Good morning and a wonderful, Happy Sabbath to each and every one of you this morning for joining us, whether you're listening on the radio, watching live on our website at saccentral.org, or on the various television networks. We're very excited to have you with us this morning as we keep singing your favorite hymns. Many of you have sent in hymn requests this week. And we're going to do our best to sing those for you today and also in the upcoming weeks. We have had almost 12,000 song requests since April 2004.
And we've gotten through a lot of them, but there's still many more to go. And you can keep sending them in to saccentral.org. And we will keep singing those with you on an upcoming Sabbath. Our first one, "anywhere with Jesus I can safely go," 508. And we will do all three stanzas.
This is from sara in Alabama; valencia in belize; leon and betty in California; joyce in cameroon; angel and kirstin in england; Karen in florida; karl and maisie in France; florence and Michael in grenada; sheela and suvama in india; kosholo in kenya; kevin in netherland antilles; angela and beth in New York; sandie, vern, jamie, and jenny in North Carolina; wilson in oman--that's--we don't get many requests from oman, that's exciting--brestly in Philippines; raysa in saint lucia; lia in south korea; joyce in Texas; matiu in tonga; george isagani and thea in united arab emirates; and thando and pius in zimbabwe. By the way, "anywhere with Jesus." That is true. And you can hold him to it. "Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go." As long as you can go places where you think Jesus would want to go. Of course we're not going to go to questionable places thinking, "oh, Jesus will come with me.
" No, but if you are going through something and you are afraid, and you know that you are doing what is right, and you are in Jesus' hand, that he will be there with you, no matter where you are going. Three thirty-six, "there is a fountain." This is from robert in afghanistan; natalia and irene in australia; fernando in brazil; Virginia and lorna in Georgia; wilfred and allan in grenada; bob and Paula in Idaho; jasmine in india; shakarah and oneil in jamaica; vikki in Maryland; kenny in Nevada; joyann and ernestine in New York; Michael in Ohio; dennol in saint vincent and the grenadines; andy and josie in saudi arabia; liljana in sweden; cosmin and grace in tennessee. Oh, that was the end of the list. Last but not least, tennessee this morning. I'm used to usually Washington.
Three thirty-six, "there is a fountain," and we are going to sing the first, third, fifth and sixth stanza; one, three, five and six. Father we are not worthy this morning to be your sons and daughters. But we know that it's not because of anything that we have done that we are your children. It's because you loved us, and you decided to give up the glories of heaven and come to this horrible, dark world, because you loved us. And you love us with more love than we can even comprehend.
Father, we thank you so much for the day that you have promised when we will have golden harps, when we will see you face-to-face. And that when these old bodies, these stammering tongues, when we see you we will be changed. We thank you so much for loving us like that. I pray that you'll be with us as we open up Your Word and we study together this morning. In Jesus' Name, amen.
At this time, our lesson study is going to be brought to us by pastor mike thompson. He is our health and outreach pastor here at Sacramento central. I'd like to welcome everybody this morning to "central study hour." It's a beautiful day here in sunny California. And it's quite warm as well, but we're really blessed to live in a part of the world where the economy has just about gone haywire, but we still have nice weather. So that's a blessing at least.
So this morning I'd like to welcome you. We have a free offer which is, it's called, "why God said remember," "why God said remember." And if you're in the continental United States, you can get this by calling 1-866-study-more, or 1-866-788-3966, "why God said remember." We'll try and repeat that for you at the end this morning so you can send for that. We're on lesson number three of "worship," some really good materials in this quarter's theme. And today we're looking at the "Sabbath and worship." And there's such a lot could be said about this. For all my notes were jumbled up at the beginning.
I've hardly exhausted, I know, what could be said about this topic. But there's a memory verse here which I'd like to read from psalm 95:6-7. It reads, "let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." I'd like to begin by actually reading the first paragraph from "Sabbath afternoon" section of the lesson this morning, just by way of introduction here. It tells us as we saw in the introduction, "creation and redemption: essential to the first angel's message in the theme of worship.
" Remember it's "worship and the Sabbath." And we bring in the third angel's message here which is God's last warning to the world. "The first angel calls us to the everlasting Gospel, the good news of salvation in Jesus, a salvation which includes not only forgiveness of sin, but power over it." And we'll be talking about that. "This Gospel then promises us a new life in Christ, the promise of sanctification, which itself is part of the process of salvation and redemption." And it says as we saw, "the first angel's message includes a special reminder that the one whom we are to worship is our creator." And you see that right there in the first angel's message in Revelation 14:6-7. But getting back to the memory verse, which says, "let us worship and bow down," I want to read the verse before that, which is psalm 95:5. And it tells us this, "the sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
" Then it goes in and says, "therefore come and let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker." Now every Christian on the face of this earth, no matter which denomination they belong to, I'm sure they will agree if you ask the question, "when we worship God should we praise him?" I'll guarantee everyone will say, "yes, we should." And I hope that everyone, like each one of us here, does worship God and praise him in all sincerity. But let me say this to us as Seventh-day Adventists. And let us be humble as we recognize this fact, it is only somebody who is recognizing God as the creator and observing the seventh-day Sabbath that can really offer to God the full worship and the full praise, which is his due. For example, psalm 33:1,2 and 6 it says, "as I live I will praise the Lord. I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.
" Then verse 6 says, speaking of which, "made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that's underneath." Right out of the fourth commandment. And this is tied in within the context of worshipping God and praising him. So you may--and I say this very kindly. There may be some people here who keep Sunday. I know a lot of Seventh-day Adventists that kept Sunday before they had an opportunity to study further.
I thought Sunday was the Sabbath and actually went once in a while to the church of england on Sunday. So don't say this to criticize anybody, but as we realize that God is the creator, and I want to repeat this 'cause it's so important, and we worship him on the seventh day especially, and offer him praise, that is praise and worship in its fullest sense that God desires to receive. In psalm 124:8, it says, "our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth." And so you'll find other verses like that as well as you look in the sacred Scriptures. So we want to offer God praise and thanksgiving. And as you read in the introduction here, we need to indeed worship God as the creator, which he is.
But also the God who is the one who sanctifies us. And you will see as you go through the lesson, refer to it in the introduction, but justification and sanctification together, they make, they represent what we call, sometimes quite loosely, righteousness by faith. Revelation 14:6-7, in fact let me read it, it says, "fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." Jesus said in Matthew 24, he says, "this Gospel of a kingdom will be preached as a witness unto all nations. Then the end will come. Revelation 14:6, it says, "the everlasting Gospel do unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
" And with that, a couple more elements which are peculiar--i don't mean peculiar in a strange way, but in a wonderful way to seventh-day adventism, which is scripturally-based, that along with the Gospel before Jesus comes goes the message of the judgment, "the hour of his judgment is come." You can't preach that unless you're a Seventh-day Adventist and believes in the pre-advent judgment, Daniel 8:14. And also right there in Revelation 14 there, the first angel's message, there is a call to worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters. So the first angel's message is bringing to us the full picture of the Gospel, righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ. And that is demonstrated through the lives that are seen and lived in his children. One is they keep the commandments of God, and they especially honor him as their creator of all things.
I want us to actually go this morning and read the fourth commandment. You know, for our worship at home, vespa's week is last night, my wife and I sat down and I said, "you know, I'm going to read the Ten Commandments." And some of you might think, "oh, what's so special about that?" You know, I'll be honest with you. I don't remember the last time my wife and I just read the Ten Commandments for worship. We, you know, we don't--we speak of the commandment. When did you last sit down and actually read them for worship? We kind of take it that, well you know, we know it's there.
We know they're there, and they're wonderful and fine, but we don't always sit down and worship God by reading the Ten Commandments. Okay, let's read the fourth commandment. Exodus 20, beginning in verse 8, "remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." So the fourth commandment here establishes God as the creator God. And the other nine of the commandments, which have never been abolished, by the way, tells us what kind of a God he is.
Fourth commandment, he is the creator, but the other nine commandments tell us that he's a righteous and a very holy God. And those who embrace this truth, or those who do that, the Sabbath becomes a sign that they are God's people, that they honor him as creator and also as the redeemer, or the one who makes them holy. In Ezekiel 20:20 we read, "and hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God." So faithful adherence to the seventh-day Sabbath will be the special identifying Mark of God's people, especially at the end when along with that there comes an opposing entity which we call the Mark of the beast, which is a--what's the word--a counterfeit day of worship, promotion of Sunday-keeping, finally to the extent that the seventh-day Sabbath is outlawed. So the day you keep will determine which God you serve. And you read Revelation 13, don't do it now, but Revelation 13:16-17 you see there what's going to happen to those who do not worship the author of the counterfeit Sabbath, which is actually the devil.
But he works through human instrumentalities. And it says in Revelation 13:8 that all those who choose to reject God as their creator and also their source of sanctification, they're going to bow down to the beast. And all that dwell upon the face of the earth shall worship him. I remember when pope benedict came last time to the United States. And president george bush was asked when he looked into his eyes what did he see? He said, "I saw God.
" Now I believe president bush said that in sincerity. We're not going to hold that against him. I'm not into politics today. But I see I think he had some more moral principles than some politicians, but I'll say no more than that. But anyway, I want to move onto Sunday's section, "creation and redemption: the foundation of worship.
" Okay so prior to adam's fall, the Sabbath was a weekly memorial to him of how God created him and his world within 6 literal days. How many literal days? Six. And the seventh day--was the Sabbath created? Yeah, it was a creation. It was a created, beautiful memorial of what God had done in the 6 days before, literal days. And you know, you're either believing that literally, or you don't.
I should hope every one of us as Seventh-day Adventists believe in 6 literal days. Either you do that, or you're in the evolutionary camp. You know there's some people, they try to marry both things. They sit in the middle there and they say, well, we believe God is the creator, but we also believe in--the term "intelligent design" is often used these days. We see evidence of an intelligence that has kind of put some things together here.
But we believe it was still over a long period of time. There are people who are taking that position right now, even as Seventh-day Adventists. You can't do that, friends. You just can't. And I'll tell you one reason as well.
The first 11 chapters of Genesis, if you spiritualize them away, you really set yourself up. You put yourself in the pickle barrel because the Bible tells us that death came about because of sin. The fall, adam and eve, third chapter, death came because of sin. So how can you still believe in a creator God who made things over millions of years if you believe that these simple evolutionary forms were developing and then a primitive form that man developed and these creative--well these developed--we kept dying off. So there was death taking place.
So if you accept before the fall, that we see in Genesis 3, so how can you possibly reconcile that to being one who believes in the Bible? Death came through sin, not through primitive form supposedly coming and going over millions of years. Also as well one of the things, one of foundational beliefs--i didn't mean to get into all this, but anyway--of evolutionism is something they believe called uniformitarianism. They believe that since the world developed that everything's been uniform for millions of years. It's just gone on at a steady state. But when we look at the record in the rocks, and we see all these layers of rock, the Genesis account more fits--is a more scientific fit to the evidence that we see.
Because in the flood there were tremendous forces at work, laying down thick carpets of sediment which solidified into rock. I mean deep sediments, in fast succession, all kinds of cross-current. These were laid down. And we see this in the evidence of the geological record. That fits the Genesis theory far better.
So if you believe like in what you could call cataclysmicism. It's--I'm playing on words there rather that uniformitarianism, we are on a more solid, scientific understanding of what we see when we look at the rocks. And if you bring Noah's flood, this is what we're talking about here, if you bring Noah's flood into the equation, the evolutionary idea of uniformitarianism, it just turns everything upside down. It was back in about I think 19--early 1960s, there was a gentleman, not a Seventh-day Adventist, called dr. Henry morris.
He wrote a book on the Genesis flood. I forget the actual exact title. But it's been claimed that dr. Henry morris was kind of the Genesis of the modern creationist movement. And he established a place called--what was it? The--oh, I forget this every time--institution for creation research, something like that.
They put out a monthly magazine which is excEllent. I get it. It's four-color, glossy, some very good scientific stuff. And they actually have a creation museum. I think it's down south near Louisiana somewhere.
But anyway, let's suffice to say we have so much evidence to support the theory, well not the theory, but the fact of creationism rather than that evolution. I want to give you a homemade definition if I can of evolution. And some people won't like me for this. I would say evolution is a psuedo-scientific religious philosophy that is based on a whole lot of bad science, a more fanciful imagination than 100 walt disneys could dream up in 1,000 years. And you know, I think that's true.
You know, how did this evolve? "Well, all the time." Does that explain anything? Not a bit. Anyway, I got sidetracked a bit, so let's get back to where we're supposed to be. So before the fall we had the Sabbath. And it was a memorial of creation. But then after adam sinned, satan claimed dominion of this earthly home, this earthly dominion of adam and eve usurped it.
But God then also initiated the Sabbath to be a memorial of redemption for the fallen human family. And so this is the reason why we need to thank him for making us on the Sabbath and this is why we need to thank him that he also had another purpose for the Sabbath to be the memorial of our redemption. And that redemptive process was decided on even before man was made in the counsel of peace. Father and son clasped hands and they said, "when we make this new race of beings in our own image, if sin should interpose," then it was agreed that Jesus would come down here to be God on one hand and yet human on the other. And of course they knew it was.
God never ordained that sin should be, never ordained it, but he foresaw it and he made preparation to meet the emergency. And so Jesus came. And that's something we really need to remember and worship and praise him for on the Sabbath, don't you agree? You know, what a wonderful, what a wonderful experience that will be to enter through those gates into the city of God and see the glories there. Then finally of course after 1,000 years, after the millennium and we come down here and God purifies the earth with fire. And then we can see him make this world again.
I've probably said this before. I do repeat things many times, but then I'm getting a little old now. But I've said this before 'cause it's--you know, I'm assuming that God would make the world again in 6 days and he'd let us watch. You think that's a strong possibility? The first day we'll see things happen. And as we move along through the process and it comes to creating trees and things like that, he may even ask some of us, "what would you like over there?" If he asks my sons--grandson jack, God would have many wonderful things to produce, 'cause jack's got quite an imagination.
All children have. And God's going to be joyfully filled to give us a wonderful forest of beautiful trees. Say, "Lord, over there I'd like--i'd love to see a beautiful mountain range." Not like the mountains we see today which are all jagged. And before the fall, there were mountains, but they were covered with earth and greenery and just beautifully majestic, just vibrant living green. Probably these beautiful waterfalls just cascading down catching the sunlight, see those rainbows.
And down below these beautiful rivers and creeks and streams, not a dead leaf, not a dead fish floating around, no garbage, nothing, just pristine, pure and glorious. Hallelujah, yes. And God has that in store for us again. And when we get there--and every single one of us can be there. Do you believe that? Everyone.
I don't want--well I can't command anything. But I hope there's nobody here this morning listening to my rather inadequate description of the new earth thinking, "oh, it'll be so wonderful, but I don't think I'm going to make it." You can. You can. Because with Jesus, his grace, his love, his strength, his righteousness, he's so full, so infinite, so abounding, so all-powerful. He can take the weakest one of us that the devil has dragged through the bushes backways, upside-down, anyway you want 'til we look just bedraggle like a little child that's being left in filth for who knows how long.
He can take us, even in that filth, he'll pick us up and he'll snuggle us. You know, it's okay snuggling a baby, but nobody really wants to do it before the diaper's been changed. And I'm not trying to sound funny this morning. But God, you know, when Jesus came he picked us up in all our filth, held us against him, forgave us right where we were. Then he bathed us.
Then he made us clean. Then he made us smell sweet. Then he put that robe of righteousness upon us. But before that, he took us as we were. So it doesn't matter how tattered and filthy your gown smells, your rags, or how unsavory your personal fragrance might be.
Jesus will take you in his arms just as you are. He'll forgive you and he'll give you all the strength you need to overcome whatever you need to overcome. And you can have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of God, not as Ellen white has said, "as a criminal barely pardoned, just getting through the gates." But you can walk in through the gates of the new Jerusalem with your head up. And I mean that not 'cause you'd be displaying any pride like what I did. But Jesus will give you back your self-respect, and he'll make you have that feeling that this is my home.
This is my Father's house, and I'm his child, and I belong here, so here I am. You know that's wonderful what he can do. Anyway, I don't know where I was. Let's, okay, let's go to Colossians 1, Colossians 1:13-22. Oh yes, I think I remember.
We're looking at how God and Jesus can do this for us, just change us and restore the moral image. Colossians 1:13-22. Anybody up to reading again? If not I will--barry. Oh, you're just holding up the mic. Okay.
Somebody care to read over this side? Alright, just be thinking next time, 'cause I'm going to look over there again. I will read this. Colossians 1:13 through--actually, I'm not going to read them all. I'm going to read 16, 17, 21 and 22. Here we're just refreshing again that Jesus is creator and redeemer.
Speaking of Jesus in verse 16, it says, "for by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist." And when those shepherds came to see the baby Jesus, and they looked in that little crib, they had no idea that that was the creator right there. And when they took Jesus to the temple to be dedicated, you know, there was simeon there and anna. And there's a beautiful picture in the copy of "Desire of Ages" I have. I don't know who the artist was, but it's captured the picture of simeon holding Jesus. It's just amazing how the artist got this man's face, this old man who has been looking for the redeemer of Israel to come.
And the Lord promised him he'd see it before he died. And he knows. And he sees the parents coming in with Christ and the priests are dedicating him. And the Holy Spirit says, "this is him." And he walks over. He must have been almost in a trance.
And he takes the little baby. And he looks at him. You should see this picture. I'll try and find it and show you later on. And he's looking into the face of a little baby, yes.
But he's looking at a little baby mouth maybe making some little puppy noises or whatever babies make. From that same voice was spoken into creation the universe. We need to think about these things, 'cause it was that little 6 pound of baby which mysteriously was incarnated with divinity that brought us all into existence and then became our redeemer as well. I want to go to verse 21 and 22 of Colossians. And it says here--and now here's the sanctification aspect, the redemption aspect of Jesus.
We're seeing him as creator further up. Now we see the other side of him. And this is why we need to remember this as well on the Sabbath and worship him and praise him, because we've been commanded to do so, right? To do both things. Verse 21, "and you," that is us, "and you that was sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight." To present us where? Well, to himself, but also where else? To present us to God. So when we come in our filthy rags, or maybe no rags at all, in our nakedness and filth, we cast ourselves into the mercy of Christ.
He forgives us, he cleanses us, and he takes us by the hand and he brings us and presents us to his father, our father. And we stand there blameless and pure as though we had never sinned. Anyway, we read before that passage where God said, "I brought you out of the land of Egypt which kind of applies to what we're looking at this morning." Okay, now Jesus can do this of course by virtue of his sacrifice. But here's the thing. The righteousness of Christ cannot cover us, and therefore he cannot present us blameless before the throne of God unless we remain steadfast in the Gospel and not practice any known sin.
Because I want to read verse 23 now in Colossians 1. In bottom of 22 it says present you, " unblameable and unreproveable in his sight." Now verse 23, "if you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, that you have heard, which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I Paul am made a minister." Notice it said, "continue in faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away." There is a statement in "4 b.c.* Bible commentary," page 1161. And it's interesting to note there that the author, the servant of the Lord, describes the sealing as--now you know the Sabbath of the fourth granite is the seed of God's law. But as we walk in obedience to God's law, we reflect through the grace of Christ that same righteousness. And God is going to seal us in that righteousness, in that perfection of Christ's character before Jesus comes.
And we're told that this sealing, Ellen white says, "is a spiritual and intellectual settling into the truth so that we cannot be moved." And that is the sealing that's going to take place in the lives of the faithful before Jesus comes, before probation closes. And so here in this verse actually, he's speaking about the sealing, that you "continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel." And there's good reason it says this here, because you read the book of Revelation and you read "Great Controversy," again we know there is going to be this counter issue where the devil is going to let--pull every stop out, every trick in his bag that he's been perfecting for thousands of years, it's all going to get let loose, like some, I was going to say, like a July the 4th firework display, but that's too much of a compliment, but it's going to be the fireworks and the lights and the delusions of all these things as spiritualism and these various things are going to just start manifesting themselves. There's going to be miracles. There's going to be all kinds of wonderful, unexplainable things done. And because so many people out there have not grounded themselves and rooted themselves in the Gospel, the Gospel of salvation of Christ, justification and sanctification and victory over sin, because they have not rooted themselves by faith in Christ in the great heavenly high sanctuary, because they don't have that foundation and don't live by every word that proceeded from the mouth of God.
Thousands, millions, are going to be swept away, swept away. We could--now, let me say something. Every one of us can and should be saved. But every one of us could be lost. If we do not remain, continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the Gospel.
There's a lot more I could say about that, but I have to move on, 'cause we have 12 minutes left and I'm just starting Monday's section here, "remember your creator." Isaiah 40:25-26, God is asking a question here to Isaiah and to us. He says, "to whom then will you liken me, or shall I be equal? Saith the holy one." He says, "lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things." What is he talking about? Stars, right? The universe. "Who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth." You know, for thousands of years before the invention of the telescope, all any human being could count on a clear night if they were fortunate was just a few thousand stars, a lot perhaps, but still not particularly remarkable result. And to have read that God has a name and a number for a few thousand, you probably think, "oh, that's probably doable," you know. But we know since the invention of the telescope and beyond that, 'til a day now in which we have the hubble telescope, we're able through hubble and other devices to be able to see millions of light-years out into space.
This was a few years back for the hubble telescope, for about 9 1/2 days fixed itself on a piece of sky, which like an inch square at the end of your hand, about 9 1/2 days, something like that. And then they saw what they had. And they saw reaching off, it's called the hubble extra-deep field, something like that, way off, just way, way, way off. There's still galaxies just stretching out into infinity. And in each one of those galaxies, there's gazillions of stars.
And then when you get to read in this passage again, God's given them all a number and given them all a name. You try making up 30 names, 40 names, you'll do all right for 10, 20, 30, then you'll start thinking. And then you'll start using your imagination and then you'll finish up giving gobbly-goop names to things. But God has names. And you can bet that every name he gives to every heavenly body is beautiful and majestic.
They're all out there. And God says, "well okay, what are you going to liken me to?" What can you liken him to? When he is the one who spake, and these galaxies would just strewn across this vastness of space. It's just so huge, we can barely understand it. But God has a number and a name for each one. And so he asks, "who will you liken me to?" And the answer we have to give is well nobody.
Nobody comes close. But you know, what are we looking at here, "remember your creator," Monday's section. But you know, it is actually possible to forget that God is the creator, in spite of all the handiwork that's all around us. Why? Again because of this idea called evolution. That's yes, there are things out there.
And it's wonderful, it's wonderful science to study these things. But they leave God totally out of the picture. Now when darwin wrote "origin of species," what 1840, something like 1850, somewhere in there, mid-19th century, it went across with a bang. Now he wasn't the first one who had postulated this idea that things had evolved over periods of time. In fact, I think I read where even in some of the Greek's philosophies down that avenue.
And even after them and before darwin, there was others who thought on this. But for some reason, darwin's theory when he published this book, it just really took off. And I think it was probably because at the same time as the advent movement was getting ready to be launched, 1844, you know, the beginning of the investigative judgment, 1848 spiritualism comes in with the fox sisters, you've heard all this stuff before. And evolution comes in. And one thing that I believe that really gave evolution a foothold, was the fact that secular humanism started coming in as well about the same time.
And also tragically within Christianity, there come these theologians, these professed scholars who stuck out their chest and thought they were super smart and intellectual, and started this school of thought known as higher criticism. And they would look at the Bible and the text and the manuscripts and say, "oh, I don't know about this." And in england they were the most snobbish ones you'll ever find anywhere. So all these things worked together, I believe to give an impetus for "the origin of species" to really, really take hold. So darwin strode onto the center stage and captivated many minds and undermined the biblical accounts of a creator who had made the world. What else do I want to say here.
Yeah, this is how the Bible describes such people as this, then and even now. Go to Romans 1:22. It says, "professing themselves to be wise, they became--" what? Don't be afraid to say it. It's in the Bible. "Fools.
" Yes. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Verse 25, "who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator." Yet in the fourth commandment, in Exodus 20:8, God declares, "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." And also forget--now of course, the devil has an opposite to everything God has. God has the law, and if you're like satan, let's call it an anti-law. He's revised the fourth commandment to read as follows, I'm just using a bit of imagination here, but his fourth commandment says, "forget the Sabbath day. Forget biblical creation; it is a myth.
There is no reason to keep the seventh day holy in honor of a creator, because there is no creator. It's all evolved and science has proven it to be so." But as you know, science has actually proven no such thing. That magazine that I get every month, it's called, "acts and facts." You'd think it came from Amazing Facts, but it doesn't. It's from the creation science institute. I've given it another name.
I've given it two names already this morning, I apologize. But I can get it for you for those who want it. There was a very interesting article recently, some of you may have heard about this, where they found some dinosaur bones. And the evolutionists say that the dinosaurs died out millions of years ago. But they found some dinosaur bones with actually some soft tissue still in the medulla of some of those bones.
And when I say soft, relatively soft. If those bones were gazillions of years old, it would be actually that soft tissue, that bone marrow wouldn't be actually, it would be rock. But they found soft tissue. So how do you answer that? I think they've even gone so far as being able to extract the dna. Maybe somebody with a fanciful imagination might do something in the lab to make a little dinosaur one day.
I don't know. But the evidence does not support the theory of evolution. It's true; creation and evolution both require faith. None of us were there. But we have to look at one set of evidence and see which one actually fits, the scientific laws that we find active in the world today.
Now the evolutionists may pooh-pooh at the religious account of divine creation. But you know an evolutionist is every bit as religious in their own way as we as Christians. In fact, you could--i jumped ahead of myself in my previous notes. I said you could define the theory of evolution as follows: "evolution is a pseudo-scientific religious philosophy." You remember that? I'm going to read it again, "based upon a lot of bad science and a more fanciful imagination than 100 walt disneys could dream up in 1,000 years." And I think that's absolutely true. And I don't want to insult anybody or sound like I'm just being spiteful, but anybody who claims to be a creationist, and they're trying to marry creationism with this long, age of the earth that God still made it but it took a long time, I think we have to lump these people as well with those who have to employ more fanciful imagination than 100 walt disneys could in 1,000 years.
Evolution is also very religious in nature because it addresses the origin of life. If you look at the Christian religion, the very first thing it begins with is a description and an explanation of the origin of life. If I'm not mistaken I think you'll find every other religion in this world, the origin of life, origins, it's there as one of the bedrock elements, and religion. So the evolutionist, by virtue of the fact they're looking at origin, they're actually getting into a dimension of religion. And it's based upon an awful lot of faith.
You see, creationism is based upon faith, but it's based upon a faith that believes that somebody made everything out of nothing, whereas the evolutionist believes that nobody made everything out of nothing. And I admire a faith like that. I really do. Okay, let's move on to something else here. Let's go a little bit on Tuesday in 2 minutes if we can.
"Freedom from slavery." This is just a little look here of the other side of creation--of the Sabbath, the fact that God, it's a memorial to our redemption, a memorial to the fact that God has the power to sanctify us. And this indeed is what he is able to do. In Romans 7:14, we find the man there written by Paul, he says, "for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold unto sin." To be able to live up to the moral standard of God's law is humanly an impossible task. We cannot sanctify ourselves. We cannot make ourselves holy.
But Jesus can because he came to this earth, and he got the victory over sin and our flesh. And that victory he passes on to us. He's our creator, and he's also our sanctifier. And he's able to make us, create within us, a reflection of his own righteous character. It tells us in the new testament, "if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.
Behold, the old things pass away. Behold all things become new." And I wish I could say more, but unfortunately our time has gone. I wanted to say more about the other side of Sabbath being a memorial, about sanctification. But friends, you have the lesson, so go over it again. And get out the "spirit of prophecy" books.
And look at all the references on sanctification. Study the sanctuary service, study about Jesus, the Lord our righteousness. And we'll find that the light that God has given to us is so tremendous. And that light, he can make a reality in our lives to make us this last holy generation who will bring glory to his name and finish the work that he has given us to do. Again, if he ushers would kindly come forward, we'll take the offering in a moment for missions.
But in the meantime while they're coming, I want to read again our free offer, which reads, "why God said remember." And if you call 1-866-study-more or 1-866-788-3966, we'll send you this free book from Amazing Facts, "why God said remember." So thank you for tuning in today friends. God bless you, and we'll see you all next week. Journey back through time to the center of the universe. Discover how a perfect angel transformed into satan, the arch villain; the birth of evil, a rebellion in heaven, a mutiny that moved to earth, the whole, the creation of a beautiful new planet, and the first humans. Witness the temptation in eden.
Discover God's amazing plan to save his children. This is a story that involves every life on earth, every life. The "cosmic conflict," if God is good, if God is all-powerful, if God is love, then what went wrong? Available now on dvd.