All right, we're going to get started. Good evening. Wonderful to be back with you guys in Lake Stevens, Washington. I flew up this afternoon from San Diego, California, where I live with my wife and five kids. If you're here for tomorrow morning's teachings, I think I have an updated photo of my family in one of the presentations. So you'll see how much they've grown. I might have shown you a picture a few years ago when I was here last, and they've all grown about two feet. So you might not recognize him. But it's wonderful to be back with you guys. I love this church. I love your pastor and his family. And it's a delight to see all of you again. Well, in tonight's session, If you'd like to turn in your Bibles, if you brought one, we're gonna look at Psalm chapter 19. But I'd like to go ahead and pray and we'll ask for God's blessing on this time together this evening. Heavenly Father, we love you. We worship you tonight. We're so thankful to know you and to have this opportunity here to gather together on a Saturday evening and to open your word for a bit. to consider some of the evidences that we believe point to your existence. And God, we do that with just anticipation. We're expecting and eager to have your Holy Spirit minister to our hearts and our minds that we might leave here encouraged in the faith, strengthened in the faith, and better equipped to contend for the faith. Of course, we know there are many skeptics and atheists out there who have questions and doubts. criticisms about the Bible and don't believe that you exist. So God, we pray that you would use this time here tonight to help us leave here better equipped as ambassadors of Christ, ready to answer some of those questions and objections. So bless this time we ask now, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, this evening, I'd like to address what I think is arguably life's most important question. Is it reasonable to believe in God? Is there good evidence that points to His existence? I believe there is, as I know most of you do as well, but for the purpose of encouraging you in your faith and helping you be a little bit better prepared to talk to people, who question God's existence, this evening I'd like to lay out for you a case for a creator. A case for a creator, more specifically, five different evidences for God's existence. Five reasons I believe God exists, and five reasons I believe anyone who's willing to consider the evidence can also come to that same conclusion. The first evidence I'd like to discuss for a few minutes is something that David mentions all the way back in Psalm chapter 19. I'll put it on the screen for you, or feel free to read it in your Bible. This is out of the New King James Version. David says, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament, or the ESV says the sky above, shows his handiwork. Day after day utters speech and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. That's the New King James Version. I love how the New Living Translation reads. I wouldn't ever teach out of this translation, but I do enjoy reading it in my personal quiet time. Let me put that on the screen for you. I think it adds a little bit of clarity here to what David said. He said, the heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display His marvelous craftsmanship. Day after day, they continue to speak. Night after night, they make Him known. They speak without a sound or a word. Their voice is silent in the skies, yet their message has gone out to all the earth and their words to all the worlds. So David says here in Psalm chapter 19 that the heavens, the stars testify to the fact that there is a creator. When was the last time you walked outside on a dark, clear, smokeless night and looked up at the stars and were just amazed with the beauty above? we're not able to do that very often down in San Diego there's too much lights but when I'm away you know somewhere where there's no big city lights nearby I love to just look up at the stars at night and be in awe of what our Creator has made Abraham Lincoln said this, I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say that there is no God. I agree with that. And this is the first evidence that I'd like to discuss with you for a few minutes if you're a note taker. Number one, the cosmos. The cosmos. Philosophers and thinkers down through the centuries have concluded that there are really only three different possibilities to explain its existence. Some have suggested that it has just always been. It's always been around, and if that is the case, there's no need for a creator. And some have thought that's an adequate explanation for the existence of the cosmos. Others have said that it created itself. In other words, it hasn't always been around, but when it came into existence, it brought itself into existence. Again, no need for God. And then there's a third possibility, and that is that it was created by an immaterial creative agent, God. Now let's walk through these three options and consider which is the most reasonable to believe. The first option that the universe has just always been or is eternal has been utterly rejected today by the scientific community. Why? Well, the scientific evidence against an eternal universe has demolished this theory. It's not a group of pastors that got together and tried to come up with some ways to scratch option number one off the list. The scientific community. has scratched option number one off the list, and it's because of the scientific evidence. Astronomers today are pointing to things like the background radiation echo, the second law of thermodynamics, and the motion of the galaxies, all of which have led them to conclude that the universe had a beginning. Stephen Hawking, the renowned late astronomer from Cambridge University, agreed that this really is the consensus in the scientific community. Before his death, he said, almost everyone believes that the universe and time itself had a what? Beginning. That's interesting, because this is in perfect harmony with what the Bible indicates. Where so? The very first verse. Genesis 1, verse one says, in the, what word? Beginning. God created the heavens and the earth. So the Bible makes it clear right out the gate, in the very first verse, that the universe is not eternal. It had a beginning, exactly like the scientific community has finally discovered more than 3,000 years after Moses penned those words. They could have known this a lot sooner had they read the Bible. Arno Penzias, an astrophysicist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for discovering some of the evidence that the universe had a beginning, agrees that the scientific data lines right up with the Bible. In an interview in the New York Times, Penzias said this. He said, the best data we have are exactly what I would have predicted had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, and the Bible as a whole. Well, because the universe had a beginning, that rules out option number one, doesn't it? That the universe has just always been. Very well, now that leaves us with two options then to explain the existence of the universe. Let's talk about option number two for a moment. This option that the universe created itself, of course, is fraught with problems. The idea that anything could create itself is absurd, for it would have to exist and not exist at the same time. Friends, that's irrational. For something to create itself, it would have to be before it even was. Well, this violates an ironclad law of knowledge known as the law of non-contradiction. The law of non-contradiction states that A, whatever that happens to be, Cannot be both a and non a at the same time and in the same Relationship, for example, you can't be at church tonight and not at church tonight That would be a and non a at the same time it that's a contradiction. It can't happen So then we think it's absurd to suggest that the universe existed and didn't exist at the same time. But that is precisely what would be required for the universe to have created itself. So surely the universe did not create itself and yet this is what leading atheistic philosophers believe today. How did the universe create itself? Well, many of them have concluded, like Richard Dawkins, that the universe evolved literally out of nothing. I love how he uses the word literally there. He wants to make sure you understand he's speaking literally, not figuratively. He's not speaking with metaphors and personification. He's saying literally, the universe evolved literally out of nothing. Stephen Hawking said the same thing, that the universe came into existence from nothing. These men, considered by some to be two of the brightest atheists of our time, say once there was nothing and that nothingness turned itself into all of the billions of galaxies and stars and planets throughout the entire universe. Friends, surely you don't believe this. It seems patently obvious to most of us that nothing cannot do something. Nothing can't see, smell, act, think, let alone create something. Can you imagine going home tonight and turning on the evening news and hearing the newscaster say, nothing caught doing something on film. Tune in at 11, see the footage. Why do you laugh? Because it can't happen, right? And it never has happened. So there are three options for the existence of the universe. Number one, it's always been. Or number two, it created itself. Or number three, it was created by God. Options one and two can be thrown out purely on scientific and philosophical grounds. We don't need to bring the Bible into the conversation. I mean, I opened up the session by quoting Psalm 19 because I love God's word. And David kind of gets us going, pointing in the direction of the cosmos. But you can wipe these two options off the list just with good sound reasoning and referring to scientific discoveries. And that leaves us with, almost by default, option number three, that God created the universe. That seems to be, for the thinking person, the most reasonable of the three options. Now the skeptic says, hold on here, Charlie. If the cosmos requires a creator, who made God, if he exists? Well, to answer the question concisely, nobody made God. Unlike the finite physical universe that demands a creator, God does not need a creator. Why? Well, because God's eternal. He's always existed, and He is immaterial. He's a spirit. He's not made up of physical parts that need some sort of assembly. The Bible affirms this in multiple places. For example, Psalm 90, verse two, written by Moses, he said, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. This is one of several verses in the Bible that indicate God is eternal. He's without beginning and without end. In John chapter four, verse 24, Jesus said that God the Father is spirit. So you put those two truths together, that God is eternal and that he's spirit, and we have a bit of a doctrine about the nature of God. He is an eternal spirit and therefore does not need any kind of creator or someone to have brought him into existence. But the physical universe falls into an entirely different category. As the scientific discoveries have shown, it has not always existed, and anything that begins to exist requires a maker. Why? Well, because things don't just pop into existence all on their own. You've never experienced that, and you never will. There's always a cause behind anything that begins to exist. Nothing does not produce something. Okay, Charlie, I understand what you're saying, but you Christians really believe that God has always existed? That's impossible. Well, before our friend scoffs at the fact that God has always existed, he needs to keep in mind that something or someone must have always existed. Do you realize that? Follow the logic here with me, and I'm gonna try to keep this simple, but If nothing, represented by the interior of that circle, the blackness in that circle. If nothing cannot produce something, and yet something exists, then a creative agent must have always existed. Why? In order to bring that which exists into being. Did I lose you? I lost myself when I wrote that. So let me make it a little more simple. I've considered actually ditching that previous slide, because people track with me better on this one. So follow the logic here. It's worded a little bit better, I think. If there ever was a time that absolutely nothing existed, nothing would exist now. But something does exist now. Therefore, there was never a time that absolutely nothing existed. Okay, you following me there? So we have no problem believing that God is the one who always existed. And because that is the case, the answer to the question who made God is nobody. Nobody made God. God is eternal. He doesn't require any kind of a maker. The universe, though, is not eternal as the scientific discoveries have shown. Therefore, it does require a maker. Well, Charlie, I still think it's foolish to believe in something you can't see. This God that you guys worship. I don't think it's foolish at all. Have you ever seen your thoughts? Never. Do they really exist? Absolutely. Have you ever seen gravity? No. Do you believe gravity is real? Of course. When you see a painting, do you need to see the painter to conclude a painter exists? No, you don't need to see the painter. In fact, that painting right there on the screen is a picture of Jesus walking on the water. I've used it in a couple of different presentations over the years. And about four or five years ago, I was speaking at a church somewhere east of Phoenix in Arizona. And I think I was giving this presentation, whatever the presentation was, it had that picture in it. And when I hit that slide, I saw people start poking each other in the congregation and they're whispering. And I'm like, whoa, what's going on with that painting? I don't know what happened there, but there was all this commotion. Well, after the teaching was over, standing in the cafe and like four or five people came up to me and they said, Charlie, you know that painting that you used in your presentation with Jesus walking on the water? I'm like, yeah, what's going on with that? They said, the guy that painted that painting goes to this church and he's here this morning. And I thought, I hope he doesn't sue me. You know, I usually purchase the rights through stock photo agencies to use the photos, but I did it for this one. I found it on Google or whatever, but I thought, he's a Christian, he's not going to mind if I use it in a talk, right? And he was actually delighted. I mean, he was blown away when he saw his painting come up on my screen, right? He's like, I painted that. But let me tell you this, the reason I even share that story with you is to point out this, all the years I've used that painting, I knew there was a painter out there somewhere. Never saw him, never met him, but I knew there had to be a painter out there because nothing doesn't produce something. There's no way that thing just popped into existence all on its own. And so I finally had the privilege of standing face-to-face before the painter. And it was a delight to meet him in person and thank him for allowing me to use that painting all those years. And one day you're going to stand before your painter face-to-face and you're going to meet the painter, the painter of the universe, the painter of your body, the artist. And we look forward to that. Okay. Yeah, you don't need to see God in order to conclude He exists. The universe all on its own, we believe, is compelling evidence that God exists. It's like one big painting, isn't it? It demands a maker. So that's number one, if you're a note taker, the cosmos. Let's consider a second pool of evidence for the existence of God, the conditions for life. The conditions for life, what am I talking about? Well, the more scientists study the universe, the more they discover that conditions in the universe appear to have been extremely fine-tuned to permit physical life. Numerous conditions have now been identified that have to have just the right values. In other words, they need to be tuned to just the right degree for any kind of physical life to exist in the universe. If any of these conditions were to change, even a little, the universe would be hostile to life and incapable of supporting him. Now this conclusion is not something that Christian scientists have concocted in an attempt to steer people toward faith in God. This is something that's being widely acknowledged today by scientists of every philosophical persuasion. Stephen Hawking, again, for example, a man who certainly did not consider himself a Christian, said this. He said, the universe and the laws of physics seem to have been specifically designed for us. If any of about 40 physical qualities had more than slightly different values, life as we know it could not exist. When Stephen Hawking speaks of 40 physical qualities that appear to have been specifically designed to permit life, he's talking about things like the force of gravity, the speed of light, the mass of an electron, the force that binds subatomic particles together within the nuclei of atoms. He's speaking about the energy levels in carbon atoms and so on. As I mentioned a moment ago, if any of these or dozens of other conditions were even slightly different, scientists have determined that the universe could not exist in any form that would support physical life anywhere in the universe. Dr. Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project, states that if any of these constants or these conditions, which I just had on the screen, was off by even one part in a million, Or in some cases, by one part in a million million, there would have been no galaxies, stars, planets, or people. That's some incredible fine-tuning right there. What scientists are discovering, let's just take an imaginary trip up to heaven, okay? So we're up in heaven, we're looking around, and Michael's showing us like where all the gears are. We're like, God runs the universe. He's got the, you know, This is almost heretical. I'm sorry, Harry Caron. We know there's no gears, right? But let's just imagine there were some gears up in heaven for like the speed of light knob over here, and then you got the force of gravity knob over here, and it's these giant knobs with like a million little clicks on them. And Michael the Archangel or whoever's giving us the tour, he's like, yeah, so the speed of light, it's dialed in right there. And you think, well, what if we just did this, like one little click? He's like, ooh. Don't do that. You could nuke the entire universe if you start messing with any of these dials. Scientists have discovered that some of the parameters for some of these different things are so finely tuned that if you messed with them one millionth, or he says here, he says in some cases, by one part in a million million, So imagine a million clicks around this dial, but in between each of the million clicks, there's a million more clicks. Some of those parameters can't even be messed with a millionth of a millionth without destroying the universe. Now, these are not Christian scientists that are saying these kinds of things. These are in many situations, well, I mean, some Christian scientists agree with this, these discoveries, of course, and we even use them in our talks like I'm using right now. But it's secular scientists who are discovering these kinds of things. Well, the skeptic says, maybe the universe just ended up this way by chance. You know, after it sprang into existence from nothing, on accident. I don't think so. Donald Page of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Science calculated the odds against our universe randomly taking a form suitable for life as one in 10 billion to the 124th power. Now, I don't know how far along you got in your mathematics studies, in high school or college. But I think you could agree with me that these are such astronomical odds, it's reasonable to conclude that the universe did not end up with these finely tuned conditions apart from an incredibly intelligent and powerful designer. And that's what many cosmologists and physicists are concluding today. that something supernatural appears to be going on behind the scenes. The renowned cosmologist Fred Hoyle said a common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics as well as with chemistry and biology. Well, this conclusion that God may be the one behind all the fine-tuning, of course, does not sit well with atheists who are committed to a godless universe. So where do they run? How do they explain away the fine-tuning of the universe? They do acknowledge that what appears to be fine-tuning exists, so what do they do with it? Well, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, and other scientists, prominent atheists, seek to explain away the fine-tuning of the universe with a hypothesis straight out of science fiction called the multiverse. The multiverse, what's that? Well, their multiverse hypothesis says that there might be trillions of universes, thus the term multiverse, not universe, but multiverse, And that somewhere in this gigantic mix of universes, a finely tuned universe will appear by chance alone. And we humans just happen to find ourselves living in that finely tuned universe. So there is no need to believe in God. They say the universe we're in just ended up this way by chance alone. Well, friends, this is a desperate theory that atheists have come up with. What evidence is there for a multiverse? Let me lay it out for you on the screen. There is none. There's not a shred of evidence that there's even one universe outside of ours. let alone trillions of universes, I do find it a bit ironic that atheists regularly tout their interest in observational evidence. You silly Christians, you believe in this God, you can't even see. We don't do that. We like telescopes and microscopes and tangible evidence for our beliefs. Well, when faced with the tangible, visible evidence of the fine-tuning of the universe, atheists retreat to a hypothesis that has no observational evidence to support it. None. And even if their multiverse theory was correct and there are trillions of universes, that doesn't end the debate over the existence of God. For the question would remain, how did those universes come into existence? Nothing doesn't produce something. It just broadens the question. The question used to be, how in the world did this universe come into existence? Atheists think they can get out of that by just positing trillions of other universes. No, that just broadens the question. Okay, who made all these other universes? I think the multiverse theory actually makes the atheist dilemma more difficult. For if the multiverse theory were true, nothing not only made one universe, nothing made trillions of universes. Well, that seems beyond preposterous. So the multiverse theory doesn't do anything to weaken our case that the fine-tuning that we've discovered in the universe seems to point to an intelligent designer. All right, let's move along. There's a third pool of evidence that God exists, the complexity of life. the complexity of life. Imagine with me that you have found yourself shipwrecked on an island somewhere in the South Pacific, wondering if there might be any civilized life on the island that may help you get home one day. You and some of the other shipwrecked survivors set out searching. You walk along the shoreline and your first discovery is what appears to be an arrowhead. Question for you. After this discovery, what do you think the chances are that human life might exist on the island? Pretty good. Might not be the friendliest bunch. It might be a band of headhunters or something. But continuing your search, you walk along the beach another hundred yards, only to find what appears to be a canoe sitting there on the beach. Then another hundred yards down the beach, you discover some letters written in the sand. Welcome. Maybe the headhunters are glad someone's shown up, I don't know. What if someone who survived the shipwreck with you suggested that the arrowhead, the canoe, and a few letters in the sand might just be the result of thousands of years of waves and the tides going in and out? What would you think about that conclusion? Well, you'd think that guy's crazy. There's no way. It would be wiser to conclude that there was intelligence behind those three discoveries. Why would we so confidently assume that though? How can you look at an arrowhead, a canoe on the beach, or a few letters in the sand and recognize design? Well, here's why, because design is not hard to recognize. Design is not hard to recognize. You see an arrowhead, you recognize design. You see a canoe, you instantly realize there's no way that happened with just wind and rain You see a few letters in the sand, you're even more confident that there was a designer behind those letters. Well, everywhere we look on our planet, we find amazingly complex life forms that are millions of times more complex than arrowheads, canoes, or a few letters in the sand. This amazing complexity that permeates all of life is another reason why more and more scientists are concluding that an intelligent designer must exist. A popular talking point today for atheists is to say that nearly all scientists in the world are atheists. They think they've got kind of a corner on all the smart people, all the scientists. They've restated that line so often. I think a lot of people in our culture believe that to be true. Well, it's not true. In reality, fewer than 30% of practicing scientists today are atheists, and about 40% of professional natural scientists are practicing Christians, and many others are theists of other kinds, Jews, Muslims, and so on. And one of the underlying factors influencing these scientists' decisions to believe in a creator is the amazing complexity they have seen in living organisms. Take, for example, the human body. You don't need to look far to find evidence for intelligent design. You can look in the mirror. The human body has an amazingly complex nervous system, cardiovascular system, reproductive capability, skeletal system, muscle system, digestive system, ability to heal itself and fight off diseases. Just to mention a few marvels related to the body. I have a hard time believing that male and female human bodies came into existence by some mindless process. apart from an incredibly intelligent designer. You could leave the barren side of a mountain exposed to wind, rain, the forces of nature, chance, and millions of years of time, and you would never get even a Mount Rushmore, let alone a living, breathing human being. No one alive today would believe that the faces of Mount Rushmore came about by millions of years of erosion, wind, and rain. And yet atheists today believe that real life human beings with 206 bones, more than 640 muscles, and hearts that beat over 100,000 times a day are the product of a mindless random series of accidents and mutations. Well, I don't have enough faith to believe that. Consider the human heart. Your heart is a muscle about the size of a man's fist. It contracts and forces blood through 60,000 miles of veins, arteries, and capillaries in your body. Every hour, it pumps about 75 gallons of blood, totaling more than 50,000 gallons a month. To help you ponder how astonishing that is, consider this, the average backyard pool holds only about 15,000 gallons of water, but your heart pumps more than three times that amount, 50,000 gallons of blood a month. Amazing. A good question to ask atheists, I have fun with this. What do you think evolved first? The heart, the blood, or the veins? It can't all come together at once. That's creation. That's the kind of stuff God does. They believe it came together piecemeal. So I like to ask them, what do you think evolved first? If they say the heart, I say, well, okay, what did it do? What did it pump? No blood yet. That's millions of years off. No veins. All right, well, maybe the blood evolved first. All right, what did it do? Where did it go? How did it get there? No blood to pump it, no veins to carry it. Okay, well maybe the veins evolved first. All right, what did they do? What did they carry? What were they connected to? It doesn't work. You can't have it piecemeal. You need all three at the same time for an organism to live. Yeah, they don't like that question. Consider the human eye. Your eyes are composed of more than 2 million working parts. 2 million working parts. The eye is a ball with a lens on one side. It has a light-sensitive retina made up of rods and cones inside the other. The lens has a sturdy protective covering called a cornea that sits over an iris designed to protect the eye from excessive light. The eye contains an amazing watery substance that's replaced every four hours. Tear glands continuously flush the outside clean. An eyelid sweeps secretions over the cornea to keep it moist. Eyelashes protect it from dust. And extraordinarily fine-tuned muscles are attached to the eye that move the eye and aid in its ability to quickly focus on objects. Amazing. Far more advanced than the most expensive autofocus camera that we can make today. Your eye can focus on something way faster. You got the latest iPhone 12, you think, what a great camera. I was trying to take a picture out the window today, I might fly it up. I'm like, this thing won't focus. Why can't it focus as fast as my eye does? Our eyes are far more advanced than all the intelligence that went into your camera on your phone. According to Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling, widely regarded as the greatest chemist of the 20th century, one living cell in the human body is more complex than New York City. So now we're taking it from the systems and the organs, the heart, the eyes. Now let's get down into the cell. The cell, according to Linus Pauling, is more complex than New York City. I don't know if you've been to New York City. It is an enormous, complex place. Three million people scurrying about the city in every direction, hundreds of skyscrapers, thousands of taxis, ships going up and down the Hudson, an airport, you know, jets flying all over the place. Very complex. Now, imagine packing that kind of complexity into a single cell, a thousandth of an inch wide inside your body. That's incredible. And to add to that, your body is comprised of thousands of different kinds of cells. Totaling more than a hundred trillion in number, your body makes millions of new cells every single second, and they all work together. How do the cells in your body know how to work together? How do they know what to do and where to go? Well, there's something inside the cell that directs them. It's called DNA. The six feet, imagine how thin it would have to be to be six feet long. The six feet of DNA coiled up inside every one of your body's 100 trillion cells contains a staggering amount of detailed, complex information and instruction that tells every cell in your body how to function, where to go, what to do, and so on. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, said this about DNA. He said, DNA is like a computer program, but far, far more advanced than any software we've ever created. Do you know how much intelligence went into Microsoft software? Think of all the people they've hired and spent years developing these programs and Bill Gates says, you know what though, the programming that's going on inside a single cell in the DNA in a human body, he said it's more complex than any software we've ever made. Where did the staggering amount of complex detailed information and instruction in a cell's DNA come from? Computer programs never write themselves. There's always a programmer involved. Even if you provide lots of time, a computer program can't write itself. And we think the same is true with the complex information stored in DNA. Where'd it come from? Non-directed natural causes? No, I don't think so. The British molecular biologist Francis Crick, one of the two scientists who discovered DNA, having observed the complexity of DNA, estimated that the odds that intelligent life exists on the Earth as the result of non-directed processes to be around 1 in 10 to the 2 billionth power. Now, someone here tonight might think, well, you know what? Yeah, but he's probably a Christian. He's probably just trying to scare us with these kind of numbers into believing in God. No, no. He died in 2004, an atheist. He wasn't a Christian. Not trying to convert you. He's dealing with the facts. And after a bunch of number crunching with DNA, he came to this conclusion. The chance that human life is here as a result of non-directed processes, it's like a one in 10 to the two billionth power chance. But he did not want to acknowledge that it must be God behind our existence. And so he came up with a theory. It's called directed panspermia. You can Google it sometime if you're interested. He came up with a theory that aliens, planted seeds that led to human life here on our planet. That's how we're here. It wasn't God, it was alien life from some faraway civilization that's behind it. But that doesn't end the conversation about God. Again, that just broadens the question. Because if that theory was true, the question is now, well, who created the aliens? that are so smart to build these kinds of spaceships to plant human seed life on our planet. That demands an explanation. So friend, you're free to believe that God, or I'm sorry, that life came about by non-directed natural causes. I'll tell you this though, I would not bet against God's existence. with overwhelming odds like this stacked up against me. Far wiser to conclude that God must exist. So number one, we have the cosmos. Number two, we have the conditions for life. Number three, we have the complexity of life. Let's consider a fourth reason we can be confident God exists, the canon of scripture. The Canon of Scripture. The word canon is a word that simply means standard. And so I'm referring to the standard collection of 66 books making up the Bible. Of course, over and over the authors of the Bible claim to be recording events and writing words God guided them to write. And as you know, the Bible reveals to us very plainly that God exists, and what he's like and what his will is for our lives. Now the skeptic says, well, great, but that doesn't mean that the Bible is true. And he's right. But don't misunderstand the Christian position. We're not asking people to take the Bible seriously just because we want them to, or just because the Bible says that it's God's word. We're willing to explain to them that they can have an intelligent faith. God doesn't require blind, foolish faith. But you could have an intelligent, informed faith. And we think there's good evidence that the Bible is worth our confidence, worthy of our faith. We want people to believe the Bible because of the wealth of good evidence that points in that direction. The kind of evidence that's demonstrated the Bible is trustworthy. I'm thinking here of its hundreds of fulfilled prophecies, thousands of archeological discoveries, It's incredible internal harmony. There's historical confirmation in the ancient records of the Assyrians and Babylonians and Romans. Different scientific discoveries that have validated details in the Bible. There was a discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. There's the writings of Flavius Josephus that confirm details in the New Testament. I've done a whole presentation on that kind of evidence here in the past. Your video lending library has some of my videos there. that can bring you up to speed. If you're unfamiliar with those kinds of evidences, there's definitely help out there for you. But this is, we believe, a fourth pool of evidence that points to God's existence, the canon of Scripture. All right, let's consider number five as we head down the homestretch here, Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus, a fifth reason we can be confident God exists. Many who doubt the existence of God have reassured themselves with this thought, if God wanted us to believe in him, he would just appear to us. Before I became a Christian at the age of 21, I was in my third year of college when God got a hold of my heart. But leading up to that, that is the thought I had. If God really wanted us to believe in Him, He would just appear to us. So I'm sympathetic toward that kind of thinking. But the Bible assures us that if God were to do that, if God was to appear to us in all his glory while we were in our sinful fallen condition, we would not live through the experience. But what if God was to veil his glory and appear to humanity in the form of a man, someone mankind could really relate with? What kind of a man would God be? Well, I think it's reasonable to assume that if God became a man, he would live a holy life. I think it's also reasonable to assume his words would be the most insightful, encouraging, piercing, impactful words ever spoken. And I think it's reasonable to expect that he would perform a variety of miracles, not only as a demonstration of his love, but to authenticate who he was. Hmm. Has anyone ever walked the earth who claimed to be God? Who lived an absolutely holy life, performed numerous miracles, and whose words were unarguably the most insightful, influential words ever spoken? Maybe Muhammad? No. He never even claimed to be God. And he never performed a single miracle. Muslims will affirm that. And he even struggled with sin, as the Hadith makes clear. The Hadith is second only to the Quran in its authority within the Islamic religion, and it contains the sayings and the teachings of Muhammad. And he acknowledges his own sinfulness in the Hadith in several places. What about Buddha? No, never claimed to be God, never did any miracles. In fact, he clearly denied being God. Of all the people who've ever lived, only Jesus Christ claimed to be God, lived a holy life, performed numerous miracles, and spoke words that have impacted the world like no one else's. When someone tells me if God really wanted us to believe in Him, He would just appear to us, I like to remind them, or point out to them, that this is something God has already done. The Bible tells us that Jesus was God in human flesh. And Jesus Himself made that clear in verses like John 5, verse 18, and John 8, verse 58. Well, the skeptics said, that doesn't mean that he was God. I mean, anybody could make the claim. The skeptics are right about that. Anyone could claim to be God, and Jesus realized that. So Jesus did not just claim to be God. He proved that he was God by doing things only God could do. could do. For example, opening the eyes of the blind with a touch. Healing the lame with a word. Raising the dead with a simple command. He walked on water. He lived a sinless life. He rose from the grave. Three days after he was put to death, and then 40 days later, he ascended visibly up into heaven from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. These are just a few of the miracles that the disciples recorded for us in the New Testament that helped substantiate Jesus's claims to deity. Well, Charlie, hold on a second here. That doesn't mean that what the disciples said about him was actually true. They might have just made up the whole story about Jesus. Well, we know that the disciples certainly did not invent Jesus. Why is that? Well, more than 30 non-biblical sources mention Jesus within 150 years of his life, including Roman historians like Cornelius Tacitus and Suetonius. Flavius Josephus mentions him. The Jewish Talmud mentions him. Jesus' disciples might have just made up the stories about his miracles, okay? So, like, maybe he was a real guy, but those other details about his miracles, those are probably made up. Well, I'm not sure what their motivation would have been for doing that. Liars lie to get out of trouble or to gain some type of advantage or benefit. But what the early Christians said and wrote about Jesus didn't get them out of trouble or result in any kind of benefit. The things they said and wrote about Jesus got them in trouble. What they received was rejection, persecution, torture, and martyrdom. Hardly a list of perks. That to me is pretty compelling evidence that these men were telling us the truth about Jesus. So in addition to the cosmos and the conditions for life and the complexity of life and the canon of scripture, we have God in the flesh, Jesus Christ. He is the fifth reason I believe we can be confident God exists. Friends, this evidence from cosmology, biology, philosophy, history, and the Bible is a reminder that there is a God. If you've placed your faith in the God of the Bible, you haven't followed cleverly devised fables and myths. No, there is good, intellectually satisfying reasons to believe God is actually there. And what good news this is. to know that God really is there. You're not the result of some gigantic cosmic accident. You're not some conglomeration of cells just wandering around without meaning on a random planet in a purposeless universe. You're not the result of millions of years of mutations and evolution no you are one of God's creations He knit you together the Bible says in your mother's womb the Bible says that you are fearfully and wonderfully made and that God has a purpose for your existence do you know that? God loves you and He created you so that you might have a close intimate personal relationship with Him not only in this life but throughout eternity. Do you have that kind of a relationship with God? You can because Jesus, God in the flesh, died on that cruel wooden Roman cross. The Bible says that because of his great love for you, he died there in your place to suffer the judgment you deserved. for your sins so that you could be forgiven so that you could be rescued from spending eternity in hell and be brought back into a right relationship with Him. Of course He rose from the grave three days later and today He offers all humanity the forgiveness of sins, peace with God and the free gift of everlasting life. What a gracious offer God has made humanity. We deserve judgment, condemnation and hell. I look around at what's going on in the world and even in my own heart and I just thank God I can't believe you're so merciful with us What an offer He's made us. How do you lay hold of that gift? Jesus said, whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. That's it. God's done all the work. He just wants you now to place your faith in Jesus and what He accomplished on the cross. And you can do that tonight. God's a prayer away. You can call out to Him tonight and say, God, forgive me for my sins. I trust in Jesus Christ to save me. Come into my life and be my Lord and Savior. The Bible says whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So if you've been running from God, stop running. Tonight's the night. Call out to the Lord. Receive His forgiveness and the free gift of everlasting life. For the rest of you who have already done that, as I know most of you have, I want to just close this session tonight with a word of encouragement to you. Let's not keep this God to ourselves. Our Creator is too good for us to keep to ourselves. You know, some of, I think, you know, we look at what's going on in our country today. and we think wow this country is going down the tubes morally spiritually but you know some of the blame I think needs to be laid at our feet as Christians because we are not sharing the gospel with people we are secret service Christians you know they don't even know that we are a Christian because we never tell them I was at the airport today in San Diego waiting for my flight and I was eavesdropping on an older lady seated across from me and she was letting her light shine. Not in an annoying way but just talking loud enough in her conversation so that people would hear her say, I'm so blessed. God is so good. The Lord has been so faithful to me. She's not even sharing the gospel with people, but she's just feeding off what people are talking about around her, and she's just throwing the Lord into the midst of the conversation. It was inspiring. I think there's room for all of us to probably step up our efforts at getting the gospel out and pointing people to our gracious, loving, merciful God. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you God, for this church, we're thankful for the religious freedom we enjoy in this country that we can even gather together here tonight and worship you and consider your word. We think of our brothers and sisters in the Middle East and elsewhere where they don't enjoy this kind of freedom. So Lord, we're thankful for that. We're thankful for this church. And Lord, we're thankful that you really are there. You're not a mythological, man-made deity. You are the true and the living God who can be known and called upon and who has proven to be such a faithful shepherd to your people all these years. God, we love you. We're so glad to know you. We do pray, God, that you would give us a renewed burden for those who are perishing. We pray that you'd help us to be on the lookout for opportunities to bring you up in conversations with people because, God, we want to get the gospel out. to this generation. Help us to do that, we pray. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.