You're on. Okay, let me just skip up here a little more. Team 113. There we go. The message. I hate the double-minded, but love your law. You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope, in your word, depart from me, you evildoers, for I will keep the commandments of my God. Uphold me according to your word that I may live, and do not let me be ashamed of my hope. Hold me up, and I shall be safe, and I shall observe your statutes continually. You reject all those who stray from your statutes, for their deceit is falsehood. You put away all the wicked of the earth like frost. Therefore, I love your testimony. My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments. I usually follow along, but I didn't have to. You've changed your Bible version. I know, New King James Version. I normally follow along, because I want to read the differences between the two, but I'm like, no point. I have a contact in today, which is great for daily living, but when it comes to reading. Do you want my glasses? Good, because I wouldn't be able to see. You've got to tell me which verse is Corrie Ten Boom there. Corrie Ten Boom. Oh, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, you are my hiding place. That's right. I would have gone back and found it right away, but very good. Corrie Ten Boom, you are my hiding place and my shield. You know, whenever I read that in the New King James Version, I do it every time when I get to that one, because I read it each Octave each morning and then 22 slate and days later. I start again, but when I get to that verse depart from me you evil I always do that with my hand and if somebody walked by they think what is he doing? Get away from me. Yeah, poke him in the eye. Well, nobody sits behind me because there's no room but that would be yeah, um, I The what? I don't know. The Adventures of Tin Tin. Oh. Yeah. OK, so this is from, I bought this in 1990 in Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. And it still is a beautiful, nice shirt. OK, so one of my favorite shirts. Let's see here. How much did you pay for it? Probably a ringgit. It's like $1. $2.50. $2.50 is $1. So $0.50, $0.40, something like that. Yeah, they're not expensive. No, today is not 24 June. Today is 21 June. And I'm in July, so that doesn't help at all. 21 June. And boy, we are not starting well today. Here we go. 21 June. No, no, no. I got it right here. 21 June. 500 years ago. being ahead of the curve in science could put you on a collision course with the church. Guess what? We're in that same problem again nowadays with flat earthers. Okay, Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy, the day that Michelangelo died, February 18th, 1564, and the same year that Shakespeare was born. He became the leading astronomer of his day and was given lifetime tenure as a professor at the University of Padua. In 1610, using his newly invented telescope that could magnify 1,000 times, Galileo discovered four moons revolving around Jupiter. By analogy, he reasoned that the planets revolved around the Sun, agreeing with the view set forth by Copernicus a century earlier. The other professors at Padua refused to even look through his telescope. Galileo took this as a signal that he should leave Padua and go to Florence instead. Galileo's conclusions brought to public attention the question of whether the earth circled the sun or the sun circled the earth. You know, whether you believe in flat earth or round earth or whatever is irrelevant to this Comment I'm going to make, but one of the things that flat earthers will say to justify their position is they begin their defense by saying, do you believe in a heliocentric universe or a geocentric universe? Meaning, do you believe the universe revolves around the sun or around the earth? And that's a false premise because neither is true. The universe doesn't revolve around the sun and it doesn't revolve around the earth. But what they do is they give you two falsehoods and they say, now pick. So that's a false premise. Don't let people do that to you. Understand your fallacies. There's a million fallacies. You've got smoke screens and red herrings and you've got this is and that's. There's thousands of fallacies. If you learn fallacies, you immediately know where people are faulting in their thinking And then you don't need to argue with him. You just say, well, that's not an appropriate thing to even bring in. So let's finish this and then we'll get a whining, whining fallacy. Yes. There's a lot of whining fallacies out there. He did this and people debate that. Some people say it means an orb and some people means it's a circle this way. So, you know, people will pull versus and they will pull them right out of context in order to form their doctrine, which is in reality a pretext. But every single verse that the flat earthers use, every one of them, is out of context. Every one of them. I want you to know. I've gone through it. I don't debate with them on it. I'm not going to because that's called scripture tennis. I'm going to give them what the context is and they're going to come right back with another verse to justify their position and you're going to get nowhere. If people can't logically think through issues, whether it's round earth or flat earth or, you know, heliocentric or geocentric. That's their problem, OK? I can. I can pick up the phone and I can call Lisa over in Australia. She's probably watching right now. And I could say, Lisa, if you're watching, why don't you send me an email and tell me what time of the day it is, what time the sun rises, where you're at and where the sun is right now, or if it's not up, let me know. And then I could say, Sergio, if you're watching right now, please send me that information. And anybody else that wants to email me that that's watching right now, please do that. And I will make a little picture of where people are, where the sun rises, what time it is, what time it is in the day right now. And if you're in the Southern Hemisphere or the Northern Hemisphere, if you believe in hemispheres, just, but I'm just simply saying, if you were to email me that information, I could make a reasonable picture of what the world looks like just with that information. Okay, so anyway, this is what we're talking about here, so it's not a diversion from, it's just a discussion about the same issue, but here's what he went through. Galileo's conclusions brought to public attention the question of whether the Earth circled the Sun or the Sun circled the Earth. Okay, as I said, that's a false premise because neither is true. Well, it is true that the Earth circles the Sun, but that's not the end of it. That's not the end of it. There is more in the universe than that. That is a correct premise, but it's a false premise to give one and the other and nothing else. Okay, so soon Galileo was accused of contradicting the Bible. The Bible never addresses this issue, so we don't need to accuse people, but he got accused of it. In 1615, a formal protest was lodged against Galileo before the Inquisition. A special tribunal set up the medieval church to combat heresy. To answer his critics, Galileo went to Rome, hoping to convert the leaders of the church to his point of view. Galileo promoted his ideas so extensively in Rome that soon everyone in the city was discussing astronomy. However, the Inquisition directed Galileo to abandon his opinions and not discuss them further. In February of 1616, the Inquisition published its edict. The view that the sun stands motionless at the center of the universe is foolish. And we know it is too. But at the time, that's all the information they had and therefore they went with the planets going around the sun. We know that's not completely true. Yes, the planets go around the sun, but the sun is also going around in the spirals of the galaxy. We know that. But anyway, regardless of that, we'll go on. The view that the sun stands motionless at the center of the universe is foolish, philosophy false, and utterly heretical. To avoid the threatened imprisonment, Galileo declared his submission to the decree. Galileo was able to keep out of the public eye until 1632 when he published his major book on astronomy, which explained his understanding of the relationship between the Earth and the Sun. The book was widely acclaimed throughout the academic world, but the Inquisition immediately demanded that Galileo appear before it once again. Sounds like Martin Luther, you know, same thing. You're a heretic because you disagree with us and we're going to kill you unless you recant, right? So John, what was his name? John Huss burned at the stake because he believed in biblical Christianity and not what they were teaching and Wycliffe, you know, he had to move and then eventually they dug up his bones and they had him tried again after his death and called him a heretic and I mean it's crazy stuff. Anyway, look what the Book was widely acclaimed throughout the academic world, I read that, accusing him of breaking his promise to obey the edict of 1616. Threatened with torture on June 21st of 1632, Galileo agreed with the position of the church and declared the earth to be motionless with the sun moving around it. Very sad that somebody would do that. But the next day, in spite of this denial of his convictions, the Inquisition found Galileo guilty of heresy and sentenced him to prison for an indefinite length of time, as penance he was to recite seven penitential psalms daily for three years. Fortunately for Galileo, after he'd spent just three days in prison, the Pope allowed him to be kept as a prisoner in his own villa. There he was free to pursue studies while his daughter, a nun, recited the penitential Psalms for him. I didn't know that. Reflection. Since God is the author of both nature and the Bible, from his perspective, and this is one thing that people don't get, even round earthers or flat earthers, the Bible says, guess what? The sun also rises. the sun doesn't rise the sun the earth is moving this way the sun is stationary in regard to us it's also moving this way but in regard to us the earth is moving this way and so from man's perspective because god is writing something for us to understand he writes all kinds of things in the bible for us to grasp even though it's not Is the arm of the Lord too short? Well, guess what? The Lord doesn't have an arm until he became Christ Jesus incarnate, right? Okay? You know, God uses what's called anthropomorphism and other things. That means manisms, so that we can understand. Okay? So we have to be careful when we read the Bible. What is being said? What is the context? How is God relaying it to us so that we can understand it without abusing the text? Those are things we need to do. And unfortunately, it's a failing science in Christianity is to actually keep things in context. and to understand what is going on. But we'll go on. Since God is the author of both nature and the Bible, from his perspective, there are no contradictions between the two. Christians need to study both science and the Bible to see how they fit together. We don't need to be afraid of what we will find, for the Bible is an absolute standard of truth. We just need to trust God to show us what the real facts are, even if the answers may be slow in coming, okay? Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Only fools despise wisdom and discipline. Okay, that's their verse for today. Wonderful stuff. Yeah, I'm not one to debate these things with people. It doesn't interest me. If somebody wants to believe in flat earth, that is fine. If they take a verse out of context, though, It is not fine. And that's when I get into the flat earth, round earth debate, is when somebody abuses what the Bible says. I'm going to give you one of the examples just so you understand what people think about flat earth. Because this is becoming a giant thing. This is really not a small thing anymore. Okay. Yeah. How it happened, I don't know. But they, one of the verses they use is that Satan took Jesus up a mountain, right? He led him up a mountain. Okay. Everybody remember that? And he showed him the whole world in an instant. And they say, see, that proves a flat earth. Okay. Well, it doesn't prove anything. That's exactly right. It's one, it's taking everything completely out of context because even if the earth was flat, he couldn't see all the kingdoms of the earth in an instant. That word instant means literally this quickly. Okay. They flashed through it before him. So it doesn't prove anything, but they use that. The one where Daniel saw, you know, the tree rising up to the heavens and blah, blah, blah. Listen, It says the whole world, okay? The whole world at the time was what is called the known world, okay? It's not the whole world. China wasn't involved in that, okay? So even that is completely taken out of context. And then you have, of course, in the New Testament, it explains it because it says the message has gone out to the whole world. whole world and it hadn't gone out to the whole world. How do we know it? Because we're sending Ray and Jess over to Papua New Guinea to get the message out to people that have never heard the message. It is basically an idiom saying all of the known world at this time has heard the message. So please keep things in context. They don't. Listen, let's not get into it. Let's not. Ask him later. Ask him later because it will take you all night. No, no, no, no, no, no. Not to them. It's not. OK, so here we go. We have Bruce, a friend of mine, a friend of my friend Gordon has terrible knee pains. And so we want to keep Bruce and he's got some other problems that we want to keep in prayer as well. But we'll focus on the knee pains. Chicago. Oh yeah, we'll do that in a second. So anyway, we want to pray for Bruce and that we have all kinds of other problems. I didn't write any of them down because there are so many this week. Literally, if you knew all of the things that I have been asked to pray for and to literally I would be a list of my along people are really struggling right now, so we're just gonna ask the Lord to bless them. Lord, we do ask that you hear our prayers. You know, every single person that has asked for prayer this week, you know, every single person, every country there in, you know, every person, the state of their heart, the state of their finances, the state of their. marriages, the state of their children that have departed from the truth, etc., etc. Lord, you know all of these things. You are infinitely wise, and I would pray that you would just reach into the hearts of all of the people that have come before you asking for relief, that you would be with them and be an ever-present help in their time of need. And help them to understand that there are things that we cannot control. There are things that are going to happen to our bodies. We're going to have physical trials and troubles. and it's a part of our fallen world, and that they should rise above those things in their thinking, even if they can't in their physical bodies. Help us to remember that you are in control of all things and you have promised a good end, even during this really difficult time. Lord, we commit this hour and a half to you. We ask that you bless it and we thank you for your precious word. Help us to keep it in context. Help us to understand what you were trying to tell us and not to make false assumptions about things that you are not trying to tell us. and we'll be sure to praise you will be give you glory and honor for this precious word and we would pray that it is properly handled in this class and if it's not please reveal it to those who are listening that errors have been made and that they should follow something else if that's the case but we would pray that wouldn't be the case and we pray this in Jesus name amen okay um article X, I, no, 11. Yeah, 11. Okay, we affirm that, thank you for that though because I didn't remember it, but anyway, we affirm that scripture, having been given by divine inspiration, is infallible. so that far from misleading us, something we were just talking about by the way, it is true and reliable in all the matters it addresses. We affirm that scripture, this glorious book, having been given by divine inspiration, is infallible. That means it is without error and they've already discussed, remember, that it is infallible in the originals the ones that are received anything after that man has touched I don't care if a bar of gold falls from heaven and it is absolutely perfect and you touch that bar of gold with your imperfect finger it is now tainted okay the Bible has the taint of man's handling of it after the originals okay there is no translation of the Bible that is infallible and I will say it again I say it from time to time if you want to know if you're if you're King James only person And you say, well, I don't believe that. And if you're willing to honestly evaluate it, go to my website, wonderful1.1, and look at the errors in the King James Version. There are hundreds of them. There are literally hundreds of them. Somebody accused me one time saying, Well, you're calling into question the Word of God. No, I'm calling into question a particular translation of the Word of God, and there's a huge difference between the two, because there are other translations that have that one right, but they have other things wrong, okay? Because we're human beings. We are fallible in how we translate. We're fallible in how we communicate ideas. We're fallible in how we read words. There are certain words that we don't even know what they mean in the Hebrew, and so all we can do is give a best guess. Okay, this is reality. What they have said here is absolutely correct. Scripture is without error. Okay, it is given by divine inspiration. It is infallible. Okay, we deny that it is possible for the Bible to be at the same time infallible and errant in its assertions. Okay, that's a problem of logic which I will explain in a second. Infallibility and inerrancy may be distinguished but not separated. Read that again. We denied that it is possible for the Bible to be at the same time infallible and errant in its assertions. Infallibility and inerrancy may be distinguished. but not separate. Okay, what that means is you have an infallible Bible and you have an inerrant Bible. Inerrant means that it does not err in what it teaches. Infallible means that it has no errors in it, okay? But they say it cannot be infallible and errant in its assertions. If it is infallible, it has no errors, then it cannot have errors in its assertions at the same time. That's a problem of logic. A is A. A is not B. A or non-A, okay? Go back and look at the basic laws of logic and you'll see these things, okay? You've got A is A is a law of identity. A is not B. That's the law of something, whatever. And then A or non-A, the law of the excluded middle. so go read your logic and that will help you to understand these type of things that they're going through and they're absolutely right about that okay so just keep those things in mind very well said on article 11 we'll get to article 12 next week now we have wow we're 20 minutes into the class and we haven't even gotten into romans next week we've got to be more quick about what we're doing um it's my fault nobody's fault here it's mine go ahead we're in uh romans 11 um thank you started 33 okay yeah oh the depths Oh, unbelievable. Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has become his counselor? Oh, okay, a little bit different here. This one says, oh, no, no, that's the same. I was reading 35. I was reading 35. Sorry about that. I was shuffling paper because I, anyway, okay, here we go. 1134. Paul cites a verse from Isaiah chapter 40, taken with its surrounding verses, we get a glimpse at the depth of the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God. There Isaiah records the Lord's majesty to Israel. Let me take you there really quickly and I put 30, but I'm sure it's 40. I said 40. 40, 13. That's what I'm looking for. So we want to go to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Isaiah. Hang on. Whoops, I went too far. I put 30, 13. I do that. You know what? I type and I don't check my typing and I've got errors in what I type. So 40 verse 13. Yes. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? Measured heaven with the span. You know what? Span, it means the span of your hand. There is, I won't give his name because I may have the wrong, no, I know who it is. He teaches that God has a hand like a man. And in other words, he takes that verse literally and he says, that's how God put together the universe was by the span of his hand. And so God has a hand. Once again, take things in context, think of who he's writing to and think of why he's writing the way he is. He's writing for us to understand anthropomorphism. God does not have parts. He is perfectly simple in his being. There is no parts in God. He is pure actuality. If God is not pure actuality, then he has change in him. If God has change in him, he ain't God. Okay, that's all there is to it. There are no parts to God. If there are parts to God, then God is a part of the creation. He is in time, and time is counting along with the parts of God, and he ain't God, okay? So we have to be careful not to make those type of teachings, or those type of errors in teachings. But we'll go on. Where was I? 14. Who weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has taught him? With whom did he take counsel, and who instructed him and taught him in the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding? He's asking this rhetorical questions. The answer is nobody. Thank you. Absolutely. So let me make a pen and ink change right here before I go on. so that I have that someday when I go in and correct these things. 4-0. Okay. And then, unlike human rulers, kings, dictators, presidents, emperors, and so on, the Lord needs no counselor, nor is there anything that he lacks in wisdom or knowledge. Now, what does it say about the ruler? He should have in the presence of many counselors, there's wisdom or something like that. I'm misquoting that verse. But anyway, you're instructed as a ruler to not rely on your own judgments, but to actually take the counsel of Of a body of people, and that's why we have what was called originally the kitchen cabinet in the US government. Who was it that started Andrew Jackson or somebody? at the kitchen cabinet and then from there became cabinet secretaries. OK, and that's we have these appointments of people that are there to help the president make decisions. OK, they don't always agree with the president and he doesn't always fire them when they don't agree. Sometimes he does. OK, that's his prerogative. But they are there to give him counsel. Okay, so the Lord needs no counselor. He is infinite in his wisdom. He is infinite in his knowledge. Man is not. It's always good to have wise counsel with you. If someone were to attempt to advise the Lord, the attempt would be futile. The Lord knows everything, okay? All things were created by Him, and so all knowledge to be discerned from within creation by a created being is already known to Him. And I think that, you know, I'm doing something, I think, wow, this is probably the first time this has ever been known in the history of the universe. One of my friends one time, we used to have a page on Facebook, it was called Pocaholics Anonymous. and I would go in every day and I'd poke all of my friends and then anybody that poked back first, right, that they would be the winner for the day. And one of my friends, Nick, was waiting one day. He knew it was about time because I do things about the same time every day. He went and sent a whole bunch of pokes to all of the other people in Pokeholics Anonymous and then he said, When he won, he said, I did it by a flurry of distractionary posts. And then he came back and he said, I bet you I'm the first person in human history to say that, that thing. I said, absolutely true. God already knew he would say that though. Okay. So there's no getting around God and saying, yes, I'm the first human being to say something like this, but he knew that I would say that. There is nothing in creation he does not know. It's already known to him. His mind is infinitely higher than the individual knowledge of man, as well as the sum of the accumulated knowledge of man. So when we think, remember when the Trinity bomb went off, and what was his name, the guy that started the Trinity project or led it? Oh, I'll think of it in a second. Anyway, he quoted the Hindu god and he said something, you know, like, our abilities have now eclipsed what the gods can do or something. Not even close. I mean, atomic explosion is a teeny minuscule little pop in this universe. We've got suns that are so big that the world doesn't even compare to one little flare on that thing. I just had his name. You said something like that. We'll get it in a minute. When you get it, get it. You're very close, though. Anyway, so but he said, I have become death, the destroyer of worlds. That's what he said. OK. It's not even close, not even close to being death, the destroyer of worlds. OK, we don't have God's knowledge. We don't have God's power. Oppenheimer. Thank you. I just got the same time as you. Oh, isn't that funny? Isn't that odd? It's like talking. I was. That's the universal conscience. Anybody heard of the universal conscience? I've never said that before. No, universal conscience is, this is also an interesting thing because it all deals with, are we like God in any way? The answer is no. But you have somebody that develops in their mind something like radio will say right okay so Nikola Tesla came up with radio he developed radio well guess what at the exact same time in human history which had never happened anywhere else in all of history Marconi came up with radio and now there's a rush to see who can develop it and who can get the patent for it right So Marconi got the patent, he gets credit for it, but actually Tesla was the one that was a little ahead of him and they've proven that. But the universal conscience is that they believe that people will come up with ideas that nobody's ever come up with before at the same time as somebody else. Yeah, but God already knows that these things are going to happen. There is no universal conscience in us, but there is God ruling the world making things progress as he would and everything happens according to his wisdom. So we think we're infinitely wise when we are not even close. Anyway, printing press. Best example of that. Printing press? Well, think about it. This. Oh yeah. I laugh. And why? Because some guy said, hey, you know what? This is a good idea. We're just going to do it. Right. Spread the word. Spread the word. And so. A simple idea that nobody thought of before. Absolutely. And I guarantee you somebody else at the same time was developing a printing press. But Gutenberg, he's the one that got the credit for the Bible and all of this. But that's how Martin Luther, remember when Martin Luther nailed his theses to the Wittenberg Castle, the door? Okay. Do you know how that spread? It wasn't by Martin Luther. He did that because he was a student in this particular seminary and he wanted to debate the other students. Okay? He didn't have anything to do with spreading the message. Somebody got a hold of it and they said, this guy is right. And they printed it off with so many copies and handed it out to so many people that the word could not be held. Right? That's how that got it. It had nothing to do with Luther actually saying, I'm going to go out and I'm going to cause trouble. He was just trying to get this problem resolved within the church itself. He wasn't looking to have everybody get into it. But once the ball got rolling, he was the star of the scene because of it. Okay. Anyway. So some of man's knowledge, in fact, the storehouse of man's knowledge were to be maintained and updated for all eternity. If we were to take all of the human knowledge that we have and we maintained it and we updated it for all, all of eternity, everything that man has ever done, like we're doing with the iPads and, you know, we're storing information on the cloud. If we did that with all information from all men for all eternity, it would still be infinitely, infinitely less than the knowledge of the infinite creator. A finite can never attain to the infinite. It is impossible. So no matter how much we know, forever and forever and forever, it will still be infinitely less than God knows. That is all there is to it. He isn't infinite, we are finite. We will never, in the sum total of all of our information, ever attain to what God knows. Ever. If that's not humbling, because we think we've got it figured out, you know. Whenever they introduce a new iPad, they stand up there, they always wear the same type of clothes, and they have the big screen behind them, and they say, this is it, you know. And you think, Two years later, that thing is a piece of junk and nobody wants it, right? It will never be it. It will never be it because God has so much more in store for us. Because of this, there is none who can, as Isaiah said, none who can advise God on what to do. Our prayers, which attempt to help God along, you know people like to do that in their prayers, in his decision process are futile. And our prayers which attempt to mandate or claim something from God border on blasphemy. Absolutely right, they border on blasphemy. He sees the end, we do not. Therefore to make a claim from God in essence assumes that the claim is in line with his future intentions. I claim healing for my mother, you are going to be healed, right? You make that claim, his future intentions may be that that woman dies. When you claim something in God's name, you are actually doing something which is blasphemy. You are taking away His glory by claiming something you have no right to claim. That's why this is such a horrible, terrifying doctrine that people have in churches today, and it is all over. You know what? One of my friends, I won't say who he is or where he is, but he emailed me yesterday. Does about once every two weeks. Love to hear from him. And he said, my daughter attends a church where they go around saying, well, the Lord says this and the Lord says that and he said. I wouldn't want to be there. I think this is what he said. Maybe I said it back to him. I'm pretty sure he said to me, I wouldn't want to be there when they have to stand before the Lord and say, you never said that at all, right? Can you imagine speaking for the Lord when he didn't speak, speak at all for you? These people that do that are treading on very, very thin waters, very thin waters. I would, I would go so far as to say that if they are saved at all, they're I don't care how long they've been in Christianity, they are very, very poor Christians to do something like that. We do not claim things in Jesus' name. We do not speak for the Lord in any way, shape or form unless he has already spoken it and we repeat it. There is what's called foretelling and there is what is called forth telling. Foretelling is what Jeremiah did. Thus says the Lord. Foretelling is saying the Lord has said. And there's a giant, there's a huge difference between the two and we don't want to make that mistake. If somebody does, please don't email me about it. Okay? I understand that people believe that the Lord has spoken to them. And I will tell you that the Lord has many times in my life prompted me to do something. That it's not the Lord speaking to me. It's not telling me that I have a right to go out and repeat what he said. There is a difference because if he is speaking to me and I am to repeat it like Jeremiah, it better be in this book, this doctrine. Okay. The Lord has prompted me. I will admit that. I know that because my life has made all kinds of changes that I otherwise would not have made. And I could have been disobedient to it. Just as Paul said, I was not disobedient to the word, right? He could be disobedient. He was not. The Lord told him to do something. He was prompted to do things. And that's the way it works. Okay. Isaiah, he tells Hezekiah, you are going to die, right? It says he got out to the court and the word of the Lord came to him. He says, because Hezekiah is over there praying, asking for relief from the fact that Isaiah said that you were going to die. And he says, go tell him I'm giving you 15 more years. Now he could have said, I'm not going to tell him that. That was his choice as a prophet, but he would not be disobedient to the word of the Lord. He went back in there and gave him 15 more years. And it was 15 years of catastrophe. Sometimes the Lord has his will and we ought to just stick to it, right? Yeah, he went and he blew it. He showed all the Babylonians the things that were in the house. I showed him everything. He says, look, Babylonians are going to come and they're going to take everything, everything from you. So that was the first thing. And the second thing is in those 15 years, he had Manasseh, right? The downfall of Israel. Because of the sins of Manasseh, I will not forgive Judah and Jerusalem. I will not. So yeah, yeah, I mean, sometimes there are things that you just should not ask for. If the Lord says you're gonna die, say, okay, and great, I'd like to go today. I'd like to go today because I could then go see Jesus, right? There we go. Let's see here. We don't help God along and he sees the end. We don't. If we claim prosperity or healing and God intended that we are to be poor or sick, then we have essentially usurped his divine will through our prayer. Okay. And this avenue follows through with the subject matter of Romans 9 through 11, these three particular chapters. Whether we agree with Israel's return or not, because there's a giant divide in Christianity, are they back in the land according to the Lord's purposes or are they not there according to the Lord's purposes? And there's a dividing line. And it is solid and it is sound between the two opinions. Now there are lesser opinions in both camps, but there is a dividing line. Israel belongs there or Israel does not. And it is bringing all of the churches into almost animosity with each other because there is no fellowship. If you think that Israel has a purpose in the world with people that say they don't have a purpose in the world on that particular issue, there may be fellowship and other issues, but that issue, there will be no fellowship on it. They are not going to change their mind. They've been told one thing and they're going to stick to it no matter what. So anyway, 9-11, the people of Israel, none of that matters. God has shown us in his word the state of the nation, the extent of his mercy, and the love he has for his disobedient people. If anybody in here said that Israel wasn't disobedient, then they'd be just as fault as the people that say that Israel doesn't belong back in the land. This is not, let's put them back in the land because they're righteous and just people. It's, I'm putting them back in the land because I am a merciful God and I keep my word. Yes, my promises. That's exactly right. For us to work against these things or to pray against them is only a sign of our own rebellion against him. God is working out an immensely detailed and marvelous plan. Let us be found in accord with it, not striving against it. Okay. And I would go so far as to say this. I today posted, as a matter of fact, maybe I'll read it just so you know. I just get so angry at these things. I get so angry at these things. And we're allowed to pray. If you disagree, I'll give you a psalm that you could go check. But somebody's bound to be angry at what I said. I said this just a little while ago. Does this fit in with what I just said or not? Lord God, thank you for having mercy on us. Thank you for the superb president you have given to lead this nation. Little, what's his name, Snoopy with love things flying all over the place. thwart the enemy, overrule their wicked schemes and protect President Trump as he steers this vast ship through the raging seas of vile liberalism and to the peaceful shores of prosperity and good for all men. Amen. So I posted that. Is that in accord with the Lord's word or not? I'm asking for something. I'm not claiming anything. It is in accord with his word because he has installed President Trump in his capacity and Trump has enemies. Okay. I'm asking that the Lord protect him from his enemies. That's what King David did. King David said, break their teeth in their mouth, destroy the wicked. Okay, I have no problem with what I said, and I'm waiting for some weak Christian to get on there, and I'm just waiting for it, and I do that on purpose. I throw in a couple of superlatives and adjectives, adjectives and other things, because I want to see if people will respond to that or not, just to see how well they know their Bible. And here's the deal. It's like, okay, everything and slanted towards Hillary. Oh yeah. And by some divine intervention. Divine intervention without any other possibility. You are absolutely right. You can argue it with some of the cows come home, but the fact is, is that it was so. And he is our president. Right or wrong, what they agree or disagree to, he is our president. And therefore, we have to, as I said, let us be found in accord with it, meaning his will, not striving against it. Yes, I did, and I was going to say that, is that even though I didn't like the man, I did not like his policies, and I asked the Lord to frustrate his policies, I did pray for him, because that is what we're responsible to do. The Lord put him in that position. So there you go. Life application. In your prayers, don't advise God on what he should do. You ask, as I did there, don't advise him. And in your prayers, don't mandate to God what is right. Rather, petition the Lord for that which you desire and be ready to accept his answer, be it yes or no. He is God, the answer belongs to him alone. Next verse. Or, who has first given to him and it shall be repaid to him. Exactly like you both were doing. Okay, there you go. And here we have Paul's final Old Testament quote of chapter 11. He reaches back to Job 41 verse 11 and the Lord's words there. Here's what it says. 41 verse 11. Who has preceded me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is mine. He's before all things. Nobody preceded him. Everything belongs to him. We cannot question his sovereignty over this universe. Okay. The question that the Lord is asking of Job is who is paid me first preceded me that I should repay him. Okay. So Paul is amending his words a little bit. Paul uses this quote as if he is asking each of us in order to consider it. The answer is obvious. God is the creator and thus the source of all things. There is nothing that we possessed before he possessed it. Nothing. Let me make a little note there. And therefore there is nothing that is not his. And this isn't only speaking of tangible things like gold and silver, but of all things that come from the material creation in which are found in man. Grace, mercy, love, devotion, etc. Everything belongs to him. When God constructed us, he did so in a way which allows us to participate in his creation in a cognitive way. We are allowed to think rationally and freely, okay? Most people, I shouldn't say most people, but many people today do not do the first one. They don't think rationally. They may think freely, but they are not thinking rationally. We have understanding and reason, we have emotions, we have desires and so on. But all of these came from the same source. That is why John can state, we loved him because he first loved us. We can't even claim that our love preceded his. He is eternal in nature, and love is one of his many attributes. Unfortunately, it's the attribute that all of the left-leaning Christians focus on, or the non-Christians that want to make us feel like we're doing something wrong. They focus on God's love, even though they don't believe in God, they say, in order to box us. Yeah, they try to box you in, and they say, listen, God's got a lot more attributes than love. He's just. He's righteous. He's holy. He's infinite. He's merciful. He's gracious. He's all of these things. And if we'd stick with one attribute, we have a very unbalanced God or perception of God. All right? We can't claim that our love preceded his. Therefore, his love is. It doesn't increase. It doesn't decrease. I've said this a million times. I'll say it again. He does not love Linda Dwyer any more or less than he loved Adolf Hitler. the love is. That is all there is to it. He loves Adolf Hitler as infinitely as he loves Jim Dwyer, who just raised his hand, so he's got a question. I love her. Oh, yeah, I wouldn't go so far, but you love her a lot, but not more than he does. But more than Hitler. Oh, OK. More than Hitler. Yes. Yes. OK. But his love does not increase or decrease. We move in relation to him. He does not move in relation to us. OK. He is love. OK. When it says in the Bible, God is love. There is an article in front of one of the words and there is not an article in front of the other word. The God is love. It does not say God is the love. You cannot transpose the two and come up with a true statement, which I saw Benny Hinn do one time when I was watching TV about 15 years ago. He said, well, if God is love, then love is God. And he started going into this whole long, stupid, convoluted thing, which was completely, completely misusing scripture completely. All right. You've got to be careful when you analyze the Bible to understand what the Bible is saying. Okay. And yes, verse John 4, 8. And if you say that love is God, then you are relegating God to the state of love. Okay. You cannot do that. Absolutely wrong to do. God is love, not the other way around. Okay? He is eternal in nature. His love is. He doesn't increase or decrease. He is love, and this love has always been. It's unchanging. It is one of his attributes. We have been the object of his love in his eternal mind before creation itself stood firm. He knew that we would exist. He knew every person that would be here tonight for this Bible study. And guess what? He knew all the people that wouldn't be in this Bible study as well. Just poking all the people that don't show up for Bible study. But I do know some like Bob. Hi, Bob. He says he watches every week. And you know what? I know he does because he'll come and he'll say something and it'll have relevance to Thursday night's Bible study. Chris, hi, Chris, whoever else is in this church that is watching. And even if they're not watching live, they can catch it on YouTube. So I don't really begrudge people in the church not coming. But people need to study the Bible. They should do that. Anyway, no matter what we offer to him, It came as a result of his creative effort, and therefore there is nothing which needs to be repaid by him. I remember watching, it was, you know, I used to love Happy Days, right? The Ponds, and one time Richie got, I think it was in an accident, bike accident or something, and Fonzie was in the room making a deal with God. And even then, I was a kid that didn't know anything, and I thought, That doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense that we would make a deal with God in order you heal him and I'll do something for you. He already possesses everything. I mean, you know, I wasn't thinking it clearly through all the way, but I knew that it didn't make any sense. We can't deal with God. Now we want to. I know that when our child is in a hospital dying, We want to make a deal with God, but that's not realistic. We have to say, Lord, I pray that you heal this child. We got a lot of people that are praying. Please hear our prayers. But in the end, your will be done. That's right. Your will. We can't claim things. We can't make deals. He is God. He is sovereign. And whatever happens happens because it is a part of a much, much greater plan than we could ever imagine. And we will never imagine, even in all of attorney, we're not going to understand everything that he did. But he will reveal to us the things that we need to know. He will reveal those to us. So, let's see here. There's nothing that we can do to repay him. From this spoken word to Job, the Lord follows with the statement, everything under heaven is mine. He is God, the source and possessor of all things. Life application. We just burned right through two of them. At times we may feel we've done something great for the Lord. And from a human perspective, it may be so. But our deeds can never precede the Lord, and therefore we are owed nothing. This shows us the immense grace of the judgment seat of Christ, where rewards, in fact, will be handed out for our faithful acts. That's in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, if you want to read it, verses 9 through 15. All right. He is going to give us rewards for the things that we have done. And yet that is complete grace because we are owed nothing. As a matter of fact, Jesus said, when you do your job, you say we're just undeserving servants. Right. Remember the parable where he says the servant's been working all day. He comes in and he says, he says, prepare me food. Right. What's his right? Everything is the Lord's, and so the servant does it, you know? And I may have mixed two parables there. Anyway. Am I? Okay, I'm right. I wanted to make sure about that. But anyway, I'm not really, I'm not a parable rememberer. I have to go and read them, but I'm glad I didn't mix two parables. But there you go. We're just undeserving servants. So he still has reserved for us, despite not owing us anything, rewards for our faithfulness. Last thought, what a great God. Next verse. For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. End of chapter 11, my hair is standing up. I love that verse right there. You'll see me put that on a morning sunrise photo from time to time. I love that verse. 1136, the Greek prepositions are used in this last verse of Romans 11, ek, dia, and is, okay? Of, true, and to. All right, ek can also mean out of, like, you know, taking you out of something, but ek, of, and then you have dia, okay? Where does ek, anybody know where dia is used every day in your life? Diameter, D-I, D-I, diameter. And so it means through, right? Diameter, okay? And then you have east or two. And east can be translated a million different ways. I'm giving you three possibilities, but east could be, as a matter of fact, Will Groban, we all know Will. He went through Hebrew and Greek at Dallas Theological Seminary. You talk about somebody that went through mind punishment. That is it. He got his degree in those, okay? He said, one time he was emailing me about something, and he said, the word, this was when he was in Dallas, he says, I think I've broken my brain. Because you have to take things in context. And it's like, we know what we're saying when we're speaking. But when you don't know what somebody is thinking when they're saying something, and you don't want to make an error in the word of God. You've got to be really careful. And I remember feeling so bad for him because he literally, you know, when you study so hard on something that your brain actually hurts. And that's where he was that day. I can't imagine. I just can't imagine what he went through to get that, you know, and he's proficient in those. I hope that he continues with them. I hope he reads every day of his life something from the Greek, you know, because if not, you lose things very quickly. You lose the languages in particular. Hideko, she's not here. Well, we she grew up in Japan. Right? That's her native language. And I remember when she first came back, when I went first to Japan and she'd been in America for many years, she came back and I had these friends and I didn't know what they were talking about sometimes. And right when she came back, I asked her, what did he say? And she went like this. And I thought, what's the matter? She says, I'm trying to remember. This is her native language that she grew up with all of those many years and she she could not remember because she just lose languages. There is a I'll give you another example, which is even more curious and is a true story. One of the conquistador boats came over here and they left the guy off here in Florida. OK, and they kind of forgot about him. And years and years later, another boat came and they found this guy. He had completely forgotten how to speak Spanish completely. They had to retrain him in Spanish because he had completely forgotten all y'all. Yeah, he probably said y'all. That's right. Exactly. Hey, y'all. Anyway, it's rather amazing how things go. But eventually she got all of her Japanese back and then she actually started translating for the U.S. government in a very classified job. And then when we went to Malaysia, which I never understood, I could never grasp this. She worked at the U.S. embassy. She translated for the U.S. government. Documents right in Japanese and guess what the Japanese embassy heard that they had a translator over at the US embassy And they didn't have one. They said we need a translator and our embassy said okay And they let her go and translate over there now. I talk about a conflict of interest. That's it. But hey She taught children over there. She taught... Oh, they can understand, but they don't speak it. Yeah. Anyway, but yeah, she taught classes at night over there. She's a wonderful lady. Okay, so here we go. Greek prepositions. It is an all-encompassing statement concerning God, His creation, and all that creation holds. It is God. not a Big Bang which created the universe. Amen. In fact, a Big Bang is a logical contradiction. For the universe to bang into existence means that it would have... anybody? It would have had to have existed before it existed because nothing cannot create something that is impossible. That brings you back to the nature of God and people always ask the question, well then where did God come from? Like an arrogant question, like now I've got you trapped. God cannot NOT exist. He cannot not exist. He must exist. Come from implies time. That's right. He is outside of time. He created time for our benefit, not for his. He cannot not exist. He is what is known as a, begins with N, a necessary being. Thank you. He is a necessary being. Okay. It must be that way because we're here. Because we're here. There must be a necessary being and that is God. Yes. Well, one question I always have about that is that Jesus, the Word, was in the beginning. Right. And God spoke the world unto people. So, things were created through Jesus, the Word, right? So, in a way, it seems like a Big Bang. I mean... It doesn't matter how he did it. No. It doesn't matter whether he did it with the Big Bang or not is irrelevant. But to take God out of the equation... Yes. Because in a way it is. suddenly and that... Right, right. But that's right. But when you take God out of it and you say a Big Bang did it, that is the problem. It doesn't matter. If he created by a Big Bang, which he didn't, but if he did, then that's his prerogative. As far as the heavens and people say, well look, the heavens are billions and billions of light years. We know that it takes that long for the light from that star to get to us. 17.3 billion years old and therefore the universe is 17.3 billion years old. No, because it says in the book of Isaiah, it answers that, it says he, or the Psalms, I think it's Isaiah, it says he stretches out the heavens by his wisdom, okay? He did, it doesn't matter, he can go beyond our physical realm to do something because he is outside of our physical realm. By his wisdom these things happened, not by our misunderstanding of what he did. Okay? And just because there is 17 billion years of light that it takes to get to us, it does not mean that God is a deceiver. It means that we are misunderstanding what he did. We're taking him out of the equation. God isn't deceiving us, we are misunderstanding. It's exactly, and this is a good example for you to remember, because I brought it up before, is that when he created Adam, okay? He created Adam and Adam the next day was so excited. He went down to the DMV and he said, I want my driver's license. And they said, you can't have one. You're only a day old. Right. He gave him the appearance of age. He had all of the knowledge of a man of whatever age. And yet he didn't exist the day before when he put the trees in the ground. Trees require, guess what, they need compost to grow. There is an infinite amount of going back in order to have a tree to be a tree, right? And yet he made the tree, he made it with the fruit and the seed inside. Everything was ready to go. It was already there. So that is how he did it and however he did it. At least we have the basics. Everything else is irrelevant as far as, you know, what he did. We can make up all kinds of things about it, but the fact is that he did it and we know he did it because he is a necessary being. We better go on. Let's see here. So, the universe is not a self-existent entity and therefore if there was nothing comes there would still be nothing that's right there would be absolute nothing for all of eternity if there was nothing there would always be nothing and the fact is that we are having a Bible study right now that proves that there is a God that absolutely proves that there is a God that we are having a Bible study tonight the fact that there's a tree right out there dropping palm branches on my truck right now Instead of no tree at all means that there is a God. If there is one cell in this entire universe, if that was the whole universe, there would be a God. If there's anything, matter. Which means that if there's matter, there's also time and space associated with it. If anything exists in that capacity, there is a God. And so we know that. We don't need to debate it. We don't need to argue against it, make up all kinds of crazy things like Stephen Hawking's did. We need to just accept it. And then from there, as I said, Johannes Kepler science is thinking God's thoughts after him. We can study what he has done and we can come to an understanding of what he did and how he did it if we put him back into the equation. When we take him out, we can't do that. Okay, so let's see here. But there is a self-existent God who is the source of all things. And despite the constant assault against him and against his authority, he owes nothing to man. Diddly. Though we argue against his goodness, claim that we deserve his favor, and act as if he isn't even there until we get into a bad patch. There are no atheists in foxholes, they say, right? Everybody remember that? In the war there are no atheists. We don't acknowledge them until we get into a bad patch. None of our actions change His sovereign rule. None of them, okay? We can't blame God when somebody dies. There was a lady that was in a Bible class years ago at Grace Baptist, and she could not get beyond a picture she saw of a big buzzard eating a baby in Ethiopia, a dead baby. She couldn't get beyond it. How can there be a God? And she'd bring it up all the time. Listen, God is God. That is all there is to it. When bad things happen in this world, it is not God's fault. It is the devil's fault. If you want to be angry at somebody, don't be angry at God. Be angry at the devil who initiated this process and be angry at yourself for allowing the devil to deceive us. We allowed it. He didn't. He knew it was going to happen. But the question then comes down to, is it better that God didn't create it all? Or is it better that he created knowing that these things would happen, but he would have a final good end for those that he redeemed? I would suggest the latter is true. Okay. So yes, bad things happen. I'm sorry they happen, but that is not God's fault. All right. I don't know. I don't know. You were there. You remember now. Okay. You do remember this. You couldn't get beyond it. Yeah. Every single week again and again and again. I could not understand how Don't be angry at God. We've gone through the basics of Genesis. We've gone through it. You understand that He's there, that He has a good end. I can take you to Revelation and show you that. I'm sorry, but as it says in the Psalms, we're all condemned already. We're all condemned already. What we need is Jesus to get us out of that state. That's the great thing about Jesus. He's given us this wonderful gift of his, and he didn't have to. Once again, that's grace as well. So, for of him, this is Paul's words, for of him indicates that he is the creator and the source of everything. Genesis 1.1 says, what does it say? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, right? Okay. He is the creator. He is the beginner. He did, if there was a beginning, we already talked about that. And there was, thanking Einstein, by the way, for demonstrating this, then there must be a beginner. If there's a beginning, there must be a beginner. Einstein proved that time, space, and matter all proved that there was a single point in time and not just an infinite regress of time, which is a logical contradiction, by the way. We could talk about that sometime, but you can't have an infinite regress. If you had no beginning, if the universe was eternal, we could not be going forward in time because you would always be going backward looking for the beginning. There would be no forward movement of time. Does everybody get that? Even if you don't understand it, that is the way it is. There cannot be an infinite regress of time. There has to be a beginning point. And people knew that all along. It's just that Einstein proved that. And then he was so scared about what he proved, he spent the rest of his life working on the theory of everything, trying to disprove his own understanding of what he had. He was a Benedict Spinoza, what do you call it, pantheist. He believed that God is everything, pantheism, right? Well, he can't be. If there's a beginning, then there had to be a beginner and he is outside of his creation. And that scared him and he didn't want to acknowledge it. And you know what? Eventually, if that is true, it leads us to one thing. If there is a beginning, if there is a God, And all of these other things are true, guess what? Logically, Jesus, it leads to Jesus. Yes, we're accountable too, by the way. And the Word does describe this, but it ultimately will lead to Jesus. I want you to understand, if there is what we have in the Bible, which we know is true, it will ultimately always lead us to Jesus. That is the ultimate end of all things, God, as he is going to reveal himself, not just in the universe in a general way, he is going to do it in a specific way. The Word of God, and it will lead you to Jesus, who is the Word of God. It's inevitable. Think it through. We can go through it sometime. We don't have time to do it all today, but four through him indicates that God is a sustainer of, oh, four of him, I didn't finish that. There was a beginning, there was, thinking Einstein, a beginner, four of him are all things. And then the next one, four through him indicates that God is the sustainer of all things. We don't just have a creator, we have an active sustainer. Okay, that's in Colossians chapter one. It's also in one more place where he is a sustainer. It's right before, James, and it's right after Philemon, the first chapter and the first verse, Hebrews. Let me read it to you. Okay, hang on a second here. you know what that's that's been here's what he said that you've got the right uh... right chapter but here's what he says he was chapter one dot who at various times and i'm sorry burst to i get used to you got first one you were right dot who at various times in various ways spoken time passed to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days uh... uh... spoken to us by his son who has appointed whom he appointed heir of all things through whom he also made the worlds who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person here it is it's verse three not two and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had himself purged our sins sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high He upholds all things by the word of his power. Okay, that is the sustainer. Colossians chapter 1, I gave you a reference there, I'll take you there so you understand this as well. Verse 17, okay? And he is before all things and in him all things consist. There you go. He is the sustainer. He's not just the creator, he is the sustainer. Okay, where is this? He's a sustainer, he's the unseen agency of our existence and he is before all things and by all things, I'm quoting Colossians 117 that I just read, and he is before all things and all things subsist together by him. Colossians 117, the Darby version. Why did I choose Darby? Is because instead of using the things, NIV does a great job of it, but it's a paraphrase. It says by him all things hold together. The New King James Version says by him all things consist. But, Darby says, by him all things subsist. And that is what's happening. It's not just that they consist of something, that consists of material, it's got iron or, yeah, steel, and it's got, that's the consistency of it, but it doesn't mean that it's being subsisted, okay? By him all things subsist. There's something below the material that is holding the material together. Darby used a wonderful single word, whereas the NIV used a bunch of words to say the same thing. By him all things hold together. Yes, it consists of that, but does it hold together? If you have water in your hand, it goes all over the place, right? Or if you have helium, it just goes out. but something is holding these things together, they subsist. And that's why I chose Darby. He is the one who holds all things together, but even more, he is the one who allows all things to continue from moment to moment to moment. If God did not hold all things together, guess what would happen? It'd all be gone. Everything would disappear in an instant. As quickly as he created, it would be gone. Everything, this entire universe, would simply cease to exist. The opposite of a bang, it would be the big blowout or whatever you call it. The big poof, I guess. Anyway, so, and that shows you that just as it would disappear in an instant, guess what? It had to appear in an instant. There's no big bang that took billions of years for these things to happen. He did it by his wisdom and they stand firm because of his wisdom. Okay, so. It says that he spoke the world into existence. He spoke the world into existence. I'll get it right now. You want to know where it is? I know the verse and I'm trying to think of it. Well, that, but it explicitly says it in, hang on a second here. What's that? No, not spoke. Bible Gateway, give me one second. Yeah, spoke. Give me one second. Spoke. Let's see here. He spoke and it's, oh, there's way too many spokes. He spoke. Bicycle. Let me try this. Hang on. Yeah. Spokes on a bicycle. If I can't find it right now, then we'll just let somebody else find it. But no, that's not it. I have spoken. He has spoken. He has spoken by his word. But I spoke openly. No, I'm not going to find it. I'm not going to spend all day. But if somebody finds it, yeah, he spoke and it stood firm. That's the one that you're thinking. Oh, that's the word I want. OK. Yeah. He spoke, stood. S.T.O.O.D. All right. Give me one second. We'll find it. All right. It's King Psalms. He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. Psalm 39 verse 9. He'll never forget that again now. I guarantee you. Burt doesn't forget anything. Psalm 39 verse 9. Okay. He spoke and it stood firm. So once again, that's creation and then we have Colossians and we have Hebrews 1 verse 3. That is the sustaining of the creation. Okay, but even more, he is the one who allows all things to continue from moment to moment. This is why Jesus, speaking to the leaders of Israel, was able to say this. Let me take you to John chapter 5. Hang on. Whoops, going the wrong way, Charlie. John chapter 5, and we want verse 17, and it says, But Jesus answered them, My father has been working until now, and I have been working. Okay, he can say that because it's true from the very beginning and he is continuing to work. He is sustaining the universe by his spoken word. God's creative effort ended on the sixth day, but his sustaining effort does and must continue on without ceasing. Once again, a perfect argument for a literal six-day creation not a long-term creation people want to argue that that's fine it doesn't matter if people want to believe in a long-term creation that is fine but that's not what the bible teaches nor is it what paul or moses or any other person up until the 1800s ever ever believed okay and that doesn't mean that science has now taught us something different it means that we are misinterpreting the information okay uh we have granite. Okay. And it has, uh, granite has something in it that decays over a certain amount of time, right? You got everybody know that. And we'll say it's 7 billion years and then it's gone. Okay. But guess what? If he created it on the whatever day, the first day he would have created it with that radioactive element in it. It would have already been there as a part of the granite because it is granite. It's not limestone. Everybody understand? So when he created something, he created it as it is. And he didn't create granite and then say, OK, now I'm going to wait seven billion years for this element to have this particular trait in it. He created that with that trait in it. So even though we say that seven billion years old or whatever, 17, it is not. It is six days old. OK. I know people want to argue this. I always get emails after I get in this type of a conversation, but I disagree. The Bible does not allow a long term creation. Science only says, OK. From what we've been able to determine from this point to that point, it's degraded by that amount, right? So they assume that it has to project back. That's right. That's what I'm saying. He created it exactly as it is. And that's right to take that rather than look at billions of years. OK. Right. And that takes that takes you right to the Adam once again, because man degrades after a certain amount of time. He develops as from a baby to this. And it's all Adam was. Anybody that says Adam evolved. I'm sorry, you have departed. You have departed from scripture. The Bible. You cannot evolve into anybody. Original sin. You cannot. There would be no need for Jesus if we did not have an original sin. OK. Adam was created. He was created in one day. He did not evolve. The Bible is very clear on that. If he created Adam on one day, then the rest of the account is true as well. Okay. I take it literally. I do not waffle in this. I do not take, I do not entertain other views on this particular issue. Okay. So if you believe differently, believe differently. This is my class. Go teach your own class. Okay. I have no problem at all with people disagreeing with me on this issue. They can be as wrong as they want. The Bible does not allow anything other than a literal six-day creation. the problem of morality which i've read from time to time it's in some of the older bible studies if you want to go look it up the problem of morality should let me do it anybody want to do this because it's been a while since we've done it the problem of morality alone will show you this issue okay how do i know this because i was in college and i was asked to do a uh Report on creation and at the same time I had to do a problem on some philosophical and moral issue and I picked the problem of sin Okay, and so at the same time I was doing my shit. Oh, well, look at that. All right, it says um Where is it here from Genesis? one verse Where am I? Genesis 1 verse, I want to make sure I get the right, he created man in his image, then God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Yay! And God said, see I have given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed, to you it shall be for food. also to every beast of the earth to every bird of the air and to every this is the sixth day of creation um every uh bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth in which there is life i have given every green herb for food and it was so then god said everything that he had saw everything that he had made and indeed it was very good so the evening and the morning were the sixth day end of chapter one okay chapter two we enter chapter two and it says here um Let's see here, where do I want to go here? We'll just go back to verse 10. Genesis chapter 2 inserts into Genesis chapter 1. Okay, it's not a different Genesis account as people say. He's giving details now. I did this in days 1 through 6. Now I'm giving you very specific. And he does this throughout the Bible. He will give details after giving a broad picture. Okay, so Havelah where there is gold and the gold of that land is good. Bedellum and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel or the Tigris. It is the one which goes towards the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. Then God, then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden, you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. And the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make a helper comparable to him. Out of the ground, the Lord God formed the beast. He did all this, blah, blah, blah. And it gets down to verse 20. So Adam gave the names to all the cattle, to the birds, on and on and on. Verse 21, and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept, and he took the woman out of man, right? A rib. Well, that shows you that it's a literal six-day creation. How? He's not an infant. But how does that morally show you that God created in six days? Remember I gave you Genesis 1 first on the sixth day. What did he say at the end of the sixth day? It's good. It is good. Very good. And what did he say before he created the woman? It's not good. He saw that all things were good and he blessed the sixth day. Everything was good at the end of the sixth day. Everybody got that? It said right there, then God saw everything the evening and indeed it was very good. So the Tov Me'od, very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Well, he inserts this account into chapter two and he says it is not good. That means there was something not good before the end of the day, but he created man in one day, and therefore it had to be. Now you could logically say, well, he was 930 years old when he died. Okay, well, let's take that off. Now we want to take off the, he was 130 when he had his son Seth, who was the son of the line, right? So now we've taken off 800 years. Okay, and then after that we have um adam and i'm sorry kane and abel and all of their account all right so we could get back really close to you know it wasn't long afterward in other words that all of this happened if he can do all of that stuff all of the universe in less than a hundred years because it was 130 when he had Seth and these two sons have already killed each other so we'll say a hundred years. If he can do all that in a hundred years why would he lie about saying it's six days instead of 17 billion years, right? He had something not good on the sixth day and then at the end of the sixth day everything was very good, okay? You're not going to change my mind about that issue, okay? Like I said, If you believe differently, that is fine. But you're not going to change my mind. I take this Bible literally. I take it literally. And if people think I'm insane, that's great. All right? I'd rather be insane for Jesus and wrong than be insane for evolutionary models and big bangs and be wrong by that for certain. Anyway, we'll go on. So his creative effort ended on the sixth day. This is going back to John 5, 17. But his sustaining effort does and must continue on without ceasing. Without this continued sustaining power, all things would simply cease to exist. For through him are all things. And then he says, for to him. shows that he is the end purpose and goal of all things. So we have for from him, he's the creator. For through him, he's the sustainer. And for to him shows that he, God, is the end purpose and the goal of all things. It's not us. It's not our bank account. It's not, you know, the one who dies with the most things wins or any of that stupidity. Oh, before I go, Listen, I just remembered something. I don't want to forget. I have bumper stickers over here now Okay, so if you want one for your car, you're more than welcome to take one and put it on there Okay, if what they came in a day ago the people they're online to ask for a bumper sticker I've got your names written down. I've got your addresses but They're too big to fit into a regular envelope So I've ordered envelopes and they will be here in about a week and then I will get them in the mail to you I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean the delay. I didn't think of envelope So I ordered them yesterday as soon as they came in But if you want one for your car go grab it on the way out Okay, I wanted to get that out of the way. Okay, so for to him, we have the creator, we have the sustainer, he is the end purpose, okay? He is the final and ultimate reason for every created thing. As the source and sustainer, this can be the only logical conclusion. Because He created time, He is therefore outside of time. Eternally, before and after, all things find their conclusion in Him. And amazingly, because He participated in His creation by entering the stream of humanity, all things are directed toward their completion in the person of Jesus. It always comes back to Jesus. Always. Hebrews 1-2, speaking of Christ Jesus, says He is appointed heir of all things. He's the heir of all things. He's the creator of them. He's the sustainer of them. He is the heir of all things. Christ is the recipient of all power. Where is that? Matthew 28, 18. Thank you. All right, rule and authority, a state which will exist as long as God exists. Matthew 28, 18 gave him all authority on heaven and earth, not just earth, not just until the millennium. It is for ever, not three ever, not two ever for ever. OK, as long as things exist for to him are all things. To him be glory forever, is Paul's final words of this, can be analyzed and spoken of until words run out, and yet there will be more to say. The praises shall never end, the marvel shall never cease, the awe at beholding the incomprehensible greatness of God will never, never, never get old. From him flows an eternal stream of delight and majesty. In the new heavens and the new earth we shall behold this with our eyes and the praises of God will know no end. It was all made possible by his own wisdom and splendor displayed in the most amazing way of all. And that is in Colossians 1. I'm going to read it to you again just so that you don't forget it. Colossians 1 15 through 20. It says, he is the image of the invisible God, Jesus Christ, the firstborn over all creation. For by him, all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things. Well, if he's before all things and time is a thing, guess what? He is outside of time. He is before all things and in him all things. I'm going to change the word to Darby here, subsist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. that in all things not some things all things he may have the preeminence for it pleased the father that in him all the fullness should dwell and by him to reconcile all things to himself by him whether things on earth or things in heaven having made peace through the blood of his cross if that's not the most wonderful wonderful thing to think about he created all things we fouled up all things Right? The whole creation fell when we fell. And yet he came into the stream of existence. He lived the life that you and I can't live. He gave up his life on the cross of Calvary so that we could have life. If that's not the most humbling, amazing thing imaginable. We got problems. We got bad days. We've got sickness. We've got cancer. We've got a child that's in the hospital. We've got a knee that won't stop hurting. Those things are temporary. Those things are deadly compared to the glory that lies ahead if we just simply live by faith in the promises of God. I know it's hard. I know that this life really is difficult at times, but God has promised us something so, so much better. Whatever your station is, I say it every single week at the end of the sermon, the Lord has you exactly where he wants you, exactly. He has a good plan and a purpose for you. It doesn't matter if you're Paul sitting in a dirty Roman prison, he has a purpose for you there. And he wrote the most marvelous epistles from prison. And we're reading them 2,000 years later. Was it worth it that he sat in a prison? I think so. He might not have thought so at the time, but I know he did. He never showed it. He never showed it. He, you know, counted all joy. How many times does he say joy in the book of Philippians, right? Joy, joy, joy. He's overflowing with joy from a prison. So this is the wonder. This is the marvelous majesty of what God has done in Jesus Christ for us. Got a life application. We're going to finish a couple minutes early because we're certainly not going to get another verse done, and it's a new chapter anyway. Life application. If you are planning on boasting, do so in the cross of Jesus Christ. That is what I would recommend that you do. As a matter of fact, let's go real quickly to Galatians chapter 6. Bert's going to cry it out loud before I even get there. I know him. There we go. Yes, yes, and he did it. Okay, here it is. Let me see here. Verse 14, but God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. There you go. That is where your boasting should be. He even says it in Romans, you know, let him who boasts, boasts in the Lord or something. I think it's Romans. Is that right? Maybe it's somewhere anyway. And he says, let him who glories glory in the Lord. You know, One says boast, one says glory, and then he modifies it. But anyway, if you're going to boast, boast in the Lord. Boast not just in the Lord, but boast in his cross. What's the verse? That's 6-14. Oh yeah, 6-14. That's where our boasting should be. So we got that. We're going to go ahead and close. Before we go, one more thing. We have the bumper stickers if you want one. We also have four necklaces left for the ladies in the church. If you have not taken one, I had them here on Sunday. They're almost all gone. We got four. that were handmade by the ladies in Africa. If it's your first time here, go ahead and grab one if you want one for thanking us for helping out with the ministry over there. So got four left if you want one, grab it tonight because they're all going to be gone. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the cross of Jesus Christ. We thank you for it. Help us to not boast in other things and forgive us when we do because it's our nature to want to take your glory away from you and to give it to ourselves and how wrong that is but it is something that we all make the mistake of from time to time and help us to just place all of our good deeds and all of the things that we do right at the foot of the cross in gratitude for the majesty and the marvel of what Jesus has done for us. Lord we thank you for this time together we had a little short we were a little slow getting started today but We pray that it was a class which will build up others, edify them and help them to understand you in a better way. And we look forward with anticipation with chapter 12 of Romans and whatever you have there for us. Thank you for the focus of Romans 9 through 11, which is your faithfulness to your unfaithful people, Israel. Thank you that you have brought them back to the land. We pray for them right now. We pray that you will protect them, lead many to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. In whatever way you do, make those little miraculous things happen in their lives so they say, ooh, I wanna know about Jesus. And they make that choice to follow him before the time of tribulation comes. We pray this, that you will be glorified. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, let me back this baby up. Let's see here. Shalom.