Participants: Clifford Goldstein
Series Code: CFTF
Program Code: CFTF000013
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00:21 Hi, Cliff Goldstein your host for Contending For the Faith.
00:26 Glad you've tuned in. 00:29 Psalm 19:1-4 00:33 "The heavens declare the glory of God, 00:36 and the firmament shows His handiwork. 00:40 Day unto day utters speech, 00:43 and night unto night shows knowledge. 00:46 There is no speech nor language 00:50 in which their voice is not heard. 00:54 Their line is gone out through all the earth, 00:58 and their words to the end of the world." 01:03 Deep thought. 01:05 By daylight or moonlight, in the jungle or in the desert, 01:10 on land or in sea, 01:12 the glory of God is revealed in the creation. 01:17 And whether a speaker of Serbian 01:20 or 5th century Chinese 01:25 or a Dutch or of ancient Egyptians humans have through 01:29 the created works listened to the voice of God. 01:36 Now what is heard, what is revealed, 01:39 what is understood from these works 01:42 those questions have been debated for centuries. 01:46 I mean, in a fallen world 01:48 when everything from the clouds to our DNA 01:51 has impacted by sin the message can be mixed, 01:56 not only from the creation itself 02:00 but from how we with our fallen minds process 02:05 and understand that creation. 02:08 Never the less, enough about God 02:11 can be understood from the creation 02:14 that according to Paul those who reject the Lord 02:18 will on judgment day be held accountable. 02:23 Because he says in Romans 1 that God has revealed to them 02:28 enough about His nature from the created world that, 02:32 when the time comes they will be without excuse. 02:40 Now, with the moral element then 02:43 so closely tied to creation its no wonder, 02:50 its no wonder that just after you go back to Psalm 19, 02:55 you got these few verses on the creation 02:59 and then right after that Psalm 19 shifts to God's law. 03:05 It talks about the goodness and righteousness of God's law. 03:10 In the NIV Romans 119-20, 03:13 I mean Psalm 19:7-9 03:19 "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. 03:23 The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, 03:26 making wise the simple. 03:28 The precepts of the Lord are right, 03:31 giving joy to the heart. 03:33 The commands of the Lord are radiant, 03:36 giving light to the eyes. 03:38 The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. 03:42 The ordinances of the Lord are sure 03:45 and righteous altogether." 03:48 Psalm 19, so closely relates 03:52 God's created works with His law 03:56 and the moral standards He has given His people. 04:00 So in the scripture creation and law, 04:03 existence and morality, 04:05 humanity and spirituality all these come from God. 04:10 They are all manifestations of His character. 04:14 That's why the Psalm is placing them in such close proximity 04:20 and why to allthrough the Bible 04:23 God uses example from nature, from creation 04:28 to point us to moral and spiritual truths. 04:31 Just a few, Isaiah 1:3 "The ox knows his master, 04:36 the donkey his owner's manger, 04:39 but Israel my people does not know, 04:41 they do not understand." 04:44 Job 39, "Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom 04:49 and spread his wings toward the south? 04:51 Does the eagle soar at your command 04:53 and build its nest on high?" 04:57 And then what Jesus said in Luke, 05:01 "Consider the lilies, how they grow, 05:04 they do not labor or spin. 05:07 Yet, I tell you, not even Solomon 05:09 all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 05:13 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, 05:17 which is here today, 05:18 and tomorrow is thrown in the fire, 05:21 how much more will he clothe you, 05:24 O you of little faith!" 05:28 Now if creation could speak so powerfully 05:33 of truth back then, in a pre-scientific age 05:39 how much more should it speak to us today, 05:42 when that creation has been plumed 05:45 and parsed and measured at depths 05:49 and with the precision 05:50 that the ancients couldn't begin to imagine. 05:55 Now I admit and if you have been 05:57 watching this series you know 05:59 that a great deal of science has been twisted to promote 06:03 and atheistic materialistic world view, 06:06 okay, and for those who believe in the, 06:09 in the biblical accounts of origins 06:11 and so and we just have to reject this, 06:14 okay we just, you know, reject that 06:18 instead we who believe 06:20 in the biblical account of origins. 06:23 With the Lord is Creator we have insights, 06:27 we've had insights over the past few centuries 06:30 to teach us moral and spiritual truths about God 06:34 and the plans of-- the plan of salvation. 06:36 In ways that I believe would have been 06:39 incomprehensible to the ancients. 06:45 What do I need? Well, this is what I need. 06:49 Romans 3:19-21, 06:53 "Now we know that whatever the law says, 06:56 it says to those who are under the law, 06:59 that every mouth may be stopped, 07:01 and all the world may become guilty before God. 07:05 Therefore by the deeds of the law 07:07 no flesh shall be justified in His sight, 07:10 for by the law is the knowledge of sin." 07:15 Because we can't be of saved by obedience through the law, 07:19 because we can't be saved by obedience to the law 07:22 no matter how diligently and faithfully we keep that law 07:27 salvation comes solely through faith 07:30 in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. 07:35 Salvation is solely by grace not by the law 07:40 because as I tried to show in a previous show 07:43 our obedience is never enough. 07:47 Now, this is revealed truth, 07:51 this a truth we know only because God has told it to us. 07:56 This is not something we could read out the flowers, 07:59 oh, this is a fake, 08:00 so we specially can't read it out of that. 08:04 This is something we can't read out of the flowers 08:06 or the motion of the stars 08:09 but here's something that I think very exciting. 08:12 Science in the past few decades has uncovered 08:16 some facts about creation that can function I believe 08:20 as a powerful object lesson precisely to this point, 08:26 to the credible demands of God's law 08:29 and how we as sinner would fair before that law. 08:36 I touched on this in another show, 08:39 scientist in the past few years 08:42 have coined a phrase anthropic coincidences. 08:47 Anthropic from the Greek word anthropos 08:51 which means man. 08:54 And these coincides, "coincides" 08:58 are physical balances in the cosmos 09:00 so finely tuned for human life 09:04 that one could be excused for thinking 09:06 that the entire universe had been excused, 09:10 had been made exclusively just for us. 09:16 Hence the name anthropic, okay. 09:20 Its creation is maintained by numerous dials, 09:25 in fact, each so precariously adjusted 09:28 that the slightest fidgeting of even one of them 09:32 and human life as we know it could never have a risen. 09:37 For instance, if the force of gravity was slightly larger 09:42 or slightly larger to stars such as our sun 09:46 would have burned way too hot for human life. 09:49 Or the force slightly smaller then 09:53 the stars never could have started to begin with. 09:56 And let's face it, where we're gonna be without the starts? 09:58 All right, specifically where we're gonna be without the sun? 10:03 If the forces inside the atoms 10:05 were slightly different in one direction 10:08 there would be no hydrogen atoms. 10:10 No hydrogen's, no human's period. 10:13 If they were slightly different in another direction 10:17 the universe would be nothing but hydrogen atoms. 10:20 And fine, hydrogen we need it but if all there was hydrogen 10:24 then we as human won't exist. 10:27 Here's how one scientist explains this coincidence, 10:33 okay, okay. 10:35 He says it like this. 10:36 This is the balance of electrons and protons. 10:39 Listen to this, unless the number of electrons 10:43 is equivalent to the number of protons 10:45 to an accuracy of 1:1037, 1:1037. 10:51 That's a 10 with 37 zeros after, okay. 10:56 The accuracy of one part in 10 to the 37 or better 11:00 electromagnetic forces in the universe 11:03 would have so overcome gravitational forces 11:06 that stars, galaxies, and plants 11:09 would have never been formed, okay. 11:12 One part in 1037 11:16 is such an incredibly sensitive balance 11:19 that it is hard to visualize. 11:21 Then he gives the following analogy. 11:23 I'm not gonna read, I'm just gonna tell you. 11:25 He says, cover the entire continental United States 11:29 all the way up to the moon in dimes, 11:32 okay, at a height of 239, 000 miles. 11:37 Next pile the dimes from here to the moon 11:40 on a billion other continents the size of North America. 11:44 Then he says, paint one dime red-- 11:48 pink, red what does it matter, and stick it into the mix. 11:51 And then says, the odd, blindfold a friend 11:55 and ask him to pick out one dime. 11:58 The odds that he will pick the red dime are one in 1037. 12:05 And this is only one of the parameters 12:08 that are so delicately balanced to allow life to form. 12:13 Other mind-boggling ratios exist. 12:18 Ratio like 1:1040, 1:1060, 12:22 balances that demand of precision far beyond anything 12:26 that we as humans would ever dare achieving. 12:31 So what's the point here? What this says to me? 12:38 Is that God's physical laws, God's physical laws 12:43 it seems allow for very little violation, okay. 12:51 That's God's physical law but what about God's moral law? 12:59 Would God's moral law be any more lax, 13:03 any more tolerant of deviation then His physical ones? 13:09 Does the moral require the same kind of precision 13:14 as seen in the physical law? 13:17 Now there is a theologian Paul Tillich, 13:19 I definitely won't recommend reading him. 13:21 I think the guy is totally wack 13:23 on just about everything he has written 13:26 but I like this one quote. 13:28 Listen to this, "The orders of nature 13:33 are analogous to the order of moral law." 13:39 That profound. 13:42 "The orders of nature are analogous 13:45 to the order of moral law." 13:50 Analogous, in what way? 13:57 1 John 3:4 14:00 "Whosoever commits sin transgress also the law," 14:04 for sin also "for sin is transgression of the law." 14:10 Sin is transgression, a violation, 14:14 a deviation from God's moral law. 14:18 So how much deviation, 14:20 how much violation of that law is allowed? 14:24 How far does one have to move before violating it? 14:29 When Psalm 119:4 says, 14:32 "You have commanded us to keep Your" diligent 14:35 "your precepts diligently." 14:39 I ask the question, 14:40 how diligently has He commanded us to keep them? 14:46 When James says, 14:48 "For who shall ever shall keep the whole law 14:51 and yet stumbles in one point, he is guilty of all." 14:56 How far does one have to deviate from the law 14:59 before one is considered stumbling before it? 15:05 What's the answer? 15:07 How do we know where you crossed the line? 15:11 Well, maybe these are found in these words from Jesus. 15:19 Matthew 5:23, keep-- look at this in the context 15:25 of what we've just been talking about. 15:27 "You have heard that it was said of old. 15:29 You shall not commit adultery. 15:33 But I say to you that whoever looks 15:35 at a woman to lust for her 15:36 has already committed adultery with her in his heart." 15:40 Or perhaps the answer is found here. 15:43 "You have heard that it was said of old, 15:44 you shall not murder, and whoever murders 15:47 will be in danger of the judgment. 15:49 But I say to you that whoever is angry 15:52 with his brother without a cause 15:54 shall be in danger of the judgment." 16:00 So according to Jesus lust equals adultery 16:06 or anger without a cause equals murder. 16:10 If that's true and I have to believe it 16:12 because Jesus said it, then it doesn't-- 16:16 I don't feel that God's law allows 16:19 so much deviation does it? 16:22 And that we can't compare, 16:24 though we can't compare adultery 16:28 and lust in the heart ration 16:29 to a ration of 1:1037, or 1:1060, I don't, 16:35 those numbers humans just can't wrap our minds around it. 16:39 The principle is there. 16:41 I think the principle is there 16:43 and I think the principle is clear 16:46 God's moral law doesn't allow for violation anymore 16:51 than His physical laws do. 16:55 Can you see that? I think that's no doubt then. 17:00 Why? 17:02 We've been told "By the deeds of the law 17:04 no flesh shall be justified in his sight." 17:08 Because you got to keep the law 17:09 with that kind of precision in order to be justified by it. 17:14 That's why we conclude that a man is justified by faith 17:18 apart from the deeds of the law. 17:21 Romans 3:28 "Knowing the man is not" 17:25 a man "is not justified by the works of the law, 17:28 but by the faith of Jesus Christ." 17:30 Even we have believed in Jesus 17:32 that we might be justified by the faith of Christ 17:36 and not by the works of the law. 17:38 "For by the works of law no flesh shall be justified." 17:44 And I've got more text. 17:45 Now is the law bad? No. 17:48 Paul wrote therefore the law is holy 17:50 and the commandment holy and just is good. 17:53 And that I agree with the law that it is good. 17:57 It is because the law has been done away with. 17:59 Of course, not, we know that. 18:01 Do we then make void the law through faith? 18:04 No, God forbid we establish the law. 18:07 Its not that the law is bad, nor that it has been abolished, 18:11 instead the law doesn't bring salvation 18:14 because it can't bring salvation. 18:17 The law is there to point out the problem of sin 18:21 not to solve it. 18:23 "For by the law is the knowledge of sin." 18:27 The knowledge of sin, not the solution. 18:31 You have heard it said the law is like a mirror. 18:34 I can stand and look at a mirror all day 18:36 and look at this face of mine and stand at the mirror. 18:40 It ain't gonna help it, okay. I need something else. 18:43 Maybe a little Botox or something. 18:45 But the point is the law isn't going, 18:49 doesn't solve the problem. 18:51 It points out the problem but it doesn't solve it. 18:56 You know, a while back in another program 18:58 I quoted Sister White, she said 19:00 "The condition of eternal life is now what it has always been. 19:04 Perfect obedience to the law of God, 19:07 perfect righteousness." 19:11 How perfect is the obedience? 19:13 How perfect is the righteousness? 19:16 Is it something that we could reproduce 19:19 even with God working in us, 19:21 especially if that righteousness allows 19:24 as little deviation as does God's physical laws? 19:31 Listen to this, first selected the messages 19:35 "Righteousness is obedience to the law. 19:37 The law demands righteousness, 19:40 and this the sinner owes to the law; 19:43 but he is incapable of rendering it. 19:45 The only way in which he can attain 19:47 to righteousness is through faith. 19:50 By faith he can bring to God the merits of Christ, 19:54 and the Lord places the obedience 19:56 of His Son to the sinner's account. 19:59 Christ's righteousness is accepted 20:01 in place of man's failure, and God receives, 20:04 pardons, justifies, the repentant, believing soul, 20:09 treats him as though he were righteous, 20:11 and loves him as He loves His Son. 20:14 This is how faith is accounted righteousness; 20:18 and the pardoned soul goes on from grace to grace, 20:23 from light to a greater light." 20:26 In other words, what she is saying here 20:29 by the deeds of the law 20:31 no flesh will be justified in His sight. 20:35 Notice the emphasis, 20:37 by faith the obedience of Christ is credited 20:41 to the sinners account. 20:43 By faith the merits of Christ becomes ours. 20:46 Not some kind of infused way in which 20:49 we become holy as Jesus there by attaining salvation 20:55 but only in the sense that it's imputed to us. 21:00 The righteousness that saves us 21:02 is a righteousness that exists in heaven, 21:05 not in ourselves. 21:07 No matter how righteous we become, 21:10 no matter how close to the law we keep, 21:13 we can keep the law, 21:15 we can keep the law "perfectly" in a sense. 21:19 Not perfect enough to be saved by it, 21:22 we are not sanctified in order to be justified. 21:26 No we are justified in order to be sanctified. 21:30 Through God's grace Christ righteousness 21:34 that rot out in His life is credited to our own. 21:39 It is credit to us as our own 21:41 and thus we are accounted righteous before God. 21:46 Again, we are deemed righteous before God 21:50 not because of any righteousness we possess 21:52 or because of any good deeds that we might do 21:56 but only because of the righteousness of Jesus 21:59 which He rot out in His life 22:01 and which is credit to us by grace through faith. 22:06 How else could it be, how else could it be 22:10 Jesus alone met the conditions of eternal life, 22:15 perfect obedience to the law of God, 22:19 perfect righteousness. 22:21 Jesus alone kept the law of God with the precision greater than 22:26 even what has been revealed in these physical laws. 22:29 Again, think about the physical laws, 22:32 this tiniest deviation and there is no life, gone. 22:39 Is it gonna be any difference with God's moral law? 22:43 I don't think so but Jesus kept God's moral law 22:49 with the perfect precision, that perfect righteousness 22:54 and through God's grace that is credited to us by faith. 23:00 Suppose to all your past sins are forgiven, 23:06 the slate is white clean, everything passed 23:10 as purge, forgiveness, blotted out 23:13 and so you stand sinless before God. 23:17 Now all you have to do in order to ensure your salvation 23:21 is to keep God's moral law perfectly, 23:25 and keep it with the kind of precision reflected 23:29 that we saw in God's physical laws. 23:34 If that's what salvation was about 23:37 how well would you fair? 23:41 I don't think there is any question 23:45 because we become new creatures in Christ. 23:48 We are given power to live holy lives. 23:52 And I don't think there's any question ideally. 23:56 The power of God is there to enable us 23:59 even as fallen beings to live sinless lives. 24:03 I mean, if the power of God is working in us 24:06 to enable us to faithful and obedient 24:10 isn't God's power faithful enough, 24:13 capable of making us live without sin? 24:16 I think God's power is there. 24:19 I think He is but see the problem 24:21 is not with God or with God's power. 24:23 Where is the problem? It's with us. It's with me. 24:28 Okay, the problem is in our end. 24:31 If after I sin after I have been born again believer 24:34 is it God's fault or mine? 24:37 God powers, God's powers sustains the entire universe. 24:41 Certainly that same God and that same power 24:44 can keep us from sinning. 24:47 Can't He? Can He? 24:49 Certainly then as born again Christians 24:52 keep the law of God perfectly in God's power. 24:57 Of course we can and we should. 25:00 But let me ask you. Do we? 25:03 Who have you listening to me? 25:05 Who have you out there in TV and listening to me 25:09 has kept God's law perfectly. 25:12 In the past week, in the past week-- 25:14 forget about the past year, in the past week 25:17 how many of you have kept God's law perfectly 25:19 with the kind of precision sin in those physical laws? 25:26 And if its not you, if it hasn't whose fault is it? 25:30 Is it God's fault as He somehow not sustaining you? 25:34 Is He not giving you the power or is it your fault? 25:39 Yeah, I think we all know where the link, weak link is. 25:45 Victory is always there, always attainable. 25:50 When we don't have it the fault lies with us 25:54 which precisely why we need 25:58 the righteousness of Jesus covering us. 26:02 The righteousness which is equal 26:04 to the righteousness of God. 26:07 It can't be any other way, 26:12 not with a law refine to an exactitude 26:16 that we can't imagine much less as sinners really mean. 26:23 If the God who plays such precision 26:26 in His physical laws, is the God 26:30 who plays such precision in His physical laws, 26:34 is He gonna do any less with His moral ones? 26:39 You think so? I don't think so. 26:43 I think that physical laws are that precise 26:47 how much more is moral laws. 26:50 That's why for beings like us 26:54 whose moral ratios come much more blunter 26:57 than what the law requires 26:59 that's why salvation must be by grace alone or not at all. 27:07 That's why it's by grace 27:09 because considering the requirements of the law 27:12 especially if you parallel it 27:14 to the physical God's, physical laws 27:17 then if its not gonna be by grace 27:20 how else is it going to be. 27:25 I mean who possesses the requirements, 27:29 perfect obedience, prefect righteousness 27:32 needed for citizenship in heaven? 27:36 Only Jesus which is why only through Him can we enter. 27:42 "For so an entrance shall be ministered 27:44 unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom 27:47 of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 27:50 2 Peter 1:11. 27:53 No questions, the heaven, no question. 27:57 The heavens declare the glory of God. 28:00 Thanks to recent advances in science, 28:03 you know, understanding of these heavens 28:06 we can see that glory even more clearly than ever. 28:10 A glory that helps us understand 28:14 the grace revealed to us by God 28:17 through the person of Jesus Christ. |
Revised 2015-02-05