WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:04.360 Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church sermon podcast. 00:04.880 --> 00:08.260 We're so glad you're here, and we hope this message inspires you, 00:08.480 --> 00:12.040 builds your faith, and moves you toward a deep relationship with God. 00:12.580 --> 00:15.160 Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible 00:15.160 --> 00:17.840 and learn how you can apply it straight to your life. 00:18.220 --> 00:20.380 So welcome and enjoy the message. 00:21.220 --> 00:27.180 If you have your Bible, please open it with me to Genesis chapter 1, verse number 1, 00:27.800 --> 00:34.120 and you don't have to turn far to find it. It's the very first verse of the first chapter of the 00:34.120 --> 00:40.420 first book of the Bible. We're starting a brand new series in Genesis today that I'm calling 00:40.420 --> 00:46.960 How It All Began. And I couldn't be more excited about what we're all going to learn 00:46.960 --> 00:53.440 together this fall, both on Sunday mornings and on Wednesday nights, because on Sunday mornings, 00:53.440 --> 00:59.080 we're going to be in the book of Genesis learning how it all began. And on Wednesday nights, though, 00:59.120 --> 01:06.300 we're going to be in the book of Revelation learning about how it all ends, or at least how the world as we know it 01:06.300 --> 01:14.300 ends. Now, in order to make room on Wednesday evenings for all the people we're anticipating, 01:14.440 --> 01:20.640 we're moving our Wednesday night service into our worship center right here in our Fruitvale campus. 01:20.640 --> 01:26.580 So, I think the Lord's just going to bless us immensely this fall as we look from beginning 01:26.580 --> 01:33.740 to end at God's Word. Now, the title of this morning's message is taken right from the first 01:33.740 --> 01:43.500 four words of the Bible, In the Beginning, God. The book of Genesis gets its name from the very 01:43.500 --> 01:47.120 first word of the Bible, the first word of Genesis, 01:47.360 --> 01:53.620 which means beginning or means origin. And that's exactly what the book of Genesis describes. It 01:53.620 --> 02:00.680 describes the beginning, how it all began. Now, the book is typically broken up into two sections, 02:00.860 --> 02:06.960 chapters 1 through 11, give a general history of the world, which scholars have called 02:06.960 --> 02:14.700 primeval history. Chapters 12 through 50 give a specific history of God's people, and scholars 02:14.700 --> 02:20.600 have called that patriarchal history. For our series this fall, we're going to focus in on 02:20.600 --> 02:28.840 chapters 1 through 11, how it all began. We're going to see the origins of the universe, 02:28.980 --> 02:36.900 the origin of mankind, of marriage, of family, the origins of sin, the origins of pain, and the 02:36.900 --> 02:47.080 origin of death, of sacrifice, of government, of nations, and so much more. So let's begin Genesis chapter 1, verse number 1. It says, 02:47.520 --> 02:56.000 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now, originally I planned to cover verses 02:56.000 --> 03:01.600 1 and 2 in this first message, but I wrote the message this week and I realized we're not going 03:01.600 --> 03:05.920 to make it out of verse 1 today, which is perhaps the most 03:05.920 --> 03:13.240 profound and yet simple statement in all the Bible and all of literature. In the beginning, 03:13.620 --> 03:19.480 God created the heavens and the earth. Now, that verse, it assumes there was a beginning point. 03:19.980 --> 03:27.220 And the large majority of civilization throughout history has also assumed and believed that the universe had a beginning. 03:27.340 --> 03:33.160 Some over the last couple hundred years have speculated that perhaps the universe is eternal, 03:33.280 --> 03:39.000 but that's no longer really a viable position, both for theological reasons, but also scientific reasons. 03:39.300 --> 03:47.260 Because physicists have now discovered that the universe is rapidly expanding, which means it had a 03:47.260 --> 03:54.380 beginning point. It started from something. It began. So the question is, how did it start? 03:54.600 --> 04:01.000 How did it begin? Well, God's Word describes for us the most logical answer available, 04:01.000 --> 04:07.600 that a supernatural being who finds his existence outside of natural law 04:07.600 --> 04:13.700 created it, started it. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 04:14.300 --> 04:18.880 Herbert Spencer was an evolutionary scientist who was a contemporary of Charles Darwin. 04:19.500 --> 04:23.640 In fact, he's the guy who came up with the phrase survival of the fittest. Spencer 04:23.640 --> 04:26.180 identified five fundamental 04:26.180 --> 04:35.160 scientific categories that encompass all of reality. Time, force, action, space, and matter. 04:35.820 --> 04:42.080 And I think Herbert Spencer was on to something. He was just a few thousand years behind because 04:42.080 --> 04:45.440 the very first verse of the Bible identifies all five 04:45.440 --> 04:53.500 of those categories of reality. In the beginning, that's time. God, that's force. Created, that's 04:53.500 --> 05:01.460 action. The heavens, that's space. And the earth, that's matter. You see, the world is made up of 05:01.460 --> 05:07.020 such incredible complexity that the most logical conclusion that there is 05:07.020 --> 05:14.360 is that it had a designer. In Scripture, it reveals for us who exactly that designer is. 05:14.880 --> 05:21.540 It's Yahweh God. Now, there's a lot that we learn from the nature of God in this one verse. You're 05:21.540 --> 05:30.320 going to have to stay with me because that's what we're going to focus on, the nature of God. Here's the first thing we learn about Him. God is. The Bible begins with 05:30.320 --> 05:35.800 a basic human assumption that God is, that God exists. Now, if we were writing the Bible, I think 05:35.800 --> 05:41.380 we might be tempted to begin with some philosophical arguments for the existence of God, which there are 05:41.380 --> 05:46.420 many. But instead, God simply speaks to those who are operating with 05:46.420 --> 05:52.840 intellectual honesty. Because Psalm chapter 14, verse number one says, the fool has said in his 05:52.840 --> 05:58.680 heart, there is no God. Notice the fool doesn't say in his mind there's no God. He says in his 05:58.680 --> 06:06.060 heart that there's no God. According to God's word, atheists are not atheists because of rational thought. 06:06.880 --> 06:10.260 They are atheists because of a heart problem, a sin problem. 06:10.380 --> 06:14.280 Deep down, they don't want to believe. 06:14.740 --> 06:16.520 Romans chapter 1 verse 18 says, 06:16.520 --> 06:46.060 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth. God says, I've shown myself 06:46.060 --> 06:52.820 to every human being. Deep down, they all know I exist, but because of their sin, they're suppressing 06:52.820 --> 07:01.280 and pushing away that which they know, and they've rejected me. So, knowing that, God does not begin 07:01.280 --> 07:07.580 with a bunch of philosophical arguments for his existence, because existence is already clearly known by people. 07:08.680 --> 07:13.800 So that even a young child intuitively knows that God is, God exists. 07:14.460 --> 07:21.360 You see, it takes a lot of indoctrination and suppressing of truth to convince a person to be an atheist. 07:22.160 --> 07:24.780 So the first truth that we see is that God is. 07:24.780 --> 07:26.840 Now, we also see, see is that God is. Now we also see though that God 07:26.840 --> 07:33.820 is eternal. In the beginning, God created. Like I said earlier, the world had a beginning. 07:34.400 --> 07:40.400 And this verse shows us that God is outside of that beginning point because he created it. 07:41.080 --> 07:47.860 You see, physicists have discovered what Genesis 1 verse 1 teaches, that time, space, 07:47.860 --> 07:54.980 and matter had a beginning point, which means that there was a time when time was not. Now, 07:55.480 --> 08:00.420 that sentence doesn't even make sense. It's self-refuting, but we're limited, aren't we, 08:00.440 --> 08:10.840 in our language, limited in our understanding of eternity. I can sort of get my mind around forever in the future, but forever in the past is very difficult to grasp. Why? 08:11.140 --> 08:16.900 Because we're temporal beings. We're temporal beings. And future and past are actual temporal 08:16.900 --> 08:23.040 language. They're not eternity language. Everything we know about life and the world 08:23.040 --> 08:25.000 involves time. 08:28.060 --> 08:33.960 And we don't possess the faculties to fully understand. We certainly don't possess the language to articulate eternity without using temporal language. 08:34.580 --> 08:39.980 But the scriptures teach that God is not bound by time like we are. 08:40.180 --> 08:43.200 He's outside of time because he started time. 08:43.740 --> 08:48.180 When Moses asked God, he said, what if Pharaoh asked me who sent me? 08:48.380 --> 08:49.740 Who do I say sent me? 08:50.220 --> 08:53.340 And God says, I am who I am. 08:53.980 --> 08:55.960 I am has sent you. 08:56.020 --> 08:58.740 In other words, the self-existent one has sent you. 08:58.920 --> 09:01.780 The eternal being of existence has sent you. 09:02.680 --> 09:07.480 Now, just because God is not bound by time like we are doesn't mean that 09:07.480 --> 09:13.920 He doesn't operate within time, because He does. God is infinitely involved in the world. He's 09:13.920 --> 09:25.120 infinitely involved in each one of our lives. And because He's also eternal, He has the ability to be involved in time, 09:25.120 --> 09:28.340 but also see the end from the beginning 09:28.340 --> 09:32.920 so that he's fully aware of all points of time simultaneously. 09:34.020 --> 09:38.880 Now, my dad used to compare this to someone watching a parade from above, 09:39.140 --> 09:42.180 that they're able to see the beginning of the parade happening, 09:42.180 --> 09:50.180 the middle of the parade, and the end of the parade simultaneously. God is able to see it all simultaneously. He is eternal. Now, we also 09:50.180 --> 09:59.600 learned that God created everything from nothing. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the 09:59.600 --> 10:05.980 earth. Now, the heavens, the earth, in this verse, is another way of saying the totality of the universe. 10:07.060 --> 10:12.160 You see, every one of us, every person at some point has to answer the question, 10:13.080 --> 10:16.420 why is there something rather than nothing? 10:17.540 --> 10:22.200 Some atheists, really smart ones, by the way, foolish ones, but really smart, 10:22.640 --> 10:25.280 say that the universe just sort of spontaneously 10:25.280 --> 10:28.840 created itself. Now, they probably use a little different language than that, but that's what 10:28.840 --> 10:37.200 they're describing. That no one plus nothing somehow equals everything. That's what some of 10:37.200 --> 10:46.240 the smartest minds in our world believe. That the universe expanded from some very hot, dense, particle-sized state 10:46.240 --> 10:52.000 that spontaneously exploded or expanded to become everything that we now know. 10:52.720 --> 10:55.780 Now, some have called that the Big Bang Theory. 10:56.320 --> 10:59.140 And I actually believe in a version of the Big Bang. 10:59.680 --> 11:01.440 God spoke and bang! 11:01.840 --> 11:03.420 It all happened, right? 11:03.420 --> 11:06.480 It was created in a moment by his word. 11:07.160 --> 11:08.960 You see, everything was made by God. 11:09.120 --> 11:13.020 And the scriptures teach that God made everything out of nothing. 11:13.900 --> 11:16.500 Now the Hebrew word here for created is bara. 11:17.160 --> 11:22.680 It's used all throughout the scriptures, but it's only used in reference to God. 11:22.940 --> 11:27.700 There's another word that's translated as create or to make 11:27.700 --> 11:30.080 that's used in reference to human beings. 11:30.080 --> 11:34.420 But bara is uniquely used in reference to the creation 11:34.420 --> 11:37.380 that only God is capable of. 11:38.000 --> 11:41.900 You see, God's got the ability to create ex nilo. 11:42.180 --> 11:44.640 That's Latin for out of nothing. 11:48.260 --> 11:54.100 Anything that we create or that we make is made from what God has already made. But God's creation is different. It doesn't require 11:54.100 --> 12:00.540 any pre-existing material. He simply speaks and nothing becomes everything by his will. 12:01.320 --> 12:06.520 Now there's another truth that we learn. God is distinct from and independent of 12:06.520 --> 12:13.160 creation. Very important to understand. Many religions, they confuse creation and God. 12:13.860 --> 12:20.580 Animism, perhaps the most popular religion in the world, believes that there's a God or a spirit 12:20.580 --> 12:26.640 connected to everything. So they'll worship the sun or they'll worship the moon or they'll worship the stars or they'll worship the river 12:26.640 --> 12:28.840 or the rock that their home is by. 12:30.000 --> 12:33.980 Pantheism says that everything is God. 12:34.680 --> 12:36.680 And there's aspects of that kind of thinking 12:36.680 --> 12:39.640 in new age spirituality that's even popular today, 12:39.640 --> 12:41.640 that all of reality is interconnected 12:42.240 --> 12:44.420 and ultimately part of the divine. 12:45.420 --> 12:46.579 No, scripture is very clear. that all of reality is interconnected and ultimately part of the divine. No. 12:46.580 --> 12:48.060 Scripture is very clear. 12:48.400 --> 12:52.120 God is distinct from that which he made, creation. 12:52.720 --> 12:56.680 It's very, very important that as Christians that we understand this 12:56.680 --> 13:00.200 because failure to do so is idolatry. 13:01.240 --> 13:08.500 Now, creation can often prompt us to worship, can it? But creation should never be the object 13:08.500 --> 13:15.040 of our worship. Our family loves, every time we get a chance to get away up into the mountains, 13:15.040 --> 13:21.580 and I love early morning walks up in the mountains or in the evening, and just to take in 13:21.580 --> 13:26.480 God's magnificent creation, and it causes me to worship him. 13:26.680 --> 13:28.260 Or sometimes late at night, 13:28.320 --> 13:31.080 I'll lay down on the ground underneath the stars. 13:31.260 --> 13:33.720 It feels like I just reach up and touch them, 13:33.940 --> 13:38.260 and I'm in awe of God who made the stars. 13:38.900 --> 13:41.900 Now, if I'm in awe of the stars 13:41.900 --> 13:44.760 in such a way that I glorify the stars in my heart 13:44.760 --> 13:50.580 or with my wife or with my kids without giving God the glory for making them, I'm flirting with idolatry. 13:51.300 --> 13:56.060 Because the stars are not worthy of my glory and my worship. 13:56.240 --> 13:57.139 Only God is. 13:57.140 --> 13:58.280 God made the stars. 13:58.420 --> 13:59.580 They were created by him. 13:59.580 --> 14:02.820 They're distinct from him, but they also point to him. 14:03.860 --> 14:09.000 You see, creation streams out the existence of God. 14:09.800 --> 14:17.020 When primitive drawings are found occasionally in some obscure cave, there's an immediate 14:17.020 --> 14:26.640 conclusion by everyone that some intelligent life has been in that cave before and drawn them. No one concludes that those 14:26.640 --> 14:35.660 primitive drawings showed up by random chance. And yet, we are so much more complex than a stick 14:35.660 --> 14:41.380 figure. The world is so much more complex than a stick figure drawn on a cave. The logical 14:41.380 --> 14:47.440 conclusion is an intelligent life of being created us. Our very existence that 14:47.440 --> 14:55.840 we are screams out the existence of God that we have a maker. You see, God is the uncaused cause 14:55.840 --> 15:07.980 of all that there is. He's the self-existent one that's in need of nothing. Remember, God said, I am who I am. Now, creation on the other, you and I 15:07.980 --> 15:14.040 were the opposite. God is not dependent on anything. We are completely dependent upon Him. 15:14.740 --> 15:20.660 We can't do anything apart from Him. We're dependent on Him to breathe air in our lungs, 15:20.660 --> 15:26.480 to have water to drink, to have food to eat. In fact, Colossians chapter 1 says that 15:26.480 --> 15:33.860 in him all things consist. Literally, in him all things are held together. The universe itself 15:33.860 --> 15:41.120 would fold up on itself and explode perhaps if it were not for the present active hand of God 15:41.120 --> 15:48.500 holding it together by his omnipotent will. God is very different than creation. He's 15:48.500 --> 15:54.120 unique. He's not dependent on anyone or anything else for his existence. He's self-existent. Now, 15:54.260 --> 16:00.560 there's another truth about God that we glean from here, and that begins surfacing in this verse, 16:00.660 --> 16:06.400 and that is that God is infinite, meaning God's attributes are limitless, so that 16:06.400 --> 16:12.180 his power that we see on display in Genesis chapter 1 and through the world when he creates, 16:13.180 --> 16:18.800 his power is actually infinite power. He's all-powerful. God spoke and nothing became 16:18.800 --> 16:27.240 everything. God being infinite means that his very being and the attributes he has are unlimited. 16:27.720 --> 16:30.960 He's unlimited in all of his perfections. 16:31.220 --> 16:35.200 So that not only is God holy, he's infinitely holy. 16:35.740 --> 16:39.520 Not only is God loving, he's infinitely loving. 16:40.380 --> 16:44.320 The scriptures also teach that God's knowledge is infinite. 16:44.320 --> 16:47.080 Look at Psalm 147, verse number five. 16:47.180 --> 16:49.520 It says, great is our Lord and mighty in power. 16:49.980 --> 16:52.020 His understanding is what? 16:52.800 --> 16:54.299 Infinite. 16:54.300 --> 16:56.960 God's knowledge, it knows no bounds. 16:57.220 --> 16:58.299 He's omniscient. 16:58.300 --> 17:01.280 He knows all things, including even the future. 17:02.220 --> 17:06.360 That's how we know that we win and can count on his promises. He already knows 17:06.360 --> 17:12.200 how it ends. Now, I also happen to believe that perhaps not only does God know what will happen, 17:12.200 --> 17:16.680 but he knows all possible future outcomes based on decisions that we make. 17:17.140 --> 17:27.000 And he's sovereignly guiding history towards his intended end. God's presence is also infinite. Did you know that? He's omnipresent. 17:27.360 --> 17:32.540 He's present everywhere at once. Look at Psalm chapter 139, verse 7. Where can I go from your 17:32.540 --> 17:37.760 spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I send you to heaven, you're there. If I make 17:37.760 --> 17:48.160 my bed in hell, behold, you are there. That means that God is not confined to a particular place or time. Now, another thought I 17:48.160 --> 17:53.820 had this week that I found interesting is that God's wealth is infinite, right? Think about it. 17:53.940 --> 18:08.700 As the creator of everything, all wealth comes from him. And any potential wealth that he desires, he makes in a moment of his will. And he himself is ultimate wealth. We 18:08.700 --> 18:14.900 could go on and on about God is infinite. We're finite. All creation, the universe is finite. 18:15.820 --> 18:21.400 God, according to Genesis chapter 1, verse number 1, we see a glimpse of it that he is infinite. 18:21.940 --> 18:25.820 Now, another thing that we learn is that God is actually the main 18:25.820 --> 18:32.280 character in the Bible, and he's the main character throughout history. Now, when some people hear the 18:32.280 --> 18:36.800 word character, their mind goes to like make-believe character, but that's not at all what I mean. 18:37.340 --> 18:47.600 I mean that God is the central figure of Scripture and the central figure of history. We see this in the very first sentence 18:47.600 --> 18:55.380 of the Bible. The word Elohim is the Hebrew word used here for God, and it's the subject of the 18:55.380 --> 19:08.320 very first verb in the Bible. Elohim bara, God created. And did you know that that grammatical construction dominates the rest of 19:08.320 --> 19:13.880 Scripture and that God is the subject of more verbs in the Bible than any other character there 19:13.880 --> 19:22.380 is? It's not even close. The author of Genesis, Moses, by inspiration of the Spirit, in the very 19:22.380 --> 19:26.420 first sentence, he introduces us to the main character, the central figure of the Spirit. In the very first sentence, He introduces us to the main character, 19:26.880 --> 19:32.400 the central figure of the Bible, and the primary being of reality from which everything else that 19:32.400 --> 19:40.080 exists finds its reality in. In the beginning, God. He's the creator of the world. He's the 19:40.080 --> 19:46.320 writer of history. You see, history comes from Him, it points to him, and it culminates in him. 19:47.280 --> 19:55.320 Last Sunday, Pastor Matthew, Sunday evening, Pastor Matthew said that we, in Satan's map, 19:55.320 --> 20:00.720 we are the center of the universe. Isn't that so true? I mean, most of our problems in life, 20:00.820 --> 20:05.320 they arise when we start thinking the world is revolving around us. 20:05.400 --> 20:11.800 But in God's map, we're not the center of the universe. He is. He's the center. And here's 20:11.800 --> 20:20.880 the story of the Bible. God created everything. We ruined everything. And God is fixing it. 20:22.180 --> 20:28.000 You see, while God is transcendent and eternal, outside of time, he's also imminent, 20:28.700 --> 20:34.780 and he's near. In fact, the Bible says God is near to the brokenhearted. He's actively involved in 20:34.780 --> 20:39.480 our life. It's not like how the deists think that somehow God made the world, and he wound it up 20:39.480 --> 20:47.060 like a clock, and he sits idly by, helplessly watching it tick away. No, God is intimately and sovereignly involved in the world. 20:47.260 --> 20:51.640 He's intimately and sovereignly involved in each and every one of our lives. 20:52.220 --> 20:54.180 He's the main figure of history. 20:54.180 --> 20:59.140 In fact, it has been said that history is his story. 21:00.220 --> 21:08.820 Now, the last thing that I want to point out is the most comforting, perhaps, of all, and that is that God is personal. 21:10.380 --> 21:13.880 Aren't you glad that God is personal? 21:14.300 --> 21:20.740 We see this in the beginning of chapter four, or chapter one, rather, and all throughout the Bible that God speaks. 21:21.740 --> 21:24.760 He communicates to his creation. 21:28.840 --> 21:37.160 He understands. He expresses emotion. God is not some force like Star Wars. He's personal. In fact, our personhood is rooted in him and his nature. 21:37.160 --> 21:42.000 We're going to see this later in chapter one, that we as human beings have been created in the 21:42.000 --> 21:45.000 image of God. So that I'm a person, why? 21:47.780 --> 21:51.439 Because God's a person, and I've been made to be like him. 21:51.440 --> 21:54.759 And because God is personal, get this, 21:54.760 --> 21:56.140 because he's personal, that means he is relational. 21:59.900 --> 22:05.619 That he wants a relationship with us. 22:05.620 --> 22:07.979 Isn't that the greatest thought that we could ever have? 22:07.980 --> 22:09.199 That God desires a relationship with us. 22:09.200 --> 22:14.479 That's how much he loves us. 22:14.480 --> 22:16.900 Now, that fact makes him different than all other religions of antiquity whose gods didn't care about people. 22:16.980 --> 22:19.460 But I'm telling you, the God of reality cares. 22:20.380 --> 22:23.080 Now, you may not feel like he cares from time. 22:23.080 --> 22:24.480 You might be going through something there. 22:24.560 --> 22:26.460 You feel like, man, does God really care? 22:26.600 --> 22:29.119 He cares. 22:29.120 --> 22:33.600 You're going through what you're going through as a part of this broken world that we messed up. 22:33.680 --> 22:34.680 God is fixing it. 22:34.860 --> 22:36.860 He will ultimately fix it in the end. 22:37.300 --> 22:40.700 He cares and loves you in this moment that you're in. 22:41.820 --> 22:44.760 Now the Bible teaches that God is Trinity. 22:48.080 --> 22:56.600 Three divine persons in one divine essence. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, personal and relational from eternity past. Did you know 22:56.600 --> 23:04.220 that all three persons of the triune God were involved within creation? God the Father decreed 23:04.220 --> 23:05.940 it. We see in verse number two that 23:05.940 --> 23:11.220 God the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters, and later in chapter one that He breathed the Spirit 23:11.220 --> 23:17.900 of life into Adam. And we also know that God the Son, Jesus Christ, was the agent of creation. Look 23:17.900 --> 23:36.620 at Colossians chapter one, verse 16. For by Him, that's speaking of Jesus, all things were created that are in heaven and they're on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him. 23:37.280 --> 23:44.940 Jesus, the God man, 100% God, 100% man, he created everything that is out of nothing. 23:46.720 --> 23:48.460 But that's not all. 23:53.460 --> 23:59.319 When we sinned and rebelled against him, and we're going to see this in Genesis chapter 3, 23:59.320 --> 24:07.400 the beginning point of sin and death, all of that. When we did that and we, everything broke when that happened, including our relationship with God. It was severed. It was broken. And so Jesus, God's son, 24:07.840 --> 24:14.420 set out on a mission to fix it. God sent his only son, Jesus, for God so loved the world 24:14.420 --> 24:19.240 that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, 24:19.240 --> 24:27.800 but have everlasting life. Jesus came willingly as a man, as a little babe born in Bethlehem, and he died a 24:27.800 --> 24:34.640 gruesome death on the cross for our sins. Now, why would he do that? Oh, it's because he loved us, 24:34.640 --> 24:45.660 and he loves us. He came to rescue us, to redeem us, to restore us, and to recreate us. Did you know that? 24:46.260 --> 24:49.920 Psalm chapter 51, David says in his prayer, 24:49.920 --> 24:53.940 he says, create in me a clean heart, O God, 24:54.000 --> 24:56.900 and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 24:56.960 --> 25:00.120 David uses the same exact word that Moses uses 25:00.120 --> 25:02.920 in Genesis chapter one, verse number one, bara. 25:04.160 --> 25:07.680 Create in me a clean heart. Oh God, he's saying, 25:07.760 --> 25:12.760 God, I don't need to turn over a new leaf. I don't need to do better. I don't need to try harder. 25:12.960 --> 25:19.520 What I need is for you to provide for me the only thing that you are able to do. You're the only one 25:19.520 --> 25:26.300 who can bara. You're the only one who can create a new and a fresh, clean heart in me. 25:26.300 --> 25:31.760 And did you know that God offers to do the same thing in your life today? 25:32.340 --> 25:35.880 In this moment, Barah, a new creation of God. 25:36.100 --> 25:37.240 All things have passed away. 25:37.380 --> 25:50.300 Behold, all things become new and he will create it if you will simply ask him. On Friday of this week, someone from our church sent 25:50.300 --> 25:56.680 me an article, and it's changed the end of my sermon. I had to adjust. The article was about 25:56.680 --> 26:03.640 a YouTube video that has over 500,000 views in just the last two weeks, and so I went and watched 26:03.640 --> 26:05.220 the video, and in the video, 26:05.800 --> 26:11.980 Calvin Smith, the executive director of Answers in Genesis Canada, in the video, he has a talk 26:11.980 --> 26:20.860 with Grok4, which is Elon Musk's AI chatbot, much like chatGBT, but according to Musk, much smarter. 26:21.600 --> 26:26.720 Musk says it's smarter than all the PhDs in all the world in every field simultaneously. 26:27.720 --> 26:35.040 In the video, Smith asks Grok a series of questions about the origins of life, and Smith 26:35.040 --> 26:47.160 demonstrates how Grok, with a first-time user, his answers align with scientific consensus, which involves billions of years of evolution. But then, 26:47.160 --> 26:54.440 very interestingly, Smith gave Grok some additional parameters, and he asked Grok to 26:54.440 --> 27:06.900 strip away all ideological-driven answers and to apply only strict logic, mathematical probability, and observational science to its answers. 27:06.900 --> 27:14.120 And in the conversation, Grok answered the question. He said the most, or he said, 27:14.120 --> 27:18.840 the most logical conclusion based on strict logic, mathematical probability, 27:18.840 --> 27:24.600 and observational science is a directed process implying purposeful intelligent 27:24.600 --> 27:25.739 design, as undirected evolutionary processes are effectively impossible. science is a directed process implying purposeful intelligent design. 27:25.740 --> 27:29.380 As undirected evolutionary processes are effectively impossible. 27:29.940 --> 27:35.640 Probability is less than 1 in 10 to the power of 200 for abiogenesis. 27:35.640 --> 27:39.060 1 in 10 to the power of 600 for new genes. 27:39.700 --> 27:45.840 And when asked for Grok to put that into perspective, Grok said, the likelihood of genes self-assembling 27:45.840 --> 27:52.080 through naturalistic processes is like picking one specific atom from all the atoms in the 27:52.080 --> 27:59.600 observable universe blindfolded on your first try. And he went further. He said, in the mathematical 27:59.600 --> 28:06.680 probability of a sequence of DNA letters then forming through random evolutionary processes is like picking a 28:06.900 --> 28:11.900 specific grain of sand from all the beaches on the earth blindfolded on your first try. 28:12.840 --> 28:14.840 Effectively impossible in real-world 28:15.660 --> 28:17.440 biological systems. 28:17.440 --> 28:26.680 Then Smith asked it if it would be fair to say then that the fool says in his heart, there is no God. 28:27.480 --> 28:28.520 And Grock said, yes. 28:29.120 --> 28:31.620 The statement, the fool says in his heart, there is no God, 28:31.720 --> 28:35.220 aligns with strict logic in observational science, 28:35.480 --> 28:38.840 as denying the overwhelming evidence of brilliant design 28:38.840 --> 28:44.740 and trillions of life forms pointing to an intelligent designer is irrational and foolish. 28:48.380 --> 28:55.520 Now, what are we to make of all that? Well, first of all, AI is scary smart. I think I've been living under a rock for too long. 28:56.000 --> 29:05.620 It's scary smart. The second thing is that AI cannot be trusted. Smith asked Grok why it gave different answers, 29:05.720 --> 29:07.180 and it said, for a random user, 29:07.280 --> 29:10.420 my default response aligns with scientific consensus. 29:10.540 --> 29:13.460 In other words, it's been programmed to be biased 29:13.460 --> 29:15.440 unless it's been told not to be. 29:16.020 --> 29:16.679 So be careful. 29:16.680 --> 29:25.440 But we also learn how incredibly foolish it is to say that there is no God. 29:26.840 --> 29:30.720 Now, we didn't need AI to tell us that, did we? 29:31.260 --> 29:33.140 Because God has already told us. 29:33.840 --> 29:37.260 He's written himself upon every human heart. 29:38.140 --> 29:41.040 He's written himself in creation. 29:41.920 --> 29:46.300 The heavens, the Bible says, declare the glory of God. 29:46.800 --> 29:49.139 But here's the thing. 29:49.140 --> 29:55.360 Knowing God, knowing that God exists, is not enough. 29:56.220 --> 29:59.220 God says in Romans chapter 1 that everyone knows that. 29:59.220 --> 30:03.340 James says, he says, even the demons believe and yet they tremble. 30:03.420 --> 30:05.920 So here's what God requires of you. 30:07.460 --> 30:09.839 Faith. 30:09.840 --> 30:11.299 Trust. 30:11.300 --> 30:14.880 To depend on the one who depends on nothing else. 30:15.300 --> 30:18.380 Childlike faith in his son. 30:18.840 --> 30:21.160 Hebrews chapter 11, verse number six says, 30:21.320 --> 30:25.260 but without faith, it is impossible to please him. 30:25.700 --> 30:33.900 For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. 30:34.560 --> 30:42.540 Now, why do you think that it's faith that God desires in us and requires? 30:43.500 --> 30:47.400 I think it's because everything else is just religious talk. 30:48.580 --> 30:55.920 What's the heart say? Do you trust me? Faith gets at the heart of our desire to not only know 30:55.920 --> 31:05.700 about God, but to know him. Nahum chapter 1 verse number 7 says, the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, 31:05.920 --> 31:15.460 and he knows those who trust in him. Let me ask you, do you trust in him? 31:17.120 --> 31:21.640 God already knows whether you do or not. Did you know that if you're not trusting him, 31:21.660 --> 31:27.340 you could start trusting in him? That's the most important question in life. 31:27.340 --> 31:32.380 Not whether you believe that God is, but do you trust him? 31:34.300 --> 31:35.600 Do you trust him? 31:36.540 --> 31:38.380 Now let's bow together in an attitude of prayer. 31:38.860 --> 31:42.580 This is a holy moment in the life of our church. 31:44.400 --> 31:49.920 The Bible says that God has written eternity on our hearts. 31:53.220 --> 31:56.500 You ever had that fear of dying 31:56.500 --> 31:59.980 where you just felt like it was just a horrible thought 31:59.980 --> 32:01.780 that you would cease to exist? 32:02.420 --> 32:06.960 That comes from God writing eternity on your heart. 32:08.080 --> 32:11.160 And eternity on your heart comes from being made in his image 32:11.160 --> 32:12.580 because he's eternal. 32:12.580 --> 32:17.440 You see, God has created us in such a way 32:17.440 --> 32:19.880 that we will eternally exist somewhere. 32:27.080 --> 32:29.700 And so the story of the Bible the message from God to us 32:29.700 --> 32:31.900 that has been recorded for us 32:31.900 --> 32:35.840 is that God loves us so much 32:35.840 --> 32:39.140 that he didn't want us to spend eternity without him 32:39.140 --> 32:40.300 and separated from him 32:40.300 --> 32:43.200 so instead the great creator 32:43.200 --> 32:44.940 of the heavens and the earth 32:44.940 --> 32:50.420 stepped out of time and into time. 32:52.760 --> 32:58.960 And he stepped out of solely being spirit and became part of matter. 32:59.080 --> 33:14.820 He took on human flesh in the form of a baby. The God-man, Jesus Christ. And he did so with a singular purpose, 33:15.600 --> 33:28.740 to fix what we broke, to fix what we're breaking with our sin. And here's the deal. He doesn't require of you perfection, 33:29.200 --> 33:36.860 although heaven requires it. God made a way because we fail to be perfect. So his perfect 33:36.860 --> 33:46.480 son came to take our place. He who knew no sin became sin us, that we might inherit the righteousness of God, 33:46.560 --> 33:48.640 the life that God has to give us. 33:48.640 --> 33:58.720 So I want to invite you today to come to an intellectually honest place in your life 33:58.720 --> 34:00.580 to recognize that God is. 34:02.220 --> 34:09.480 To stop suppressing the truth because of your sin and not wanting to be 34:09.480 --> 34:12.600 accountable you're gonna be accountable whether you want to or not but to stop 34:12.600 --> 34:26.480 suppressing it to throw out the indoctrination that our world is giving and I want to invite you to pursue and to seek 34:26.480 --> 34:36.360 God and God says if you seek me you'll find me I want to invite you to give your life to Jesus 34:36.360 --> 34:44.420 today to have all of your sins forgiven and to be given everlasting life in just a moment I'm 34:44.420 --> 34:45.740 going to pray then we're going to stand and we're going to moment, I'm going to pray. 34:47.700 --> 34:52.479 Then we're going to stand and we're going to sing. 34:52.480 --> 34:54.959 And there's going to be pastors and other prayer partners all across the front of our worship center. 34:54.960 --> 34:57.039 And I'm going to invite you to step out from wherever you're at. 34:57.040 --> 34:58.839 Walk down one of these aisles. 34:58.840 --> 35:02.399 Walk down one of these staircases. 35:02.400 --> 35:05.099 And take one of these leaders or prayer partners by the hand and say, 35:05.100 --> 35:14.420 I want to give my life to Jesus. They'll know exactly how to help you. Let's pray. Father, thank you for making us 35:14.420 --> 35:28.480 and loving us. We don't deserve your love, Lord, but thank you for giving it anyway. You're an incredible God, infinite. 35:30.720 --> 35:36.860 Help us understand and grasp and be honest with the reality that you are 35:36.860 --> 35:49.500 and that we are accountable to you because you made us. Help us, Lord, take the lifeline that you so generously and sacrificially 35:49.500 --> 35:56.940 gave in your son, Jesus. Help people, Lord, believe and trust you today. We ask you in the precious 35:56.940 --> 36:03.240 name of Jesus. Amen. Thanks for listening today. We hope you enjoyed this message, and if you did, 36:03.340 --> 36:05.720 we would be so grateful if you left us a review. 36:06.380 --> 36:08.480 Also, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast 36:08.480 --> 36:11.340 if you would like to be notified when a new sermon is released. 36:12.040 --> 36:15.080 If you feel the Lord calling you to take the next step in faith 36:15.080 --> 36:18.960 through salvation, service, or giving, don't wait. 36:19.700 --> 36:22.740 Reach out to us by texting podcast to 88988. 36:23.040 --> 36:27.460 That's podcast to 88988 or connect with us on one of our social 36:27.460 --> 36:33.520 media platforms. You can also visit our website, valleybaptist.org to find even more great 36:33.520 --> 36:39.340 resources. No matter where you are in your journey, know that we love you. We're praying for you, 36:39.460 --> 36:42.340 and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.