It is always a great delight to be here at
Ligonier. I am always honored to be here among these
auspicious and God-blessed and formidable ministers of the word of God, and teachers. It is a special joy and privilege to be in
their fellowship and to be given the privilege to minister with them. And I mean that sincerely and it is always
wonderful to sort of re-connect with many of you that I otherwise would not see on this
side of the country. And I appreciate so much you kind words and
your fellowship. I have been assigned a couple of fairly fascinating
subjects and it's tough enough to preach back to back on these two subjects. But to have John Piper stuck in the middle
is even a more difficult task. So I will try to keep you awake until he gets
here and then hold you when he is done. We'll see if that works. The Bible and science is the subject. And I want to deal with that in specifics
than rather in theory if I may. To begin our thinking a little bit, let's
sort of pose what I think is a fair question. Whoever created the universe and everything
that exists in the universe understands it perfectly. Whoever created it understands its nature
and its operation. In fact whoever created it does not have to
wait for scientific discovery to come across the components and the elements of that creation
for Him to discover its operation. Since the creator designed it and created
it and sustains it, He perfectly understands it. For example, we can be assured that whoever
created the universe understands that the Earth is spherical. That is that it turns also on an axis. That it is suspended on nothing, sweeps through
space in a fixed rotation and orbit. A more massive solar system of which it is
a part sweeps from one end of the heavens to the other dragging our solar system with
it in concentric orbits that make up the whole of infinite space. He knows that. Whoever created knows the galaxies, the staggering
reaches of space, the countless stars and He knows the cycles of air and water. He knows everything there is to know about
chemistry. He knows everything there is to know about
biology. So if He wrote a book, would expect that the
book would be accurate. Whoever is intelligent enough and powerful
enough to design and create and sustain the incalculable complexity of the universe and
all that exists within it; whoever is capable of creating and sustaining that is certainly
intelligent enough to write a relatively clear and accurate assessment of that, and insight
into that, and a true representation of that, that is understandable to the frail human
mind. When the creator wrote His book and revealed
reality regarding His creation He would be able to communicate it accurately and truly,
not dependent upon any discovery at any time in history. So, if we find a book that is a true and accurate
representation of the way things really are in the universe, then we will know that the
God who created it wrote it. To approach that another way, whoever created
reality would never say this: "The moon is fifty thousand leagues higher than the sun
and has its own light. The earth is flat and triangular composed
of seven stages, one of honey, one of sugar, one of butter, one of wine, and the earth
sits on the heads of countless elephants who produce earthquakes when they shake." That is the Hindu holy writings. So we know the creator didn't write that. The Hindu Panishad says the sun is the source
of all energy in the universe. So we know the creator didn't write that. The creator would never say that there are
only thirteen members of the body through which death can come, as the Taoist holy book
says. So we know He didn't write that. The Buddhist book says earthquakes are caused
by wind moving water and water moving land. So we know He didn't write that. The book of Mormon says that Adam fell in
order that men might come into existence. So we know He didn't write that. The book of Mormon also says in Alma 7:10
that Jesus was born in Jerusalem. So we know He didn't write that. He would not write what is written in science
and health and key to the scriptures, that "man is not made", I quote "of brain, blood,
bones and other material elements. And man is incapable of sin, sickness and
death." So we know God did not write that. Christian Science it's called. Its like Grape Nuts, they're not grapes and
they're not nuts, and it's not Christian and it’s not scientific either. Well, I think you get the point. That should be enough to make the point that
we need to check the holy books and see if we can't find a book that is accurate, that
is historically accurate, morally accurate and that is scientifically accurate when assessed
by true science. The true creator is going to tell us the truth. The true creator is an infinitely intelligent
information and communication genius. And He is not going to make mistakes in His
book, because He has created this entire universe to function on a complex unfathomable, inscrutable,
information system. The whole universe and all the life that is
within it depends on information, on the communication of precise information. So we would expect the book written by the
eternal and infinite communication genius, not to say stupid things, and ridiculous things,
and things that are not true. The scripture claims to be that book. It claims to be the word of the living God
who is the creator, sustainer, and consummator of the universe. The scripture claims to be the inspired revelation
of God. It claims to be accurate in everything it
says. It claims to be inerrant no matter what it
says because God knows and He has designed and developed the information and He has disseminated
the information on the pages of scripture. So, its veracity and its accuracy must be
sustained under the most intense examination. The Bible is not a textbook on science. It is not a technical book, but wherever it
intersects with science, wherever it intersects with scientific reality, it must be completely
true and accurate. True science, the way things really are, can
have no argument with the scripture written by the one who made things the way they really
are. The creator is the author. He knows the way it is, and if this is His
book, it will stand every test. Believe me, if the critics had been able to
find scientific error in the Bible, they would have found it by now. You say, well what about things like "the
sun stood still." Isn't that a scientific inaccuracy? No. When you got up this morning and looked to
the east, if you did that, you didn't say "Oh what a lovely earth revolving." You called that a sunrise, because from your
perception that's exactly what it was. The Bible written from human perception will
say things that are not intended to be scientific explanations but are perceptions that are
normative and accurate. Scripture, however, not science is really
the ultimate test of all truth. And so when you look at the scripture, you
should be able to sustain your absolute complete confidence in biblical accuracy. If it is inaccurate in a scientific point,
then it can not be trusted in spiritual matters either. Modern scientists as we well know, as we heard
referred to last night by R.C., since Darwin have in a very unscientific move developed
a totally irrational approach to reality. Nobody times nothing equals everything. That is the ultimate stupidity. We all understand that. Chance is the creator. Accident, coincidence, randomness, blind luck,
coming out of nothing producing the intricate systems and complex organism and microcosms
of the universe; that is just an absolute absurdity. There is a new bail-out I think for scientists
called I.D. which is Intelligent Design. The idea that there has to intelligence behind
complexity. They are coming to that. They are really not ready to make that the
God of the Bible. As Marvin L. Lubenow tells us in his interesting
book Bones of Contention, He writes "The real issue in the creation/evolution debate is
not the existence of God. The real issue is the nature of God. To think of evolution as basically atheistic
is to misunderstand the uniqueness of evolution. Evolution was not designed as a general attack
against theism, it was designed as a specific attack against the God of the Bible and the
God of the Bible is clearly revealed through the doctrine of creation. Obviously, “He says "if a person is an atheist
it would be normal for him to be an evolutionist, but evolution is as comfortable with theism
as it is with atheism. An evolutionist is perfectly free to choose
any god he wishes as long as it is not the God of the Bible." However, it you study the Bible and you measure
it against true science; you are going to come up with the conclusion that whoever wrote
the Bible is the true and living God. And so we can consider scripture from a scientific
standpoint. Let me do that a little bit with you this
morning. Just look into it in some specific ways. Postmodernist philosopher Richard Rorty admits
that the idea of absolute truth and then absolute source of that truth is coherent only in the
context of a Biblical worldview. This is what he writes "The suggestion that
truth is out there," That is objective and universal. "is a legacy of an age in which the world
was seen as the creation of a being who had a language of his own written into the cosmos." Now, there are a lot of things in that statement
that we could talk about. But here is a postmodernist philosopher saying
that the idea of objective, universal truth is inseparable from the idea of a God who
speaks, who had a language of his own written into the cosmos. It is not an accident that in the first chapter
of Genesis it says about ten times "and God said." Just kind of run your finger down that chapter
sometime and see how often that is repeated. We have a God who has spoken. And He has not only spoken in scripture, He
has spoken here savingly. He has spoken in His creation. In far more sophisticated ways than past generations
ever could understand. God has spoken in a language that courses
through His creation in an imperceptible and indivisible way. I should say "invisible way." Let me talk about that for a minute. The discovery of DNA - the complex coded information
in every living cell is a discovery that God has spoken. He has not just spoken in His word; He has
not just spoken in verbal expressions that are not recorded in the word by the visions
and by they things that He has said both in the Old Testament period and in the time when
our Lord was on earth beyond what is recorded in scripture. It is not just that God speaks by the Spirit
of God in prompting the hearts of His people or by bringing conviction to bear upon the
hearts of unbelievers. It is that God has spoken into every facet
of His complex creation. Every single living cell has a complex coded
information system in it. It has a language. It can communicate within itself and pass
information around. The organic world for example is really a
book packed with highly sophisticated, complex, biological information. Scientific American says, and I quote "If
we have learned anything from engineering, biology and physics, we have learned that
information is crucial, not just the old stand-bys of matter and energy." That was in a more primitive world supposedly
all that was necessary for evolution to function, matter and energy. We now understand that within the matter and
the energy is this massive complex information. "Some physicists now regard the physical world
as now made of information with energy and matter only as incidental. Further, we have learned," And you will understand
this as prior generations would not. "The genetic code is truly digital." It is truly digital. Exactly as computer codes are. It is not an analogy, it is a reality. Information is a digital reality that exists
within the organic world. Now, let me help you think about that just
by making a few statements. Follow the thought. Until recently the grand omission of the science
world has been the neglect of information. The old idea that more complex living organisms
and machines rose from simpler ones can not be proven, never has been proven, and never
will be proven because it can not happen. That is more complex living organisms and
machines rising from simpler ones can not happen. Further, science can not demonstrate that
information can spontaneously occur. It can not spontaneously appear either in
organic or inorganic materials. Engineer and scientists working with computers
- and by the way, the computer age has helped us come to this with clear and convincing
proof, because they can simulate on computers these kinds of processes to see if in fact
they can occur. For example, if you put random information
in a computer, it will not produce a sophisticated functioning program. It will only produce chaos equal to the chaos
that was placed in it. Despite massive efforts for years science
can not, even with the use of computers, show that information can arise out of non-information,
or that complex information can arise out of simple information, or that any significant
code making anything function can arise out of random chaos. The conclusion in our modern world and through
computer engineering is that information comes alone from intelligence. It comes alone from intelligence, and that
intelligence expending energy. Complex or simple computer blueprints always
come from intelligent efforts. Let me dig a little deeper into that for a
moment. Engineers apply their designs and their information
to materials, because materials can basically be aggregated to receive and hold designs. It's very important to understand that. This is a model that maybe I can illustrate
this way. Silicone and copper, for example, do not create
the concept or the reality of a television. But silicone and copper can hold the concept
of a TV. They don't create the television, they can
contain the, I guess you could say the, exogenous or the external information that is applied
to them. But the silicone and the copper are not a
television. All information is exogenous to the material
or the matter that holds it. It exists as a separate entity that can be
applied to matter. Another way to illustrate it. No cellulose lying around by itself organizes
itself into a newspaper, cuts itself into shape, produces purified ink, and self applies
it in meaningful symbols that cover the sports statistics and the stock prices. It can't do that. The information is exogenous to the material. It is external to the material and it has
to be brought by intelligence. The material can contain it, but it can not
produce it. Back in the nineteen forties there was a scientist
by the name of VonNeumann. He is famous for what is known as the VonNeumann
machine. And the Von Neumann machine was the ultimate
machine - the ultimate machine that could never be built. VonNeumann said that the machine would be
self-generating. That is, it would have within itself the ability
to sustain its own existence. It would be secondly, self-repairing. It would be able to fix itself within itself. Thirdly it would be self-reproducing. That is, it would produce more machines just
like it. The complexity VonNeumann pointed out is so
extreme by the time you get to the third level, that it is impossible to build it, self-sustaining,
self-repairing, self-reproducing. If you were to think of it as a car, you can't
imagine a car that you really never had to put anything into, it just sustained its own
life. It just drew on its environment and sustained
it own life, and it was perpetual. Nor, can you imagine a car, that when something
went wrong had within itself the ability to fix itself. And a car that when you went out into the
garage one day, there were two other little cars sitting beside that car, no doubt Mini
coopers. And you would say to yourself "this is a very
complex machine." It's too complex to build and yet that is
precisely what every single living cell in the universe does. VonNeumann said "every living cell is supremely
complex capable of reproduction, growth, survival, self-diagnosing, self-repairing with a complex
cellular communication of information, and storage and retrieval capability. Evolutionists are quick to say, you know,
that given enough time codes and machines grown out of nothing. We now know that that is completely absurd. Computer simulations have been done so they
can test the affect of time by high speed simulation, to see if evolution builds ordered
complex structures. And the bottom line is, just I guess the simplest
way that I have read that scientists have concluded, it has about one chance in ten
to the one thousandth power. No chance. Information does not self-originate. Nor self-assemble. Design and function come only from intelligence. No natural process ever produced a program
code. If you add energy disorder increases. It was Herbert Spencer who died in 1903, he
was a very highly revered and honored scientist. Herbert Spencer was the one, who in talking
about categories came up with the idea that everything can fit into the five know-able
categories: time, force, action, space and matter. Spencer was prized by the scientific world
for having reduced everything to those five categories: time, force, action, space and
matter. Somebody should have told Herbert that that
is the first verse in the Bible. In the beginning (time) God (force) created
(action) the heavens (space) and the earth (matter). All categories of the knowable are in Genesis
1:1. But the one difference is, it is not force
- its person. Because energy produces nothing of intelligence
or order, it only increases disorder. That is why Genesis one says "And God said,
and God said, and God said." And when He was saying it, He was not only
saying what He was doing, but He was speaking into what He created the information system
from His divine mind that made it what it was and capable of doing what it does. The only true source of any information is
intelligence. It is person. Person applies ideas, concepts, information,
to materials which can only hold that information. They can not produce it. That is why the creator in John one is called
"the Word." The Word. Well, the scripture is telling us a lot when
it says "and God said, and God said, and God said." A few years ago at the Masters College we
were given an electron microscope for our science department. That has produced a revolution in the field
of molecular biology. One writer says this "We now know that the
cell bristles with high tech molecular machinery far more complex than anything ever devised
by mere humans." That is every cell. "Every cell is akin to a miniature factory
town, humming with power plants, automated factories and recycling centers. In the nucleus is a cellular library housing
blueprints and plans that are copied and transported to the factories, each of which is filled
with molecular machines that function like computerized motors. These manufacture the immense array of products
needed within the cell with the processes all regulated by enzymes that function as
stopwatches to ensure that everything is perfectly timed." Writes Francis Crick, famous, of course, for
DNA. "The cell" he says "is a minute factory bustling
with rapid organized chemical activity. The outside surface of the cell is studded
with sensors and gates and pumps and identification markers to regulate traffic coming in and
out. Today biologists can not even describe the
cell without resorting to the language of machines and engineering." This is what really go to Michael Behe who
wrote Darwin’s Black Box, and blew the mask off evolution. He says "each cell has an automated rapid
transit system in which certain molecules function as tiny monorail trains running along
tracks to whisk cargo around from one part of the cell to another. Other molecules act as little loading machines
filling up the train cars and attaching address labels. When the train reaches the right address in
another part of the cell it is met by other molecules that act as docking machines, opening
them up and removing the supplies." To frame a mental image of the cell, picture
it as a large and complex model train layout with tracks cris-crossing everywhere. Switches and signals perfectly timed so that
no trains collide and the cargo reaches its destination precisely when needed. This is a level of complexity that Darwin
never dreamed of. Behe calls it "irreducible complexity." And he is talking about the fact that all
of this complexity has to exist simultaneously as a minimum for any integrated cellular system
to exist. There can not be any process by which it is
finally achieved. It must all exist simultaneously. Just one more interesting illustration. Consider the tiny string like flagellum attached
like a tail to some bacteria. As the bacterium swims around in its environment
(that's you and me) the flagellum whips around exactly like a propeller. And you would think you were looking as some
kind of tiny motorized machine. It is a microscopic outboard rotary motor
coming equipped with a hook joint, a drive shaft, o-rings, a skater, a by-directional
acid powered motor that can hum along at a hundred thousand revolutions a minute. Structures like these require dozens of precisely
tailored intricately interacting parts which could not emerge by any gradual process. Instead the coordinated parts must somehow
appear on the scene all at the exact same time combined and coordinated in the right
patterns for the molecular machine to function at all. We had a professor in our science department
at the Masters College who went to be with the Lord a few years ago. He was chairman of the graduate science department
at Tulane University. He was a staunch evolutionist. He had written many, many articles. He was master of the electron microscope,
and he has lived comfortably in his evolutionary world until he began to look at DNA and chromosomes
and all of that. And he became aware of the fact that this
irreducible complexity, this necessity for everything to come into existence at the same
timed destroyed evolution completely. He was confused. He went to his house after a certain day of
distress, found a Bible on the shelf opened the Bible, started in Genesis got through
the two chapters on creation and said "that's the only way it could ever happen." He went to his dean - after two weeks he had
continued to read the Bible and had gotten all of the way to the cross and he was saved. He went to his dean and said "I am now a Christian
creationist." He
was terminated immediately. He contacted me and said "I'm looking for
a college where I can teach." And he explained his testimony to me, flew
to California, sat down with me and said "I'd love to teach in your school. He said "I believe in the six day creation
account. I believe the only way any of this could ever
happen is instantaneously both in the micro and in the macro world. Only the Biblical account makes any sense." And he said "I've started debating evolutionists
wherever I can, but I am running out of people who are willing." So he said "I'd love to come and teach in
your college." I said "Well, let me pray about it. Okay I'm done. You’re hired." He was a benediction and Lord not long ago
took him home and confirmed his scientific transformation for sure. The same would be true if we had time to look
at the macro world. Astronomer Fred Hoyle is often quoted as saying
"A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkied
with the physics." Just exactly who is this super intellect? Whoever He is, He is the master of information. And so, if He can encode everything with such
complex and perfect information, I think we can trust Him for the book. Same God. When He speaks into His creation or when He
speaks about His creation He speaks the truth and He tells us the way it really is. Now, there is a lot more to be said. I preached through Genesis one to eleven not
too long ago, and spent a long long time in Genesis one and Genesis two sorting out the
details of creation and how even the order matches so wonderfully with how things really
are. But let me expand beyond that just to give
you a little broader picture. Let’s look at the subject for a moment of
hydrology. Hydrology - this is simple, this is observable
to everybody. You don't need electron microscopes to look
into this. This is a subject that deals with the waters
of the earth. Until the seventeenth century scientists believed
in subterranean reservoirs that were pushing water up. Names like, Mario Perrot, Hallie, in the seventeenth
century began to open up a modern understanding of what is called the hydrological cycle - seventeenth
century. From the original mass of water that exists
we have had no alterations. We have lost none. We have gained none. There is a cycle that scientists call evaporation,
transportation, precipitation and irrigation. That's how the water cycles. The same water created originally by God cycles
around and around and around. So if the Bible talks about water and is written
by the creator we would expect that even long before the seventeen century, way back in
the Old Testament, when God commented on water He would get it right since He created it
and this is what we read in Isaiah 55:10. "For as the rain and the snow come down from
heaven and do not return there without watering the earth, and making the barren sprout and
furnish seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be which goes forth
from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty without accomplishing
what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I set it." There is the cycle. The rain and the snow come down from heaven
and return there after they have watered the earth. In the book of Job, written in the patriarchal
period. Job 36:26-28. "For He (that is God) draws up the drops of
water, they distill rain from the mist which the clouds pour down. They drip upon man abundantly." Or Psalm 135:7 “He causes the vapors to
ascend from the ends of the earth, who makes lightening for the rain." The scripture talks about evaporation, precipitation,
irrigation. In Job 26:8 it says "He wraps up the waters
in His clouds, and the cloud does not burst." Job 28:10 talks about how water makes channels
to return back to the sea which is the great evaporative pool from which the clouds draw
the water up again. And so Job 28:10 talks about God storing water
in the deep storehouses of the sea. Psalm 33:7, I should say talks about the deep
resources and reservoirs of the sea. Job 28:10 talks about the runoff. Job 38:22 "Have you entered the store houses
of the snow. Or have you seen the store houses of the hail." I did a little reading. I was just interested in some of the things
about water. Eighteen grams of water contains six hundred
billion, trillion molecules. It's just staggering, staggering detail. And God controls the whole system. He made it. And He accurately described its function. Take astronomy, another one. Modern astronomy - the study of the solar
system didn't begin to replace the old idea of a disc shaped earth, sun, moon and stars
being gods whose movements revealed their intentions for men. In the Ptolemaic view, the Greek philosopher’s
sky what a hollow globe surrounding the earth and having the stars set like jewels in it's
inner surface. The sky was supported by an axis thrust through
the earth and on this axis the sky rotated around the earth. This view was popular until around fifteen
hundred when the Copernicum theory came. He presented an earth in rotation followed
by other people like Brahe, Tyco, Kepler, and Galileo; in the seventeenth century modern
astronomy being born in the seventeenth century. But if you look in the Bible, God always gets
it right long before anybody ever understood it. Let me just read a couple of things. Psalm 103, there are a couple of verses that
speak to this. I didn't write them down so I'll look them
up here. Psalm 103 verse eleven I think it is. "For as high as the heaven are above the earth,
so great is His loving kindness towards those who fear Him." And here this refers to the vastness of the
universe. The universe is as vast as the loving kindness
of God. It is not a small little ball with stars stuck
on the inside. Job 22:12 says "Is not God in the height of
heaven. Look also to the distant stars how high they
are." Jeremiah 31:35 & 37 in connection with the
new covenant promise to Israel says "heaven can not be measured." Jeremiah also says "the stars can not be counted." They can not be counted. You can check out Jeremiah 33:32. Well, before the telescope was invented in
the seventeenth century, Apartus said there were 1,022, Ptolemy said 1056, and Kepler
said 1,055. Today scientists there are a hundred billion
stars or more in our galaxy and billions more galaxies more like ours. The stars says the Bible, can't be counted. God knows that because God made them and He
wrote the book. Scientists also have discovered that stars
differ from one another. They are not at all the same. There are differing kinds of stars, different
varieties of stars, different sizes of stars. And they are busy cataloging those. 1 Corinthians 15:41 says "there is one glory
of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars for one star differs
from another star in glory." God knows that the stars are different, and
has said so. Science has also charted the absolute patterns
of orbits which do not vary. The great astronomer Kepler, had predicted
because they are so fixed, that mathematically on December 6, 1631, the planet Venus would
pass in front of the sun. Kepler did not live to see that happen, but
a Frenchman named Gerindi prepared to see it occur and it did occur and it is written
in history as such. They can be predicted because they are fixed. Back to Jeremiah 31 "Thus says the Lord who
gives the sun for light by day, and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light
by night. If this fixed order departs from before me
then the offspring of the Israel shall also cease from being a nation before me forever." The fixed order. In the nineteenth psalm, I think you are probably
very familiar with that Psalm, but maybe not in this sense. Psalm 19:6 talks about the sun, "its rising
is from one end of the heavens and its circuit to the other end of them. And there is nothing hidden from its heat." Some just thought that meant one end of heaven
being the sun rise, the other end being the sun set. Scientist now know, and this is long established
that the sun has its own orbit and it drags the entire solar system in that orbit at a
speed of about seventy two thousand miles an hour in a gigantic orbit now calculate
would take two million centuries to complete. Yes that is exactly what Psalm 19:6 says. "it's rising is from one end of the heavens,
it's circuit to the other end of them." It was not before the seventeenth century
really that science understood that the sun - that the moon I should say, didn't have
its own light. They discovered, of course, that it did not
have it's own light. It only reflects the light of the sun. Job 25:5 says "look to the moon, it does not
shine." Geology, just looking at geology for a minute. Take isostesy for a minute. Isostesy is the study of the balance of the
earth. If you have ever taken a basketball that's
out of round and rolled it, it goes like this. The earth can't be like that or we'd just
be going through life somewhat like this. The earth has to have perfect weight, and
this is part of geo-physics. Listen to Isaiah 40:12 "Behold the Lord God
who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens by
the span and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure and weighed the mountains in
a balance and the hills in a pair of scales." Or Psalm 104:5-8 "He established the earth
upon its foundations so that it will not totter. The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place which thou dost establish for them." This is isostesy. The earth is in perfect balance. Another sub-science of geology is geodesy,
dealing with the shape of the earth as well. We know the shape of the earth to be spherical. We know that, and you realize that that is
relatively new information. But the Bible is clear in Isaiah 40:22 "it
is He who sits on the circle of the earth." That's pretty clear. The Bible also says "the earth is a sphere." The earth is a sphere. But even the horizon being spoken of in Proverbs
8:27 is a circle. Job 38:13-14 says "The earth is turned like
a clay to the seal." What does that mean? When in ancient times you wanted to sign something
you had a cylinder with your raised signature, and on clay - when people were still writing
on clay, you rolled it like a rolling pin across the soft clay and that impressed your
signature in it. To say the earth is turned like the clay seal
is to say that it rotates on an axis. It is spherical. The Hebrew word is sphere and it rotates on
an axis. In Luke 17 our Lord Jesus is talking about
His coming. I think its so interesting Luke 17:31 "On
that day," He talks about on that day. Verse 31 "Let not the one who is one the housetop
and whose good are in the house go down to take them. Likewise, let not the one who is in the field
turn back, remember Lot's wife." So forth and so forth. He goes on to say "I tell you on that night." How about that? It is day somewhere when he comes, but it's
night somewhere else. Clearly an understanding of the world. In the seventeenth century they began to discover
gravity. But God said in Job 26:7 "He hangs the earth
on nothing. Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or
loose the chords of Orion?" That's gravity. "Can you hold the constellations in their
fixed positions? Can you lead forth a constellation in its
season and guide the bear with her satellites? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens
or fix their rule over the earth?" That's gravity, how God holds everything in
its fixed order. There are indications of the glacial period
in the book of Job, rock erosion. We could talk about another science - the
science of meteorology. It wasn't until Galileo in the seventeenth
century discovered it that we found out that air has weight. It has weight. No scientist before Galileo was aware that
air had weight. Job 28:25 “He established weight to the
air.” Physiology? When you got sick in the medieval times, what
did they do? They bled you. Somebody should have read Leviticus 17:11. "The life of the flesh is in the blood." Psalm 32:4 says that when there is sin and
guilt you life juices dry up. That's a very clear scientifically and physiologically
designed insight. The emotional center in your brain will change
your life fluids. It will change the amount of blood flow. Just remember the last time somebody was angry
what color their face became. It effects the secretion of certain glands. That is why dry mouth occurs when you are
lying. Excess thyroxin produced by the emotion poured
into the blood stream produces goiter and can even produce fatal heart disease under
such stress of telling a lie. Muscle tension changes because the fluid that
makes the muscles pliable is dried up as well. The Bible is accurate no matter what it talks
about, no matter what area of science from creation to physiology and everything in between. I want to close with just - and there are
obviously lots more to say about this, but in Proverbs 30 maybe a good place to kind
of wrap our thought. Verse one "The words of Agur the son of Jakaeh
the oracle, the man declares to Ithiel and Ucal "Surely I am more stupid than any man,
and I do not have the understanding of a man, neither have I learned wisdom, nor have I
the knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the wind into his fists? Who has wrapped the waters in his garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name or His son's name?"" Surely you know. Isn't that a great passage? If you want any information you've got to
get it from the creator. Where are you going to get it? Verse five: "Every word of God is tested. He is a shield to those who take refuge in
Him. Do not had to His words, lest He reprove you
and you be proved a liar." The answer to everything we need to know about
the way things really are spiritually and materially is found in the word of the creator. So we can check out all the holy books. And believe me the skeptics and the critics
have been relentless in their efforts to find an error in the scripture, and have never
succeeded. Are we surprised? Of course not. The creator knows the way it really is. Father, we are grateful for just some insights
into this fascinating reality that we are the beneficiaries of this modern time. Even though skepticism is on the rise, it
is against the grain of massive evidence for Biblical authenticity. We thank you that the word stands. As the old poem said - they can wear out the
hammers, but the anvil remains. We thank you that no matter how many blows
have been struck against the authenticity and inerrancy and accuracy of your word, it
has stood the test. We love this book, but more than that we are
stunned and awed by the fact that the author of this book, has first loved us, a fallen
and unworthy creation, redeemed through sacrifice - infinite sacrifice that we might be apart
of that throng who will forever glorify you. Thank you Father for encouraging us, for strengthening
our confidence in your truth. And we ask Lord that we might be ready to
give an answer to every man that asks for the reason for the hope that is within us,
and we might do it with humility, and yet with boldness and courage. For the honor of Christ we pray, Amen.
