Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
You can take any facet, any area of science you choose,
and you know what you'll find.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You'll find perfect order.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
You mean that all of that just heaven know, a
supreme divine person who has vast knowledge and superpower, had
to put all of.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
This in order.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Welcome to In Touch, the teaching ministry of doctor Charles
Stanley and his series on the Character of God. If
someone asked you to prove the existence of God, what
would you say? With confidence? Could you point a skeptic
to the reality of the God who has revealed himself
in Scripture and to you stay with us and continue
(00:49):
getting to know God so your faith in him can
flourish for his glory.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Now, if somebody should ask you, very seriously, why do
you believe.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
There is a God? What would you tell them? Now?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Some of you could probably give a very convincing answer,
but some of you who've been Christians a long time,
all of a sudden you'd say, well, I've always.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Believed that, And he'd say that's no good.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
And you'd say, well, my parents believe that, and he'd say, well,
some other parents don't believe that, And you'd say, well, lum,
I just I believe the Bible.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Why do you believe that.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
You see, if you really were confronted with someone who
has died in thy heart against spiritual things, who was
completely turned off about religion, some of God's precious children
would suddenly be stimied. And we are living in a
humanistic society that says that man is at the sinner
and not God. And you see the problem is this.
(01:49):
Men who believe in that cannot accept this book as
the word of God because the teaching of the scripture
from Genesis the Revelation says that God.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Is at the center of the universe, not man.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
That man in the garden of Eden fell and when
he fell, he fell out of fellowship with God. Man
is not at the center. God is at the center.
And every once in a while I meet some student
who says, you never want to I really begin to
wonder about this thing about God. And I'm going to
talk about three reasons that you and I have as
believe us to.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Believe there is a God.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So how do you income of the conclusion there's a God? Well,
number one, because of human reason. Let's look at two
or three things here. Is there any human evidence, Is
there any reasonable rational evidence for believing in God.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
If there were no.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Bible, and I think there is number one, Let's look
at this matter of our creation. How do we explain
the creation? How do we explain the universe? How do
we explain the seasons?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
How do we explain the origin of all of this?
How do you explain the origin of man?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
How do you explain the fact that there are hundreds
and thousands of different species of all kinds of insects
and animals and foul in the air? Is there any
human explanation for that? When somebody says to me, I'm
an evolutionist, then I want to congratulate them for their
great faith, because it takes more faith to believe that
all this came from nothing than to believe that.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
A holy God created all this.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
On the other hand, I want to comment on their blindness,
because how does a man reason this? You see, here's
the problem of evolution. The problem of evolution is this,
there is a point behind which there is no answer
to the evolutionist when he gets back to the one
(03:56):
sail o mevar and let's just begin with that. But
where did he come from? How did he get in
the water? Where did the water come from? There is
no answer. You see, here's the problem. God said, their
minds have blinded.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Now here's the problem.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
If you want to discover why men don't believe in God,
go back to the garden of Eden. When man fell
in the garden of Eden, what was affected? His mind
was affected. That's why Paul said, by the renewing of
your mind, don't be shaped in the image of the world,
but be what transformed. How is the man transformed by
the renewing of his mind? And many Christians are saved,
(04:36):
but they never get a mental renewing. They just keep
reading the same old books and believing the same old thing,
and find of this confusion and frustration they have to
make a decision which one they're going to give up.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
There's the second reason, I think.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
When it comes to human reason, and that is the
perfect order which.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
We see all around us.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I think the most beautiful example of that is.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
To look up in the sky.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
You and I can look out in the space where
we cannot measure, but others can, and we see our
whole solar system, and sinists tell us that they're millions
billions of stars out there, and in our solar system
we talk about nine planets and how large they are,
and we know exactly where they're going to be at a
certain time of the year, and when we're going to
(05:24):
have an eclipse of the moon and the partial eclipse.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
We can figure that out years and years ahead of time.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
How do you explain the absolute perfect almost down to
the second?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I mean hundreds of years.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Scientists can predict to the minute, and they say, to
the second, what's going to happen at.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
A certain time. Now you answer this, how could all
of that just have happened?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
If you and I will be honest with ourselves and
look out into space and see all the perfect order,
the seasons that God has given the tide. You see,
a man can stand on the sea and say, don't
come in, don't come in, and that God just keeps
coming in. He cannot stuff it because it is God's law.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Of the sea. And my friend listens.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
You can take any facet, any area of science you choose,
and you know what you'll find.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
You'll find perfect order. How can all of this have
just you? See?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Listen, Each insect has its own lifestyle, each animal.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Has its own lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Each fish in the ocean has its own characteristics.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
You mean that all of that just happened.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Know, a supreme divine person who has vast knowledge and
superpower had to put all of this in order. Now,
when you go to bed night, you're not gonna be
worried about the sunshine tomorrow morning. How many of you
worried last night about the sunshine this morning?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You know why? Because you believe that everything is going
to stay in its orbit. Why do you believe that?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Because you know that someone bigger than you and myself
put it there.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And there is no answer but God.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
You see, the real solution of the whole problem is
found in Genesis chapter one, verse one.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
And what is that? In the beginning God?
Speaker 1 (07:28):
And you know what, if you can accept Genesis chapter one,
verse one, you don't have any problem with God. Because listen,
here is the book that God has given us as
a guide to all mankind. But isn't it interesting that
nowhere in this book does he ever attempt to prove himself.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
There is not one single inference in.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
The Bible, not even an implication in the scripture that anywhere,
anytime any of God's men tried to prove that there
is a God, they talked about idolatry. But You see,
God doesn't prove himself. The Bible accepts as a fact
the reality of the presence of the living God. But
(08:10):
you say, well, why is it that a lost man
cannot from human reason alone, from the creation of man,
from the creation of the universe, from the order that
is within the universe, out of his pure human reason?
Why is it that he cannot understand that this is
of God?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Why can he do it? You remember what Paul said
in verse grand, chapter two.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
The natural man receiveth not the things of God, because
they are indeed foolish to him. Now listen, you know
why they're foolish to him, because if they were true,
and he accepted him as the truth, what would it
demand of the unbeliever change a change in his lifestyle.
Many people do not believe in God because if they
(08:54):
believe in God, they would have to change their lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
So what do they do?
Speaker 1 (09:01):
They just begin the rationalistic approach to rationalize the fact
that there is no God. Now, I say all of
that to say to you, and especially you who are
college students.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
The next time someone says to you there is.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
No God, you say, well, I appreciate you informing me
about that. I'd like to know two or three things.
I'd like to know how you explained the creation. Now, listen,
you ask the questions. Don't let them ask them. You
keep asking the questions because what you're.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Going to do.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
You want to drive him to this last question what
caused that? And then when he says, well, we don't
know that, then I'd say, well, you know, maybe that's
somebody who got this whole thing started. Secondly, Divine Revelation
(09:55):
says there's a God, Genesis the revelation.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
What does the Bible start with? Genesis Chapter one, Verse one.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
In the beginning, God created the heaven.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
And the earth.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Now, if you return to Romans chapter one for a moment,
and Paul in Romans chapter one answers lots of questions
in these verses, For therein is the home at the
gospel in verse sixteen, the favorite verse I am not
a shamed verse seventeen, for therein that is in the Gospel.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed in the words.
(10:30):
The righteousness of God is understood because God showed man
how righteous he is.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
From faith to faith, as it is written to Joshua,
live by faith. Now watch this for.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Listen, who hold the truth
in unrighteousness, they will not face the truth because that
which may be known of God is manifest. It's evident
(11:02):
in them, that is, in their conscience. They know there
is a spot for God. For God hath showed it
unto them Verse twenty. For the invisible things of Him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen by
the creation. You can see the evidence of God being
(11:22):
understood by the things that are made. The very physical
creation itself speaks of God, even his eternal power.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
And God had listen, what does he say.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
That the eternal power of God is evidenced in creation,
That a supreme being, a knowledgeable one who has the
power to design and put in order this perfect creation,
this perfect order.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
He's his all. That is evidence. Listen, so that they
are without excuse.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
If the atheist thinks he's going to stand before God
and say, well, I'll tell you, the problem is that I.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Never believed in him.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
He is inexcusable for two reasons. His consciences for him
witness there is a God. And secondly, the whole creation
shouted that there is a God, and for that reason
that man is inexcusable.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
He'll die and go straight to hell justly verse twenty one.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Here's his problem, because that when they knew God, they
glorified him, not as God. Neither were they thankful, but
became vain in their imaginations.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Their foolish heart became dark. Why did that foolish heart
become dark?
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Because watch this, because when they got a glimpse of God,
when they got a little understanding of God, what did
they do? They became vain in their imagination. They didn't
want to do what that God wanted them to do.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
And so what happened to them verse twenty two.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
And what did they do?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Because they would not accept the law of God. They
changed the glory of the uncorruptible Holy God into an
image made like the corruptible man.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Isn't that humanism gonna make him like man?
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Gonna capsule God and to birds and four footed beasts
and creeping things. Listen, if you're gonna have a God
made with human hands, what are you gonna do? You
gonna make a god you can control you're gonna shape
him like you want to shape him.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Listen verse twenty four.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Wherefore God did what when men insist on creating their
own gods, and you know what God will do with them.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
He will turn them over to it.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Wherefore God gave them over up to uncleanness, to the
lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies
between themselves. And you read the rest of that passage
and all kinds of perversion sexually, you'll find it.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Brother right there.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Listen, when men deliberately willingly turn away from God, he says,
God will give them over to it. And this is
why we have a whole system today that is distorted.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
And perverted about the truth.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Listen, when you pick up this Bible, if you believe
the God who penned the scriptures to the end of
the Holy Spirit, you'll have to give up sin and
begin to live for God.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
And if you don't want to do that, what are
you gonna do. I'll tell you what you're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
You're gonna rip this book apart because every time you
see it, it says accountability.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Every time you see it says holiness, every time.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
You see it says justice every time you see it
says judgment. And a man who wants to live in
sin is not gonna believe in a God whom he's
going to have to give an accountant. And there's the explanation.
Romans won divine revelation. That's the only way to know God.
But let me tell you how men know God. They
(14:38):
don't really learn too much about God through nature. That's
why God sined his only begotten son. And listen, do
you want to find out who God is? You want
to find out what God is like? Look in John
chapter fifteen, verse fifteen. The only way to know God.
In chapter fourteen he said, I am the Way, the Truth,
(14:59):
and the Life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me John chapter fifteen, verse fifteen.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Remember that here is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
His apostles before his crucifixion net the next morning. And
he says, henceforth, I call you not servants, for the
servants know not what his Lord doeth.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
But I have called you friends.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
For all things that I have heard of my Father,
I have made them known unto you. Listen, let me
ask you something. What do you know about God that
was not delivered to you through Jesus Christ and the
Word of God. All you and look around nature and say, boy,
God must he must love col Look at the blue
(15:38):
sky and the green trees, and the orange and purple mountains.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Surely God loves color. He sure does.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
God must have a vast mind to be able to
think thousands of feet deep in the ocean, billions of
miles out there.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
He's vastness in his thoughts. And you and I could
run the gamut.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Of all the creation describe God. He's something you'd never
discover about God. You can never discover in the creation
that God is a personal, warm, loving, forgiving father.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
There is no way to discover that.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
You see, we understand what God is like best when
we accept the Lord.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Jesus Christ as our savior. What do we get.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
We get a glimpse that God is our father, that
he'll forgive us just like a father will forgive his son,
and that he'll cleanse us, and he'll help us, and
he'll guide us, and he'll provide for us, and one
of these days he's going to take us home to
be with him. You don't get that revelation through anybody
but Jesus Christ. The Hebrews had a concept of God.
(16:48):
It was only there was only partial life.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Why did the Father.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Send the son in order to reveal the truth about
himself to humanity and at the same time to.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Make it possible for men to be saved? You see
why do we.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Best understand how much God loves us? We find the
greatest expression of God's love and we see his son
dying on a cross, bleeding to death for sinners like
you and myself. One of the way I believe that
you and I know God is that He's real, and
that is when you, by faith, turns your life over
(17:28):
to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
What happened? Let me ask you something.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Could anybody ever convince you there's no Christ, no God? No?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
You know why they couldn't.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Brother, you have experienced something, and the man may say
to you there's no God, and he may give you
scientific reasons, philosophical reasons. But let me ask you, what
is it about your faith in God that all the
athheism in the world cannot touch.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
I'll tell you what it is.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
He cannot touch the fact that one day, as a child,
as a young adult, as an old man, you got
on your knees and you cried and you asked Jesus
Christ to come in your heart, and your sins were forgiven.
The peace of God filled your soul, and you've been
different ever since. You see you and I know there's
(18:21):
a God for three reasons. Human reason, when it is honest,
says there is a God. Divine revelation from Genesis to
the end of that book says there is a God.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
And personal experience.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Relationship with him says there's a God.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
He's God. And when somebody.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Says is there a God, brother, don't whisper yes, shut hallelujah.
There is a personal God who lives within my heart
and with whom.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I am going to spend an everlasting eternity.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Doctor Stanley's message enthusiastically proclaimed that yes, there is a God,
and he loves us with an unconditional, sacrificial love that
is best seen in Jesus Christ. If you're not a Christian,
you can know that love personally when you receive God's
gift of forgiveness by placing your faith in Christ trust
(19:23):
in him today. For help with that, visit our website
in touch dot oorg and you can listen to this
message again by clicking today on radio on our homepage.
If you'd like to have a copy of today's complete message,
you can order it from our online store. The title
is God Is or order our teaching set the Character
(19:47):
of God Again. That's in touch dot oorg. Or call
one eight hundred in touch if you prefer to write.
Our address is in touch Post Office Box seventy nine hundred, Atlanta, Georgia,
three zero three five seven. How you use the name
of God reveals your understanding of his character. Today's moment
(20:10):
with Charles Stanley is just ahead.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Are you living a life of preferences or one that's
based on God's word? To enjoy a strong life, one
that makes an eternal impact, we have to break free
from the factors that make us weak. In doctor Charles
Stanley's book Standing Strong, believers will find encouragement to construct
a life based on the strength of enduring faith built
on uncompromised Biblical convictions. To order your copy of Standing Strong,
(20:37):
call one eight hundred in touch or visit InTouch dot org.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
At times, life can be stormy, and each one of
us will face many trials. Questions are asked, and doubt
may set in. The answers are found through faith in Jesus.
He is within every believer, always ready to offer us comfort,
hope and peace in times of great trial, So you
can trust Him with any circumstance. To order doctor Stanley's
(21:05):
book How to Let God Solve Your Problems, call one
eight hundred in touch or go to InTouch dot org
slash store.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
You're listening to in Touch, Could you be a little
too casual in your attitude toward God. Here's a moment
with Charles Stanley.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Now, you know, people write all kinds of songs and
have all kinds of sayings, and you know when people
start calling God the man upstairs, I'll tell you, dear brother,
that's very unholy, irreverent. And the Hebrew would never speak
of God like we speak about it.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
They'd never use his name like we use it. They
weren't going around saying praise God. How will you praise God?
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Well, if you want to praise God, that's one thing.
But when it is not a reverent expression, it may
be vocal and loud, but when it is not a
reverend expression of the human heart expressing the joy and
praise to Him, then, my friend, you ought to take
note of how you use that name When I hear
(22:14):
a man say God, and he puts another word on
the end of it, I know something that man is
blind to the holiness of God.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
When men use his holy name in slain.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Or crudely, or off the cup or carelessly, I know
they don't know what He's like.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
What was Isaiah saying? Isaah said in the year the
King Uziah.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
That I saw the Lord hide and Mighty lifting up.
And he says, all of a sudden, when he saw
the Lord, he said, smoke filled the temple. He said,
the whole place shook when he saw the presence of God.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
And what did he do again? To confess his sin?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
And he fell upon his face before God, and he says,
off the altar, the fiery altar of heaven. The angel
came and placed the coal upon his lips and sanctified
his voice, and he said, Lord, here am I send me.
He knew something about God, and he fell down before him.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
In contrician humility.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Listen, if somehow you and I could grasp something about
who God is, if we could just get just a
little inkling of how holy he is, of how fast
and immence he is, out.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
How much truth there is in God. You and I
will never carelessly call his name a joke about God.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Learn more about who God is and his unconditional love
for you hat in Touch.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Dot a RG.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Next week on End Touch, What's in a name More
than you might think when you're talking about God's name.
Our series on the character of God continues Monday on
in Touch, the teaching ministry of doctor Charles Stanley, whose
program is a presentation of in Touch Ministries Atlanta, Georgia,
(24:22):
and remains on this station through the grace of God
and your faithful prayers and gifts.
You can take any facet, any area of science you choose,
and you know what you'll find.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You'll find perfect order.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
You mean that all of that just heaven know, a
supreme divine person who has vast knowledge and superpower, had
to put all of.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
This in order.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Welcome to In Touch, the teaching ministry of doctor Charles
Stanley and his series on the Character of God. If
someone asked you to prove the existence of God, what
would you say? With confidence? Could you point a skeptic
to the reality of the God who has revealed himself
in Scripture and to you stay with us and continue
(00:49):
getting to know God so your faith in him can
flourish for his glory.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Now, if somebody should ask you, very seriously, why do
you believe.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
There is a God? What would you tell them? Now?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Some of you could probably give a very convincing answer,
but some of you who've been Christians a long time,
all of a sudden you'd say, well, I've always.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Believed that, And he'd say that's no good.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
And you'd say, well, my parents believe that, and he'd say, well,
some other parents don't believe that, And you'd say, well, lum,
I just I believe the Bible.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Why do you believe that.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
You see, if you really were confronted with someone who
has died in thy heart against spiritual things, who was
completely turned off about religion, some of God's precious children
would suddenly be stimied. And we are living in a
humanistic society that says that man is at the sinner
and not God. And you see the problem is this.
(01:49):
Men who believe in that cannot accept this book as
the word of God because the teaching of the scripture
from Genesis the Revelation says that God.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Is at the center of the universe, not man.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
That man in the garden of Eden fell and when
he fell, he fell out of fellowship with God. Man
is not at the center. God is at the center.
And every once in a while I meet some student
who says, you never want to I really begin to
wonder about this thing about God. And I'm going to
talk about three reasons that you and I have as
believe us to.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Believe there is a God.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So how do you income of the conclusion there's a God? Well,
number one, because of human reason. Let's look at two
or three things here. Is there any human evidence, Is
there any reasonable rational evidence for believing in God.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
If there were no.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Bible, and I think there is number one, Let's look
at this matter of our creation. How do we explain
the creation? How do we explain the universe? How do
we explain the seasons?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
How do we explain the origin of all of this?
How do you explain the origin of man?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
How do you explain the fact that there are hundreds
and thousands of different species of all kinds of insects
and animals and foul in the air? Is there any
human explanation for that? When somebody says to me, I'm
an evolutionist, then I want to congratulate them for their
great faith, because it takes more faith to believe that
all this came from nothing than to believe that.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
A holy God created all this.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
On the other hand, I want to comment on their blindness,
because how does a man reason this? You see, here's
the problem of evolution. The problem of evolution is this,
there is a point behind which there is no answer
to the evolutionist when he gets back to the one
(03:56):
sail o mevar and let's just begin with that. But
where did he come from? How did he get in
the water? Where did the water come from? There is
no answer. You see, here's the problem. God said, their
minds have blinded.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Now here's the problem.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
If you want to discover why men don't believe in God,
go back to the garden of Eden. When man fell
in the garden of Eden, what was affected? His mind
was affected. That's why Paul said, by the renewing of
your mind, don't be shaped in the image of the world,
but be what transformed. How is the man transformed by
the renewing of his mind? And many Christians are saved,
(04:36):
but they never get a mental renewing. They just keep
reading the same old books and believing the same old thing,
and find of this confusion and frustration they have to
make a decision which one they're going to give up.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
There's the second reason, I think.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
When it comes to human reason, and that is the
perfect order which.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
We see all around us.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I think the most beautiful example of that is.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
To look up in the sky.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
You and I can look out in the space where
we cannot measure, but others can, and we see our
whole solar system, and sinists tell us that they're millions
billions of stars out there, and in our solar system
we talk about nine planets and how large they are,
and we know exactly where they're going to be at a
certain time of the year, and when we're going to
(05:24):
have an eclipse of the moon and the partial eclipse.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
We can figure that out years and years ahead of time.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
How do you explain the absolute perfect almost down to
the second?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I mean hundreds of years.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Scientists can predict to the minute, and they say, to
the second, what's going to happen at.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
A certain time. Now you answer this, how could all
of that just have happened?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
If you and I will be honest with ourselves and
look out into space and see all the perfect order,
the seasons that God has given the tide. You see,
a man can stand on the sea and say, don't
come in, don't come in, and that God just keeps
coming in. He cannot stuff it because it is God's law.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Of the sea. And my friend listens.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
You can take any facet, any area of science you choose,
and you know what you'll find.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
You'll find perfect order. How can all of this have
just you? See?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Listen, Each insect has its own lifestyle, each animal.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Has its own lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Each fish in the ocean has its own characteristics.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
You mean that all of that just happened.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Know, a supreme divine person who has vast knowledge and
superpower had to put all of this in order. Now,
when you go to bed night, you're not gonna be
worried about the sunshine tomorrow morning. How many of you
worried last night about the sunshine this morning?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You know why? Because you believe that everything is going
to stay in its orbit. Why do you believe that?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Because you know that someone bigger than you and myself
put it there.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And there is no answer but God.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
You see, the real solution of the whole problem is
found in Genesis chapter one, verse one.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
And what is that? In the beginning God?
Speaker 1 (07:28):
And you know what, if you can accept Genesis chapter one,
verse one, you don't have any problem with God. Because listen,
here is the book that God has given us as
a guide to all mankind. But isn't it interesting that
nowhere in this book does he ever attempt to prove himself.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
There is not one single inference in.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
The Bible, not even an implication in the scripture that anywhere,
anytime any of God's men tried to prove that there
is a God, they talked about idolatry. But You see,
God doesn't prove himself. The Bible accepts as a fact
the reality of the presence of the living God. But
(08:10):
you say, well, why is it that a lost man
cannot from human reason alone, from the creation of man,
from the creation of the universe, from the order that
is within the universe, out of his pure human reason?
Why is it that he cannot understand that this is
of God?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Why can he do it? You remember what Paul said
in verse grand, chapter two.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
The natural man receiveth not the things of God, because
they are indeed foolish to him. Now listen, you know
why they're foolish to him, because if they were true,
and he accepted him as the truth, what would it
demand of the unbeliever change a change in his lifestyle.
Many people do not believe in God because if they
(08:54):
believe in God, they would have to change their lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
So what do they do?
Speaker 1 (09:01):
They just begin the rationalistic approach to rationalize the fact
that there is no God. Now, I say all of
that to say to you, and especially you who are
college students.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
The next time someone says to you there is.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
No God, you say, well, I appreciate you informing me
about that. I'd like to know two or three things.
I'd like to know how you explained the creation. Now, listen,
you ask the questions. Don't let them ask them. You
keep asking the questions because what you're.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Going to do.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
You want to drive him to this last question what
caused that? And then when he says, well, we don't
know that, then I'd say, well, you know, maybe that's
somebody who got this whole thing started. Secondly, Divine Revelation
(09:55):
says there's a God, Genesis the revelation.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
What does the Bible start with? Genesis Chapter one, Verse one.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
In the beginning, God created the heaven.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
And the earth.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Now, if you return to Romans chapter one for a moment,
and Paul in Romans chapter one answers lots of questions
in these verses, For therein is the home at the
gospel in verse sixteen, the favorite verse I am not
a shamed verse seventeen, for therein that is in the Gospel.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed in the words.
(10:30):
The righteousness of God is understood because God showed man
how righteous he is.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
From faith to faith, as it is written to Joshua,
live by faith. Now watch this for.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Listen, who hold the truth
in unrighteousness, they will not face the truth because that
which may be known of God is manifest. It's evident
(11:02):
in them, that is, in their conscience. They know there
is a spot for God. For God hath showed it
unto them Verse twenty. For the invisible things of Him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen by
the creation. You can see the evidence of God being
(11:22):
understood by the things that are made. The very physical
creation itself speaks of God, even his eternal power.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
And God had listen, what does he say.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
That the eternal power of God is evidenced in creation,
That a supreme being, a knowledgeable one who has the
power to design and put in order this perfect creation,
this perfect order.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
He's his all. That is evidence. Listen, so that they
are without excuse.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
If the atheist thinks he's going to stand before God
and say, well, I'll tell you, the problem is that I.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Never believed in him.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
He is inexcusable for two reasons. His consciences for him
witness there is a God. And secondly, the whole creation
shouted that there is a God, and for that reason
that man is inexcusable.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
He'll die and go straight to hell justly verse twenty one.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Here's his problem, because that when they knew God, they
glorified him, not as God. Neither were they thankful, but
became vain in their imaginations.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Their foolish heart became dark. Why did that foolish heart
become dark?
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Because watch this, because when they got a glimpse of God,
when they got a little understanding of God, what did
they do? They became vain in their imagination. They didn't
want to do what that God wanted them to do.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
And so what happened to them verse twenty two.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
And what did they do?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Because they would not accept the law of God. They
changed the glory of the uncorruptible Holy God into an
image made like the corruptible man.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Isn't that humanism gonna make him like man?
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Gonna capsule God and to birds and four footed beasts
and creeping things. Listen, if you're gonna have a God
made with human hands, what are you gonna do? You
gonna make a god you can control you're gonna shape
him like you want to shape him.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Listen verse twenty four.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Wherefore God did what when men insist on creating their
own gods, and you know what God will do with them.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
He will turn them over to it.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Wherefore God gave them over up to uncleanness, to the
lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies
between themselves. And you read the rest of that passage
and all kinds of perversion sexually, you'll find it.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Brother right there.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Listen, when men deliberately willingly turn away from God, he says,
God will give them over to it. And this is
why we have a whole system today that is distorted.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
And perverted about the truth.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Listen, when you pick up this Bible, if you believe
the God who penned the scriptures to the end of
the Holy Spirit, you'll have to give up sin and
begin to live for God.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
And if you don't want to do that, what are
you gonna do. I'll tell you what you're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
You're gonna rip this book apart because every time you
see it, it says accountability.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Every time you see it says holiness, every time.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
You see it says justice every time you see it
says judgment. And a man who wants to live in
sin is not gonna believe in a God whom he's
going to have to give an accountant. And there's the explanation.
Romans won divine revelation. That's the only way to know God.
But let me tell you how men know God. They
(14:38):
don't really learn too much about God through nature. That's
why God sined his only begotten son. And listen, do
you want to find out who God is? You want
to find out what God is like? Look in John
chapter fifteen, verse fifteen. The only way to know God.
In chapter fourteen he said, I am the Way, the Truth,
(14:59):
and the Life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me John chapter fifteen, verse fifteen.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Remember that here is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
His apostles before his crucifixion net the next morning. And
he says, henceforth, I call you not servants, for the
servants know not what his Lord doeth.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
But I have called you friends.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
For all things that I have heard of my Father,
I have made them known unto you. Listen, let me
ask you something. What do you know about God that
was not delivered to you through Jesus Christ and the
Word of God. All you and look around nature and say, boy,
God must he must love col Look at the blue
(15:38):
sky and the green trees, and the orange and purple mountains.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Surely God loves color. He sure does.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
God must have a vast mind to be able to
think thousands of feet deep in the ocean, billions of
miles out there.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
He's vastness in his thoughts. And you and I could
run the gamut.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Of all the creation describe God. He's something you'd never
discover about God. You can never discover in the creation
that God is a personal, warm, loving, forgiving father.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
There is no way to discover that.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
You see, we understand what God is like best when
we accept the Lord.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Jesus Christ as our savior. What do we get.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
We get a glimpse that God is our father, that
he'll forgive us just like a father will forgive his son,
and that he'll cleanse us, and he'll help us, and
he'll guide us, and he'll provide for us, and one
of these days he's going to take us home to
be with him. You don't get that revelation through anybody
but Jesus Christ. The Hebrews had a concept of God.
(16:48):
It was only there was only partial life.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Why did the Father.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Send the son in order to reveal the truth about
himself to humanity and at the same time to.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Make it possible for men to be saved? You see
why do we.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Best understand how much God loves us? We find the
greatest expression of God's love and we see his son
dying on a cross, bleeding to death for sinners like
you and myself. One of the way I believe that
you and I know God is that He's real, and
that is when you, by faith, turns your life over
(17:28):
to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
What happened? Let me ask you something.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Could anybody ever convince you there's no Christ, no God? No?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
You know why they couldn't.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Brother, you have experienced something, and the man may say
to you there's no God, and he may give you
scientific reasons, philosophical reasons. But let me ask you, what
is it about your faith in God that all the
athheism in the world cannot touch.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
I'll tell you what it is.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
He cannot touch the fact that one day, as a child,
as a young adult, as an old man, you got
on your knees and you cried and you asked Jesus
Christ to come in your heart, and your sins were forgiven.
The peace of God filled your soul, and you've been
different ever since. You see you and I know there's
(18:21):
a God for three reasons. Human reason, when it is honest,
says there is a God. Divine revelation from Genesis to
the end of that book says there is a God.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
And personal experience.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Relationship with him says there's a God.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
He's God. And when somebody.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Says is there a God, brother, don't whisper yes, shut hallelujah.
There is a personal God who lives within my heart
and with whom.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I am going to spend an everlasting eternity.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Doctor Stanley's message enthusiastically proclaimed that yes, there is a God,
and he loves us with an unconditional, sacrificial love that
is best seen in Jesus Christ. If you're not a Christian,
you can know that love personally when you receive God's
gift of forgiveness by placing your faith in Christ trust
(19:23):
in him today. For help with that, visit our website
in touch dot oorg and you can listen to this
message again by clicking today on radio on our homepage.
If you'd like to have a copy of today's complete message,
you can order it from our online store. The title
is God Is or order our teaching set the Character
(19:47):
of God Again. That's in touch dot oorg. Or call
one eight hundred in touch if you prefer to write.
Our address is in touch Post Office Box seventy nine hundred, Atlanta, Georgia,
three zero three five seven. How you use the name
of God reveals your understanding of his character. Today's moment
(20:10):
with Charles Stanley is just ahead.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Are you living a life of preferences or one that's
based on God's word? To enjoy a strong life, one
that makes an eternal impact, we have to break free
from the factors that make us weak. In doctor Charles
Stanley's book Standing Strong, believers will find encouragement to construct
a life based on the strength of enduring faith built
on uncompromised Biblical convictions. To order your copy of Standing Strong,
(20:37):
call one eight hundred in touch or visit InTouch dot org.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
At times, life can be stormy, and each one of
us will face many trials. Questions are asked, and doubt
may set in. The answers are found through faith in Jesus.
He is within every believer, always ready to offer us comfort,
hope and peace in times of great trial, So you
can trust Him with any circumstance. To order doctor Stanley's
(21:05):
book How to Let God Solve Your Problems, call one
eight hundred in touch or go to InTouch dot org
slash store.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
You're listening to in Touch, Could you be a little
too casual in your attitude toward God. Here's a moment
with Charles Stanley.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Now, you know, people write all kinds of songs and
have all kinds of sayings, and you know when people
start calling God the man upstairs, I'll tell you, dear brother,
that's very unholy, irreverent. And the Hebrew would never speak
of God like we speak about it.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
They'd never use his name like we use it. They
weren't going around saying praise God. How will you praise God?
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Well, if you want to praise God, that's one thing.
But when it is not a reverent expression, it may
be vocal and loud, but when it is not a
reverend expression of the human heart expressing the joy and
praise to Him, then, my friend, you ought to take
note of how you use that name When I hear
(22:14):
a man say God, and he puts another word on
the end of it, I know something that man is
blind to the holiness of God.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
When men use his holy name in slain.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Or crudely, or off the cup or carelessly, I know
they don't know what He's like.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
What was Isaiah saying? Isaah said in the year the
King Uziah.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
That I saw the Lord hide and Mighty lifting up.
And he says, all of a sudden, when he saw
the Lord, he said, smoke filled the temple. He said,
the whole place shook when he saw the presence of God.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
And what did he do again? To confess his sin?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
And he fell upon his face before God, and he says,
off the altar, the fiery altar of heaven. The angel
came and placed the coal upon his lips and sanctified
his voice, and he said, Lord, here am I send me.
He knew something about God, and he fell down before him.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
In contrician humility.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Listen, if somehow you and I could grasp something about
who God is, if we could just get just a
little inkling of how holy he is, of how fast
and immence he is, out.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
How much truth there is in God. You and I
will never carelessly call his name a joke about God.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Learn more about who God is and his unconditional love
for you hat in Touch.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Dot a RG.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Next week on End Touch, What's in a name More
than you might think when you're talking about God's name.
Our series on the character of God continues Monday on
in Touch, the teaching ministry of doctor Charles Stanley, whose
program is a presentation of in Touch Ministries Atlanta, Georgia,
(24:22):
and remains on this station through the grace of God
and your faithful prayers and gifts.
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