Temple Baptist Church - 8-20-2017
Romans 1:17-21
Introduction:
A. The Bible is a Book of Progressive Revelation. The Book of Genesis or Beginnings has been called the “Seed Bed of the Bible.” I love Genesis as it is full of First Mention Principles and, if you want to know what God thinks on something, go there and find the First Mention.
B. The Person and truth of God are often referred to as light. As we begin one of the most important portions of the Book of Romans, Paul mentions those who hold the truth of God in unrighteousness. This tells us several things:
1. Everyone holds the truth, in righteousness or unrighteousness! As I begin dealing with the truth, I will show three types of revelation that that are available: inherent truth, visible truth, and Biblical truth. To whom much is given, much is required so, two of these truths will be required by all mankind.
2. All of mankind holds to two of these: inherent truth and visible truth. How we hold these two determines how we hold the third, therefore all three are essential to salvation and must be held in righteousness.
3. The third, Biblical truth, becomes available as the first two are accepted and sought after. We all hold the first two truths in either in righteousness or unrighteousness! You may like the truth and hold it dearly or you may not like the truth and turn from it but everyone will be accountable to it.
C. How we hold these three “truths” will determine our eternal destiny. The danger of rejecting any of these truths is doing so will cause one to reject them all. To believe one of them can lead to belief in all of them because they all point to one God.
1. To reject inherent truth will cause one to reject visible truth and ultimately Biblical truth.
2. To reject visible truth will cause one to reject inherent truth and Biblical truth.
3. To reject Biblical truth will cause one to reject inherent and visible truth.
4. These three truths compose a trinity as God and man are trinities. To destroy one is to destroy all because they come together as one.
D. I want to look at the three truths in natural order.
1. Inherent Truth. Truth that we are born with. Truth that every man and woman has because it is given by God. I want to look at a few verses in John that explain “inherent light.”
Genesis 2:7 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. (God breathed life into man. Literally the life of God which is eternal. Man is an eternal being.)
John 1:4-9 (a) In him was life; and (b) the life was the light of men. (5) And (c) the light shineth in darkness; and (d) the darkness comprehended it not. (6) There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. (7) The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. (8) He was not that Light, (e) but was sent to bear witness of that Light. (9) That was (f) the true Light, (g) which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (The life of God is the light that lighteth every man.)
a. “In him was life.” Life comes from God!
1) The evolutionist tries to teach otherwise to do away with a divine Creator but only life can beget life. Only God can give life! Inanimate objects cannot become animate nor can they create life. They are inanimate.
2) George Wald, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1967.
"There are only two possibilities as0 to how life arose. One is spontaneous generation arising to evolution; the other is a supernatural creative act of God. There is no third possibility. Spontaneous generation, that life arose from non-living matter was scientifically disproved 120 years ago by Louis Pasteur and others. That leaves us with the only possible conclusion that life arose as a supernatural creative act of God. I will not accept that philosophically because I do not want to believe in God. Therefore, I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible; spontaneous generation arising to evolution." (Wald, George, "Innovation and Biology," Scientific American, Vol. 199, Sept. 1958, p. 100) (George Wald made a personal and unscientific choice to hold the truth of God in unrighteousness!)
3) “Spontaneous generation” – Wikipedia - “Pasteur's experiment is generally agreed to have decisively refuted the theory of spontaneous generation in 1859. Disproof of the traditional ideas of spontaneous generation is no longer controversial among professional biologists. By the middle of the 19th century, the theory of biogenesis had accumulated so much evidential support, due to the work of Louis Pasteur and others, that the alternative theory of spontaneous generation had been effectively disproven. The historian of science John Desmond Bernal suggests that earlier theories such as spontaneous generation were based upon an explanation that life was continuously created as a result of chance events.”
4) If life can only come from life, then our life had to begin somewhere with life. If life can only come from life, they there must have always been life and that life was God. There can be no other logical or scientific explanation.
5) Since only life can beget life, then the Theory of Evolution cannot work. The Biblical answer is the only reasonable one.
Genesis 2:7 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. (The breath of God infused eternal life into mankind. Man is an eternal being living within a temporal body.)
6) The life of God is also the light of the knowledge of God, or inherent light, because it is God’s life.
b) “The life was the light of men.” The life of man in inherent life that comes only from God and is called “light.” There are three kinds of light spoken of in the Bible: the light of God (the life of God), natural light (heavenly lights and natural lights such as fire, etc), and manmade light. I only want to look at the light of God or inherent light.
1) The light of God. In the creation, the first thing that God did was give light.
2) The First Mention of light in the Bible.
Genesis 1:1-3 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (2) And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (3) And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. (This light that was first given was the eternal light of God’s presence. There was neither natural nor artificial light. There was no sun, moon, or stars. There was no candle, camp fire, or electricity. It was the light of God.)
3) The Last Mention of light in the Bible.
Revelation 22:5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. (As with the First Mention, the Last Mention of light is light of God or the eternal light of God’s presence.)
4) The Bible declares that God is light.
1 John 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (God does not produce light: God is light and in Him is no darkness at all!)
c) “The light shineth in darkness.”
1) In the darkness of every individual shines the light of God or inherent light. It is the knowledge of God. Light and darkness cannot continually dwell together because light drives the darkness away.
2) If there was no inherent light of God, then every man or woman would be, by nature, born an atheist. But the fact is that all mankind is born with a knowledge of God and worships. On every island, on every continent, men worship! Knowledge and worship of God are a part of our trinity: body, which is world conscious—soul, which is self-conscious—spirit, which is God conscious. That makes man a trinity or “in the image of God.
3) With inherent light comes responsibility. As men accept the light of God or the knowledge of God, they can seek to know the true God or concoct a “god” of their own which serves their self-interest.
Romans 2:12-16 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (13) (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. (14) For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: (15) Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) (16) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
4) The darkness comprehended it not.”
a) For darkness to exist spiritually, one must turn down or turn off light. As I said before, they cannot co-exist because light drives darkness away. Darkness cannot drive light away so the light must cease to exist.
b) As a rheostat turns down the power of a light or ceiling fan, one must turn down the spiritual light of God in their soul to create darkness. This comes by continually rejecting inherent truth.
c) Ultimately, the sinner turns the light of God off and becomes reprobate.
5) Two dangerous positions to avoid: Agnostic and Atheistic.
a) The Agnostic. One who does not hold either position: God or no God. One who believes that God is not knowable. He is the “rheostat!” He turns down the light of God until it is extinguished. God is knowable! If He created the universe, and He did, then He must make Himself known. Let’s use a little logic. Would you build a mission dollar home and then walk away and not live in it? Would you buy an expensive car and walk away leaving it on the car lot? Would you marry a wonderful woman or man and walk away, leaving them at the altar? God is knowable because He would be foolish to create all of this including man and then “walk away” and remain unknowable.
b) The Atheist. One who has extinguished the light of God until it is gone. He is the Biblical fool found in Psalm 14:1. He must “do away” with God intentionally and is eternally lost in his condition. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament His handiwork.
c) Atheism and agnosticism are learned behaviors and must be taught. Neither is inherent!
2. Visible Light. The second light that God gives, I call visible light. Truth that we are exposed to in nature. Let me call your attention to verse 20.
Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the worldare clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
1 Timothy 1:17 Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Timothy 6:16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
1 Peter 1:8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
Hebrews 11:27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
a. Look closely at the wording of your Bible. Not visible things butinvisible things. Not by Him but of Him. Things that are clearly seen that areinvisible things? Makes no sense in the human realm but makes perfect Biblical sense. “The Elephant in the living room” is God! I do not say this disrespectfully but it is a phrase that we can all understand. Everyone knows that God is there but most choose to ignore the evident.
b. Let’s look at Psalm 19 to get a proper understand of clearly seeing the invisible things of God from the creation. “The Elephant in the living room” is intelligent design instead of randomness or a series of accidents. Evolution must be a series of accidents because it can neither think nor reason. The heavens declare the glory of God.
1) God has set a “tabernacle” or “place of worship” for the sun. Not under the sun but for the sun. We had a total eclipse last Monday. Was that not spectacular? I understand why it got dark in the middle of the day because the moon came between us and the sun. Setting that aside, it was a wonderful—once in a lifetime experience. An experience that made my soul magnify almighty God for His wonderful earth and universe!
2) Tabernacle” – tent, covering or canopy. The heavens comprise a “canopy of space.” An immense background of innumerable stars that surrounds our sun. Our sun is our world. Not the stars of the sky but a ball of fire and hot gases that keep us and our planet alive. A sun with a gravitational pull that keeps our planet perfectly aligned as to keep us safe and comfortable.
3) The heavens “declare the glory of God!” Without speaking, the heavens speak. They speak of something unseen that is clearly seen and understood by we creatures. Declare means to speak or show forth. The universe shows the impossibility of spontaneous generation and demands creation and a Creator.
a) The Known Universe. I will give these scientific statistics but there is no way that they can prove their accuracy because they cannot see that far, neither can they calculate such figures. But, I will give a few of their statistics to prove their foolishness. I say foolishness because they measure the immeasurable. They count the uncountable. They profess to know the unknowable. They say that they understand the un-understandable. The magnitude of God’s creation is overwhelming.
b) The Known Universe is:
1a) 93 Billion Light Years in diameter. Go to the next site and it says 150 Billion Light Years. (1 Light Year is 5.87 Trillion miles.) How did they measure the diameter of the universe? Quite a discrepancy between the two numbers, don’t you think?
1b) Number of Galaxies: 100 Billion. How did they count them?
1c) Number of stars in the Milky Way: 200-400 Billion. How did they count them?
1d) Closest star to earth: Proxima Centauri 4.24 Light Years.
c) The Big Bang Theory (emphasis on the word “Theory”) teaches that before the Universe existed there was no space, time or matter, then 13.7 billion years ago an incredibly hot single point smaller than a subatomic particle containing all the matter in the Universe (they say that, in the beginning, there was no matter then—in the same breath—say that all the matter of the universe was in a subatomic particle!) began expanding at an unimaginable rate creating space and time in a trillionth of a second. After this point the Universe continued to expand but at a much slower rate.
d) In one trillionth of a second, 13.7 billion years ago, this immeasurably immense universe was in place and perfectly synchronized? So-called scientists (the word “science” means knowledge, not theory) throw out numbers that cannot be numbered as fact when there is no way that they can calculate these figures.
c. Hebrews 11:1-3 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (2) For by it the elders obtained a good report. (3) Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
d. Our faith in God has substance (the universe) and evidence (intelligent design).
e. The firmament sheweth His handywork.
1) Everything different, everything perfect, everything synchronized, everything in harmony, everything producing after its own kind, no intermediate species. What an amazing earth we live on!
2) The Theory of Evolution teaches that this wonderful earth is the result of random “accidents” that evolved without design. This is total foolishness. If someone can look at this world and the beauty and glory of the universe and say there is no God, they must ignore the “Elephant in the Living Room!” They must hold the truth of God in unrighteousness.
3) The firmament declares, it screams “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth!” There is no other logical explanation. An explosion and evolution could never make this universe.
f. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. As Inherent Light speaks from the inside, Visible Light speaks from the outside.
3. Light of the Bible. For the sake of time, I want to look at a few references pertaining to light and the Bible or the Word of God. In the both the First and Last Mention Principles of Bible interpretation, we find the consistency of the mention of light.
a. The first instance of light came through the spoken Word. Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. (God will never either change His mind or vary about light.)
1 Timothy 6:16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
b. The Word of God opens the spiritual eyes to the light. Psalms 19:8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
c. Psalms 119:105 NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
d. The entrance of Word of God gives light. Psalms 119:130 The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.(The sin darkened soul must allow the “entrance” of the light of the Word of God.)
Matthew 6:22-23 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. (23) But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
e. In the first mention of light in the New Testament, we find three aspects of Jesus Christ that remain inseparable. John 1:1, 4-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... (4) In him was life; and the life was the light of men. (5) And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. (In the first mention of light in the New Testament, the eternal Word was God—the eternal Word was life—the eternal Word was light. God is the Word, God is the life, and God is the light. These three aspects of Jesus Christ remain inseparable. You cannot have the Word without having God, you cannot have life without having the Word, and you cannot have light without God and the Word.)
f. The preached Word of God can turn the sinner from the power of Satan and spiritual darkness to the light of God. Acts 26:14-18 And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. (15) And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. (16) But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; (17) Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, (18) To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
Matthew 4:16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
g. Satan blinds the minds of the willful sinner to the glorious gospel of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: (4) In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
h. The light of God’s Word shines out of darkness into the heart of the child of God to give to him the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
i. The light of the Word of God is both sure and shineth in this sin darkened world. 2 Peter 1:19-21 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: (20) Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. (21) For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
j. The last instance of light comes from the glory of God. Revelation 22:5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. (God the Word will be the light of eternity.)
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