Paul here makes a general observation and then shares a specific testimony. First, he says, God comforts those who are cast down.

Over and over in Scripture we are reminded that it is precisely those who have fallen on their face before God who will be lifted up. It is the humble who will be exalted, and it is those who lose their life who will find it.

God, it seems, delights to show His abounding sufficiency in the weakness and shortcomings of His people. Therefore, we can rest assured that God will come to those who are spiritually cast down and will lift them up by His grace.

Paul further offers this, not only as a general observation concerning the goodness of God, but as a particular experience of his own life. This was, in other words, not a theoretical contention for Paul. “God comforts the disheartened,” Paul says; “I know, because He has comforted me.”

Paul himself knew what it was to be cast down, to be discouraged, to have doubts and fears. Believer, perhaps you have been thinking you are the only one who wrestles with such obstacles to joy. Not so…every Christian must learn over and again to live by faith, and not by sight.

When we do so, and look to Christ for our sufficiency, our experience will be the same as Paul’s — God will comfort us, as He does all who are cast down.

The Times [London] is out with an article headline that reads, “Dawkins Slaps Creationists into the Primordial Soup.” Now that grabs your attention.Dawkins, pleased to be known as “Darwin’s Rotweiller,” has been given a new three-part television series in Britain, known as “Dawkins on Darwin.” The British press is fawning in its applause, and Dawkins appears to be in rare form.

As reporter Kate Muir gushes:

Richard Dawkins is that rare specimen, a public intellectual, a knight of the mind who goes into battle against the ignorance and foolhardiness of the populace. Unlike the French, who worship their public intellectuals, giving them pet names such as les intellos, and airing them regularly on serious television and in print, the British like to shove academics into a musty corner, or laugh at them. This was not always the case: the Victorians, with their public lectures and royal societies, gloried in debate and celebrated the thrills of fresh knowledge.

That is a fairly representative understanding of the elite media. Those who do not accept the Gospel according to Darwin (or Dawkins) are simply ignorant, invincibly ignorant perhaps, and Dawkins is thus “a knight of the mind” who battles ignorance.

That approach is a blatant attempt to dismiss all debate over Darwinism or evolutionary theory. The methodology is simple to grasp — just reclassify all opposition to evolution as ignorance and establish evolutionary theory as the only acceptable worldview. Muir paints Dawkins as an apostle for atheism, rescuing the public from ignorance. “In these barren, thoughtless times, Dawkins gives people something substantial to chew on,” she writes. “His audience is surprisingly grateful, and also relieved to see someone slapping creationists about and tossing them into the primordial soup, as well as explaining atheism positively.”

This is the approach Dawkins himself admits taking, as Muir reports:

Dawkins says that natural selection is “the most important idea to occur to the human mind”, the slow change of species over millions of ideas disproving the religious theory of intelligent design by God.

That we are still trying to sell evolution to a large part of the public bothers him. “It is weird in many ways that natural selection is still debated,” he says. “But it is not debated by anyone who knows anything about it.” Indeed, Dawkins refuses to share a stage with creationists. “I don’t like giving them the oxygen of respectability, the feeling that if they’re up on a platform debating with a scientist, there must be real disagreement. One side of the debate is wholly ignorant. It would be as though you knew nothing of physics and were passionately arguing against Einstein’s theory of relativity.

At this point Dawkins is characteristically helpful in exposing the real worldview of evolution. In his words, evolution disproves “the religious theory of intelligent design by God.”

In other words, Dawkins has as little respect for “theistic evolutionists” as he has for creationists. The theistic evolutionists believe themselves to have escaped the hatred of the Darwinists by trying to have it both ways. Dawkins will not allow that. His Darwinism allows for no intelligent design at all, and yet that is the very core of what is called “theistic evolution.” The claim is that God “used” the process of evolution to create the cosmos, and living organisms in particular. The claim is extended to the human being with the argument that God intended the process of evolution to lead to this special creature.

Dawkins sees through all that, and dismisses the idea of any divine intelligence whatsoever. Any design violates the basic principle and mechanism of evolution.

He also sees something of equal importance — that Christianity has no coherence without the biblical doctrine of creation. As Muir explains:

For Dawkins, there is a tree of life; not the one featuring Adam and Eve, but the one tantalisingly sketched by Darwin with the two words “I think” written above, showing how different species branch slowly off from each other over millions of years, until fish are on one branch, and apes on the opposite. If creationism falls, so, logically for Dawkins, does the rest of religion piled upon it.

This is another basic point of agreement. If the biblical doctrine of creation falls, the entire storyline of the Bible falls apart. The very essence of theological liberalism is to discard what the modern world finds offensive and save what parts of the Christian message can be preserved or salvaged. Dawkins understands what many theological liberals do not — that there is no way to save any coherent form of Christian truth without the biblical doctrine of creation. Those who would abandon the biblical account of creation undermine the entire Christian truth claim.

It shouldn’t require a “knight of the mind” to see that.

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When someone cuts you off in traffic, how do you respond? Do you yell harshly, gesture angrily, or perhaps even drive vengefully? This is not the way Jesus responded when he was crossed.

When he was wronged by others — even purposefully and spitefully — he did not scream or threaten or fume. When he was mocked and scourged and falsely accused before Pilot, he never retaliated with hateful words.

Can you honestly say that anyone has harmed you more than Jesus was abused before his death? Perhaps you feel betrayed by a close friend. So was he. Or maybe others have spread rumors about you. They did the same, and worse, to him. Perhaps you have even suffered physically, mentally, or emotionally at the hands of cruel people. So did he.

How was Jesus able to respond so graciously in the face of such horrible and unfair treatment? Peter gives us the secret: he committed himself to God, who judges righteously.

Jesus had complete faith in the justice of God. Do you? Can you trust God to right the wrongs that have been done to you, to punish those who have wronged you? To the extent that you nurse a personal vendetta, you can rest assured that you have not yet grasped, or embraced, the justice and wisdom of God.

A lustful look is the beginning of most sins. It was an unguarded look which led to the fall of Achan into covetousness, and David into adultery. A covetous glance soon leads to covetous thoughts, which soon lead to covetous plans, which soon lead to covetous actions.

Job, therefore, had determined to cut off the sin of covetousness at its root, by promising himself never even to look at a single woman in a lustful way. This covenant with his eyes, he rhetorically asserts, will inevitably guard him from lustful thoughts about other women.

Job’s personal commitment to overcome a besetting sin of almost every man is convicting. But it is also encouraging, because the fact that he made such a covenant means that it is possible to fulfill his end of the agreement. Believer, know this: it is possible—although it will require self-crucifixion and constant self-watch—to overcome the sin of lust. 

Will it require a sober and self-searching covenant with your heart, before God? Yes. Will it mean giving up casual glances and lustful thoughts? Yes. But it is possible!

So the question that Job’s integrity puts before us is this: do I love God enough to forego the temporary and deceitful pleasures of lustful stares, in order to fix my gaze upon God? Am I willing to enter into a personal covenant to that effect today?

Sunday morning was the climax and conclusion of Creation Weekend. The worship service began with a collection of appropriate hymns — “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”, “The Beauty of the Earth”, “This Is My Father’s World”, “We Sing the Greatness of Our God”, “Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah”, and “How Great Thou Art” — interspersed with readings through Genesis chapter 1.

The subject of creation, then, built to the wonderful crescendo of Lasserre Bradley, Jr.’s message “Tracing Creation Through the Bible.” Not only, we were reminded, is the subject of God’s ex nihilo creation dealt with in the opening pages of the Bible, but it is repeatedly referenced and supported by passages all the way through the Psalms, the gospels, the epistles, to Revelation.

From these passages we learn the sovereignty of God over His creation, the duty of humanity to submit to and honor their Creator, the comfort that is given to those who trust in Christ as their Creator and God, and judgment that is inevitable by the Creator and sustainer of the universe. We see, then, that creation is vital, not only to our understanding of our origins, but also to a correct perspective of Christ and of the consummation of history.

Nothing could be more essential to, or more widely supported throughout, the gospel of Jesus Christ than the doctrine of God’s creation.

Wrap-up:

The entire weekend, concentrating on the biblical teaching of creation and the vital role that it plays throughout Scripture, was greatly blessed and proved to be greatly beneficial.

We spoke with several individuals throughout the weekend who had never contemplated the importance of viewing human science through the Bible, rather than visa versa. They said they had just always believed in millions of years and evolution, because this is what they had always heard, although they also tried to believe the Bible. However, they were thrilled to see that the Bible had answers for today’s science and that it is not necessary to accept the flawed and fallen speculations of evolution.

The overall effect of the weekend, it was apparent, was to strengthen the faith of each person in the infallibility of Scripture and in the awesomeness of our God. This, we feel confident, was worth every effort of each one who participated in and supported Creation Weekend. Thank you.

The blind poet John Milton, a devout Christian, famously observed: “they also serve who only stand and wait.” This kind of service—the service of patiently waiting on God’s timing, on God’s direction, on God’s plan—can be the most difficult and grueling to render to God.

We are tempted, in a time of uncertainty or calamity, to rush to our own set of solutions; we might even feel irresponsible to simply wait prayerfully for the Lord to give clear direction. And yet we must.

Twice the command is repeated in this single verse: wait. Our answers are usually not the right answers. Our instincts cannot be trusted. Our hurried assessment will doubtless yield an inadequate response. So, dear believer, wait.

Wait on the Lord because He will strengthen your heart. He will answer your prayers. He will give the direction you need. He will send the help you require. In His own good time and in His right way, God will come to you when you wait on Him.

So be of good courage! Do not despair because the solution has not presented itself yet. Do not presume that God will not keep His appointments. He has promised to strengthen you, so wait, I say, on the Lord.

The more you know God, the more you will trust God. What is there not to trust? He is completely loving, wise, powerful, and good.

But it is one thing to express a belief in God, and another to actually trust in Him with all your heart. Trusting the Lord with all your heart means walking out, by faith, on His Word, no matter what consequences or opposition you may face.

Trusting God wholeheartedly also means resolutely refusing to lean on your own understanding. This, of course, does not mean that we are to give up the sound mind and reasoning spirit that God has given us. But it does mean that we are not to rely on our limited knowledge, experience, and emotions to guide us safely through life.

The question to ask yourself is this: do you trust God in precisely those places where your natural inclination is strongest against His leadership or direction or commandments? When the Bible clearly spells out His counsel, will you take it regardless of your personal preferences or preconceptions?

It is precisely at those places where we are least inclined to listen to or follow God that we are most able to show our devotion to Him and our trust of Him. Is there an area of your life today in which you have opportunity to trust in the Lord, rather than in your own understanding?

Worry reveals a lack of trust — failure to trust the One Who controls all things, failure to trust the God Who provides. Worry reveals a lack of contentment. Paul learned to be content whether he had much or but a little. The Apostle was not trusting in uncertain riches but In the sovereign God Whom he said would supply all your needs.

Worry reveals you are thinking like the world and not like men and women of faith. Worry is a sin. Listen to today’s message for biblical instruction on overcoming worry, specifically in relation to personal finances.

Purchase the series from which this message comes: Money, Volume 1 (see also Volume 2) , or call 1-800-473-4BBH to order this single message.

Friday evening began with a presentation by Dr. Terry Mortenson on “Creation or Evolution: Does It Matter?” Terry is a very able and interesting speaker and, along with a very helpful PowerPoint presentation, he led us through the consequences of differing interpretations of the Bible, the incompatibility of evolution with Scripture, and the importance of viewing the world through the Bible (rather than visa versa).

Dr. Mortenson walked through numerous passages of Scripture and masterfully pointed to the inconsitancy of trying to marry the theory of evolution with God’s Word. We looked, for instance, at Exodus 20:11:

It also puts to rest the “day-age” interpretation of Scripture, because it plainly bases our seven-day, sabbath-based week on the literal seven days with which the earth began.

I especially appreciated the reminder that, every time theologians, Bible teachers, or preachers try to “harmonize” the theory of evolution with the Bible, it is always the Bible which gets manipulated and altered in the process — while the theory of evolution remains as the touchstone of reality. This is opposite to the worldview which Christians should maintain and contend for.

After Dr. Terry Mortenson, Lasserre Bradley, Jr. spoke on “God That Made the World”, from Acts 17:24, in which he contended that viewing God as the Creator changes the way we see 1) God, 2) ourselves, and 3) the world around us. Therefore, the subject of Creationism is not a small or insignificant one; it involves the three most important issues imaginable.

Where did we come from? What kind of power did it take to bring us all into existence? When we see God as Creator, we stand properly in awe of his majesty and glory, as the psalmist reminds us:

This truth is very comforting to Christians and very disconcerting to unbelievers. This reveals, then, the underlying bias against the accountability and humility that is induced by a recognition of God and his claims upon his creation.

The evening was a perfect compliment of messages that were enlightening and inspiring.

Saturday:

Today Creation Weekend guests toured the new Creation Museum on their own schedule, but we all gathered at noon for a sack lunch and fellowship together on the beautiful grounds of the museum.

Chik-fil-A sponsored the event in part by providing sandwiches for the lunch, which made for a fun and filling meal in the middle of the day!

I was thankful, especially in talking to some of the young people afterward, to see the great impact the Friday evening session and the Creation Museum had on them. One young lady, who recently graduated from a public high school, said, “I feel like I’m just now equipped to face all the evolutionary ideas I was confronted with in high school; I wish I could go back now with all this information!”

Young and old, veteran and new Christians reported what a blessed and informative weekend it has been. Which makes us look with great expectation to tomorrow’s climax and conclusion, as Lasserre Bradley, Jr. will be speaking to us on “Tracing Creation Through the Bible.”