Sermon Tone Analysis

Foundational Doctrines:

The “Blue Dot” in God’s Eye

 

Text:  Psalm 8:1-9

/" //To the Chief Musician.

On the Instrument of Gath.

A Psalm of David.

/

/O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens!// //Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.//

//When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,// //What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?//

//For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.//

//You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,// //All sheep and oxen— Even the beasts of the field,// //The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea That pass through the paths of the seas.//

//O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!//" (Psalm 8:1-9, NKJV) *[1]*/

 

Introduction:

1.

The story is told of scientists who challenged God to a contest.

a.

They believed they had learned how to create human life and thus no need for God any more.

b.

They wanted to prove they could create man like God did in The Creation.

c.       God accepted the challenge and watched as the scientists reached down to scoop up dirt to begin their project.

d.       God said, “Oh no, no, no!

You get your own dirt!”

2.      The creation account of the origin of our world and universe is very controversial.

a.      Eminent scientists reject the creation account as unscientific, but that does not make it untrue.

b.

Others have embraced the *Theory *of Evolution as fact.

3.      Evolutionists speculate that life gradually evolved from mere hydrogen in a series of stages.

a.

The first stage began about 15 billion years ago with

i.        the "Big Bang" which produced an expanding cloud of hydrogen gas -- all else was void.

ii.

With time and energy, hydrogen transformed into all the other chemical elements.

iii.

Then, about 4 billion years ago, the earth's atmosphere consisted of methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water, from which life would inevitably evolve.

b.

During stage two

i.        it is believed that simple chemicals from stage one formed the small /organic molecules/ essential to life such as sugars, amino acids and nucleotides.

ii.

In 1953, Miller and Urey claimed to "simulate" the evolution of some of these organic molecules from methane and ammonia using apparatus and conditions designed to achieve the desired result.

c.       Stage three in chemical evolution is supposed to have involved the stringing together of small organic molecules into long chain-like molecules called /polymers/.

i.

The most important biological polymers are starches (polymers of sugars), proteins (polymers of amino acids), and DNA (polymers of nucleotides).

ii.

In another "evolution simulation" experiment, Sidney Fox produced protein-like molecules by heating pure-dry amino acids at high temperatures.

iii.

When this material was allowed to cool in water it formed small globules which he called "microspheres."

Although these microspheres are stone dead, evolutionists refer to them as "protocells," implying that they represent an early stage of living cells.

iv.

In fact, about the only similarity between microspheres and living cells is they are, as their name implies, small and spherical.

d.

The final stage of chemical evolution involves the chance transformation of organic molecules and polymers into the unfathomably complex machinery of living cells.

i.

Here evolutionary speculation is so unrestrained by evidence, or even plausibility, that it fails to merit serious consideration.

ii.

The biochemist Dr. David Green pretty well summed it up when he said in his book */Molecular Insights into the Living Process/*:

"the macromolecule-to-cell transition is a jump of fantastic dimensions, which lies beyond the range of testable hypothesis.

In this area all is conjecture.

The available facts do not provide a basis for postulating that cells arose on this planet."

e.      Evolutionists have tried to get around this problem by invoking long periods of time in the hope that, given enough time, virtually anything is possible -- except, of course, special creation.

f.

If the evolution of life forms is a fact, then there are serious questions must be answered.

i.        How does something come from nothing?

ii.

How does order and design come from chaos?

iii.

How do time and effort combine to create?

iv.

How do we derive morals and meaning in our existence?

g.

If evolution is indeed a theory, then are there other theories or ideas or possibilities that explain our existence?

i.        Every ancient people have a mythical account of how the earth came to be.

ii.

All of them assume a higher being or god that designed and created the world for a purpose thus giving the people meaning in life.

iii.

Only the feeble minds of modern humans have rejected the idea of a Designer in favor of accident, chance and chaos.

4.      There are serious issues involved.

a.

The meaning and purpose of our existence.

b.

The veracity and viability of our faith.

c.

The integrity and honesty of our inquiry.

d.

And whether or not we are capable of running a whole universe.

5.

There are a growing number of scientists that, to be honest, have admitted to a Master Design, though not admitting he is God.

6.

This is what the Baptist Articles of Faith say is the doctrine of Creation.

“We believe in the Genesis account of creation, and that it is to be accepted literally, and not allegorically or figuratively; that man was created directly in God’s own image and after His own likeness; that man’s creation was not a matter of evolution or evolutionary change of species, or development through interminable periods of time from lower to higher forms; that all animal and vegetable life was made directly, and God’s established law was that they should bring forth only ‘after their kind.’”

7.      Why we Believe in a Literal Creation

a.      God said so…

" Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, *so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible*."

(Hebrews 11:1-3, NKJV) [2]

b.

The creation account is reasonable.

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse," (Romans 1:20, NKJV) [3]

i.

There has been a question of old earth or new earth.

the Hebrew word for day (yom) which occurs over 200 times in the Old Testament.

Like our English word "day," yom can be used to mean an ordinary 24-hour day or an indefinite period of time (such as "in the day of Abraham").

In both English and Hebrew, the intended meaning of "day" is generally obvious by the context in which it is used.

For example, in over 100 instances where the phrase "evening and morning" accompany the word yom in the Old Testament (as it does in the days of Creation in Genesis), it always refers to an ordinary 24-hour day.