Rob's Expository Sermon Preparation | Psalm 19

Introduction:

Pondering the night sky:

o 200 billion trillion stars in the universe (200 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000!!)

WHAT I WANT TO DO THIS MORNING IS TO EXPLORE THAT OBJECTION AND THEN TAKE US TO PSALM 19 SO WE CAN SEE THAT SCIENCE HELPS US WORSHIP GOD MORE FULLY.

I) The Created World Cannot Prove the Existence of God

A. Many Reject Christianity because it seems That Faith and Reason Contradict

i. Science and religion are opposed

1. Scopes: “fundamentalism” vs “modernism” pitted science against religion

2. BUT: there are two results that came out of that

a. Science is a threat to faith (so, scientists are viewed with suspicion

b. Faith is viewed as naïve, simplistic; “science will fix our problems.

3. SO: a false dichotomy: at is owing to this polarization that is very new

B. Science and faith get along…when they stay in their lane!

i. Science has long been rooted in religion

1. Many well-known scientists are deeply Christian in their convictions:

2. Bacon, Boyle, Newton & Galileo were all men of faith!

3. Science was not only a way to benefit humanity, but to worship God!

ii. Science proceeds on the assumption of an ordered universe

1. In fact, science is rooted in a conviction that points to God:

2. The universe is an ordered place

3. EXAMPLE: Water boils at… !

4. QUOTE: “first scientists believed that our universe was designed and created by God according to a blueprint that can be discerned by rational creatures like ourselves.” -- Hans Halvorson (philosopher, Princeton)

THAT BRINGS US TO PSALM 19.

II) The Created World Points to the Existence of God

A. The Beauty of Creation points to the beauty of our God

i. Psalm 19 describes God’s revelation to his people

1. A two-part Psalm (originally two?) on general & special revelation

2. First: “General Revelation” is God’s revelation to all people (see vs. 4)

3. A pile of verbs show “beauty” then “order” then “Both” (vv. 1-2, 5-6)

ii. Creation Declares the Glorious Beauty of God (vs. 1, 4b-5)

1. Creation is “Recounting and announcing” the majesty of God!

2. The beauty of the cosmos points beyond itself to a transcendent artist

3. QUOTE: “there is a rightness in the world, something that follows its own law consistently, something we can trust, that will never let us down.” Leonard Bernstein

iii. Therefore, Let us worship the God of beauty!

1. APPLICATION: Artists create beauty that points to transcendence

2. APPLICATION: Our response at the coast, forest, desert…WORSHIP!

B. The Order of Creation Points to a God of Design (vs. 2)

i. Creation Reveals the knowledge of God

1. Creation “bubbles over, reveals” the order and design of God

2. The Cosmic Welcome Mat: Francis Collins

3. QUOTE “The odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like the Big Bang are enormous. I think there are clearly religious implications.” Stephen Hawking

4. APPLICATION: Scientists

C. The magnificence of Creation Calls us to Know the One Who Designed it All

i. The Limits of General Revealtion

1. Sam Harris arguest that a universe w. a beginning doesn’t point to the God of the bible

2. And – of course, he’s right: Creation cannot reveal enough to save

3. The Psalmist points to “God” but not to YHWH (vs. 1, vv. 7ff)

4. INDEED! Many worship in a very general sense

Ii. However, God has introduced himself to us! (Acts 17:24 Acts 17:28

Acts 17:28 ESV

for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Acts 17:24 ESV

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,

1. But the God who created the universe gets personal with us.

2. In Jesus, we meet the one by whom, for whom, and through… !

Conclusion