lets put it in a way that will boggle the mind, because sheer numbers don’t mean much. The odds that the four proteins that make up the basic building block of a genetic code would happen to randomly meet and form a corner stone to a living cell are astronomical. It is in excess of 10 to the 25th power to 1. That means 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to 1.
A.J. White a chemist from the Univ. of Wales said that if you had the right environment, the right mixture of chemicals, and 100 million years the odds of producing a small protein was 1 chance in 10 followed by 67 zero’s !
The design, complexity, and order of life, and the universe points to a creator !
The earth is the only planet with just the right conditions for plant, animal, and human life to exist !
It is just the right distance from the sun. Any closer and we would burn up......any further away, and we would all be frozen !
His finger prints are all over us ! His hand prints, and foot prints all over the universe ! His signature is written in the heavens !
He not only put the paint on the canvas but he did so in living color ! This is not only a complex world that we live in, but it has all the little special touches of God. It is beautiful !
Psa 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Psa 8:3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained;
*The Watch & The Watchmaker
3. As Revealed In His Son.
a. Seen In The Son.
John 14:9. Jesus saith unto him, have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? 10. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
11. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
Jesus shows us God because he was God !
John 1 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2. The same was in the beginning with God. 3. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
b. Speaks By His Son
Hebrews 1 1. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2. Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3. Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; 4. Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
We can hear God by reading the words of his Son Jesus because he spake the words of God !
John 3: 34. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
John 6: 63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
John 8: 26. I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. 27. They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.
c. Saves Through His Son.
Galatians 4:4. But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5. To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
1. All are sinners !
2. All are separated !
3. All can be saved !
God has revealed himself, and desires to have a relationship with us. He has provided the means where we can. It is through his Son Jesus Christ !
