Worship Service: Sermon "Darwin vs Moses"

Good to see everyone here gathered together. Yes now it's on. Therefore since.

Justification by Faith and Rejoicing in Christ

We have been justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

More than that we rejoice in our sufferings. Knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us.

And that while we were still sinners Christ died for us since. Therefore we have now been justified by his blood much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life.

More than that we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation. May God add his blessing to the reading into the hearing of his word.

And sing out together. We're going to sing the song forever. Give thanks to the Lord our God. His love endures forever. For he is good. He is above all things. His love endures forever. Sing praise sing praise.

His love endures forever. For the life that's been reborn. His love endures forever. Sing praise sing sing praise sing praise. He is faithful forever. God is strong forever. God is with us forever. By the grace of God we will carry on.

His love endures forever. Sing praise sing praise. God is with us forever. God is faithful forever. God is strong forever. God is with us.

Adam, Sin, and the Free Gift Through One Man

And this is a very very important anthropological passage because it tells us about the nature of man and why we come into this world as sinners in need of salvation. Therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sinned for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given.

But sin is not counted where there is no law yet. Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass.

For if many died through one man's trespass much more have the grace of God and the free gift by that grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

For if because of one man's trespass death reigned through that one man much much much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Amen. Let us stand together and let us sing together. This song is a song of prayer. David said these words after he had sinned and this is his prayer of contrition so I want us to sing again. And I want us to sing as if it were a prayer that's what singing is.

It's corporate prayer. It's prayer together as the body of Christ. If you know the song I would even encourage you close your eyes and pray this song together.

And renew a right spirit within me from thy presence oh lord and take not thy holy spirit restore my salvation and renew a right spirit within me within me.

You may be seated at the end of the chapter. Paul begins with the word therefore therefore tells us. This is the culmination of the theology and the doctrine that he has just explained. Listen to what he says.

Therefore as one trespass led to condemnation for all men so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

Now the law came in to increase the trespass but where sin increased grace abounded all the more so that as sin reigned in death grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our lord.

Amen. Let's stand.

This time we're going to sing a very famous very common hymn but one that certainly is.

Meaningful especially if you know the history behind it. The man who wrote this song wrote it after losing his children to a terrible tragedy. And he looks to God and he says even still because I have God it is well with my soul.

There's an extra envelope in your bulletin this week.

That is if you would like to contribute to our building project and the things that we're doing you're welcome to do that through that special offering envelope.

To make us want to support your church and your ministry your work on television I pray that you come down and that church in your life. This offering will be a praise for the wisdom and the leadership of your church that you come and that your church as a whole.

Of every man my heart to sing thy hymns of mercy never ceasing call for songs of loudness teach me some sung by thy.

Prayer for the Persecuted Church, the Lost, and the Church's Witness

Come now to our time for prayer and this is a very important time in congregational life because we take a moment in worship to remember those things for whom we need to be praying and about which we need to be praying.

If you look inside your worship folder you'll see a small slip of paper and it tells and I don't know if you notice this or not but each week we put in an update regarding the persecuted church all around the world.

There are people and churches in distant lands that we will never see this side of heaven that are suffering for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ today. And we want to always be lifting up the persecuted church and so we add that each week as a reminder.

Want to also pray for members in our body. Want to continue to pray for Sharon. Want to continue to pray for Debbie Davis and for the family of Cindy Parker. Those of you who knew her were friends with her used to be a member of our church years ago.

She did pass away very recently. We want to keep everyone updated about things like that. So please pray for her family. And then of course you see below that we want to pray for the Gomez family. Jerry's very dear friend has passed and there's a lot going on with that situation.

Might be some traveling involved and so we want to pray for them. The women's ministry at Set Free is something we continue to pray for. There's been some developments with that this week. That are some things that need to be prayed about and Set Free ministry as a whole as well as also you notice at the bottom it says family and friends that are lost.

That's not just a small thing that is a huge thing and something that we should always be praying for that our family and friends would come to know Jesus Christ not that they be like us because I mean heaven forbid that there need to be more of me but that they might become like Christ because that is the most important thing in the world.

The Bible says that we are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ and so we want to pray that for others as well. I'm going to give you a few seconds to pray on your own and then I'll lead us in a time of corporate prayer and then we'll move on with our sermon this morning.

Our Father and our God. We come to you in Jesus name and Lord. We come to you this morning because you deserve our worship. And we know that prayer is an act of worship. It's demonstrating our dependency upon you and Lord.

We are completely and utterly dependent upon you for everything in our life not just the big things Lord but for everything in our life. We come and we lay everything before you and we say we would have nothing.

We would not have air in our lungs. We would not have a heart beating within our chest if it were not for your divine sanction. Oh God. If it were not for your divine decree these things would not be so for you.

Oh Lord are the sovereign of all things. And the word of God tells us that you are God and there is no other. You are God and there is none like you. So when we pray to you we're praying not to another man or someone like ourselves but we're praying to the God who created all things including man and animals and trees and birds and fish.

The world around us was fashioned by your hand and it continues to move by your divine command and Lord God were you to remove your hand for even a moment not only would it cease to move but it would cease to exist.

For in you we live and move and have our being. Our very being is wrapped up in you Lord. Only the fool would think himself independent for we are utterly dependent upon you. Only the fool would think himself to need you but you do not.

For Lord we need you for everything. Lord. We know there are people who go throughout their lives day in and day out. Some of them very close to us some of them in our very own households who go in day and night with no desire for God no desire for submission to Jesus Christ no desire or love for Him.

And Lord our heart breaks for them. Our heart breaks for the lost. Our heart breaks for those who are outside of Christ. So we lift up our family and friends to you today. Lord we pray that you would give us the boldness to share the gospel with them.

Pray that Lord we would do so in a way that is loving and winsome not arrogant and proud that we would rest upon the word of God and not our own creativity. Lord may it be that everything that we do is through you.

Father as we come to you this morning there are so many things on our hearts our lost loved ones being just a part of the things that are difficult and things that we struggle with. I know that even now Lord there are those who are here who know you and trust you but they are having struggles in their mind and in their heart.

They are having struggles focusing on what we are doing in worship because their minds are so preoccupied with the world. Their minds are so preoccupied with financial struggles. Their minds are preoccupied with marital struggles their lives.

Their minds are preoccupied with physical struggles. And Lord it is so easy for our minds to get led away. Oh God please help us to focus on you. Today we know that one day Lord your word tells us we will see Christ as he is and we will be as he is.

We will be given that glorified body. And until then until that great beatific vision comes we will forever have a divide and not be able to see you as you are. But Lord God help us to in our hearts desire to see you.

Help us desire as brother Mike said earlier to see your will be done in this world. Jesus taught us to pray your will be done in earth as it is in heaven. So we pray Lord for our world. We pray for all of the dirty and underhanded politics that happen in our nation.

We pray that you would bring revival into that arena and that you would see men and women saved of Christ and known of God and that they would come and be true statesmen. But Lord we know it doesn't begin in the white house it begins in the church house.

Any true revival will happen first in the pulpit not in the senate. So God I pray for the churches in our land. I pray that they would preach the gospel. That they wouldn't preach silliness. That they wouldn't preach games.

That they wouldn't preach false doctrines Lord that you might break the teeth of the false teacher. That he might not speak against you. That men of God would mount pulpits around our nation and preach the gospel.

There will be no change if there is no gospel preached. I thank you for the men in this church that desire to proclaim the gospel. I thank you for sharing with those men and the desires that they have.

And Lord I'm so thankful for them. And I'm thankful for this church. I'm thankful for the men of God that we have in this church. The fathers who lead their families well and teach them about Christ. For the mothers who love their husbands and love their children and nurture them in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

Father for those who aren't married but continue to be good examples of steadfastness and faithfulness among the body of Christ and serve the church. Well I thank you for them. For Lord they're not just serving the church they're serving Christ.

For the church is the body of Christ. Lord we lift up to you those who are sick among us. Lord you know who they are and you know the situations better than we do. And you know what is needed. And I pray oh God that with each person that has this need Lord I would pray that you would bring perfect healing immediate and miraculous while at the same time Lord I know that you use means you use medicine you use doctors you use these things as means.

And we're thankful for that. Lord sometimes it is your choice not to heal and we will give you thanks for that as well because Lord you know better than we do. You're perfect and we are. We are so myopic we are so short sighted we can't even see to the end of the week.

And Lord you have seen to the end of our days. Help us to trust in you help us to find our hope in you help us to be comforted by you. Lord all these things we pray and we ask them all in Jesus name. And now Lord as we move to the time of the sermon I pray that you would keep me from error for God I am a fallible man and only by your spirit will the people of God be taught and the lost be drawn to you.

So I pray that your Holy Spirit would be the master of this moment that I would decrease and Christ would increase and that in our time of study you would be glorified in Christ name and for his sake.

Amen. There that should work. Sorry. I want to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Genesis and we're going to be in Genesis chapter one you can take me way down. I am way too loud. We had to readjust everything when we put all the new stuff up on the chancel.

Darwin vs Moses: The Sermon Introduction and Thesis

So forgive us for slight technical difficulties this morning the title of today's sermon is Darwin versus Moses. And I know that we've been studying the book of Genesis now for five months maybe four or five months and I know that I have mentioned the subject of evolution on several occasions but I have not yet really dealt with why we would say it is absolutely unbiblical untenable and I'm even going to point out the fact that it's even unscientific and so today we're going to be looking at that.

I have a little bit of a it's not an apology but it is a little bit of an issue though with the sermon. I don't know if I'm going to get through it all in one shot because there's so much I want to say and so at some point if I feel like it's just going to need another week I'm just going to stop and pray.

I'll land the plane and we'll pick it up next week because I don't want to rush the subject but at the same time I don't want to belabor it either. I've really poured over this and thought about it a lot this week and there's just so much that I feel like I want to say as I think it was brother Dan yesterday said we're not going anywhere.

We can always come back next week so we'll see how it goes. And I know some of you all just preach until you get done. Pastor just keep going. I know you say that and maybe maybe there's genuine in that but I have an internal clock too.

I have that sort of moment in my brain where it just says that's enough and so it's just in my heart I know that I've gotten my point across for the past two weeks we have been looking at Genesis 1 26 and 27 on the image of God and we have noted several things about the image of God.

Last week we looked at the practical application of the image of God and we looked at what it means to be made in the image of God who is made in the image of God. We've determined based on the Bible not just opinion but we've determined from scripture that all men and women are made in the image of God.

We all bear the image of God and this image of God is what separates us and makes us distinct from all other created beings. The image of God is the thing that separates us from even the animals that look the most like us.

The apes look similar in the way that they're formed to us but they're in no way similar in regard to the image of God. Man is so distinct and so unique among the created beings and we see that in the 26 and 27 verse of Genesis chapter 1.

But today we're going to step back and ask this question is it possible that man evolved to the point that he is now. Is it possible that we actually did start out as a simple cell and grew and varied into different types of beings and that man is just the last and a very long tree of life that began with a single simple cell.

There are entire denominations that believe in something called biblical evolution or EC which is evolutionary creationism. Now they would say yes we're made in the image of God. But what they would say is that mankind evolved from lower life forms and we are all related to that one simple single cell that began everything and that it wasn't until man evolved to the point where he is now that God imprinted upon him the image of God.

So in that respect the image of God is not an essential part of man's nature but it's a late addition to the nature of one creature chosen out of many creatures that evolved through a long tree of variation.

So that's the point evolutionary creationists would say this man is not made in the image of God by nature but the image of God was placed upon one part of God's creation that evolved after millions of years of change.

What we're going to see today is the bible does not support that in any way shape or form. The bible does not support the evolution of the human species. In fact the bible doesn't support the evolution of any species and we're going to see that as we go.

But the bible specifically and particularly does not support the evolution of the human species. In fact the bible goes to extraordinary lengths. We're going to see this extraordinary lengths to show that we did not evolve naturally but that we were created specially by almighty God.

So let's stand and let's read our verse today. It's just verse 27. We're going to stand. We always stand for scripture give it. It's honor and reverence when we're getting ready to study a passage. And this is our passage for the day genesis 1 and 27.

So God created man in his own image in the image of God. He created him male and female. He created them. May God add his blessing to the reading and to the hearing of his word. May God write it's eternal truth upon our heart.

And may God keep me from error as I preach. Amen. You may be seated. Sometimes we read long passages and sometimes we have just one short passage. And today we had just that little short passage. Now in the midst of today's message I'm going to be using a visual aid.

I'm going to be using a white board. There's a lot that I'm going to be doing so hopefully you'll be able to follow along and it will make sense. In 1925 Tennessee state legislature banned the teaching of evolution in public schools.

Can you imagine in 1925 the state legislature of Tennessee our neighbor two states to the north banned the teaching of evolution in the classroom. The new law made it illegal for instructors to discuss any theory that denies the story of divine creation of man as taught in the bible.

Or to teach that man has descended from a lower order or animal. Think about that the law came in and said you can't teach evolution. You cannot teach this in the school. In fact you must teach the divine theory of origins as it's given in the bible.

And you can't teach anything that would say that man evolved from a lower order of life or some kind of an animal. Boy. How things have changed in a hundred years. I mean really that was almost five years.

From now we're going to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of what's known as the scopes trial. Because what resulted out of this. How many of you ever heard of the scopes trial. A few of you. The scopes trial was what resulted out of that legislation.

Because when the legislation happened it said you can't teach evolution. Well the American Civil Liberties Union the ACLU. They've been around a long time. The ACLU representing John Scopes sued to overturn the act.

The creationist law was upheld. The law was upheld. They can't teach evolution. However that trial became the flashpoint or the watershed moment of history where this issue came to the fore and it became part of the popular discussion and the debate.

And of course many things have changed in the last hundred years to the point that it's almost reversed now where as before you could not teach evolution it was against the law. Now you can't teach even intelligent design.

That's against the law. So it's gone from one extreme to the other. You might have heard the names Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan those were the two men who in that Scopes trial had the very important back and forth where they debated the subject.

And I want to quote to you something from the actual from the files from this event. An area of questioning involved the book of Genesis including questions such as if Eve was actually created from Adam's rib where did Cain get his wife.

And how many people lived in ancient Egypt. Darrow who was on the side of the evolutionists. Darrow used these examples to suggest that the stories of the Bible could not be scientific and should not be used in teaching science.

With Darrow telling Bryan you insult every man of science and learning in the world because he does not believe in your fool religion. Bryan's declaration in response was the reason I'm answering is not for the benefit of the superior court.

It is to keep these gentlemen from saying I was afraid to meet them and let them question me. And I want the Christian world to know that any atheist agnostic unbeliever can question me anytime as to my belief in God and I will answer him.

Amen. That's pretty strong. So these two guys. But this is all happening in the courtroom. This is all part of the courtroom transcripts. You can go back and read them. So these two guys this they had it out.

And the evolutionists have always considered this to be a win for them even though they lost in court. They consider Clarence Darrow to be their hero. And he won the day with his witty and powerful banter that he used and his arguments that he used.

So the scopes trial is a major event in American history in regard to the subject of whether or not we should be teaching evolution in schools whether or not we should be teaching this as part of our primary education system.

But the scopes trial was not the only of its kind. In 1965 Arkansas had this law that dated back to the 20's forbidding the teaching of evolutionary biology and the Arkansas education association allied with the science teacher Susan Epperson challenged the measure.

They eventually won got it thrown out. Then in 2005 the school board of Dover Pennsylvania mandated that classes on evolutionary science commence with an announcement supporting the study of intelligent design.

This was all they were saying. This was 2005. So this was within all of our lifetime except for the little ones back in 2005 they said ok we've been teaching evolution. It's out. Everybody knows it. We're teaching it.

But let's start the class by saying but there's this other thing called intelligent design. Guess what happened thrown out of court cannot do it. Not only can you not mention intelligent design. I'll read to you what the judge actually said.

The judge John Jones found the parents declaring that intelligent design quote is a religious view a mere relabeling of creationism and is not a scientific theory. So here's what has happened. We've gone from you cannot teach evolution to you cannot teach any form of creation even intelligent design.

So we've gone from one extreme to the other extreme. And so we all know that this is an ensconced in our education system. I grew up in the 90s. I like to pretend I'm in the 80s. I was a child in the 80s because the 80s was much cooler than the 90s.

Thank you for the amen. I think that deserved an amen. So I grew up in the 90s and it was it was just something that was taught. It was normal. You are the product of evolution. There was really no debate now.

I didn't. I didn't go to youth groups and stuff and hear about the arguments in church a lot. But in school it was just normal. And you all have heard this too. We've all heard the arguments for evolution.

And most of us who have been brought up in the education system the public education system have heard the arguments for all of this ever since we were young. We've heard the arguments of comparative anatomy.

Well look at your structure compared to the structure of a ape and look at the apes structure compared to the structure of other vertebrate animals. And look how all these animals look the same. They all have spinal columns and they all have rib cages and they all have femurs.

And they all have bones that look like arms and even fish. Even whales have at the end of their fins they have these things that look like the phalange bones of our hands. And so you see this comparison.

And they take this comparison and they say see we're all the same. We all came from the same source because we all look the same. And that's the argument from comparative anatomy. And then there's the argument of the vestigial organ.

You know what a vestigial organ is. That's an organ that no longer serves a purpose. So for instance many of you have a little scar right here right beside your belly button because at some point in your life you got sick and you didn't realize what was wrong.

But what was happening was that your appendix was infected or inflamed and they had to remove it and they said don't worry about removing it. It doesn't serve a purpose. It's a vestigial organ. It served a purpose in the past that we no longer know what it is.

But through the process of evolution we don't need it anymore like your wisdom teeth. And then there's the argument of biochemistry. Well we all have the same chemicals that make us up. And that's true.

The same chemicals that make up. You make up dogs and horses and whales and everything else. And because all the chemicals are the same then doesn't that prove that we all come from a common ancestor.

And then there's the argument of paleontology which says that the study of fossils proves evolution. And then there's the argument from genetics and that's saying that recognizing hereditary and variations among related organisms that proves evolution.

And every one of us has seen this picture whether it was in the science museum or whether it was in a school textbook or maybe it was even when you were online. You've seen the ascent of man where he starts as the lovable ape hunched over with his knuckles dragging the ground and then slowly over time he erects until we get to homo sapien homo sapien latin the thinking man or the wise man.

Prior to that it was homo erectus. And prior to that you move down the line all the way back to the ape ancestors that supposedly began everything for us. And it's amazing how much this has has come into our culture.

I brought an article with me and this is this was actually in the Wall Street Journal. The title of the article is this. I don't know how many of you are going to understand this title of the article.

January 16 2020 humans evolved to love baby Yoda. That's the title of the article. Now if you don't know what baby Yoda is there was a very popular program that came out over the summer. It was a Star Wars based program and in the movie called Mandalorian it was like a serial program.

There was a baby version of Yoda that everyone just fell in love with and everybody thought it was the greatest thing in the world. Well what this article proposes is that the reason why we love baby Yoda so much is because we have evolved.

We have evolved to love babies. Babies need support and care. And because they need support and care evolution caused them to produce all of these traits that are very cute. And so babies have chubby cheeks and big eyes and beautiful smiles.

Because you needed that cuteness to make you take care of them. And evolution knew you needed that to get you to take care of them. So evolution has made you to where you love babies. And you don't just love human babies.

You love all babies. You love puppies and you love kittens. And you even love baby Yoda. Dr. Al Mohler says this human beings did not evolve. And we certainly did not evolve to love babies. It's impossible for me to believe that in an honest way evolution truly believe inside the deep recesses of their hearts that the only reason they love their children is because of evolution.

You see that's the argument right. The only reason why you love your baby is because he has evolved to a point to make himself lovable to you. There's not an innate nature in you that God put in you to love your offspring.

It's a natural process. Because when it comes to evolution if you begin to dig deep enough you will find that when it comes to evolution everything has an evolutionary answer. Everything has an evolution because it's not just a scientific theory.

It is a world view. It is a world view that affects everything. And so you'll hear evolution be the solution and the foundation to everything. It's not a small thing folks. And that's why I wanted to take a whole sermon and deal with it.

Because this is a huge deal. And this is something that we all have to face if not just for ourselves for our children. Where did this idea arise. Where did the idea of human evolution arise. And why has it spread so widely.

In 1859 a work of scientific literature was published entitled on the origin of species. Many people misquote the title and this is usually how they misquote it. People say you ever read the origin of the species.

It's not the origin of the species. It's the origin of species because this book which was written by Charles Darwin was not necessarily trying to argue for the origin of man. He would write that later in his book the descent of man.

Origin of species is intended to argue that all species come from a single ancestor. So it's not the origin of the species. It's the origin of species as a whole. It's the origin of how species functions.

It's all of that. And the title is not actually on the origin of species. It's actually on the origin of species by means of natural selection or the preservation of the preserved races in the struggle for life.

It's a really long title which is why most of us just know it as on the origin of species. And in the book Charles Darwin provides what he considers to be evidences for evolution of life from a common ancestor.

We've all heard the stories how he sailed and he went to the Galapagos Islands and he studied the finches and he noticed that certain finches look certain ways and that they had changed over time. We've seen these pictures in the history books.

And Darwin's theory argued that organisms gradually evolve through a process called natural selection and natural selection. Organisms with genetic variations that suit their environment tend to propagate more descendants than organisms of the same species that lack the variation thus influencing the overall genetic makeup of the species.

So in simple terms this the strongest survive the weakest die the strongest survive. That's natural selection the culling of the weak the propagation of the strong. And so through evolution the strongest cells multiply the weaker cells die off.

And those multiplying cells begin to develop and change. And over time you go from goo to you. I'm not trying to be sarcastic even though that is a little cheeky but that's it. You go from microbes to from microbes to microbiologists from goo to you from the single cell to the multicellular organism.

And how does it happen. Well according to Darwin it happens through a process of natural selection and keep in mind that word natural because that's the key to all of this natural meaning that it happens on its own unguided undirected and without a divine influence or power.

It simply works. Evolution was not actually a new idea. Evolution had been believed and thought about and taught for many many years. But Darwin by producing the idea of natural selection and using this as the means for it to happen he came along and popularized his view and very quickly very quickly became well known in the scientific community.

Darwin's On the Origin of Species sold out almost immediately. His book sold out almost immediately. Scientists quickly embraced his theory and began to teach it. And by his death in 1882 just some 20 years after the writing of the book his theory had become generally accepted.

And when he did die he was buried in Westminster Abbey. Now you say well what does that mean. Well that means he was buried beside kings and queens and other people of noble personage. He earned his spot as it were in one of the most famous graveyards in the world.