If there is a God, then I believe He'll be doing something, don't you? If there is a God and I want to know that God, then I'm going to find the book that tells about a God who did things supernaturally.
And you know where that book is right here? When I read the miracles in this Bible, I say this has got to be the revelation of God, because look at the miracles. It's called robotics. A university dean once reminded his audience that, like robots, humans and other living things are just bags of tricks.
Very good evolved tricks. Of course, you'd expect a secular scientist to accept evolution and other so-called natural explanations for biblical miracles like creation. But sadly, many churches have done the same thing by attempting to remove the miracles from the biblical record by demythologizing the Bible. So what do you think? Is it best to give little attention to the miracles found in Scripture, or should we focus on them and take them at face value?
And does it matter either way? John MacArthur addresses that today as he continues his study, Is the Bible Reliable? Now what is a miracle? We have to start somewhere.
Let's start there. What is a miracle? An accurate definition of a miracle is very important, specifically I mean a biblical definition, because we use the word so loosely today. We say, boy, today I was driving home and you'll never believe what happened. This guy went through a red light and barely missed me. I'm telling you it was a miracle.
Or do you realize that I didn't have any money and I got a check in the mail for $50? I just praise God for that miracle. Or when you bring the dress home and it just fits. Look, honey, it's just a miracle that this fits. Everything is a miracle. What is a miracle?
The Bible definition of a miracle is something that happens because God intervened in the natural world and did something supernatural. And by the very definition of terms, you realize the natural world is here and the supernatural world is outside. As I've illustrated it before, we have a little natural box that we live in and everything in our little natural box is qualified by natural law.
But God's outside our little box and whenever He pokes His finger into our box, He makes waves. He violates the natural by the supernatural. Now it's amazing to me that there are some Christian theologians saying that even when Christ did miracles and even in the Old Testament when you have miracles, those are simply miracles that could be explained by physical law or natural law if we only knew those laws. And in fact, Dr. Carnell said in his book that if a scientist would search long enough, at the end of the miracle he would find some natural law.
Well, you know, if you do that then you don't need supernatural, right? So man is trying to explain the unnatural by his own ignorance rather than by the supernatural. What is a miracle?
Let me give you a simple definition. A miracle is an interference with nature by a supernatural power. A miracle is something outside our box invading our little box, something outside our world coming into our world and making waves and ripples. Miracles are events in the external world wrought by the power of God. A miracle is God stepping into the universe, setting aside the normal laws of nature to do a super nature act. The Bible describes miracles usually, especially in the New Testament, in three terms, signs, wonders and mighty works.
And therein you have the definition of miracles really. They were mighty works to create wonder, to act as a sign. What is a sign for? What is a sign for? Point to something. You know, when you're traveling and you arrive in Arizona, you don't climb up on the sign and say, I'm now in Arizona because the sign says, Welcome to Arizona. Or when you're going to Bakersfield and the sign says Bakersfield, you don't sit up on the sign and say, I'm in Bakersfield. No, that's just the sign pointing you to there. You haven't gotten there yet. Miracles are not an end to themselves.
They're a what? They're a sign and signs are for pointing somewhere. And you know where miracles are supposed to point?
Outside the box. Miracles are designed by God to invade the natural world, to show the natural world that there's a supernatural world. And if you continually try to explain miracles away by a natural reasoning, what you're doing is just acting like an atheist. You're disallowing God. Miracles are mighty works to create wonder that points to God.
That's the three terms that are used. Now if naturalism is true, naturalistic atheism, and if you believe there is no God, then all miracles are impossible because there's nobody outside the box. Right? I mean if it's only the natural world, if you believe in naturalism and you're just, that's it in the box, period, there's nothing outside the box, there's no God, then you're not going to have any miracles cause nothing can happen out there to invade the box. But I'll tell you one thing, you're going to have a lot of trouble explaining where the box came from. Now watch this. And I think this is so basic. If you accept the fact that there is a spiritual supernatural power, if there is a source of creation outside the box, if there is somebody up there, then miracles are easily allowable, aren't they? Because if the supernatural is there and by the very definition we are the natural and it is the supernatural, it can act upon the natural. So if you allow for any supernatural power outside, then you must allow for miracles because a miracle is just the revelation that what's there is there.
Now watch, all that comes down to this. If there is a God, then there must be what? Miracles. I mean you wouldn't say God is and then not let God do, say He's there but He's never done anything.
Now wait a minute. If God is, then God acts because being is doing, right? When you've stopped doing, you've stopped being. If God is there, then miracles are valid. And if God created once, why can't He create again? If God did a miracle once, and let's face it, if He didn't believe in any miracles at all but you believed in God, you'd have to believe in one miracle. And that's the miracle of what?
Creation. That's got to be a miracle. If there was a God out there and there was nothing and He made everything out of nothing, that's a miracle.
So if you can allow Him to do one, then why would you worry if He did some more? So you see, anybody who believes in God must believe in miracles. So don't go to the Bible and say there are...I'll accept the Bible as the Word of God if you get rid of the miracles. That's ridiculous. That's like saying, okay God, you can exist, you just can't do anything.
Being is doing. You know, what's amazing to me is we have these so-called Christian theologians who want to demythologize the Bible. They want to demyrical it. They start at the beginning and they suck out all the miracles. And you know they say, we believe in God.
Well that is so stupid. If you believe in God, then let Him do what He did. They're the ones who come along and say, Jonah, you know, didn't get swallowed by a great fish. What really happened was there was a dinghy tied on the back of the boat and the name of the dinghy was great fish and they stuck him in the dinghy.
That's George Adam Smith's explanation. Oh, I was reading William Barclay this week and William Barclay said the feeding of the 5,000 was a wonderful miracle. You know what the miracle was? The miracle was that everybody was selfish. And when the little boy shared his lunch, everybody felt guilty and they all shared their lunches. That's William Barclay.
The miracle was a whole lot of selfish people became sharers. That's what he says. Oh, you know what I would say to him if he were here?
He's not. But you know what I'd say? I'd say, let me ask you one question. In your commentaries through the New Testament, you believe in God. Yes. You believe in a triune God. Yes, and He does. You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and His deity, full deity.
Yes. You believe in His blood atonement on the cross. You believe in His resurrection. Oh, all of those. He believes in everything.
He teaches the doctrine of God, the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of salvation. Then why in the world won't you let God be God and do a miracle? I mean, doesn't it make any sense? Foolish if God is, let Him act. Now you know something? If there is a God, then I believe He'll be doing something, don't you? If there is a supernatural God and I want to know that God, then I'm going to find the book that talks about supernatural activity.
Would you buy that? If there is a God and I want to know that God, then I'm going to find the book that tells about a God who did things supernaturally. And you know where that book is?
It's right here. When I read the miracles in this Bible, I say this has got to be the revelation of God because look at the miracles. You take all the miracles out of it and you don't have God anymore. You just got philosophy and we don't need any more of that. When you look for the true sacred book, when you scan the ancient and sacred books of the world and you want to find the true one, it will have to be a book containing miracles.
It has to be. The book that reveals God has got to contain miracles because the revelation of God is a miracle. It's the supernatural invading the natural and that's miraculous. Now let me take it a step further and you'll understand as we go if this isn't falling into little slots in your brain. But in order for a miracle to really fit, it has to have three qualities. That's this introduction. First of all, it must be sensible.
And by that I mean it must be perceived by the senses. It wouldn't do any good for God to go in a corner and do a miracle where nobody knew. Or for God to go off somewhere in the farthest region of the universe and do a few miracles.
I mean, that wouldn't help anybody, would it? That wouldn't point to God. It wouldn't be a mighty work to create wonder as a sign toward God.
No, He does those things which are sensible. And what I mean by that is a miracle to be a legitimate miracle must fit the senses. It must be perceivable and it must have testimony to its perception. It must be something that somebody saw or heard or felt and gave testimony to. Secondly, it must be very clearly a miracle. It must be very clearly the revelation of the power and the presence of God. It must transcend all natural law so that it has no other explanation. True miracles then beginningly must be perceived by the senses. Secondly, they must be so strong that they clearly reveal God and they have no other explanation.
Thirdly, they must have a divine purpose. Miracles to be viable must have a divine purpose. And by that I just mean that God isn't a magician going around doing tricks to entertain people. You know, Jesus would never do that, would He?
He would never just entertain people. God is not doing miracles to appeal to human curiosity. God does not do miracles to entertain us. God does miracles to reveal to us His person. So miracles must be perceived by the senses. They must be clearly beyond any natural explanation at all and they must have a divine purpose. Now if the Bible is a book of miracles, its miracles will be sensible miracles perceived by the senses.
They won't be abstract, weird things. They'll also be clear and strong in the revelation of God's presence. And thirdly, they will have as their intent a divine purpose. And you know something, you open the Bible and you find that the Bible miracles fit those qualifications. And I read through this Bible and all these miracles and I say, wow, those people perceived those things. They saw those things and gave testimony to what they saw. Those were credible people.
You know, it isn't the quantity of witnesses that matters to me, it's the quality of them, right? And they saw those and they believed that and they wrote those down. And they never tried to defend them, they just wrote them down. They didn't say, I know this is ridiculous but I'm writing it anyway. And not only that, they were clearly the revelation of God and that's the way the writers stated it. And thirdly, they always had a divine purpose. Now once you admit, as I said, the existence of God who is the Creator and the Maker of everything, then you're not going to set any limits on His creative power.
I mean, if He's there, let Him do something. And if you admit that He created once, He can create again and all miracles are really creations because every one of them is unique, isn't it? It's something that never existed before.
It's outside the natural world. And so when I pick up a book, if I pick up a sacred book and it doesn't have miracles, I throw it away because if it doesn't have miracles, then it doesn't tell me about the supernatural invading the natural and if it doesn't tell me about that, it's a human book. And if I do find a book with miracles, I want to make sure those miracles are perceived by the senses of credible witnesses, that they are strongly and clearly divine and have no other explanation.
And thirdly, that they have a purpose that is toward God. And so the Bible authenticates itself by the character of its miracles. Now I want to take you to the first miracle that God ever did in relation to man and it's in Genesis chapter 1.
And we're going to look at miracles that affected all men, miracles that affected nations and miracles that affected individuals, just for some categories. Now first miracle, here it comes, verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Now you notice that the Bible starts out with an assumption. The Bible starts out assuming that God is, right? You say, why doesn't the Bible prove that? Because that's built into every man. The knowledge of God is built into man, according to Romans 1. That's just basic.
And by the way, folks, let me hasten to say this. There is no argument in the Scripture for the existence of God. That is not a theory to be proven, that is a fact to be affirmed. The Bible never attempts to prove God is.
The Bible affirms that He is. If somebody comes along and says there is no God, let him prove that. So when an atheist says to me, I don't believe there's a God, I simply say, I believe there's a God, the Bible affirms there's a God, you prove to me there's not a God.
You can't do it. So let them prove it. Now notice this. If you accept the first sentence of the Bible, you have no other problem with a miracle. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the word created there, bara, means to make out of nothing. Now if you believe that God made everything out of nothing, that's a miracle. And if you allow that one in one one of Genesis, then why would you get bothered by any other one in the entire Bible?
Because friends, that's the greatest one in just pure volume. Can you imagine that God one day stepped out on the edge of nothing and made everything by His Word? That's a miracle. The miracle of creation, the first miracle. And you know, as you study the passage, you go through chapter 1, you find it's amazing how the Spirit of God describes this.
Everything is in that first verse. Every single category that science has for putting things is in that verse. It says in verse 2, the earth was without form and void, tohu and bohu, emptiness and formlessness.
Darkness was on the face of the deep. The Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. God creates and the creation is formless. Then the creation takes form in verses 3 to 13.
God creates light, verse 3, and He calls it day and He calls the darkness night. Verse 6, let there be firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters. God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament and it was so. In creation, God put some water above and some water on the earth. Did you know that in this particular time in the earth, the earth was covered with a vapor and the sun rays, the rays that are destructive rays were filtered out and that's why everybody lived so long.
That's why Methuselah lived over 900 years and Adam lived over 900 years and that's where you get great, huge, monstrous animals and gigantic plants because the sun's rays were filtered out by this canopy of moisture that covered the earth, the waters above. And God divided the waters. Verse 9, and God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together in one place and let the dry land appear. Then God created the land. So on the first day, light, on the second day, water and air and on the third day, land and plants.
Now there's the form. On the next three days came the fullness. On the fourth day came the lights, the heaven. Verse 14 says, divided so that there would be signs for seasons, for days and years, there would be lights in the firmament, two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, that's the sun, the lesser light to rule the night and He made the stars also. On the fifth day, the fullness of the land came, the fowls and the fish. And on the sixth day, animals and man. So you have, first of all, formlessness in verse 2.
In verses 3 to 13, you have form and in verses 14 and following, clear to 27 really, you have fullness. Here is a fantastically detailed and beautiful description of creation. Now the question comes up that some people say, well, this is just a myth, this is just somebody's thoughts, this isn't how it happened.
Let me just show you a couple of interesting things. This particular description in Genesis contains no scientific errors at all. Not one has ever been proven. And even the sequence of the creation matches what scientists have discovered. According to Romanus and Macosh, I'm quoting from their book, the order in which...and they're not believers, they're just scientists apart from any faith in God...the order in which the flora and the fauna, that's plants and animals, are said by the Mosaic account to have appeared upon the earth, corresponds with that which the theory of evolution requires and the evidence of geology proves. Now I'll tell you one thing, Moses who wrote that was no geologist.
I'll tell you something else, he wasn't around when that happened. But God gave him true revelation. The eminent scientist, Sir William Dawson, says, and I quote, the order of that vision of the creative work with which the Bible begins its history is so closely in harmony with the result worked out by geological investigations that the correspondences have excited marked attention and have been justly regarded as establishing the common authorship of nature and the Bible. Scientists say that what is happening here in Genesis fits the facts. Now science comes along and it says, however, the Bible says it happens in six days and that's where they go bananas. They reject that because they've got a geological age system. Now when you throw Adam a six-day creation in the book of Genesis, they have a little trouble. Their creation covers at least 20 billion years. Well some Christians come along and say, my, we've got to accept this, these are scientists. So they dream up this thing called theistic evolution or progressive creationism which says we believe the Genesis account, only those weren't actual days. Those refer to great million of years of passing of time. I think God knows how to communicate. He knows what He's doing. If He said six days, that's what He meant because God knows how to say something else besides that.
Not stuck, He's got a vocabulary. Besides, I'll give you another interesting thought, I don't know if you ever read this verse in this light, but listen to Exodus 20, 11, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth. Isn't that interesting? In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day. Now you tell me, was the Jewish Sabbath an age of million years? The Jewish Sabbath was a day. And Moses is saying, getting the word from God, just like God created in six days and rested on the seventh, so you work six days and rest on the seventh. Friends, the parallel is obvious.
You didn't mean you work for 20 billion years and then you can take a million year nap. The miracle then is clear, it's sensible. You say, well how can I verify the miracle of creation? Pinch yourself, there you are. Look up, look around you. I mean, it's obvious something did this, it's verifiable, sensible, it's clear, it proves God to me.
But what else? It has to prove God. Somebody had to make this.
You take your watch apart and put it in your pocket and keep a rattle in your pocket and see how long it takes before you hear a tick. Somebody who knows what he's doing has to put that thing together, it will never tick. And the same thing is true of the world. It's absurd to think that everything came from nothing.
You say, but what about these dating things? They've got radiocarbons and they've got potassium argon and strontium rubidium and thorium lead and all these ways to do it. And I read a fascinating thing in a magazine called Science and this is what it said. It said recently they dated some lava flows from Kailua, which is in Hawaii, the volcano. And this is a quote, the lava samples were deduced to be 22 million years old on the basis of potassium, or possibly 200 years old.
Great margin. Another interesting thing that I discovered is that the present growth rate of population is up to about two percent a year. Now with 3.5 billion people in the world and growing at a rate of two percent, that presents some interesting statistics. On the evolutionary assumption, what is the number of years needed to generate 3.5 billion people? We've got that many. Now if you take a uniformitarian view of evolution, how many years do we need to get this many people? Because that's what's happened, they say. Evolution has gone on and on and man's three million years old.
He's been evolving. You know how many years you need to get 3.5 billion people on a uniformitarian basis at two percent a year? Eleven hundred. That would take us back to the eight hundreds.
That's all. Well let's say, well maybe we didn't go two percent, maybe we only went half a percent. Okay, you need 43 hundred years. Forty-three hundred years you could generate 3.5 billion people. You know something? If people only grew at a half of a percent for one million years, the total population would be ten to the two thousand one hundred and fifty-fifth power. You say, what's that? Well there are only ten to the eightieth power electrons in the universe.
You don't need much time to get 3.5 billion people. Listen, this is a miracle. And you know what? I don't mind that because that tells me God is there. You're listening to Grace to You with John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. John's current study is titled, Is the Bible Reliable? John the miracle of divine creation that you focused on today. Talk some more about why it's important to believe that God took only six days to create the earth and everything in it. What does it cost us if we try to harmonize the creation account with the theory of evolution, if we leave open the possibility that the earth is millions and millions of years old? That costs the integrity of the Bible.
If Genesis 1 says that God created everything in six days, six essentially 24-hour days, evening and morning was the first day, evening and morning was the second day, so basically it's saying there's one rotation of the earth. If that's not true, then the scripture is misleading. That's false.
I mean, that is the bottom line. If you deny the creation account of Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, if you deny that God created man out of nothing, not at the end of an evolutionary process, if you deny that, you are denying the Bible. And you're denying the Bible at its very outset.
So you don't even get through the first two chapters of the Bible before you're a heretic, before you're a skeptic. It needs to be said that any belief in evolution is contrary to what is written in Genesis 1 and 2. And it needs also to be said, and this makes things I think more clear, that you cannot explain creation by any scientific method, because it's not science. Creating everything out of nothing instantaneously by the word that he speaks in six days has no scientific explanation.
Right. It's a miracle. It is the miracle of all miracles, the miracle of the vast, virtually endless universe and everything that is contained within it, all spoken into existence in six days by God.
There is no scientific explanation for that. You only have one eyewitness to creation, and that's God and that's the eyewitness account. So you're doing two things if you deny the biblical account of creation. Number one, you are denying the text of Scripture. You're saying the Bible is not true. And two, you're denying the miracle of creation, which establishes the greatness and majesty and supernatural power and glory of God. So you're attacking God and you're attacking his word in the Scripture, and you need to understand that. This is not a small issue.
This is a very serious issue. I want to say a word about the book The Battle for the Beginning. This is the book on Genesis and its opening chapters that I wrote some years ago. It explains all of this and a whole lot more. The book The Battle for the Beginning examines what Scripture says about the origin of the universe and mankind's fall into sin.
And believe me, it comports with reality. You can get a copy from Grace to You. Yes, friend, you're going to appreciate how The Battle for the Beginning shows how Genesis 1 makes sense of origins and mankind and sin and ultimately redemption. Pick up a copy when you contact us today. The Battle for the Beginning costs $11 and shipping is free. To order, call 855-GRACE or visit gty.org.
The Battle for the Beginning makes a great gift for the high school or college students in your life. And again, to place your order, call us at 855-GRACE or go online gty.org. That's our website, gty.org, and when you visit there, make sure you download the Study Bible app. It's a free app that gives you the full text of Scripture in the English Standard, King James, and New American Standard versions. And it also allows you to link from the passage you're studying to related resources from Grace to You, including our study guides, blog articles, and sermons from John MacArthur. And for a reasonable price, you can add the notes from the MacArthur Study Bible. To download the app, again it's simply called the Study Bible, visit gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day. Join us again tomorrow as John shows you how you can find hope for your eternal future in the miracles of Scripture. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.
