Tuesday, June 20, 2023

PT-1 "Creator" (Acts 17:24-29)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/17/2018 8:55 PM

My Worship Time                                                          Focus:  PT-1 “Recognizing Who God Is”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 17:24-29

            Message of the verses:  “24  "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27  that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ’For we also are His children.’ 29 "Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.”

            As we begin looking at this rather long stretch of verses in Acts 17 we will be looking at several sub-points under this main point, the first is the fact that God is the creator, and then God is Ruler, and then Giver, Controller, and finally God is Revealer.  John MacArthur writes the following as he introduces this second main point.  “Having established that God exists and can be known by men Paul introduces his hearers to Him.”

            Now I think that I should have put into the focus portion of this SD “PT-1 Creator,” as I don’t think that we will get through this first sub-point today, for one thing it is evening, and I usually do my Spiritual Diaries in the morning, but it did not work out that way this morning.

            Creator:  “The God who made the world and all things in it” (Acts 17:24a).

            I can remember listening to a sermon tape from someone that I have a great deal of respect for who was talking about how the world and the universe were created.  He got some of info from sources that I would never trust and I know he would not trust them either.  At any rate the percentage given to the world being created as the book of Genesis tells us was, if my memory has not failed me, was around 10%.  So you can see that as Paul begins to talk to these Greek leaders like the Athenians and the Epicureans that they would have a great deal of trouble understand or believing what Paul is telling them.  I find this short sermon has a lot of things in it that I can go to such as Paul, being led by the Holy Spirit telling these Greeks that God is the One who created everything.  John MacArthur actually has written in his commentary similar things that I have written here in that people in our day have just as much trouble believing this as the Greeks did.  I continue to mention that the reason that people do not believe the God created the earth, along with the universe, is that they would then have to be accountable to Him, and that is something they do not want to do.

            We are going to begin to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary as he states “The impressive scientific evidence against evolution can be briefly summarized as follows.  First, the second law of thermodynamics shows that evolution is theoretically impossible.  Second, the evidence of the fossil record shows evolution in fact did not take place. (Among the many helpful books presenting the scientific case against evolution are Michael Denton, Evolution:  A Theory in Crisis [Bethesda Md.].  Next Duane T. Gish, Evolution:  The Fossils Still Say NO!; Henry M. Morris, The Biblical Basis for Modern Science; Henry M. Morris and Gary E. Parker, What is Creation Science?

“The second law of thermodynamics, one of the most well-established principles in all of science, states that the natural tendency is for things to go from a more ordered to a less order state.  Noted atheist Isaac Asimov acknowledges that ‘as far as we know, all changes are in the direction of increasing entropy, of increasing disorder, of increasing randomness, of running down’ (cited in Henry M. Morris, ed., Scientific Creationism…Yet, incredibly, evolutionists argue that precisely the opposite has happened.  According to them, things have gone from a less ordered state to a more ordered one.  Attempts to harmonize evolution with the second law of thermodynamics have not been successful, and it remains a powerful witness against evolution.”

             We will continue to look at more from John MacArthur’s commentary in our next SD.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Samaritan” (Luke 10:33).

Today’s Bible question:  “Why did the Galileans receive Jesus?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/17/2018 9:26 PM

             

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