In Psalm 8, we read these words. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants, you've ordained praise because of your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands. You put everything under his feet, all flocks and herds and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, all that swim in the paths of the sea. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech. Night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth. Their words to the end of the world. Romans chapter one, ending in verse 18. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them, For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse. This is the word of the Lord. We live in an age that is astounding, so many amazing things happening. And in the midst of it, those with eyes to see are just astounded by the stupidity and the arrogance of people who are in rebellion against God. And yet this is not new. When Paul wrote to the believers in Rome, He described God's wrath being poured out as people were given over to pursue their sinful desires. He talked about how they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Thinking themselves wise, they became fools. What we're seeing today is not new. This is a manifestation of the human heart throughout human history. Our first parents lived in paradise. It was perfect. They had everything they needed. Couldn't ask for a better situation. God said you can eat of the fruit of any of the trees of the garden except this one. Don't eat the fruit of this tree. So what did we do? Pastor, don't say we, I wasn't there. Yes, you were. You were there in the loins of Adam. We are the descendants of that foolish couple who threw away the beauty of walking in obedience to God in order to do what looked good. Refusing to believe what God had said because the serpent said, you can't trust him. Don't believe his word. He doesn't have your best interest at heart. You eat the fruit of that tree, you'll be like him. Well, clearly, Pastor Wood is one of those really old people who believes the ancient myths. No, I don't believe ancient myths. I believe God. Let me tell you, the popular myth today is that science has done away with biblical faith. I mean, it was easy for primitive people who didn't understand science to believe these miraculous tales in the Bible. But now, thanks to the advances of science, we know that all that sort of thing is just superstitious make-believe. Actually, that's a lie. It's a popular myth, but it is an absolute lie. Science has not made it difficult for people to believe the Bible. False religion parading as science, pretending to be scientific, has undermined the faith of many people. But it's not empirical science. There are some wonderful scientists through the ages who have the humility to say, well, I'm not sure I understand that, but what I do know from science moves me to worship God. Real empirical science continues to confirm the scriptures. Real empirical science lines up with what God says. And yet many scientists continue to ignore any data that doesn't fit their religious myth. So when the evidence would lead them to a conclusion that is inconsistent with their worldview, they reject it. because they've got to hold on to a view that keeps God out of the equation. I would recommend to you a film series that I don't think is gripping in its presentation, but I do believe it is very valuable in its content. A young Harvard-trained PhD in biology by the name of Nathaniel Jensen works with Ken Ham at Answers in Genesis. And I'll just tell you, even though this is recorded and broadcast, I don't always enjoy Ken Ham, OK? I do think that the ARC is an amazing thing. I think it's absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend it. I'm so glad our student and staff got to go last year, or earlier this year, I should say. It's a wonderful thing. I took all the grandkids and my children there, everybody who I could get to go, which was almost everybody. And it's wonderful, so I'm not knocking Answers in Genesis or knocking Ken Ham, but I'm telling you, if you want some really impressive new research by a Harvard-trained PhD, Nathaniel Jensen has done a wonderful job, and a book should be coming out, I think this year, talking about human history. as we find it in the record of DNA. This guy in pursuing his studies in DNA has again and again and again and again and again and again found that the biblical timeline is actually lining up with the evidence in DNA. And the secular scientists, who are his colleagues, say, wow, well, that can't be right. And he says, what do you mean? And they say, well, the data is all correct, the math is right, but that would mean that people have been on the earth somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000 years. Well, I guess then it can't be true. Why can't it be true? Well, because that would totally mess up our timeline. You know whose timeline it wouldn't mess up? God's. Pastor, what are you saying? That if we're really Christians, we have to believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old? No. But if we're really Christians, we do have to believe that all of this took place in just 6,000 years. I believe you cannot believe that and go to heaven, okay? I'm not sure Ken Ham would agree with me, but I believe that that is not an essential of the Christian faith. But here's my question, why don't you believe that? Well, do you believe that the earth was created in six days, that all this stuff and all that? What's the problem with that timeline? Well, I can't understand. Let me just tell you something. I believe there are some wonderful Christians who do not take Genesis chapter one literally. And I don't quarrel with them. But as I've said many times, if the Bible said that God created the earth in six nanoseconds, that would not be hard for me to believe. You understand? The reason is because we're talking about God here. Now, if you told me you made everything in six million years, I wouldn't believe you. If you told me that you did it in six days, that wouldn't be harder. Because you can't do it. I can't do it. But God? We're talking about someone who knows everything. He doesn't know a lot. He knows everything. He is all knowing. We're talking about someone who isn't just powerful. We're talking about someone who has all power. He's almighty. We're talking about someone who doesn't just do a lot of things well. We're talking about someone who is perfect in all his ways. And so for God to speak the universe into being, create everything out of nothing, that is logically consistent. And it happens to be what he told us he did. Well, where did God come from? That is a perfectly appropriate question for a preschooler. Seriously. Because a preschooler looks around and sees that everything else came from somewhere. From tiny acorns, the mighty oak grows, okay? And people, mommy's going to have another baby. So where do babies come from? They come from mommy. I don't know how she does it, but it's amazing. It is perfectly logical for a little child to look around and say everything else has a start date. So where did God come from? I've been asked that question countless times. And when it comes from children, it never bothers me. When it comes from adults, I'm thinking, grow up. I'm gonna share with you just a simple concept here. Everything was created by God. Therefore, it is logical that everything has a start date. But it is not logical to then say, well, he must too. I heard someone describe it this way. That makes as much sense as a fish in a goldfish bowl looking out and thinking, how is it possible for that thing out there to exist? It has no gills. You understand? If you and everything in your aquarium has to breathe through gills, then it would only make sense that whatever lives outside the aquarium must also have gills to breathe. But that would be a false conclusion, wouldn't it? because the people outside the aquarium don't require gills to breathe. We're a different sort of creature. If God created everything, that means God is beyond this universe. He's bigger than this universe. The distance between Our ranch in Pigeon Forge is essentially nine miles, six miles down to the turn in Townsend. Therefore, it's further to Pigeon Forge than it is to Townsend. But that difference is, shall we say, negligible compared to the distance between the ranch and Milwaukee, right? The distance between the ranch and Milwaukee is negligible compared to the distance between the ranch and the moon. The distance to the moon is negligible compared to the distance between the ranch and Jupiter. Our solar system is tiny in terms of the size of the Milky Way. The Milky Way is tiny compared to the size of the universe. However vast the universe may be, it is finite. God is infinite. That's who we're talking about. Is anything too hard for me, God asks. You think I can't do this, God asks. So when we approach God's word as creatures that he has made and now as dearly loved children whom he has redeemed, ought we not to approach it with reverence and recognize that what he says we should believe. But folks, we will not always agree on the interpretation of scripture. But anybody who approaches the scripture and says, I just don't believe that, that person is operating as a fool. So, The fact that the universe exists is testimony to the fact that there is a God. Where did it come from? Well, we believe it just appeared. What? Well, we really don't know where it came from. Okay, so you don't have an explanation for the existence of the universe. Well, ultimately, no, no. Do you believe that matter is eternal? Well, no. No. The existence of the universe, from a logical, arguably even scientific standpoint, looking at what we do know about how things in the universe operate, the fact that there is a universe argues for the existence of God. The fact that there is life in the universe argues even more so for the existence of God. I watched a little video clip on YouTube of Elon Musk being asked by someone over in the Middle East whether or not he believed in alien life forms. And suffice it to say, he's a bright guy, very bright fellow. But he said, my question is, if they exist, why haven't they shown up? Okay. I mean, I know that there are people who, you know, bring forward evidence and photographs and that sort of thing. And he said, but have you looked at the evidence? He said, it's really hard to reach a conclusion that the aliens are trying to show themselves. He said, you know, I don't know. He said, I can't say conclusively, but he said, I don't see the evidence for it. Well, good for you. The sad thing is, he doesn't seem to recognize the existence of God. I don't care how smart you are, if you live like a fool, ignoring someone who has shown up who has revealed himself and who has proved who he is and that he keeps his promises by conquering death. And the historical evidence for that, by the way, is overwhelming. But if you look at just the fact that there is life on this planet, If you look at how extraordinary it is that this blue marble is ideal for life, and we really can't find other places. Musk is trying to find some other places that could support life. He thinks in order to save the species, we need to have someplace else we can go, and he's gonna build the rocket to take us there. I'll just tell you this, as sincere as he may be, Elon Musk is not the one who's going to save the species. Somebody already did that. Putting yourself in the place of God, always a bad move. Always a bad move. The fact that life exists, is testimony to the fact that there is a God, and not only that there is a God, but what he's like. Remember it said in those verses that we read that God's character and nature are revealed through the creation. What can we learn from him? Well, he is wise, he is mighty, He has organized things so magnificently so that even after sin entered the world, even after the fall, even in a place that is under a curse, things still work with amazing precision. The more you study science, the more impressive God is. It's like, wow, genius. I love watching the sunset just because it's pretty, okay? I thank God night after night. Look at that, thank you, Lord, that's beautiful. But let me tell you something. There are some people, some so-called scientists, whose response to the fact that there is life on Earth and that they really can't account for that the way they tried for a long time when I was growing up, the argument was that there were these, you know, basically just a soup that had some chemicals in it and a tide pool somewhere and lightning must have struck, that would provide the energy, and in that fortuitous moment, Those elements combined in such a way that they became a very primitive form of life. And gradually, over the eons of time, that primitive life form evolved into more complex forms of life. And now, today, you, my child, are the result, a piece of highly evolved slime. No wonder we have young people and adults who are in despair. Your life is an accident. It has no purpose, it has no meaning, it has no design. You just happened. It's an utter lie from the same fella who said, eat the fruit and you'll become like God. Some scientists, recognizing that that just didn't hold up, proposed another theory that's still out there. I've heard it within the last year from some people who claim to be scientific. As a matter of fact, it was also brought up in the conversation with Musk. We believe that life must have arrived on Earth from outer space. That's why there's life on this planet. Maybe a little bit of organic material rode in on an asteroid that hit somewhere and survived. Isn't that nice? Maybe it was planted here by aliens. Maybe that's it. Do you understand how utterly idiotic it is to propose such a solution? I can't figure out where life on Earth came from, so we'll just say that it came from another part of the universe. Okay, where did that life come from? I don't know. That's so dumb. And yet people with PhDs say, yes, we're going to have a conference and we believe, we have reason to believe that life came to this planet from outer space. Why, because scientifically you've traveled out there and found it elsewhere in the universe? Well, no, but we're working on it. Why do you want to believe that? Because we've got to keep God out of the equation. We've got to make it so that we've got another explanation. Their arguments don't hold up. Not only the existence of life is evidence that God is God, but the complexity of life. I can never remember if his name is Michael Behe or Beha. It's B-E-H-E. I've had him on my radio broadcast. He's a sharp guy, wonderful fellow. I believe his book was Darwin's Black Box. One of the illustrations he gave while a professor at Lehigh University was if I'm driving into campus and I see near the entrance a bed of flowers of various colors that spell out Lehi, would the thought occur to me, how lucky? Those plants sprang up colored in such a way as to spell out the name of the school that I'm driving into where I teach. I mean, would that ever occur to any person? I don't think even a crazy person would think that. When you see that, you know that was by design. Somebody planned that. Somebody worked on that. Somebody made that happen that way. God's signature is everywhere in creation, from the tiniest molecule to the most distant galaxy. Everything bears witness for those with eyes to see it. And it's not that hard to see. God says in his word, everybody knows it down deep. Down deep inside, everybody knows that there is a God. God made sure of it. Not only the complexity of life, but I would submit to you that within the study of biology, One of the most amazing, and it's all amazing. I love the stuff about plants, okay? But one of the most amazing areas of study in biology is human biology. The human body is stunning. Talk about a piece of engineering. Talk about creative genius. The way that God put our bodies together Your tongue, just the tongue. Just focus on the tongue. The different taste buds. The different taste buds that pick up different things. Amazing. Also comes in handy for speech. But the tongue is just astounding. What about the fact that you have nose hairs? Oh, I'm sorry. I try and keep them trimmed. No, I'm talking about, do you realize how wonderful it is that you have nose hairs? If you just had a clean tube going straight up into your head, you'd be sick a lot more. Because all those foreign things out there that you breathe in would not be stopped along the way. And mucus? Mucus can be your friend. Too much of it, and it's hard to breathe. But if we didn't have mucus, we'd be in real trouble. Again, we'd be sick a lot more. If you just study the different facets of the immune system, utterly amazing. Utterly amazing. T cells and the role that they play in immunity. The white blood cells. the red blood cells that bring oxygen all through your body without which you can't live. The way that they get the oxygen in the lungs, so cool. You study that and it's just like, wow, what a great setup. Everybody. is enjoying that even if you never learn anything about it. If you never have an idea what a lung is, you're still relying on your lungs. The heart constantly pumping, constantly, doesn't stop. Imagine if your heart said, look, I don't know about you, but I've had a long day, I'm gonna just lie down and quit overnight, okay? No, you're dead at that point. All of us have this heart that's always going, constantly going, constantly. That's amazing. How about the ear? When I was young, there was a guy who shared his testimony about how he was a doctor and he had gotten saved studying the ear. He was so astounded. But it's not just for hearing, it's for balance. The way the inner ear is designed, yeah, I used that word on purpose. It's designed and it works splendidly. And as he looked at that, he thought, there must be a God. And he began to search, and he heard the gospel, and he gave his life to Christ. Let me tell you something, the evidence in human biology, it's overwhelming. It moves God's people to worship. So, does everybody everywhere worship the Creator? No. Most people worship the creation. Most people worship some created thing. Well, then we just need to tell them. Well, we do need to tell them. but we need to know going in that they are already suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. Well, shame on them. Hey, don't forget, all of us were once in the same situation. All of us have a history of running from the truth instead of to it. All of us have a history of trying not to think about God, even when God is beckoning us to come and trust him. All of us have that in our story. I was interviewing a famous person from the world of athletics who was known as a Christian And I thought, well, that'll make a good interview. And I asked him, so how long have you been a Christian? And he said, oh, I've been a Christian all my life. I thought, well, we'll either edit that out or not use this testimony. We talked a little further and he talked about how his faith really became personal when he was a young man. Okay, we can use the testimony. but we're gonna edit out that part about I've been a Christian all my life, because let me tell you something, we haven't. I came to faith in Christ when I was a young child, but I remember vividly, I even went back and visited the house when I was taking care of my cousin in the Chicago area. I drove out to Villa Park and I went to 456 South Michigan And I looked at that house and I saw the window that was just open about this much the night I prayed to receive Christ. The semi-transparent curtains were blowing that night in the occasional breeze. And I was lying there in bed, almost asleep, suddenly startled awake by the realization that even though I believed in Jesus, I had never responded to him. I'd never acknowledged my sin and asked him to save me. I knew that's how you receive him, I just hadn't done it. And it occurred to me that if I had died that night, I would have gone to hell. And so I prayed. right there in the bed, nobody else in the room except God. And I asked him to save me and he did. And as I've said before, I know that he did because suddenly the room was filled with light and there was music and I felt chills all over. No, the room was still dark. There was no music. I didn't feel chills or a chill. But God promised, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And I believed his word. Folks, his word says that the creation tells everybody that he is real. the creation, the existence of life, the existence of the planet, the sun, the moon, the stars, all of that makes it so that, as we read in Romans 1, people are without excuse. It's not enough information for folks to get saved. It's enough information for people to know they need to be saved. Everybody everywhere on the planet knows that there's a God. Down deep, they know there's a God. When my son, at age 18, got to visit an area in Southeast Asia where believers had not been, He and the son of a missionary got to share the gospel with a man who lived in a remote village. And the man said through the interpreter, I always knew that there had to be a God who is bigger than the gods I serve, but I had no one to tell me. There are still people out there who need to know how to be saved. There's still people out there who need to know who God is, but nobody is going to be able to stand before God at the judgment and say, oh, I didn't know there was a God. Rejoice in the fact that God has opened our eyes, that you know the truth, and that you know Him. And then say, Lord, what would you have me do? Father, we come before you this day, not just wanting to believe you exist, everybody knows that, the demons believe and tremble. But Lord, we come to you because you are God, and because of the God you are, and we ask you to please have your way in our lives. Cleanse us from evil, fill us with your Spirit, Use us for your glory. And we ask this in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.