Science and the Christian worldview Psalm 19

Science and the Christian worldviewPsalm 19 Sunrise Church October 6, 2013

Psalm 19 1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.3 They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.5 It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.6 It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth.

Psalm 19 7 The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.8 The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.9 The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. 10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;

Psalm 19 they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.11 By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.12 But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults.13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. 14 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Science and the Christian Worldview • The revealing God • The rejected God • The testifying God • The hidden God • The saving God

I. The Revealing God • The God of the Bible desires to make himself known to humanity 1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge….

I. The Revealing God • The God of the Bible has a particular character 7 The law of the Lordis perfect, refreshing the soul.The statutes of the Lordare trustworthy, making wise the simple.8 The precepts of the Lordare right, giving joy to the heart….9 The fear of the Lordis pure, enduring forever.The decrees of the Lordare firm, and all of them are righteous.

I. The Revealing God • God reveals himself through general revelation, his works in Nature… 1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.

I. The Revealing God • … and through special revelation, his words in Scripture 7 The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.The statutes of the Lordare trustworthy, making wise the simple.8 The precepts of the Lordare right, giving joy to the heart.The commands of the Lordare radiant, giving light to the eyes.The decrees of the Lordare firm, and all of them are righteous.

I. The Revealing God D. We study God’s revelation through hermeneutics and science Hermeneutics – the discipline of interpreting a written text

I. The Revealing God E. Study of nature and Scripture should always lead us to worship Worship “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens….When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, the son of man that you care for him?” – Psalm 8:1-4

II. The Rejected God A. The claim that Biblical faith is ‘belief without evidence’ is false. Biblical faith is ‘personal trust’, not ‘belief without evidence’

II. The Rejected God B. The claim that ‘nature is all that exists’ is a philosophical assumption, not a scientific conclusion

II. The Rejected God C. The claim that ‘science is the only way to know truth’ is self-refuting and therefore false

III. The Testifying God A. The deep underlying mathematical structure of our universe and our ability to perceive it are both extremely surprising "It is difficult to avoid the impression that a miracle confronts us [in the beauty of physical laws], quite comparable … to the two miracles of the existence of laws of nature and of the human mind's capacity to divine them” – Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner from “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences,” Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 13, No. I (1960)

III. The Testifying God B. The beginning of the universe leads us to seek for a cause of its beginning “Creationists and those of similar persuasions seeking support for their opinions have ample justification in the doctrine of the Big Bang.” - John Maddox, Nature, 340, 1989, p 425

III. The Testifying God C. The fine-tuning of the universe for biological life is extremely improbable “A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.” – astrophysicist Fred Hoyle

III. The Testifying God D. If atheism is true, it is difficult to explain why truth is good or why seeking it is morally obligatory

IV. The Hidden God A. Our rejection of God is not due to a lack of evidence “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 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.” – Rom. 1:18-20

IV. The Hidden God B. God’s comprehensive claim on our lives threatens us “There is no one righteous, not even one;there is no one who understands;there is no one who seeks God.All have turned away,they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good,not even one.” – Rom. 3:11-12

V. The Saving God A. The gospel is good news, not good advice “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that hewas raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” – 1 Cor. 15:3-4

V. The Saving God B. God is not known through education, but through revelation “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” – 1 Cor. 1:26-30

V. The Saving God C. God’s ultimate revelation is the person of Jesus Christ “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” – Col. 1:19-20

V. The Saving God D. The gospel call is to look to Jesus in repentance and faith, trusting in him to rescue us “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” – Acts 16:31

Science and the Christian worldview Psalm 19