Seeing God Through Creation

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. I'm going to title my message, Seeing and Hearing God Through Creation. I think we all see and realize and know that all humans, everyone created, is on the face of this earth, the planet earth. [00:00:32] And it's impossible for us not to see, touch, feel, experience the reality of creation. There is no way that we could stay on this earth if it were not for that God created it in a way that He did. As Paul says, we are without excuse when it comes to realizing that God created the heavens and the earth. [00:01:10] I'd like to read Romans chapter 1 verse 20 where he addresses this. In verse 18, he's referring or talks about the wicked men who suppress the truth of God. And in verse 19, he talks about how God makes it so very plain. And in verse 20, for the invisible things of him, okay, speaking of God, what are the invisible things of him? Further on down in the verse, it says, even his eternal power and Godhead. [00:01:46] So I'd like to read it in this way to make it more clear to myself for the invisible things of him, his eternal power and Godhead from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made so that they are all without excuse. Now, recently I read a book that was written, actually two books, written of Bruce Olson, a man that traveled back into the jungles of Venezuela and Colombia to witness, to bring the gospel to the Motilon Indians. [00:02:27] Now they were what they call a stone age people, quotes, because they lived in uncivilized territory. They were very savage people. Even some Indians who he communicated with before and he tried to get them to take him back to them refused because no one had ever come out alive. A case very similar to that of the Aka Indians and Jim Elliott. Well, the Molotene Indians were never exposed to the Bible. [00:03:02] And Bruce Olson was one of the first men back there who lived among them and was able to survive with them. However, being never exposed to the Bible, never exposed to the gospel, yet they believed in a God beyond the horizon. And you will find that with many other groups who may have never experienced or have anyone told them about the gospel [00:03:32] Still is something of a higher power that they recognize in some way or form We can remember back to some of the stories of our own American Indians here in the states referred to or used to do certain things to the Great Spirit. Somehow they recognize that there is a higher power. There is something about nature, creation, that everyone is without excuse. [00:04:08] We believe that the Bible is true. And I'm confident that it is. I have faith that it is. But the blessing of creation is that it confirms that fact, reinforces that the Bible is true. Jesus' words are confirmed by his works. In Acts chapter 14, while Paul and Barnabas came to Lystria and they healed a man crippled from his mother's womb, never walked. [00:04:39] He was able to, it says he leaped up and walked after they healed him. Now the people of Lystria said, oh, the gods have come to us. And they started bringing out, I think it was oxen and garlands here, that they figured to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, thinking that they were gods. And in verse 15, Paul says, whoa, he says, and saying, sirs, why do you these things? We also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God which made heaven and earth and sea and all things that are therein who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. [00:05:26] Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and he gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. Here, Paul highlights here, and he brings in creation in, and he says, this is part of the witness that Christ left. He didn't leave just his words, he also left a witness. [00:05:57] And he did good, he gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. Well, I hope that each one of us recognizes that God created the heaven and the earth as it says in Genesis 1.1. He had a purpose in mind, and when he has a purpose in mind, he fulfills that perfectly. It was to be inhabited by you and me, and he didn't make any mistakes. [00:06:34] In an article written by Lester Showalter, he says the earth is the right size with the right resulting... I'm sorry. The earth is the right size with the resulting right gravity to hold an atmosphere with the right pressure for life at the surface. What happens if you go up? What happens if you go down? You run out of air. It's just right at the surface. The atmosphere has enough oxygen for comfortable breathing, but not too much to make fires uncontrollable. [00:07:10] The water needed for life covers enough of the earth's surface to sustain the water cycle and to act as a huge solar collector to moderate the weather. The earth is the right distance from the sun so that water is in its liquid state. The 24-hour rotation of the earth, the 365-day revolution, and the 23.5-degree tilt combine to avoid extreme in temperatures and to give season which makes most of the earth habitable. [00:07:49] The main chemicals for life are replenished in natural cycles so that the life on earth will never die out for want of oxygen, food and water. We are protected, life is protected from ultraviolet rays by the ozone layer and from the high speed ions of the earth's magnetic field. Was this just by chance? Did it just happen? Or did God create it just right? All this points, to me, points to a master designer behind it all. [00:08:25] You know, things don't just happen by chance. Any tool that we have in our hands or in our possessions has taken time, has taken effort in research and development in order to have what we have. You name it. Cars, appliances, those things have taken trial and error until finally they have perfected something. I shouldn't even use the word perfected because they don't nearly always work. [00:08:59] But they have come to a design that is functionable, successful, and much work has gone into it. The R&D departments of our day don't spend their time throwing up parts in the air and watching them assemble on the ground. And neither was our earth created in that way as well. There was a purpose, and it all points back to a beginning. Even billions of years never produce life from non-living matter. [00:09:33] God created something out of nothing man can only make with what he has in his hands. Our bodies also speak of intricate design. And I'm sure that some of you know this to a greater degree than what I do. Because when something goes wrong in your bodies, as some of you have experienced in the last years or so, there is uncomfortableness, there's pain, and there's other complications that go along with it. [00:10:09] That is easily to be forgotten when everything is working fine, but it all works together. It speaks of design. Our hands, our brain, our eyes, our tongue, the circulatory system, the way our digestive system works, all speak of design. It's not by chance. We can look at nature, the trees, I'm not very good at identifying, but people can identify trees by their bark, by their leaves [00:10:43] Because they have a systematic way of always producing after their kind, or always the same characteristics Flowers have the same colors, now there's variation some, but we can identify flowers and plants because everything has a design Well, these were created for a purpose, and that purpose, as Paul says, is to recognize the eternal power of God and His divine nature. [00:11:14] And I think He also created these things on earth for our good, to sustain us, and I think He has some lessons that we can learn from nature. And so I'd like to look at some illustrations this morning of maybe some things that we can learn from nature. I'm sorry for you if you don't enjoy science, but please stay with me. I don't have very highly technical illustrations or anything, but rather simple illustrations that I trust that we can use to bring honor and glory to God and even apply to our daily lives. [00:12:00] Most of these, or I should say all of these, I have been inspired with as I read different articles and just over a span of time have just slipped them in a file and there's so many different things that I've only chosen three or maybe four this morning. I don't take credit to any of the research to myself. As I mentioned, Lester Showalter was one of them. There's a few others here that I'd like to give credit to. Timothy Lofus, Sonia Randall, and Merle Sensenig are some of the ones who have done some of this research that I am going to be quoting. As far as the applications, some of them are mine, or some that God has revealed, and some that maybe they refer to as well. I'd like to begin with the stars. [00:13:00] You know, I'm not, I don't have a telescope myself, I've often wanted one and still maybe sometime hope to get one, but you have encountered on a clear night, as you view the stars, and I remember camping in Virginia and out west where you were out and away from a lot of lights, it seemed it was just all the more brighter, the heavens during the night. and it's just so amazing the majesty of the heavens as you just view all the different stars. [00:13:39] Now I'd like to focus in on one constellation, one of the most easily recognized and that is the Orion. I'm sure most of you have seen that, maybe have pointed that out to your children or in some way or shape. It's fairly easy to recognize especially the three stars in his belt and then from there you can kind of imagine his hands and his feet and anyhow even the Bible refers to Orion three different times found that interesting now stars are measured in distance by light years and that's one of the questions that seem to always pop up in my mind how I wonder how far it is out there and a light year is the distance that light travels [00:14:27] And I think it's about six trillion miles in one year, or that's the speed of light in a year. I can't grasp that number. That's too big for me. Maybe something that we could put down a little bit more into a nutshell, and that is if you would be in Boston and you could fly to San Francisco and back 30 times in one second, you would be going the speed of light. And the amount that that goes in one year is six trillion miles. [00:15:01] Well, I'm not exactly sure as I recall. I think our closest star is what, four light years away? But as we look at the Orion, Regal is one of the brightest stars or is the brightest star of Orion. It's found in his left foot and he is about 910 light years away. Betelgeuse is another, is the second brightest star in Orion and he is 310 light years away. [00:15:36] Now the Orion's nebulae is approximately 1500 light years away. Now that to me is beyond comprehension. However, there's other galaxies and others that are thousands and millions of light years away And that's just more than what I can even grasp Colors also, I'm sorry, stars also shine in different colors [00:16:08] Now I'm not sure that you can see it with a naked eye, but probably through a telescope you can see different colors Regal is a blue and a white color, and what makes that color is its surface temperatures. For instance, if you would take, for instance, iron today, when it's cold it's gray, when it gets a little hotter it gets red, and then the hotter it gets it gets white and yellowish. that's the same principle here Grebel has temperatures of about 72,000 degrees Fahrenheit on its surface [00:16:43] and so it shines a white bluish color now Betelgeuse is a much cooler star and shines red maybe only about 5,500 degrees Fahrenheit on its surface Betelgeuse is also what they call a variable star and it what that means is that it varies in brightness it has a cycle of about six years three years that it's swelling in size becoming up to two and a half times brighter and then the [00:17:17] next three years it is shrinking and shining less and less until it starts again at this until it starts another cycle now there's also another star the rightmost star in Ryan's belt That's called an eclipsing variable star and that appears at times to be brighter and not so bright at times too. However, that's in orbit. It's actually two stars that appear to be one. However, they're in orbit with each other and when they're seen by our viewpoint, when they're behind each other, one blocks the other and it makes it appear not quite as bright. [00:17:56] We could talk more about galaxies and the different nebulae that's out there. Nebulae is giant clouds of dust and gas out in space. And I remember one time that I had an opportunity to see a bunch of slides that were taken of the Space Hubble Telescope. And the most beautiful pictures that you could imagine of the nebulae that's out there. Now this telescope is one that's in orbit, and I think a year or a while ago they fixed some things on it, and I'm not sure they're thinking it's about going out of shape, but it does take beautiful pictures of nebulae and stars that are just uncomprehendable distance away. [00:18:46] But one thing that's always the same, and that is that the farther that we can reach, the farther that we can see, the more we see. And I don't think there's any end. And I don't know about you, as you think and as you observe the heavens, can you hear anything of God? I'm given a glimpse of just a little bit of how big God is and how small I am. [00:19:17] The Bible refers this as the work of his fingers. In Psalms, I didn't write the reference down here. The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament showeth his handiwork. This is just what his handiwork is. And surely, well it's just incomprehensible to think that such a big God cares about you and me. [00:19:48] And surely, if such an immense big God, there's no situation, there's no trial that he can't help us with. And that's an encouragement that I take Nothing too big for God The prophet Amos said Seek him that made the Orion And I trust that's our desire That's changed directions a bit I'd like to ask a question to the children [00:20:20] What is a common, or I shouldn't say a common animal An animal that you see at the zoo that is striped Black and white Zebra. That's right. Why did God give the zebra stripes? A few weeks ago we were at the zoo and as we were standing there looking at the zebra, the question came up, is the zebra black with white stripes or is he white with black stripes? And we kind of tried to decipher or discuss a little bit and we came out at different ends. [00:20:55] So maybe next time you go, you check it out and let me know what you find out. Well, scientists have speculated a lot about why they're striped. Maybe some different theories of the lions being colorblind or other various things, but not just anything that really make a lot of sense or really that is concrete. I wonder if God just hasn't let us in on that secret yet. However, there's more things about a zebra that are interesting to me. [00:21:27] One thing is that those stripes, not two zebras are alike. Now think of that. Of all the zebras in the world, not two of them are alike. They're all striped differently. Now that's kind of like you and me as well. We can lift up our hands and we can see those tiny little ridges in our hands And we know that the law enforcement uses these to fingerprint and they have used this to convict people as evidence. [00:22:02] Maybe not so much now as they use DNA. But there's not one other person that has the same fingerprint as you. Do you hear God saying something to you? To me, he says, Wendell. You're the only one I made. I made you special. I didn't make a thousand of you that you could slip through the cracks. I just made you. [00:22:34] And he made you in the same way. And that's precious to me. Zebras are an animal that also travel in groups of twenty to a hundred. They call these communities. And each community is composed of many family units that who stay or who stay very close to each other. They protect their young, they keep their young, their old and the weak close to the center of the herd to protect them. [00:23:08] When a community migrates to a new area, they travel at a speed that all of them can go, that the weak ones can keep up. They never abandon a member of their own herd. Zebras rely on their very sharp eyesight and keen sense of smell to detect and avoid danger. If they are attacked and one gets hurt, quickly they form a circle around the injured one to protect it from further injury. [00:23:47] Now as I read that article, I was simply amazed at the similarities of the instincts that God created in these animals and what the church ought to be like. Shouldn't the church be also composed of family, brothers and sisters in Christ, who walk with each other and function their lives together? [00:24:19] who are concerned about their old, who take care of their, I'm sorry, concerned about their young, who take care of their old and protect the ones that are weak. Is it unthinkable that we abandon any one of our group? You know, is there patience and consideration of my brethren that we can move together in unity? [00:24:57] And thinking about abandoning, no, maybe we don't abandon physically. We're careful in that. However, have you ever felt abandoned in a relationship? I think probably most of us have had feelings that we just didn't feel accepted at times or different things like that of that nature. And I've heard individuals say that I just didn't quite feel accepted in this group. [00:25:30] I'm not necessarily saying this group, in a church that they were referring to. I recognize that there's there's probably two there's two sides that even the Bible commands us or says advises us that we should be friendly so that we can have friends and we can't continually be like a sponge and soak everything up without giving out as well. But how are our relationships? Are we careful to include, to be careful to be a friend and to not have any type of abandonment? [00:26:11] To the fathers and leaders, are we watchful? Do we have a keen sense of smell? Can we smell the rat, as we sometimes say, when danger is approaching? Are we careful, are we watchful for signs of danger? And then there's times when there's attacks of Satan. And there may be a casualty. Do we rally around that person with support and help? [00:26:49] You know, sometimes it's easy for me to say, to kind of back off and say, oh, he wasn't strong enough. He shouldn't have failed. I recognize we always need each other. But when I failed, that's when I need the help the most. and that's when we need to stand around and help each other. Paul says that one of the purposes of the church in Ephesians 4.11 is for the edifying of the body of Christ. [00:27:21] That means to build each other up, to help each other on our way. Well, I know we can't take everything of a zebra to our lives God has created another insect that I'd like to think about, even the wisest man on earth, referred to in Proverbs 6, 6-8. [00:27:52] He says, Now, at some point in time, he must have observed ants. Maybe he was observing the agricultural ants because they are a super example of summer farmers and fall harvesters. One naturalist even observed these ants cultivating a small patch of rice. [00:28:28] they kept the weeds down they kept enemy insects from eating the rice until it was mature and then he observed them one by one taking the grains of rice down into their storehouse and even some one day it rained and he watched them as they brought their grains of rice right back out and laid them out in the sun to dry that's very interesting I occasionally, when I'm splitting wood or something like that, you see an ant and it's interesting sometimes to stand and watch those. [00:29:08] There's another type of ants that provide their food for themselves in a pretty amazing way. They're the leafcutter ants of Central and South America. They raise a mushroom-like fungus down in their chambers underneath the ground. And what they do is they go out and they eat plants or chew and snip and bite plants down to make kind of a compost. They bring it down and put it down there where the fungi thrives off of this compost and therefore provides them an excellent source of food. [00:29:47] It's just the right temperature down there for it to survive and that's the way they work. You know, if, it's amazing as you think of them doing that without any type of organization. They're just, there's no overseer as the Bible says, there's no dispatcher, they just all work together and get it done. Solomon refers to them in chapter 30 verses 24 and 25. [00:30:21] He says that they're exceedingly wise. He called them a people not strong. And I think we can learn from them how they work together. You know, as you split some wood and you see them scurrying around, have you ever seen an ant stand still? Last night I was splitting wood a little bit and it happened and I just sat there for I don't know how many minutes trying to find one ant that was watching the other's work. [00:30:53] I didn't find any. And maybe that's a lesson for me, for us. That's also a biblical virtue and that is diligence, the virtue of diligence. It's a biblical principle that God has commanded. Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. That's diligence. You know, as we serve him here on earth, are we diligent in what God has called me or you to do? [00:31:33] As parents, as teachers, as ministers, wherever God has called you. Am I diligent to what God has called me to be? Honesty, I think, is included in this diligence. There's an honest effort, an honest time card, an honest work, or whatever that you do, you make an honest effort. [00:32:08] That's diligence. I'm going to say this carefully, but I think our work ethic affects our relationship with Jesus Christ. An irresponsible, unmotivated individual will hardly have a vibrant walk with God. And I think we as Christians, if we want to cultivate this virtue of diligence, it will be reflected in our physical lives and also in our spiritual lives. [00:32:42] Now I recognize that one can be very diligent on the physical side of life and yet not have God. So I ask that you hear me out on this. But I think if we have a negative type of work ethic, it will negatively also affect our spiritual lives. I don't believe that diligence is a synonym with a workaholic either. You know, I think we as plain people are taught very well how to work hard. [00:33:18] Maybe we're taught a little bit too well. And it's too much maybe in our system. I don't know. But I think, I wonder if the areas where I lack diligence is diligence maybe in the home, with my children, or diligence in seeking God. I think one of the greatest hindrances to my life in seeing God in creation is that I'm too busy to take notice. [00:33:51] I'll share one more illustration here. Some of this, to some of you in room four, might have heard this, but I shared it at a devotional as well with you all, so bear with me here. There are millions of insects, but there's one little insect that I like to talk about. It's either brown or black. It's called a click beetle. There are some 5,000 species of beetles approximately one inch long that live in America. [00:34:30] And this one species has large eyes on the back of its thorax. And that is to make it appear like it's something bigger and more dangerous for its predators. But even more remarkable than that, this little click beetle has an interesting mechanism that helps it get on its feet if it's somehow found on its back. If this little beetle gets on his back, there's a little hook, or it performs a little sit-up by bending its thorax until a sharp spine hooks into a notch in its abdomen. [00:35:14] And then it releases a self-cocking mechanism that makes a sudden release of tension that flips it up into the air. and 50% chance it has to land on its feet. And probably if it doesn't happen the first time, it will again bend itself, hook itself and cock itself and flip open and maybe land on its feet that time. That was interesting to me. [00:35:47] Well, I think all of us at times find ourselves on our backs. Feel like our feet are in the air and we've been knocked flat. And you know, sometimes it seems like people enjoy that position because other people might pity them in that position. It seems like sometimes they'll do anything to alleviate their situation, but just kind of bask in that situation and just stay there. [00:36:22] Well, I don't think that's where we want to be. That's not where God wants us to be. And even though it might break us from responsibility, it's not the way God has, or that's not God's plan for us. But there are others who recognize when they're flat on their back and they use their God-given talents and find themselves on their feet again. You know, when the click beetle is on its back, first of all, it realizes that that's not the way God created it to get around. [00:36:57] So he has a problem. He could look all around and say, goodness, the whole world is upside down. And, you know, that's a temptation sometimes. When I have a problem, I don't recognize my own problem, I see everyone else's problem. But I need to recognize that I am the one that quite possibly has a problem. Well, with God's power, He has given us the talents, He has given us whatever we need to get back in our feet. [00:37:39] And the encouraging thing to me is that it's more than a 50% chance. God's word is true. We have the promise that though we fall, we shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth us with his hand. Psalms 37, 24. You know, with his power, we know that it's sure and that we can get on our feet again. But you know, in order for God to work in our hearts and lives, we must bend our wills and allow Him to shape us and bow our knees to make that God can work in our hearts. [00:38:29] He did not plan for us to be upside down. He wants us to be right side up in His kingdom. There's no end to the lessons that we can learn from nature. But I hope that this can inspire us to dig deep into God's creation, His marvelous creation, that it confirms, that confirms His word, His truths. And as he shows us these things of creation, and he shows you other things through creation, and your own observations, I hope that your response is that of humble worship, acknowledgement, and obedience to God.