Creation Concepts (Part 2)

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The Faith of Noah (Part 3)

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This is going to be one of those mornings where I'm going to wish that I had a dry erase board up here only because I'm going to be using some language that is a little different, it's outside of the norm, but I'll do my best to explain the words that I'm going to use and encourage you, if you are a note taker, to write it down.
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If you're not a note taker, this may be the morning to start.
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We began last week looking, or two weeks ago, I was out last week and I just want to say in relation to that, I was not wrong, sleeping on the ground was not fun, but I did have a wonderful time with the American Heritage Girls.
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I had two opportunities to preach.
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There were over 200 people at the first one, I think, and about 100 the next day, I would imagine.
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Just two very good times to minister the word and the people were so gracious and so receptive to the messages.
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I was very grateful to God for him having opened up that opportunity and, of course, to Adam and Sharon for putting that together.
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I think it went very well, like I said, other than the part of me that was wishing for a hotel room, but we'll leave that be.
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Anyhow, the week prior, two weeks ago, when I was last here, I was preaching on the subject of God's creation.
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And the reason for this was not that I wanted to simply look at the topic of creation, which is a fascinating area of study in itself, but because we had come to a passage in the book of Hebrews and the chapter 11 where it directly spoke about God's creative power and his creation.
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So I want to remind you what that verse is.
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I want to encourage you to go back there with me.
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We are in Hebrews chapter 11 and we're going to look at verse 3.
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Let us stand together and hear the word of the Lord.
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Hebrews 11 and verse 3, it says, By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God.
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So that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you for the opportunity to be in your house.
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We thank you that you have given us your word and your word is so clear about who you are as both creator and sustainer and redeemer.
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And God, as we seek to look at the text this morning and understand the words that are in it, I pray that you would first and foremost keep me from error.
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That you would also open the hearts of the people to understand the truth.
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And Lord God, that the truth of your creative power would flow out of the message today, would touch all of our hearts.
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And that it would remind us that we are creatures, that we are not sovereign, that we are not the ones who are guiding the world or the commanders of our destiny.
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But that we, oh God, are creatures and that you are the sovereign Lord who created us all.
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We pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake.
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Amen.
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When I began this message two weeks ago, I talked about the fact that there were three issues that I think that this particular verse speaks to.
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Three concepts, and that's why we call this message creation concepts.
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There were three concepts that this particular passage speaks directly to.
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The first one, if you'll remember, was the concept of creation science.
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I said in that sermon two weeks ago, I said that creation science is very big right now and it's very popular right now and it is an important area of study.
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What the creation science movement is trying to do is they are trying to bridge the gap between Christian faith and science.
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And there is a major gap between those who would say they believe the Bible and those who would say that they are 100% in favor of scientific inquiry.
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And the gap usually goes something like this.
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Those who believe the Bible believe that mankind is specifically and specially created in the image of God.
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And those who believe in absolute scientific inquiry would say that they believe that man is simply a grown up part of the evolutionary process.
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We are the latest and greatest part of the evolutionary process and that evolution has brought us to the state that we are currently in.
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And that is what the evolutionist or the scientific side would say.
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And those two seem to never be able to come together because there's a divide between them.
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And as the divide of saying one says we are made in the image of God, one says we are made.
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We are not created at all, but that we simply came about as a act of random chance.
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And so when we look at those two things, creation science tries to bridge the gap by saying we believe that the evidence points to creation.
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It does not point to random acts of change over thousands and millions of years to produce life.
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That we believe that God created life and we believe the evidence points to that truth.
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And that's what creation science attempts to make true or make clear.
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The problem that I mentioned with creation science, and I do believe creation science is a great thing.
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I think Ken Ham and the work that he does is awesome.
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And I think that Vision Forum, one of the groups that puts out some of his work, does a good thing by putting out the creation science materials.
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But the one thing that creation science will never be able to do is change a heart.
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If a person has the presupposition that there is no God.
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And that a person has a presupposition that they are nothing but the end result of evolutionary processes.
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If a person is convicted about that in their heart, all the evidence in the world will not change them.
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It takes an act of God to change the heart.
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As the scripture says, the leopard will not naturally change its spots, nor can the Ethiopian change his own skin.
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Neither can we do good who are accustomed to evil.
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It takes an act of God to change the heart.
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And that's why I say this verse speaks to creation science.
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Because it says, by faith we understand that the universe was created.
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Not by the evidence.
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Yes, the evidence supports our faith.
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Yes, the evidence upholds our faith.
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But the evidence will never be enough.
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Alright, if you weren't here two weeks ago, that was the crux of the message.
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That's part one.
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And I wanted to bring you up to speed because now we're going to move to part two.
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Because this passage gives us three creation concepts and we've only looked at one.
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The concept of creation science.
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Let's look now at concept number two.
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And if you're writing this down, the second concept is the concept of creation by divine fiat.
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And the word is f-i-a-t.
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Fiat.
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What do I mean by fiat? Wasn't there a car one time called the Fiat? Well, that is not what I mean.
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But if it helps you remember, have at it.
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Creation by divine fiat.
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That is simply a theological term that speaks of the way in which God brought the world into existence.
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The word fiat simply means command.
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It comes from the Latin translation of Genesis chapter one.
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In Genesis chapter one, you will see the term let there be what? Light.
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Well, the term let there be is the term in Latin fiat.
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It means to command.
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So that is where we get the term creation by divine fiat.
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God brought the world into existence by an act of a divine command.
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And that point is stressed throughout Genesis chapter one.
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If you were to look at Genesis chapter one, you would see in Genesis 1.3 it says, And God said, let there be light.
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Genesis 1.6 And God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it be separated from the waters from the waters.
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Genesis 1.9 And God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together in one place and let the dry land appear.
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And it was so.
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Genesis 1.11 And God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is in their seed, each according to its kind on the earth.
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Genesis 1.14 And God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens.
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Genesis 1.20 And God said, let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures.
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Genesis 1.24 And God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds.
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Over and over and over the expression of the divine fiat is given to us.
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It is repeated.
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And God said, and it was.
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Somebody says, OK, why is that important? The reason why it is important is because the expression of the divine fiat expounds the concept of God's eternal power and glory.
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Only the almighty sovereign God of the universe has the power within himself to simply speak and the world responds in creation.
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We know that words have power.
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The Bible actually tells us that even our words have power.
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Have you ever heard this verse? Proverbs 18.21 It says death and life are in the power of the tongue.
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It says that.
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And a lot of people use that for the word faith movement, which I think is a bunch of gobbledygook.
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But that's a totally different point of view.
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But what that passage simply is saying is that our power, our words do have the power to build up and our words have the power to tear down.
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And if you don't think that's true, become a pastor.
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No, if you don't think that's everybody knows your words can build people up.
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Your words can tear people down.
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Words are powerful things.
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But our words do not have the power that God's words have.
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God is the only being in the universe that can make a command.
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And that command is fulfilled.
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Absolutely.
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Captains of industry and CEOs can command people to accomplish tasks.
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They can command people to do things.
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However, they cannot command light to come from darkness.
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They cannot command life to come from non life.
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They cannot command the world to come from nothing.
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That is the type of power that we're talking about when we talk about God's divine fiat.
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The expression of the divine fiat is an expression of the immensity of the power of God.
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He can simply speak and the world comes in to existence.
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That level of power should cause us to shudder.
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I am never ceased or I never ceased rather to be amazed at how many people have such a low view of God.
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And it is true that for many, many people, their God is too small.
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They have a reactionary God.
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They have a God who hopes for things but doesn't accomplish things.
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They have a God who's not sovereign, who's not in control.
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And for them, I feel sad.
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Next week, I'm actually going to preach on the sovereignty of God.
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That's not the message for today.
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But something that I do want to bring out is very important for us to know.
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Is that if God can simply speak and create the world, then there's nothing he can't do.
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That expression of power that is given to us in the very first chapter of the Bible is there.
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My belief is that it's there to tell us that very thing.
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It is there to express to us the omnipotence of God.
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He can simply say be and it is.
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That is an amazing thought.
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And there's something else I want us to note.
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Because this should never, ever leave our purview when we are considering God's creation.
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And that is this.
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The concept of divine fiat should also make us better understand the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Why? Because wherein we see God as the author of all things, Christ is the vehicle through whom all things came.
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Why do you think it is that in the beginning of John's gospel, Jesus is called the Word? John 1.1, in the beginning, was the Word.
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And the Word was with God.
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And the Word was God.
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And then in verse 14 it says, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
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The power of the Word of God, the very vehicle through which He made the worlds, manifest Himself in the flesh and dwelt among us.
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And there were times in Jesus' ministry where that glory shone through.
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And every time that happened, the people didn't even know how to respond.
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Think about Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.
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He's there.
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He's got two of His apostles with Him.
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Moses and Elijah appear to Him.
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And Jesus is there in His glory.
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And what of the disciples? They don't even know what to do.
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They fall down.
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And they say, Lord, let us make three tents for You.
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And Jesus is like, get up.
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What are you doing? We're not going to stay here.
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We're going to minister in the world.
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We're not going to build three tents and have us a little holy tabernacle meeting.
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No.
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But you see, they didn't even know how to handle that expression of the Word of God in His glory.
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And most people miss this.
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This is a very important passage in the Gospel of John.
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The Gospel of John says the night that the disciple, or the night that the men came to arrest Jesus.
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Remember that story in the Gospel of John, that the night that Jesus is in the garden and the men come to arrest Him? It says, they say, we're looking for Jesus.
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And Jesus said, I am.
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Another expression of His divine nature.
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It's not the way it reads in the English, but in the Greek it's ego, I, me.
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It's I am.
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It says, and they fell back.
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They fell down in His presence.
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The very ones who came to arrest the Lord could not stand in His presence when He simply announced who He was.
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Go back and read that passage.
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That's an important passage.
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Because it reminds us who Jesus is.
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Jesus is the Word of God.
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And the Bible says all things were made through Him.
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And without Him was nothing made that was made.
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Without Jesus Christ the world was not created.
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The world was created through Him.
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And the Bible says the world is upheld by the Word of His power.
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Listen to this in Hebrews chapter 1.
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It says, He, speaking of Jesus, is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the Word of His power.
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Beloved, God did not just create the world by His Word.
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He upholds the world by His Word.
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Your very existence, your very life, your very molecules are held together by the Word of God.
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And if God were to shut His mouth, you would disintegrate.
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God is the Sovereign.
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God is the Creator.
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And if your God is not that big, your God is too small.
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We see God creating by the divine fiat.
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And it's an amazing thing.
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I honestly cannot even consider how wonderful it is.
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In my mind, I think about it.
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I meditate on it.
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But it's like so many things about God.
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When you truly imagine His power and creation, it's so humbling and it's so amazing that your mind...
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It's like there's a place that your mind just can't go any further.
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It stops.
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It becomes bewildered at the majesty of God.
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So that is the second concept that we see here.
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This passage is so clear.
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It says, By faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God.
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Now, the third concept.
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And I do want to get to this today.
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The third of the three is another Latin term.
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And it's kind of strange.
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And again, if you're writing notes, I'll spell it for you.
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It is the concept of creation.
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Ex nihilo.
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E-X-N-I-H-I-L-O.
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Ex nihilo is Latin for nothing or from nothing.
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So what it means when we say God created the world ex nihilo is what we mean by that.
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It's that God created the world and the universe out of nothing.
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The Bible says in Genesis 1-1, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
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Before God created the heavens and the earth, there was nothing.
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Now, you and I cannot grasp nothing.
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I know we all use the word nothing all the time.
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They'll say, What you doing? Nothing.
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Or we'll say, How much money? You know, you got any money? No, I don't have any money.
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I got nothing.
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You know, or whatever.
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We use the word nothing all the time, or you'll say, What's in that? What's in that wastebasket? Nothing.
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No, there is something in the wastebasket.
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If nothing else, there's air in the wastebasket.
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And if you were to take the air, if you were to create a vacuum in the wastebasket, and you were to separate all of the air from within the wastebasket and create nothing in the wastebasket, there would still be something in the wastebasket.
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What would it be? The wastebasket.
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Thank you.
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But what's in there? What's in there? If you suck all the air out, what's in there? Vacuum.
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Vacuum.
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But what else? Space.
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There's space.
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Right.
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If you suck all, because they do this in science classes, they'll take a tube and they'll put a feather in, and they'll show how the feather floats down, and then they'll suck all the air out, and the feather doesn't float anymore.
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Why? Because there's no more air resistance.
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They'll say there's no air, so there's nothing to resist, and it'll fall straight down.
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That's a neat little science project.
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But don't think there's nothing in the tube, because there is something in the tube.
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There's space.
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There's space in the tube.
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Why do I make that point? Because God created everything, including the space.
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And honestly, that'll mess up your mind, if you really...
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Because you've got to think, God did not create the universe out of existing building blocks.
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God didn't just take a Lego set, pour it out, and start putting stuff together.
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He started from nothing.
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The Bible never says explicitly that God made everything from nothing, but it does say it implicitly, particularly in this verse.
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It says that everything that was made was made out of things...
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Well, it says this.
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It says, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
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And scholars have forever taken this to mean that the universe came into existence by a divine command, and was not assembled from pre-existing matter or energy.
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You know, we can be very creative.
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And human beings, I believe that's part of the stamp of God's image, is that human beings are incredibly creative.
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And it's one of the things I think sometimes, because even atheists can be creative and be expressive.
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And I say they do that in spite of themselves, because what they're doing is demonstrating the image of God that is stamped upon them by being creative, even in their atheism.
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So really, it's God's way of allowing them to express that He's still their Creator, even though they're His rejector.
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It's an amazing little truth.
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But no matter how creative man is, man cannot create anything out of nothing.
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We can only take that which already is and reform it, repackage it, reshape it, remake it.
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We cannot create anything.
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We lack the capacity.
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In fact, we have scientific rules based on that fact.
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The first law of science is that matter and energy are neither created nor destroyed, right? That's part of scientific, we understand that, that matter and energy simply are changing shape or changing their expression of how they exist.
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You've got solid, liquid, gas, and plasma, and you can have something go through all of those different changes, but it never stops existing, it never starts existing.
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It either is or it is not.
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Matter and energy is neither created nor destroyed.
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So we have to reshape things.
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We can't create anything from nothing, but God can.
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And again, that's one of those things that if you really spend time thinking about it, it truly boggles the mind.
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For years, I was fascinated by the concept of ex nihilo.
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I was fascinated by that concept for this one reason.
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I heard a pastor one time say this, and it struck me.
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He said, before God created anything, there was nothing, which means the first thing God had to create was the space to put it in.
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And if that doesn't...
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But if you think, go back just as far.
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In the beginning, God created the heavens.
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What's heavens? Heavens is a big old space to put everything in.
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And I said, whoa! He had to create space.
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We can't create space.
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We can't create anything.
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It's like the guy who had the...
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He said, the scientist who said to God, and this is an old joke, but some of you have never heard it, so I'll pretend it's new.
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But the scientist who said to God, he said, we have become so intelligent, we've become so smart, we no longer need you.
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And God said, okay.
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He said, we'll have a man building contest, a man making contest.
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And the man said, okay.
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He said, we'll go ahead and start.
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And God said, but you have to do it the same way I did it.
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When I created man, I created him from the dirt of the ground.
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And the man and the scientist said, okay, God, I'll do just like that.
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And he reached down and he grabbed some dirt.
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And God said, no, no, no.
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Get your own dirt.
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And that's the way it is.
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We can reshape.
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We can remold.
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We can do amazing things.
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We can make iPods and iPads.
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And we can make supercomputers that can go on Jeopardy and play games.
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But we can't create something out of nothing.
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But God can.
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And that expression of God's majesty and creative power should cause our minds to sit in wonder over who He is.
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As hard as it may be to comprehend, it is clear that God created the world, that He created the world out of nothing, that He spoke it into existence, and that everything that we see is here because of God's divine command.
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He didn't just form the building blocks into a unit.
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He created the very foundation from where the building blocks would come.
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And He did so simply by speaking them into existence.
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Such a concept should cause us to have a totally new and radical view of God.
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It should cause us to put away our little God mindset and open our eyes to the immensity and the power and the sovereignty and the might of who God truly is.
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He is the great God of the universe through whom all things were created and by whom all things are held together.
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To Him be glory, honor, and dominion forever.
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Amen.
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Let's pray.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you for this opportunity to express again your wonderful attributes and creation.
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We know, O God, that you have created all things by the word of your power, and we trust that not only have you created them, but that you are sustaining them by the power of your word.
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We pray, O Lord, as we continue to worship you this morning, and we go to our homes and continue to worship, that you would put into our minds a desire to understand who you are.
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I pray, O God, for your mercy upon us and upon everyone in this congregation, particularly those who do not have a relationship with you.
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We pray, Lord, if there are those here who have never heard the gospel, that they would know this morning that Jesus Christ is the only way to come to you, and that, Lord God, they are commanded to call out to you in repentance and faith, because your word tells us there is no other name under heaven given by which we must be saved other than the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And at His name every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess.
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So, Lord God, we thank you for this time of worship.
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We pray for the hearts of everyone here.
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Move upon us, O Lord, as you will see fit, and open our hearts to your truth.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.