[0:00] Father, we know that the world around us forms us to think and believe in certain ways. And Father, we know sometimes it forms us in good ways, and sometimes, Father, it forms us in ways that take us far from your truth.
[0:15] And it can be hard for us to wrestle with this and to trust your word over the story that the world tells us. Father, we approach a text today that this is really a big issue for many of us, and we ask that the Holy Spirit would move with might and power and deep conviction in each of our hearts to bring home to us how just sure and trustworthy and good your word is and how you want us, Father, to know a far better story, a true story, that will lead to our flourishing and to our glory.
[0:53] So, Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would do this mighty work of bringing your word and your gospel home deep into our hearts. And we ask this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.
[1:04] Please be seated. So, we're going through a series of sermons called Knowing God, and each week we're looking at different attributes or characteristics of God.
[1:17] And I was just saying to somebody the other day that, I mean, all of them are a bit difficult and all of them have challenges, but there's probably three that are the hardest. One of the ones which is the hardest is the Trinity, which we've already done, and that's just because people of all generations have found the doctrine of the Trinity a hard doctrine to get their mind around.
[1:36] The second one was, I think, the sermon that Daniel did last week, which was on divine impassibility. And that's just difficult because it seems when you read the Bible as if God has emotions.
[1:48] So, why is it that Christians would say that God doesn't, in a sense, have emotions, that he's impassible? Like, how do you figure all that stuff out? So, that's just sort of hard to communicate, and I haven't had a chance to listen to Daniel's sermon yet, but from what I got, no, two weeks ago it was Daniel, not last week.
[2:03] From what I heard, I think he did a really fine job at trying to bring that home to us and why it's an important doctrine. This week, out of all the difficult ones, mine's the easiest on one level, but on the other level it's hard because it goes against two very, very, very powerful movements and stories in our society.
[2:24] It's completely and utterly countercultural to two very powerful, formative truths, in quotation marks, that our society teaches. And I'm looking today at the doctrine that God has created all things.
[2:36] So, in fact, actually, on one level, it's a very, very simple doctrine. If you, the point will be up on the screen. The triune God created, the uncreated triune God created all that exists out of nothing, and he alone sustains all that exists.
[2:54] Fairly simple. The Apostles' Creed teaches this, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and as we're going to show you in a moment, the Bible teaches this. And it's a simple idea to get your minds around.
[3:06] It's simple to say on one level, the triune God created all that exists out of nothing. He, sorry, the uncreated triune God created all that exists out of nothing. He alone sustains all that exists.
[3:19] So why is this a problem? Well, very simply put, every one of your high school biology teachers would say that that was wrong. CBC, CTV, the University of Ottawa, Carleton, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, like I could go on and on and on and on.
[3:36] They'd all say that, George, that's just not true. It's just not true. In fact, to really maintain it in many circles would be to communicate to the world that you are a mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging, low IQ type of person.
[3:53] It would get you banished from politics to try to maintain this in any particular type of way, that in fact the story that we're told in our university, that all things came as a result of evolution through natural processes, would question that as to in fact get into a lot of trouble in our culture.
[4:13] So what are we going to do about it? Well, I'm going to describe evolution a bit more in a moment, but first what I want to do is I want to make it harder for us as Christians, not easier. At least it's going to seem harder.
[4:24] Because this is in fact a doctrine that we can't just easily dismiss. It's a doctrine that the uncreated God has created all that exists and that he sustains all that exists.
[4:34] It's something which is taught in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, it's taught in the law, the wisdom literature, in the prophets, in the historical books, it's taught in the Gospels, the Epistles, the Book of Revelation, it's taught in all of the Bible.
[4:46] And in fact, not only is it taught in all of the Bible, the Bible links the idea of creation to the doctrine of salvation. Let's look very quickly and briefly at four different texts.
[4:58] First is John chapter 1, verses 1 to 4. If you can follow along, that would be great. We'll be moving a little bit quickly through the Bible passages. I've picked texts which are fairly obvious. So I'm not going to, in a sense, exposit them very much because they're fairly straightforward and obvious texts.
[5:14] But I want to bring them to our mind and to our heart. And here's how it goes. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
[5:26] He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
[5:38] I'll say verse 3 again if Clara can move back. It can't be any clearer. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
[5:49] In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And then if you go on, as if you remember the gospel text which I read, it connects the doctrine of creation to Jesus coming to save us, all in the same text.
[6:01] Let's look at Colossians chapter 1, verses 16 through 17. Colossians chapter 1, verses 16 through 17. I'm just looking at New Testament texts. There's hundreds of texts in the Bible.
[6:14] I'm just looking at four New Testament ones. Here's what it says in Colossians 1, 16 to 17, and it's referring to Jesus. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.
[6:30] Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
[6:43] And then if you go on and you read, it makes it very clear. In fact, it's a very tightly organized text which connects the fact that Jesus and the Father created all things to the fact that Jesus is the Savior.
[6:57] It's very clearly connected in the next couple of verses. Look to Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 to 3. Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 to 3.
[7:07] Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
[7:26] He, that is the Son, Jesus, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
[7:37] In other words, he's created all things. He sustains all things. And then, after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
[7:49] The creator who sustains, who redeems. And then finally, Revelation chapter 4, verse 11. Revelation chapter 4, verse 11.
[8:01] And this is a hymn of praise. The way the book of Revelation is written, there's sort of a longish introduction in chapter 1. Chapter 2 and 3 describes this sort of, these seven churches.
[8:14] And then it gets to a vision of God in chapter 4. And in chapter 5, it's a vision of Jesus. And here at the end of the vision of God and the throne in heaven, there's this powerful image of these heavenly creatures, these great creatures, majestic and full of wonder, casting their crowns before the throne of God and falling down before him in worship.
[8:39] And as they do this, they say or sing, Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.
[8:53] Say it again. Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. Now, science would say that all of those things are untrue.
[9:12] So what do we do? Well, first of all, here's just, we're going to talk about it a little bit over, I mean, I can't solve the whole thing. I'm going to, but I'm going to, here's what we're going to do. Part of the reason, C.S. Lewis is actually very interested in this.
[9:25] If you look up, I can't remember the essay that he talked about it. But really, and I'm not saying this to downplay or dismiss science, even in the least. I'm not saying it at all. But what, at the heart, what makes this, the idea of evolution so plausible to many people and so wonderful as it combines a very powerful story with the power and rigor, at least apparently, of science.
[9:50] And the very, very powerful story is a story of uplift, of improvement, of getting better. And so that's what the story is.
[10:01] At the heart of it is this story that, you know, that there were very, very simple primitive organisms and then they develop. But they don't just develop in terms of change, but they change into something better.
[10:13] They change from one cell into multiple cells and into multiple cells, into many cells, and into different living organisms. And there's this continual natural process. And with every, in a sense, next moment of this natural process, something better and more diverse and more beautiful emerges.
[10:31] And so there's this unending process of improvement and diversity and life and mind and beauty and art. And there's this process of development and development and improving and improving.
[10:44] And that, in fact, is what this wonderful thing of science also proves. And it's a very, very powerful and wonderful story. And it's no wonder the story has gripped the imagination of so many people.
[10:56] But there's several problems. And the first problem is this. Every system of thought, whether it's Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, whether it's New Age, whether it's your self-curated putting together of different bits of philosophy and theology and ideology in your own particular unique way, every system of thought has to have something in it which is uncreated.
[11:22] You know, the sort of the infantile objection to the existence of the Christian God, that who created God, is just, it's infantile. It's made by, sorry, I might have insulted some of you, but it's infantile.
[11:33] It's made by somebody who hasn't thought about it. Every system of thought has to begin with something that has always existed. And here's the thing, that that something which has always existed has to either be, and now I'm going to sound like a Dr. Seuss story, a what or a who.
[11:50] It's either a what, like some type of matter or some type of an energy, or it's a who, it's God. But here's the thing that we know from experience, experience time and time and time again. Whose make what's, but no what has ever made a who.
[12:05] Right? This could be a Dr. Seuss story. I'm not belittling it. But whose make what's all the time? I have grandchildren visiting. Me and my little three-year-old, some of my grandkids, even the young ones, they made me a birthday card.
[12:17] It was my birthday on Thursday. And little three-year-olds can make what's. They can make pictures. Whose can make what's. Sometimes it's beautiful. Sometimes it's a mess.
[12:29] They can make what's. But we've had no experience of a what making a who. Like none. So that's a problem with this story.
[12:40] The second story is vastly more problematic, which is that the story actually doesn't tell you the truth. Now that's a very astounding thing to say, but it doesn't.
[12:50] You see, what it sort of hides is it talks about, I don't know, the last million or however many years that they think organisms have been around. But they hide the previous 17 billion years.
[13:04] And what they don't talk about is that prior to that, there's all these things that had to happen before any life could come to be. That isn't a matter of evolution that you just have to basically describe it as dumb, blind, purposeless, uncaring chance.
[13:22] And that's what it is. There could be no life in this Earth. If our orbit was a little tiny bit closer to the sun, there would be no life. If our planet Earth was a tiny little bit farther away from the sun, there would be no life.
[13:33] If this Earth spun on its axis, like 1% faster, there would be no life. 1% slower, there would be no life. And you could go on and on and on and on with all of these physical things that just have to be perfect.
[13:49] The fact of the matter is that the size of the sun relative to the Earth has to be exactly purpose. The size of the sun, you know, the entire galaxy is hurtling through space at an unbelievable speed.
[14:01] And it's circling larger matters, and that all has to be perfect. And none of those things can ever be said to evolve. It's pure, dumb luck. It's like believing that you could go to Las Vegas and always bet that in roulette the ball will land on one, and it's going to land on one a hundred million billion times.
[14:22] And if you said you believed that, everybody else would say, you are the biggest nut in the world, like you're a fool. You deserve to lose your money, because that will never happen. And that's completely and utterly hidden by the story that's told in our secular culture.
[14:39] It's just sort of brushed over, as if it just happens automatically and effortlessly. And this leads us to the third type of problem. It's sort of a bridge thing with the third problem, which is also a big problem.
[14:50] There's a fairly good science fiction novel by John Sanford called Saturn Run. I'm a big John Sanford fan. He's not a Christian writer, but I'm a big fan of him. And he mainly, in fact, exclusively other than this, writes mystery novels.
[15:04] There's usually a murder or a murder and a bank robbery, and people catching the murder, bank robbers, bad guys, and justice is done. But he always had a desire to write a science fiction novel, so he teamed up with one of these brainiac science guys and wrote a very good science fiction novel called Saturn Run.
[15:26] And the way it starts is that there's this graduate student in Caltech, and he's sort of monitoring different things in a corner of the sky, and he notices a comet, and he thinks, oh, that's sort of cool.
[15:37] There's a comet, you know? Like, those are cool. But then all of a sudden, as he's doing other types of stuff, and he's noticing the comet, all of a sudden the comet decelerates. Now, that doesn't sound like very much, but all of a sudden he goes from, you know, doing this, and, you know, doing this, and doing this, to doing this, to doing this, to doing this, because nothing in nature decelerates like that.
[16:05] Comets should never decelerate. And then his jaw really drops when it stops. And what does he instantly know? It's a very large spaceship.
[16:17] It has to be done by intelligence. Nothing in nature could create that. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And then the rest of the book is propelled from this.
[16:31] There's, of course, people who say, well, you sure it couldn't be? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Comets don't decelerate and stop and stay in one place. It has to be a spaceship. It has to be a really, really big spaceship.
[16:42] It means there is other intelligence in the universe. And then, of course, there's all the drama that propels the rest of the novel, because the Americans at first try to keep this secret. Why do they want to keep it secret?
[16:53] They want to figure out how to get to the spaceship so they can get all the cool alien technology before anybody else. But there's a problem. The Chinese have also noticed it. And that's the whole story.
[17:04] But all of this just comes from a very, very, very, very simple thing. That what appears to be a comet decelerates and then stops.
[17:17] And just seeing that, you know that there's intelligence. You can just imagine how the entire Internet would explode if a Mars rover found a series of circular and oblong rocks arranged in a way that it was obvious that it was Morse code, even if it was just one, two, or three letters.
[17:48] Instantly, everybody would say intelligence. It would be... You know what I mean? It would be huge. It would take over the television reporting.
[18:02] They'd actually forget about COVID-19 and climate change for a moment, because this would be so unbelievably huge. And how complex is it to have a couple of rocks that are circular and a couple of rocks that are a bit more oblong all in a small series?
[18:18] That's very, very, very simple. But here's the problem, and here's the third big problem, then, for naturalistic evolution, the idea that everything would happen by chance.
[18:29] And the big problem is is that every day as science develops, evolution becomes more impossible. It literally becomes more impossible, that all of this could just happen by chance.
[18:40] The intricacy of the information communicated in DNA is of many, many magnitudes greater than seeing two or three or four or six rocks that are circular and oblong put in order.
[18:56] Like, it's incommensurate that there's information that is contained there. And that doesn't even talk about the intricacy of the cell.
[19:07] When the doctrine of evolution was first proposed, it was thought that the cells were just sort of like a little clump. But now, I mean, talk to somebody like Chris. I don't think he's here today, but James Lunney. Talk to somebody like James Lunney, and the cell is unbelievable.
[19:21] Like, there's machines in it. Like, the complexity of a cell, and they just keep discovering more and more the complexity within the cell. And so, everyday science develops, the idea that this could happen by chance becomes less and less plausible.
[19:37] Now, there's a bit of a pushback, and you can say, okay, George, just because there's problems doesn't mean the Christian doctrine... Like, are you just saying that, okay, you just have to believe? Like, George, okay, here's the thing, just very, very briefly.
[19:51] It's the doctrine of creation. Remember I said that the uncreated trying God created all things that exist, all that exists out of nothing. He alone sustains all that exists.
[20:02] See, here's the thing about the doctrine of creation. God could have made a world that is like this. One of the things which has been a real pleasure for me over the years is when I've had a grandchild come to visit, and they come to be a certain age, you know, I don't know, like at three or four or something like that.
[20:22] You know, the kids aren't allowed up on the stage. But at some point in time, I have a grandchild visiting at that age, and they ask if they could come up on stage. And here's one of the things.
[20:33] I don't, you know, how much the camera can see. But, you know, like if it's a well-designed stage, we have a set designer in the room, for instance. It looks like it's a real room, like it really does.
[20:44] But what the grandkids like is they really like that they can come up here, and they can look up and they can see the lights, and they go behind the walls, and they realize that it's not a room, it's not a house.
[20:56] In fact, some of you might not notice, but there's a stairway back there. But it doesn't go to another room, it's just a stairway to nowhere. And so they find it really fascinating.
[21:08] They come and they're with their papa, and they can go behind the wall, and it's just, God could have created a world like this, but he didn't. He didn't. He created a world that was deep, that was thick, and had an unbelievable backstory.
[21:26] If you just take it for a second that God created all, whether he did it in six days, or whatever the number is, or whatever, but he creates all things out of nothing, the day after, the evening after he's created all things, if God put you back in a time machine to that moment, he created every, he finished all of creation, and then after that evening he comes, and if you looked up in the sky, would you see stars?
[21:53] Well, the answer is yes, you would. But we all know that the closest star, the light from the closest star, could not possibly get to earth from that morning to that evening.
[22:05] If you got permission from God to cut down a tree, would the tree have rings? Well, yes, it would have rings. Why? Well, trees have rings. That's partly what makes them trees.
[22:17] In fact, Adam and Eve would be a perfect example. They'd look, I don't know, 33. A lot of the ancient Christians thought that Jesus died at 33 so that Adam and Eve must have been born at equivalent of 33.
[22:29] But you could, doctors could say, well, this is a 33-year-old man, a healthy 33-year-old woman, but we know they were actually just created that morning. If God, in fact, creates all things out of nothing.
[22:40] You see, the doctrine of creation is that God could have created a small world, but he created a world because he designed this universe for human beings to live in it, and that he wanted us to subdue the earth and to understand the earth and to treat the whole earth like a garden, and maybe eventually, if we hadn't fallen the entire galaxy and the entire universe, and he wanted us to understand how to fly and how to do this and how to do that, then he's created this backstory, and because the God who's created all things is a wise God who uses his intelligence, so to speak, to create all things, it means that scientists can go and look for the order of things and can see the wisdom of God's creation and see all of the intricacy, and things about black holes and the distance of the stars help us to understand things about light and gravity, which will help to understand, help people to make scientific discoveries about this and this and this and this, because God made, when he makes a world out of nothing, he chose to make a world which is deep and thick and has an unbelievable backstory, which means that scientists can study and study and study and can say, well, it looked like this developed into this and it looked like this developed into this, and by the way, there's not a problem for our theory if there's huge gaps in the biological record, because that's just the way that God designed to do it, and maybe he'd put those gaps there so you'd realize that it couldn't have happened just completely, not only by chance.
[24:03] And the fact of the matter is, is this actually opens up a vastly better story for our society to live out of. I mean, the story of Saturn Run is an exciting story.
[24:19] There's other intelligence in the earth, in the universe. Let's go meet them. Let's use all of our creativity to design spaceships in this, and let's go.
[24:30] Let's go as fast as we can. Let's not spare any expense. Let's pursue them. And the fact of the matter is, is that the Bible has communicated to us a story, a better story, which is actually true to science.
[24:42] We aren't alone. There is a God. There is a creator. Let's understand how he created things. Let's meet him.
[24:52] And the more you study science, the more you realize there had to be design. There had to be design.
[25:05] Had to be. Had to be. Had to be. Now, for some people, I have to watch my time. This is all very bad news. Remember I said at the beginning, maybe you don't. I've already put you to sleep.
[25:15] You're just waking up right now. Maybe after you're, maybe my grandchildren coming up help you wake up. That's fine. I understand. I'm a human being too. If I fall asleep during my own sermon, that's a really, really bad sign.
[25:27] Like, that's a pathetic sign. That's the time when, George, you get the, this, and it's time to hang up the spurs and just start praying like crazy for everybody else.
[25:38] But, you see, this is actually, this, what I've just described is for a lot of people, a big deflator. It's very bad news. And I'll help you to understand why it is for many people a deflator, a very, very bad news story, something they don't want to be true.
[25:55] If you put up the next point, and it is this, the triune God created man and woman, male and female, in his image. The triune God created man and woman, male and female, in his image.
[26:12] What's one of the most powerful, formative stories in our culture? You can be whatever you want to be. You can be whatever you want to be.
[26:25] If you think you're a woman trapped in a man's body, be a woman. You can be whatever you want to be. It can be very, if you want to sleep with a man, sleep with a man. If you want to sleep with a woman, sleep with a woman. If you don't want to sleep with anybody, don't sleep with anybody.
[26:35] If you want to sleep with lots of people, sleep with lots of people. You want to do that with surgery, without surgery, whatever, you need to get in touch with you, You need to understand who you really are inside, and you need to pursue that, and you can create yourself to be whoever you want to be.
[26:51] And it's not just in terms of sexuality. It's part of consumerism. You can be rich. You can be successful. You can be more slim. You can have more muscles. You can lose those wrinkles.
[27:02] You can change your hair color. You can have that car. You can have that house. You can have that wife. You can have it. You can have it. You should go for it. You need to be who you need to be, and you can pursue it.
[27:16] And nobody can tell you what you need to be because it's completely and utterly up to you, and it's a very, very powerful story. It fits with consumerism. It helps to explain why we want to buy new cars, why we want to buy new houses, why we want to get that education, how we understand sexuality.
[27:32] It's a very, very powerful and deep story in our society. And to be told that the triune God created man and woman, male and female in his image, to many people seems oppressive.
[27:45] It means that we're stuck. It's a myth created by the powerful to oppress and stop us from being fulfilled.
[27:57] Well, first of all, let's see where I get that idea from, that the triune God created man and woman, male and female in his image. If you'd look at Genesis chapter 1, verses 26 to 31, it's a, once again, I'm not going to exposit it very much.
[28:15] It's a very obvious text. And here's how it goes. And by the way, if you're curious about how what I've talked about creation fits with the six days, about four or five years ago, I did a series of sermons on the first 11 chapters of Genesis.
[28:28] They're all available. I think they were all just recorded by audio back then. You can go online and you can find them and you can listen to how I connect intelligent design and creation with Genesis chapter 1.
[28:39] I'm not going to talk about it today. But look here at this part, Genesis chapter 1, 26 to 31. Then God said, let us make man, and here man is referring to, in a sense, the human race, humanity.
[28:52] Let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them, that's the human beings, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
[29:08] So God created man, humanity, in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, in other words, humanity. Male and female, he created them.
[29:20] In other words, both a male and a female are equally bearers of God's image. And being part of God's image is also something which requires male and female.
[29:32] So both have integrity as being made in God's image. But that integrity is also combined by their being male and female. And God blessed them, verse 28, and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
[29:52] In other words, flourish. Be blessed. Flourish. Fill the earth. And God said, verse 29, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit.
[30:08] You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth and everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.
[30:19] And it was so. And listen to what he then says. And God saw everything that he had made. And behold, it was very good. It was very good.
[30:31] And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. Now, as I said, this idea that human beings actually have a nature that there's, and by the way, if you're watching this or if you're present and you find this a hard text, I understand why lots of people in our culture find this very hard.
[30:57] Personally, why I was trying to communicate the big story. But especially, I just want to say that if you're here or watching this and you really feel as if you, and I shouldn't say really as if I'm dismissing it.
[31:08] I'm not dismissing it. The fact of the matter is there are people who feel like they're in the wrong body. That is a real human problem. And I can't even begin to imagine how hard it must be for you if that's your situation.
[31:20] Like, if you're here or if you're there and you really feel that you are in the wrong body, like, I am, I mean, I'll talk with you.
[31:32] I walk with you. Our church will walk with you. It must be very, very, very, very, very, very, very difficult. Like, it is. And don't take anything I say as belittling your experience.
[31:46] But this story goes against our cultural story on one very important thing, is that if we're made in God's image, if we're made male and female, man and woman, it means that there is a type of nature to us.
[31:59] And it also probably means we have some type of telos or end or destiny, and that we can't be completely and utterly self-created. But you see, here's the big problem with the secular story, which is very powerful.
[32:14] The popular story is a tragedy. Like, we have TikTok, and we have Instagram, and we have gambling, and we have drag queen shows, and we have sports, and we have lots of stuff to amuse ourselves.
[32:36] But the fact of the matter is, is that the story that's being told in our culture that's so formative, what's not being told to people is that it's a tragedy. Tragedies end in death. And that's how every single human being will end, in death.
[32:53] And in Canada, it's very, very, very impolite to say that to people. In fact, church is one of the very few places, and even many churches in our culture, it's such an unpopular thing to say in Canada that you're going to die, that even in many churches it's never said.
[33:14] In fact, in many funeral services it's not even said. They use euphemisms and metaphors to try to get around the fact that you're here, because George has died.
[33:30] And so it's a huge elephant in the room that the story is a tragedy. And to understand just how important this is, imagine if you had a message or something that just came, and it was a believable message that you were going to die today at 3 o'clock.
[33:54] 3 o'clock. No matter what you did, you're going to die at 3. How would you feel? Now, I'm talking to Christians, and many of us would go, whoa, that's a blow.
[34:06] Some of us might say, I'm glad I'm not dying at noon, because I'd really like to tidy up my apartment before I die, so that people don't see my mess. And many of us would, maybe some of us would say, I'm going to meet Jesus at 3.
[34:19] That's a wonderful thing. But in our culture as a whole, if you were to go and tell people everything's going to die at 3, you're all going to die at 3, it would not cause happiness.
[34:31] And yet the fact of the matter is, is that all human beings will die. All of the popular story that forms people is a tragedy. And part of the deeper tragedy is they never say it's a tragedy.
[34:47] In fact, the psalmist puts it perfectly, and the psalmist wrote 3,000 years ago, Psalm 103, verses 15 to 16. It's something which could be written by Nietzsche.
[35:00] It could be something that could be written by some modern poet who's very depressing. As for man and woman, his days are, as for man, his days, Psalm 103, 15 to 16, as for man, his days are like grass.
[35:14] He flourishes like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. And that is the end of every human story.
[35:24] So you see, this leads us to try to deal with the, you see, the Christian story, which I just expressed, that the triune God created man and woman, male and female in his image.
[35:40] It's actually part of a better story. It's a better, it's actually, well, here's what it is. By the way, I got this idea from Glenn Scrivener to give credit to where credit is due. If you could put up the third point.
[35:51] Out of his infinite love, the Father sent the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit into his fallen creation to turn the story of your life from a tragedy to a comedy.
[36:06] Out of his infinite love, the Father sent the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit into his fallen creation to turn the story of your life from a tragedy to a comedy.
[36:17] tragedies end with the hero dying tragedies end with a funeral comedies usually end with a marriage or nowadays in Hollywood because marriage is out of fashion with a kiss and often a kiss with applause and it's interesting for those of you who don't know the Bible but if you read the book of Revelation which describes the end of the end of the end of the end of all things how is it that the Christian story ends?
[36:51] with a marriage and applause if you turn to John chapter 1 verses 9 to 14 it's beyond the scope of this sermon to talk about how evil entered the world but it fundamentally came in when human beings during in a sense are I should have written it down if you get hired you have three months anyway whatever it is you know they chose to become like God and in choosing to become like God they brought death and evil into the world but then here's God's response he never stops loving and even at the moment that the human race brings in the fall brings in evil brings in death even in that moment God provides a covering and makes a promise that one day he will send a deliverer and in John chapter 1 verse 9 to 14 in poetic language you get the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world he was in the world so he's coming promised that's the Old Testament New Testament he was in the world and the world was made through him yet the world did not know him he came to his own and his own people did not receive him but to all who did receive him who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God who were born a new birth not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but a birth a new birth in our fallen world that comes from God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth in a sense if you understand that creation is a little bit like if one of you were to write a story and then that's the story in a sense is made by you declared by your word just as the Bible describes it
[38:48] God just says a word and it is and just as if you were to write a story or series of stories there's no reason why you couldn't write yourself into the story and God in a sense writes himself into the story of the human race because the human race has fallen and it means that every human life will end in a tragedy there's only one new story in the entire planet and it is a story that ends with the grave and God does not want that to be the end for human beings because he loves us so he writes himself into the story in the person of his son and in the power of the Holy Spirit the son does everything that is needed so that if you just stop and turn to him and say Jesus take me I will no longer run I can't even really I can't even stop running by myself I can't take my weapons away by myself I just stop you do it you need to do it do it all and when Jesus takes you he turns the story of your life to the moment that you give up until the moment you give your life to Jesus your story is like every human story it was like mine was which is a tragedy but when you give yourself to Jesus and God in this person of his son in the power of the Holy Spirit does all that is needed to be done for you to have a new birth to be adopted as his child to be at the end of the day to be reconciled to him and now the story of your life will be a comedy it will end or should I say begin in the new heaven and the new earth it ends in the marriage ends with applause it's all offered as a gift if you read the blog that I wrote this week
[40:44] I talk a little bit about how this has an impact upon human creativity but I just want us to remember a little bit more about the true and better story that the Bible tells turn to Psalm chapter 8 in closing Psalm chapter 8 this is the text that Daniel read you see there's a true and better story that the story of your life is not going to have to be all about how much you can consume and how much power you know stories like this they're very good for powerful people they're very good for young people they're very very good for people who have lots of education they're very good for the type of person who are born on third base but think they hit a triple you've heard that line they're born with privilege they're born on third base but they walk around thinking I hit a triple no you didn't hit a triple look who your parents are you were born on third base and that story is very very good and it enamors us but there's a far better story and the far better story is there is a God who's created you and when you put your hand in Jesus even if you have very very deep problems like feeling very very very very very very strongly that you are in the complete and utter wrong body that there is a savior who will walk with you there is a company of people called the church who will walk with you as you walk towards healing and wholeness and that God has called you to have your life end in glory and before you come to glory he has called you grace will begin to perfect your fallen nature so that you can begin to flourish and psalm 8 will be true oh lord our lord how majestic is your name in all the earth you have set your glory above the heavens out of the mouths of babies and infants you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger in other words
[42:34] God can even use infants for his purpose because the power comes from him when I look at your heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have set in place what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him crowned you with glory and honor what does it mean to be a human being you are made in the image of God you have a dignity and a worth and in Christ you have a destiny which is eternal which is made for glory he has crowned you he has made you a little less than the heavenly beings he has crowned you with glory and you have given him dominion over the work of your hands and put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field the birds of the heavens the fish of the sea whatever passes along the paths of the seas oh Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth the story of your life is to be reconnected to your creator is to begin to learn to flourish to the glory of God in a world that God has made for you to be your home and so you can roll up your sleeves we are going to deal with that pollution roll up your sleeves we are going to deal with the poor roll up your sleeves we are going to make that dance we are going to write this song we are going to have that feast we were going to deny ourselves to give to others then we are going to have a feast roll up your sleeves walk with Jesus walk with his people brothers and sisters you're here in christ my prayer is that you will believe this that you will walk from this wanting to live out of the true stories that come from the bible and if you are here and you have never made that change from tragedy to comedy there is no better time than now to call out to jesus and he does everything that needs to be done when you call out to him to be your savior and your lord i urge you to do it today in your own words let's stand please stand let's bow our heads in prayer father we ask that you help us to be regular and coming to spend time with your people whether it's having a just a good spiritual friend if we don't have one father lead us to people who can be good spiritual friends to mentors if we need to have those to small groups to places father where we can gather around your word and and we can begin to unlearn the stories of our society the secular stories and that we can relearn and be re-gripped by the story of the gospel the true stories that that you have given us to form us for our good and for your glory and for the good of the created order and father we ask that these stories would grip us with deeper and deeper as deeper and deeper truths and more and more formative for us and father if there are any who have not yet given their lives to jesus we ask that the holy spirit would move with might and power and deep conviction in them that they will put down their soul and shield sword and shield they will turn to jesus and call out to him and father we know that jesus will rush to them and embrace them embrace them and save them all these things we ask in the name of jesus your son father and our savior and all god's people said amen