How Do We Know There is a God?
March 22, 2006
Pastor Matt Black
Midweek Service
Various
Discipleship: Let’s review our discipleship questions… (For our purposes you do not need to memorize the references.)
Q. What is the first commandment of God’s moral Law?
A. Thou shalt have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3).
Q. What is the second commandment?
A. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image (Exodus 20:4).
Q. What is the third commandment?
A. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain (Exodus 20:7).
Q. What is the fourth commandment?
A. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy (Exodus 20:8).
Q. What is the fifth commandment?
A. Honor thy father and thy mother (Exodus 20:12).
Q. What is the sixth commandment?
A. Thou shalt not kill (Exodus 20:13).
Q. What is the seventh commandment?
A. Thou shalt not commit adultery (Exodus 20:14).
Q. What is the eighth commandment?
A. Thou shalt not steal (Exodus 20:15).
Q. What is the ninth commandment?
A. Thou shalt not bear false witness (Exodus 20:16).
Q. What is the tenth commandment?
A. Thou shalt not covet (Exodus 20:17).
Catechism Question #1.
Q. Who is the first and best of beings?
A. God is the first and best of beings.
Catechism Question #2.
Q. What is the chief end of man?
A. To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.
Catechism Question #3.
Q. How do we know there is a God?
A. The light of nature in man and the works of God plainly declare that there is a God, but His Word and Spirit only do effectually reveal Him unto us for our salvation.
Introduction: Open your Bibles tonight to 1 Corinthians 2:14-16. The title of tonight’s message is: “How Do We Know That There is a God?” There are many people that have a head-knowledge about God. Every one seems to know God when it helps their cause. Rock stars and godless Hollywood entertainers have blessed God’s name when things have gone well, but they are quick to curse Him when His will gets in the way of their will.
Psalm 14:1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 19:1-2 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
The Bible tells us that there is no need to guess or doubt or do any of these foolish things. God is more real than your very life. He gave you life. The Bible never has to prove God exists—your conscience and creation prove it.
I. The Wonder of Creation tells us that God exists.
Psalm 19:1-2 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. 2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
A. We see the Complexity of Creation “day unto day uttereth…night unto night sheweth knowledge”
Calvin said, “No day passes in which God does not show some evidence of His power. Every day contributes something new in proof of the existence of God.” This world is so complex and intricate at it’s most smallest level.
Look at the complexity of the universe. Astronomers understand how the stars are arranged in such beautiful order, that even though their is such an immense number, they are perfectly ordered. There are whole books written about the formations of the stars and how they tell the story of the Gospel! The heavens declare the glory of God!
But look even at the earth we live on. It is the perfect distance from the sun. If it were any closer, we would burn up. If we were farther away, the earth would be too cold to sustain life. The earth rotates around the sun at a speed of nearly 67,000 mph. You didn’t know you were going that fast, and you’ve never gotten pulled over for speeding!
The moon is the perfect size and distance from the Earth for its gravitational pull. If the moon were nearer, the oceans would spill over onto the continents! If it were farther away, there would be no tides and no waves in the oceans!
Think about water! Water is colorless, odorless, has no taste, and yet no living thing can survive without it. Plants, animals and human beings consist mostly of water (about two-thirds of the human body is water).
Ninety-seven percent of the Earth's water is in the oceans. But on our Earth, there is a system designed which removes salt from the water and then distributes that water throughout the globe. Evaporation takes the ocean waters, leaving the salt, and forms clouds which are easily moved by the wind to disperse water over the land, for vegetation, animals and people.
When you think of all these things, remember “the heavens declare the glory of God!”
There are usually three reactions that man will have when He comes to God:
1. He will reject God, and view the things he cannot understand as contradictions.
An unbeliever can understand the reason of Scripture, but there are limits on the capabilities of human reason. He can understand that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified by the Romans and was buried. He can comprehend that he was raised from the dead and preached on earth for forty days before His ascension. Unsaved man can understand the reasoning of truth. What he cannot do is love truth—to love truth is to believe truth. To love God is to believe God. Unbelievers cannot love God and His truth. This can only happen by the regeneration of the soul by the Holy Spirit of God. And so fallen man though quite capable of seeing truth, cannot love the truth, and so rejects it even as he formulates it. Now because he does not love the truth, when the limits of his reasoning are challenged, he rejects these limitations as contradictions. Take for example the resurrection. He can understand that Jesus’ body was raised back to life. Of course this challenges human reason. When is the last time you saw someone raised from the dead?! And so because the unbeliever does not love truth, he rejects God, and views the things he cannot understand as contradictions.
2. The second reaction is that he will accept God, but make Him small in order that he may fit Him into the limitations of human reasoning. There are many unbelieving people that fill the churches today. For vain glory they have presented an outward acceptance of God. They say they are followers of God, but they are not followers of the all powerful God of the Bible. They have created a new God, a small God that they can control. They come to the miracles in the Bible, and they say that they can all be explained by nature and natural science. They come to the Person of Christ and say that he was a good man and worthy of imitating, but He was in no way God. You see, they recreate what the Bible means and explain it away. They shrink the Great God of the Bible. They take away the fear of the Lord. They say there is no hell and that all will go to Heaven. My brethren, they can say whatever they want about God, because they have created him and control him. They make God small that they might fit Him into their human reasoning. And so you see that this acceptance of God is really a rejection of the True and Living God, and a creation of a smaller god that they can control. Though this is a trait of unbelievers, I believe that even God’s people tend to do this. We do not naturally yield to His Almighty control. We baulk at the Lordship of Christ, because we want to be lord of our life.
3. The third reaction to God is that he will accept the God of the Bible in all His greatness, and fall before Him in awe and wonder. This is where Paul is coming from when he exclaims “O the depths!” He says there is an infinity with God that I cannot comprehend with the limits of human reasoning, but I love God and know He is true, so I stand back and wonder. Now with the old nature, it is impossible to yield God His greatness and the glory due His Name. The old nature is far too proud to wonder. He demands that everything be figured out for his puny little brain. He thinks that no one could be bigger than he is! Any thing that surpasses his understanding must not be true.
It is also rotating on its axis, allowing the entire surface of the Earth to be properly warmed and cooled every day.
B. We see that Chance is not possible!
Imagine looking at Mount Rushmore, in which the likenesses of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt are carved. Could you ever believe that it came about by chance? Given infinite time, wind, rain and chance, it is still hard to believe something like that, tied to history, was randomly formed in the side of a mountain. Common sense tells us that people planned and skillfully carved those figures.
C. We also see the Clarity of Creation.
Romans 1:18-20 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 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:
II. The Whisper of Conscience tells us that God exists.
Atheism is not founded on truth, but on a love for our ungodly lifestyle and an unwillingness to investigate the facts.
John 3:19 Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Men turn off their consciences. Men deny God exists to take away their own anxiety about judgment. The old Puritan Stephen Charnock said “The fears and anxieties in the consciences of men have given men sufficient occasion to root out [the knowledge of God’s existence], if it were possible.” But it is not possible!
There is within all of us and in every culture, universal feelings of right and wrong. Even a thief gets upset and feels wronged when someone steals from him! If someone steals your car or breaks into your house, or robs you or assaults you, there is an anger and revulsion and a rage to confront that act as evil, regardless of the culture.
Where does this come from? How do we explain a universal law in the conscience of all people that says that robbery and adultery and lying is all wrong?
Romans 2:13 For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) 16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
III. The Word of Christ tells us that God exists.
God REVEALS Himself to all people, but He is not REAL to all people. Look at Romans 1:18
A. By God’s Spirit
It takes the supernatural act of regeneration by God’s Spirit to bring a man under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Man is by nature opposed to God, and cannot come to God through his conscience. He needs the supernatural drawing [dragging] of the Spirit of God.
Look at 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9—
1 Corinthians 2:9-16
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Matthew 11:27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
So we see clearly in this passage that there are two kinds of people. Jesus said “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).
Psalm 119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
B. By His Word
Romans 10:14
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
All people have knowledge of God, but all outside of Christ “hold [off]—[or suppress] — the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18).
The Bible tells us in Hebrews 11:6 that “he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Conclusion: Are you coming to God—is He the only reality in your life. Let trials and all these things come, but is His existence the only thing that Matters?
Closing Hymn: 38 How Great Thou Art