TNG A Look at Psalm 19

Best-selling author, speaker, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland.

Best-selling author and apologist, Dylan Burrows. Together, bringing you truth. For a new generation, this is TNG Radio. Psalm 19 is a very famous passage of Scripture that says, The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech.

Night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech. There are no words nor language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. Well, with that passage of Psalm 19, 1-4, we welcome you to today's edition of TNG Radio.

Alex McFarland here with Dylan Burrows. And we're going to talk about this passage, but maybe in a way that you haven't heard before. Dylan, it's great to be with you, and how are you doing, my friend and colleague?

Doing great and excellent. We can talk about Psalm 19, as you mentioned, one of the famous passages of Scripture that talk about both the creation of God that's revealing of who he is and what he has done, as well as the Word of God. And we want to talk about it in a unique way today. So Alex, introduce us to this idea of how we want to talk about Psalm 19 as to humble us and draw us out of sin and to living for him fully. Yeah, you know, I think about a quote by C.S.

Lewis, Dylan, where C.S. Lewis said pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. I'm sure many people, if you ever saw the excellent movie Shadowlands with Anthony Hopkins, there's a scene where Lewis is lecturing and famously comes up with this quote that God whispers to us in our pleasures and speaks to us in our day-to-day lives, but God shouts at us in pain, and Lewis famously said pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Now years later, Francis Schaeffer, who was an apologist, he died around 1986, but Schaeffer said that all of life is really kind of a gospel tract in the family. I mean, there's accountability and there's rewards and there's punishment, and if we do wrong, we often get reprimanded and there's punishment. If we do right, there's reward.

And Francis Schaeffer observed how the home and the family, the school, the final exam, you know, you have to go to class, you have to do your assignment, or you get penalized. And then in life, you know, you do right, there's success, you do wrong, there's debt to pay. Schaeffer said life itself is like this gospel tract to remind us of our need of Christ. Now Dylan, what I want to do with Psalm 19, we often use it in apologetics because there's the cosmological argument in the very first verse. The heavens declare the glory of God.

The creation points to the Creator. We're going to sort of flip this on a 180, and let's talk about it from a different angle, how life really does remind us of our need to be saved. So rather than the heavens declaring the glory of God, I would also say point number one, that the heavens and the earth and life itself warn of the wickedness of Satan. The world, Dylan, so many people say, why is it the way it is? There's evil and there's violence and there's tragedy and there's injustice. The world ought not be this way. And God also says, yes, the world is in a broken, fallen state.

Things ought not be this way. I would say that the evil and the sin and the pain and the suffering in this world, often self-inflicted, is a reminder that we don't want to follow Satan and fall into an eternity without God. The circumstances of life really are a reminder for the wise person of how much we need a Savior. It's so true, and I think it doesn't take much convincing to get the average person to agree that we live in a fallen and broken world. People recognize that. They see, whether it's the negative headlines or something in their own life, and they recognize that we are in a place where things are broken.

We wish for something better. We wish for a greater world in some way that we can't quite explain as unbelievers, but when we look to Scripture, the heavens and earth show both the creation as well as the reflection of a fallen creation, like you mentioned. The Garden of Eden reveals the serpent, but that has continued throughout history in the time of Jesus. He was tempted three times. He called him the liar and the father of lies, and still today we deal with the effects of sin in our lives individually and in our world. It's a call not to give up, but a call to look up to our Creator and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yeah. I mentioned school, and even school itself. The teacher will warn you, hey, there's going to be a final exam. Prepared or unprepared, there will be midterms and a final. That's like life, and it might seem like a simple analogy, but there is a final exam. And friend, we want you to be ready, and God wants you to be ready, and God has made a way for you to be ready.

Jesus, this is not a perfect analogy, but I would say it this way. Jesus took the exam for you, and if you'll put your faith in Jesus Christ, your sins can be forgiven, and you can be ready to meet God. The passing grade for heaven is a thing called righteousness, and if you'll trust in Jesus Christ, His righteousness will be attributed to you.

The A that Jesus got on Calvary's cross, you'll get that grade too, and what a gracious thing God has done to make that possible. I want to bring this to point two, and I want to talk about this. In Psalm 19, it says, Day unto day utters speech. Now, Dylan, when I've been to places like South America or Africa or Zambia, even people far into remote areas, they know there's a God, and they've often gestured and pointed to the creation and how there must be some ultimate power. When Psalm 19 says there's no speech or language where the voice of creation, or the voice of conscience isn't heard, I mean, that's really true. People everywhere know there's a God, don't they?

Yes, and that's a good way to put it. The Apostle Paul talked about that in Romans 1 as well, that we are without excuse, because everyone has creation to point toward its Creator. I love the idea in verse 2 that you mentioned that day to day pours out speech as this Hebrew idiom that talks about gushing out, and that night to night reveals knowledge. It's declaring this mystery that it's no longer a mystery. There is something there that's greater than us, pointing toward a Creator of all things, the God of the Bible.

So the idea that the heavens and the earth warn of the wickedness of Satan is true, but also, as you mentioned, that day unto day reminds us of the consequences of sin in a fallen world, whether in our individual lives or elsewhere. So excited to talk more about this, but as we get ready to wrap up our first segment, kind of introduce us to this idea of what's coming up next in our following segment. When we come back on TNG Radio, we're going to talk about the peril of ignoring the promptings of God, the situations of life, and really, the overtures of the Holy Spirit. So stay tuned. TNG Radio with Psalm 19.

We'll be back after this. For centuries, the Bible has inspired humanity and shaped the very world we live in. But how do we know this book is the Word of God and not merely the words of men? What we believe about the Bible is based on what we believe about its source. The God Who Speaks explores the evidence of the Bible's inspiration and authority through some of the world's most respected biblical scholars. We have essentially a dual authorship. So it's true to say that Paul wrote Romans. It's equally true to say that God wrote Romans.

He says, We saw this. And that sets the Bible apart from almost everything else in the ancient world and its religious pantheon of gods and goddesses. The God Who Speaks is a feature-length documentary from the American Family Association. Available now at TheGodWhoSpeaks.org. First Peter 3.15 tells us to be ready always to give an answer for the hope we have. We're instructed to be prepared to defend our faith. This is Alex McFarland for the Life Answers Teams, students we train at North Greenville University, a leading Christian college in South Carolina. The Life Answers Teams are made up of students who will inspire and equip your congregation. These apologetics teams we train speak in churches to youth groups and train Christians of all ages to address key issues of our times from a biblical perspective. Like is there a God? Is the Bible true?

What about gender and moral issues? Call me at 864-977-2008 and we will arrange for the Life Answers Team to come to your church and give a presentation that will benefit your people for years to come. 864-977-2008 and always be ready. Welcome back to TNG Radio.

Alex McFarland here with Dylan Burrows. So glad you're listening and we're going to continue with Psalm 19 in just a moment, but I do want to remind everybody to please be in prayer for Truth For A New Generation. It's only days away. The Middle Tennessee TNG, we've been working on it for many months and there is still time to come. You can go to the website which is truthforanewgeneration.com and in just a few short weeks we'll also be in Baton Rouge Louisiana with great speakers like Josh McDowell and so many more.

Tina Marie Griffin, the Counter Culture Mom. And Dylan, I'm so excited, just before we recorded I was finishing up a couple of conversations with folks in Columbus, Ohio, Middle Mississippi, Oklahoma City. A lot of people are calling us about how to bring Truth For A New Generation to their city.

And you can just reach us through the website, you can email us. Be in prayer. Please, whenever TNG is in a part of a nation that you can get to, we would love to meet you. But I've got to tell you, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the hope for this nation. Learning how to walk as a Christian, how to even defend the faith, think from a biblical perspective, that's our passion for young people. And it's exciting to see the enthusiasm people have for TNG as God continues to grow this ministry, isn't it? It is, and so many people focus on the negative of the upcoming generation, but the reality is God is doing a good thing among Generation Z as they're called now.

And we get to be part of it. At Truth For A New Generation we get to equip those who are becoming part of this new generation as well as youth leaders and parents who are pouring into this next generation. So we encourage you to be part of the good things that God is doing at truthforanewgeneration.com.

And join us at one of our upcoming events. And as we transition back to Psalm 19, we've talked a little bit about how God's revelation through creation points both to the positive things that God shows us through His created world, but also to the negative consequences of living in a fallen and broken world. So Alex, talk about this a little bit more as we get into our third point today. Well yeah, the third point we want to make, as Psalm 19 says, there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Now I would also say the overtures of God, the revelation of God, there's no speech nor language where their voice is not, by we humans, ignored very often times. You know, there was a comic strip years ago that talked about, I found the problem and the problem is us. God is always calling out.

God is always reaching out in love to the human race. And let me say this Dylan, I think from childhood up often times the ways we get humbled in life are kind of an object lesson that if we're wise, Proverbs talks about this being, you know, not being too proud of our own abilities or intellect, but not to be wise in our own conceit. But be humbled. On the internet Dylan, have you ever looked at any of the epic fail videos? Oh certainly, and those are contagious. You watch one and then you want to watch another and another and there's just something that makes us laugh when we see someone do an epic fail I think of in my own life. There have been times where I've been running on a treadmill and one time I was running on a treadmill in a hotel and someone's walking by and I look up to wave at them and next thing I know I face planted into the treadmill in front of this person and I thought there is my epic fail. If there's a security video of this, this is internet gold. So we each have these examples in our own lives, but spiritually the consequences are much greater. They really are. Angie and I were watching some of these the other day and a runner ran a touchdown and got into the end zone and did this triumphant grandstanding thing as the crowd is horrified because he ran a touchdown to the wrong goal post.

And suffice it to say he was humbled. But think about this folks, life itself, which is urging us to come to God, follows chronologies. I mean there's birth and there's aging. Aging is followed by sickness very often times and being elderly. Sickness and old age is followed by death and nobody can break this cycle except one Jesus Christ. I mean our own mortality is before us in 10,000 ways throughout life. And so Psalm 19 talks about the language of God calls out to all people, but that voice is heard, that voice is there, but the question is have we listened to it?

And I want to spend some of the time that we have left in talking about the fact that we cannot break the cycle of aging and death. We should humble ourselves before our Creator. The Bible talks about seeking the Lord while we are young.

Early I would seek God. Somebody said to D.L. Moody one time, in fact I believe it was his wife, he was a great evangelist of the 19th century, and he gets in one night and she said how many people were saved tonight? And he said two and a half. And she said what do you mean two and a half people got saved?

And he said well one person who was very very young and they've got their whole life to give to Jesus, but another person who was middle aged and they've only got, you know after a very wasted life, they've only got a few years left. And so listen to this voice of God. Don't put off the promptings of God. Don't let your life be an epic fail. Because Dylan I'm going to say this and I want your response.

Somebody could be wealthy, somebody could be notable, they could accomplish things, they might even be famous, they might even be a person in the world's eyes of great renown, but if you live and die having rejected Jesus, I would say your life has been a failure. Really. And that's a good way to put it. Many times we see people who are very successful in this life and we think oh if I could just be like them and it's so true in social media. You see someone's Instagram, what they're doing online and you think if I could only be more like that person. But the reality is if we have God in our lives, we have all we need. We have the greatest strength possible within our lives. It's James 4.10 that tells us to humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up. I think so much of the writer of this book, James, the half-brother of Jesus, and how he would have completely missed his own brother being the Messiah, but after he rose from the dead and appeared to James, James became a great leader in the early church and wrote this letter that influences lives still today. We are so much like James in many respects. We see Jesus in culture, we see Jesus in scripture, and we see his message but it just doesn't click for some reason.

Then somewhere along the way we experience God and He changes our lives and does a great thing in us when we humble ourselves before Him. And when we come back we're going to talk more about this on Truth For A New Generation radio. Stick with us. Our country is falling apart. Political unrest, social upheaval, the breakdown of the family, the rise of atheism, the rise of Islam. Our religious freedoms are under attack.

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Welcome back. This is Dylan Burrows with Alex McFarland on Truth For A New Generation Radio. We've been talking about Psalm 19 and how the creation itself points both toward the blessings that we have in our created world as pointing toward God and His knowledge, but also toward the negative consequences of living in a fallen world and how that draws us to humble ourselves before God, turn from sin and to live for God fully. It's interesting we were talking about in verse 4 that their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the ends of the world, talking about the revelation of our created world. But it is interesting, I recently saw that there are over 7,000 languages in our world today, and yet about 4,000 of them have yet to be translated into the Bible. So there's still so many people, an estimated 2 billion plus people in our world who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And in one sense, this is a tragedy, and missionaries are working to change this, Bible translators are working together like never before. But in another way, the created world itself reveals a God who has made all things and calls us to live for Him. And it tells us much about the world we live in and our response to God, even in the created world, doesn't it, Alex? Well, it really does.

It really does. And that's what we've been trying to drive home, that so much of life really is, I think, something God allows to try to get our attention. And as Charles Spurgeon said, to rouse us out of the double sin of unbelief. Somebody asked Spurgeon, what do you mean that unbelief is a double sin? He said, because if you reject Jesus, you reject the Father. If you reject the Son, you reject God the Father, because over and over, the Father affirmed the Son. This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased, the one and only Savior. So miss the Savior, you miss the Father. Miss God, and you miss everything. And so the world all around us really is calling us to face up to God.

Think about this, and this might sound just so rudimentary and obvious, but there's a spiritual lesson here if we'll take it to heart. Destructive behavior yields destructive results. Lies are exposed by truth. You know, cheating in school. Cheaters get caught. Cheaters in business. Cheaters in marriage.

They always get caught. If you're in the middle of some illicit behavior, something that you know is wrong, turn from it now, my dear friend. Turn from sin and turn to Jesus before the stakes are so high. Listen, we're criminals. We have sinned against our Creator. We've procrastinated and held at arm's length our Savior. And Jeremiah 2.26 says a thief, even a thief, is ashamed when he is found.

Dylan, governments and even businesses and law enforcement agencies talk about an amnesty period. In a way, wouldn't it be fair to say the church age right now is an amnesty period where God is saying whosoever will may come. Hey, there's grace. There's forgiveness. And I want to say to everybody listening if you've never really opened your heart up and honestly bowed before God, God is not mad at you. God is not just up in heaven eagerly wanting to drop the hammer on you. God loves you. Now, if you leave this world defiantly rejecting Jesus, yes, there's a terrible price to pay for that. But right now, hey, it's God's amnesty period. He's saying turn to Christ, be forgiven, be restored, and begin to experience all the great blessings I have for you.

And that's a good way to put it. The New Testament also addresses this idea of why hasn't Jesus come back yet? And Peter talks about how the patience of the Lord is an opportunity for more people to come to faith in Jesus Christ.

I also like John 10 where Jesus says the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. This idea that we can have an abundant life, not that we get saved and that's the end of the story, but that we come to faith in Jesus and that we seek to have an abundant life, to live life to its fullest. And too many believers today stop at that first step.

They come to faith in Jesus and they think, okay, I'll make sure I'm going to heaven, but then what? And they do nothing else or make very little progress, where Jesus has an abundant life in store for us that includes every aspect of every day. Amen. Amen.

That abundant life can be yours, my dear friend, but you're going to have to trust Jesus Christ and trust what he says about your spiritual condition. And when God says that all have sinned and like sheep wandered astray, God says that in love, because he wants us to come back to him and to be forgiven. Oftentimes, Dylan, I think people have a hard time forgiving themselves.

Here's the thing. If Jesus will love you and forgive you, sometimes you need to be willing to let the past go and forgive yourself. Dylan, it was 15 years ago that the first time was I heard the David Crowder Band. In that great song, Oh How He Loves Us, and maybe you've done it at your church, but there's this line about I don't have time to maintain these regrets. Listen, this is great poetry, by the way, folks. It says, We are his portion. He, Jesus, is our prize, drawn to redemption by the grace in his eyes. If his grace is an ocean, we're all sinking, gladly so, to be in the ocean of God's grace.

Now listen to this. When heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss, and my heart turns violently inside of my chest, I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way he loves us. Let me say, my dear friend, regrets, and we tell ourselves all is lost, God couldn't love me, those are lies of the devil. God loves you. God is for you. And if we will admit our sins, past and present, recognize our need for the Lord. Turn to Christ. The Bible says he will abundantly pardon. And don't let your regrets, don't let your what about this, but what about that.

Friends, those are excuses. The devil wants you to miss God and miss his blessings out of just thinly disguised alibis. Let it go.

Turn to Jesus. He's the Savior. He's the forgiver.

He's the restorer. He's the rebuilder of your life. He is your hope, your future, your joy. Isaiah 12 says he is your song. Dylan, I like the idea that God has a glorious piece of music he wants to put in our soul. Jesus can be our song, can't he? He can, and if you've been listening today and you've been touched by something in this broadcast, we encourage you to call out to God.

Turn to him, whether it's for the first time or whether you're coming back to him after a time of turning to your own ways. And we encourage you to find out more at truthforanewgeneration.com and contact us with any questions or updates you may have about your spiritual journey. Thanks for being with us. Join us next time at Truth For A New Generation radio. Truth For A New Generation, in association with Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries, exists to equip Christians with a biblical worldview through conferences and camps. For information about upcoming events, visit truthforanewgeneration.com or give us a call at 877-YES-GOD-1. That's 877-YES-GOD and the number 1. TNG radio is made possible by the friends of Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries, P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina, 27404. That's P.O.

Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina, 27404. Or give online at alexmcfarland.com or truthforanewgeneration.com. Thanks for listening and join us again next time as we bring you more truth for a new generation radio. This is the truth for a new generation on TNG radio.