Science and Religion
Series: One Hit Wonders
Speaker: Chris Jones
Date: 30th September 2012
Passage: Psalm 19:1-10
00:00:00 --> 00:00:00 Let me pray.
00:00:01 --> 00:00:04 We thank you, Lord Jesus, for being able to gather around your word.
00:00:04 --> 00:00:10 And we pray it helped me as I speak it tonight that you would speak to us by your spirit
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 and grow us in Christ to your glory.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
00:00:17 --> 00:00:18 Now I got to choose a hobby horse tonight.
00:00:19 --> 00:00:23 And so I've gone back away to something that I have preached before.
00:00:23 --> 00:00:27 And for a time, read quite a bit about this, although not as much recently.
00:00:27 --> 00:00:36 But in the 1990s, or before the mid-1990s, when you start talking about science and religion,
00:00:36 --> 00:00:39 it was either like you're a creationist or you're a Darwinian evolutionist,
00:00:39 --> 00:00:40 and there was no ground in between.
00:00:41 --> 00:00:44 And both camps pushed one another into different corners.
00:00:45 --> 00:00:50 And a man came along called P.E. Johnson, who was a professor of law in the United States,
00:00:50 --> 00:00:52 and he broke new ground.
00:00:52 --> 00:00:57 Because what he did, he looked at evolutionary arguments and the arguments of evolutionary scientists.
00:00:57 --> 00:01:04 And rather than think science, he thought law and the nature of arguments
00:01:04 --> 00:01:07 and the way arguments are won and lost.
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 And he's also a very gracious man.
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 I think he's still alive, but a very gracious man.
00:01:13 --> 00:01:19 And so he would work with people who believed and thought things that were very, very different from himself.
00:01:20 --> 00:01:22 And rather than being in a combative way with them,
00:01:23 --> 00:01:26 he'd come alongside them, go away on weekends, talk to them,
00:01:26 --> 00:01:31 submit what he was thinking to them to test against their thinking.
00:01:31 --> 00:01:35 And I think relationally, probably modelled something for us that we could all learn from
00:01:35 --> 00:01:39 in terms of how we engage people when we disagree with one another.
00:01:39 --> 00:01:45 And rather than try to prove God, he came from a different point of view
00:01:45 --> 00:01:53 and worked in a way to show the deficiencies of the arguments for Darwinian evolution.
00:01:54 --> 00:01:58 So some stuff that we get in university and school is just taught as a given
00:01:58 --> 00:02:01 and maybe not reflected on in the way that it should be reflected on
00:02:01 --> 00:02:06 and subjected to us thinking about it in ways that would be good for us to think about it.
00:02:06 --> 00:02:11 So often if you said you're a Christian, you just get put in a basket case
00:02:11 --> 00:02:14 rather than listened to and debated properly.
00:02:14 --> 00:02:21 So the whole notion of intelligent design is the idea that maybe the earth is designed
00:02:21 --> 00:02:23 without actually having to...
00:02:24 --> 00:02:28 So working in a secular field, you can bat for the idea that the earth is designed
00:02:28 --> 00:02:36 without having to necessarily prove what sort of a person or an entity or a creator or a God
00:02:36 --> 00:02:37 brought it into being.
00:02:37 --> 00:02:40 You could discuss that part of it without pushing further.
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 And I think it was a really clever thing to do.
00:02:42 --> 00:02:47 It was done with a great deal of grace and it's been run on with a lot since then
00:02:47 --> 00:02:51 and sometimes with grace and sometimes with a total lack of grace
00:02:51 --> 00:02:53 which hasn't helped the cause at all.
00:02:53 --> 00:02:59 Pastors and preachers like me encounter all sorts of people in ministry
00:02:59 --> 00:03:04 and very early in my time of ministry I was doing marriage preparation
00:03:04 --> 00:03:11 with one of my relatives, my cousin who was a great friend but also she was my cousin
00:03:11 --> 00:03:17 and she was a teacher and she was marrying a guy who...
00:03:17 --> 00:03:21 and he's married still to a guy with a PhD in geology
00:03:21 --> 00:03:26 and now a professor in geology at a major Australian university.
00:03:28 --> 00:03:31 And he said as we did the marriage preparation, he's not a Christian
00:03:31 --> 00:03:34 but he said he respected me as a Christian
00:03:34 --> 00:03:40 and I said and I respect your knowledge of geology.
00:03:40 --> 00:03:44 And guess where the discussion went to?
00:03:45 --> 00:03:48 It got into a discussion about creation and evolution
00:03:48 --> 00:03:51 and how the world was formed
00:03:51 --> 00:03:56 and for my friend, naturalistic evolution was an absolute given.
00:03:56 --> 00:03:59 Of course that's how the world was formed and how we've come about.
00:04:00 --> 00:04:04 He was a Darwinian evolution man, he still is through and through.
00:04:04 --> 00:04:07 He said that he believed in God
00:04:07 --> 00:04:12 but it wasn't all that clear where God fitted into his belief system.
00:04:13 --> 00:04:17 It was a little bit like, oh well maybe God kicked the world into being
00:04:17 --> 00:04:22 and then stepped away and allowed it to follow its evolutionary course.
00:04:25 --> 00:04:31 Now when my friend talked geology and the details of his science,
00:04:31 --> 00:04:32 guess what happened to me?
00:04:32 --> 00:04:33 I floundered.
00:04:34 --> 00:04:35 Couldn't compete with him.
00:04:36 --> 00:04:42 I could not presume to speak with him on his level or with his expertise.
00:04:43 --> 00:04:46 And it was like being an absolute minnow at the foot of a giant.
00:04:49 --> 00:04:54 And I threw a few ideas forward and he mashed me.
00:04:55 --> 00:04:59 And if he was sitting here tonight and I did it again, he'd mash me again.
00:04:59 --> 00:05:04 And so I said things like, I just tried things out like,
00:05:04 --> 00:05:07 well what about the huge fossil fuel deposits in the world?
00:05:07 --> 00:05:12 All the oil and the gas and the coal that we're now burning to our peril
00:05:12 --> 00:05:13 and creating climate change from.
00:05:13 --> 00:05:23 Weren't all those things once living creatures and organisms, massive forests destroyed by some sort of cataclysmic event in our past?
00:05:24 --> 00:05:26 Where did they come from?
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 Could they be the result of a worldwide flood?
00:05:29 --> 00:05:34 What about the missing links in the fossil record?
00:05:34 --> 00:05:46 What about the Cambrian explosion where the geological record shows that all of life arose in a relatively short geological time frame?
00:05:46 --> 00:05:53 How does that sit with the long time frames that Darwinian evolution needed to occur?
00:05:56 --> 00:06:04 So I could ask some questions, but I couldn't compete with his knowledge and his understanding of geology.
00:06:05 --> 00:06:11 There was no way that I was going anywhere in a creation-evolution discussion with him.
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 I was the preacher that he was having on toast.
00:06:16 --> 00:06:21 That is until our discussion turned to Christ.
00:06:23 --> 00:06:26 And I'll talk about that a little bit more as we get towards the end.
00:06:27 --> 00:06:40 So I called this talk, it's just a talk, and I called it Science and Religion, Mortal Enemies or Helpful Friends.
00:06:41 --> 00:06:44 Science and Religion, Mortal Enemies or Helpful Friends.
00:06:44 --> 00:06:48 I heard a talk a while back on science and Christianity.
00:06:48 --> 00:06:51 The speaker was Christian, he saw no conflict between the two.
00:06:51 --> 00:06:56 Heard some great stuff last year, or the year before, from John Lennox when he was in Sydney.
00:06:56 --> 00:06:57 He's worth listening to and reading.
00:06:59 --> 00:07:05 But God is creator, and the discipline of science is merely a process of discovering the wonder of a creation
00:07:05 --> 00:07:08 that God designed and brought into being in the first place.
00:07:08 --> 00:07:14 So for him, science describes and explains what God thought up and brought into being.
00:07:15 --> 00:07:19 And in this system of thought, whatever science discovers is no threat to God,
00:07:19 --> 00:07:24 because we're just discovering things that are part of the magnificence of his creation.
00:07:26 --> 00:07:31 Francis Bacon discovered the scientific method over 400 years ago.
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 You've probably been taught it if you've done science at school.
00:07:35 --> 00:07:39 And Bacon had a two-books understanding of the world.
00:07:41 --> 00:07:42 He said,
00:07:42 --> 00:07:58 And he encouraged us to learn, he encouraged people back then,
00:07:58 --> 00:08:00 to learn as much as they could from the Bible,
00:08:00 --> 00:08:04 but also to be learning as much as they can from creation or nature.
00:08:04 --> 00:08:09 Michael Faraday lived in the 19th century,
00:08:09 --> 00:08:13 and he's regarded as the greatest experimental scientist of all time.
00:08:14 --> 00:08:15 He discovered benzene. Is that petrol?
00:08:17 --> 00:08:17 Close.
00:08:19 --> 00:08:21 And electromagnetic induction.
00:08:21 --> 00:08:24 So he was the guy that invented electric generators and motors.
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 And as he lay on his deathbed,
00:08:27 --> 00:08:28 a friend asked him,
00:08:28 --> 00:08:30 What speculations do you have now?
00:08:31 --> 00:08:32 And he replied,
00:08:33 --> 00:08:34 Speculations? Man, I have none.
00:08:35 --> 00:08:36 I have certainties.
00:08:36 --> 00:08:40 I thank God that I don't rest my dying head upon speculations,
00:08:40 --> 00:08:42 for I know whom I have believed,
00:08:42 --> 00:08:45 and am persuaded that he is able to keep
00:08:45 --> 00:08:48 that which I have committed to him against that day.
00:08:50 --> 00:08:54 And so there is no shortage of scientists over time
00:08:54 --> 00:08:58 who have had a clear faith in a creator God.
00:08:59 --> 00:09:01 Science and religion?
00:09:02 --> 00:09:03 Mortal enemies?
00:09:03 --> 00:09:03 Friends?
00:09:03 --> 00:09:05 Or helpful friends?
00:09:08 --> 00:09:11 The easy answer is that they're very helpful friends.
00:09:11 --> 00:09:17 Many significant scientific and brilliant medical discoveries have been made
00:09:17 --> 00:09:20 as people have sought to use their inbuilt creativity
00:09:20 --> 00:09:23 to search out and understand this universe that we live in.
00:09:23 --> 00:09:26 If the creator God is true,
00:09:27 --> 00:09:30 then seeking to understand this wonderful world that he has made
00:09:30 --> 00:09:33 should be no threat to any of us.
00:09:33 --> 00:09:37 In fact, it is something that we should pursue with energy and with vigour.
00:09:37 --> 00:09:40 Do science at university and at school.
00:09:40 --> 00:09:41 None of my life.
00:09:41 --> 00:09:43 Have my last three kids done any of it?
00:09:43 --> 00:09:44 No.
00:09:44 --> 00:09:50 Certainly not following the footsteps of an engineering father.
00:09:53 --> 00:09:59 But the harder answer may be determined by your own prejudices.
00:09:59 --> 00:10:05 Because matters other than science might prejudice your view about these things.
00:10:05 --> 00:10:12 And I think some of our troubles begin when we move away from describing how the world is
00:10:12 --> 00:10:16 to saying why the world is the way it is.
00:10:16 --> 00:10:32 One of the world's leading evolutionary biologists has written,
00:10:32 --> 00:10:36 if Darwinism is true, there are five inescapable conclusions.
00:10:38 --> 00:10:39 There is no evidence for God.
00:10:41 --> 00:10:43 There is no life after death.
00:10:43 --> 00:10:47 There is absolutely no foundation for ethics.
00:10:48 --> 00:10:50 There is no basis for right and wrong.
00:10:52 --> 00:10:54 There is no ultimate meaning for life.
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 And people really do not have a free will.
00:11:00 --> 00:11:04 The respected ABC science commentator, the late Robin Williams,
00:11:05 --> 00:11:07 wrote a little book which was very popular for a while
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 and probably still on the shelves of ABC shops.
00:11:10 --> 00:11:11 And it was called Unintelligent Design.
00:11:11 --> 00:11:15 And it was subtitled, Why God Isn't As Smart As She Thinks She Is.
00:11:17 --> 00:11:20 And so he was refuting this growing interest in the intelligent design movement
00:11:20 --> 00:11:24 and he was tenaciously defending his views on science.
00:11:25 --> 00:11:26 And he said things in it.
00:11:26 --> 00:11:31 He said, I find it gobsmackingly outrageous that intelligent design can be allowed to pretend
00:11:31 --> 00:11:33 that our state of knowledge is inadequate.
00:11:33 --> 00:11:38 It's incomplete, certainly, but expanding at a ferocious rate.
00:11:39 --> 00:11:45 And he also said, the science, the Darwinian naturalism, it's endlessly fascinating.
00:11:46 --> 00:11:48 It's also rigorously tested.
00:11:48 --> 00:11:56 Why buy a vehicle from dodgy brothers when there is one tested and retested by the best firm in the business,
00:11:56 --> 00:11:57 which is Darwinian evolution.
00:11:58 --> 00:12:03 And so what he does, he takes this high moral ground and he effectively slanders intelligent design
00:12:03 --> 00:12:07 as dodgy without interacting with the issues.
00:12:07 --> 00:12:08 Play the man rather than the ball.
00:12:08 --> 00:12:16 On the other hand, this is one for Adam after the surface.
00:12:18 --> 00:12:19 Edwin Erwin Schrodinger.
00:12:23 --> 00:12:25 I'm just reading a quote from a book at this point.
00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 Was perhaps the most important founder of wave mechanics
00:12:29 --> 00:12:34 and the originator of the most important equation in science.
00:12:36 --> 00:12:37 Schrodinger's equation.
00:12:37 --> 00:12:38 Who knows what it is?
00:12:38 --> 00:12:42 Do you know?
00:12:44 --> 00:12:45 Yeah, he does know.
00:12:45 --> 00:12:46 Ask him later.
00:12:50 --> 00:12:51 I've never heard of him.
00:12:51 --> 00:12:53 I did physics at uni and I've never heard of him before.
00:12:54 --> 00:12:55 Quantum physics.
00:12:55 --> 00:12:57 I probably switched off at that particular moment.
00:13:00 --> 00:13:02 But more than 60 years ago, he wrote,
00:13:02 --> 00:13:07 I am very astonished that the scientific picture of the real world
00:13:07 --> 00:13:09 is very deficient.
00:13:10 --> 00:13:13 It gives a lot of factual information,
00:13:13 --> 00:13:18 puts all our experience in a magnificently consistent order,
00:13:18 --> 00:13:24 but it's ghastly silent about all and sundry that is really near to our heart.
00:13:24 --> 00:13:27 And that really matters to us.
00:13:27 --> 00:13:34 It cannot tell us a word about red and blue, bitter and sweet, physical pain and physical delight.
00:13:34 --> 00:13:39 It knows nothing of beautiful and ugly, good and bad, God and eternity.
00:13:39 --> 00:13:44 Science sometimes pretends to answer questions in these domains.
00:13:44 --> 00:13:49 But the answers are very often so silly that we're not inclined to take them seriously.
00:13:49 --> 00:13:55 For more than 3 years, 2 years,
00:13:55 --> 00:13:59 the Bible has said that there is a contest in the world over truth.
00:13:59 --> 00:14:01 We've been there the last few weeks with Romans.
00:14:02 --> 00:14:05 Romans 1, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven
00:14:05 --> 00:14:09 against all the godlessness and wickedness of people
00:14:09 --> 00:14:11 who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
00:14:13 --> 00:14:16 Since what may be known about God is plain to them
00:14:16 --> 00:14:18 because God has made it plain to them.
00:14:20 --> 00:14:22 For since the creation of the world,
00:14:22 --> 00:14:25 God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature
00:14:25 --> 00:14:27 have been clearly seen,
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 being understood from what has been made
00:14:30 --> 00:14:32 so that people are without excuse.
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 For although they knew God,
00:14:35 --> 00:14:38 they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him.
00:14:39 --> 00:14:41 But their thinking became futile
00:14:41 --> 00:14:43 and their foolish hearts were darkened.
00:14:43 --> 00:14:46 And although they claimed to be wise,
00:14:47 --> 00:14:48 they became fools.
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 And they exchanged the glory of their mortal God
00:14:51 --> 00:14:53 for images made to look like mortal men
00:14:53 --> 00:14:56 and birds and animals and reptiles.
00:14:58 --> 00:15:03 So the Bible is asserting that the imprint of our Creator
00:15:03 --> 00:15:07 is there to be seen in his creation.
00:15:08 --> 00:15:10 I'm going to say more about that in a moment.
00:15:10 --> 00:15:13 But the passage also asserts
00:15:13 --> 00:15:16 that we are culpable in rejecting the truth.
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19 We put our fingers in our ears
00:15:19 --> 00:15:20 and we close our eyes
00:15:20 --> 00:15:22 because we do not want to know about it.
00:15:23 --> 00:15:24 You see the words,
00:15:24 --> 00:15:27 we suppress the truth by our wickedness.
00:15:29 --> 00:15:32 The creation clearly bears the markings of its creator
00:15:32 --> 00:15:34 and we have chosen neither
00:15:34 --> 00:15:37 to glorify him as God
00:15:37 --> 00:15:38 or to give thanks to him.
00:15:39 --> 00:15:43 So we break the second of the Ten Commandments all the time.
00:15:43 --> 00:15:44 We live in a material world
00:15:44 --> 00:15:46 and are so obsessed with what has been made
00:15:46 --> 00:15:47 or what God has made
00:15:47 --> 00:15:50 that we have turned away from him
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 and we have turned to these things
00:15:52 --> 00:15:54 that he has made or that we have made.
00:15:55 --> 00:15:56 And the Bible passage says
00:15:56 --> 00:15:59 that that makes us culpable.
00:15:59 --> 00:16:01 We are as guilty as sin.
00:16:06 --> 00:16:11 Who are we to sit in judgment on God?
00:16:14 --> 00:16:16 The physicist Max Planck,
00:16:16 --> 00:16:18 who I don't think was a believer,
00:16:18 --> 00:16:19 at least had a humility
00:16:19 --> 00:16:21 as he went about his science.
00:16:22 --> 00:16:26 He said that science cannot solve the mystery of nature
00:16:26 --> 00:16:30 and that is in part because in the last analysis
00:16:30 --> 00:16:32 we are part of the mystery
00:16:32 --> 00:16:33 that we are trying to solve.
00:16:35 --> 00:16:38 You almost need a bigger look from outside
00:16:38 --> 00:16:40 to see what's going on.
00:16:41 --> 00:16:42 And I think I want to say to all of us
00:16:42 --> 00:16:44 that we need a return to humility.
00:16:46 --> 00:16:47 We need to be able to gasp
00:16:47 --> 00:16:49 at the wonder of the world in which we live.
00:16:52 --> 00:16:53 There's a wonderful little...
00:16:53 --> 00:16:59 Not an easy book,
00:16:59 --> 00:17:00 not too hard a book,
00:17:01 --> 00:17:02 but it's a great book,
00:17:02 --> 00:17:03 Case for a Creator,
00:17:03 --> 00:17:04 written by Lee Strobel.
00:17:04 --> 00:17:05 You'll find that at Coorong.
00:17:06 --> 00:17:08 But he summarises the thinking
00:17:08 --> 00:17:11 of many recent scientists
00:17:11 --> 00:17:12 in terms of some of the things
00:17:12 --> 00:17:13 that we're talking about tonight.
00:17:15 --> 00:17:17 But he's got some great information in here as well.
00:17:17 --> 00:17:18 He said things like,
00:17:19 --> 00:17:21 do you know that if the surface of the earth
00:17:21 --> 00:17:22 was flat,
00:17:23 --> 00:17:24 so if you brought all the mountains down
00:17:24 --> 00:17:25 and all the valleys are,
00:17:26 --> 00:17:29 the entire world would be covered with water
00:17:29 --> 00:17:30 to a depth of two kilometres?
00:17:33 --> 00:17:35 Do you know that the earth exists
00:17:35 --> 00:17:37 in a place in the Milky Way galaxy
00:17:37 --> 00:17:39 that protects it from huge amounts of radiation
00:17:39 --> 00:17:41 from gamma bursts
00:17:41 --> 00:17:42 that come from exploding stars?
00:17:42 --> 00:17:47 Do you know that Jupiter's circular orbit,
00:17:48 --> 00:17:51 which is the largest planet in the solar system,
00:17:52 --> 00:17:54 helps the earth maintain a circular orbit
00:17:54 --> 00:17:57 that gives us steady temperature
00:17:57 --> 00:17:58 and predictable climate?
00:18:00 --> 00:18:02 That Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus
00:18:02 --> 00:18:05 have tremendous gravitational pull
00:18:05 --> 00:18:07 that draws in comets and asteroids
00:18:07 --> 00:18:08 and helps minimise the number
00:18:08 --> 00:18:09 that strike the earth?
00:18:09 --> 00:18:13 That if the earth's distance from the sun
00:18:13 --> 00:18:15 moved 5% either way,
00:18:16 --> 00:18:16 we would die.
00:18:17 --> 00:18:19 Oceans would boil off
00:18:19 --> 00:18:20 or they would permanently freeze.
00:18:22 --> 00:18:24 The sun is just the right mass
00:18:24 --> 00:18:27 and emits just the right amount
00:18:27 --> 00:18:28 of red and blue light
00:18:28 --> 00:18:29 to sustain our atmosphere.
00:18:31 --> 00:18:34 The moon stabilises the earth's tilt
00:18:34 --> 00:18:35 at 23.5 degrees
00:18:35 --> 00:18:38 and this is what gives us
00:18:38 --> 00:18:39 very mild seasons.
00:18:41 --> 00:18:42 And I read tonight
00:18:42 --> 00:18:46 that liquid iron surrounds the earth's core,
00:18:46 --> 00:18:48 molten iron surrounds the earth's core
00:18:48 --> 00:18:51 and its heat is driven
00:18:51 --> 00:18:53 by radioactive isotopes
00:18:53 --> 00:18:55 going on inside the centre
00:18:55 --> 00:18:56 of the earth all the time.
00:18:57 --> 00:18:59 And they create this sort of a dynamo
00:18:59 --> 00:19:02 that generates the earth's magnetic field.
00:19:02 --> 00:19:03 It's a huge machine.
00:19:03 --> 00:19:06 And the magnetic field of the earth
00:19:06 --> 00:19:10 protects us from dangerous radiation
00:19:10 --> 00:19:11 coming from outer space.
00:19:12 --> 00:19:15 And it stops the solar winds
00:19:15 --> 00:19:16 from the sun
00:19:16 --> 00:19:21 stripping away our atmosphere.
00:19:22 --> 00:19:23 If the solar winds from the sun
00:19:23 --> 00:19:25 could touch the earth's atmosphere,
00:19:26 --> 00:19:28 the water vapour would just disappear.
00:19:28 --> 00:19:29 We'd be gone.
00:19:29 --> 00:19:33 And he's got this wonderful quote.
00:19:33 --> 00:19:33 He says,
00:19:33 --> 00:19:36 We are, by astronomical standards,
00:19:37 --> 00:19:38 a pampered,
00:19:38 --> 00:19:39 cosseted,
00:19:39 --> 00:19:41 cherished group of creatures.
00:19:42 --> 00:19:44 Our Darwinian claim
00:19:44 --> 00:19:45 to have done it all by ourselves
00:19:45 --> 00:19:46 is as ridiculous
00:19:46 --> 00:19:47 and as charming
00:19:47 --> 00:19:48 as a baby's brave efforts
00:19:48 --> 00:19:50 to stand on its own feet
00:19:50 --> 00:19:52 and refuse its mother's hand.
00:19:52 --> 00:19:55 If the universe had not been made
00:19:55 --> 00:19:57 with the most exacting precision,
00:19:57 --> 00:19:59 we could never have come into existence.
00:20:00 --> 00:20:02 It is my view
00:20:02 --> 00:20:03 that these circumstances
00:20:03 --> 00:20:05 indicate that the universe
00:20:05 --> 00:20:08 was created for people to live in.
00:20:10 --> 00:20:11 Or we turn inward.
00:20:11 --> 00:20:13 That's the macro picture.
00:20:13 --> 00:20:14 That's outward.
00:20:14 --> 00:20:16 The enormity of the universe
00:20:16 --> 00:20:17 and our place in it.
00:20:18 --> 00:20:19 If you turn inward
00:20:19 --> 00:20:20 and you go,
00:20:20 --> 00:20:21 you look at the complexity of life,
00:20:21 --> 00:20:23 the molecular biologists
00:20:23 --> 00:20:25 who are looking further and further
00:20:25 --> 00:20:26 into our cells
00:20:26 --> 00:20:27 and they're dazzled
00:20:27 --> 00:20:28 by what they see.
00:20:29 --> 00:20:31 They're finding machines
00:20:31 --> 00:20:31 in our cells.
00:20:31 --> 00:20:32 See, you know,
00:20:32 --> 00:20:33 Darwinian evolution,
00:20:33 --> 00:20:34 everything builds a little bit
00:20:34 --> 00:20:35 on everything else
00:20:35 --> 00:20:36 and they're looking
00:20:36 --> 00:20:37 into our cells
00:20:37 --> 00:20:38 and the tiny detail
00:20:38 --> 00:20:38 of our cells
00:20:38 --> 00:20:40 and how our molecules look
00:20:40 --> 00:20:40 and they see
00:20:40 --> 00:20:42 organisation there
00:20:42 --> 00:20:44 which needed to be complete
00:20:44 --> 00:20:44 for it to work
00:20:44 --> 00:20:45 in the first place.
00:20:45 --> 00:20:46 It couldn't have just happened
00:20:46 --> 00:20:46 bit by bit.
00:20:46 --> 00:20:49 They're blown away by it.
00:20:49 --> 00:20:51 It's called irreducible complexity.
00:20:52 --> 00:20:53 We are so complex
00:20:53 --> 00:20:54 that it couldn't have been like that.
00:20:55 --> 00:20:57 That it couldn't have just evolved.
00:21:00 --> 00:21:01 They said that,
00:21:01 --> 00:21:01 did you know
00:21:01 --> 00:21:02 that every cell
00:21:02 --> 00:21:03 in the human body
00:21:03 --> 00:21:05 contains more information
00:21:05 --> 00:21:06 than 30 volumes
00:21:06 --> 00:21:08 of Encyclopedia Britannica?
00:21:09 --> 00:21:11 I think in today's terms
00:21:11 --> 00:21:12 that's like a gigabyte
00:21:12 --> 00:21:13 of information
00:21:13 --> 00:21:15 in every cell.
00:21:16 --> 00:21:18 The late astronomer
00:21:18 --> 00:21:19 Fred Hoyle,
00:21:19 --> 00:21:22 guess what his theory was?
00:21:23 --> 00:21:24 He coined the phrase
00:21:24 --> 00:21:25 Big Bang.
00:21:26 --> 00:21:27 Big Bang Theory.
00:21:28 --> 00:21:29 And he wrote
00:21:29 --> 00:21:31 that it is as likely
00:21:31 --> 00:21:32 that life began
00:21:32 --> 00:21:34 from random mutations
00:21:34 --> 00:21:36 as it is that a tornado
00:21:36 --> 00:21:38 blowing through a junkyard
00:21:38 --> 00:21:38 could assemble
00:21:38 --> 00:21:40 a 747 jumbo jet.
00:21:40 --> 00:21:43 The psalmist
00:21:43 --> 00:21:44 looks at creation
00:21:44 --> 00:21:45 and he is blown away.
00:21:47 --> 00:21:47 The heavens
00:21:47 --> 00:21:48 declare the glory
00:21:48 --> 00:21:49 of God.
00:21:50 --> 00:21:52 The skies proclaim
00:21:52 --> 00:21:52 the work
00:21:52 --> 00:21:53 of his hands.
00:21:55 --> 00:21:56 Day after day
00:21:56 --> 00:21:56 they pour forth
00:21:56 --> 00:21:57 speech
00:21:57 --> 00:21:58 and night after night
00:21:58 --> 00:21:59 they display knowledge.
00:22:01 --> 00:22:02 And there is no speech
00:22:02 --> 00:22:02 or language
00:22:02 --> 00:22:03 where their voice
00:22:03 --> 00:22:04 is not heard.
00:22:05 --> 00:22:05 Their voice
00:22:05 --> 00:22:06 goes out
00:22:06 --> 00:22:07 into all the world.
00:22:07 --> 00:22:10 In the heavens
00:22:10 --> 00:22:11 he's pitched a tent
00:22:11 --> 00:22:11 for the sun
00:22:11 --> 00:22:13 which is like a bridegroom
00:22:13 --> 00:22:14 coming forth
00:22:14 --> 00:22:14 from his pavilion
00:22:14 --> 00:22:15 like a champion
00:22:15 --> 00:22:17 rejoicing
00:22:17 --> 00:22:18 to run his course.
00:22:19 --> 00:22:20 It rises
00:22:20 --> 00:22:21 at one end
00:22:21 --> 00:22:21 of the heavens
00:22:21 --> 00:22:22 and it makes
00:22:22 --> 00:22:22 its circuit
00:22:22 --> 00:22:23 to the other
00:22:23 --> 00:22:24 and nothing
00:22:24 --> 00:22:24 is hidden
00:22:24 --> 00:22:25 from its heat.
00:22:27 --> 00:22:28 So he looks
00:22:28 --> 00:22:28 at creation
00:22:28 --> 00:22:29 as we can look
00:22:29 --> 00:22:30 at creation
00:22:30 --> 00:22:30 tonight
00:22:30 --> 00:22:32 and see it
00:22:32 --> 00:22:33 as reflecting
00:22:33 --> 00:22:34 the work
00:22:34 --> 00:22:36 and the glory
00:22:36 --> 00:22:37 of its creator.
00:22:40 --> 00:22:40 Some
00:22:40 --> 00:22:41 I shouldn't say
00:22:41 --> 00:22:42 scientists
00:22:42 --> 00:22:43 but some philosophers
00:22:43 --> 00:22:44 look at a Bible
00:22:44 --> 00:22:45 reading like this
00:22:45 --> 00:22:46 and go
00:22:46 --> 00:22:49 oh how simplistic.
00:22:52 --> 00:22:53 Haven't we come
00:22:53 --> 00:22:54 to understand
00:22:54 --> 00:22:56 how foolish
00:22:56 --> 00:22:56 this is.
00:22:57 --> 00:22:58 The sun
00:22:58 --> 00:22:59 going around
00:22:59 --> 00:23:00 the earth
00:23:00 --> 00:23:01 we all know
00:23:01 --> 00:23:02 that the earth
00:23:02 --> 00:23:03 goes around
00:23:03 --> 00:23:04 the sun.
00:23:05 --> 00:23:05 And so
00:23:05 --> 00:23:06 you ridicule
00:23:06 --> 00:23:06 the scriptures
00:23:06 --> 00:23:07 in a way
00:23:07 --> 00:23:09 but you've got
00:23:09 --> 00:23:10 into taking
00:23:10 --> 00:23:10 into account
00:23:10 --> 00:23:11 that the Bible
00:23:11 --> 00:23:12 writer is like
00:23:12 --> 00:23:12 a scientist.
00:23:14 --> 00:23:14 Three thousand
00:23:14 --> 00:23:15 years ago
00:23:15 --> 00:23:15 he's observing
00:23:15 --> 00:23:16 the world
00:23:16 --> 00:23:18 and he's using
00:23:18 --> 00:23:18 the tools
00:23:18 --> 00:23:19 which are available
00:23:19 --> 00:23:20 to him.
00:23:20 --> 00:23:21 He didn't have
00:23:21 --> 00:23:21 satellites
00:23:21 --> 00:23:22 he couldn't
00:23:22 --> 00:23:22 go away
00:23:22 --> 00:23:23 from the earth's
00:23:23 --> 00:23:23 surface
00:23:23 --> 00:23:24 and observe
00:23:24 --> 00:23:25 things from afar.
00:23:25 --> 00:23:26 He described
00:23:26 --> 00:23:26 what he saw
00:23:26 --> 00:23:27 and it was awesome.
00:23:27 --> 00:23:29 and so
00:23:29 --> 00:23:29 that the
00:23:29 --> 00:23:30 regular
00:23:30 --> 00:23:30 daily
00:23:30 --> 00:23:30 march
00:23:30 --> 00:23:31 of a
00:23:31 --> 00:23:31 blazing
00:23:31 --> 00:23:32 sun
00:23:32 --> 00:23:32 rising
00:23:32 --> 00:23:32 across
00:23:32 --> 00:23:33 the
00:23:33 --> 00:23:33 heaven
00:23:33 --> 00:23:33 giving light
00:23:33 --> 00:23:34 giving heat
00:23:34 --> 00:23:34 to all
00:23:34 --> 00:23:35 and going
00:23:35 --> 00:23:35 down at
00:23:35 --> 00:23:36 the end
00:23:36 --> 00:23:36 and he
00:23:36 --> 00:23:37 gives glory
00:23:37 --> 00:23:37 to our
00:23:37 --> 00:23:37 maker.
00:23:41 --> 00:23:42 Sure his
00:23:42 --> 00:23:43 science back
00:23:43 --> 00:23:43 there had to be
00:23:43 --> 00:23:44 modified along
00:23:44 --> 00:23:44 the way
00:23:44 --> 00:23:45 but he gave
00:23:45 --> 00:23:45 a true
00:23:45 --> 00:23:46 description
00:23:46 --> 00:23:46 of what he
00:23:46 --> 00:23:47 saw at the
00:23:47 --> 00:23:47 time.
00:23:49 --> 00:23:50 But he
00:23:50 --> 00:23:51 goes further
00:23:51 --> 00:23:51 because he
00:23:51 --> 00:23:52 drew attention
00:23:52 --> 00:23:52 to the fact
00:23:52 --> 00:23:53 that the
00:23:53 --> 00:23:53 creator
00:23:53 --> 00:23:54 does not
00:23:54 --> 00:23:54 just reveal
00:23:54 --> 00:23:55 himself
00:23:55 --> 00:23:55 by what he
00:23:55 --> 00:23:56 does.
00:23:56 --> 00:23:57 He speaks
00:23:57 --> 00:23:58 words and
00:23:58 --> 00:23:58 for those
00:23:58 --> 00:23:59 with ears
00:23:59 --> 00:23:59 to hear
00:23:59 --> 00:24:00 he has
00:24:00 --> 00:24:01 very specific
00:24:01 --> 00:24:01 things to
00:24:01 --> 00:24:01 say.
00:24:01 --> 00:24:02 It's the
00:24:02 --> 00:24:02 second half
00:24:02 --> 00:24:02 of this
00:24:02 --> 00:24:03 psalm.
00:24:04 --> 00:24:05 He changes
00:24:05 --> 00:24:05 from talking
00:24:05 --> 00:24:06 about creation
00:24:06 --> 00:24:06 to talking
00:24:06 --> 00:24:07 about the
00:24:07 --> 00:24:07 word of
00:24:07 --> 00:24:07 God.
00:24:07 --> 00:24:07 The law
00:24:07 --> 00:24:08 of the
00:24:08 --> 00:24:08 Lord is
00:24:08 --> 00:24:09 perfect
00:24:09 --> 00:24:09 reviving
00:24:09 --> 00:24:10 the soul.
00:24:10 --> 00:24:11 The
00:24:11 --> 00:24:11 statutes
00:24:11 --> 00:24:12 of the
00:24:12 --> 00:24:12 Lord are
00:24:12 --> 00:24:13 trustworthy
00:24:13 --> 00:24:13 making
00:24:13 --> 00:24:14 wise
00:24:14 --> 00:24:14 the
00:24:14 --> 00:24:14 simple.
00:24:15 --> 00:24:15 The
00:24:15 --> 00:24:16 precepts
00:24:16 --> 00:24:16 of the
00:24:16 --> 00:24:17 Lord are
00:24:17 --> 00:24:17 right.
00:24:17 --> 00:24:17 They give
00:24:17 --> 00:24:18 joy to
00:24:18 --> 00:24:18 the heart.
00:24:18 --> 00:24:19 The
00:24:19 --> 00:24:19 commands
00:24:19 --> 00:24:19 of the
00:24:19 --> 00:24:20 Lord are
00:24:20 --> 00:24:20 radiant.
00:24:20 --> 00:24:20 They give
00:24:20 --> 00:24:21 light to
00:24:21 --> 00:24:22 the eyes.
00:24:22 --> 00:24:22 The fear
00:24:22 --> 00:24:23 of the
00:24:23 --> 00:24:23 Lord is
00:24:23 --> 00:24:23 pure
00:24:23 --> 00:24:24 enduring
00:24:24 --> 00:24:25 forever.
00:24:25 --> 00:24:25 The
00:24:25 --> 00:24:26 ordinances
00:24:26 --> 00:24:26 of the
00:24:26 --> 00:24:27 Lord are
00:24:27 --> 00:24:27 sure and
00:24:27 --> 00:24:28 altogether
00:24:28 --> 00:24:28 righteous.
00:24:29 --> 00:24:29 They are
00:24:29 --> 00:24:30 more precious
00:24:30 --> 00:24:30 than gold
00:24:30 --> 00:24:31 than much
00:24:31 --> 00:24:31 pure gold.
00:24:32 --> 00:24:32 They are
00:24:32 --> 00:24:32 sweeter than
00:24:32 --> 00:24:33 honey than
00:24:33 --> 00:24:33 honey from
00:24:33 --> 00:24:34 a cone.
00:24:35 --> 00:24:35 And so
00:24:35 --> 00:24:36 God is a
00:24:36 --> 00:24:36 God who
00:24:36 --> 00:24:39 speaks and
00:24:39 --> 00:24:39 he speaks
00:24:39 --> 00:24:40 through his
00:24:40 --> 00:24:40 word the
00:24:40 --> 00:24:40 Bible.
00:24:44 --> 00:24:45 Francis
00:24:45 --> 00:24:45 Bracken's
00:24:45 --> 00:24:46 two books
00:24:46 --> 00:24:47 he speaks
00:24:47 --> 00:24:47 a specific
00:24:47 --> 00:24:48 word through
00:24:48 --> 00:24:49 the Bible
00:24:49 --> 00:24:50 and a more
00:24:50 --> 00:24:50 general word
00:24:50 --> 00:24:51 through creation.
00:24:52 --> 00:24:53 If you
00:24:53 --> 00:24:53 haven't read
00:24:53 --> 00:24:54 the Bible
00:24:54 --> 00:24:54 you can see
00:24:54 --> 00:24:55 something of
00:24:55 --> 00:24:55 what God
00:24:55 --> 00:24:56 is like by
00:24:56 --> 00:24:56 the creation
00:24:56 --> 00:24:57 that he's
00:24:57 --> 00:24:57 put us in
00:24:57 --> 00:24:58 and who we
00:24:58 --> 00:24:58 are and
00:24:58 --> 00:24:58 how we're
00:24:58 --> 00:24:59 made.
00:24:59 --> 00:25:00 But we
00:25:00 --> 00:25:00 need to
00:25:00 --> 00:25:00 come to
00:25:00 --> 00:25:01 the
00:25:01 --> 00:25:01 scriptures to
00:25:01 --> 00:25:02 find out
00:25:02 --> 00:25:02 what God
00:25:02 --> 00:25:02 is really
00:25:02 --> 00:25:03 like.
00:25:04 --> 00:25:05 Now I've
00:25:05 --> 00:25:06 spoken in a
00:25:06 --> 00:25:06 really
00:25:06 --> 00:25:07 generalised way
00:25:07 --> 00:25:07 tonight and
00:25:07 --> 00:25:09 some of you
00:25:09 --> 00:25:09 may have
00:25:09 --> 00:25:10 very detailed
00:25:10 --> 00:25:10 learning about
00:25:10 --> 00:25:11 some of the
00:25:11 --> 00:25:11 things that I
00:25:11 --> 00:25:12 know very
00:25:12 --> 00:25:12 little about.
00:25:13 --> 00:25:13 I'm sure some
00:25:13 --> 00:25:14 of you guys
00:25:14 --> 00:25:14 and girls have
00:25:14 --> 00:25:15 done much
00:25:15 --> 00:25:15 better at
00:25:15 --> 00:25:15 science than
00:25:15 --> 00:25:16 I did at
00:25:16 --> 00:25:16 science at
00:25:16 --> 00:25:17 school.
00:25:18 --> 00:25:19 You asked
00:25:19 --> 00:25:20 me a few
00:25:20 --> 00:25:20 questions and
00:25:20 --> 00:25:21 you soon find
00:25:21 --> 00:25:21 them out of
00:25:21 --> 00:25:22 my debts.
00:25:22 --> 00:25:22 That's why if
00:25:22 --> 00:25:23 you ask me
00:25:23 --> 00:25:24 about Schrodinger's
00:25:24 --> 00:25:26 equation, I'm
00:25:26 --> 00:25:26 doing that.
00:25:27 --> 00:25:32 And I said
00:25:32 --> 00:25:32 at the
00:25:32 --> 00:25:33 beginning that
00:25:33 --> 00:25:35 I was unable
00:25:35 --> 00:25:36 to talk on a
00:25:36 --> 00:25:37 level playing
00:25:37 --> 00:25:38 field with my
00:25:38 --> 00:25:39 PhD in geology
00:25:39 --> 00:25:40 relative who is
00:25:40 --> 00:25:41 deeply committed
00:25:41 --> 00:25:42 to Darwinian
00:25:42 --> 00:25:43 naturalism.
00:25:43 --> 00:25:49 but I was
00:25:49 --> 00:25:49 back in the
00:25:49 --> 00:25:51 fray when I
00:25:51 --> 00:25:52 was able to
00:25:52 --> 00:25:52 turn the
00:25:52 --> 00:25:53 conversation to
00:25:53 --> 00:25:54 Jesus Christ.
00:25:56 --> 00:25:57 See most
00:25:57 --> 00:25:58 people will say
00:25:58 --> 00:25:58 that Jesus was
00:25:58 --> 00:25:59 a good bloke
00:25:59 --> 00:26:01 and my friend
00:26:01 --> 00:26:03 did but he
00:26:03 --> 00:26:04 was quickly out
00:26:04 --> 00:26:05 of his depth
00:26:05 --> 00:26:06 when I asked
00:26:06 --> 00:26:06 him to grapple
00:26:06 --> 00:26:07 with who Jesus
00:26:07 --> 00:26:07 is.
00:26:07 --> 00:26:10 So the
00:26:10 --> 00:26:11 Bible makes
00:26:11 --> 00:26:11 huge claims
00:26:11 --> 00:26:12 about Christ
00:26:12 --> 00:26:12 and they are
00:26:12 --> 00:26:13 closely linked
00:26:13 --> 00:26:14 to what I've
00:26:14 --> 00:26:14 been talking
00:26:14 --> 00:26:15 about tonight.
00:26:16 --> 00:26:17 Christians,
00:26:17 --> 00:26:17 we have all
00:26:17 --> 00:26:18 sorts of
00:26:18 --> 00:26:18 debates and
00:26:18 --> 00:26:19 arguments about
00:26:19 --> 00:26:19 how the
00:26:19 --> 00:26:20 creator created
00:26:20 --> 00:26:20 it.
00:26:22 --> 00:26:22 But when
00:26:22 --> 00:26:23 he comes to
00:26:23 --> 00:26:23 Christ,
00:26:24 --> 00:26:24 when it
00:26:24 --> 00:26:25 comes to
00:26:25 --> 00:26:25 Christ,
00:26:25 --> 00:26:26 who he
00:26:26 --> 00:26:26 is,
00:26:27 --> 00:26:28 is not
00:26:28 --> 00:26:28 negotiable.
00:26:30 --> 00:26:30 John
00:26:30 --> 00:26:31 chapter 1
00:26:31 --> 00:26:32 verse 10
00:26:32 --> 00:26:32 says,
00:26:33 --> 00:26:34 Jesus was
00:26:34 --> 00:26:34 in the
00:26:34 --> 00:26:36 world and
00:26:36 --> 00:26:37 though the
00:26:37 --> 00:26:37 world was
00:26:37 --> 00:26:38 made through
00:26:38 --> 00:26:39 him,
00:26:39 --> 00:26:39 the world
00:26:39 --> 00:26:40 did not
00:26:40 --> 00:26:41 recognise him.
00:26:44 --> 00:26:45 Huge claim.
00:26:47 --> 00:26:48 The
00:26:48 --> 00:26:49 creator God
00:26:49 --> 00:26:49 stepped into
00:26:49 --> 00:26:50 the world
00:26:50 --> 00:26:51 and we
00:26:51 --> 00:26:52 did not
00:26:52 --> 00:26:53 recognise him.
00:26:55 --> 00:26:55 It's not
00:26:55 --> 00:26:56 the only place
00:26:56 --> 00:26:56 in the New
00:26:56 --> 00:26:57 Testament that
00:26:57 --> 00:26:58 says such a
00:26:58 --> 00:26:58 thing.
00:26:58 --> 00:26:59 Colossians
00:26:59 --> 00:26:59 chapter 1
00:26:59 --> 00:27:00 verse 15
00:27:00 --> 00:27:00 16.
00:27:02 --> 00:27:03 Jesus is
00:27:03 --> 00:27:03 the image
00:27:03 --> 00:27:04 of the
00:27:04 --> 00:27:04 invisible God.
00:27:04 --> 00:27:06 the first
00:27:06 --> 00:27:07 born over
00:27:07 --> 00:27:08 all creation.
00:27:09 --> 00:27:10 For by
00:27:10 --> 00:27:11 him all
00:27:11 --> 00:27:12 things were
00:27:12 --> 00:27:13 created in
00:27:13 --> 00:27:14 things in
00:27:14 --> 00:27:15 heaven and
00:27:15 --> 00:27:16 things on
00:27:16 --> 00:27:16 earth,
00:27:16 --> 00:27:17 visible and
00:27:17 --> 00:27:17 invisible,
00:27:19 --> 00:27:19 whether
00:27:19 --> 00:27:20 thrones or
00:27:20 --> 00:27:20 powers or
00:27:20 --> 00:27:21 rulers or
00:27:21 --> 00:27:22 authorities,
00:27:23 --> 00:27:24 all things
00:27:24 --> 00:27:25 were created
00:27:25 --> 00:27:25 by him
00:27:25 --> 00:27:27 and for
00:27:27 --> 00:27:27 him.
00:27:31 --> 00:27:32 Very
00:27:32 --> 00:27:33 bold claim
00:27:33 --> 00:27:35 that Christ
00:27:35 --> 00:27:36 is number
00:27:36 --> 00:27:37 one in
00:27:37 --> 00:27:37 the
00:27:37 --> 00:27:37 universe,
00:27:39 --> 00:27:40 the creator
00:27:40 --> 00:27:40 of everything
00:27:40 --> 00:27:41 and everything
00:27:41 --> 00:27:43 wonderfully made
00:27:43 --> 00:27:43 for his
00:27:43 --> 00:27:44 pleasure.
00:27:45 --> 00:27:46 It's a far
00:27:46 --> 00:27:47 bigger claim
00:27:47 --> 00:27:48 than Jesus
00:27:48 --> 00:27:49 is my mate
00:27:49 --> 00:27:50 and just a
00:27:50 --> 00:27:51 good bloke.
00:27:51 --> 00:27:51 world.
00:27:55 --> 00:27:55 And so the
00:27:55 --> 00:27:56 Bible over
00:27:56 --> 00:27:56 and over
00:27:56 --> 00:27:57 affirms an
00:27:57 --> 00:27:57 intelligent and
00:27:57 --> 00:27:58 awesome creator
00:27:58 --> 00:28:01 who has shown
00:28:01 --> 00:28:01 his face in
00:28:01 --> 00:28:02 the person of
00:28:02 --> 00:28:03 Jesus Christ.
00:28:05 --> 00:28:06 And you
00:28:06 --> 00:28:06 cannot hold to
00:28:06 --> 00:28:07 the majesty of
00:28:07 --> 00:28:08 Christ and
00:28:08 --> 00:28:08 believe in a
00:28:08 --> 00:28:09 world that
00:28:09 --> 00:28:09 happened by
00:28:09 --> 00:28:10 accident.
00:28:10 --> 00:28:11 The ideas
00:28:11 --> 00:28:12 are completely
00:28:12 --> 00:28:13 incompatible.
00:28:15 --> 00:28:16 The Bible
00:28:16 --> 00:28:16 makes a huge
00:28:16 --> 00:28:17 claim about
00:28:17 --> 00:28:18 Jesus Christ.
00:28:18 --> 00:28:18 He was in
00:28:18 --> 00:28:20 the world and
00:28:20 --> 00:28:21 though the
00:28:21 --> 00:28:21 world was
00:28:21 --> 00:28:22 made through
00:28:22 --> 00:28:22 him, the
00:28:22 --> 00:28:22 world did
00:28:22 --> 00:28:23 not recognise
00:28:23 --> 00:28:23 him.
00:28:25 --> 00:28:26 And that's
00:28:26 --> 00:28:27 either true
00:28:27 --> 00:28:28 or it's
00:28:28 --> 00:28:28 not.
00:28:30 --> 00:28:31 And if it's
00:28:31 --> 00:28:31 not, you
00:28:31 --> 00:28:32 can sleep
00:28:32 --> 00:28:33 soundly tonight
00:28:33 --> 00:28:33 in the
00:28:33 --> 00:28:33 knowledge that
00:28:33 --> 00:28:34 at the end
00:28:34 --> 00:28:34 of your
00:28:34 --> 00:28:35 days your
00:28:35 --> 00:28:36 molecules will
00:28:36 --> 00:28:36 be dust in
00:28:36 --> 00:28:37 the ground
00:28:37 --> 00:28:37 with no
00:28:37 --> 00:28:37 further
00:28:37 --> 00:28:38 existence.
00:28:41 --> 00:28:42 But if it
00:28:42 --> 00:28:43 is true, you
00:28:43 --> 00:28:43 need to know
00:28:43 --> 00:28:44 what follows.
00:28:46 --> 00:28:47 He came to
00:28:47 --> 00:28:48 that which was
00:28:48 --> 00:28:50 his own, but
00:28:50 --> 00:28:50 his own did
00:28:50 --> 00:28:51 not receive
00:28:51 --> 00:28:51 him.
00:28:53 --> 00:28:53 Yet to
00:28:53 --> 00:28:54 all who
00:28:54 --> 00:28:55 received him,
00:28:55 --> 00:28:56 to those who
00:28:56 --> 00:28:57 believed in
00:28:57 --> 00:28:58 his name, he
00:28:58 --> 00:28:58 gave the
00:28:58 --> 00:28:59 right to
00:28:59 --> 00:29:00 become children
00:29:00 --> 00:29:02 of God, to
00:29:02 --> 00:29:03 come into
00:29:03 --> 00:29:03 his family.
00:29:05 --> 00:29:06 And it is
00:29:06 --> 00:29:07 through believing
00:29:07 --> 00:29:07 in the Lord
00:29:07 --> 00:29:08 Jesus Christ that
00:29:08 --> 00:29:09 we come into
00:29:09 --> 00:29:11 his family and
00:29:11 --> 00:29:11 we can be
00:29:11 --> 00:29:12 called his
00:29:12 --> 00:29:12 children.
00:29:12 --> 00:29:13 Not everybody
00:29:13 --> 00:29:13 is a child of
00:29:13 --> 00:29:14 God.
00:29:15 --> 00:29:16 Those who have
00:29:16 --> 00:29:17 believed in
00:29:17 --> 00:29:17 God's Son, the
00:29:17 --> 00:29:18 Lord Jesus Christ,
00:29:18 --> 00:29:19 are invited into
00:29:19 --> 00:29:20 the family and
00:29:20 --> 00:29:20 called his
00:29:20 --> 00:29:21 children.
00:29:22 --> 00:29:23 And we
00:29:23 --> 00:29:23 inherit all the
00:29:23 --> 00:29:24 safety and
00:29:24 --> 00:29:25 security that
00:29:25 --> 00:29:25 goes with it.
00:29:26 --> 00:29:27 We are
00:29:27 --> 00:29:28 invited to be
00:29:28 --> 00:29:28 much more than
00:29:28 --> 00:29:29 creatures of
00:29:29 --> 00:29:29 the Creator.
00:29:31 --> 00:29:31 We are
00:29:31 --> 00:29:32 invited to
00:29:32 --> 00:29:33 become his
00:29:33 --> 00:29:33 children.
00:29:36 --> 00:29:36 So science and
00:29:36 --> 00:29:37 religion, mortal
00:29:37 --> 00:29:38 enemies or
00:29:38 --> 00:29:38 helpful friends?
00:29:40 --> 00:29:41 From a
00:29:41 --> 00:29:41 Bible point of
00:29:41 --> 00:29:43 view, in the
00:29:43 --> 00:29:44 end it depends
00:29:44 --> 00:29:44 on where you
00:29:44 --> 00:29:45 stand in terms of
00:29:45 --> 00:29:46 relationship with
00:29:46 --> 00:29:47 Christ.
00:29:48 --> 00:29:49 If you are in
00:29:49 --> 00:29:50 the family,
00:29:51 --> 00:29:51 science gives
00:29:51 --> 00:29:52 us deep
00:29:52 --> 00:29:54 appreciation for
00:29:54 --> 00:29:55 the work of
00:29:55 --> 00:29:55 the Creator.
00:29:57 --> 00:29:58 And if you
00:29:58 --> 00:29:58 want to stand
00:29:58 --> 00:29:59 apart from
00:29:59 --> 00:30:00 Christ, we
00:30:00 --> 00:30:00 leave ourselves
00:30:00 --> 00:30:01 in a position
00:30:01 --> 00:30:02 where the
00:30:02 --> 00:30:03 Creator holds
00:30:03 --> 00:30:04 us culpable
00:30:04 --> 00:30:06 for ignoring
00:30:06 --> 00:30:07 what is plainly
00:30:07 --> 00:30:07 true about
00:30:07 --> 00:30:08 him.
00:30:09 --> 00:30:10 Friend or
00:30:10 --> 00:30:11 enemy of the
00:30:11 --> 00:30:12 Creator comes
00:30:12 --> 00:30:13 down to where
00:30:13 --> 00:30:13 you stand with
00:30:13 --> 00:30:14 Christ.
00:30:14 --> 00:30:14 Christ.
00:30:15 --> 00:30:15 And you do
00:30:15 --> 00:30:16 not need to be
00:30:16 --> 00:30:17 a clever
00:30:17 --> 00:30:18 scientist to
00:30:18 --> 00:30:19 understand that.
00:30:20 --> 00:30:20 Amen.