MCLEAN BIBLE CHURCH FEBRUARY 19, 2012 PASTOR LON SOLOMON

Transcription

1 MCLEAN BIBLE CHURCH FEBRUARY 19, 2012 PASTOR LON SOLOMON >>LON SOLOMON: There is a yearning in the evangelical world today. It is a yearning for what is real. Disneyland on the loose in our churches is not making and cannot make serious disciples of Christ. It is time to reach back into the word of God as we have not done in a generation and find a serious faith for our serious times. The modern marketing approach to Christianity downplays theology and Bible knowledge. And then we act dumbfounded when commitment and passion for Christ evaporates. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the apostles gave the church the definitive statement of what the Christian faith is. They delivered it to us in the form of doctrine. Christians, therefore, are people who know this doctrine. They believe it, they have it, they hold fast to it, they guard it, and they contend earnestly for it. Today, however, there is an abysmal ignorance of Bibilical truth in evangelical churches. The doctrines of the New Testament are terra incognita, in most churches. Christianity is about many things now but increasingly Biblical truth is not one of them. In short we have lost the conviction shun that the word of God in the hand of God is sufficient for the people of God. Folks, we here at McLean Bible Church aim to be different than that. We here at McLean Bible Church believe the Bible from cover to cover. And we here at McLean Bible Church preach the Bible from cover to cover. And we here at McLean Bible Church submit to the authority of the Bible from cover to cover. But more than that, we want every single one of you here to have that exact same view of the Bible. However -- and this is key, don't miss it -- in order for us to embrace the Bible in this way, we must believe that every word in the Bible is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And this is what we want to talk about today, because nowhere is the trustworthiness of the Bible more attacked than when it comes to the issue of Noah's flood. Atheististic scientists say: Never happened. Unbelieving scholars say: Never happened. Liberal theologians say: It never happened. So today we want to ask a foundational question, and that is, did Noah's flood really happen the way the Bible says? And once I show you today that the answer is yes, then we want to come back and we want to answer a second question, and that is, well, what difference does that make for my life today? So that's the plan. Buckle in. Here we go. And let's begin by saying that for those of us who know Jesus in a personal way, the most convincing evidence that Noah's flood really did happen is the fact that the rest of the Bible says it happened. As a matter of fact, we have many places where the Bible clearly regards and refers to Noah's flood as an actual, factual event. Job does in chapter 22. Isaiah does in chapter 24. David does in Psalm 104, and Peter does twice in both 1 Peter and 2 Peter. But even

2 more importantly than that, the Lord Jesus Christ himself regarded Noah's flood as a fact actual event. Listen, Matthew 24:37 Jesus said, as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the son of man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up 'til the day Noah entered the ark and the flood came and took them all away. For those of us who believe the Bible, that settled it. But wouldn't it be nice if we could look at geological data, and if we could look at biological data, and if we could look at anthropological data and see the footprints of the flood all over this data, just to confirm it? Wouldn't that be nice? Well, friends, the good news is we can. And that's what I want to show you today. So let's begin with geological data. And there are two parts of the geological data I want us to look at, number one, all the sedimentary strata of rock around the world and the coal deposit around the world. There's a picture on the screen of what sedimentary rock looks like. It is strata, layer after layer of essentially mud that sometimes goes hundreds of feet deep and we find these deposits all over the globe. Dr. Henry Morris, who has a Ph.D. in hydrology and hydraulics said this, and I quote: He said, according to the law of hydro dynamic selectivity, a flood of the magnitude described in Genesis would, of necessity, produce horizontal, super imposed layers of materials selected by the moving waters according to their specific gravity and sphericity. Thus he says, as various currents moved across the earth during the months of the flood, a great series of sedimentary strata, would have been formed in various parts of the earth, in some cases to depths of hundreds of feet. End of quote. You say "what?" What did he just say? Well, friends, trust him. What he just said, Dr. Morris, is that the sedimentary rock that we find all over planet earth is exactly what we would expect to find if Noah's flood happened the way the Bible said; and to the contrary, such sedimentary rock would be inexplicable had there been no worldwide, cataclysmic flood the way the Bible describes it to be. Now, the second area of geology we want to look at are coal deposits. As you know, coal deposits exist in huge mass all over planet earth. And yet this can only be explained -- you can only get coal by enormous amounts of vegetation being quickly covered by layer after layer of mud and then compressed under an astronomical weight of water. You say, but wait a minute, Lon. Isn't coal being made on the earth today? And I mean, we're not having any huge flood on the earth today. Well, Dr. Morris again -- and I quote -- he said the Dismal Swamp of Virginia, perhaps the most frequently cited case of a potential modern coal bin, has formed only 7 feet of peat to date, hardly enough to make a single respectable seam of coal. He goes on: Furthermore, there is no evidence that peat is actually being transformed into coal anywhere in the world today. He concludes: To the contrary, he says, all known coal beds seem to have been formed in the distant past and are not continuing to be formed in the present. End of quote.

3 The point is that to make the coal deposits that we find all over the world today, that demands a cataclysmic water event such as Noah's flood could have produced. Let's move on to the biological data. Here I want to especially look at the fossil record. As you know we have all kinds of fossils that we found over the last 100 years. We have fossils of fish, where we've -- shows every single bone in the fish. We have fossils of invertebrates like jelly fish and sponges and trilobites -- remember trilobites from high school? And we've even found entire whale fossils. But here's the problem, my friends. This kind of fossilization is not occurring anywhere on the earth today. When fish die today, they don't sink to the bottom, get covered with tons of sediment and go on to become fossils. No. Instead they're either eaten by scavengers or else they naturally decompose. You remember all the Milt I don't knows and millions of buffalo that were shot on the open plain by white men on trains and then they were left out there, their car cusses to die? We don't have a single buffalo fossil from all those carcasses, why no I'll tell you why. To produce fossils, animals must die suddenly and then they must be almost immediately covered by tons of sediment. The point is that every day environmental conditions like we have today do not produce fossils. Which is why none of them are getting made today. Only a cataclysmic event like Noah's flood can adequately explain the fossil record that we have. But it can explain the fossil record, and it does explain the fossil record. All right. Let's move on now to the anthropological data. You all still with me? You still there? All right. If your neighbor is asleep, punch her, or him. All right. (Chuckling) >> LON SOLOMON: The anthropological data. And here we're talking about all the flood legends that appear in societies all around the world. Dr. James Strickling who taught at Georgia state University and wrote an article of a Statistical Analysis of Flood Legends. He said if a worldwide catastrophe took place one would expect to find some record of this deluge in ancient records. This is exactly the case. He goes on to say legends and mythologies of nations and tribes around the world tell of a time when the entire earth was devastated by water. Anthropologists, he says, have found -- have collected -- at least 59 flood legends from North America, 46 from central and South America, 31 from Europe, 17 from the Middle East, and 37 from the South Sea Islands and Australia. I'll save you the trouble. That's 190. And they all agree, he says, all these legends, on three points. Number one, that there was a worldwide flood that destroyed both men and animals. Number two, that there was a vessel of safety. And number three, that an extremely small remnant of people survived. End of quote. Probably the most famous of these flood stories comes from Babylon ya. We've got a picture on the screen from one of the tablets of the Babylonian flood story, written 2000 B.C. The story goes the gods tell a

4 fellow named Utnapishtim -- how would you like it if your mom named you that, Utnapishtim. That they were going to have a flood on the earth. To save Utnapishtim, one of the gods tells him to build a boat. He stuffs it full of pitch to make it water tight. And he and his entire family get on the boat and they're saved. Eventually the boat lodges on a mountain and Utnapishtim sends out from the boat a raven and a do have, and when the birds don't come back, Utnapishtim comes out with his family and builds an altar and sacrifices in gratitude to the gods. Hey, any of that sound familiar? You say, yeah, that sounds a lot like the story of Noah. Yeah, it sure does, doesn't it? You say, well, Lon, how do you explain all these 190 flood stories like this? It's very simple friends, I explain them all of corruptions of the true and accurate account of the flood that the Bible gives us. Remember, most of these 190 stories were written before they had ever seen a copy of the Bible in these cultures. And so what these stories represent is an extra-biblical -- outside of the Bible -- independent, historical witness that the Bible is telling us the truth about the flood. I mean, if 190 cultures have a tradition that a cataclysmic worldwide flood took place, then the most logical explanation why they do is that a cataclysmic worldwide flood really did take place. Just like the Bible says. So can we summarize? Yes. Let's do it. As we look at geology, that is the sedimentary strata, and the coal beds, and geology, the fossil record, and anthropology of the universal flood prints of the world, we see the footprints of the flood everywhere. And in fact, apart from Noah's flood, much what we find in biology and in anthropology, and in geology makes no sense. If there wasn't a flood. So where does that leave us? Friends, it leaves us encouraged in our faith. It leaves us encouraged in our faith, in the veracity of the word of God. Our faith in the trust worthiness of the word of God. And our faith that the word of God is telling us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Now, if you want a little more scientific reading, I recommend the book to general -- the book the Genesis, that you can pick up from Amazon or anywhere else. And it will take you in deep, but I have kind of skimmed the surface for you and gave you enough information that there is no doubt whatsoever, that flood took place, just the way the Bible says. That's as far as we want to go on that topic. Because it brings up another question that we need to answer today. And we all know what that question is; don't we? Uh-huh. All right. So all of our friends out there at Loudoun and all you guys at Prince William, and all of you at Bethesda and everybody in the edge and all you people around the world on the Internet campus and everybody here at Tysons, are we ready? Are we ready? This is our pre-snow so what. (Laughter) >> LON SOLOMON: I am shameless. Nice and loud. 1, 2, 3. >> ALL: So what!?!?!?

5 >> LON SOLOMON: All right. That's good. You say all right, Lon. I mean, this is good. I feel like I'm going back to high school class. But all right, I accept the fact the flood happened. All right. What difference does that make for me? Well, let's talk about it. Dwight L. moody, the greatest evangelist of the 19th century made this quote nor than 100 years ago. And he said what we need today is men and women who believe the Bible -- from the crown of their heads to the soles of their feet. Men and women who believe the whole of it -- the things they do understand and the things they don't understand." End of quote. And folks, these words are just as true in 2012 as they were more than a century ago when Dwight L. Moody said them. Now, I just spent 20 minutes giving you compelling scientific evidence that Noah's flood happened just the way the Bible said. And follow my logic here, my logic is if we can trust the Bible when it comes to something as extraordinary and atypical as Noah's flood that it's telling us the truth, then it only makes sense that we can also trust the Bible about everything else that it says. And so that brings us to our key question, which is, if the Bible is utterly true, if I am a person, as Dwight L. Moody says, who believes the Bible from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, to believes the whole of it, then what difference should that make in my Monday to Saturday life? I've got three differences to suggest to you. And then we're done. Here we go. Difference number one, if the Bible really is true, then number one, it means that as a follower of Christ, the Bible must have total authority over every facet of my personal life. Joshua 1:7, God said, be careful to -- what's the next word -- obey all the law that my servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left. Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do - - what's the next word -- what's the word -- everything written in it. Hey, what is God telling us here, friends? He's telling us as followers of Christ that we are to live every part of our lives, down to even the tiniest details in obedience to and under the authority of the word of God. Many of you know, because you're on my prayer warrior list -- and if you don't know what that is, next week we're going to give you a chance to sign up and become a prayer warrior, I have over 1,000 people who pray for my family and me, and I sent out an alert when we were on vacation, we had a young lady coming over to meet with us today who we hope we can lead to cite Christ. We went to a restaurant one night while on vacation, and the server there, when she brought the bill, I left her a CD of my life story in the little folder. And also a really nice tip. (Chuckling) >> LON SOLOMON: If I figured if I left her a nice tip she'd be inclined to listen to the CD. Don't you think? And besides, she did a good job. Whatever. All right. So she listened to the CD. She -- she got in touch with us. And she said, I would like to come over and meet with the two of you and talk about the CD. She came over, met with us for a couple of hours. And by

6 the time it was done, she prayed and asked Christ into her life sitting right there. Which was wonderful. And right after we did it -- (Applause) >> LON SOLOMON: Yeah. Right after we finished the sinner's prayer, I looked up and I looked at her and I said now, you need to understand there is a new authority in your life. It's no longer how you feel, it's no longer what you want to do, it's no longer what your friends tell you to do, and it's no longer what is personally expedient for you. The new authority in your life from this point to the end of your life is what does God tell me in the Bible to do? Friends, if you know Jesus Christ, this same authority is the one that should govern our lives. What does God tell me to do in the Bible? It should have authority over every part of our life. Because of the authority of the Bible in our lives, we must run our business affairs righteously. Not just legally. Righteously. Because of the Bible's authority in our lives, we need to keep our word, even to our own hurt. Because of the Bible's authority, we need to fill out our 1040s honestly. Because of the Bible's authority over our life, we need to watch how we look at and how we speak to and how we think about members of the opposite sex. Because of the Bible's authority in our life, we must return good for evil, not revenge, not evil for evil. Because of the Bible's authority, we must forgive people who have hurt us, even if we don't feel like it. And we must thank God for all our circumstances, every day by faith. Even if we don't feel like it. And we must act with integrity, even when our competitors and other people are not acting with integrity, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Jesus said it. He said: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And my friend, if the Bible has not brought this kind of radical change to your everyday lifestyle and your everyday behavior, then you have not given the Bible the authority that it demands and it deserves in your life. Just that simple. Number two, difference number two if the Bible is really true, is that it means that the Bible needs to be the road map, the secret that we follow to living a meaningful, satisfying and successful life. Joshua 1:8, God goes on after he says be careful to do everything written in the word of God, he says for then you will be prosperous, and then you will have good success wherever you go. Psalm 1:2, blessed is the man -- or woman who s delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates upon it day and night. He or she will be like a tree planted beside rivers of water which yields its fruit in due season and whose leaf does not whither, and whatever that person does will prosper. We live in a world where people spend billions and billions of dollars every year to hit on a formula to successful living. We have info infomercials and astrology and self-help books and pop psychology and investment schemes. The sad thing is these people spend all this money looking for some way to live a successful life, when all the time thanks to the Gideons the answer they're looking for is right in the drawer in every hotel room in America. Amen? Yeah. It's the B-I-B-L-E. Real fulfillment comes from believing in the holy God, and obeying the word of God every single day.

7 Now, remember, this doesn't mean you won't have trouble in your life if you try to do this. This doesn't mean that you'll never have any adversity. Abraham had adversity, Moses had adversity, Joshua had adversity, Job had adversity. Esther had adversity. So did Naomi, so did Ruth. They all had trouble. What this means is it's through the trouble we will continue to obey God and continue to trust God. God will see to it that when the dust clears, we're on top of the heap. Just like all these people ended up on top of the heap. We're serious about living a life that is meaning full, satisfying and successful. We use the Bible as our road map. Number three, difference number three, the Bible's really telling us the truth, it means, third, that the Bible is telling us what's really on the other side of the grave. I love what Jesus said. John 3:13. He said no one has ever gone into heaven and then come back to tell us what's really there except for the one who came from heaven, the son of man, that is, Jesus himself. Listen, friends, don't you believe all these people who see a long tunnel with a bright light at the end. I don't know what they saw. You say, well, explain it. Listen, God didn't call me to explain every experience in the universe. I don't have an explanation. But I'm telling you this, no matter what they tell you, if it doesn't stack up with what Jesus told you about the afterlife, don't you believe it. And I don't care what any other religion tells you. Any other religious leader or somebody who died and went to heaven for six hours and wrote a book. It doesn't stack up with what Jesus says about the afterlife, don't you believe it. He said nobody can tell you about the afterlife but me; Jesus said. Don't you believe it. And don't you hitch your wagon to it either. And what did Jesus say about the afterlife? Here's what he said. John 14:6, I am the way, the truth and the light. Nobody gets to heaven except through me. But you know, for those of us who have decided we're going to get through heaven through him, there's more that he said about the afterlife. Jesus says John 6:40, for this is the will of my Father; that every one who believes in me shall have eternal life and I will raise them up -- I will raise them up at the last day. John 11:25, Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. The person who believes in me shall live -- even if they die here on earth, don't worry about dying here on effort, you're going to live. Because I am the resurrection. And friends, believing what Jesus says about the afterlife makes all the difference in the world when you're leaving this life. Not too long ago I visited with a gentleman who was on his last days. And in fact he died 12 hours after I visited with him. We were in his bedroom with some of his family members around. He was sitting on the side of his bed. And I looked at him, and I called him by name. And I said, now, I said, because of what Jesus said in the Bible and because you believe it, you know you're going to heaven. Right? You know you have eternal life. Right? There is no doubt; right? And although he could hardly speak, he shook his head and said, no doubt.

8 Friends, those were two of the last words he ever said on earth. But I got to tell you, in that room, things were calm. Things were tranquil. Things were peaceful. There was no terror in that room. There was no fear in that room. There were no shrieks or screams of agony in that room. There was just the quiet confidence that this man knew he had eternal life and was going to heaven. And let me tell you where he got that confidence. He didn't get it from reading and believing Newsweek. He didn't get it from reading and believing sports illustrated. Or Forbes magazine or people magazine, or the Washington post, God forbid. No, that isn't where he got it. He got it from reading and believing the words of Jesus in the Bible. That's where he got it from. And friends, if you want to face death like that -- and that's how God wants you to face death as a follower of Christ -- you're only going to get that by reading and believing the words of Jesus in the Bible. And if the Bible is utterly true, you don't have a thing to worry about when Jesus says this is the will of my Father, then you will have eternal life, friend, you can take that to the bank. And you can take it into eternity with you. So let's conclude, shall we? When it comes to placing our full trust in the Bible, I love what Peter said. Peter said, 2 Peter 1:16, he said for we have not followed cleverly or cunningly devised fables. In other words, Peter says, this is not a hoax. Bible is not a hoax. The Lord Jesus said, John 17:17, God's word is truth. And in light of that, it means three things. Means, number one, that the Bible must have total authority over the everyday affairs of your life and my life. It means, number two, that if we want to live a meaningful, successful life, we've got to make the Bible the road map. Not what somebody else tells us or what some pop psychology book says or what Dr. Phil says. It's what the Bible says. And finally, it means, that the Bible must be our one and only guide for making plans for the afterlife. And for what's on the other side of the grave. I love what Dwight L. Moody said, he said, death may be the king of terrors, but Jesus is the King of Kings. Amen? And friends, God wants you and me to be able to look death right in the eyeballs like this man I visited with. And say, I'm not afraid of you. Because Jesus said -- and then we start. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thanks for talking to us today about the word of God. It is being assailed not just by nonbelievers, but even within the so-called church today we have so many people who either don't believe it, won't preach it, tell us it's wrong, undermine its authority, or just flat ignore it. Lord Jesus, that is not the way we want to do it here at McLean Bible Church. You said your word is a rock. You said heaven and earth may pass away, but your word will never pass away. And you told us that if we build our house on the rock of the word of God, that the winds of this life may blow and the waves of this life may beat against that house, but that house will stand. Because it's built on the rock.

9 So Lord Jesus, encourage us today to jettison every other foundation we've ever sought to build our house on, and to adopt the Bible as our one and only foundation for life and for afterlife. Encourage our faith today, Lord, that we're not following cunningly devised fables, that this is the truth, and we can ride the word of God right into eternity and be safe. Lord, encourage our faith today. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And what did God's people say? >> ALL: Amen. >> LON SOLOMON: Amen. Hey, have a great week. Bless you. (Applause) (Music) *** This transcript is being provided in a rough-draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) or captioning are provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ****