Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.gracechurchwilliamsburg.org/sermons/50309/warring-worldviews-about-origins/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] it is a sad reality that there are billions of people on the planet that cannot say or sing that at least not truthfully and they need to know the truth because Jesus is the way the truth and the life and Jesus is the one that makes freedom freedom for each of us by the time I conclude my message this morning I hope and pray and I have prayed that I will have succeeded in at least two primary goals that I have for us the first is to show you and to assure you from scripture itself that you're growing confidence in God's word as the most sophisticated authoritative and trustworthy account of our origins and as your best foundation or platform for understanding yourselves and your world is wisely and well placed so that we don't need to be intimidated by the things that man tells us wisdom which turns out to be contrary to God's word and can shake the foundation of what we think we believe about the authoritative nature of the scriptures there is nothing on God's planet and in God's creation that will ever shake or undermine his word ever the grass withers and the flower fades but the word of God stands forever and that is our hope if even one jot or tittle of the word of God is ever proven to be false then the whole thing falls apart and that is not the God we serve the second thing

[2:09] I want to encourage you in is I want to inform your hearts about how and why God's account of your origins is a top tier doctrine necessary for defining your faith in Jesus Christ as creator and redeemer the doctrines of Genesis 1 through 3 are not throwaway doctrines they are not doctrines that we can agree to disagree on they are hills for the church of Jesus Christ to die on and at Grace Church Williamsburg your pastors stand on these hills without compromise unapologetically declaring to the world that God is revealing himself to us in Genesis 1 through 3 as the sovereign creator of the universe and the fact that we can't get our minds around all that that creation story is means that we're not that sovereign God but we serve him and that's where we stand friends there are critical biblical reasons we can have faith in and maintain that

[3:16] Genesis gives us the foundation for everything so if we remove or if we make some kind of attempt to revise that foundation what happens is you will tamper with the truth of how God wants you to see him and yourself in this world which he made and placed you into that's how critical this is this is where we start this is truly the beginning and this is how God chose to reveal himself in the beginning does it matter if we believe that it's six literal days or not yes it's crucial why because that's what God said and that's what he wrote in a normal literal reading a normal hermeneutical approach to Genesis chapter one is how we're approaching interpreting these passages together we don't have any good reason to veer from a literal historical understanding of what's being written here it's not myth it's not allegory it's truth and it's how

[4:30] God begins to introduce himself to us as creator of all things and creator of each one of us so what I'll be dealing with this morning is the warring worldviews about origins now this is not my typical verse by verse exposition from Genesis we will get back there my plan is to be there next Sunday and pick it up what I'm doing here is bringing together a number of different things that we've touched on and I want to speak to them more critically and more plainly more robustly if you will pull these things together encourage you in them and then jump back into Genesis 1 26 next week where we'll talk more about the image of God in you and why that is so important to distinguishing you from every other aspect of God's created world again a hill to die on so today let me deal with some of these issues that continue to pop up you cannot pick up a quote unquote

[5:34] Christian book today and read anything about our origins that you are not going to have to deal with much of what I'm going to talk about this morning it's everywhere and we need to be very well versed literally in what the scriptures say about all of this as our starting point so in the beginning the scripture says in Genesis 1 1 first verse of the Bible right out of the gate in the very first chapter in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth now let me ask you a question as we begin to move into this does that true statement tell you and I everything we want and need to know about who we are about where we came from and about why we're here and the short answer is no if it stopped right there there would be enough for us to know and to worship this true

[6:42] God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth which means by inference he created us because we're part of creation but does it tell you everything you want and need to know no it doesn't but in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth is the truth underlying everything we can know and understand about God ourselves and our world here is your foundation and that's why it's a hill to die on in the beginning God created created not evolved created the heavens and the earth everything that follows on that statement gives evidence to God's supernatural sovereign creating power creator and it is designed to humble you before this creator it is designed to put us in our place and that's a good thing we come to Genesis 1 26 and we begin to understand that God has set apart mankind in a very special and unique way in this creation so while seeing

[8:05] God's activity in creating all of the universe puts us in our proper place i.e. we are not God and he is we also see that God has made a very unique and special place for us as those who bear his image like nothing else he's made so there listen friends there is something unique about you apart from any other aspect in all the universe right out of the gate as you are born from your parents from your mom and dad you are a created being your parents were used by the Lord to bring you into this world and you were brought into this world already created in the image of God there is a great worth about you before you ever say or do anything look I'm just going to be straight with you I've raised three kids you guys are hard and messy and smelly and we have to go through a lot to get you to the point where you can take care of all that yourself but right out of the gate you're very very important and very very special not because now listen not because you're all that but because God has put his image in you from the beginning that was by design but the world will lie to you and it is lying to you young people it is lying to our kids it's telling you all manner of lies about where this all started and listen to me friends kids if it's true that you're great great great great great great great great times ten more granddaddy was an ape

[9:40] I know that's a great face right there we just get you stand up and do that face for all of us then that has a huge bearing on how you think about who you are where you came from and why you're here because you're nothing more than an animal but that isn't what God teaches no in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and you're an important part of that creation friends our understanding of origins is about our world view now I especially one of the reasons that I'm doing this today and kind of putting it on pause to do this is because I'm thinking about every kid in here that I'm looking at every young person if you're under the age of 20 today if you're under the age of 50 today you're a kid to me if you're under the age of 20 today this message is especially for you especially for you this is what I taught my children and this is what

[10:43] I want the kids in our church Greg and I as we shepherd we want to come alongside your parents and we want to support your parents in the beliefs and convictions that they have about what I'm preaching today this is what helps define your parents and their walk with God and we want to support your parents in that so we're talking about understanding our origins as being about our worldview what is a worldview in very very simple terms it's how we make sense of life every single person in the room has a worldview it's how you come at life it's how you make sense of your life it's why you understand what you understand about who you are what you are why you're here a worldview is something that you use to interpret what's going on in your daily life it's how you view and interpret the world that's your worldview in a nutshell we all have it and we form it very very quickly and it morphs it changes as we grow we add to it we take away we throw away we bring in now I want to talk to you just for a few moments at the start here about what

[11:56] I'm going to call maybe some planks or floor boards in the foundation of these worldviews I'm going to give you three there are many there are many different kind of floor boards that we put down and then we stand on and that becomes the foundation for how we interpret the world these things help ground us and how we perceive things that happen to us and why those things happen and then how we respond to them all right the first that I want to offer you is theology the plank or the floor board of theology now look at this with me theology comes from theos and logos two Greek words theos is God and logos is speak or say or speech it can also mean to reason it's used that way so theology concerns what we can say or reason or know about God it's the study of

[13:02] God in his ways that's what it came to mean it's the study of God in his ways especially in relationship to human beings made in his image that's what we want to key in on so what can we know or reason about God and where do we go to get that kind of knowledge about God now please hear me kids every single person in here no matter how old you are how old are you 11 years old 11 years old doesn't matter if you're 11 Lucy how old are you 10 10 years old whether you're a girl or a boy or what you are every person in here is a theologian did you know that about yourself every single person in this room is a theologian because every single person in this room has some knowledge of God and every single person in this room uses that knowledge in some way or another you either ignore it you allow it to define you you allow it to shape you or you don't but you're a theologian you're coming at the world with some kind of basic knowledge of who

[14:10] God is how do I know that because Romans 1 tells us that Romans 1 says that all of creation is revealing God to us but we suppress the truth about God being revealed to us in creation in unrighteousness because we're rebellious people we don't want to be under the authority of that God who made everything we want to be our own God that's the problem isn't it all right you with me kids you with me all everybody's a theologian everybody's coming at life with some kind of a understanding or some kind of an approach to God and who God is you know do you understand what I'm telling you here is atheists are theologians agnostics are theologians doesn't matter where you're from or who you are everybody's a theologian as the study of God as the study of God theology takes us beyond mere facts about God theology helps you and I know God as he's revealed himself in the Bible and especially through his son

[15:19] Jesus Christ theology is also concerned with knowing and applying God's truth it's not just about knowing facts about God lots of people know facts about God there are some people who say that they believe in God but they don't live for God nothing about their life appears holy or set apart to God's service they believe in God because they believe that by being quote unquote a good person they can get to heaven there's all kinds of ways of thinking about this there's only one true way to know God and that's through Jesus Christ amen where do we meet Jesus we meet him in scripture now there's another one that I want to give you that's the first plank here's the second one epistemology now don't let that word scare you away some of you've heard that word before epistemology concerns how you and I know what is true so you can say it's the study of knowledge it's the study of what we can know our senses and our ability to reason come into play as we try to establish a worldview a worldview by which we understand and interact with others in our world the way we interpret the world how can we know that what we know is true and worth living by because you can be deceived

[16:42] I can be deceived we have an active enemy trying to deceive us scheming to deceive us and many many many many people live under that satanic deception in their sin it takes the power of God to rescue it rescue us from it look I'd be out of a job if all of us were able to discern without Jesus and without God the issues of life if we didn't need Jesus to open the eyes of our heart to see truly what's going on y'all wouldn't need me we just do it ourselves we need a supernatural God to do a supernatural work in opening our spiritual eyes to see a spiritual world for what it really is that is the work of the Holy Spirit coming into your life and saving you Jesus living in you epistemology the word comes from episteme episteme another Greek word it means knowledge or understanding so we are talking in epistemology we are concerned with how we know what we know and where we get that knowledge from all right I'll give you one more now look this isn't professorship up here this this is our stuff all right we all own this this isn't just stuff they teach you in seminary this is stuff this is the life of the church here right we all need to talk to our kids about well how do we know that's true you raise them and you tell them these are true things but one day they're going to come to their place where they're going to they're going to ask do I really want to believe what my parents have taught me am I going to own what my parents have told me about the world about God about what's important so you need to help your kids know why they know what they know and where they get it from and why it's important now if they make the decision when they get older and they go out on their own not to believe what you believe and follow what you believe don't let it be on you that you didn't try to train them up in the fear of the

[18:48] Lord you can't save them but you can teach them right we're all there together now let me give you one more and I'll do this one real quickly because you're more familiar with this one anthropology so we have theology we have epistemology we have anthropology anthropology simply concerns what we can know about mankind anthropos about humankind about being human now each of these disciplines is related to the other each of these disciplines informs the other you don't take them in isolation they're all connected together now so why why is it important for us to know about this and to talk about these and and how do these things begin to relate to our understanding of who we are and who God is and why this is important for our understanding of origins and Genesis and the way God defines the way we all started what is all of this about well friends listen to me on this now it matters who you listen to you're all going to form your judgments and opinions about these categories that I've put up here theology epistemology and anthropology and more you're all going to do that you all are doing that well it matters in forming your understanding of these categories for life it matters who you listen to you don't want to listen to just anybody there are probably hundreds of ideas and opinions out there about what these things mean and why they're important or why they don't matter it matters who you listen to listen it matters where you begin in your understanding of the world and yourself it matters your starting point for understanding who you are matters for example if you start by believing that you evolved from primates that is going to affect the way that you think about who you are why you're here and what's important it's going to help define who you are your starting place is very important well what if you start with God that's a big question that has a big answer stick around for the next few months that's the question we're answering when you're starting place for your origins is God what does God tell you about who you are why you're here what's important what purpose do you even serve we talk about kids going through these these stages of life where they're they're going to get to the point where they're going to wrestle with that and they're going to ask themselves do I really want to believe what my parents have taught me even even kids who are not raised in the church ask that question don't they sure they do it matters what we base our understanding on what we use as our measuring stick for understanding the issues of life determines our worldview let me give you another example kids as you look up here all of you kids you know what a measuring tape is right tape measure you've probably seen people you know they take it out and they measure to cut stuff and all all right well I want to ask you what are you using to measure life what are you using at 11 years old at 10 years old at 15 years old at whatever what are you using to measure life you do it you do it every single day many many times because you're a meaning maker you're constantly interpreting what's happening to you at your age you're constantly trying to make meaning of what the world is throwing at you what your parents are telling you what they're requiring of you you're having to make meaning of that kids have you ever done this secretly have you ever gotten instruction from your parents or this is the way it's going to be and as soon as you could get out of sight this is you I don't want to I don't I don't

[23:09] I don't want to do that that is that is so they're not saying it have you ever had that going on inside of you that's you measuring life that's you taking out your tape measure and trying to get a perspective on what's going on and you've decided after you've measured whatever your parents just said to you you've decided that that doesn't measure up I don't like the way that's coming out if I were I would I wish I had a dollar bill for every time I said that growing up that's how we respond to life just trying to help put this in perspective for you to some degree no matter who you are or how old you are at some level or another you are measuring life you are trying to figure out what's happening to you why it's happening and what it means for your future and you've probably told yourself when I get to be a parent I'm not going to do it like that I remember telling myself oh oh I can't wait to get my driver's license I'm not even going to tell you how that worked out that's another story listen R.C.

[24:34] Sproul R.C. Sproul is a theologian and an author not long ago deceased went to be with the Lord an awesome guy wrote lots of books a great great man in many ways a dear dear man was a hard loss to lose him to heaven at least for us he said this the scientific method the scientific method combines sense perception and reason in scientific experiments we gather facts with our senses our minds then draw conclusions you see that our minds then draw conclusions reasoning through what our five senses discover some want to oppose this way of learning to faith but I don't find in scripture the idea that faith is irrational or anti sense perception according to God's word reason and sense perception form the foundation of knowledge faith rests on this foundation but takes us beyond it but takes us beyond it now you may be looking at that and saying man I'm not sure I'm

[25:50] I'm grabbing some of that what I'm doing now is trying to help you understand how different people measure the world and the world on the whole has decided that there is a viable reasonable and scientific alternative to what God says in Genesis one through three about the origins of earth and you and where evil comes from they have found an alternative they have devised and designed an antithesis an opposite to what God's word says in Genesis one through three and they're teaching it in the schools that you attend they're putting it in program after program all over the television and any other medium it's in every natural history museum around the world they build huge edifices for millions of dollars and they pack these lies into them so that you can walk around and read it and see where you came from and it is an exact opposite of what God says isn't it and yet that's what they're doing unapologetically it's all theory but they don't present it as theory they present it as fact so that when they talk about it they talk about it as if they know for absolute certain that scientifically this proves the way the world really happened it happened over billions of years it started with a single cell where it came from and how it got there they have no idea they just said it happened they define everything this way now I kid you not you can go and read it for yourselves random chance over billions of years it just happened we don't know how it just happened there's nobody that designed it there's nobody behind it there's no intelligence it was all just pure random chance and so it took billions of years for that randomness to come together to form something that we now are that's how it happened it evolved and you're the product of that evolution nobody created you nobody designed you you just happened that's it

[28:34] I have filled my head with show after documentary after doc just listening to these people I have watched and read so much stuff in the last few months on this and sometimes I have to get up and just leave I am so incensed by these thinking people actually believe this it's amazing it's amazing the lengths that they will go to to explain these things I watched I watched a man a very famous paleontologist who studies human mankind's past I watched him take bones from an ape that they believe is one of the missing links showing the evolution from apes to human beings and they found parts of this thing and they wanted to say this was proof that we evolved but the problem was the entire hip joints were flared in such a way where it was impossible in that position for that creature to walk upright in a manner like we do and not fall over the hip joints were primate joints that showed that it was bent over and it was all about the knuckles that's how the hips were and so this is the story that they concocted long ago something stepped on that hip bone and busted it up and it lay there and it cemented itself in that position that looks like a primate hip probably a deer and they actually had a video where they animated the deer stepping on the bone and crushing it and it laying there and fusing together in that position and so this paleontologist who is world renowned for articles he's written and the science he's done took a Dremel tool and he reconstructed the hip to resemble a human and said

[31:02] I'm putting it back together the way it was now and cut pieces out and then re-glued them and now it looks like a human I am not kidding do you so he he just said so he created his own bone yes they made a plaster cast and he did all of that I could go on and on and on and on about this kind of stuff now what I'm saying to you is that man was sincere I'm not saying that that man did that and he has a deliberate knowledge that he was trying to commit fraud they made a video of this they showed him doing it the narrator sitting there talking about how doctor so and so is now reforming it into the shape that it was originally and they think that's science now this is where we are this is the kind of thing that we're facing what's the agenda well I've told you before that the agenda is satanic whether these people realize they're being used satanically or not is not the issue that doesn't change the fact that these are lies these are fraudulent ways of presenting something that flies in the face of what you and I read and it sounds sophisticated it sounds and seems scientific but it's not alright I'm gonna go on and I'm gonna help you see why I'm doing this with you why this is so important to me personally that I understand that I am able to communicate this understanding to especially our kids if you look with me here on the screen in light of what

[32:35] RC has said we walk by faith not by what sight you and I are not led around on a leash by our senses what we can see what we can feel what we can taste and touch and smell if you and if that's all that dictated how we lived we'd be nothing we'd be just like the animals living by instinct by what comes at us and what we can perceive that way but we've been made in the image of God we cannot physically see God we cannot physically see heaven we cannot physically see Jesus and we can't know all there is to know about how God operates in the details of our lives have you ever had something happen to you and you were left wondering what this was all about why am I experiencing this not in the sense necessarily that you were questioning

[33:36] God's wisdom or his goodness in it you just didn't understand all the reasons that it was happening to you well again friends that doesn't mean there isn't a God it just means you're not God we cannot scientifically experiment our way to God we can't do that we cannot scientifically experiment our way back to God at the time of creation science cannot help us do that we live in relation to God by faith founded on truth and that is the scripture according to the science council that's a group providing the quality assurance system for those working in the fields of science this is what they say according to them science is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence we're talking about studying

[34:51] God's world don't you think it would be important for us to consult the creator if we want to know more about our world let's ask the person who made it and put us in it why did he do that why did he make us why did he put us here why did he create the world the way that he did the word science is from French and Latin words meaning to know to know we're dealing in the area of knowledge epistemology knowledge it's God's domain not science the laws of nature are God's invention not sciences are theology and science then enemies no they're not they don't have to be why not because we're talking about world views which compromise or compete with scripture that's the problem science is not the problem if we could do science in an honest way science would do nothing but continue to confirm the scriptures on all that the scripture speaks about now listen in terms of operational science many of you have a cell phone when I was coming up we didn't have cell phones back in the dinosaur age we didn't have that we had we dialed phones like this see and we used phone booths you see that in the movies cell phones

[36:35] I'm going to give it back Nathan this is a product of science operational science this has nothing to do in that field with what science does when it looks into the past and it can't repeat what happened in the past it can't experiment with it because nobody was there what happened in the past in creation is you can't reproduce it so you can't experiment with it you can't know if your suppositions and assumptions about what happened in the past are true because you can't reproduce what happened there's no way for you to do that it was a supernatural event done by a supernatural sovereign god that's a whole nother world of science than the science that produced this but they want to use this kind of illustration to talk about what's real and what's not real in the way of religion and so they tell us that religion has to be put over here and that it's unscientific and I'm trying to say to us science and religion don't have to be enemies but it matters who you listen to and where you start if you start with science you're going to be in trouble why because science isn't infallible why because we're the ones doing it do you understand what I'm saying why is our science not absolutely trustworthy because we're the ones behind it doing the science and we're the problem right what about

[38:11] God when God wrote the Bible did he write it with error did God make a mistake who stands behind the Bible who's doing the work behind the Bible God trustworthy worthy see we're on we're on two different worlds now I just saw Jeff sitting over here Jeff's a NASA engineer and the science they do is mind-boggling but the science that Jeff does at NASA is never going to help us reproduce what happened in our origins in our creation time it was a supernatural event and it can't but they want to use that kind of thing not Jeff they want to use that kind of thing as an argument to prove that the scientific way of evolution makes what we read in Genesis untenable and they think we are irrational for believing it and they say things like this yeah but you're taking that on faith and so you're telling me that what you're doing and looking back at evolution and all the millions of years and all the assumptions you make that's not faith well of course it is because it's unprovable there are many many reasons to think about it this way

[39:26] I'm going to get to a scripture in just a moment hang on you'll be like Jeff this is the longest you've ever preached and not actually read more of the Bible I know I know but let me say these things and then I'll be able to sleep tonight I'm going somewhere with all this any truthful now hear how I say this please any truthful unbiased conscientious and careful pursuit of knowledge and understanding about our world which does follow according to the science council a careful pursuit of knowledge and understanding about our world which follows a systematic methodology based solely on the evidence will never contradict the truths of scripture never it's not going to happen we can do a million more years of digging up fossils and doing scientific studies they are never ever going to find anything that contradicts the word of God never or Isaiah was a liar Paul was a liar Peter was a liar Jesus Christ was a liar thy word is truth sanctify them in the truth this is what's at stake if the scientific process leads to any compromise of scriptures authority on any subject that the

[40:48] Bible speaks to then the science itself is somehow suspect and rendered compromised not God's word God is the God of true science that's what I want to say God is the God of true science so friends don't be intimidated by this so-called science that's coming down the pike that's supposed to prove that the Genesis account is just hogwash that there's no way that science could ever support what happened in what Genesis says that's just religious myth and it needs to stay in its domain and boy I want to take that bad boy and storm the gates of hell with it and say no no no no this is God's domain and I ain't letting you take it we're not going to give an inch of it to you man's wisdom will never stand against the Lord's there is no greater authority on the knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world than Jesus Christ who made heaven and earth and all it contains amen he's the creator and I know you guys know this stuff now let me take you somewhere and encourage your heart from how God gives it to us from just a couple of places in the

[41:57] Bible we're going to go to Job first can you go to Job that's the book right before Psalms right before Psalms the book of Job chapter 38 now look folks I'm not going to quote unquote preach on this or take it apart verse by verse we don't have time to do that this morning for what I'm doing but I just want you to be flooded with the truth of this so now Job is dealing with God and God is going to provide Job with some answers to Job's dilemma Job has suffered greatly and he doesn't understand why God never told Job why he suffered the way he did and in the in the the way that he did God never revealed that to him do you remember what happened with Job Satan came to God and said hey let me have Job he's a righteous man

[42:59] I'll go down there and I'll work on Job and I'll reverse his salvation I'll reverse his faith in you I'll make it to where Job curses you and doesn't follow you anymore and so the issue at hand with Job was is Satan powerful enough to cause us to deny God once we have come to know the Lord in a saving way once we've come to trust the Lord can Satan reverse our salvation all right that's that's what's at stake and and so now after many many weeks of suffering and Job's friends coming around him to try to tell him well this is what we think is going on you're the problem this is because of sin in your life and it wasn't it was because God said okay you go down there and you tempt him you take away his health you take away his family you take away his wealth you take away things that are important to him in the world and his material possessions and let's see what he does with it and so that's what happened Satan was convinced I'll get him to deny you and this went on for weeks and weeks and his friends gathered around him in that and said this has got to be about sin in your life Job and it wasn't it was about God providing a test for him to show

[44:15] Satan you can't undo what I do you can't do that not with my people you can't and so in Job 38 then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind and said who is this that darkens counsel by words without what church knowledge what's he talking well I said I wouldn't do that all right now gird up your loins like a man and now I'm going to ask you and you make me know you see what's going on here God is saying all right Job now I'm going to ask you some questions and you answer for me since you think you know stuff here we go where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth you see the first question out of the gate God asked if Job helped in creation could he explain or control creation it's right out of the gate we're going to start right there tell me if you know understanding who said its measurements since you know who stretched the line on it that's the measuring tape on what were its bases sunk who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together the angels and the angelic hosts and all the sons of God shouted for joy where were you where were you when all that was taking place where were you when I made all of the foundation for the earth and created it the way that I did yeah you know tell me tell me how that all happened or who enclosed the sea with doors when bursting forth it went out from the room wound when I made a cloud its garment and dense gloom its swaddling band and I placed boundaries on the sea and set a bolt in doors and I said thus far you shall come but no further and here shall your proud waves stop where were you when

[46:04] I put the limits on the water have you ever in your life commanded the morning have you caused the dawn to know its place I mean think about that folks that it might seize the ends of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it it is changed like clay under the seal and they stand forth like clothing from the wicked their light is withheld and the arm raised high is broken he's just saying nothing can stand against what I've done have you entered into the springs of the sea have you walked in the recesses of the deep have the gates of death been revealed to you have you seen the gates of the shadow of death have you carefully considered the expanse of the earth tell me tell me if you know all this where is the way to where the light dwells and darkness where is its place you ever thought about darkness as a creation that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home you know for you were born then and the number of your days is great how would you feel if the Lord was talking to you like this directly do you think that you'd just be sinking down to the ground further and further and before it's over you'd be just like this on the with your face in the dust yeah this is marvelous have you entered the storehouses of the snow have you seen the storehouses of the hail which I've reserved for the time of distress for the day of war and battle where is the way that the light is divided or the east wind scattered on the earth whose cleft of conduit for the flood or a way for the thunderbolt to bring rain on a land without people a desert without a man in it to satisfy the waste and desolate land and to make the growth of grass to sprout has the rain a father or who has begotten the drops of dew from whose womb has come the ice and the first and the frost of heaven who has given it birth water becomes hard like stone and the surface of the deep is interlocked can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion can you lead forth a constellation in its season and guide the bear with her satellites do you know the statutes of the heavens or fix their rule over the earth can you raise your voice up to the clouds so that an abundance of water will cover you can you send forth lightnings that they may go and say to you here we are who has given wisdom in the innermost being or given understanding to the mind who can count the clouds by wisdom or tip the water jars of the heavens when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods stick together it's like who made dirt can you hunt the prey for the lion this is so beautiful can you hunt the prey for the lion or fulfill the appetite of the young lions when they crouch in their dens and lion wait in their lair who prepares for the raven its provision when it's young cry for help to God and wander about without food it's like Job can you in a moment take care of all the animals and sustain everything on the earth and make sure it's fed can you keep all of that moving in the way that I designed and purposed do you have that kind of power and knowledge well he doesn't in there if you look with me over at Job 40 1 through 14 then Yahweh answered Job and said will the fault finder contend with the almighty let him who reproves God answer it then Job answered Yahweh and said behold I am insignificant what can I respond to you I place my hand over my mouth once I have spoken and I will not answer even twice and I will add nothing more that's smart man then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind and said now gird up your loins like a man and I will ask you and you make me know will you really annul my judgment will you condemn me that you may be justified or do you have an arm like God can you thunder with a voice like his adorn yourself with exaltation and loftiness clothe yourself with splendor and majesty pour out the overflowings of your anger and look on everyone who is proud and make him low look on everyone who is proud and humble and tread down the wicked in their place hide them in the dust together bind their faces in the hidden place then I will also praise you that your own right hand can save you

[50:48] I know that's tough isn't it wait he's not finished look at 42 real quick then Job answered Yahweh and said I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted who is this that hides counsel without knowledge therefore I've declared that which I did not understand things too marvelous for me which I did not know here now and I will speak I will ask you and you make me know oh I've heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees you therefore I reject myself and I repent in dust and ashes hey there you go that's the beauty of the truth of God I reject myself and I repent in dust and ashes before a holy God Job said I just want to know you I just want to know you and I don't want anything to get in the way of me knowing you for who you are and who you made me to be I stepped outside my place and because you love me you put me back where I belong under your care not trying to step out away from it suffering will do that to you won't it suffering will tempt you to try to step outside of God's grace at work in your life so that you can get that problem done and finished and behind you and you don't want to suffer anymore I understand that I'm human too Job was that way and God said no this is where you belong you belong right here under my care and under my guidance and under my wisdom you're not going to understand all this but that doesn't mean it's not true and good

[52:34] God is the God of true science out of the pride of self-delusion and satanic deception mankind steps forward to challenge the authority of God in the name of science look behind every attempt to add to refute replace or revise the truth and authority of God's account of our origins is a satanic scheme of deception based on lies camouflaged as truth camouflaged as science is there real good science going on in the world yes there's also a lot of fraud and a lot of bad science that really isn't science at all I'm just saying we need to be discerning friends Proverbs tells us that only fools hate knowledge fools hate the knowledge of God fools hate God's knowledge in Genesis 1 they hate it they absolutely despise it and they fight with everything inside of themselves to move away from the truth of God in Genesis 1 through 3 as a starting point and so they create an alternative and please know who's behind that the wisdom of God in the Bible calls to us but sinners spurn God's wisdom in support of their own wisdom because I want to be my own God left to myself that's how I'd live but God says this look at what God says to that look turn to my reproof behold I will pour out my spirit on you

[54:22] I will make my words known to you it is because sinners hate God's knowledge and do not choose the fear of the Lord that this happens the turning away of the simple will kill them and the complacency of fools will destroy them that's what Proverbs tells us we must approach every aspect of life spiritually in relation to God and his ways as revealed to us in scripture friends Jesus Christ who is the way the truth and the life is our wisdom for living all the treasures of wisdom all the treasures of knowledge are found in Jesus not in man's wisdom let me give you this from John Frame it is evident that we do not find in human reason alone even in logic an infallible criterion of truth that might compete with scripture is our ultimate covenant rule our ultimate authority scripture indeed must be seen to rule over our reasoning as over every other aspect of life now you understand and agree with that scripture must stand as the supreme authority in your life so that everything that you're measuring life by you're using using the measuring tape of scripture of the truth of God's word to measure you take God's word and you put it up against this issue this situation this challenge this trial this difficulty and you measure it with scripture you start with God and the first thing out of your mouth should be this

[56:07] God is good and God does good to me no matter what we taught our kids growing up we had a saying in our house you've heard some of you've heard me say this anytime we worked with our kids dealt with our kids we said this to them all the time always start with God always start with God start with his perspective on whatever it is start with his knowledge on whatever it is face whatever it is with God and root yourself there well I'm not going to get through all of this so let me wrap up I'm trying to look for a stopping place see it's kind of one of those things where you start talking you don't know how to stop yourself you kind of need somebody to come in and just hook you and take you away so Greg's that guy if it gets too much he'll come up and say brother, brother alright no let me just give you a little more can you take just a little bit more okay let me give you a little more because I'm not going to get to all of it

[57:11] I don't know what I'll do with it we'll see scripture is our starting point our measuring standard now listen that does not mean abandoning a scientific search for facts about God's world it's not what I'm saying I'm not throwing people like Jeff under the bus I'm so glad Jeff does what he does I love watching NASA's stuff it's fascinating I don't know how you do it Jeff these are brilliant people man these are hard working people so I'm not throwing science especially operational science that helps us war against disease and gives us cell phones and all that I'm not I'm not I don't have any issues there scripture as our covenant rule as our highest authority for knowing and interpreting ourselves and our world can can and does involve a stewardship of scientific inquiry so a high view of scripture does not mean that the Bible is at war with the laws of science but it does mean this we don't use the laws of science to interpret life apart from God's word and we don't start with the laws of science and say now

[58:29] God's word measure up to the law of science we don't do that why because our measurement is could be flawed we could be wrong but God's word isn't we start with what's solid truth trustworthy what God stands behind and created we use that as our platform and measuring standard that way when we come to the science if it's not lining up with God's word we say well God's word is true the science is bad somewhere let's go back and redo that thing especially as it refers to origins why we're here who created us where we created how'd all that happen believing that the Bible is the highest rule of faith and living out that faith to please God in all things means this here's what it means I just told you what it doesn't mean it doesn't have to mean that we're at war with science look some of you guys you may want to grow up and be scientists that's great be a scientist that loves God be a scientist that understands that God made everything be a scientist that goes and looks at the geology of the earth and all of the rocks and the stratus the layers and all that and say wow

[59:47] I already know that the flood happened worldwide and so how do I understand this in light of the fact that God put a flood on the whole earth and for 150 days this thing was going on and it rained for 40 days and 40 nights it was catastrophic see what I'm saying you bring presuppositions assumptions to everything you interpret well you better start with God's word being that presupposition or you're in trouble now we know that alright I'm getting there I'm almost there believing that the Bible is the highest rule of faith and living out that faith to please God in all things means that look here we go it means that our world is more than matter it's more than what we can see taste smell feel and touch it's more than sense perception our world is more than what we can hold on to and see but there are lots and lots of people out there that believe all that matters is matter so they factor out the spiritual that's why scientifically they're saying that the Genesis account can't be true it's myth we cannot base it in science we cannot put our hands on it and touch it and taste it and feel it and we tell them but there's more to life than just matter the raw stuff of what we can see taste touch feel experience in the life it also means this that you are a spiritual being in a physical body existing in a physical and spiritual world ruled ruled by the sovereign creator or author of scripture truth absolute truth it means it means that the knowledge we need to rightly interpret these aspects of our lives is based in God's perspectives of living and dying it means having the scripture as your highest authority means that because all error is based in spiritual warfare you guard your heart with all diligence as you learn to discern the issues of life scripturally and finally it means you must measure every part of your life by God's word so that you can grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior

[62:16] Jesus Christ and please him in all respects why don't I close this out by taking you to Proverbs and we'll just read this passage and then I may share a quote with you and we'll be done Proverbs chapter 3 let me give you just a little bit more of God's perspective on this and we're going to look at verse 13 down through 26 in terms of God's wisdom here's what he says how blessed is the man who finds wisdom now that's not just wisdom like man's or scientific how blessed is the man who finds God's wisdom who accepts the wisdom of God as revealed to us in scripture and the man who obtains discernment about that wisdom and through that wisdom for her wisdom her profit is better than the profit of silver her produce better than fine gold she is more precious than pearls and nothing you desire compares with her you see what he's saying here there is something more valuable and more important about life than getting stuff than acquiring money and power and making use of people and situations and context to further your power base to increase your financial profitability so that human beings become useful to you only in the sense that those human beings help further your agenda you're important to me as a friend as long as you're useful to me for my agenda you stop being useful to me in my agenda and I'm going to find somebody else that can help me get there that's pragmatism that's utilitarianism and there are people who are building their entire lives over this but God said you can have as much silver gold pearls and everything else you miss the wisdom of God in Christ and you miss the point of life now how important is that length of days is in wisdom's right hand in her left hand are riches and glory her ways are pleasant ways and all her pathways are peace she is a tree of life to those who sees her and all those who hold her fast are blessed

[64:43] Yahweh by wisdom founded the earth by discernment see we you know you just can't get away from it everywhere you're in scripture you go you're going to read Yahweh by wisdom founded the earth by discernment he established the heavens there it is again by his knowledge the deeps were split up and the skies drip with dew do you see Genesis there my son let them not deviate from your eyes guard sound wisdom and discretion it's worth it so they will be life for your soul and grace for your neck there are a lot of dead souls out there because they've rejected the wisdom of God in Christ then you will walk in your way securely and your foot will not stumble when you lie down you will not be in dread when you lie down and your sleep will be pleasant do not be afraid of sudden dread nor of the storm of the wicked when it comes for Yahweh will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught now what does any of this have to do with our study in Genesis 1 Jesus Christ is our creator

[65:49] Jesus Christ is our savior not either or both and he is our life his word is life to us because you listen now I'm closing because you belong to Jesus that's enough right there because you belong to Jesus you are under an unrelenting spiritual attack from a cunning vicious merciless predator just by being a Christian God's word is under constant attack Satan knows that the knowledge and understanding that you and I need for life and godliness are found in the Bible all the attacks being made right now against understanding ourselves and our world through a literal understanding of our origins in Genesis 1 through 3 all of those attacks are about keeping us from being conformed to the image of Christ as those made in the image of God it's all about that this is the foundation of what it means to be human to be made in the image of

[67:04] God and reflect that image to his glory in life everything about this sin cursed world works against that the world is constantly wanting to redefine you away from being made in the image of God it wants to cheapen you and render you without hope the devil is working to undermine our faith in what God tells us is true and mankind has no answers for this spiritual warfare and deception any search for answers about God about you about ourselves our world must measure life from what God tells us in his word and I know you know that and I know you're here because we continue to teach that and hold up high the scriptures here's where the Bible says your search begins and where it's based the Bible says that God created you in his image in the image of God he created them male and female and that is where we'll pick it up

[68:18] God willing next Sunday and then I'll be able to exposit through the rest of chapter one and talk to you about why God has written this and made it so important for us to stand we are founding our lives on what it means to be made in the image of God everything God tells us about domain living is based on the fact that we're made in his image everything you miss the image of God in you and you miss the reason that he's put you here to have domain over the earth that's how important it is let's pray together thank you for your kind attention almighty God and Savior we thank you so much for truth of your word I thank you for the visitors who are here today by no accident for some reason God you led them to choose this church and this moment to be a part of this worship service and hear this message so I pray that you will help each of us to take this message to our hearts and carefully contemplate what we've read in the book of

[69:28]  Job what we've read in the book of Proverbs how we started out in Genesis 1 1 and how all of this comes together to form the foundation for our faith in you as both our creator and our redeemer we look to you Lord Jesus as you live in us to sanctify us to help us to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ help us Holy Spirit toward that end that we will grow in that grace and knowledge to the greater glory of God to please him in all respects help us to keep these things cemented in our souls and hold on to them very tightly with a faith that cannot be shaken apart from the truth we love you God we persevere by grace through faith in you and we thank you for the opportunities that we have to serve you may you bless these precious souls in Jesus name I pray amen