I decided after some thought, some discussion, that most of you people in this room did not get to come to VBS. So we're going to go to VBS tonight. You know why? Because they only give us 30 minutes to teach in VBS, and I never get finished. So now I have a little bit more time. And these things aren't for kids. No, well, especially, because I have the teens, so they give me the teen adult book. And I could spend, like, you could do stuff for an eight-hour day, if you wanted to. But there's a lot of great stuff. And for those of you that have kids in VBS, I thought this would be a great advertisement for you, if you haven't. How many of you have been told by your kids what they learned? Probably not too many, oh good, there's a few, all right. But a lot of times they just forget it. Or sometimes you have to just quiz them more. So this I hope tonight will be beneficial to all of us as well as give you a taste of what we're trying to teach the young people. Now, I see a lot of folks here that actually were teaching at VBS, so we'll see how much you remember. My idea would be here to do the whole week in one fell swoop, and I know we won't do that. We're gonna take a little, in case you weren't aware of the theme, the theme is always different, but the message is always the same. Because what's very important for us, and what I would like you to get out of this tonight, is how we live and share the gospel that we believe with the world in which we live. The fancy word for that is what? Apologetics. And what does that word come from? Does anybody know where it comes from in the Bible? Did you know it's in the Bible? Only if you know Greek. Apologia. I don't know how you really say it. But does anybody know where that word is in your Bible? It's in 1 Peter 3, 5. I think it's 5, right? To be ready always to give an answer of the hope that lieth within you with meekness and fear. So that's a command to us. In case you haven't heard this before, apologetics is not apologizing for what you believe. It's giving an answer. And that's what it's about. And a lot of this is built around that very important objective for our Christian life. So we're gonna start where Answers in Genesis always starts. I just gave you a hint. In the beginning, go to Genesis chapter one. So this year in VBS, we learned about the seven Cs. And of course, it's a little play on the words. It was about taking a journey through history. And you can take a journey through your Bible and you'll take a journey through history. The important part of understanding what we're presenting to the world about us is that we don't have a faith that is out there. We don't have a faith that is ephemeral. Many of these other world religions, if you read what they say, it's not something you can sink your teeth into. Even when Confucius say, He just say, he doesn't really anchor it to anything. This book is a historical book. Our faith is based on historical facts. And so it's important for us to make that distinction right off the bat, because a lot of people who say they don't believe the Bible have never read it, or how many of you have talked to somebody and say, oh, I've read the Bible cover to cover? You've never talked, nobody ever said that to you? Raise your hand if someone's ever said that to you. Okay, here's my question. Did you believe them? Did you ever quiz them? It all depends on what you're looking for. And so many people read the Bible, I believe that. I had, I don't know what you call it. A cousin's, it was my mother's cousin's husband, how about that? Whatever you call that, I'm sure that somebody in this room knows those real designations. I never did, I call them all cousins. I was very surprised to find out when I went to his funeral that his sons both mentioned how their dad had read the Bible through every year. To my knowledge, he was not a Christian. Now, I could be wrong about that. I knew his sons better. To my experience, I don't believe they were Christians. But who knows? After all those years, he's reading historical facts that have an eternal meaning, an eternal consequence. So, of course, we start on the first C, letter C. Oh, history. And that's creation. If you take all of the different views that there can be of creation, how many are there? If you boil it all down. Two. Two. One comes from the Bible. and the other comes from somebody's head, right? And so, for many, many years in Western society, the Bible was the anchor point. Creation wasn't something that was questioned. It was assumed. In fact, if you read through most of your Bible, you'll see that. You know, there's no place in the Bible that gives a defense of the existence of God. There's no epistle that the Apostle Paul wrote to give you the foundations for why God exists. Why? Because it's an obvious thing to the human heart and mind, if we'll be honest. So it's assumed that you know that. It's not something you have to prove until we get to the 18th, 19th, 20th centuries, when people began to question why. Well, let's just review. And I'm not going to go all the details. I don't need to teach you about creation. You all know about it, right? Let's take a quiz. What did God create in the beginning, if you look at the first verse here? The heaven and the earth. What did he make on day one? What did he make on day two? Somebody tell me what the firmament is. Oh, somebody said the sky, somebody said the water. Some people think it's something that we don't even have anymore, but that theory got debunked even by the creationists. It used to be called the vapor canopy theory. That doesn't work anymore for them. God divided the waters from the waters, it says, right? And if you just go through this chapter, you'll see that, and I won't get into those details, but I'll let you think about that. So we have an atmosphere, we'll just call it that. Okay, what did he create on day three? Be careful. Come on, shout it louder, I need to hear you. Okay, he made the dry land appear. The land was already there, it just wasn't dry. So he made the dry land appear and the gathering together of the waters he called seas. You can just follow along. I'm just going to ask you these very important questions. And then what did he create on the land? No, still on day three. What did he create on the land? Plants. Remember this, there's going to be a quiz. Day four, what did he create? The celestial bodies, right? Sun, moon, and stars, we call it. Okay, day five. Okay, the things that live in fluid. Okay, right? Birds live in air, that's a fluid. Most of you don't know that, but it is. Air is fluid. You just can't see it, you can't swim in it. And the fish swim in the sea. Okay, day six. Okay? The land, animals, and man. Day seven. He rested. That means God went to sleep, right? What do you do when you rest? You stop doing what you're doing. And that's what God did. He stopped creating. And so those are the basics that we see in Genesis. It's very simple. All we have to do is read it. And we have it all here in chapter one. Now enter modern man, right? And now we have a new concept, you all know it, that everything began with a thing called a singularity. Now when I was a kid, and probably when most of you were kids, not all of you, we learned about the Big Bang. After I was saved, I started to say, by the way, even when I was lost, I didn't believe in evolution or the Big Bang. I still believe the Bible account. But the Big Bang leaves us with still a question, doesn't it? Because we began with, now it's called the singularity. And the singularity, it didn't bang anymore, it expanded. After I was saved, I said, you know what, I do believe in the Big Bang. I didn't ever think I did, but now I'd figured it out. God said, let there be light, and bang, there was light. So there was your Big Bang. But of course, then what happens? There's a singularity, and it expands. And the singularity expands until this, by the way, the singularity is full of matter and energy. Now, you know what the question is, right? So when someone's telling you this, you need to ask them the question, where'd that come from, right? Where did the singularity come from? And then everything expands, and then it cools, and you form stars, and then they cool farther, and they form planets, and then finally you get Earth, and meteors hit it, and seas are formed, It's sort of like someone one day said, I'm going to make up a story, right? But the really dangerous thing that has happened over the years is, how many of you have a Schofield Bible? OK, so you've all read on this first page the footnote, haven't you? What happened? Theologians decided that they had to reconcile with the quote-unquote scientists, didn't they? And they came up with different ways, and they tried to make the Bible fit quote-unquote science. We don't need to do that. If you wanted to find out the way a certain people lives, and you went with a tour guide And you asked him, hey, what are these people in this country about? What are they like? And the tour guide would tell you, well, they're basically fishermen, and they like seafood. And that's what their livelihood is about. And then you go and you interview some of the people there in the country. And you say, hey, I heard you like seafood. The guy says, no, I like steak. I raise cattle. Are you going to believe the tour guide or are you going to believe the guy that you talked to? Why? Because he's there. He lives there. Okay, so we just reviewed Genesis chapter one. Who was there? God. So who are you going to believe? God? Or are you going to believe the person who came up with the story? And in fact, the issue that we have is, this is just, you don't have to memorize this, but this is just a few examples of the differences between an evolutionary view, or the Big Bang, and the biblical view. So if someone's trying to put these things together, and I left you hanging with Dr. Schofield, but if you've read the note, you know that the other theory is the gap theory, where all of the stuff that evolution says happened, happened between Genesis 1, 1, and 1, 2. The answer to that is very simple. No, it doesn't say that at all. It's just not there. You don't need to make up something. The fact is, is that all of these basic contradictions that are on this chart, like the stars were formed before the Earth, which I just kind of summarized a little bit, right? You had to have the stars first as everything expanded and cooled down, because they're still hotter than the planets. But the stars weren't formed until day four, according to Genesis chapter one. Or the reptiles that evolved before the birds. Well, the reptiles live where? Reptiles are on the land. They're land animals, right? Unless they're an amphibian. I don't know. They're in between, right? But the birds were created on day five. Reptiles were created on day six. Okay, so you can't say you believe both is the point. You either believe one or the other. You either believe what God said or you believe what man says. Isn't there a website called that, by the way? God says, man says, something like that. And so we have to understand that we can't reconcile these things and we don't need to reconcile these things. But on top of that, we do have some very interesting facts that can help us understand the difference, because for evolution, and let's say just the Big Bang theory, because there are different aspects of it, different kinds of evolutionary theories, by the way, that contradict one another. But from the Big Bang point of view, you need millions and millions and billions of years, right? You always hear that. And if you assume that you have billions of years, the amount of salt in the ocean would be so great, it would choke you, right? But in fact, for the amount of salt that is actually in our oceans, and I'm sure there are assumptions that go along with all of this, just like anything else, but if you do the simple calculation, it supports an Earth that's thousands of years old, not millions of years old. There are other examples that have been made, in fact. Here is a bottle that is turning into a stalagmite just from the deposits that are falling on it where it is, I'm assuming in a cave somewhere. Did it take millions of years for this bottle to form the stalagmite? No, it happened in somebody's lifetime. And so there are a lot of things like that. The ocean floor is another interesting thing. This one I hadn't heard before. If, in fact, the Earth were millions of years old, there would be so much mud on the ocean floor that it would be basically covering the whole ocean. But that's not the case. There's not enough mud on the ocean floor to support millions of years. The last example that we have, in fact, is that the continents would be all worn down by now if they were millions of years old. These are just a few evidences. In the end, then, we have evidence of one thing or another. The evidences are not what we believe to prove the truth. We believe the truth, and we study the evidences against the truth. And where do we find the truth? Right here, in Genesis. And in the rest, Jesus said to the Father, sanctify them through thy word, thy word is truth, in John 17, 17. Why is this so important? Because a lot of people who want to try to reconcile these early chapters of Genesis with the world's idea, or some would even say, in Christendom, that this is all just allegory. It's not really historical. I'm not sure why they think that, because you just keep going into the history that comes after the first 11 chapters. And so it's very important for us to understand that we trust the King eternal. And when he gives us what happened, we can believe it, we can trust it, okay? And therefore, there's your memory verse for the week. So after creation, we come to the next thing. Just turn the page, chapter two. You all know what happened in chapter two. I'm sorry. I have to go to chapter three. Chapter two is just an expansion of what happened on the sixth day, by the way, right? Adam was created. God said he needs some animals. Then God said, no, he needs a wife. And he made her. And so all that happens in chapter two. At the end of chapter one, though, in the last verse of chapter one, God makes a very important statement. What is it? You're allowed to look. Everything was very good. Everything that God had made was very good. Then we get to Chapter 3, and you all know what happened in Chapter 3. Corruption happened in Chapter 3. Corruption came to the world. Through whom? Adam. Okay? A lot of people like to blame Eve, but Adam was responsible. Okay? We're not going to go through all of this, but this is basically the whole process of corruption. In chapter two, verse 16 and 17, God told Adam, don't eat. You always have to start this right, and I just started it wrong. God said, you can have anything in this garden. He gave it all. He said, you eat anything you want, except one thing, that tree, that tree over there, and even told him what it was. Did you ever think about that? He told him. That's the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Don't eat that, because when you eat that, you're going to die. We don't know how much Adam really understood die, but I bet you he knew that he shouldn't do that. But we know the whole story, and we won't go through the details, right? The serpent beguiled Eve. Eve got Adam to eat with her, and they brought the human race into corruption. Sin entered into the world. We call this, what's the theological term for what happened here? Starts with an F. The fall, right? This is the fall of man. Man fell into sin, and as a result of that, we all, descendants of Adam, are corrupt. We are so corrupt that God determines in Psalm 14, it says, they are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good, no not one. Does that sound familiar? Yes, the Apostle Paul quotes it in Romans chapter three. And so the Bible ties all together with this common truth. Corruption came. So you know, if we throw these chapters out, We don't really have a reason for the gospel. If we are not in trouble with God because of this corruption, there's no need for a savior. So you see where things go when you begin to throw out the historical facts. Then man becomes the measure of all things. Then we start saying, I worship me instead of God. So even though these things seem to be, to some people, very side issues, they're not. They're very central. I have a friend who, many years ago, we kind of grew up in the Lord a little bit, and God called him to Papua New Guinea. be a missionary to a tribe whose language nobody knew, and they had no alphabet, and they didn't have a written language. And thanks to modern technology at that time, which was, I don't know, 30 years ago or more, he was able even where he was to get some Internet connection. And every once in a while, I would get an email from him. And the thing that that was so new to me about that was the fact that he wanted to get the gospel to these people, these unreached people, and he had to learn their language first, then he had to learn how to make an alphabet for them, et cetera, but he had to learn their language to communicate, and he began teaching them, and you know where he started in teaching them the gospel? Genesis. And he said one of the biggest struggles he had, and I could feel it in his notes back, is not jumping to the end. But he said, I can't, because they won't understand. They need to understand. And I remember the one time he sent the email back saying, you can see their faces when it begins to sink in what happened at the fall. And they begin to understand they're in trouble. And he said, but I still can't give them the remedy yet. And it's very frustrating. But he had to go through that process until the people could understand their need, their spiritual need, before they could understand the greatness of the remedy. So all these things are very, very important for us, even if some people would say, that's a side issue. It's not. And of course, we know that sin got so bad that finally, God decided he had to start over again. And we're introduced to catastrophe. If you go to chapter six, Who was in the midst of the catastrophe? Noah, right? God told Noah to build Ann. There it is. You didn't know it looked like that, did you? Some people tell me if you go to Kentucky, you can also see what the ark looked like. Well, as best as somebody can do from that, it depends on whose cubit you believe, right? Some people say a cubit was about 20 inches. Depends on the length of the king's forearm, what the cubit was. But anyway, these are the approximate dimensions if we think about, in modern terms, in feet, which most of us are still closer to than cubits. Meters still get a little bit funny with me. I don't know about you. But feet we're pretty much used to. Noah, this guy, this one guy. In chapter six, at the beginning of chapter six, it wasn't too long ago, I think Pastor went through this also, this is just review, the wickedness of mankind and the earth in those days. But look at verse eight. Verse eight is key. Noah found what? Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, okay? I'll teach you a song like that one of these days. So we see here that God gave judgment to Adam, to Eve, to the serpent. He also announced back there in chapter three very enigmatically at that point, the remedy that would come, that would bruise the heel of the remedy and crush the head of the serpent. But in all of these cases, God not only brought judgment, he brought death to Adam and Eve, but he also announced a remedy with the wickedness of men in the earth, so that God was gonna destroy them all, he still saved eight people, Noah and his family. And this ark is a symbol of that. Peter tells us that as well. That the judgment of God is always accompanied by the grace of God. And these are themes that are common throughout our Bible. And so the catastrophe came. Noah had to build an ark. How did he do that? Here's some things for, just take a look real quickly in chapter four before we jump to chapter six. Look at that first reference, verse 17 of chapter four. What did Enoch do in chapter four, verse 17? He built a city. You know, that's the other problem with the evolutionary hypothesis being, trying to be coordinated with the Bible. If he was a caveman and couldn't really talk and just said, ugh, building a city would be a pretty difficult thing. These people weren't stupid. They didn't start out as an amoeba trying to get a brain. They were very intelligent, intelligent enough to build cities, to domesticate animals, to cultivate the arts, and we can talk about whether that was good or bad, metalworking, et cetera. Technology was there. So for God to tell Noah to build an ark wasn't that crazy of a thing. he would have had the ability to do so. Now he also gave him 120 years to do it. So that also helps as well. But again, what do we see? We see God announcing the judgment, bringing the judgment, and providing a way of escape, providing grace to those who believed him, who trusted him. And so the theme continues, doesn't it? And so, of course, he was able with his sons, four guys, to build that ark in 120 years. While he was preaching, Peter tells us, Noah was a preacher of righteousness, right? And so These people were intelligent people. They knew what to do and how to do it. A lot of people say, OK, well, that's a crazy story. If you go to Kennywood and you see that cartoon of an ark, you think that's just a crazy story. And that's a shame that it's depicted that way. But in fact, how many animals did he have to get in the ark? You've probably heard this before. The average size of all of the animals we can think of in the world. And we don't even know how many were there how many animals were in the world at that time. Remember, God made them according to their kinds, and he brought them into the ark according to their kinds. So God didn't have to bring in each one of these kind of dogs. He just needed to bring a dog. Okay? Et cetera. And so the average size they tell us, I've not done the calculations, but a lot of people have, is about the size of a sheep. And so if you calculate the amount of room there was in the ark, based on the dimensions that were given, and that average size, they could easily fit. In fact, many years ago, there was a book by Kelly Seagraves. I don't remember that name. He said, when he did the calculation, there was room for no one in his family on one floor, another floor for room for all the animals, and another floor for the badminton and the volleyball court. So there was a lot of room on that arc. So what happens? Chapter 6, 7, and 8, God destroys the earth. with a flood, a worldwide flood. Oh, by the way, the dinosaurs, I think Pastor just said that on Sunday, right? The dinosaurs are still with us. You don't have to bring a great big one. You can just bring a little one, they'll continue to grow till they die. And as we said, Noah didn't have to go fetch them. God brought them to him. And that's what it says in that reference right there in chapter seven. God brings the animals to him. When I was in college, I learned about the Epic of Gilgamesh. Anybody ever have to read the Epic of Gilgamesh? Yeah, yeah, I went to Pitt, they make you read it. My Jewish professor told us, that there couldn't have been a worldwide flood when we were reading the epic of Gilgamesh, which was the Babylonian account of a flood that basically said it was a local flood. But it is interesting that there are flood stories all over the world. But my professor said there couldn't have been a global flood or there would be a layer of silt all over the earth. People have to go as far as they can to somehow say the Bible's wrong. But in fact, you know, the Bible says how far above the mountains. Is it 25 cubits? I don't remember. Probably have the reference in there somewhere. But it was that far above the mountains. Could it do this? Water doesn't do this. It was a global flood, and there's evidence all over the world of a global flood. At the end of it all, when they get off the ark in chapter nine, God says, be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, and by the way, I will never destroy the whole earth with a flood again, and he gives the symbol of the rainbow of that covenant, right? So if God said that, and God gave that symbol, that he would never destroy the whole earth, Why would somebody want to say this was just a local flood? Because there have been local floods all over the earth. So if it was only a local flood, God broke his promise. So it was a global flood. Very simple. And there's all kinds of evidence of that. I've never been there except to the little corner of it. But someday, you're going to go see that. Do you really believe that that river carved that out? What I don't understand is, how did the river change its path so many times? to carve out the Grand Canyon. It's impossible. Did you know that things could fossilize and it doesn't take millions of years? It doesn't take millions of years. It takes a lot of pressure. You know how much pressure water makes? So all these fossils are formed by pressure. But of course, as we said before, this is God's estimation of mankind. And this is why he destroyed it all. So we have creation, we have corruption, catastrophe. And I wanted to get to this. How we doing? Good. This to me was, I think, a very important part of the curriculum this year because of what we have to face in our world today. And so for confusion, we're going to move to chapter 11. And who can tell me what happened in chapter 11? The Tower of Babel. What happened to the Tower of Babel? Is it still alive today? No, God didn't really. I have seen depictions of God coming down and destroying the tower, but it really doesn't say that, does it? How did God stop the work for the Tower of Babel? Confused their languages. All the earth, it says in verse 1 of chapter 11, was of one language and of one speech. And they journeyed from the east, in verse 2. Where in the east did they journey from? Where did these people come from? Who did these people come from? From Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, right? Wherever they landed on Mount Ararat, wherever you'd like to think that it is, you can ask all the people that keep going out there to find the ark. They continue to try to find it. But in the end, these people moved from that location And they began, but they moved together. They were all of one language. Can you imagine that? Everybody the same language? If you really think about that, that's strange to us, right? Because you don't have to go very far. I mean, you can even go, if you live up here in the north and you go down to the south, sometimes you can't understand what they're saying. We went to a little thing down south one time, and the guy was talking into a microphone like this, really, really close to it. And my wife said, what did he say? She couldn't understand a word that he was saying because he was speaking southern. So it's just different in dialects. Can you imagine different languages not occurring? We're just really used to it. But what happened? So they migrated. And then they settle in this plain, in verse 2, the plain of Shinar. And they dwelt there, and then they decided to build, in verse 3. Once again, what are they doing? They're making brick, and they're building a tower. And in verse 4, is the key. What was their purpose in building the tower in verse 4? Well, it says for the tower to reach to heaven, but what was their real purpose, if you keep reading? To make a name, to make us a name. What does that mean? Everybody wants to be famous. Look at our culture today. Our culture worships famous people, don't they? Don't we? The rich and the famous or something like that. Is that still a television show? I don't know. But being famous, it's what people want. Do we understand again the corruption in mankind? The desire to be known and loved by God is replaced by a desire to be famous in the eyes of other people. Sin just dresses itself up different ways. And it started back then. So, of course, in verses, what, seven and eight, six, seven, and eight, God scattered them by confusing their language. That's how he scattered them, right? But then how would they would have scattered? They scattered probably according to what language they got. And as they scattered in those groups, those groups then probably would have settled together within the same language, right? Wouldn't you rather be with somebody that you can communicate with? Of course. So that's what they did. And then, of course, what happens? In that group, the gene pool is smaller. And what happens when people reproduce in a smaller gene pool? They start to look more like each other, don't they? And so we have these different people groups. We have to learn this new term because what our world today would like us to believe is that we have different races. But in fact, what really happens is from that gene pool, there's just going to be more commonality within that group. And then the groups are scattered. And so, for example, we get different variations of eye shape depending on what group you came from. Now, everything is going to go back to Shem, Ham, or Japheth, right? But we still get these variations of what your eye shape might be. And then, of course, There are different shades. And that's all it is. It's this stuff called melanin. It's funny, by the way, there's a really good video from Answers in Genesis. I don't have it, let's see, I don't have a good thing to illustrate it. I'm gonna mess up Pastor's little thing here. He doesn't need a prescription now. Okay, and he holds up a piece of paper. And he says, now look at this and look at this. This is white. Is this white? No. We are all brown, just in case you didn't know. We are all brown, just different shades of brown. But there is one race, the human race. Why is this important to the gospel? Because Jesus died for the human race. The gospel message is for the one human race that needs it because of Adam. And we need to make sure we understand that. Or we'll lose the whole message. We'll lose the whole focus of what the truth of the Bible really is. We're only in Genesis 11, and we already understand why the end of the book is here, don't we? It's all one message. It all goes together. And so some people think that that tower looked like that. Why do people think the Tower of Babel looked like that? Maybe because of all of these examples all around the world of different people groups who have now been scattered for thousands of years. And yet they're still building things that look like that thing that they all got scattered away from. More evidence, isn't there? And as I mentioned before, you can go to different parts of the world and you see different legends of floods. Now, we have the right story here. because we got it from God's word. But the fact that this is just evidence again. People know about a flood. And it's very similar. Even that epic of Gilgamesh was very similar to the account of Noah. It just was local. Some of it's kind of funny, actually, by the way. But what we need to focus on is the messages for this one race. The devil would like to get all of these people groups fighting against each other, right? But Christ brings us all into one race that needs to be saved. And that's why, in the New Testament, we know that there is neither Greek nor Jew. We're all one in Christ Jesus. And he, again, is the remedy. How are we doing? Okay, we might get there. I'll get past it, all right. And let's talk about what really matters. So, do I have a review? Here. So we talked about creation. In creation, God said everything was good. It was corrupted by a man named Adam. The catastrophe shows us how bad sin really is. The confusion shows us, again, two very important aspects of the way God deals with men. He judged them, and in his judgment, he was merciful. Because if those people would have been allowed to keep doing what they had done before, it would be time for another catastrophe. And so God didn't want to judge the whole world again, and so he scattered them so that they couldn't make a name for themselves. Oftentimes we don't understand the mercy in God's judgment. We just look at the judgment and it looks horrible, and of course it is. But this is the message of the goodness and the severity of God that Paul talks about in Romans chapter two. And as we see him working, we understand God's justice, his mercy, and his sovereignty in all of these things. And in the end, where did he go? I want you to go to Galatians chapter four. We're gonna go to the New Testament now. We'll leave Genesis behind, but not for long. Galatians chapter four. Come on, turn in your Bibles. This is a new one, so I have to keep turning these skinny pages. Galatians chapter four. And let's take a look at, oh boy. I'm gonna jump into the context so it doesn't get lost. Verse four. And the apostle says to them, but when the fullness of the time was come, time, time, history, Talking about history again. When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, speaking of the virgin birth, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you're sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. The apostle refers to the historical fact of Jesus coming into the world. Now, you're not far away. Go to Colossians chapter one. We're just gonna skip around here in a few epistles. In Colossians chapter one, and we'll drop down to, don't you love these long Pauline sentences? Verse 14, Colossians 1, 14, speaking of, in 13, his dear son, Jesus, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, for by him, Jesus, were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist." By the way, if you take Colossians chapter 1, John chapter 1, Hebrews chapter 1, every one of them tells us that Jesus is the creator. He's the creative person in the Godhead. And here Once again, what does the apostle now tell us? That historical Jesus existed before he came into the world, didn't he? And he is the creator of all these things. We're back in Genesis again. This is one book. This is one message. And then, of course, Just go back to Philippians 2, right in between where you were, Philippians 2. And Paul describes the attitude of the Lord Jesus in Philippians 2, in verse 5. telling us that we ought to have the same attitude, same mind. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, because we just saw in Colossians that he was God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, But made himself of no reputation, most of you probably have in your column there, he emptied himself. This is that word kenosis. He emptied himself and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. What did we read in Galatians? Made of a woman. He became a man. I'll just tell you this one, we're running out of time. Hebrews tells us that it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might become a faithful high priest. Because the priest in the Old Testament was the representative between the people of Israel and the holy God who they needed atonement for. And so, for that high priest to represent the people, he had to be a people. So Jesus was made like unto his brethren, he became flesh. In John 1 it said, in the word, the logos, the eternal logos, was made what? Flesh, and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, God. We saw God, that's what he told Philip later. And so here, Paul makes it very clear, something had to happen in history for salvation to come to the human race. And so our next C is the important one, Christ. He's the center of all of this. From the beginning to the end of history, it's about him. It's, as some would say, his story. Okay, we're gonna do this. I want you to go to Hebrews chapter four, because the other important part about this human being that came into the world is not only who he is, but how he is. Hebrews chapter four. And these are just a couple of places. Verse 15. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. In other words, Jesus understands what it means to be human. But here's what's important. But was in all points tempted like as we are, yet what? Without sin. without sin, that's how he can be the remedy. Should he just be another sinful man, he can't save anybody. He is God who cannot sin. Become a man, right? All right, shall I give you another one? You're back there, go to 1 Peter 2. You're just a few pages away, 1 Peter 2. Verse 22, speaking of Christ in verse 21, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. Christ and the cross are the remedy. We're thankful for the cross, but there's the whole story in our Bible. It just doesn't have a C, so they didn't put it in here. So I'm gonna add it. That cross is just part one. But the power of his resurrection is what proves who he is, why he is, how he is, and his power to save. But the payment had to be made. Why? Because of Genesis chapter 3. It's all one book. It's all one message. And so you could go to the end of every one of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and read the account of Jesus' death on the cross, finishing the work that he said, and rising from the dead. and having eyewitnesses, eyewitnesses of his resurrection. Now we have human witnesses of that. To attest to the truth of what Jesus said he was going to do, die and rise again, so that everything that God, who has now become man, has said is true, Because way back in Genesis, what he said was also true. It's the whole truth, nothing but the truth, right? And so he died, he rose, and then he ascended into heaven, didn't he? He went back to where he left. In John 17, as he prays to the Father, he also says what? He says, restore me to the glory that I had with you before the world was. This is the one who paid this price. This is the God-man. Now I want you to go back to Philippians, chapter two, where we were. Philippians chapter 2, and we're going to pick it up where we left off. I'll just kind of overlap. Verse 7, but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Look at these steps. First, he humbles himself to become a man. Then he humbles himself and became obedient unto death. And then he humbles himself not only to become obedient unto death, but the death of the cross, the worst death that man has ever invented. Don't stop there, though. Because here's the good news. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This is the hope. So the remedy has been given. For us as one race, as one member of this one race, each one of us needs to believe this hope, to believe this truth, to believe these historical facts that have an eternal meaning and an eternal effect in saving the soul. And, of course, we go through these simple steps. They're not so simple. But they are. Who knows Romans 10.9? We won't turn there because most of you know it, right? That if thou shalt, what? Confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. What do you do when you confess? A lot of people think when you say confess that you're going to go into a little booth and tell somebody what you did. Do you need to tell God what you did wrong? No. He knows exactly what you did wrong. Confession doesn't mean to tell him what you did. Confession means to agree with him. Admit it. I'm a sinner. That's step one, right? And then, of course, you need to believe everything we just saw about Jesus because he's the remedy. Without the remedy, we all might as well just go home. But because of this remedy, we, in fact, can have our sins, those sins that we confess to him forgiven. And then, of course, receive him. For to as many as received him, there it is, to them gave he the power to become the sons of men. And ladies, it doesn't leave you out. That word isn't talking about gender. Sorry for the word. It's talking about position. It's talking about inheritance. We become the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, even to them that believe on his name. It's simply faith. And I have just a couple of minutes. And these are our Cs, just in case you forgot them, to get to this last one. I'll show them all to you. It's a glorious message to proclaim the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that's the gospel. And yet there's more, the consummation, the consummation hope. These are just a few references. We won't go through them all. But in every one of these places, we see the center of our Christian life is the fact that because all of these historical facts are true and we have believed in our heart that God has raised him from the dead and been saved, we have a hope that goes beyond this world. We have a hope that lasts forever. So let's just go to the first one and we'll finish. Titus chapter two. Let me hear those pages turning. Yeah, screens, tear down the screens and bring your Bibles back. Titus chapter two, verse 11. I think that's what I have up there, yeah. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. By the way, that's not in the original language a proof that everybody has heard the gospel. That's a proof that it's for all men, literally. It's for everybody, all men, everybody in that one race. What does it do? It teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, that we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world doing what? Looking for what? That blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us. Note how it's all tied back together. that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. A lot of other great things. And of course, we've got all the references in Revelation of the things that are hard for us even to fathom and what's it really describing. But it's glorious hope that we don't deserve that even though God has brought judgment and finally brought the judgment that the whole world deserves onto his only begotten son, who didn't deserve that judgment and therefore by his own power rose from the dead because he was perfect and sinless, is able to save us to the uttermost that come unto God by him. This glorious hope we have that we will be able to be with him for eternity. And even then, we probably won't have to be in groups anymore. We'll be one family of God. Let's pray. So Father, we thank you tonight that you've given us an unfathomable truth that we can never come to the bottom of all that you've done to save our souls, to make us right with you and to make us able to be with you forever and ever. Father, we ask that that truth would not only come to us as we are here in your word together, but all throughout our lives and through each day with all the things that may come and go I pray that you would be our constant, that we'll keep our focus on the fact of all that you've done to redeem your people and make us a light in this world for you. In Jesus' name, amen.