Answering Atheism, Introduction

[0:00] All right, well, let's get into it. So, tonight I just want to open up with a little bit of an introduction into the next two nights to try to get some information laid and the groundwork laid for what we're going to talk about Monday night and Tuesday night.

[0:16] And that is, you know, we were trying to come up with a title for it, and I like alliterations. I couldn't come up with a three-word alliteration, but I came up with a two-one, which is answering atheism. And typically, when a Christian goes to answer atheists, they will deal in the realm of science.

[0:35] And I can already tell everybody is going to love this. Something just happened when I said the word atheist, and now it got weird. But when you're dealing with atheism, the typical thing that a Christian will do is they'll go out and they'll study science, and they'll try to get their handle on some scientific facts, and then they'll just battle an atheist mind to mind.

[0:56] And it turns into a debate. Like, has anyone ever watched any type of debate? It doesn't have to be atheists and Christians. You've seen them, right? The aim of a debate is not necessarily to, well, it is.

[1:11] It's to win. But how you do that is just by talking and trying to one-up the guy you're talking to. And that's what happens with Christians. They get into this circular reasoning thing where it's like, well, this scientific discovery over here proves God, and the atheist is like, no, it doesn't.

[1:27] This one proves there isn't one. And it's just this big mess. And we're going to go over atheism and how to answer them from the Bible.

[1:38] And I'm going to show you some things tonight to set that up to hopefully give you a better ground to stand on when you're talking to an atheist. Now, how I came about to understand these things was by grace through Jesus Christ.

[1:52] And I grew up in church. I was in church from the age of four to 12. And when I got to be 12 years old, my dad left church and became an atheist. My dad was candidating as an associate Baptist preacher.

[2:05] And he was in Ohio. He had gone through seminary. He knew the King James Bible. He knew the issue with it. And he had believed right and all that kind of a stuff for a long time. And as per usual, most atheists are ex-Christians.

[2:19] And I use the term Christian loosely. I'm not talking about Bible believers specifically. I'm just talking about if you want to talk about atheism, you will typically find that somewhere in their background, they were a part of Christendom, which is Protestant, Catholic, and then Anabaptist, Baptist, thing like that.

[2:37] And he was and he left. And so from the age of 13 on, my dad was an atheist. And we were out of church for about a year and a half before I got sick and tired of being out in the world.

[2:50] And I asked the Lord to give us a church again to go to and give us some friends. And he did. And my life verse is Psalms 34 verse 6. This poor man cried out and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

[3:04] And so the Lord ended up allowing us to go back to church. And it was after we started going back to church that I started to get in love for the King James Bible. I got saved at the age of 13, got baptized at 15, got the King James Bible in eternal security at 16.

[3:20] And when all of these things were going on, the pastor I was under was starting to allow the young guys to preach. And so every so often, you know, it'd be like these mood swings. It'd be like a full moon or something like that. But when the full moon came around, dad would want to sit down and have four hour one sided conversations about how there's no pie in the sky for you.

[3:36] There's no Walt Disney World out there waiting on you. There's no seven headed dragon doing backstrokes in the ocean out there for you. None of that stuff is true. It's just myths and fables. And something inside would always, you know, check off is like the Lord saying something like, go check him, go check him, go check him, because he'd bring up biblical arguments because he was a Christian for a while.

[3:56] And Christian means to follow Christ. I'm not talking like he lost his salvation. We'll go over that in a minute. But he was in church and things like that. So he knew the Bible well enough to bring up the right arguments. And the Lord was always gracious with me.

[4:08] And I always wanted to know the truth about a thing. So the Lord would give me the answer oftentimes. And some things he didn't give me till years later. But he would bring up things like, you know, you would believe in a God who would have Moses go in and wipe out all of the Amalekites.

[4:23] Wipe him out. You believe in a genocidal God. You believe in a God that would allow these things to happen here on earth that are going on willy nilly and he just sits back and does nothing. You believe in a talking donkey.

[4:35] Of course, he didn't phrase it like that, but that's what it is. You believe in a seven-headed dragon out there doing back. It's all that kind of stuff. See, I remember preaching a sermon one time and I just barely mentioned hell there. I wasn't preaching on hell, but I just mentioned it.

[4:46] And I got a text the next day. He said, hey, meet me at Subway. Oh, here we go again. So we get to Subway and we're sitting there for four hours. And in that four hours, he's sitting there telling me over and over again, you're just trying to scare people into believing what you believe.

[4:59] And when you say the word hell, it creates a mental picture. So they're terrified. So they'll do anything you want them to do. Now, Christian, you're talking about your daddy doing this to you.

[5:09] I'm not talking about somebody you don't know. And there were plenty of times I'd get away from those conversations and just look up into the sky and say, really? This is what I got to go through? The preacher's kids don't even have to go through anything this hard.

[5:21] And I'm over here going through this nutcase plenty of times. And the Lord was gracious with me and he helped me. And he always pointed me back to his book. Back to his book.

[5:33] And so we're going to go through some things tonight, tomorrow night, and Tuesday night. And the aim is to point you back to the book. Back to the book. I'm going to show you that atheism is a spiritual problem. Atheism is not and has no logical standing.

[5:49] Atheism is the word that men use to get you to shut up. That's what they do. They say that I'm an atheist hoping that you'll be quiet.

[6:02] Hoping that you'll shut down, not know what to do with it. Now, atheism comes from the belief in no God. Atheist. Atheist. So they believe that there is no God out there.

[6:13] The only way that an atheist can believe that is because the drivelings of a maniac in the late 1800s known as Charles Darwin. And Charles Darwin came out with a book, The Origin of the Species is the short title for it.

[6:26] When he came out with that book, he tried to say that the driver of evolution in man is natural selection by random mutation. Now, what Charles Darwin forgot to tell you is that for natural selection by random mutation to work, you first have to have a universe.

[6:41] And then you have to have an environment in that universe that is suitable for life. And then in that environment that is suitable for life, you have to have life. Natural selection does not take place until all of those three things have been met.

[6:56] And so he caught the scientific realm by storm, of course, and everybody latched on to that teaching. And so we're going to go through that a little bit probably tomorrow night.

[7:08] And then we're going to go through some of the new atheistic teachings out of Richard Dawkins' book, Peter Boghossian. We're going to talk about those fellows. And we're going to talk about Sam Harris. And I'm just telling you, the reason why I started picking this stuff up is because of my dad.

[7:23] And what I didn't find out until reading and studying this thing out in the Bible is that this was prophesied it was going to happen. Your Bible tells you that in Laodicea, you're going to have to remember the creation.

[7:37] Now, I'll show you that. Come over to Revelation chapter 3. Revelation chapter 3. In Revelation chapter 3, you're closing out the seven churches here.

[7:48] And these seven churches have a doctrinal application in the future. And they also have a spiritual application to the time period known as the church age. Now, these are those seven churches there in Revelation chapter 2 and Revelation chapter 3.

[8:03] And what they do is they fill in this time known as the church age in your Bible. Well, that doesn't call it the church age, but that's what we call it. And so you've got here's your church age. And that is the time in which God does not deal physically.

[8:16] Okay? Kingdom of heaven is done away with for now. It's going to come back. But the Lord's not dealing with the kingdom of heaven right now. In the kingdom of heaven in the Old Testament, God made himself known physically.

[8:30] And that is you could go to your tent door and look at that temple and see that whirlwind sitting there. And you could say, look, there's God right there. Nowadays, you can't do that. So the atheist will pin you down on scientific discovery and hear, look, I don't see God.

[8:43] Where is he? I've prayed and he won't show up. And they'll say, well, see, look, there he don't exist. Well, that's from ignorance of the Bible. And that's from oftentimes ignorant Christians trying to give them dumb answers.

[8:55] Now, that's the truth, folks. And so I'm talking about the dumb answers thing. One time I'm talking with a young lady and she's asking me, why did God allow me to get molested? And here it is, this dumb Christian pipes up and he says, well, everything happens for a reason.

[9:10] You idiot. I'd like to do a lot of things to that guy, but I can't say them out loud. And that is a misunderstanding of the three wills that are at play corporately across the world.

[9:23] You've got God's will, and if you want to get in on it, you can. Then you've got the devil's will, that's the God of this world, and then you've got man's will. And that's a misunderstanding of that and misapplying all that stuff to where that girl now thinks that it's God's fault.

[9:36] And it ain't. It's man's fault. It is man's fault that that stuff happens in this world. That is not God's fault. You know why that kind of stuff happens?

[9:47] Because of your dirty, rotten heart. That's why it happens. And so you've got Christians out there talking like that. And then, of course, that just gives the atheist a stronger foundation to stand on.

[9:59] And so, Lord willing, by doing this, I'll give you some things on it and show you the fallacies in it and show you why there really is no atheist on the planet, and then hopefully give you some things out of this book to help you counteract the arguments and to show you what's really going on.

[10:13] Now, I'm going to get into their books tomorrow night, but we're not going to get into a whole lot of scientific discovery and all that kind of a stuff because, as you'll see, science is only knowledge. And science can only talk about the accumulated knowledge up until now.

[10:30] It cannot go beyond here, beyond the time here. And so when you start digging into this science stuff, you start to see these atheists say, well, like Dawkins says in his book, he says, I'm waiting on chemistry to find out the real recipe for the origin of life, and I haven't found it yet, and they haven't found it yet, but in the future, I'm sure that they'll find it, and I wait steadfastly by the sidelines to watch when they do.

[10:53] As if to say, look at me. I'm a smart man by waiting on those to figure it out. Listen, bub, you're just putting your faith somewhere out in the future so you don't have to deal with God now. And we're going to see that.

[11:05] So I will have to control myself because in these kinds of scenarios, I just got to maintain control.

[11:17] All right, so Revelation chapter 3 is where I told you to go. So look here at Revelation 3. We're talking about the Laodiceans having to remember the creation. Look here, Revelation 3 and verse 14. He says this, And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things sayeth the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

[11:39] That's the only church that creation comes up in. Creation does not come up in any of the other seven churches. Laodicea is the only one. And so the Lord starts out by dealing with this church.

[11:53] He says, These things sayeth the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. Now come back to the Laodicean epistle. That would be the book of Colossians. And notice what happens here. When Paul writes the book of Colossians, he starts off with something here.

[12:07] He starts off with the creation in chapter 1. Before he gets into Christ in you, the hope of glory at the end of chapter 1, and the presentation of the Jesus Christ we were talking about in the sermon this morning, in verse 21, 22, and 23, at verse 14 all the way down to verse 19, you have the Lord dealing with the fact that he created all things by Jesus Christ.

[12:30] Now look here at Colossians chapter 1 and verse 14. In whom, this is talking about Jesus Christ, if you come back, look at verse, oh, it's going to be...

[12:41] 13. 13. 14. 15.

[12:52] 15. 16. 16. 17. 17. 18. 18. 18. 18. 18.

[13:32] 18. now, okay, now look at Colossians chapter 4. So there in Colossians chapter 1, you've got Paul going over the creation of God by Jesus Christ. And it seems like it's weird. Like, it's like, why did he just go over that? And then you see there in Revelation chapter 3, the Lord does it again, dealing with that Laodicean church. And to connect the dots here, look at Colossians chapter 4, and look at verse 16. And when this epistle is read among you, cause it to be read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. So the Lord chose to remind you and I in Laodicea that, hey, don't you forget, Jesus Christ created everything.

[14:11] The reason why you need to remember that is because of this atheistic nonsense that popped up right before. Now, there were always atheists. I'm not saying that there never was. But the movement and all that nonsense that started with Charles Darwin popped up right before that Laodicean church age kicked off. That's back there in 1875, if I remember right. And so right going into Laodicea, then you got those new Bibles coming in, and the RV is in 1880, and you get the ASV in 1901, and now here you are. The time period of people's rights, human rights, Laodicea, the rights of the laity. That's where you're at now. And so it's important to remember and to fight that kind of a thing. Look at Jude. Look at Jude chapter 1, as opposed to Jude chapter 3.

[14:56] Jude chapter 1. Jude chapter 1, and look at verse 3. It says this, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

[15:24] You're called to action, Christian. You're not called to laziness. You're not called to passivity. You're called to action. And you're called to contend for the faith. You're not called to contend for anything else but the faith. And so come over to 1 Peter chapter 3. Look at 1 Peter chapter 3.

[15:44] 1 Peter chapter 3, and pick it up in verse 14. 1 Peter chapter 3, and verse 14. The Bible says this, But if you suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye. And be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

[16:09] So you're called to action to contend for the faith, and you're called to be able, at least at some point in your Christian life, to be able to provide an answer for why you believe what you believe. Be able to answer those that question you about things. And listen, folks, when you're dealing with atheists, you know, you're going to have to answer some questions.

[16:26] And so Lord willing, you'll be able to answer them from Scripture, be able to give them the right answer, and lead their soul to Christ when you do. Now, Laodicean church is reminded of the creation.

[16:37] And it's because the Lord knew this atheist nonsense would come up, and it would be coming up right as the Laodicean church comes in. And so it reminds you that you're called to contend for the faith, and you're called to give an answer in these last days. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 4.

[16:52] 2 Timothy chapter 4. No, I'm sorry. It'd be 1 Timothy chapter 4. I apologize. 1 Timothy chapter 4. In these last days, the Lord told you what was going to happen.

[17:06] And so it ought not to be a shock to you. You ought not to be surprised by these things. You know, you shouldn't run out of here pulling your hair out and saying, oh my goodness, there's no hope for us. Well, there's no hope for us as a country, probably, but you can still get souls as you go. And so just remember that the Lord told us this was going to happen. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 1.

[17:28] The Bible says this, Now the spirit speaketh expressly, that in latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.

[17:40] And that'll be your atheist. And atheists are typically Christians, like I told you, but you're seeing that falling away, that apostasy now. And so you've got folks like up here in the north.

[17:54] Last night they had Grace Fest. And you've got thousands of Christians pouring into that mess to feel something, to feel good about themselves because they've left the faith.

[18:07] They're apostatizing, falling away. Now you've got Christians falling away and going to atheism. And they're getting pulled out of churches because an atheist has a better answer than you. And so when we're talking about these kinds of things, and Pastor Wolski and I were talking about it, it's like, listen folks, our aim and our heart is to get you to realize what the Bible says about these things and to get you prepared to handle the problems when they come up.

[18:30] God forbid you get into a discussion with an atheist and you end it by calling them stupid. You ought to be able to answer them. And they're souls just like you are. And if they're lost, they need saving just like you did.

[18:43] And so we're going to get into it. We've got five minutes left. And so what I want to do is let's go to Genesis chapter 1 to just give you a little bit more on this.

[18:56] Genesis chapter 1. And isn't it funny how atheists want to talk about the origin of the universe. They want to talk about the origin of man. They want to talk about how man's come down from the ages.

[19:08] And God only gives it two chapters. Isn't that funny? He gives you four books on the law to Israel. About the driest reading you could ever read in the Bible.

[19:21] You don't understand that kind of stuff. You get over there and he's talking about the temple. He gives you two chapters on that temple and he's talking about the sockets underneath the pillars and all that kind of stuff. All right, Lord. I guess there's something in here. You put it there.

[19:31] There's four books on that law. There's four books on Jesus Christ's life. There's 14 on the Christian's life. He gives you two chapters on the creation. Isn't that funny? You get God's priorities. And look at the first verse.

[19:43] Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1. This is how you know that the Bible was written by God and not by man. If you open up a religious book nowadays, he's going to open it up by talking about how man strives for greatness and all these kinds of things.

[19:56] But if you open up this King James Bible, you know what you're confronted with in the first verse. Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The Bible and atheism, at least as a belief system, are diametrically opposed.

[20:14] In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. You got to deal with that. And you saw this morning in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6, that it's impossible to please him without faith. And then he tells you that he that cometh to God must believe that God is.

[20:30] Man wants to get saved. He's got to realize God's there. And then the Lord tells you the very first verse, you've got to start dealing with that thing. I created the heaven and the earth. Not some infinitely dense nothing exploding.

[20:42] I did it. And now watch what the Lord does. He gives you two chapters on this thing, but then he references it as he goes throughout Scripture. Look at Genesis 1 and verse 21.

[20:55] Now, the Lord creates the heaven and the earth. And, you know, we're not going verse by verse through Genesis, but you understand there's that gap in between Genesis 1.1 and Genesis 2. And then he starts to give you the account of recreating the earth.

[21:07] And you get that out of verse 28 in Genesis 1, the replenish there and all that kind of stuff. And then you get down to verse 21. So he's gone through and he's created the earth, the current earth now.

[21:19] And then he gets to the animals. And look at verse 21 and he says this, And God created the whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every wing fell after his kind. And God saw that it was good.

[21:33] Look at verse 27. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. God's doing the creating.

[21:44] Look at Genesis chapter 2 and verse 3. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work, which God created. Look at verse 4.

[21:55] These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. Look at chapter 5. Genesis chapter 5 and verse 1.

[22:06] Genesis chapter 5 and verse 1. This is the book of the generations of Adam in the day that God created man. Verse 2.

[22:17] Male and female created he them, and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day which they were created. Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6 and verse 7.

[22:29] And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created. You want to really mess up an atheist? You start talking about the natural disasters and things like that.

[22:40] The reason why a man becomes an atheist in part is because he can't deal with the fact that he's a created being of God, and he cannot deal with the fact that God can do what he wants with his creation. And so right there the Lord told you, I'm going to destroy these people of this earth.

[22:54] I created them. They're mine, and they're mine to destroy. Now that gets a little heavy, and of course you know the reason why. They're out there messing with animals and messing with kids and all that kind of stuff, and the angels are down there messing around with women.

[23:05] All that nonsense is going on. The Lord does it for just reasons. He's not unjust, but nonetheless the statement is still true. He says, I'll destroy man whom I have created. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 4.

[23:17] Deuteronomy chapter 4. So you get that creation all the way through Genesis there, and then he starts to reference it as he goes throughout Scripture. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 4, and look at verse 32.

[23:33] Deuteronomy 4 and verse 32. The Bible says this, For ask now of the days that are past which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it.

[23:51] Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard and live? So here the Lord's showing these folks, these nation of Israel, that ask from the former days up until then, that is the days that God created man upon the earth.

[24:10] Verse 32. Psalms chapter 8, Psalms chapter 89. Psalms chapter 89.

[24:23] Psalms chapter 89 and verse 11. But we'll quit in a minute. Psalms chapter 89 and verse 11.

[24:35] The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine. As for the world and the fullness thereof, thou hast founded them. The north and the south, thou hast created them.

[24:48] Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name. The heavens are thine, the psalmist says. So they are the Lord's, they're created by him, and that means that because he is the creator, he owns them.

[25:00] Psalms chapter 148. Psalms chapter 148. Psalms chapter 148. Psalms chapter 148, look at verse 5.

[25:17] Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. What's he talking about? Look at verse 1. Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights.

[25:28] Praise ye him all his angels, praise ye him all his hosts. Praise ye him sun and moon, praise ye him all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.

[25:39] Let them praise the name of the Lord, the creation. Let them praise the name of the Lord. Why? Because God created them. Look at Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40.

[25:53] Isaiah chapter 40. And look at verse 26.

[26:08] Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, who hath created these things that bring out their host by number? He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth.

[26:20] You say, who is he talking about? Verse 25. To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? Sayeth the Holy One. Look at Isaiah chapter 42.

[26:31] You've got to watch Isaiah once you get to the 40s. Because then the Lord starts bringing out his glory. And the problem is man can't deal with God's glory. Can't deal with God's holiness. So look at Isaiah chapter 42 and verse 5.

[26:44] Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out. He that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it. He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein.

[26:56] Look at Isaiah chapter 45. You starting to get the message, Christian? You starting to get the message? The Lord's trying to remind you of something. Look at Isaiah chapter 45 and look at verse 12.

[27:09] Look at it. Actually pick it up in verse 11. Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker. Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me.

[27:22] I have made the earth, and created man upon it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded. I have raised them up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways.

[27:33] He shall build my city, and he shall let go of my captives, not for price and reward, saith the Lord of hosts. Notice that the Lord's connecting what he's going to do, and his power and might and holiness with the nation of Israel, with his creation.

[27:46] Look at the same passage, and look at verse 18. Isaiah chapter 45, and pick it up a couple verses later. In verse 18, he says this, For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself.

[27:59] Ain't that wild? For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself.

[28:16] It's like he's got to say it so many times to get it through your thick skull. I was the one that created this stuff. I find that funny about the Lord. He could have just said, For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens.

[28:27] He didn't have to say God himself, but he's doing it to remind you. God himself that formed the earth and made it, he hath established it. He created it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited.

[28:39] I am the Lord, and there is none else. So Christian, you get throughout this book, and you start finding where the Lord starts mentioning that creation, and he reminds you and reminds you and reminds you and reminds you. In Laodicea, you're to be reminded of that creation of God by Jesus Christ.

[28:54] You're not to allow him to take that from you. What you're going to find out is that the hypocrisy of atheism, and we're going to talk about this later on in Tuesday night probably, is the hypocrisy of atheism is that they always attack your faith.

[29:07] They attack your faith in that book. They attack your faith in God. They attack your faith in Jesus Christ. But the atheist puts his faith in Charles Darwin's system and in Richard Dawkins' brain, in Stephen Hawking's brain, in Christopher Hitchens' brain, and in his own brain.

[29:22] That's where their faith lies. Those stinking dogs go out here and try to make you think that science has actually found reasons and found the evidence that there is no God, and they haven't. And then they try to talk you out of your faith in God by putting...

[29:35] They want you to put your faith in their brain. Put your faith in Richard Dawkins' brain. And I'm going to pull their books out tomorrow night, and I'm going to show you out of their own books where they wrote it down, and you can read it for yourself where they show that they don't have any evidence against God, and their faith system is in their own stinking brain.

[29:55] Now, that's me under control. And so what I'm trying to show you tonight, Christian, is that in Laodicea, that creation thing is going to come under fire, and you're told to contend for the faith, contend for the faith, contend for the faith, give them an answer, give them an answer, give them an answer.

[30:12] And so I'm trying to show you through Scripture here, the Lord reminds you, He reminds you, I'm the one that did the creating. And now look at Colossians chapter 1 again. Colossians chapter 1 again.

[30:29] Hopefully to end on a good note. Colossians chapter 1. Now listen up, Christian.

[30:40] Please don't misunderstand me. I don't hate atheists. Just like I don't hate Catholics. I love their souls, and I want to see them saved. But I hate the belief system.

[30:52] I hate the lies. I hate the hypocrisy. And I hate the absolute attitude that the atheist has. That's what I hate.

[31:03] And I wish they'd get saved. I wish they'd come to the knowledge of the truth. And so here in Colossians, look at verse chapter 1 again. Reminded of this thing in verse 15. Talking about Jesus Christ.

[31:15] I just want to remind you. And let's actually go up to verse 13. We'll pick it up there again. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us in the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.

[31:32] For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, invisible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him.

[31:44] And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. You know what Paul's about to show you in Colossians chapter 3? He's about to show you the circumcision made without hands.

[31:58] It's not 3. It's actually going to be 2. Colossians 2 and verse 11. And pick it up in Colossians 2 and verse 8.

[32:09] Beware this to any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men. And I'm going to show you how atheism and even to some degree agnosticism are philosophy religions.

[32:23] We'll see that. He says, Philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

[32:43] Buried with Him in baptism, where unto you also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead. You know what that is? That's a spiritual transaction. The very same God that created the universe created in you a son after His own likeness by the circumcision made without hands.

[33:07] And so there's something to this creation that you need to remember. And if you want to write it down, we'll look at it tomorrow night, but you can connect Revelation 4 and verse 11 to Colossians chapter 1 and verse 16 and verse 17.

[33:19] And that is, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure, they are and were created. So, you're told to contend for the faith.

[33:34] You're told to be able to give an answer. I understand, you know, folks that are just recently saved and things like that haven't really grown very well or very often, you know, they're not going to have good answers, but you ought to get to the place where you can have answers.

[33:45] And the reason why this stuff is important is because people are getting pulled out of the body, not out of the body of Christ. That was wrong. They're getting pulled out of the church, the local assemblies. They're getting their faith taken out of the Bible and put on somebody else's brain.

[33:58] And then you go out and you try to witness the folks, you don't have a good answer for them. Two-folded problem there. And so, Lord willing, over the next two nights, we'll cover enough to give you enough of a standing on this kind of a thing.

[34:09] So, with that, we'll... I don't think there's any need for question after that, brother. We didn't really go over anything outside of introduction.

[34:20] So, we'll close it down now. That's all right. You want me to just pray or you want to come? You go, okay.