He Knows Where You Are

0:00 I ask you to bless the going forth of your word today. We thank you for it. A moment ago, it kind of put a little bit of terror in my heart, and then I realized that's exactly right. When Ron said, now let's open up our Bibles and hear from God. I thank you, Lord, that it's not me that the people are going to hear from. That would be worthless. It's from you. we have come to open up the bible the truth of god the word of god the will of god that we have printed on pages wow cause your word lord to be as it is alive but alive in us it is living lord we pray that we would be all the more alive when this message is over. And Lord, may we take what we learn and go out and live it.

0:55 We pray it now in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. Let's stand to our feet, church, as we dive into a new section of Proverbs chapter three. We're looking at a message series now titled, He Knows Where You Are. He obviously does. the God of the Bible never loses you. He never loses track of you. Imagine if, you know how you have on your device, I think, forgive me for not having the right terminology, but you know you can have like a pin drop or something for location, right? Your phone always knows where you're at, which means everybody, whoever runs that world knows where you're at. That's scary. But my hint to you is this. If Apple or Google can know where you're at, here's the fun part. God knows where Google and Apple is at. Yeah. God knows more. He knows your location always. So let's read this together and you'll see in our first installment this morning, how this all comes together.

2:02 Proverbs chapter three, verses 19 to 26. I'll read verse 19. If you pick it up in verse 20,

2:58 And all God's people said, Amen. Amen to that. You may be seated. He knows where you are. Nobody can run. Nobody can escape the ever watchful eyes of God. In fact, when you're studying what is known as the doctrine of eschatology, that is the biblical study of what God says about the future, when God is describing himself as being the one who is all-knowing, the Bible tells us that in that capacity, Scripture tells us that the seven eyes of the Holy Spirit are upon you. It doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit has seven eyes. The word means that he has absolute, perfect knowledge and wisdom and sight of all things. I love that statement, though, that the seven eyes of the Holy Spirit are upon you. And we've been talking lately on these Sundays about the Holy Spirit and his work in our lives out of the Bible.

3:58 And though this portion of scripture is 3,000 years old, it is more relevant than today's breaking news. It's awesome. It's the Bible. And I want to read to you a precious section of the Bible to kind of set the stage before we get into our first argument of what is this chapter saying, or what is this portion of Proverbs saying to us. This is going to be in Psalms 139. Psalm 139. Listen, by the way, I'm going to read out of the old King James. I love it.

4:33 Sometimes I will misquote scripture. You need to be careful. You need to be testing me on this. and I'll tell you why I misquote scripture. When I say misquote, I may not be quoting the verse exactly right. Here's what often happens. I was schooled at Calvary Costa Mesa under Chuck Smith in the old King James. And when the new King James came out, then he started teaching from it and I noticed that he was having a hard time because everything he had learned all his life was old King James. And yet I gotta tell you, maybe it's just what you cut your teeth on as it were reading the Bible. But many times I will say to you a verse and it will be old and new King James put together. And I'm going to read out of the old King James right now because it, for me, in this portion of scripture, for me, it's so comfortable. So when I say that, because you're going to hear these knowest and these and thouest.

5:31 It's the old Queen's English, King James, and it's powerful.

7:03 And all God's people said amen to that. That is the nature of our God. You're not gonna get away from him. Now you might be here today and you're not a Christian and you don't want anything to do with God. I want you to know something. You're not gonna get away from God. You're not gonna have your desire answered until later. There's gonna be a day when somebody will finally get the prayer that they've been praying for without realizing it. I don't want God in my life. I don't want anything about Jesus in my life. Leave me alone about God. Guess what? You will at least in your life have one prayer answered and that will be it. I don't want God. And at the end, God will say, you don't want me? Prayer answered. You don't have me. And that's called hell. The absence of God. And there's a place for all those who want the absence of God. But I trust that today you're here, you're watching right now, and you are one who wants the presence of God. You want God to not only be in your life, you want him to possess your life, guide your life. You want him to take over your life and lead your life. And that was Solomon's desire for his son, that his son would have God leading and guiding. So number one, we dive into our study. Number one, part one is this, the way of wisdom. That is the entire theme of the book.

8:29 The title of this series is he knows where you are. And it is this, he is that great. Now in your note-taking, you ought to put, I should have done it myself. He is that great. There should be a big Exclamation point there. He is that great. Now, I have to say this because with all that's going on in the world around us and all that's happened in America, the rise of Islam in America, you hear them saying, Allah Akbar. You've heard this, right? Allah Akbar. Allah Akbar. And you need, that's Arabic. and what that word is, what that statement is, God is greater. God is greater. Now, the interesting thing about that is that when they say Allah, that is the Arabic word for God, lowercase g-o-d, God. It's not a name. You know this church, right? You got this all down. It is like for example, Yahweh is your God. That's his name, Yah, Yahweh, Yehovah.

9:36 So when a Muslim says Allah Akbar, you need to pay close attention to that for your encouragement. Because when they say it, they say God is greater. The God that they worship, they say is greater. It's not that they're saying God is great. Isn't that interesting? that's not what it means. It doesn't mean God is great. The word in Arabic means God is greater. Their God is greater. Interesting. Every God of all other religions, they believe that their God is greater or gods, right? My question is, are you tracking? You guys had your coffee? Here you go. I'm needing you to have your coffee. If you are in a religion that says that your God is greater, in logic, in reason you have to ask the question greater than who?

10:36 If you're not, listen, either God is great or he's not God. But if your God is greater, greater than who? And the answer of to who is who you're going to be learning about today. This is very, very important. And so the first thing that we see right here as we look at this in verses 19 to 20, the Lord by wisdom, watch these three key elements. The Lord, by wisdom, number one, founded the earth. By, number two, understanding, he established the heavens. Verse 20, by, number three, his knowledge, the depths were broken up, and clouds dropped down their dew. We're going to look at three key elements of this portion of Scripture, and you might be surprised, I hope you are anyway, of just how two verses, we're going to relegate ourselves to 55 minutes, just on these two verses because we could spend months on these two verses for what is being said.

11:38 The number one thing we begin with this is that he is altogether wise. Please write this down. We're talking about wisdom and the Bible says that the God of the Bible is altogether wise. And we look at it this way and I think this is fun. I hope you have fun with it as well. chapter 3, the front end of verse 19. The Lord by wisdom founded the earth. That means that God is altogether wise. Let's find out what that means. The word wisdom here, marking it down, because the word wisdom appears in one word in English, but it can have multiple meanings in the Hebrew language. Putting this together, we're talking about two verses that are speaking regarding, you picked up on this already, creation. skillfully, with creative or with creativity or wit. So listen to this. The Lord by creativity, by his wit, founded the earth. The creative nature of God. God is the creator.

12:45 I want to have that settle in for a moment. God doesn't make mistakes. This world makes mistakes. Sin makes mistakes. Sin, I should put it this way, sin engineers mistakes. That's a better way of saying it. Sin is out to destroy and to kill and to take away from what God has created. Know this everybody, that God, the one and only true living God, he's a God that is skillfully able and very witty about his creation. Meaning that what he has created, this is a task for all of us, ask yourself, with what I see by observable creation, does it prove the claims of this verse, verse 19, that the God of the Bible is very, very witty? I say that with a smirk on my face because I want to smile.

13:38 Because I not only think that God is remarkable at his creative powers and witty, I think he's sometimes just outright fun and funny. There are things about creation that will make you smile, make you even laugh. You go to the zoo. I think every Christian should go to the zoo and have a better time than any evolutionist. Because the evolutionist is looking, thinking, man, I don't know. I have to explain this to my other unbelieving friends. And they're thinking to themselves over and over again, I sure hope Chuck Darn was right. I sure hope Chuck Darn, you know, Charles, I call him Chuck. Charles Darn was right. Man, let me tell you, friend, you got a lot of faith. It's either great faith or really, really dumb excuses as to why you don't just full on give God the glory for his remarkable creative works, it's not gonna hurt you.

14:36 It's not gonna kill you. It's so obvious. And then God, with all of his creative things, you know, some of those things are, there's the cat kingdom, the various cats, the great cats, the smaller cats. There's the birds of all kinds of types and all that stuff is amazing. And you go to the zoo and you should be, every Christian should go to the zoo and say, praise the Lord. And then you go to the next cage, praise God. And why? Because what he put together is skillfully done. It's amazing. And you know, you're impressed. Let me, if you're not impressed, be impressed by this. In this region, we have woodpeckers. Okay. I think woodpeckers are maybe everywhere, but we've got them here. And here's the deal. A woodpecker, the woodpecker, when you wake up in the morning or you hear him in the day, he's...

15:30 Now, I challenge you, testing you. Go out and take your knuckle and hit it that hard against that tree that he's hitting and do it, I don't know, 10, 12 times in a row like that. Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. And then look at your knuckles. that woodpecker screams the wit of God. You want to know why? Around that woodpecker, he's got a tongue. And that tongue in his mouth goes through his sinus cavity and it wraps around his brain, I think it's eight times. And every time he goes like this to hit the tree, the tongue flexes to the front end, creates a cushion for the bird's brain to hit that pillow and then when it goes back, the tongue flexes back in the back of the skull to slow its deceleration backward.

16:37 Front, back, front, back. How many times in a second? Eight times. Eight times. this tongue is wrapped around the brain of a woodpecker. Okay, evolutionists. Seven scientists tell us he would hit the tree, he would destroy his brain. Seven times.

17:01 If it was nine times, the tongue wouldn't fit inside the skull. This is just science. Eight times. At what point did evolution say, let's try six. Okay, we're up to six. All right, Woody. Do it. Boom. Ah.

17:23 Another woodpecker, please. Are you hearing me? We should have an altar call right now. You should come to Christ right now over the tongue of a woodpecker. At what point they tell us the eye is one of the most advanced things on our bodies. But they tell us that we had an irritant on the front of our face. We didn't have eyes. But our flipper began to rub. and after time, we not only created an eye by rubbing the irritant, but then at just the right time, we stopped rubbing it and said, okay, that's 2020 right there.

18:07 You're laughing because it's insane. Evolutionists want us to believe that everything just came together by a grand accident. Excuse me, but the law of physics demands that nothing comes out of an accident but chaos. In fact, the very law of entropy, the law of thermal dynamics, that second law says that everything is going from perfection to decay. Everything. Look at you. Look at me. We are, you know how much, we saw each other last Sunday. Look how old you look compared to last Sunday. See what's happening? Somebody once said, I think it was, don't quote me on this, but it might have been the director of the Goddard Space Center for NASA, J. Michael Gould. I believe he's the one that said that an explosion in a junkyard never creates a 747.

19:12 But you can put a bomb in a 747 and explode it and it creates a junkyard. And that's true. It's so true. Everything's falling apart. The day you buy a brand new car, before you even buy it, it starts falling apart. Listen, they put the nut on the bolt or the bolt on the nut. And science tells us it quietly, secretly begins to try to unscrew itself. You go around tightening the nuts on the bolts, don't you? you don't have to go around loosening them.

19:52 Because God knows exactly what he's doing and all of this should bring you comfort because he knows where you are in life. And every or any situation you're in, God is with you, he's in it, and he knows. And I hope that out of this message, you'll be encouraged by these verses. There's gonna be a lot of them that brings you comfort. The Lord by wisdom founded the earth. Mark this down. We're going to go through, write small. Hebrews 11 tells us this. By faith, that's our faith, we, us, this is how we understand. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed, that's creative talk, by the word of God. By the way, word, framed, and word all speaks about construction. Those are all words of having schematics or a pattern and structure, building.

20:51 Framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Now that's a radical statement. Folks, that's 2,000 years old. Let me read that letter end. You may want to feel like you disagree. Watch this. So that the things which are seen, can you guys hold up your Bible, for example? Just hold up your Bible. Can you see your Bible? Hold up your Bible. The things that are seen were not made of things which are visible. You say, what? That's ridiculous. Leather, paper. Come on, Jack, that's wrong. We found a flaw in the Bible. Not so. Before there was paper, before there was leather, there has to be the invisible elements that make those things transfer into the visible. In other words, everything that is visible is made up of things that are invisible.

21:48 They're called atoms. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 3 speaks to the atomic reality. Things that we have are literally made by things that we do not see. It's those things compiled together by design, by construction, that crosses over, as it were, into a realm where you and I live, and now we can see it. I just love that. How about this? Just to throw this in, to keep you awake and to shake somebody up. Proverbs, Psalm 14, verse 1. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Do you know anybody who says there is no God? I do. I know people who do not believe in God.

22:42 And the Bible says they're fools. The word fool means, this is important. The word fool means to be empty-headed. But we're not talking about the head, are we? Notice, the fool has said to, watch, he has said to his what? His heart. translation hmm there's overwhelming evidence that god exists there's overwhelming evidence for the argument of god on top of the fact that i cannot explain consciousness nobody can still to the 21st century in the year 2027 wait what year is this 26 well i'm speaking prophetically No one knows and can explain consciousness, human consciousness. It's God-given.

23:38 So the fool knows this. Actually, at this point, he's not a fool. He knows, but he makes a decision to not allow that truth into his mind. He battles with it, and so he can't deal with it. He can't defeat it. So he looks down 18 inches into his heart and he says, there's no God. He has to tell his heart there's no God because his head, his thinking knows that there is. Are you hearing me? This is critical. We won't go there, but Romans 1, you should read it later, it tells us about the battle that this fool goes through. Constantly dealing with the existence of God and arguing away the existence of God, trying to make himself feel better. When he cannot achieve that, he says to his heart, there's no God.

24:35 And he'll lie to himself for the rest of his life only to appease his own desires. Don't do that if that's you. You don't want to do that. Psalm 33, verse 8 and 9. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the earth be in awe of the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. Man, I love that. That's how God flexes. He just goes, yeah, yeah, that's right. I spoke it, it was done. I commanded it, it stood fast. Why am I saying this? Because God knows exactly where you're at. he's that great. And if he was great enough to do all these great things in creation and you are more important to him than creation.

25:31 Is that amazing? He loves you. Look, Jupiter is amazing, I guess. I don't know. I've never been. Probably won't go. But Saturn, right? We've seen these things in telescopes. Pretty amazing. Astronomers are in awe of the observable universe. I get it. They should be. But they should be giving God the glory. Because folks, listen, as incredible as the moon is, I mean, look at that moon. He's going to be tonight over about here in the southwestern sky.

26:06 An increasing sliver of him. He's growing right now. He'll be, how did you know that? You just knew, on the 25th, she said it will be full. If she's wrong, then we'll take her out and stone her. No, I'm kidding. No, just kidding. So, but she knows.

26:29 Have you looked at the moon lately? It's all beat up. it's not very far away from us, but it's all beat up. You know why it's beat up? Because God did the math and he put it within the right gravitational pull to keep it going around the earth in such a way that it becomes like an appendix that you and I have in our bodies. it becomes like a backstop on a baseball field. Takes all the hits. So we don't. Next time you look at the moon tonight, look at the moon and say, glory be to God.

27:16 If your neighbors come out and say, should we dial 911? You should say, look at the moon. You see how beat up it is? See all those craters? All of those meteors and all of those particles that were supposed to collide to us was pulled over by its gravitation and it took the hit for us. Friends, Jesus took the hit for us. Jesus went to the cross. He died there on the cross and all of God's judgment was directed at him, though it was supposed to be ours. He took that in our place. He's altogether wise. Genesis chapter one, verse one, we're building a case. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, the first verse of the Bible. Many scholars have said, many authors have said, we all agree, if you can believe verse 1 of Genesis 1, the rest of the Bible is easy peasy.

28:11 It's all downhill after that. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Notice the heavens is plural. Do you notice that? It's because God knew what he was talking about. Listen, God told Moses what to write down. Moses didn't think this one up. the heavens, we're talking about the heavens, which is where the carpet is, that atmosphere from the ground up. out, what, 126,000 feet up into space, at the end of that goes on to the deep recesses of space. It's in its plurality. Notice that he doesn't say earths, the earth singular.

29:07 God in his creation, I don't understand this because when you look at the broad universe, you wind up saying, oh wow, we're just a speck. Yes, we are. But the truth of the matter is, friends, is that God created all that stuff around us to show us how, though we are little, how very precious and special this planet is. But as much as that is precious, he built it for you.

29:34 And there's gonna come a day when we will literally experience a new heaven, a recreated heaven and a recreated earth. And in some way, shape or form, this world that has been our home is going to be a world of his new restorative work. And we'll be praising him. I think we should just get ahead of the ball and start opening up our eyes and thanking him now for the amazing, awesome things that he does and that he shows us because he has certainly left us great examples. Job chapter 26, Job 26 verse 7 says, he stretches out the north over empty space. He hangs the earth on nothing. I like that. He binds up the water in his thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it. That just simply means how can God take heavy, heavy water, make it float, and the clouds go by, and they don't break. The bottom doesn't fall out.

30:41 Because God's, listen, when God, he snaps his fingers like this. When condensation takes place, I'm putting it in this context. He snaps his fingers at the moment he wants to, and the dew point, the temperature, all this science comes together in a moment, and the cloud, the cloud just, it's still floating and then it releases. And yet if it releases, why does the cloud keep going? And then the cloud will sometimes stop raining underneath it. Are you, are you? And the cloud, see, how come when the rain falls, the cloud doesn't go small? Do you understand what I'm saying? Like, do worms yawn?

31:32 We don't know. But to me, that just freaks me out. Here comes this cloud, dumps all the rain, and the cloud doesn't lose any size. It keeps going. I don't know. He's that great. He's that great.

31:56 The word founded, he founded. It's a beautiful word. So that Hebrew word, which you'll see on the screen anytime now, founded, to appoint or position. God did this. God appointed, he positioned. The word means to firmly set in a specific place. I like this. To secure or place at the proper spot. This removes all thought of chaos or disorder. God says, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to establish or I'm going to found this to the exact detail. Scientists will call this fine-tuning.

32:38 Fine-tuning. If you are any way involved in any kind of the sciences, you cannot get away from the fact that the founding Hebrew word here fits what we deal with in science, and that is everything has been fine-tuned. Temperature, your body, blood cells, how they function, your hematology, your chemistry, your biology, your lung capacity. The amazing thing that you are breathing in invisible stuff.

33:13 And your body grabs that invisible stuff in your lungs and loads it up, transferring it onto blood cells, having them, you know, they come back to the lungs and they're all pooped out and tired and they're dark, almost purple, almost black. And then there's the transition where they're brightened up with, we'll just say, O2. There's others, of course, but O2. And then your blood leaves all happy and red and runs off to keep your brain going and your body moving. And it's a miracle. And doctors will tell you that when things go slightly off, it could cause troubles.

34:00 You know the same fact about you that fine-tuning is true in the universe that we see. Fine-tuning. What is the sun? 93 million miles from where we're sitting right now? if we are five, if we move five miles closer to the sun, we're dead. If we move five miles away from the sun, we're dead.

34:33 Explain that. God is great all the time he should cause us to worship Psalm 145 all of this should cause us to worship and friends why am I saying this because I'm not I'm not deaf or silent or blind to the fact that in some way shape and form or form every one of us are going through something and some of you in this church we've been getting prayer requests this week and some of you are going through horrific things. maybe this week you will embark upon something you've never experienced, and that is you may be fine today, but the week ahead has some profound great faith challenge coming. I don't know, but we do know these things come and they go.

35:28 I'm giving you this message today primarily to have you rejoice in the fact that God is great, and no matter what is going on in our lives, if we stay focused on him, we can worship him in every situation. Did you know that God didn't expect us to just worship him only when it's nice and easy and good? The greatest worship ever given is when you worship God and you're hurting. Are you hurting? Don't jump up and say I am. In some way, shape or form, all of us are. But listen, are you hurting? The magnitude of the hurt should translate into the depth of the worship. Even if you are sitting in, maybe everybody around you standing and lifting up hands and singing praises to God. Not you. You're sitting in silence, maybe like Job. And yet your worship is profound because it's coming at a great expense to you and it's coming from the depths of absolute determination that in everything I'm feeling and going through right now, I will choose to thank God in this fire.

36:36 Because he alone is great. And the Bible tells us, Psalm 145 verse 3, Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable. That means there's nothing I can go through in this life that's beyond his greatness.

36:57 I'm tempted like you are. Oh, but what about this thing of mine? Oh, what about the other thing I'm going through? Have you noticed we always talk about ourselves like that? Oh, I know the Bible says that, but look at me. No, the Bible says that because the Bible or the God of the Bible was and is looking at you. And he anticipated the situation and wrote this down in his book. So on this day, you would have comfort. You would have peace. Let him be God. He's great. Jeremiah 32 verse 17. Ah, Lord God, behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for you. Put that in your worship perspective. What are you going through? Match it up against this. There's nothing too heart from you, for you God. Nothing.

37:54 Isaiah chapter 40, verse 28. Isaiah 40, 28. Have you not known, have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. Man. So awesome. Secondly, under this, look at verse 19, the latter end of verse 19. He is fully able. Our God is great and he's fully able. Able. The verse says, by understanding. So notice it goes from wisdom to understanding. Similar but different words. By understanding, he established the heavens. This word understanding, again, very similar but different.

38:55 By reasonings. Now this is hard, I have to confess, this is hard for us to fathom, hard for me to fathom. But it's just because I'm an ant compared to him. By reasonings, these are the thoughts of God. By reasonings, the word means by calculations. What do calculations, does that word calculations remind you of another word? Starts with an M. Math, mathematics. You know why most people hate math? I don't know who said this. Somebody great, Pascal said this, or one of the greats. Pascal, or Einstein, or somebody, Teller. somebody said. The reason why we hate math predominantly is because it's perfect. It's the only perfect thing in the world, math. You ever think of that? It's perfect.

39:52 Which, by the way, again, if you're an atheist, I'm trying the best I can to offend an atheist in here today somehow. If you're an atheist, how do you explain math? Did you know that many have said that mathematics is the language of God? Because God's perfect. Mathematics is perfect. I'm sorry, wait. We're in California. Sorry. In 49 other states, math is perfect. Two plus two equals six. if you fit anyway, math is perfect. That's why we often struggle with math. And by the way, some people have got greater insights to math than others. But listen, you can only go the best mathematician in the universe can only go so far until he gets lost in it because there's no finding it out all the way. God is the mathematician.

40:49 by the skill of knowing what to do based upon the science or immutable laws. Listen to this. Natural and supernatural laws known and unknown, that is to us. God moves in the realm of natural law and supernatural law because God, who is infinite spirit, stepped into this world in finite flesh. the son of God, born of a virgin, to communicate to you and I. And hallelujah, he's the God of both worlds.

41:30 Remarkable and thrilling, in my opinion. The word established here means to carry, to carry out, to carry out the plan, order, or the purpose, to perform what was determined, to ordain and maintain. That's important. Reliable, steadfast. God established it. What God creates, he's going to finish it. What God makes, he's going to bring to full completion. He's reliable. Here's something that'll freak you out. I alluded to it a moment ago. Have you ever thought about this? The Bible says, for example, in Peter, that God is going to cause the elements, the atoms. That's where we get the word atom, the elements. God will cause the atoms to melt with fervent heat. Did you know that? It says that in the Bible, that he's not going to judge the world again with floods, but he's going to judge the world by fire. And the Bible says he's going to destroy the earth with fire like he destroyed the earth by water.

42:27 Now, listen. Look at that word, established. I find great comfort in what this means. When the Bible says he's going to create a new heaven and a new earth, it's the exact type of verbiage that when Noah, got in the ark, got judged to destroy the world, that Noah got out of the ark and stepped into a new earth, a new world. But it was the same earth, right? Yes. When God burns it all up, what is he going to do? Remember how he scrubbed the earth with water? He's going to scrub it with fire. Guess what? This will bring you comfort. God is not going to create, he's not going to destroy Saturn or the earth and create some new place by a new name. He's going to destroy it by scouring it.

43:25 So those of you in medicine, he's going to autoclave it to sterilize it. And then he's going to, listen, then he's going to display a new heavens and a new earth. He's going to take what is broken and by his judgment and by his creative wit, he's going to take what was lost and he's going to make it all brand new. He's going to take, like it were, an old broken down home and he's going to make it all brand new and say, angel, move that bus. And there's the old made all new. Are you hearing me? That's why when you read in the Bible, it says that he's established the earth and it will dwell forever. You go, well, that's not exactly true. Yes, it is true. This is what should bring you comfort. God never throws anything away.

44:18 He's going to scrub by judgment and make new by restoration, by renewal, all things. Listen, you and I were lost in sin. He didn't destroy us. He scrubbed us, as it were, with the blood of the Lamb of God. And you are now a new creation in Christ. that's the great work of our god which again brings me great excitement because the bible talks about in heaven and eternity trees and this is going to be a great comfort to some of you it doesn't say there's going to be gold fish and there's going to be kitty cats and there's going to be puppies it doesn't say that but I wouldn't doubt that they're all there. Why?

45:09 Why? How dare you say that? But wait a minute. Trees. There's horses in heaven. If there's horses, what if there's other things? Why not? What if everything that God made here that is good but has been reduced or destroyed by sin and we see just a veiled remnants of it? What if on the other side when he's all done, What if it's greater than what we had beforehand? What if the tree that he made that still stands today in this world is a seedling carried over from the great flood that was once in the Garden of Eden, or for that matter, the entire globe prior to the flood? I believe I have a scientific argument for that out of Genesis. when you leave today you'll see these California pepper trees our parking lots full of California peppers and at the right time of the year take some of the pepper home with you it's edible it's real pepper and when the wind blows it's so relaxing to watch and this fragrance is spectacular do you think Satan made that God did that the question is when did God do that in creation.

46:33 Is that kind of... You can meditate on that for a while and let that be converted into praise. so listen, let's go down these verses, some of them I'm repeating, this one's obvious, are you ready, he's fully able, Genesis 1, 1, I said it a moment ago, I'm saying it again to build this next case, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, God created, by the way, I think God created in such a way that he's able to maintain it, and I don't think your carbon footprint, sorry, is that big of a deal.

47:14 If you're really concerned about carbon footprint, you should stop breathing right now. Next verse. John 1, verse 3. All things were made through him. We're talking creation, folks. Now, this is the participation time. We've only got 15 minutes left. So now I need you to jump in on this. All things were created through him. Are we talking about creation? And we're talking about God? And without him, nothing was made, created that was made. Everybody agree with that? I do. Next verse. Colossians 1, 16. For by him all things were created. Sounds like the previous verse. That are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible. You're experts on that. Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, spiritual entities. All things were created through him and for him.

48:09 Wow. Next verse. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets. Listen to this. Has in these last days spoken to us by his son. That's why you don't need any new prophet in your life. This is the last word. Jesus.

48:34 Oh, a prophet told me some new thing. No, he didn't. A demon spoke to you some big fat lie. God's done speaking. He spoke through his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds. That's creation, folks. How did God create? Christ Jesus is the carpenter of all that has been created. Next verse. Genesis 1.26, which is why it says this. then God, Elohim, singularity plural, said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them, who? Man, mankind, have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God did that. You see, this is building. God's the creator. He's that great. And now we're hearing about God, the one who is created. It's the son who's the creator. S-O-N. In the beginning, Elohim.

49:50 El, Im. The singular plurality of God. Every Jew in the building knows what I'm talking about. because in Hebrew, they get it perfectly. Next verse. Revelation 4.11. You guys okay? Revelation 4.11. You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created. Are you guys tracking this?

50:20 Next verse. This is just... John 1.1, in the beginning, that is of the physical creation, was the word, logos. And the logos was with God, and the logos was God. Can you just, can you just got a hand for that one? We just like, what? Now, I had to squeeze my favorite verse in here. Proverbs 30, verse 4. who has ascended into heaven or descended who has gathered the wind in his fist who has bound the waters in a garment who has established all the ends of the earth what is his name and what is his son's name if you know on the count of three one, two, three there's no getting away from that one Old Testament Proverbs 30 verse 4 You're welcome.

51:20 A perfect commentary on Genesis 1-1, is it not? John chapter 1, verse 10. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. That's still true to this moment. Isn't that amazing? Acts chapter 4 verse 12.

51:47 And there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men. By which we must be saved. Philippians chapter 2 verse 10. That at the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow of those in heaven. And of those on earth. And of those under the earth. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Wow. Third argument, and we end with this. He is all-knowing. He's the all-knowing God. Verse 20 says, By his knowledge, the depths were broken up and clouds dropped down the dew or the rain. He's all-knowing.

52:40 The omniscience of God, the attributes of the God of the Bible, knows all things. And he knows all things in the now, instantly, in the present. That word knowledge, we've seen this before in our study, the word means the knowing, or the knowing of, the knowledge of, the premeditation or pre-knowledge of what will become known. God knows in advance. So I don't know who's playing today. I don't know if the rams are playing the goats. I'm not sure. But God knows the game. He already knows how it goes.

53:16 He already knows. He's all done. that some of you are thinking, I should pray now before I place my bet. No, yeah, you shouldn't do that. Colossians chapter 1. I hope you recognize the theme throughout all this. All things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things consist. Jesus Christ is not only the creator, he's the sustainer. He keeps atoms from flying apart. Go ask your friend who's a physicist, go up the freeway to JPL and ask them there. Say, can you guys tell me what keeps an atom together? I'd like to know. My kid's doing a paper. Blame it on your kid.

54:08 I got a homeschooler here. Thought I'd bring him to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory here today in Pasadena. He's asking this question. What keeps an atom together? Why doesn't it just, because science says it should fly apart. somebody will go pull the fire alarm to get you out of there nobody knows the answer to that you know what they've called it they've called it atomic glue and then you ask him what's the glue what's the glue made out of have you seen the glue where's the glue they don't have any glue they're trying to cope with how great he is Jeremiah 9 verse 24. Jeremiah 9 24 says, but let him who glories glory in this.

55:09 That's us. Notice it's lowercase h. Let us, can I change it in front of you? You guys tracking with me? But let us who glory, glory in this, that we understand and know him, right? That I am the Lord, exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, says the Lord. Don't get puffed up. In fact, the closer you get to Jesus, the more humble you should be. I've never seen a proud Christian who's close to Jesus. I've seen backslidden Christians who are very proud. I'm not going to mention his name, but a famous preacher. I mean, I don't watch him, but he's on a certain channel.

55:59 He says, I'm not kidding you. He said, I'd like to introduce to you my recent book. he said, it's the, I'm not kidding. He said, it's the best book I've ever written. It's the greatest book that I've ever written. And this book is on humility.

56:19 And Lisa and I watched this and thought it was a joke, but he kept going on about how great his book is on humility. It would have been different for him to say, Hey, somebody wrote a book and put my name on it. It's about humility. It's the best book they've ever written. But you didn't do that. Wow. Proverbs 13, verse 20. He who walks with wise men will be wise. It matters who you hang out with. But the companion of fools will be destroyed. Hey, listen, you hang out with idiots, you're going to wind up reaping the harvest of idiots. not good find somebody wiser than you and befriend them start hanging out. with those that are on their way to heaven.

57:17 Do you remember how we said that there's that one name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved and that name is Jesus? What do you mean saved? Saved from what? Guys, put it up on the screen. Saved from what? No, not that, sorry. The graphic.

57:42 The graphic coming up is gonna be the Ten Commandments. It really is. There it is. You shall have no other gods before me. We already have in our lives. Before we met Jesus, we already had other gods. Broken, guilty. You're guilty, I'm guilty. Guilty.

58:11 By the way, how many of these do you have to break before you're guilty? One. Number two, you shall make no idols. Idols? I didn't make it. I bought it. guilty. Three, you shall not take the name of the Lord, your God in vain. That doesn't mean, but believe it or not, that doesn't mean cussing. Do you know what it means? I mean, cussing is not good. Don't get me wrong. Cussing is using his name. To take his name in vain means to say that you know God and live like you don't. That's the breaking of the third commandment. It's called third commandment describes all hypocrites. Guess what? I'm looking at a whole bunch of them right here now. And you're looking at one right up here right now. Because to be a hypocrite means to know what to do that is right and to not do it is a hypocrite.

59:10 Should I keep going? Are you hurting enough? Four, keep the Sabbath day holy. God said, establish a day of rest to focus on me. Put your devices down. Divorce yourself from life. Focus on me and rest your body. We don't even rest when we're resting. I need to take a break. We don't even take a break when we take a break. You go on vacation, you come back more tired after vacation.

59:42 Guilty. honor your father and mother guilty you shall not murder well okay finally But then Jesus says, okay, you've heard thou shalt not murder. He said, let me tell you what the law actually means. If you've looked at somebody and you hated them, you've murdered them. You shouldn't touch them. No, because God knows exactly where you're at, where you are.

1:00:18 God says, I see your hatred for that person. First chance you get, you throw their name under the bus. first chance you get, you give some slanderous derogatory statement. The first thing you get, you attack. God says, I see that. Guilty of murder. You shall not commit adultery. Okay, I didn't do that. Again, Jesus said, if you look at somebody and lust after them, you're guilty of adultery. Okay, now we're all guilty. what I hope you're hearing in your heart is please stop you shall not bear or you shall not steal you shall not steal not even a pencil from the company no erasers erasers that's how old I am I almost said pencil sharpeners but tablets I don't know what it is by the way you shall not steal applies to your income tax too.

1:01:20 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Don't lie about your neighbor and you shall not covet. Ouch. Do you see why now Jesus said that, or the Bible says there's only one name that can save you? You know how lost you are if you don't have him? I'm gonna pray right now and we're not gonna play any games right now. We've got all the time in the world for you. We're gonna pray right now and I'm going to ask you to make a decision for Jesus Christ today because he's that great.

1:01:55 Some of you have been circling the drain on this one for a while. You've been thinking, I should do this, I should do this sometime, maybe later. Today's the later. Now's the time. close the deal. End the doubt. Make the commitment. Let's bow our heads. Father, we pray right now in the name of Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, King of kings. And we pray right now, Father God, that as this sanctuary is hushed and stilled, that there'd be those right now having conviction that they're guilty of one or ten of the Ten Commandments, making them now either condemned in their own sight or, while they have breath, able to run to the foot of the cross to experience forgiveness.

1:02:53 So friends, I'm going to ask you, I'm not going to beg you, I'm not going to put on a show here. This is ridiculous. If God is speaking to your heart, you should respond to him. because Jesus died on the cross for your sins, and he was buried for three days, rose again from the dead for your justification. God bought you the ticket to go to heaven and to cancel out those 10 commandments, because he's the one that fulfilled all of them. He turns right around with that fulfilled, he satisfies the law and then turns and says, come to me, come hide in me, come jump into my arms. I will shield you from the law of God if you will accept my death and resurrection. You've heard enough, friend. Be honest enough with yourself and with Almighty God. You're a sinner.

1:03:47 You're lost. You're on your way to hell. You hope nobody finds out, but nobody really cares. You should care that God already knows where you're at and who you are. and he wants you to change that now by coming to him. As we sing this song, I'm going to ask you to get up out of your seat and come forward and stand right in the front of this platform and we'll have a brief prayer together, but I'm not going to belabor it. If your heart is getting tense, if you're thinking to yourself, I think it's time to go now. Listen, you are fighting the Holy Spirit. If you've got that war going on, you need to obey God rather than yourself. As we sing this song, you make your way forward and don't worry about what other people are thinking. It doesn't matter what they think. Okay, so listen, don't you wish you would have come forward? No, but if you're holding out, if you're holding out, I just want you to know you played the fool today by holding out.

1:04:45 You're gambling with your life and you don't want to do that. Relationships are personal and they're by choice. And if today God has been speaking to you and you chose not to listen to him, we pray that his grace would extend to you just one more time and that you'd listen to him he's calling you let's close in this song of worship God bless you guys we'll see you Wednesday night God bless you