Quote from Forum Archives on February 6, 2006, 11:01 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

 

GOD’S WORLD

February 5, 2006

 

TEXT: Psalm 33

 

After getting home from church, little Johnny’s mother asked, “What did you learn in Sunday school today, honey?” “Wow!” replied Johnny excitedly. “It was amazing! Moses was running away from an Egyptian army when they ran into a sea and couldn’t go any farther. So Moses radioed back to his engineer unit for them to bring up their portable bridge. They hightailed it to the front and got the pontoon bridge erected. With the Egyptians approaching fast, the Israelites got across and blew up the bridge just as the Egyptian army was going across. So Moses and the Israelites got away and drowned the Egyptians!” Johnny’s mother just stared at him wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Finally, she gasped out, “Is THAT what your Sunday school teacher taught you?” “No,” replied Johnny. “But if you heard her story, you’d never believe it!”

In the ongoing debate between creationism and evolution, I think that most of the evolutionists are quite a bit like little Johnny. Since the Genesis account of creation through the power of God is so amazing and incomprehensible, they make up their own stories about the origins of life that make some sense to them. But, when analyzed more closely, their ideas about the origin of life ends up being far more unbelievable than the truth we are given in Genesis. After all, consider in the final analysis that the evolutionist must ultimately acknowledge that living organisms evolved from non-living objects, like rocks. See? You thought evolution taught that we came from monkeys. In reality, it teaches that we came from rocks! And they don’t even bother to explain how the rocks got there in the first place! Yep, little Johnny’s story was a mountain of credibility compared to what the evolutionist wants us to believe.

As a song writer, David was not saddled with the burdens of evolution theory. He writes, “Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.” David had many reasons to sing joyfully to the Lord. But his expressions of joy written here are not meant for David alone. They are still meant to encourage the righteous to sing joyfully. Why are we to sing joyfully?

We sing joyfully because God made everything. When the righteous recognize that God made everything, then we rejoice that this is God’s world. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses.”

Those who reject this and replace it with man-made theories attempt to remove the foundation for everything. And I mean everything! When man removes God from his life, there is no foundation for morality or law or goodness or justice. Those are replaced with lawlessness and immorality and evil and injustice. They are replaced with an “anything goes” culture which, as we are experiencing, evolves into a culture of death and anarchy. There is a decreasing respect for authority. The Psalmist writes, “For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.” When the love of the Lord is removed from public expression, what source of hope are we left with? None.

In contrast, God’s people have every reason to sing joyfully in God’s world. “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him.” Knowing that the foundation of the world and, subsequently, of law, justice, morality, and goodness comes from God’s holiness, gives us cause to sing joyfully.

Following this, then, we sing joyfully with the assurance that God is in firm control. “The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.” The Lord is at work in heaven and earth, and history is his story. He has a plan of redemption for the nations. Men and women who make plans without checking things out with Him are wasting their time, because as created beings we are to consult our Creator for His plans for this world. His plans bring redemption. Psalm 33 tells us if we make plans or make counsel without God, He'll nullify everything. Consider some examples.

Pharaoh told Moses that the Israelites couldn't leave Egypt. Moses said, with some paraphrasing here, "I'm just doing what God said, and God said we're leaving." Pharaoh said, "Well, I'm in charge of this nation. I've talked to all my wizards and wise men and you're not going." Moses said, "Don't take your case to me, take it to God. I'm leaving." And the Israelites left. Pharaoh missed them so much, you'll remember, that he sent his whole army out to bring them home; but the army got caught in some water, and we haven't heard from them since!

The Canaanite nation made plans to wipe out Joshua. Thirty-two kings waited for him, and Joshua attended every one of their funerals because God had another plan. 135,000 Midianites on camels came to take over the land. God said to Gideon, "What are you doing today?" Gideon said, "Nothing. I'm just hiding from the Midianites." God said, "How would you like to have the nation back?" Gideon said, "OK. How do you want to do it?" God said, "Get 300 trumpets, 300 pots, and 300 candles, and you can have it back, but you have to trust me, Gideon, because I'm with you." The Midianites made all kinds of plans, but Gideon did not make any. He just followed the Lord, and 135,000 Midianites were defeated.

God says he will nullify and cancel all plans that are made without consulting Him. This is demonstrated not only through the history taught by Scriptures, but also throughout secular history. When Hitler was standing on the shore of northern France, looking across the English Channel and ready to invade England with the greatest army in the world, do you know why he didn't go ahead and invade? His astrologist told him it was not the right day, and, besides, Hitler didn't like water! “Let's attack Russia instead,” he decided. He ended up in disaster. In contrast, for everyone who checks with the Lord and works with Him, the counsel of the Lord stands forever, and the plans of His heart stand from generation to generation.

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.” You and I have been so chosen. Ephesians 1:7-10 makes this very clear. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment - to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” The righteous are to sing for joy to the Lord because this is God‘s world.

The righteous sing to God because of His care for His people. “But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.” The Bible is filled with testimonies about God’s eternal care for His people. He created man and woman; He saved righteous Noah and his family through the flood; He established His people through Abraham and Sarah in miraculous fashion; He saved Israel through the famine and, later, rescued them out of slavery. Over and over, God’s powerful hand moved to establish and preserve His people.

Yet, we still face serious questions when it comes to promises about deliverance from death and rescuing from dangers. The fact of the matter is that, even though He delivered the Israelites out of slavery, many suffered and died under the Egyptian oppression before they were rescued. Many Hebrews suffered and died during times of dispersion before being allowed to return to Israel and prosper. Today, many righteous Christians are afflicted with cancer, pneumonia, and other life-threatening diseases. As the movie The End of the Spear makes real, devoted Christian missionaries have not been spared suffering a tragic end even though their dedicated service to God far exceeded what most of us do. In other words, what does it mean when Scripture testifies that “…the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine?”

Unfortunately, I do not have the completely satisfactory answer to give this morning, and I never will. I am as puzzled a lot of the time by the ways of the Lord as anyone else may be. What does stand out, though, is that we accept the testimony and promises of God by faith. The Bible is filled with illustrations of faith, such as Hebrews 11:1-3, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” Now, there is plenty of evidence to be found to confirm the witness of Scripture. Indeed, the more the disciplines of science uncover and discover, the more Scriptural testimony is confirmed. Skeptics have used archaeology to try to discredit the Bible by pointing out that places and people included in the Bible have not been confirmed by any other source. But the more discoveries that are made through archaeology, the more Biblical history is confirmed. Skeptics have used biology and chemistry and paleontology to try to discredit the Biblical account of creation. But the more advances that are made in these fields, the more they point to beginnings not consistent with evolutionary theories. In fact, advances in microbiology and biochemistry are causing some scientists to question the theory of Darwinian gradualism because their studies lead them to believe that the intricate complexities within cells could not reasonably be attributed to random events over millions of years. In other words, they cannot believe that these organisms could have survived over the time that evolutionists say that it must have taken for life to evolve. They are beginning to think in terms of intelligent design, not chaotic chance.

Yes, advances in our finite, physical world continue to provide evidence of Biblical truth. But this still does not necessarily help us understand what is meant by Biblical promises of God’s deliverance when we still face the perils of mortal life. We recognize, therefore, that our faith is in God’s intent for His creation. God’s plan for each individual may not be readily understandable to us, especially when it goes against what we think it should be, but we must recognize that His will extends to the entire creation. Military analogies may not always be perfect, but they often help. Think of the many Allied combat units at the beginning of World War II that had to face overwhelming odds to hold onto objectives in order to give time for their nations to gear up for war. No doubt, soldiers in those units cried out for deliverance, but they were not physically rescued. They were captured or died in combat. They suffered horribly. Yet, they were a vital part of winning the war. Other soldiers who came later with more and better equipment fighting against a weakened foe were able to achieve victories with fewer casualties. Were they more “blessed” or “favored” or “delivered” by the Allied nations than those who went before them? From the big picture view, no. All of them were part of the ultimate victory.

So this might have applications in God’s Kingdom. Missionaries have been martyred by fierce tribesmen, but the result of their deaths has been the conversion of people to the Gospel who had not received it. Ultimately, I cannot always easily answer what God’s purpose is for each individual life, especially when what we consider bad things happen. But I can rely, through faith, that God is delivering His people every moment of every day. God delivers our souls from death. Paul testifies in 2 Corinthians 1:8-11, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On his we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.” So we see, the promises of God’s deliverance are always made in the context of God’s concern for the redemption of all of His creation.

You know, I can understand why little Johnny’s explanation of his Sunday school lesson was different than the real thing. I can understand even why an evolutionist’s explanation of the origins of life is different than the real thing. The real thing is extremely fantastic. The real thing stretches past our finite minds and comprehension. But this is God’s world, and when we enter through faith and belief into God’s world, then we have entered into the reality which causes us to “sing joyfully to the Lord.”

Rev. Charles A. Layne
First Baptist Church
Bunker Hill, Indiana

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