Faith Questions - 1 * IS GOD REAL?

 

Faith Questions - 1

IS GOD REAL?

… based on the 19th Psalm

NOTE: “I've been accused over the years of giving teaching sermons, & if that's the case then certainly the next 4 will be in familiar territory.  I want to deal with "Faith Questions."  Questions about the existence of God; questions about the credibility of the Bible; questions about the problem of evil & suffering in a world that's supposedly being run by an omniscient, all-powerful, good God; & questions about the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ.  So, this is the 1st one, "Is God Real?"

Blessings, Rande

Elwood P. Dowd has a 6’3½” tall best friend named Harvey.  

Now there’s nothing unusual about that except that Harvey is a rabbit.  

In fact, he’s an imaginary rabbit.  

That’s the story line of a Pulitzer Prize winning play, “Harvey,” 

that was later made into a movie starring my favorite actor, Jimmy Stewart, who we all watched in December in … (It’s A Wonderful Life).

Elwood Dowd is about 40 years old, amiable, a little eccentric & likes to hang out at the local pub philosophizing about life.  And his drinking buddy is this imaginary rabbit named Harvey.  Now we never see Harvey in the movie.

We just see his shadow on the promotional posters.

You’d like Elwood.  Despite his belief in Harvey … he’s a nice guy, 

& he loves to do good for other people.  Even so, his sister, Veta, 

who thinks he’s nuts, tries to get him committed to a sanitarium.  

And this is where the fun begins because by the end of the movie Elwood is able to convince the mental hospital staff that Harvey is real, 

& it’s Veta who ends up getting committed.

The message of the movie is obvious … 

a little bit of fantasy never hurt anybody.  In fact, if you have an imaginary friend who helps you out, if you have an imaginary friend who has a positive impact upon the lives of people … that’s great.  You’re not crazy.

Question … is God this kind of imaginary friend?  Go ahead & believe in God if you want to, if that gets you through the day, great, you’re not crazy.

But is God real?

This is the 1st of 4 questions we’re going to look at in this sermon series I’m calling “Faith Questions.”  These are the big questions that people have struggled with for centuries.  Questions that I hope each of you have wrestled with at one time or another.  Questions about the existence of God; questions about the creditability of the Bible; questions about the problem of evil & suffering in a world that’s supposedly being run by an omniscient, all-powerful, good God; & questions about the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ.  These are the questions we’re going to be looking at over the next few weeks, starting today with … is God real?

Let me say right up front, I don’t think this series will convince any diehard skeptic to become a faithful believer.  Rather, these messages are for you who are already committed to Christ.  And my prayer is that by the end of this 4-week series you’re going to be encouraged that what you believe is not only reasonable, it’s better than any of the alternatives.  

This is an intelligent rational faith that we’ve been called to.

God never requires us to take a blind leap of faith.  

I hate it when I hear that said.  Faith, yes … blindly, never.  

There are intelligent answers to this question … is God real?

Listen now to Good News from The Psalms, this one written by David, 

to us who have gathered to worship God.  

Within our hearing comes the word of the Lord …

How clearly the sky reveals God’s glory!

How plainly it shows what he has done!

Each day announces it to the following day; each night repeats it to the next.

No speech or words are used, no sound is heard;

yet their message goes out to all the world

and is heard to the ends of the earth.

God made a home in the sky for the sun; 

it comes out in the morning like a happy bridegroom,

like an athlete eager to run a race.

It starts at one end of the sky and goes across to the other.

Nothing can hide from its heat.

The law of the LORD is perfect; it gives new strength.

The commands of the LORD are trustworthy,

giving wisdom to those who lack it.

The laws of the LORD are right, and those who obey them are happy.

The commands of the LORD are just and give understanding to the mind. 

Reverence for the LORD is good; it will continue forever.

The judgments of the LORD are just; they are always fair.

They are more desirable than the finest gold;

they are sweeter than the purest honey.  

They give knowledge to me, your servant; I am rewarded for obeying them.

None of us can see our own errors; deliver me, LORD, from hidden faults!

Keep me safe, also, from willful sins; don’t let them rule over me.

Then I shall be perfect and free from the evil of sin.

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you,

O LORD, my refuge and my redeemer! (The 19th Psalm)

“May my words & my thoughts be acceptable to you, 

O LORD, my refuge & my redeemer!” (The Psalms 19:14)

May the Lord grant that we may engage in contemplating the mysteries of His Heavenly wisdom with really increasing devotion, to His glory and to our edification.  Amen 

C.S. Lewis, who taught literature at both Cambridge & Oxford, said of the 19th Psalm, that these are some of the best lyrics in the history of the world.  And in this Psalm, we find 4 arguments for the existence of God.  

#1 … the evidence of creation.

How clearly the sky reveals God’s glory!

How plainly it shows what he has done!

The Psalmist argues that there’s all sorts of evidence out there in creation, particularly in the skies, (Romans 1:20) that points to the existence of God.

Dr. James Boice was a Bible scholar, & actually, 

one of my heroes in the faith.  He states that we can sum up what the Psalmist is saying with 3 words; 3 words that describe the ample amount of evidence in creation that points to God.

The 1st word is continuous.  The evidence is continuous.

Each day announces it to the following day; each night repeats it to the next.

All day long, & one night after another … 

the evidence keeps coming at us from creation.

The 2nd word is abundant.  It’s overwhelming.  

If we look at the stars, it’s there.  If we look at the human body, it’s there.

The 3rd word is universal.

It starts at one end of the sky & goes across to the other.

There is nowhere we can go & get away from this evidence.  

God’s fingerprints are everywhere.  The evidence is continuous, abundant, universal.  So, what does the evidence say about God?

2 things … 1st it says that He is a powerful 1st cause.  

In the early part of the 20th century astronomers noticed that about a dozen galaxies were moving away from the earth at a high rate of speed.  And they eventually concluded that that outwardly propelled motion must be the result of a universe having a beginning because of a gigantic fireball explosion which they called … (the big bang).

What this means is, if the universe has a beginning it must have a cause, 

a powerful 1st cause.  Okay, how about God?

How did the universe begin?  God! (Genesis 1:1) This is referred to as the argument from cosmology.  (That’s not to be confused with cosmetology.)  

Cosmology is the study of the origin of the universe.  

Cosmetology is the study of the beautification of the skin, hair, & nails.

(Mary Kay was not a cosmologist.)

Now cosmology says that everything that has a beginning has a cause.  

The universe has a beginning, so, its’ powerful 1st cause must be God.  

Now atheists object to this; they say that even little children can blow apart this argument from cosmology.  

Have you ever said to a child, “God made everything”?  

What’s the question that the child immediately asks? … (Who made God?)  So, the atheist says, “See, now you’re stuck, you have nowhere to go.”

Wrong!  The argument from cosmology doesn’t say that everything has a cause.  It says that everything that has a beginning has a cause.  The universe, we now know thanks to scientists, has a beginning.  So, the universe must have a cause.  God has no beginning; (The Psalms 90:2) therefore, He doesn’t need a cause.  You tell that to a child, & do you know what?  Kids get it.

The 2nd thing we learn from creation is 

that God is an intelligent creative designer.

The Psalmist says to go out on a clear night & look at the sky,

& you know what your natural reaction will be? … “Wow!  Who made this?”

Think about the sun, & our connection to it.  Some intelligent creative designer must be behind this.  Certainly, creation points to that.  And it’s not just the sun, it’s not just the stars … it’s these bodies of ours; think about the mechanics of this thing.  It’s a single blade of grass.  

It’s the complexity of an atom.

Now the skeptic asks, “what about evolution?

Doesn’t evolution explain away our need for God?”  Let me say a couple of things about evolution, & certainly, we’re not going to go into this in depth.

1st, believers don’t deny all forms of evolution.  

Every now & then someone will ask me, “Rande, do you believe in evolution?”  

I respond, “It depends.  Are we talking about micro-evolution or are we talking about macro-evolution?”

Micro-evolution says that variations have taken place within species over periods of time.  And I respond, “Makes sense to me.”  Certain birds have developed bills that allow them to pierce through the bark of a tree to get insects for food.  Giraffe’s necks have extended to reach higher 

& higher branches in trees.  And other animals have developed skin & fur colors to allow them to blend in the jungles or forests.  

And I say, “makes sense to me.”

But then we go to macro-evolution which claims that there have been transitions between species, from one to another.  And so, for example,

humanity can actually trace our origins back through the apes & even to sea creatures.

Now the trouble I have with macro-evolution is that the fossil record doesn’t support it.  And even Charles Darwin knew this.  Writing in the 19th century when he 1st proposed his theory, he stated that he really couldn’t prove the transitions between species through available fossil records, 

but that someday we would discover fossils & be able to see the transitions.

Okay, fast-forward 150 years.  David Robb, the curator of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago writes, “We have now a 1/4 of a million fossil species, but the situation hasn’t changed much.  In fact, we have even fewer examples of evolutionary transition that we had in Darwin’s time.”  The fossil record doesn’t show transitions.  You know what it does show?  It shows the sudden appearance of all the animals fully formed. 

(Genesis 1:21,24)

The 2nd thing I want to say about evolution is that it’s coming under more & more criticism by well respected scientists.  Back in Darwin’s day we didn’t know about the complexity of living organisms.  We didn’t understand just how intrinsically complex things were designed.  But today we’ve got scientists like biochemist Michael Bee who argues in his book, 

“Darwin’s Black Box,” that Darwin’s theory is just too simplistic.

He explains that a complex organ like a human eye cannot possibly have been formed by numerous successive slight modifications.  

The evidence of creation points to the existence of God.

2ndly, there’s the evidence of Scripture.  

The law of the LORD is perfect …

The commands of the LORD are trustworthy …

The laws of the LORD are right … The commands of the LORD are just …

The judgments of the LORD are just.

The Psalmist uses a wide variety of terms to refer to God’s written word.  He calls it God’s laws, commands, judgments.  

Those terms refer not only to God’s rules in Scripture; 

they also refer to God’s comprehensive revelation of Himself.

How do we know there’s a God?  Well, Scripture reveals Him to us.  

It not only points to His existence, it gives us a lot of specific information about Him.  It tells us about His values.

It tells us attributes of His character.  It tells us what activities He’s up to in our world.  It tells us the expectations He has of our lives.

The skeptic says, “Well, wait a minute, you can’t use that argument.  You can’t argue from the Bible for the existence of God.  

That’s biased reasoning.”

Actually, it’s very logical reasoning.  Let me explain what I mean by that.  Let’s suppose just for a moment that there’s a God.  

That’s our hypothesis.  There’s a personal God.  How do we test that?  Logically speaking, if there is a personal God He would want to be known.

He would want to communicate, to reveal Himself to people.  He would want to communicate in a way that was not vague or ambiguous or open to misunderstanding.  He would want to communicate in a way that was clear & understandable.  He would want to communicate with words, if you will.  He would want to communicate in writing.  And lo & behold, when I open the Scriptures, that’s exactly what the Bible says about itself. (John 5:39; 2 Timothy 3:16) This is a written revelation of God telling us who He is & what He's like.

The skeptic then says,

“Okay, I’ll concede your argument, that if there is a personal God, He would want to communicate with people, & might even do it by the written word, 

but how do we know that the Bible is the written revelation of who God is? 

There are all sorts of writings out there that claim to be revelations from God, how do we know that the Bible is the revelation?”

That’s a great question.  My answer is … come back next week.  Next week we’re going to look at the credibility, the trustworthiness of the Bible.

Today, all I want to do is make a simple, logical point, 

that if there is a personal God, we could assume that He would want to communicate with people; & would do so in a clear fashion.

And that’s exactly what the Scriptures claim for themselves.

Now imagine you’re walking along the beach & there’s no one else there.  

And as you’re walking mile after mile, you see patterns in the sand.  

You conclude that some of those patterns have been caused by waves, 

the tide coming in & going out.

And some of those patterns are the result of debris that has washed up on the beach.  And some of the patterns have been caused by sand crabs that have been scurrying around.  And some of the patterns are the result of the wind whipping across the top of the sand.  But as you walk suddenly you come to some writing in the sand.  And the writing announces … 

“Mike loves Debbie.” … What do you conclude?

Well, there’s a person named Mike out there.  In fact, he’s probably been on the beach just a little bit before you.  And the writing not only points to the existence of Mike, but it also reveals something specific, 

something special about him.  What? … (He loves Debbie.)

In creation God gives us a general revelation of Himself.

But if we want to know specifically who God is & what God is like … we need a written communication.  Theologians refer to creation as God’s general revelation … we get some general ideas about what God is like looking at what He has made.  Theologians refer to God’s written word, 

where He reveals Himself specifically, as special revelation.  

And it’s this special revelation that gives us details about who God is.

If there is a God, & we want to get to know Him, we’ve got to get into His Word.  That’s why I keep encouraging you over & over to read your Bible.  

Reading this Book will change your life.  It will convince you of the reality of God.  It’s in Scripture that He reveals Himself specifically to us.

Is God real?  The evidence of creation points to Him.  

The evidence of Scripture points to Him.

3rdly, the evidence of morality points to Him.

None of us can see our own errors; deliver me, LORD, from hidden faults!

Keep me safe, also, from willful sins; don’t let them rule over me.

David is concerned about his faults.  He wants God to forgive his sins.

He wants God to help him live a sinless life.  Now where did David get this innate sense of right & wrong?  If we’re just a random collection of atoms; 

if we’re solely material beings; if there’s no spiritual dimension to us, 

if we’re nothing more than fully evolved beasts, 

where did our sense of morality come from?

Scripture has a clear explanation of that …

the Bible tells us that we have been made in the image of a moral God.

(Genesis 1:27) The Bible tells us that God has hotwired into every one of us this inherent sense of right & wrong.  The Apostle Paul writes that we can take a nonreligious person who has never been exposed to God’s written Word, 

& do you know what we’ll discover?

“Their conduct shows that what the Law commands is written in their hearts.  Their consciences also show that this is true, since their thoughts sometimes accuse them & sometimes defend them.” (Romans 2:15)

Where does this morality come from?  Well, this morality points to the existence of a moral God who has made us in His image.  In fact, I would argue that the reason some people don’t want to believe in the existence of God is because they have a hunch that if there is a God, 

He might want to have a say in what is right & wrong in their lives …

& they’re not about to give that up.  They want to make their own rules.

So, if there’s no God there’s no objective standard of morality.  

We can do whatever we want.  But our innate, inborn sense that there is a standard of right & wrong out there, to which we are accountable,

is evidence that God exists.

So, does God exist?  We have the evidence of creation.  

We have the evidence of Scripture.  We have the evidence of morality.  

And we have the evidence of experience.

May my words & my thoughts be acceptable to you,

O LORD, my refuge & my redeemer!

The Psalmist has an intimate relationship with God.  

The skeptic says, “No he doesn’t.  He just thinks he has a relationship,

but there’s no God, so we can’t have a relationship with a God who doesn’t exist.”  And the Psalmist says, “Phooey!”  (Right here in the original Hebrew, 

“Phooey.”)  The Psalmist says, “Don’t tell me what I know by experience.

I have developed a relationship with God.  And this God cares about the very words that come out of my mouth & the thoughts in my mind.  

I have gotten to know God, & He has become my refuge & my redeemer.”

Now I know that the argument from personal experience is not a conclusive one, but it does carry some weight.  You see, if there is no God, then how do we explain the desire for spirituality of some sort that is so prevalent in the human race?  We’ve had several 100 years of scientific enlightenment, modernism … why this move back to spirituality?

Why can’t this desire for spirituality just be killed off?

How do we explain, if there is no God, the dramatic changes that have happened to millions of people who claim that God has helped them overcome addictions?  Has given them purpose to their lives, & a compassionate concern for the needy?  That God has caused them to become social champions for causes like public schools, & hospitals, & the abolition of slavery.  Those are all project of Christ followers.  How do we explain the decision that so many have made to surrender their lives to God if Goes does not exist?

I was reading something in preparation for this message that I never thought of before.  There are not 2 groups out there when it comes to God; 

there are actually 3 groups.

There are the theists, which comes from the Greek word for God (θεός); these are people who believe in God

Then there are atheists, who don’t believe in God.

But there’s a 3rd group; they are the apathiests.  They believe in God, 

but it just doesn’t make any difference in their lives … the apathiests.

If you believe in God …

does it make a difference in the way you live?  Does it make a difference in your time priorities?  Does it make a difference in how you spend your money?  Does it make a difference in how you treat others?  Does it make a difference in your morality?  Does it make a difference in your speech?  If you believe in God, please tell me that you’re not an apathiest.

Let’s live in 2026 like people who believe what we say we believe 

& get the word out … God is real.

MARANA THA