Dan Gatlin - September 30, 2019 pm - Gospel Meeting MP3 PP
The Basis For Faith In God
Intro.—We live
in a time when everything is questioned, even the existence of God.
A.
From that standpoint, modern man (last 150 yrs.) has strayed from what
most of humanity
down through time has accepted—that there is a higher power.
1. Man has been ignorant of WHO God is, but the existence of a
higher power has rarely been
denied.
(Culturally speaking, though individuals have often denied God.)
2. "21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him
as God, nor were
thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their
foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed
the glory of the
incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible
man — and birds and four-
footed animals and creeping things." -
Rom. 1:21-23
a. This wasn't
a denial that a "superior being" existed, but a corruption of who God
was.
3. Throughout
most of time, men have understood that there is something greater than
us.
B. Today,
"Science" has replaced God in the minds of many.
Faith is considered an
"unsophisticated relic" from the past.
C. Can we know
that God exists? Is our
faith "blind" or is it based in reason?
I. How
Did We (Mankind) Get Here?
A. There are
only two possible answers: 1) by accident, or 2) by design.
B. The heart of
the question is this: Does God exist?
1. Either He
does, or He doesn't—There is NO middle ground.
a. We may
doubts, but our doubt don't change the fact, either there is or there
isn't a God.
2. If we got
here by accident, the God doesn't exist.
But, if by design, then there must have
been a
Designer.
C. This is
known as the "Argument of First Cause."
1. Atheists
believe that all matter, energy, time, & dimension popped into existence
from
nothing.
<Look up "Richard Dawkins Gets Laughed At".>
2. Theists
(believers) think God is eternal, therefore the First Cause.
3. Which takes
more faith?
D. If God
exists, then He has to be greater & more powerful than His creation.
1. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." -
Gen. 1:1
II. Is There Evidence For The Existence of God?
A.
Teleological Argument.
1. The word
teleology means "study of the ultimate cause."
2. What is the
ultimate cause of our existence?
3.
How are watches made, explosions or a watchmaker?
Do explosions ever produce order?
4. Design
implies a Designer! There is
design throughout creation!
5. "1 <To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.> The heavens
declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork. 2 Day unto day utters
speech, And night
unto night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech nor
language Where their voice is
not heard." -
Ps. 19:1-3
a. We can see
the handiwork of God everywhere.
There is no time or place where His
creation does
not speak to us.
b. V. 3
Creation doesn't talk.
The idea is, "Actions speak louder than words!"
6. "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes
are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even His eternal
power and Godhead, so that
they are without excuse" -
Rom. 1:20
a. How can
something invisible be seen?
1) Footprints
on a beach. 2) How did the
communion table get there?
(There was a
furniture
maker—I've never seen him, but I know).
I've never seen the Creator.
b. What can we
learn about God from creation?
<His eternal power and Godhead>
1) I can
surmise from the size & detail of the universe some things about God.
2) His
power is incompressible.
There is no way to calculate how much energy is in the
universe.
3) The APPARENT
age of the universe tells us that God is eternal.
4) Creation
can't tell us what
God's will is.
7. "Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in
that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling
our hearts with food and gladness." -
Acts 14:17
a. The creation
is perfectly balanced to provide for man.
1) If the sun
were any larger or the earth any closer we would burn up.
2) If the sun
were smaller or the earth more distant we would freeze.
3) The tilt of
the earth gives us the 4 seasons.
4) The moon is
240,000 miles from the earth.
It's size & distance give us the tides.
5) Plant-life,
including planktin, clean the air & produce oxygen.
6) The surface
of the earth is 72% water, needed for the rain cycle (described in Eccl.
1).
b. This balance
in creation shows God's goodness toward man.
B.
Philosophical Argument —
See Chart!
1. Pascal's
Wager—This has some merit, but it lacks in one area: —>
2. God has
given us evidence of His existence.
C.
The "Consciousness" Argument.
1. If there is
no God, how did dead matter "wake up"?
2. This is such
a difficult question that modern evolutionists admit they don't have a
clue.
a. “The problem of
consciousness tends to embarrass biologists. Taking it to be an aspect
of living things, they feel they should know about it and be able to
tell physicists about it,
whereas they have nothing relevant to say.”
(George Wald, The Cosmology of Life & Mind,
1994)
3. "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." -
Gen. 2:7
a. “The position
of mind in nature remains a total mystery. It could be that there exists
some sort of a cosmic mind, perhaps co-equal with the material universe
itself, from which each
of our individual minds stems and to which each ultimately returns.” (John Beloff,
The
Brain Mind
Problem)
III. The Nature Of Biblical Faith.
A. Our faith is
not a blind faith, but based on evidence.
1. However,
there are things that I cannot absolutely prove.
2. I
can't prove: a) the
existence of heaven, b) the Second Coming, c) universal judgment.
3. However, I
believe in those things because of what I
can prove.
B. Biblical
faith is based on the overall veracity & accuracy of the Scriptures.
C.
Pre-scientific statements.
(Building houses in my early 20s.)
1. The earth is
round.
a. "When He prepared the heavens, I was there, When He drew a
circle on the face of
the deep" -
Prov. 8:27 <1000 BC>
b. "It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its
inhabitants are like
grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
And spreads them out
like a tent to dwell in." -
Isa. 40:22 <725 BC>
c. Aristotle
first theorized that the earth was round <350 BC>, but it wasn't proven
until the
late 1400s to
early 1500s.
2. The
expanding universe.
a. "And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the
morning were the
second day." -
Gen. 1:8
<1475 BC>
b. "Firmament"
is often translated & defined as "expanse."
"Like metal expanding under a
smith's hammer."
c. Scientists
have known for 20 years that the "Big Bang" isn't true.
1) The further
they see into the universe, the faster objects are moving away.
The big
collapse.
2) To explain
this, they theorize "dark matter" & "dark energy."
3. Valleys in
the ocean depths.
a. "Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in
the recesses of the
deep?" -
Job 38:16 (ESV)
b. "Then the channels of the sea were seen, The foundations of
the world were
uncovered, At the rebuke of the LORD, At the blast of the
breath of His nostrils." -
2 Sam. 22:16
("channels" is the same Hebrew word as "recesses.")
c. This word is
defined as "canyon" or "crevasse."
d. The sea
floor was thought to be large flat, sandy area, like underwater deserts.
e. In 1873 (AD)
the first sounding were taken, trenches/valleys were discovered in the
ocean.
D.
Historical accuracy.
1. Hittite
empire.
a. The Hittites
are mention 47 times in the OT, starting in Gen. 15.
a. “HITTITES: the
children or descendants of Heth, formed one of the
tribes of Canaanites
which occupied Palestine before the Israelites.
They lived in the
mountains of Judea
around Hebron, and retained their nationality even after the return of the Israelites
from
exile.” -
Encyclopedia Brittannica, 1861
b. The
discovery of the Hittites AS AN EMPIRE was a process that took about 100
years.
c. <MAP>
2. Hezekiah &
Isaiah.
a."Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus
says the LORD God of
Israel: ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib
king of Assyria, I have
heard.’" -
2 Kings 19:20
b. The
existence of both have long been questioned.
c. Hezekiah's
seal discovered in Dec. 2015. <PICTURES> Isaiah's seal
discovered in Feb.
2018. <PICTURE>
E.
Fulfilled prophecy.
1. Destruction
& desolation of Babylon.
a. "19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, The beauty of the
Chaldeans’ pride, Will be
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 20 It will never
be inhabited, Nor will
it be settled from generation to generation; Nor will the
Arabian pitch tents there,
Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there. 21 But
wild beasts of the desert
will lie there, And their houses will be full of owls;
Ostriches will dwell there, And
wild goats will caper there. 22 The hyenas will howl in
their citadels, And jackals in
their pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, And her
days will not be
prolonged."" -
Isa. 13:19-22
b. Cities were
almost always rebuilt. Most
cities were build on mounds (tels).
<PICTURE>
2. Egypt:
"9 And the land of Egypt shall become desolate and waste;
then they will know
that I am the LORD, because he said, ‘The River is mine, and
I have made it.’ 10
Indeed, therefore, I am against you and against your rivers,
and I will make the land of
Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from Migdol to Syene, as
far as the border of
Ethiopia. 11 Neither foot of man shall pass through it nor
foot of beast pass through it,
and it shall be uninhabited forty years. 12 I will make the
land of Egypt desolate in the
midst of the countries that are desolate; and among the
cities that are laid waste, her
cities shall be desolate forty years; and I will scatter the
Egyptians among the nations
and disperse them throughout the countries. 13
‘Yet, thus says the Lord GOD: "At the
end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the
peoples among whom they were
scattered. 14 "I
will bring back the captives of Egypt and cause them to return to the
land of Pathros, to the land of their origin, and there they
shall be a lowly kingdom.
15 "It shall be the lowliest of kingdoms; it shall never
again exalt itself above the
nations, for I will diminish them so that they will not rule
over the nations anymore." -
Ezek. 29:9-15
a. Egypt would
become desolate & waste for a period. They would remain a lowly kingdom.
b. History show
the fulfillment of this prophecy.
1)
Nebuchadnezzar defeated Pharaoh at Carchmeish in 605 B.C.
2) The Persians
under Cambyses defeated Egypt in 525 B.C.
3) Darius I the
Persian ruled Egypt from 522-486 B.C.
4) Alexander
the Great conquered Egypt in 332 B.C.
This brought an official end to
dynastic rule.
Con.—The
evidence for faith in God is overwhelming.
A. This lesson
is just the briefest of overviews.
The very tip of the iceberg.
1. This brief
lesson offers enough evidence to show that all of God's word is
reliable.
B. If God's
word is true, then a Judgment is coming on the whole world.
Are you ready for it?