Previous Service
Welcome
“As we take the skin off a banana to reveal the fruit, so the Holy Spirit refines us of all hardness, sin, wrong attitudes and habits that His fruit will be revealed in our lives.”
Stella
Worship
Word
How do we know that God exists?
Last week we looked at the inner sense everyone has of the existence of God. This week we will look at
(2) The evidence that is found in creation
Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Romans 1:20
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.
Psalm 19:1-2
There is an expectancy from God that we humans will look at His creation and praise and glorify Him for it, seeing something of His eternal power and divine nature behind it all. If we don’t we are without excuse. Reading on in Romans we see that rather than glorify God and give thanks to Him those whom God created did the opposite
For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Rom. 1:21-23
Humanity can go so low as to worship idols instead of worshipping the true and living God who has created all things. We have an example of this in Acts 14:8-18 when the crowds wanted to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas regarding them as gods come down from heaven, calling Paul and Barnabas, Hermes and Zeus respectively. Paul made this appeal to them:
But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting:
Acts 14:14-18
“Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In the past, He let all nations go their own way. Yet He has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy“.
Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.
Sin has so hardened the human heart and mind that we don’t glorify God and give Him thanks as we gaze upon the magnificence of His creation.
“… every created thing gives evidence of God’s character. Nevertheless, it is man himself, created in the image of God, who most abundantly bears witness to the existence of God: whenever we meet another human being, we should (if our minds are thinking correctly) realise that such an incredibly intricate, skilful, communicative living creature could only have been created by an infinite, all-wise Creator”
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology p. 142.
Quote of the week
“No philosophical theory which I have yet come across is a radical improvement on the words of Genesis, that ‘in the beginning God made Heaven and Earth’.”
C. S. Lewis
Verse of the week
Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.
John 1:3
Let’s Pray
Creator God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we worship You; we praise You; we glorify You; we adore You; for You alone are God in Jesus Christ our Lord, Saviour, and Friend, Amen.