The Ultimate Original Hero

The things that God has accomplished in the past should give you confidence regarding what he's doing today.

If God's Word was sufficient to equip the universe to sustain life, His Word is sufficient to sustain your life. In other words, if you can trust Him by faith for what happened thousands of years ago, you can trust Him by faith for what happened yesterday, today, and what might happen in your life tomorrow. Before our universe began, God existed. God's always existed, but the very first act in our universe, the act that began everything for us, was God speaking. Jesus Christ was able to speak the universe into existence. He spoke, and whatever He said happened. The exact same power that spoke the universe into existence is sustaining your life today.

Because of that, you can trust Him completely. This is Wisdom for the Heart, the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. Today, Stephen returns to his series from Hebrews 11, where we'll see that the ultimate, original hero of the Bible is God.

I have read and have found it to be true that every world view, in fact, every human heart intuitively longs to answer six basic questions. Is there really a God? Where did I come from? What determines right or wrong? Why do I sometimes feel badly about things I do? Where do I fit in the flow of history, and what will happen to me after I die?

Now, you turn on the Discovery Channel or the Animal Channel or read an issue of the National Geographic or just about any science book or any anthropological material, and you discover the answer to those six questions based on those or that world view is there is no Creator God. You are the result of millions of years of evolution. You determine what's right or wrong for yourself.

And those bad feelings that you have about yourself are culturally imposed upon you, and you need to get over them. As one evolutionist wrote, and I would add entirely consistently with his world view, quote, There is no reason to assume that existing moral codes reflect some higher truth apprehended via divine inspiration. Instead, morality is merely an idea that evolved in the human mind as a tool for increasing reproductive success. Whatever gets our genes into the next generation is morally right. He goes on to conclude, both men and women are biologically programmed then to be unfaithful to their spouses. Lifelong monogamous devotion just isn't natural.

There's a guy you want your daughter to marry, right? Frankly, if you take your cues from the majority view and from the animal kingdom, you could come to that conclusion. What about the fifth question? Where do we fit into the flow of history?

The answer is you don't. You don't fit into the flow of history other than as an invader of the planet, which you are, by the way. Do you know that? The human race happens to be interfering with the peace and harmony of nature. We're just simply the highest evolved animal. We're really interrupting what ought to be happening.

We are disturbing the peace. The planet would be better off if we'd just disappear. And finally, of course, the sixth question and their answer after you die, that's all there is. Now, you need to understand, of course, that all these answers flow down from the first question. Is there really a God who created me? Because if he did, then he would have a purpose for me. He would have a standard of morality for me.

He would have a place in history for me, and he would have a future after death for me. The truth is your view of origins determines your sense of destiny. Never mind that all the evidence that we have from so many scientific disciplines, which are glorious to read about and to study, that reveal that the complexity does not develop from simplicity. In fact, things do not evolve upward.

They devolve downward. Mutations weaken the elements. In fact, one Nobel laureate and Harvard professor admitted the challenge to the Western belief in evolution and the origin of life when he responded. He's responding to this obvious challenge everyone's aware of now, that so many factors had to exist at the same time for life to exist. He writes this, One has only to contemplate the magnitude of this to admit that the spontaneous generation of a living organism is impossible. But then he adds, Yet here we are, the result of spontaneous generation. No wonder Erwin Lutzer wrote in his little book, I just don't have enough faith to be an evolutionist. The design and complexity of even the simplest life forms are really staggering. Even the evolutionists are now using phrases like directed chance, life force.

Here's one, biochemical predestination. That's for reformed evolutionists, I guess. By the way, Darwin wrote this personal admission later in life, which is tragic. He wrote a letter to a friend and he said in the letter, which won't make it into the public arena, I grieve to say that I cannot honestly go as far as you do about design. I am conscious that I am in an utterly hopeless muddle. I cannot think that the world as we see it is the result of chance.

And yet I cannot look at each separate thing as the result of design. Again, I say I am and shall ever remain in a hopeless muddle. Beloved, Darwin frankly needed a hero to help him out of the muddle.

Unfortunately, he chose to give heroic status to chance plus time. In fact, when you study the culture of his own life, he discovered, and it hit me and I did a little research this week and found it to be true, that he lived in London during the greatest days of spiritual development in that city. Pastors were packing out churches like Joseph Parker and Charles Spurgeon teaching the Bible.

D.L. Moody had come over to England and vast revivals occurred all at the same time that Darwin is defending his theory. And the majority of people would reject the biblical explanation as he did, even while the Creator was being expounded from so many pulpits and by so many people.

This really isn't a new problem. In fact, by 1880 there were more than 80 theories of origins. Throughout history, theories of origins have existed in an attempt to deny God and still answer those six questions. Who am I? Where did I come from?

Why do I feel bad sometimes about what I do? Is there any place for me in the flow of history? What's going to happen to me after I die?

And before I get there, how do I decide what's right and wrong? And our world would say, well, look, we are just so much smarter now. We're so much more sophisticated. We can even stand in for a Creator God.

Look what we can do. It reminds me of two scientists who had an audience with God in a garden and said, look, they said to God, look, we've developed so many processes we believe we can challenge you in creating a human being just like you did. God said, okay, that'll be fine. The scientists reached down and grabbed a handful of dirt to begin and God said, no, no, no, no, you go get your own dirt.

That's mine. Maybe you're thinking, what does this have to do with Hebrews 11? I thought we were studying that chapter 11.

Well, we are. You just need to know that the first hero listed is none other than God. He is the ultimate hero of the story.

Not chance plus time, more time, billions of years of time. No, God is the creator of all things. He is the answer to who we are and where we came from and the moral sense that we have and the guilt we feel in our future after death.

And here's the good news. We can all become a demonstration of faith in life. When we build our lives upon the fact that God is the creator of life. So before you ever get into all of these individuals, you start with God. It's no surprise to me that the first person we encounter in this chapter of heroes is our creator, God. Now, I want you to notice verse three, where we left off in our last study. And you want to circle the phrase, if you haven't already, by faith, it'll appear 17 more times in this chapter. By faith, we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. I love, by the way, the opening, these opening words. By faith, we take a leap into the dark.

Now, what does he say? By faith, we understand. You see, our faith makes sense of what we can see. Our faith in a creator clarifies, crystallizes the issues of origin and morality and purpose and history and future. In other words, here's your way out of the muddle. Now, you'll notice he didn't write, by faith, we understand everything.

Did he? No, by faith, we understand basically that God did everything, whether we understand everything or not. By faith, we understand. It's the original word which refers to perception. A Greek scholar said that this word means to perceive with reflective intelligence. In other words, you look at nature around you and the world around you and you perceive that there must have been a creator, much like you would look at a watch and study its mechanisms and assume reflectively, intelligently, that there must somewhere be a watchmaker. Just like we believe in wind, we've never seen it.

We can only see its effects, which we perceive with intelligence as to the existence of wind. Now, you notice we're also told here that, by faith, we understand that the worlds were prepared. It's a wonderful word. It means to outfit.

It means to equip. God created the earth and the animal kingdom then with the appearance of age in order for it to function properly. In fact, if you could travel back in time to those first six days of creation and suppose you arrived just moments after Adam was created, you would notice, as you were introduced to him, that you were not talking to a little boy but a fully grown man. In fact, you would be able to talk to him because he was created with the ability to communicate already.

He wasn't saying goo goo ga ga ba ba da da. He could speak articulately. If you concluded, however, that Adam was more than an hour old, you'd be wrong. He was created fully mature. That's the way God equipped his creation. Hebrews tells us that God created it fully packed, fully equipped for life. In fact, consider this, that had God not done it that way, Adam would have had nothing to eat. So we're told in verse 11 of Genesis chapter 1 that God created trees already mature, already bearing fruit, which Adam appreciated in all the animals as well. Again, now you would assume that those trees were years old, but it was created that way by the Word of God and fully equipped to sustain the lives of animals and mankind who would eat its fruit without having to wait a year or two or three for it to grow up and bear fruit while they starve to death. Genesis 1 21 agrees with Hebrews 11 3 that God created a fully equipped, fully functioning animal kingdom, including a fully functioning universe, which means that the sun and the moon and the stars were created with their light and properties already affecting Earth.

It had to benefit Earth or Earth would not do what Earth should do. An oak tree was already 30 feet high for shade and protection. If you cut that tree down, you would be able to count an appropriate number of growth rings representing age.

Why? Because we now know that growth rings of xylem are not only signs of age, but they serve as a part of the tree's vascular system. It's essential a tree cannot stand up without it. So take a look at the trees. Take a look at Adam and Eve. Take a look at the stars, the sun, the moon, the universe, our world, and you would find that God outfitted it at a moment in time.

Are you sure? Did he not do it over billions of years? Notice again what Hebrews explains. By faith, we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, the Word of God, the Word of God. He spoke it into existence. In the beginning, say it with me, God created the heavens and the earth, fully equipped within a week of days to sustain life. And the more, by the way, we learn about our planet, the more we recognize how many things needed to exist immediately in order to sustain anything. What evolution would consider nothing less than amazing coincidences that make the universe fit for life, we believe they came from the word of an omniscient, omnipotent God, from the molecular properties of water to the balance of electrical charges in the proton and the electron, the entire structure of the physical universe was intricately balanced and designed to support life on earth.

So Adam and Eve and all that was on earth could enjoy what God had created. Does the Bible say in this text that God spoke things into existence and then evolved, they evolved over billions of years? Well, he's going to reemphasize once again, look further in this verse, so that what is seen presently was not made out of things which were visible.

He's reinforcing it. Look, God didn't use visible things to create the world and the animal kingdom and the universe. The only beings he used existing materials for in creation were Adam and Eve and for a purpose. Adam he created out of dirt, reminding man that his body is going to go back to dust, it isn't going to last forever. Eve was created secondly out of Adam's rib to reveal submission to him and dependence upon him while at the same time partnership with him at his side. The Bible doesn't leave room for God creating some original ammonia swimming in a little warm pond somewhere and then program it to evolve over billions of years. In the beginning, God created. And by the way, that word created, bara, is a verb that includes the idea of what they would say, the creationist throughout history, creatio ex nihilo, that is creation out of nothing. But it also includes, that little verb does, the idea, and I love this, the concept of effortlessness.

I love that. Ease. God created all there is, creation is stupendous and complex and vast and incredible, but get this, to him it was easy.

It was easy. He's my hero. And I know he's yours too. David bragged about his Lord when he said, by the word of the Lord the heavens were made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Let the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of who?

Him, our hero. David goes on to write, for he spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. The counsel of the Lord stands forever.

The plans of his heart from generation to generation. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, Psalm 33. Interesting that that would come so closely after the declaration of creationism. How tragic to know that we live in a nation whose God is not the Lord, whose creative handiwork is politically incorrect to even speak of, much less to believe in.

As I've said before, we are watching our world erase the signature of the painter from the mural of his handiwork. One university educator openly advocated that any professor should have the right to fail any student in his class, no matter what their grade, if they discover the student is a creationist. Another educator wrote in the Journal of the National Center for Science Education, quote, no advocate of such propaganda, creationism, should be trusted to teach science classes or administer science programs anywhere or under any circumstance.

Moreover, if any are now doing so, they should be dismissed. Which, by the way, goes against the original argument where Clarence Darrow, I'm sure you've read the history of 1925 and this ACLU lawyer argued creation was on trial. He argued, get this, this was his original argument, that creation should not be the only theory taught in public schools. And he argued, and I quote, it is bigotry for public schools to teach only one theory of origins. Would the ACLU now come along and say that our educational system is bigoted because it only allows evolution?

Don't hold your breath. What hypocrisy. And it's expected. What a mess in any nation who refuses even the possibility of a Creator God. Darwin summarized it, I think, best. I am in a muddle.

Of course. What a mess and a muddle life becomes. But here's your way out.

Here's the way up out of the muddle. Let God be your ultimate, original hero. And when you do, you're going to discover not only the answers to those six questions, but let me give you three more reassuring principles that follow. Number one, if God's word was sufficient to equip the universe to sustain life, his word is sufficient to sustain your life. In other words, if you can trust him by faith for what happened thousands of years ago, you can trust him by faith for what happened yesterday, what happened today, and what might happen in your life tomorrow. You can trust him. He has packed your car for the journey he has determined for you.

You've got every bag you need prepared. His word is sufficient to sustain your life. Secondly, if God do all the details necessary in creating you, he knows all the details necessary to redeem you. You're familiar with Carl Sagan, a popular evolutionist who now passed away. He ran his program on television for years, including books where he denied the existence of a creator. He gave divine attributes to the universe. His program would begin by saying the cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. In a book published near the end of his life, Sagan wrote, and I quote, Our planet is a lonely speck in the great cosmic dark.

In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come to save us from ourselves. In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God. And the word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Ladies and gentlemen, help did come.

Amen? And it came from the only place it could come from. The one who knew all the details in creating us. The one who already knew and had already planned before the foundation of the world all the details to redeem us.

He's my hero. And as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. You exist by means of his creative plans. You. And everything about you. You are equipped with a moral compass that reflects his nature. You are freed from the guilt that you feel when you break that moral compass. When you come to the cross of his son. And you find purpose in serving him and acknowledging him and trusting him.

And you have a future that is beyond imagination prepared by him. Keep in mind that this is more than simply an issue of disagreement. And this is why we're ambassadors of Jesus Christ begging the world to be reconciled to him. There's more here than simply an issue of disagreement. Okay, you're going to believe that and I'm going to believe this.

No. There's a coming day of judgment where the entire world, every single person who ever lived will have a face to face encounter with their creator. Whether they deny him or accept him, they will one day encounter him.

Face to face. Is it any wonder that the creation is bound up in the gospel? The first book and the first chapter of the Bible gives us the description of this world as we know it. The last book of the Bible and the last chapter wraps up by giving us a description of the world to come.

And that one will last forever. Now how would God communicate this to us? How could he say it in the simplest of terms?

I know. He would say it like this. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. And with that the list of heroes has begun and the first hero on the list appropriately is the ultimate, original hero who is none other than our Creator, God. Jesus Christ is the ultimate, original hero. Here on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen Davey is in a series from Hebrews 11 called Heroes. This chapter is called the Heroes Hall of Faith. Before looking at some of the Bible characters listed there, the chapter begins by looking at Christ.

You really can't have a discussion about faith without beginning with Jesus, the one in whom we've placed our faith. I hope today's lesson was encouraging to you. We'd enjoy hearing from you and learning how God uses the ministry of Wisdom for the Heart to encourage you. Why not take a moment and send us a note? Address it to Wisdom for the Heart, P.O.

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