Talk—Bill Prost
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Started a loving God and our Father. We look up to thee again this morning.
And we thank Thee for so many that have been able to make it here. We thank Thee too, for a quiet rest last night and for good weather. And we just commit our time to Thee. But now we look to Thee as we open Thy word together, praying for help as we consider the subject before us. And we thank Thee, our God, that Thou dost desire to have a relationship with Thy people.
And with man too, in general, for thy love reaches out to each one.
So we pray that as we open Thy word, we may learn more of the Lord Jesus, more of Thee, our God and Father, more of Thy love and care, force, and above all, that we might come to know Thee in a more intimate and close relationship. So we ask for Thy help, especially praying too for any here who may not know Thee. Lord Jesus as Savior, we pray that they may as Thy.
Come to know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. So we command our time together to thee, looking to thee for thy help and asking all in thy precious and worthy name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, we started the series yesterday and a good many have come since then, but as you can see by the title on the front of the handout, the subject that we have picked out for this year is knowing God.
And the Word of God tells us that God right from the beginning, created man in order that he might have those to whom he could relate.
And yesterday we were pointing out that God created man in his image and his likeness, and we're going to go into that a little more closely today.
Sometimes we go into a little bit of review, but we'll perhaps leave that today. We're a bit pushed for time.
Well, not really push, but we want to get through in good time so that we can get to the rafting, so on. But we'll just review a little bit by pointing out that God's person is infinite. That is, God is unknown and unknowable unless he chooses to reveal himself.
We pointed out yesterday that.
Man has the ability to reason, a wonderful ability, but the only way we can reason is if we have some facts. First of all, we can't reason about something when we don't know anything about it. You can't reason, for example, where this world came from. Man thinks he can and ends up, as we would say, all over the map because he can't reason it out.
We can't reason what is beyond death.
Because unless someone tells us what goes on after death, we have no way of knowing.
That God has given us in his Word, divine revelation as to where we came from, why we're here in this world.
Where this world is headed? What lies after death?
And most of all, God has chosen to reveal himself.
We want to talk a little bit about.
The creation of man today. And so we'll read a few verses that we already read yesterday.
And referred to briefly, but let's read them over again. So let's turn to the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, and we'll read from Genesis chapter one.
And we'll read verse 24 that talks about the lower creation, the animal creation, and we'll notice the difference between that and what God says concerning the creation of man, Genesis one, verse 24.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing and beasts of the earth after his kind. And it was so.
00:05:12
And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind.
And everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind. And God saw that it was good.
But then notice the difference and.
God said let us make man in our image.
After our likeness and let him know.
Them.
Them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cap, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.
Male and female created he then.
And then we'll go on to the second chapter.
Genesis chapter 2.
Verse 7.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
And man became a living soul.
Here is divine revelation given to us about the creation.
God has showed us very clearly.
The difference between man and the animal Kingdom.
We commented yesterday that animals generally walk on all fours and thus they tend to look down.
But man walks on two feet and he has the ability more to look upward. Now the animal can look upward too, but generally speaking, they look down and there's a reason for that. They are part of the lower creation. They don't have the knowledge of God and they do not have the ability to relate to God.
Animals react by instinct, they have it built into them in the way that they're going to do things, and it's wonderful to see.
What God has put into them to be able to do.
Absolutely amazing.
But who put it there? God did.
Sometimes I get on a plane.
And I have marveled at a plane that can take off from either Los Angeles or San Francisco, CA and fly nonstop 18 hours in the air usually, sometimes a little bit less depending on the wind, but usually 16 to 18 hours in the air and then lands in either Sydney or Melbourne.
Australia.
Did you know that God?
Did one better than that.
There's a bird that in the summer lives in northern Canada.
Lives in northern Canada in the summer and it winters in sunny tropical Australia.
How does it get there? It's called the bar Winged Godwit. You can look it up on the Internet.
Get this? It flies nonstop from the Canadian Arctic to Australia. Nonstop.
How long does it take? 8 days?
Eight days and it flies nonstop. It loses half its body weight.
But it has an unusual ability. I've seen some people that I wondered if they could do this, but it has the ability to put half its brain to sleep and fly with the other half.
The borrowing what God wet?
GODWIT.
Amazing bird.
How does it manage to do that? God made it with that ability.
00:10:00
But a few that bird, does that bird have any knowledge of who made it and how it got to have that ability and know it flies by instinct. It knows enough when the weather starts getting cool in the Canadian Arctic to eat up, eat up really well and then take off and head to Australia. How does it know where to go? It doesn't have radar. It doesn't have any fancy.
Air traffic controller or anything?
It knows where to go, it knows how to get there, and then when the time comes, it knows how to fly all the way back again.
Amazing bird. The Lord gave it the ability to do that.
But how much better when God made man, He made man in his image and his likeness.
And the two words have a meaning here, because to be made in God's image means.
That man is God's representative on earth, and that's why it says that he has dominion over.
The fish of the sea and the fowl of the air and the creeping things and the cattle and so on. And that is true, isn't it? That is true. Does man have ability to have dominion over the grizzly bear? He does, doesn't he?
Yes, if you and I were to go out there and try and grapple with a grizzly bear, we wouldn't have much dominion, would we Jonathan? No, we wouldn't do too well. The man has the ability to make a gun, man has the ability to lay a trap, man has the ability to shoot a tranquilizing dart and all the rest of it. He has dominion.
But then there's something more than that. He's made in God's image, but he's also made in God's likeness.
What does that mean? We'll go into that a little more deeply later on, but the point we want to make this morning is that God made man with the ability to relate to him.
Man has a spirit, and we'll talk more about that later on. I think there's another section on that, but we'll talk about that later on. But the point is that man has a spirit and a living soul that enables him to understand that there is a God.
And to relate to God and to be able to have.
A relationship with him.
Why did God make you and me like that?
Well, I never heard of put any better than by a brother who has long since with the Lord. I remember him very well, but if you want to remember him, you have to be at least.
Well, how old do you have to be? You have to be in your 70s to remember him. So anyway, the point is he made this statement. He said God is sufficient unto himself.
In everything except in his love.
He must have objects to love.
That makes sense, doesn't it?
God is sufficient unto himself in everything except in his love, but he must have objects to love.
Now did God have someone to love in a past eternity? Yes, he had his beloved son the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why incidentally in Genesis chapter one and verse 26, it says and God said.
Let me make man in our image after our likeness. No, it says, let us make man the Godhead. God the Son, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit took counsel together in a past eternity to make you and me in God's image and in God's likeness.
I'm looking at many who know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, who know what it is to have a relationship with God, who know what it is, at least to some extent, to know God.
But maybe there are some here today that don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
00:15:03
You know you can know about God if you're not truly saved, but it is impossible to know God in a very real way unless you know Him as your Savior. Because in the very early days of man's history, God gave man 1 Commandment in the Garden of Eden.
And he said there's one tree in that garden that I don't want you to eat of.
Very simple command, not difficult. There was plenty to eat, plenty to do without touching or otherwise getting involved with that one tree. No, God didn't say not to touch it, but he said don't eat of that fruit.
Man was under responsibility. He was given that command. And I think we all know what happened. First Eve, Adam's wife, and then Adam himself disobeyed that one command and they brought sin into this world. And sin has separated man from God. Sin separated man from God.
We went over this yesterday, but I'm saying it again.
But God found a way whereby we could be brought back and have a relationship with Him by sending His beloved Son into this world.
And the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world. How as man.
You know, sin has brought a lot of misery into this world. And sometimes we hear the argument from people, and I have heard it a number of times, and maybe you have to people will say what about all the sin and the suffering in this world? What about all the sorrow and heartache? What about all the wars and bloodshed?
Why doesn't God step in and put a stop to that?
And they think they've got it all sewed up in an argument because they will say, well, if God is able to do that and he doesn't do it, he just sits there and watches people in misery and sorrow and all that. If God can stop it and do something about it and does nothing.
He's a monster for justice, allowing that to go on.
What if God can't stop it?
Then what kind of a God is he if he can't stop it? So they think they've got you both ways.
You know there is an answer to that.
Yes, God did allow sin to enter this world. He could have prevented it.
And he does allow sorrow and heartache in this, in this world.
But it's not God's fault.
God warned man of the consequences of sin, He said. In the day when you eat of that tree, you will surely die.
Not exactly on that day, but dying thou shalt die.
And all the effects of sin, including death.
Have come because of man's disobedience.
But you know, there's something more than that.
If all the sin and misery that sin has caused was in this world.
God sent His beloved Son right down to where it was happening.
Right down in the midst of it all, as a man, in order to experience from without all the awful effects of sin, and then to go to Calvary's cross and suffer and die.
So that you and I could be redeemed.
So that you and I could have a new life in Christ. So that our sins could be washed away with the precious blood of Christ.
And so that we could enjoy what the Garden of Eden all over again.
That would have been wonderful, wouldn't it? That Garden of Eden must have been a wonderful place, and if sin had never entered this world, we'd be enjoying the Garden of Eden to day.
But now.
But now, because of the work of Christ on the cross.
Those who are saved are going to enjoy for all eternity, not the Garden of Eden.
00:20:04
But the Father's house in heaven.
What has God done? He has turned man's sin.
Into greater blessing than he could ever have imagined.
The hymn expresses it well, though our natures fallen Adam.
Seemed to shut us out from God.
Yet by grace his counsel brought us nearer still through Jesus blood.
That's what God has done.
But let's be faithful about it.
Suppose you don't accept Christ as your Savior. Suppose you say I don't want it. No, I prefer to live in my sins. I prefer to enjoy all the pleasures of sin for a season. Yes, there is pleasure in sin for a season. There are good times to be had in this world for a short while.
But then.
God says there is a penalty for sin and you'll have to suffer in a lost eternity in hell for all eternity if you leave this world without Christ. Very, very solemn.
There's another verse in the handout that I want to refer to. Let's turn to it for a moment. That's in the book of Ecclesiastes.
A book written by King Solomon, the wisest man I believe, other than the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, but.
The wisest man that ever lived in this world wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, and notice what he says here in verse 11. Now Solomon had everything this world could possibly offer. He was wealthy, he was wise, he was a young man when he became king.
He had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
Wow, you know he had everything.
But what does he say?
Verse 11.
He, that is God, hath made everything beautiful in his time.
Also He hath set the world in their heart, that is, the hearts of man, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end, and so on.
That word He has set the world in their heart could be translated. He had also set eternity in their hearts.
Eternity. What does that mean? It means that.
Whatever you and I find in this world.
That gives us pleasure. It's never enough to satisfy.
And Solomon found that out.
If I could use the expression the hard way because.
Facts, as we found out yesterday, come to us in two ways. Either someone tells us something or we find it out by experience. And Solomon experienced the fact that whatever he had in this world, he ends up calling it all vanity and pursuit of the wind. It did not satisfy.
Are you going to believe Solomon or are you going to try it out? I've had people tell me. I had a young man tell me one time. I told him I said, you know, there's nothing in this world that will ever satisfy you, he said. Well, maybe so, but I'm sure going to try.
You wanted to try it all out, I said. You don't need to do it. Solomon did it all before you.
And he had far more than you're ever going to have.
He hath said eternity in their heart.
You know there's only one thing that will satisfy your heart and mind, and that is God Himself. Why? Because God has put into your heart. And what if I could use the term with all reverence? What is in God's heart? And that is the desire for something that is infinite, that is eternal.
00:25:12
God made animals for time.
Made man for eternity.
And only something that is eternal will satisfy your heart and mind.
Only God Himself has the ability to fill your heart.
But he can do it and he will do it.
Now again I say there is pleasure for a while in things in this world.
You get a brand new car. Is it fun to get a brand new car? It is, isn't it? It is. It's fun to get a brand new car, but do you get tired of it after a while? You do you want another one or another one? I bought a car once and it was very interesting.
The man that bought it, he thought it was a beautiful car, but he had several cars so that every day if you went out to drive a car it was well, which one will I drive today?
And he kept that car for six months, put 2000 miles on it, and then decided he was tired of it. He traded it in. That's when I bought it, got a really good deal on it. It was just like a brand new car. He got tired of it, didn't satisfy him. See, Thomas is smirking. He knows what happened to that car. But anyway, never mind.
Yeah, it's still on the road, but the point is, everything we get, we get tired of.
Nice home, nice holidays, all that kind of thing.
It doesn't satisfy.
Why are we talking about knowing God?
Because He satisfies and He will satisfy your heart not only right now, but for all eternity. Well, I'm going to sit down now. It's 11:00. And there are others perhaps that have some comments. So thank you for listening and.
We'll see. But then just a quick announcement once again, any of the children between the ages of three and 12.
That would like to go to Jan Totem. She's just walking back there toward the back of the food tent. You don't have to go, but there's a craft available and a bit of a Bible lesson and a few other things. If you'd like to go and enjoy that, you're welcome to join Jan Totems down here to my right.
Yeah.