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Before the Beginning (Proverbs 8:22-31)
55 Plays2 years ago
Before the Beginning (Proverbs 8:22-31)
Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Service Details
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, FBCColumbusTX.org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace. So glad you're here with me today.
Biblical Origins and Wisdom
00:00:47
Speaker
I want to talk to you about the beginning. You know, Proverbs 8, verses 22 through 31, uses the word beginning two times. The first time in verse 22 that I'll read in a moment, it talks about at the beginning. The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work.
00:01:06
Speaker
But then in the next verse, in verse 23, it uses this phrase, before the beginning of the earth. And so that's where I'd like for us to center our thoughts. I know that the first three words in the Bible are in the beginning, right? In the beginning.
00:01:25
Speaker
But I want us to think just for a moment as we read through this incredible passage, remember scripture is like God's revealed Word. So He's trying to tell us things we wouldn't be able to figure out on our own. And so He wants us to know how things came to be.
00:01:43
Speaker
And as I talk about creation and how great he is, just think about how much he loves you. And so let me read through this passage and ask the Lord to speak to us today from Proverbs 8, 22-31. It says,
00:02:13
Speaker
When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no springs abounding with water before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, before He had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world.
00:02:33
Speaker
When he established the heavens, I was there. When he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,
00:02:46
Speaker
when he assigned to the sea its limit so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.
00:03:15
Speaker
Wow, such a rich passage. We've got so many things to talk about today, so let's just get started.
Creation and the Role of Wisdom
00:03:22
Speaker
The first thing that stood out to me, a lot of people are discussing how did life begin? What was the origin of life?
00:03:32
Speaker
You know, the origin and the development of life on Earth is definitely a topic many people discuss. And so the first thing I want to lay across your heart today is where did it all derive from? The derivation of creation. The derivation of creation.
00:03:51
Speaker
It says here, the Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work. You know, if you can just run back what I just read through your mind, you know, you may remember there were several first-person pronouns.
00:04:07
Speaker
me and I seven times. So who are we talking about? Who is this person that's talking about they were there when the Lord created everything? Well, a lot of people say it's Jesus, and there's no doubt he was there. Jesus was the agent of creation. But I'm thinking in this passage, if you follow the context,
00:04:32
Speaker
It's sort of the same thing, but verse 12 tells us the answer. It says, I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. As a matter of fact, this whole chapter of Proverbs chapter 8 is like wisdom is a person. God's wisdom is calling out to man and asking us, are we listening to what he's trying to say?
00:05:00
Speaker
I think that the writer's point is that the wisdom of God created everything. No wonder he says in verse 30, this is wisdom, it's sort of like the personification of wisdom as though wisdom were like a separate individual, but really it's the wisdom of God, the wisdom of Christ. He says, I was beside him like a master workman.
00:05:25
Speaker
I find that fascinating that the Lord was there. Wow, isn't that incredible? I know some people think that it all happened with sort of an explosion that we came from, maybe some kind of pre-mortal oozing or liquid or whatever.
00:05:43
Speaker
But when I read through here, I'm seeing this reference to so many different personal pronouns. And I'm thinking, yeah, that makes sense, you know, because I think ever since 1953, 70 years ago, when they discovered something within the cell called DNA,
00:06:05
Speaker
It's like how marvelously we have this complex information system that is working within us that's encoding life. As a matter of fact,
00:06:18
Speaker
Do you know how incredible DNA is? How much information is packed into that very, very, very small substance called DNA? A single strand of DNA is thousands of times thinner than a human strand of hair. So we're talking about something very small, right? As a matter of fact, one pinhead
00:06:45
Speaker
of DNA could hold enough information to fill a stack of books stretching from the Earth to the Moon 500 times. That's an incredible amount of information. I mean, I've got a lot of books here in my study on my shelf, but I'm thinking, there's no way
00:07:06
Speaker
that I would even begin to have a trip from the Earth to the Moon and back 500 times. I mean, sometimes I think I have a lot of books, but compared to that, it's nothing. So just think about how much information
00:07:23
Speaker
is loaded in just DNA. So let's talk about the dawn of creation.
Intelligent Design vs. Random Genesis
00:07:31
Speaker
If the wisdom of God is where it all started, that was the origin of life, whenever God placed the DNA within all of us, then let's talk about the dawn of creation.
00:07:45
Speaker
You know, it's clear when you read these verses anyway. I mean, it's okay if you disagree with me. I don't mind it. But I'm just trying to say, based on this passage of Scripture, verses 22 and 23, speak of a beginning.
00:08:01
Speaker
Verse 22 and 23 and 26 speak of the first. Verse 24 speaks of when there were no. And then verse 25 and 26 talks about before, and it keeps mentioning all these different things, before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills I was brought forth, before He had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. I mean, we're really going back here.
00:08:31
Speaker
And we're talking about what was already in existence before the dawn of creation. And so all I'm trying to submit to you is we weren't here. The earth wasn't here. The universe is not eternal. God created it. It had a beginning. There was a time when all of that came into existence.
00:08:54
Speaker
You know, I'm told that some of our Jewish friends, once every 28 years, they observe something that they call the Birkhet Hakkama. The Birkhet Hakkama. And it's rooted in a little creation
00:09:10
Speaker
of the sun thousands of years ago. And on that special day, it's like every 28 years, the vernal equinox occurs on a Wednesday. And they've put it all together and they said, well, that's when God placed the sun in this place. And so every 28 years, it's on the same day in the same place.
00:09:33
Speaker
And if you want to look forward to the next one, then the next one will be April the 8th, 2037. That's the next Burkhart hakama. But anyway, on that day, what they say is they have a set sort of like a prayer or like a praise. And here's what they say. Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who makes the works of creation. Wow, I love that.
00:10:00
Speaker
So, if we accept the truth that this world and this universe were not eternal, that they had a beginning, then how did all that we see actually come into existence? That leads me to the third thing that I think is found right here in this text.
00:10:19
Speaker
the determinant or the demand, the driver of creation. Who set it all in motion? Well, I mean, once again, we go to the pronouns. For Solomon, it was clear. It was precise. He uses these pronouns 14 times. He says it's his work.
00:10:39
Speaker
It's his acts. He had made the earth, it says in verse 26. He established the heavens in verse 27. He made firm the skies above. He established the deep in verse 28. Wow. You know, I'm thinking, this is incredible.
00:10:57
Speaker
that a creator God, the Lord God Almighty, He actually made all of this. He's the one who determined it and decided it would get going. I love to listen to podcasts like you're listening to me. I love to listen to other podcasts of ministers and different specialists and so forth. But the other day I was listening to a pastor named Dr. Peter Masters.
00:11:24
Speaker
Dr. Peter Masters is the pastor, the senior pastor of Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. Perhaps you've heard of Spurgeon from the past. He was a very famous and eloquent preacher. But this man pastors there in London at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. And he has a sermon that I think it's called Spiritual Apathy.
00:11:48
Speaker
But basically, he repeats it over and over several times in the message that he thinks some people are choosing to be vague about their faith. And he said, if there's anything about scripture and about true biblical faith, it's precise. It's exact.
00:12:10
Speaker
It's not vague and murky and so forth. So if someone questions whether or not God really personally created things, then I would just point them to this passage as a reason that I personally choose to believe that.
00:12:29
Speaker
But this passage tells us much more that may answer some of the questions that perhaps you or someone you know very well, maybe you're wrestling with. So let's look at a fourth thing that this passage brings up from verse 25.
00:12:46
Speaker
through verse 28, and that is the design of creation.
God's Creative Power and Diversity
00:12:52
Speaker
Listen closely again to the verbs that the Holy Spirit inspired Solomon to use, which refer to intelligent design, not random chance. For example, verse 25 says, before the mountains had been shaped.
00:13:12
Speaker
Before He had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world, when He established the heavens, it says in verse 27, when He drew a circle on the face of the deep,
00:13:28
Speaker
Verse 28, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep. Do you hear how precise he is? Do you hear how he's saying God was active, God did this? There's God's personal involvement written all over these verses when it talks about shape and making and establishing and drawing and so forth.
00:13:57
Speaker
You know, how could an unguided explosion produce such incredible beauty and complexity and order that we see all around us whenever we take time to really study the life and the universe and the human body and flowers and trees and animals and just everything?
00:14:23
Speaker
I mean, take, for example, just one thing. Experts for intelligent design maintain that if there was just slightly more power, then there would be no hydrogen. If there was slightly less power, then there would be only hydrogen. And so it's like, wait a minute.
00:14:41
Speaker
God has it exactly so that we can exist here. It's like He designed it just for us. We'll get more to that in just a moment. But I want to point out something else that I love. I love the creativity and the diversity, the variety that we see within creation. I want to refer to it as the differences within creation. There are these distinctions
00:15:09
Speaker
Have you ever considered the significance of those distinctions, those differences within creation? I mean, the foundations of the earth, the heavens, a circle, skies, fields, mountains and hills, depths, springs, water, the earth, it's so incredible how God didn't make everything the same. But he did say in Psalm 19 and Romans 1, what is it all about?
00:15:40
Speaker
All of these districts of creation, all of the differences of creation, they are pointing in one direction.
00:15:48
Speaker
They're trying to display the glory of our God, the glory of our Creator, telling us He's wise, He's powerful, He's creative, He's sovereign, He's loving, He's a God of order, not chaos. I just love how this passage just contains all of this.
00:16:12
Speaker
But there's two more things I wanted to say before we conclude today. And the sixth thing is this. It also tells us that he has dominion over creation. He has dominion. It says that he assigned to the sea its limit.
00:16:33
Speaker
so that the waters might not transgress his command. When he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him like a master workman." Wow, isn't that incredible? Like, it just says he's so involved. But he's not just involved in terms of starting something and backing away. He's saying,
00:17:00
Speaker
If the waters cover all the earth, then all of these precious people can't live. And so he created us so we can live here. And so I'm just so amazed. I'll never forget my first semester at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. The Dean of Religious Affairs, a man named Dr. Bill Tolar at that time, compared it to having 10 coins in his pocket.
00:17:28
Speaker
And he said, what if I put a number on each coin? I numbered them one through 10. What would be the odds that I could put these 10 coins in my pocket? And the first time I reach in my pocket, I pull out coin number one. What would the odds of that be? But then what if I put it back into my pocket and on
00:17:49
Speaker
The second time I reach into my pocket, I pull out coin number two. The third time, coin number three. Each time, mixing those coins back up. Well, he said this about creation. He said, what are the chances
00:18:06
Speaker
that the earth would be tilted at a 23 degree angle without God having actually put it where it exactly tilts at a 23 degree angle so that the earth doesn't strike us just completely straight on.
00:18:23
Speaker
What about the rotation? At a thousand miles per hour, we're spinning as we go through space. But also, not only are we spinning, he said we're also wobbling. At three degrees, we tilt up and then we tilt down. And so he's saying, if any of these things were just a little bit off,
00:18:44
Speaker
Well, we would die. We couldn't survive. He said even the depths of the oceans are just right, just a little bit deeper, and it would change everything. We could not survive. If the crust of the earth were just 10 feet deeper, then he said we would not be able to survive either if it was 10 foot thicker.
00:19:09
Speaker
our orbit around the sun. We're traveling at a speed of 64,800 miles an hour. You ever get kind of dizzy? Maybe it's because we're going around and around around the sun at 64,800 miles per hour. But just think about the orbit around the sun and our distance from the sun. What if we were a little bit closer? What if we were a little bit further away?
00:19:35
Speaker
We are exactly 93 million miles away from the sun, and it is just right for us to survive. A little bit further, we freeze to death. A little bit closer, will we burn up?
00:19:49
Speaker
Also, we're at the exact distance from the moon, 240,000 miles away. If that were a little bit different, oh, it would make such a difference on the tides and so forth. And then he closed with saying, if all of those nine things are just right, what about the 10th thing?
00:20:10
Speaker
photosynthesis. What about chlorophyll and how the sun energizes these chloroplasts that are on every blade of grass, every leaf, and so forth. And so just consider how the dominion of our Creator, He says, you know what,
00:20:29
Speaker
Nature, you will not be free to do anything you want. You will stay within the guidelines that I tell you to stay within. And so I'm so glad he did that. But why did he do that? That's the fifth and the, that's the seventh and the final thing I wanted you to know. It says,
00:20:48
Speaker
Then I was beside him like a master workman and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man." Wow.
00:21:06
Speaker
You know what? The delight over creation is the Father, a Father, a Heavenly Father, Creator God, delighting in all of us. Do you know that we're so different from the animals? We're the only ones that He created in His image.
Earth's Unique Conditions and Purpose
00:21:24
Speaker
And Psalm 8,
00:21:25
Speaker
Verses 3 through 8 talks about how marvelous he is and how wonderful he is. But do you know that he made us for a very special purpose? Isaiah 45, 18 says that he actually made this planet
00:21:42
Speaker
that it would be inhabited. You know, astronomers have discovered other stars and other planets, right? They've discovered nearly 4,000 other planets orbiting other stars. But guess what? None of those planets are like this planet, like Earth. Because in order for us to live on another planet,
00:22:07
Speaker
We would need oxygen. We would need liquid water. We would need the right temperature so we don't freeze to death or burn up. And we would need protection from solar ultraviolet radiation. Wow.
00:22:23
Speaker
You know, I know that people are trying to study astrobiology, but so far the astrobiologists cannot give us any evidence of life on the other planets.
00:22:37
Speaker
You know, have you ever thought, okay, if life just happened by chance on this Earth, just sort of randomly, then why did life not occur? Why has it not happened on other planets already? Why have we not discovered life anywhere else other than on this planet?
00:22:58
Speaker
All I can give you, my friend, is what this passage of Scripture, God has revealed to us. He wants us to know His wisdom designed this planet so that me and you can live here, so that we can raise families here, so that we can get to know Him here.
00:23:18
Speaker
Man, it's a great message if you're ever looking for a place to just ponder the creation. What took place before it all happened? What took place as it was all happening during that time and so forth? It's just wonderful. I recommend to you sometime take some time
00:23:40
Speaker
to review Proverbs 8, 22 through 31. I really sincerely believe God will bless you. He blessed me. I wanted to pass it on to you. Thank you so much for listening today. I just want to pray for you that you would continue to get to know the Creator that designed you and designed me. We didn't even have time to talk about the human body. Oh my goodness. It's off the charts how God designed us.
00:24:10
Speaker
But I just want you to know that all that he's made, he made it so that we would get to know his glory, so we could see his wisdom and his power and so forth. He wants you to know him. He's just putting it all out there so that you and I would know he's out there. We can turn to him at any time. Let's pray to him now.
00:24:31
Speaker
Lord, thank you for my friends that were listening today. I pray for those that have sincere questions and they're just saying, I don't understand how it all fits together. Let them know that you put it together and you hold it together and that it's all about you loving us as your special creation. I'm blown away, Lord, with passages like this that remind me that everything has just come precisely the way it has
00:25:00
Speaker
just so we could get to know you. Lord, bless everyone. Give them a great week. Help them get to know you better. In Jesus' name, amen. You have a great day.
Conclusion and Prayer
00:25:11
Speaker
Hope that the Lord will bless the rest of your week. Bye-bye. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milan Street, Columbus, Texas.