Scripture: Psalm 90:1-12
Sermon Series: The Biggest Questions – Sermon 02

We’re in the second week of a new study, The Biggest Questions and want to consider: How can I know that God exists?

I want to start with a new argument for God’s existence that I think is going to become highly beneficial in the years ahead. Here it is. If there is no God, how come the world fits so perfectly in a chicken?Please don’t worry. I’ve got some better arguments. But for skeptics, the chicken argument is as good as it gets. They think there are no reasons for faith. It’s a blind leap with nothing but empty air. That’s simply not the case.

There are two words that are critical that we must remember: Proof and Evidence. Skeptics will tell you they don’t believe there’s a God, because there is no proof. They’ll say things like, “If there is a God, show me?” For them that means the existence of God must be proven by scientific experimentation. But you can’t prove Abraham Lincoln was assassinated with scientific proof.

Scientific proof is just one kind of proof. There’s Testimonial Proof: Statements made by witnesses under oath. Or Historical Proof: Historians prove past events by evaluating the reliability of surviving records. Our justice system uses proof like “beyond a reasonable doubt” to determine truth.

Often the question is: “Can you prove God exists?” There are few instances of absolute proof. It’s why courts don’t require absolute proof for a verdict.

A certain amount of faith is necessary with nearly everything. We can’t possibly know every detail involved every time we sit in a chair, eat food, or climb stairs. Such actions all express some measure of faith. That’s the essence of faith, including faith in the existence of God. This morning we want to work through four reasonsto believe in the existence of God. We want to examine the evidence and ask, What evidence makes more sense?

The God of the Bible challenges us to test what’s true, Test all things; hold fast what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Psalm 90 tells us God existed before anything else.Psalm 90:2: Before the mountains were born, before You gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, You are God. That means God created all things. The Bible teaches that God has always been, is now and always will be.

Before we dig into these four reasons, let me point out that, There is nothing wrong with having questions. If God exists, Christ-followers should welcome questions. Why? Because the answer to every question is something true. Christ-followers, believe all truth is grounded in God and His Word. Every time you learn the answer to a question, you put yourself in a position to learn something about God. Another reason is…

Because questions help us get to know a person. It’s true of anyone. If I want to get to know you, the place to begin is with questions. It’s why we encourage skeptics to read the Bible and ask questions. The more questions you have about God, the more you learn about Him. As you get to know God, you’ll be overwhelmed not only with truth, but His love and care for you.

Jude 22 offers this counsel, Be merciful to those who doubt. That’s how God treats those who doubt and we all occasionally doubt. Remember Nietzsche’s quote, Truth does not fear scrutiny. So, let’s share four reasons to believe in God.

1. Looking Back

Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space and said from orbit: I don’t see any God up here. Someone later pointed out that he would have if he’d opened the hatch!

Let’s look back all the way to the beginning of the universe. A hundred years ago scientists assumed the universe had no beginning; it had just always existed. One of the most significant scientific developments in the last 100 years is that the majority of scientists now believe the universe had a beginning. They now trace back the beginning of the universe to an utterly dense point, and like a firework, it exploded into the universe.

Cambridge physicist, Stephen Hawking, who wasn’t sympathetic to Christianity said: All the evidence seems to indicate, that the universe has not existed forever, but that it had a beginning, about 15 billion years ago. This is probably the most remarkable discovery of modern cosmology. Yet it is now taken for granted… But if the universe began billions of years ago with a Big Bang, where did the materials that caused the Big Bang come from? You can’t keep going back in infinity to nothingness. Nothingness can’t just explode. 

Richard Dawkins,in his book The God Delusion,admits it’s a problem. Darwin’s theory works for biology, but not for cosmology (or, ultimate origins)…And, Cosmology is waiting on its Darwin. In other words, Dawkins thinks that while they’ve explained how life took shape on the earth, they have no idea where life itself, or the materials that produced life, came from. We need a theory, he says, as to why anything exists, because it is self-evident that nothing x nobody can’t equal everything…But don’t worry one day we’ll find it. That’s a leap of faith!

Here’s why that idea points to something like God. Everything has a beginning and a cause. Nothing magically pops into existence: phones, a new tree, you, your children, every object or event. That’s a proof of God. The universe had a beginning. So, something or Someone caused the universe.

Think about the alternative – something can come from nothing. The idea of nothing is hard to grasp. Nothing would mean complete, blank emptiness. Try to imagine for a moment: no space, no time, no matter, no energy, nothing.  Then with no explanation or cause, the universe just pops into being. You can’t go from nothing to something.

For an atheist, the Big Bang is an inconvenient truth. It means the physical universe was produced by something not physical. The existence of the universe points to the existence of something beyond the universe, something that does not depend on anything else for its existence.

Romans 1:20 says, For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature [something capable of existing apart from depending on anything else], have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.

As a Christ-follower, I believe the beginning is explained when I open my Bible, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). If you don’t believe in God, what’s your alternative? That the universe just popped into existence from nothing for no reason?

Here’s one depiction of it: ATHEISM: The belief there was once absolutely nothing. And nothing happened to the nothing until the nothing magically exploded (for no reason), creating everything and everywhere. Then a bunch of the exploded everything magically rearranged itself (for no reason whatsoever), into self-replicating bits which then turned into dinosaurs.

That’s having a bit of fun, but it makes a reasonable point. Things don’t just pop into existence out of nothing. If the universe began to exist, there must be an explanation for its existence. The best explanation is God created it.

It’s the virgin birth of the universe.Those who deny the Bible’s view of creation, believe in a “virgin birth” of the universe. Cynics who deny that one small baby could be born without a father are the same ones who assert the universe was born without a Creator. They’re the same ones who believe in an un-Caused Big Bang, without any Creator-God making it happen.

To deny the existence of the Creator God is to believe the universe came into existence, literally out of nothing. That’s a miracle far more unbelievable—indeed impossible—than a human Virgin birth would be. It would be a “miracle” that couldn’t happen. It’s out of the realm of any possibility that with a Big Bang, the universe with all of its design, beauty, order, power, and bountiful goodness—came into existence with no Cause or Causer making it happen. If there ever was a time when nothing existed, then nothing is all that will ever exist. Nothing will produce nothing, every time.

Those who deny the virgin birth is impossible will claim the Big Bang is certain. The Bible says that the Creator-God who made everything, about 2,000 years ago overshadowed a virgin named, Mary, with His power to create in her womb a baby who was God in a body, who is the Savior of the world.

Edwin Conklin, biologist at Princeton, stated: The probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the probability of an Unabridged Dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing factory.

That brings up an important question: Who made God? The Bible teaches that not everything that exists must have a cause. God does not need a cause. He is uncaused. An uncaused God is the most reasonable explanation.

When Moses asks His name, God replies, I AM WHO I AM (Exodus 3:14). God’s existence is past, present and future. It’s independent, self-derived, and continuous. He transcends time with no beginning or end. God is equally conscious of the past, present, and future. He’s the ultimate source of everything that exists and sustains everything.

2. Looking Up

Imagine you take a deck of cards and start playing poker with your best friend. In the first twelve rounds, she gets twelve straight royal flushes. If you’ve never played poker, it’s like winning the lottery twelve times in a row. What would you think? She’s cheating! Why? Because even if she’s very honest, it’s so incredibly unlikely for someone to get twelve straight royal flushes just by chance. Someone must be messing with the cards.

Looking up,we see the overwhelming detailed work of God. The universe we live in could have taken many different forms. Scientists agree – not just Christians, but scientists in general – that there are countless features the universe needed to be precisely as it is for life to even be possible. Not just life on earth, but ANY form of life ANYWHERE in the universe.

To take just one example, the explosive force – the Big Bang had. If the Big Bang had been slightly weaker, gravity would have made the universe collapse back in on itself immediately, far too quickly for any form of life to develop.

Or if the Big Bang had been just slightly stronger, particles would have dispersed so quickly and wound up so far from each other that all we would have gotten are cold, simple molecules, nothing like the complex chemistry required for any form of life. That’s only one example. There are dozens more.

How are we to explain this amazing coincidence? How can we explain royal flushes turning up hand after hand throughout the universe? We should come to the only rational conclusion: The universe is not the result of randomness. Someone ordered the cards; Someone designed the universe.

Consider the human eye. Even Darwin admitted that complex organs such as the eye would be difficult to explain in terms of the gradual stepwise process outlined by his theory. And Darwin didn’t know about the complexity of vision’s molecular biology which science later discovered.

But what’s the alternative? Some scientists believe humans are just animals with no purpose in a purposeless universe. According to them, the universe has no design, no purpose, no evil or no good, nothing, but pointless indifference. Design demands a Designer. While one may ignore evidence of design, in the face of so much evidence, it takes greater “faith” to believe in a godless universe than to follow the evidence to its logical conclusion: the existence of a Creator God who set in place His laws for a purpose.

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse (Romans 1:20).

God has left His fingerprints on the universe. Everything—rock, trees, rivers, ocean, stars—all have Divine DNA which points back to God who created it all. It’s ironic that an atheist can enjoy the beauty of this world yet give no real thought to what or Who is behind the beauty of creation.

3. Looking In

Have you heard of The Hawkeye Wave. It’s a tradition that started in 2017 by fans of the University of Iowa Hawkeyes football team during home games. At the end of the first quarter the fans, players, coaches and staff turn towards the 12^th floor of the nearby Children’s Hospital, waving to the patients standing by the window. Why do that? I mean, who cares? Why? God created a moral universe. Wrong is wrong and right is right because of our Creator’s standards. He created a universe with morality.

God didn’t create a universe of chemicals and force. He created a reality, grounded in right and wrong. As physical laws like gravity hold the material world together, spiritual and moral laws hold our souls and societies together. Without a moral world, Jeffrey Dahmer was just getting a free lunch.

Right and wrong are not a matter of personal preferences. Don’t believe me, attack one of the values of someone who doesn’t believe in right or wrong, and they’ll come unglued. For example, if you say, “I think racism is great,” you’ll see that they don’t think those are personal preferences. They believe those are morally wrong, independent of how anybody might think or feel.

Everyone knows there are transcendent moral realities. We can’t live without them. Of course, we’re finite in our capacity to understand transcendent moral realities, but they exist independently of our preferences.

The Apostle Paul wrote: The requirements of the law…that is, the right or wrong that God has woven into existence…are written on their hearts…(he is speaking about humanity in general—you and me)…their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them (Romans 2:15). These are essential laws for the human condition. Knowing right and wrong is baked into our universe and is a powerful reason for believing in God. If God does not exist as the foundation of morality, anything goes. If God does not exist we lose the right to judge Nazis or serial killers. There can only be evil if there is not some standard of good.

Absolute moral standards come directly from God’s perfect and holy character. Concepts like truth and justice exist because God is inherently truthful and just. Because these principles originate from the Creator rather than some human consensus, they apply to all humanity across timelines and cultures. The universal human awareness of basic right and wrong is viewed as evidence of God writing His law onto the human heart, creating humanity in His image with an innate moral compass.

Is it wrong to hit someone with a bat in church? Only if there is absolute right and wrong. Otherwise, it’s my opinion and maybe who has the bigger bat.

So, does that mean an atheist can’t have moral standards? No, but he only has them because he has chosen to have them. It doesn’t change though that there is right and there is wrong.

4. Looking At

One last evidence we want to consider today comes from looking at the person in the mirror, YOU. Each one of us has a desire to be loved and known. We want our life to have meaning and purpose. It’s why dating apps are growing in popularity. According to Pew Research Center data: 44% of dating platform users say they want to meet a long-term partner. According to dating statistics around 80 million people in the U.S. use dating apps or websites—or about 30% of the adult population.

True love is rooted in God. Those who do not know God can’t love others as God desires us to love. To truly love we must know God because God is love. God intentionally created us to desire to be known and loved. It all points back to Him, our Creator. He knows us more intimately than anyone ever could. He looks at us and says, “I know you, love you and want you to come to Me.”

We exist because God wants us to. We are because God loves. Intelligent life is intentional life. All creation comes from God. We’re not the product of some divine accident. We exist out of God’s desire. Though He saw the evil we were capable of, He still decided life was better with us than without us.

But if our atheist friends are right, love is just a trick our chemistry plays on us. It’s a feeling generated by conditioning or evolutionary expediency.

Imagine a child running up to his mother and crying out, “Mommy, I love you!” What would you think of the mother who responded, “Yes, I feel a release of serotonin in a conditioned biological response to my familial attachment to you, as well?”

It’s in the Bible we learn that love comes from somewhere. Not from the right firing of the chemical lightning in the goop of our genes, not from the conditioned response to social attachments for the furtherance of the species. It comes from outside of ourselves, from a place like heaven. Christians believe that love comes from outside of humans and is placed inside of them.

Only Christianity believes that Jesus, the Son of God, came to embody the love of God in human flesh. He came so He might bridge the gap created by our sin between us and a holy God. His purpose was that mankind might know His Father’s love. Christians believe that we humans love because God has created us with the capacity to know and give love. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

The Bible teaches to have love that never lets us down, that will forgive us forever, love that will sustain us, secure us and satisfy us. The kind of perfect love described in 1 Corinthians 13 must come from Someone who is perfect. Only Jesus fits the bill, because only God is perfect.

If you long to be loved in a truly sacrificial way but find yourself balking at the truth claims of Christianity, please focus on the person and work of Jesus Christ. God loves you! It’s why He sacrificed His Son for you.

Evangelist Leighton Ford shared a story about student riots at a French university. A young man walked up to a bearded man who was rioting and asked, “Excuse me, sir. Why are you rioting?” The bearded man responded, “I am protesting this lousy world.” The young man asked, “Do you believe in God?” The bearded man replied, “No! I’m an Atheist.” The young man asked, “Do you love anyone?” The man lowered his head and said, “Yes, I love a woman by whom I’ve had a child. She is dying of leukemia.” The young man said, “Oh, that’s too bad. Why don’t you get another woman?” The man hauled back and almost hit the young man. But the young man quickly said, “Wait! You told me there is no God. If there is no God, there is no such thing as real love. They’re only biological drives. The woman dying of leukemia is losing her ability to satisfy your desires.” Then, the young man took out a gospel of John, which clearly states that there is a God of love. Behind that innate human ability of love does not stand mere chance. Behind our human ability to love stands a loving Father in heaven.

That’s why God sent His Son, Jesus, to this world for you. This is how God showed His love for us: God sent His only Son into the world so we might live through Him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage we’ve done to our relationship with God (1 John 4:9-10, The Message).

Conclusion

 If someone tells you believing in God is stupid, ask them what they believe instead? Ask if they have a better alternative on how to make sense of the world? Then put the alternatives side-by-side and see which makes more sense.

The best reason to believe in God’s existence—the main reason—is not an argument; it’s a Person. I don’t have a better way of putting it than this: Jesus comes shining through our inadequacy. How else do you explain the impact of Jesus’ life on this world? Who else in history holds a place like Him?

Knowing Jesus is entering into a real relationship with the living God, and anyone can have this. Having a relationship with Jesus begins with humbling yourself and admitting that you desperately need Him. It’s what God said through the prophet Isaiah: But this is the One to whom I will look, to the humble and contrite in spirit who trembles at My Word (Isaiah 62:2).

Humbling yourself doesn’t mean thinking you’re not worth anything or hating your existence. It means recognizing that you’re broken. We’re all broken. It means repenting of sin and turning to pursue the life God wants for you. Through Jesus’ matchless life, through His death on the cross and His resurrection, Jesus comes shining through and you can know Him.

My friend, do you know the God who is not just the cause and designer of the universe? Do you know the God who will do whatever it takes to reach into your life? Do you know the God who knows absolutely everything about you, and loves you more than you can possibly imagine? Do you know the God who wants nothing more right now than to be in a relationship with you?

The promise of the Bible is that you can know God in the deepest possible way – not just know about God, but God Himself.

Many ask, How can I know there is a God? This morning we’ve seen that there’s a great deal of evidence of God’s existence. The question now is, What are we going to do with it?

If you want to find out How you can know God?…you can accept the facts, turn to Christ and receive His forgiveness and eternal life. Then you will begin to live and know what life here, and in the hereafter, is truly all about. It’s your call! Start by reading His Word, specifically the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.

In a sentence the offer of God’s Word is Forgiveness for all that is past (a clean slate), new life here for today (a fresh start), and a wonderful hope for the future. It’s a free gift to all who will receive it by faith. You don’t deserve it; you can’t earn it but it’s free to all who are accept and receive Christ.

As we close, if you’ve got questions or are struggling with doubt or if you’re watching online, we have copies of Josh McDowell’s book, More than a Carpenter that we’d love to give you. Josh also struggled with these same questions. Go by the Welcome Desk and ask for one or email us with your address at Office@gracechurchwi.org and we’ll mail you one.