To Whom Are We Listening?

To Whom Are We Listening?

Psalm 81:8-13

Someone said, “We live in a world of competing voices. Everyday we are bombarded by various voices from radio, television, videos, DVD’s, books, music, newspapers, internet, billboards, friends, etc. These voices are constantly shouting at us, telling us how to live, what we need to buy, how we should spend our time, what we should believe, how we should act, what we should accept.” The Bible in 2 Peter 1:19 tells us that as believers we a reliable voice that we can have confidence in if we but listen to that voice. The question for us is “To whom are we listening?”

I. To whom are we listening as to what we should believe

A. 2 Peter 3:3 “knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”

B. Reason and Logic

1. A man once stood on a soap-box at Hyde Park Corner, pouring scorn on Christianity. "People tell me that God exists; but I can't see Him. People tell me that there is a life after death; but I can't see it. People tell me that there is a judgment to come; but I can't see it. People tell me that there is a heaven and a hell; but I can't see them." He won cheap applause and climbed down from his "pulpit." Based on reason and logic what this man said sounds good to those skeptical of faith. But another struggled on to the soap-box and said, "People tell me that there is green grass all around, but I can't see it. People tell me that there is blue sky above, but I can't see it. People tell me that there are trees nearby, but I can't see them. You see, I'm blind…" Refusal to see God at work is not the result of wisdom or enlightenment, but of simple spiritual blindness. - copied

2. Man attempts to rationalize belief in God or to rationalize Him away. But all his attempts fall short.

3. Romans 1:20-22 (CEB) “Ever since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, God’s eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, because they are understood through the things God has made. So humans are without excuse. Although they knew God, they didn’t honor God as God or thank him. Instead, their reasoning became pointless, and their foolish hearts were darkened. While they were claiming to be wise, they made fools of themselves.”

4. 1 Corinthians 1:20, 23 “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? ...Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

C. Science

1. Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

2. Genesis 1:27 “...God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

3. Genesis 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

4. Sir Francis Crick, decoder of DNA, in a 1968 lecture entitled "The Sociological Ramifications of Biology" before University College stated that “We cannot continue to regard all human life as sacred. The idea that every person has a soul and that his life must be saved at all costs should not be allowed.” He went on to say “It is not right that religious instruction should be given to young children. Instead they should be taught the modern scientific view of man's place in the universe, in the world and in society, and the nature of scientific truth.” - Nature, vol. 220, Nov.1968, pp 429-430

5. The French Mathematician, Lecompte de Nouy, examined the laws of probability for a single molecule of high dissymmetry to be formed by the action of chance. De Nouy found that, on an average, the time needed to form one such molecule of our terrestrial globe would be about 10 to the 253 power--billions of years. "But," continued de Nouy ironically, "let us admit that no matter how small the chance it could happen, one molecule could be created by such astronomical odds of chance. However, one molecule is of no use. Hundreds of millions of identical ones are necessary. Thus we either admit the miracle or doubt the absolute truth of science." - "Is Science Moving Toward Belief in God?" Paul A. Fisher, The Wanderer, (Nov 7, 1985), cited in Kingdoms In Conflict, C. Colson, p. 66.