“ Our Biblical World View”(2) Theocentrism vs. Materialism 09/12/2021

First Baptist Church Leominster

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Dave Ferrer is going to come and read for us First Thessalonians 2. Jason's recovering from the virus and so he's had asthma issues, got through Sunday school fine, but Dave's going to read this passage for us this morning,

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First Thessalonians 2, talking about the return of the Lord in this epistle.

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There is some confusion and error on the part of this church at this time, thankfully so, we have this epistle to instruct us.

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First Thessalonians 2. For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and had been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our

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God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.

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For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not to please man, but to please

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God who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor a pretext for greed.

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God is witness, nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ.

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But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children, so being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also of ourselves, because you had become very dear to us.

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For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil. We work night and day that you might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaim to you the gospel of God.

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You are witnesses, and God also. How holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct, told you believers.

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For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

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And we also thank God constantly for this, for when you receive the

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Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the Word of men, but as what it really is, the

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Word of God, which is at work in you believers. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the

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Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displeased

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God and opposed all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the

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Gentiles that they might be saved. So, as always, to fill up the measure of their sins, but God's wrath has come upon them at last.

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But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you.

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I, Paul, again and again, but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our

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Lord Jesus that is his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.

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Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we pause in our order of worship to give you our great thanks.

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I've been reminded of late to the words in an old hymn, count your blessings one by one, count your blessings and see what

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God has done. For what he has done is to take poor sinners and make them into saints, saints for Christ.

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He's taken an old building and filled it with people who love their pastors, love one another, and love the

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Lord. He's made them united to Christ, may it always be.

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And now, dear people of God, prepare us to hear with our ears and our minds and our hearts the words that the

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Holy Spirit has given to our pastor for our use and throughout our days.

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Amen. Well, let's turn in our

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Bibles, please, to Hebrews chapter 11, and this morning we'll be addressing in some detail verses 1 through 6 of this chapter after we give some words of introduction before arriving there.

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Now last Lord's Day we began this new sermon series that we've entitled the biblical worldview.

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The fact is every thinking person in the world has a worldview. It is he sees and perceives the physical and spiritual realms according to a set personal convictions that he holds about values and principles of living and the purpose for living in this world.

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One's worldview is how a person understands what's true, what's real, valuable, what's important.

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And if one claims to have a biblical worldview, as we do, he asserts that his perceptions and values are shaped by his understanding of God as his creator and the ruler of his world, and that it is his responsibility, it's our responsibility, to live in a manner that is in accordance with God's will, that which pleases him.

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And so we desire and profess to have a biblical worldview. Last week we emphasized that a biblical worldview understands not only that there is a

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God but that he is active in his world. He's governing and judging the lives of all that inhabit the world in history.

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Now our purpose in addressing this matter first, last Lord's Day, was to emphasize that God not only exists but he's active in the history of his world, assessing and judging all people that are living in his world.

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The eyes of the Lord are at every place beholding the good and evil. There's no place where you can be where you are where God is not watching and he's concerned.

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Of course the Lord is active, assessing, judging, but since the coming into the world of his son

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Jesus Christ and through his death on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, God the

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Father has entrusted this rule of the world onto him. Jesus Christ is

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Lord. Now today it's our intention to underscore that our

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God, our triune God of the Bible, is indeed the creator and that we not only believe that our origin was due to his creative work but that our ongoing existence is due to him.

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Paul proclaimed to the pagans at Athens on Mars Hill these words, God who made the world and everything in it, he's the creator.

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Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he's not just creator but he is the ruler of history.

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He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their pre -appointed times.

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Lord has singled you and I out to live at this time in history, the boundaries of their dwellings for in him, in God, we live and move and we have our being.

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Now from the opening chapters of the book of Genesis throughout the Old Testament scriptures,

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God has set forth as the creator. It should not be limited to our understanding of Genesis 1 and 2.

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God is the ruling king over the world because he created the world. This major emphasis is carried on into the

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New Testament as well, even as it announces the onset and future full realization of the new creation.

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God created the old creation, is king over the old creation, he is creating a new world, a new creation and he's populating that kingdom with us, who he created in Christ Jesus.

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And so we would argue that believing in God as the creator of all things is a foundation to a biblical worldview.

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I don't see how a person can be a Christian and not believe God is the creator. Now the

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Bible sets forth God initially creating all that exists and that since his work of creation

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God has been sustaining and governing the entire cosmos. Our biblical worldview compels us to know

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God and his will in order to discover and understand the purpose for which he created us and so that we may live according to his will in this world.

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In short, our biblical worldview is theocentric. God is at the center of all things.

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And so for us to be a theocentric means that we attempt to live in a manner that understands God to be the main focus of our lives.

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He is the reason that we exist, in him we live. He is the cause and sustainer of our lives, in him we move.

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And he is the reason of course that life has meaning and significance for us, in him is our being.

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But more, in God all things exist. A theocentric life is one that understands that all things are from him, through him, and to him as Paul expressed in Romans 11.

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And of course when we say that we have a theocentric worldview we are saying more specifically that we have a

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Christocentric worldview. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the cause of all things.

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And all things were created for him and unto him all things have their purpose, as Paul wrote of Christ.

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For by him, Jesus Christ, all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible.

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Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him.

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And he is before all things preeminently, and in him all things consist or they exist, hold together.

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Now our theocentric or Christocentric worldview is in contrast and conflict with the worldview of many who live in this fallen world.

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Rather than being theocentrists, most people in today's world are materialists.

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Materialism is the worldview of much of the fallen world. Materialism is the understanding that all things are to be understood and explained in physical naturalistic terms.

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There's no consideration to what others regard to be spiritual or supernatural causes or reasons for what is and what takes place in history.

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They believe we're deluded, deceived, stupid. Everything exists due to natural processes over time they say.

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One philosophical website described materialism in this way. Materialism as a philosophy is held by those who maintain that existence is explainable solely in material terms, with no accounting of spirit or consciousness.

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Individuals who hold to this belief see the universe as a huge device held together by pieces of matter functioning in subjection to naturalistic laws.

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Since materialism denies all concepts of special creation, it relies on the theory of evolution to explain itself, making beliefs in materialism and evolution interdependent.

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One goes with the other. Evolution, please understand, was born out of philosophy, not from science itself.

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Evolution is the explanation for how life exists within the framework of materialism.

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Materialism is a worldview which believes that things made themselves. Materialism allows no place for an eternal

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God who made and controls the physical realm. Materialism has faith that the physical realm itself is eternal and is self -generating and perpetuating.

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Now that is nonsensical. Materialists are generally atheists.

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Atheism is the belief that there is no God. Atheism is the religion of materialists.

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Evolutionists are materialists. Many materialists are also atheists.

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The atheist materialist attempts to explain the existence of all that is in the universe in terms of the interaction of atoms and molecules separating from one another or combining with one another according to fixed laws of physics.

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Atheism is inherently inconsistent and illogical belief system, we would argue.

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In the end it really has to ascribe eternity, design, and intelligence to inanimate objects, to molecules.

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Atheism denies God's existence but in doing so is forced to explain the universe by deifying matter.

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As one stated, materialism remains utterly unable to explain how purely material and therefore unconscious, inanimate, unfree, aimless atoms can produce that spiritual world of life, consciousness, purpose, religion, morality.

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Materialism cannot address these matters. Materialists in effect divinize the physical universe, infusing divine attributes upon physical things.

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And so materialists have faith, they have faith in this. Natural forces explain all that exists presently without input from any external designer if only given sufficient time, billions of years.

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Further they assert that all things exist without purpose, without meaning, without having had the input of a divine being.

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We believe in the eternal nature of God, not the eternal existence of matter as they do.

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They look at the world and assume that only great amounts of time can explain the present state of the physical world.

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We reject the philosophy of the materialists, which include evolutionists, would teach or assume that matter itself is eternal.

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This itself is illogical when considering the fact of entropy of all physical things over time.

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How can something exist forever if it's always deteriorating, degenerating? It is an impossibility, it's a logical absurdity to believe that matter has existed from eternity and yet that is really at the bedrock of their belief system.

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Not only, no, God only is eternal, we believe. God purposed and then acted when he created all that exists, having created out of nothing.

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And we have no problem believing that God created the world in its present mature state. As Genesis 1 relates to us, materialists assume that it had to be the result of long eons of gradual, sometimes violent, upheaval.

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No, we understand that God could very easily, just by speaking the word, create the world as pretty much we see it today.

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But their evolutionary philosophy will not permit a supernatural explanation for what is, what exists.

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They only allow for a natural, physical explanation of what exists. And so they are inherently biased to interpret all evidence from their materialistic worldview.

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They refuse to consider or interpret any evidence that might lead them to conclude otherwise.

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They have a bias. They are biased against theism. Richard Lewontin, he was a

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Harvard professor by the way, he died July 4th this summer.

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His wife of decades died three days before him. He was a geneticist and a leading evolution promoter.

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He once candidly expressed the bias of evolutionary scientists. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just -so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism.

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It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world.

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Look at that admission. Evidence doesn't make us to conclude that we're materialists, but rather we're materialists and so we draw these conclusions.

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On the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes.

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In other words, this was their assumption to begin with, to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive.

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In other words, it doesn't matter whether it makes sense or not, no matter how mystified to the uninitiated.

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And moreover, that materialism is an absolute, for we cannot allow a divine foot in the door.

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This is materialism and this is the philosophy of many in the

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Western world. This man honestly admitted that evolutionary theory is based on a philosophy of materialism and this restricts them and compels them to give no consideration to any explanation of the cosmos apart from a natural physical cause.

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He would say no matter how much sense, how much evidence suggests that God is the cause or reason that things exist, they purpose to give no consideration to it.

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For them, it's an impossibility. Their worldview presumes an anti -spiritual bias so that they intentionally refuse to give theism consideration or regard.

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And so the result of this materialistic worldview is that the physical realm or perhaps living things become the center and the meaning of life.

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He was a Marxist. It may devolve further so that the individual person sees himself as the center of the physical universe and that in himself alone he may find meaning and purpose of life.

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That's where death lies. They don't look to God, they look to themselves and that's how the world thinks and lives.

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He desires and pursues all things as a means to enrich himself and fill his own life with pleasure, satisfaction.

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He regards the world about him existing for him chiefly. This is the soul or the spirit of fallen sinful man.

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Adam, you know the tempter, say you should be as God's. You will be able to determine what is true and false, right and wrong.

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Now sadly there are many with this worldview of materialism that attend churches.

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The motivation that chiefly drives them is what benefit is this going to bring to me? I'm the center of the universe and how can this church thing, how can

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God help me to be what I want to be? Now granted in God calling people of the world unto himself he'll often initially draw desperate and hurting people toward him and that they seek to escape the mess in which they find themselves or place themselves but as they come to salvation and the

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Lord causes them to learn and grow to understand it's the life lived before and unto

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God and unto others that brings the greatest blessing in life. The Word of God teaches that to live one's life chiefly for oneself leads to despair and death but to deny oneself and to live unto

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Jesus Christ is life and peace. The Lord Jesus said it this way, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

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So we repudiate the worldview of materialism for we embrace the biblical worldview of theocentrism or Christocentrism.

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Jesus Christ is the center and meaning of all things and that God's the creator of all things asserts this worldview.

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All that exists owes his existence to God and from God all that exists derives its intended purpose.

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We see the world entirely different than people that are outside of Christ.

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Now I want us to look at Hebrews chapter 11 particularly the first six verses that underscore the importance of saving faith and how it really has to begin with this understanding

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God is the creator. In Hebrews 11 1 and 2 we have really a description of saving faith.

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We read the nature of true saving faith and how this faith begins with an understanding and embracing of God to be the creator of the cosmos and so here are the words of Hebrews 11 3.

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By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that the things which are seen physical things were not made of things which are visible.

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That is a repudiation of materialism and then a few verses later verse 6 we read but without faith it is impossible to please

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God for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

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He's not only the creator but he is active in the world. So in these two verses we read not only that God is the creator verse 3 but that the faith that pleases

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God is belief in understanding that he is God that he's both the creator and that he's actively governing the world and revealing himself to those who diligently seek him verse 6.

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Our creator is present our God is sustaining us God is revealing himself to us and we can know him providing we seek him he blesses those who seek him with the reward of coming to know him and thankfully of course we have come to know him for we have sought him through his son our

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Lord Jesus Christ. So verse 3 and 6 are preeminent in what we're talking about here but let's read all six verses within context.

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Hebrews 11 now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen for by it the elders obtained a good testimony by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the

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Word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible by faith

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Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain through which he obtained witness that he was righteous

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God testifying of his gifts and through it he being dead still speaks by faith

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Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him for before he was taken he had this testimony that he pleased

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God but without faith it's impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

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Now this passage of Hebrews 11 1 through 6 follows a passage of exhortation a word of warning as well as promise to his readers his readers were professing

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Christians Jewish Christians and he warned them and exhorted them to persevere their faith in Jesus Christ onto their final and full salvation

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God promises no salvation to temporary believers and so the writer set forth in a very directly stated and strongly worded warning and promise

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Hebrews 10 35 through 39 and this is the setting for what we just read in Hebrews 11 and so there we read therefore do not cast away your confidence this is your confidence in Jesus Christ abandoning

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Jesus Christ which has great reward for you have need of endurance that's perseverance so that after you've done the will of God you may receive the promise for yet a little while quoting the

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Old Testament he who is coming will come and will not tarry now the just shall live by faith back at 2 4 but if any man draws back my soul has no pleasure in him

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God has no pleasure in the apostate the one who once believed but we are not of those who draw back to perdition but of those who believe on to or to the saving of the soul and so after exhorting his readers to persevere in their faith in Hebrews 11 the writer cites a number of people from the

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Old Testament record who demonstrated and illustrated persevering and life -directing faith that pleased

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God and that receives the God's promise of salvation and that's why Hebrews 11 is filled with examples of people of faith

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Hebrews 11 depicts the truth of Hebrews 10 38 the just shall live by faith and all these people of Hebrews 11 live by faith saving faith is a life that dictates the way one lives if one's faith does not govern one's life one's faith is not saving faith but rather it is dead faith being alone according to James the idea that you can have salvation simply because you believe the right things is wrong it's error it matters how you live one very good commentator of the

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English text of the book of Hebrews FF Bruce described the contents of Hebrews 11 in this manner in Old Testament times he the writer points out there were many men and women who had nothing but the promises of God to rest upon without any visible evidence that these promises would ever be fulfilled yet so much did these promises mean to them that they regulated the whole course of their lives in their light the promises related to a state of affairs belonging to the future but these people acted as if that state of affairs were already present so convinced were they that God could and would fulfill what he had promised in other words they were men and women of faith their faith consisted simply in taking

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God at his word and directing their lives accordingly things yet future so far as their experience went were thus present to faith and things outwardly unseen were visible to the inward eye not the physical eye the inward eye now the writer first defined faith in Hebrews 11 1 and 2 now faith is the substance of things hope for the evidence of things not seen for by it the elders obtained a good testimony now by defining faith as substance and evidence the author indicates that biblical faith is not a vague hope grounded on imaginary wishful thinking instead faith is the settled confidence that something in the future something that's not yet seen but that God has promised will actually come to pass because God will bring it about God cannot lie and thus biblical faith is not blind faith in the face of contrary evidence that's what the materialists would argue saving faith is not unknowable an unknowable leap in the dark

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Schleiermacher taught rather biblical faith is the confident trust in the eternal

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God who is all -powerful infinitely wise eternally trustworthy the

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God who has revealed himself in his word and in the person of Jesus Christ whose promises have proven true from generation to generation and who will never leave or forsake his own that's a solid foundation for what we believe such faith is in the unseen realities of God as emphasized throughout chapter 11 and has provided confidence and assurance to all who received

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Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior when the writer declared that faith is a substance of things hoped for he was saying that faith makes real to the believer that which he believes that is to say things which in themselves have no existence as yet become real and substantial by the exercise of faith what governs our lives are unseen things not seen things that's what our faith has moved us to do and to believe it makes objective in the heart and mind of the believer that which others assume to be only subjective that which is to them uncertain and unknowable as the materialists would argue but you cannot convince a true believer that Jesus Christ is not real and true and that the promises that God has given in him will not come to pass they are substantive they are real although we've never seen them whereas physical eyesight produces conviction or evidence of visible things the materialist faith is the organ which enables people to see the invisible order the materialist doesn't even believe the invisible order exists we see it because God has revealed himself and his word to us the substance that is assured to the believer presently is of yet future things to be received they're substantive they're real and I could stand up here and deny it and say otherwise but you wouldn't believe me would you

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I cannot convince you that these things are not real if you're Christian because your faith has made them substantive to you

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John Owen wrote of this verse but still these things as hope for our future not yet in themselves enjoyed and so although hope comprises in trust confidence and assured expectation giving great supportment onto the soul yet the influence of these things hope for into our comfort and stability is weakened somewhat by their absence and distance yes they're substantive but you know they're still we don't see them they're still somewhat elusive then he says this is what faith supplies it gives those things hope for and as they are hope for a real subsistence in the minds and souls of them that do believe and this is the sense of the words there's certain days to the

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Christian but not only is faith the substance of things hope for the writer says they are the evidence of things not seen faith gives evidence that there are things that are true and will come to pass that God has promised to his people they're not seen but our faith is evidence that they are there

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John Owen again declared by things not seen the Apostle intends all those things which are not objected or proposed onto our outward senses the materialist that's all he knows is outward senses he says no rather the

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Apostle intends all those things which are not objected or proposed onto our outward senses which may and ought to have influence into our constancy and perseverance of profession now these are

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God himself the holy properties of his nature his attributes the person of Christ and of the

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Holy Spirit all spiritual heavenly and eternal things that are promised and not yet actually enjoyed all these things are either absolutely invisible on the sense and reason or at least so far and under those considerations whereby they have an influence onto our profession everything is invisible which nothing but faith can make use of and improve on to this end materialists who are people without faith by their own admission object to believing in things they cannot see or touch to them invisible things are non -existent things materialists choose to live by their physical senses or claim that they only will believe what they can have scientific evidence to support the thing they believe if I can't see it touch it measure it test it it's not real but physical senses cannot apprehend or comprehend invisible things for only faith in what

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God has declared and revealed can secure the certainty to the mind and heart that which

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God has promised which we cannot see or handle and so faith is the only sound and sure evidence for those who believe it will not convince the unbeliever they think you're a fool again now faith is not the yet as one wrote now faith is not the evidence and demonstration of these things onto all people no which the scripture alone is but it's an evidence in and onto them that do believe those who have faith they have this evidence of them in themselves and it's just as it is true and more true and objective than the things we see with our eyes that we can touch well we then read that this faith just described was what brought

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God's approval of the Old Testament Saints of whom the writer proceeded to identify and describe verse 2 for by it the elders obtained a good testimony by elders is all the

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Old Testament Saints particularly the ones he mentions and the remainder of the chapter recites the record of the lives of faith of notable people of the

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Old Testament but really before speaking about them and their witness and their testimony about future things the writer cited something that occurred in the past when seen things were made by something unseen even the spoken word of God and so he speaks about God having created space and time out of nothing that's what we have in verse 3 a declaration of God creating the world from nothing by faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the

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Word of God so that what is seen was not made out of those things which were visible we could interject we don't have time to do do it but I don't want to anyway we could interject this is the only rational way to understand that which is physical again that which is physical cannot create it had to have been begun it had to be

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God that created we do not believe in the eternal existence of matter second law of thermodynamics says that over time everything degenerates entropy increases when energy is transferred a lot of it's dissipated in heat all right well when you have that kind of dynamic in the universe it's eventually going to run out isn't it therefore could not have had it had to have had a beginning it could not be eternal it would have run out by now it's illogical it's unscientific to believe in the eternal existence of matter

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God the Word of God teaches us that God is the creator of all that exists and he brought everything into existence by a spoken word you think about God and you think about the concept of God the

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Bible presents God in a way you cannot conceive of a God greater than the

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God of the Bible you think about that try and imagine a

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God greater than the God that is revealed in the Bible you cannot think of one he is infinite in every way the writer asserted that the unseen things of God's Word have preeminence over things we see for in the beginning the things which were made were made from unseen things but this truth cannot be understood apart from faith you cannot convince a non -believer of the things we believe through reason and argument because he does not have faith he does not have the capacity for comprehending for understanding the things that God has revealed their foolishness to him even as the

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Word of God calls him a fool for refusing to believe them Psalm 14 1 the

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Scriptures declare that by faith we understand not we understand and thereby have faith that's what the materialist says we say no by faith and then it then it comes together it makes sense for us it would seem that the writer to the

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Hebrews is asserting the faith that we have is based on what is written regarding God's work of creation in Genesis Genesis 1

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Genesis 2 the first act of God recorded in the Bible is that of God creating the world and in the first and second chapters of Genesis we read of God creating all that exists and so when we consider the teaching of the

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Bible respecting God as a creator of all that is we may conclude certainties about his nature and about his purposes in history

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I had ten pages of notes that I had to cut out right here to show what

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God must be like since he created all things for the record of creation was not given merely to explain how things came into existence the chief role of Genesis 1 and 2 is to reveal to us

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God who brought these things in to be that's important that God is the creator has implications for all people everywhere

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God created all people from our common parents Adam and Eve and as our first parents were accountable to their maker so their children are as well

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God is the creator of all people of all nations and as created beings all mankind are created in the image of God and therefore have a responsibility to God to fulfill their role will not read

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Psalm 139 but the point is since he is the creator we have a responsibility to respond to him this is

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God's world not your world not my world God the creator has the right to rule over all and in fact he does rule over all as King the one fact that he's a creator leads and demands a second he is the king over his creation and all should recognize this and acknowledge this even pagan kings as Nebuchadnezzar did and Daniel 4 those who fail or refuse to acknowledge

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God as their maker he will judge God holds all men accountable as to how they live before him and how they behave toward one another in his world since God is the

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God of all the earth he is judge of all the earth and because God is a good and holy and just judge he'll judge fully and rightly shall not the judge of all the earth do right and so God sees all the wickedness of all people and will call each one to account for the actions of this life his eyes on all the eyes of the

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Lord are in every place beholding the good and evil God watches with concern over people particularly with those who are poor or helpless the widows he views it as his responsibility to avenge them and he does so in history his people who are in covenant relationship with himself through faith are under his protective eye he'll bring retribution upon all who would do them harm and since God's the creator of the heavens and all the earth there's no escape from him returning to Hebrews 11 3 we read that after the writer set forth their faith in God as the creator of all things he then set forth first the faith of the anti -deluvians anti meaning before deluvian speaks of the flood the people who live before the flood and that's what we have in verses 4 through 7 we have the faith of Abel first of all in verse 4 by faith

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Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain through which he obtained witness that he was righteous

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God testified of his gifts and through it he that is able being dead he was killed by Cain still speaks his life still testifies to us what faith is that pleases

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God we're not going to take the time to read that account I hope you are familiar with the story

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Cain the first murderer rose up out of jealousy and anger and killed his brother

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Abel Abel had offered a sacrifice of a lamb that was acceptable to God Cain offered a portion of his field grain that was unaccepted by God I do want to make this comment commonly it is argued the reason

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God accepted Abel sacrifice and not Cain's because Abel offered a blood sacrifice and we know in the scriptures in Hebrews that without the shedding of blood there's no sacrifice but that's not accurate really

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Abel was a shepherd Cain was a farmer and in the Old Testament was perfectly proper and appropriate for a farmer to offer grain as a sacrifice

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Cain offered a sacrifice that was suitable the reason that God accepted

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Abel's sacrifice and rejected Cain's sacrifice Abel offered his sacrifice in faith and Cain did not offer his sacrifice in faith that's the whole point that the writer is arguing here in Hebrews chapter 11 well then on page 80 or notes we read of the faith of Enoch an interesting character the seventh generation of Adam and Eve verse 5 by faith

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Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him for before he was taken he had this testimony he pleased

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God he pleased God because he had faith all that is said about Enoch in the

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Old Testament is in these few verses of Genesis 5 Enoch lived 65 years and begot

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Methuselah the oldest man who ever lived after he begot Methuselah Enoch walked with God 300 years had sons and daughters so all the days of Enoch were 365 years

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Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him Enoch was a man who walked with God walking with God is a description of godliness and a fellowship with God it reveals the fact that Enoch though a sinner was reconciled to God for two cannot walk together except they be agreed and Enoch walked with God and God walked with him to walk with God is to set

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God always before you to live knowing that you're always under his watchful eye it's a walk characterized by the fear of God living desire to please him and do nothing to offend him or alienate yourself from him this was

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Enoch's constant concern this was Enoch's character Enoch delighted himself of God he walked with God he had faith in God he enjoyed fellowship with God and apparently

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God enjoyed Enoch's company as well so one day when they walked together God took him home to be with himself their fellowship was thereafter continuous unbroken undiminished one described him

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Matthew Henry Enoch was removed to a better world as he did not live like the rest of mankind so he did not leave the world by death as they did he was not found because God had translated him he had lived but 365 years which is men's ages were then was but the midst of a man's days

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God often takes those soonest whom he loves best the time they lose on earth is gained in heaven to their unspeakable advantage

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I love Matthew Henry Enoch was no longer of this world he was changed in the same manner we all will be changed we who believe on the

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Lord Jesus we who possess a faith like Enoch's faith those who walk with God in this life will walk with God in the life to come he'll perhaps come for some of us sooner while others tarry here according to his purposes but we will all one day be with him we who believe on Jesus Christ and then after describing the faith of Enoch then the writer describes the absolute necessity to possess true faith without faith it's impossible to please

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God for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him it's clear that it's the faith that moves one to seek

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God that pleases God thus to believe here is to believe that the invisible God exists and to believe in the blessedness which is assured to those who walk with him that is to live godly and righteously

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God is the rewarder of all such who believe the reward is

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God himself or the joy of finding him notice first true faith involves believing certain truths about God revealed in his word true faith is not a feeling true faith is not an experience true faith is belief in truth that God has revealed through his word

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God's Word has told us he created the world and that this is and that he did so in six days and we believe what

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God said about the creation of all things this is the nature of faith believing what God has said secondly we see that true faith must believe that he is in other words it's essential to true faith for one to believe in the true

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God there are many people in the world who are people of faith so -called but their faith is not in the true

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God therefore their faith is not true faith he who comes to God must believe that he is now what does that mean we you know again we can we can go into a series of messages about this but Paul basically declared the same thing in Acts chapter 17 and he basically told those pagans at Athens there were certain things about God they needed to know and believe first Paul declared that true

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God is the Creator Acts 17 24 God who made the world everything in it secondly

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Paul declared God is the Lord of heaven and earth just like we've been describing not only as God creator but he is the governor the

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Lord of history thirdly to believe that God is is to believe that God is holy and transcendent

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Paul expressed in this concept by the words God does not dwell in temples made with hands nor as he worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything

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God cannot be controlled or manipulated by people here on earth God is transcendent he's outside of history even while he's in control of history he is spirit in nature it cannot be confined or restricted to a single place he does not have a physical body

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Jesus declared that God is spirit a spirit does not have body like you see me have reach your hand into my side that's just human nature it's human body

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God does not have a physical body God is a holy transcendent God to have faith in the true

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God is to believe that God is indeed the true God you must believe in his holy and transcendent nature not like he's one of us fourthly to believe that God is is to believe that God has commanded all men everywhere to repent and view the day of judgment of all mankind

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Paul declared this truly these times of ignorance this idolatry God's overlooked he put up with a long enough but now he commands all men everywhere to repent because he's appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man he is ordained

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Jesus Christ and he substantiated that proving that because he raised him from the dead and then lastly

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Paul declared God that we have to believe in this God who raised

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Jesus Christ from the dead and that he will judge the world by him so we're to live in the light of that truth that he's declared you must believe that God is imagine there are other things but these are just some things that we came up with from Paul's sermon in Acts 17 now let's just conclude wrap this up and close now we of course are living in a post -christian world we have been doing so for about the past generation or so no longer do people generally in our

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Western society view the world from the perspective that God the creator of heaven and earth governs his creatures my dad was not a

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Christian didn't profess Christ until hours before he died thank God that he did but he lived his entire life knowing that God was real true and there were consequences for how you lived in his world that world is gone no longer do people believe that God rules his world according to spiritual laws to which he is bound his creatures people now believe that they live in a world unaccountable to God free to live as they please apart from consequences that God if he does exist might bring upon them oh yeah they still claim to believe on God you know our president claims to be a

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Catholic while promoting abortion that's a problem for Catholics or for most it would seem that you can just shift and shape your standards for whatever you want there's no consequences or accountability there really are a few practical atheists rather they profess to know

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God but in works they deny him being abominable disobedient we will not do well as a society or as individuals if we order our life irrespective of God who made us and rules over us what we believe about God who he is how he would have us live will manifest itself in the way we choose to live we read of Kings David's assessment of those in his day who sought to live without God the fool has said in his heart there is no

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God they are corrupt they're done abominable works there's none who does good the

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Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand who's he God they've all turned aside they have together become corrupt there's none who does good no not one notice the connection

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David makes between a person's theology and his morality what he believes about God and how he relates to the manner in which he lives it relates to the manner in which he lives in God's world those who live as though there's no

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God will be corrupt manifesting evil in their lives what you believe will be evidence in how you live we live in God's world

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God has decreed we order our lives principally to know him and to do his will to reject God and his legal claims upon us will result in our detriment not just individually but our society our world to live as though there were no

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God leads to moral corruption and abominable living that's the problem of our nation today in the world today to know and live according to the laws of the

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Creator results in his blessing we must seek to know and understand God and when we do we'll be better we will better understand ourselves why we're here how we should live in God's world faith is only beneficial when it leads to a life of obedience to God the result of a life ordered by faith is a blessed existence the fact is

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God did not create us to live to indulge ourselves with sinful pleasure we're not even to devote ourselves chiefly to what might otherwise be good things we're not to live with the primary aim of life to grow wise gain power or gather wealth or remain healthy for that matter that's a

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God in a lot of people's minds and this whole kovat business it's important but it's not all important rather we are to live unto

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God our aim of life is to seek to know God and live in his world according to his will and when we do then all aspects of life are infused with meaning and significance proper balance in life and a proper perspective of life result as God once said through a prophet let not the wise man glory in his wisdom let not the mighty man glory in his might but not the rich man glory in his riches but let him who glory glory in this that he understands and knows me that's the heart of the matter that I am the

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Lord except exercising loving kindness judgment righteousness in the earth for in these

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I delight says the Lord but here we are Christians living in a post -christian world a world which refuses to acknowledge or reinforce these realities we live in a world which is opposed to us who would live according to the faith of God's work and we're being pressed into the world's mold we're being shaped or conformed to its value system its way of thinking and as a result we tend to forget

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God or at least live out our days as though he had little influence upon us I hope it's not the case that God could say much of Christendom today as he once said of ancient

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Israel my people have forgotten me days without number sometimes the world moves against us in open hostility and what they say about us or the actions they take and it's going to get worse we all know that more often than not the world simply moves along its course irrespective of us flowing like a huge swelling river wanting to suck us into the current and carries along in its downward flow the point is that none of us are unaffected by our culture we're attempting to stand as one attempts to stand say in a flowing stream or river we're in a godless culture in which we move and think it adversely affects us we've all but lost our foundation as certainly as a society we've attempted to stand in the shallows apart from the strongest currents of the age but we've as we've attempted to stay on the flows erode the earth beneath our feet and our footing is no longer sure as it once was and it's time that we adjust ourselves and reassert a strong footing lest we too are swept away but we may have be confident as we have faith in our

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God through his son Jesus Christ as set forth in his holy word he will keep us and preserve us onto his appointed purpose and our destined end even our blessed eternal life in his presence

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I included a couple words in a couple more pages for your for your benefit about the non objectivity of many scientists they claim to be objective but that is not the case and and when you find an honest one they'll admit that let's pray father we thank you that you have called us to know you and to see your world our which you've created through the lens of Holy Scripture and indeed our

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God we have faith in what you have told us you revealed to us in your written word these things we acknowledge the

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Lord are unseen they're invisible we cannot touch them or handle them our

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God but we know they're true they're real you've given us the grace of faith our

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God through the Holy Spirit you've shown us and convinced us and our God we order our lives accordingly we desire our

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God to be people of faith as these many illustrated for us this great cloud of witnesses illustrated for us in Hebrews 11 and so help us our

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God not to be swayed or persuaded our God by the worldviews about us particularly the spirit of materialism our

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God which characterizes our Western world certainly these United States of America help us to live for you our