The Evidence for God!

本站收录: 2026-05-22

[00:00:06]Hi, good afternoon. This is Eric Smith.

[00:00:10]Give me a second here. I'm just trying to set some stuff up.

[00:00:15]I apologize. I was going to try to do this live. I'm going to confess something. I was going to try to do this live on my daughter's laptop and um her camera wouldn't work. I guess it was really hooked up to something that um she was doing on her YouTube channel and I really wasn't sure how to disconnect it and I didn't want um to mess up what she had set up. I think she was going to do something later on. So, I just kind of scrapped that. So, I decided, oh, let me get back to doing it uh the oldfashioned way, I guess. Let me just do it on um my phone. So, I'm doing it on my phone again. So, I apologize for that. I was just wanted to test it.

[00:01:02]It didn't work out that way. I'm kind of sorry about that because I wanted to try to do it on her laptop, but still going to do the live anyway. And what I want to do is open up in a word of prayer.

[00:01:14]So, let me just do that quickly. Dear heavenly father, I just thank you for this day. Thank you for another day of life that you've given us. And thank you for being our almighty God and Savior. I pray wholeheartedly that you would fill me with your holy spirit and give me the words to speak. Uh let it be from your scriptures and let it not be my opinion.

[00:01:35]Excuse me, Lord. And I pray that this would be edifying to the body of Christ and it would glorify you. I pray wholeheartedly that if anybody comes into the live that's a believer that uh you would fill them with your Holy Spirit and give them eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to receive uh what I'm about to teach right now. I thank you Lord so much that I can teach something from your word and I pray wholeheartedly that it would be a blessing to whoever comes into the live or later on on the replay. uh give me the words to speak. I thank you Lord for your word and for your indwelling Holy Spirit. I lift this time up in praise and thanksgiving to you Lord. In your holy name, Lord Jesus Christ I pray.

[00:02:22]Amen. All right. A give me a second here. I actually have to get a tissue.

[00:02:30]Hi you guys in the chat. Bear with me for a second.

[00:02:35]Got a tissue here. I kind of have to I'm embarrassed to say this. Kind of have to, you know, blow my nose. I'm a little stuffed up.

[00:02:54]So, sorry about that. I think my my wife and my daughter may have um gotten like a summer cold from or a spring cold from someone and I think I'm getting those symptoms. I just started talking. I'm like I'm all plugged up here. So, um if I'm a little um talking like I'm I'm stuffy, I apologize for that. So, uh what I'm going to do in this live is I'm going to talk about the evidence for God. And this is a common complaint and challenge from unbelievers, particularly from atheists. In fact, it is the most distracting challenge for Christians because they tend to fall into the trap of entertaining it and forgetting what the Bible says about it. In fact, it is the foundation of classical apologetics.

[00:03:49]Now, classical apologetics relies heavily on the evidence for God.

[00:03:56]And classical apologetics is basically a I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, but this apologetic method is is basically this.

[00:04:08]We give evidence for God and then we, you know, present it to the unbeliever believing they have a reasonable mind.

[00:04:18]And if they can think that there's a probability or a possibility of God, then we can eventually show them it's the God of the Bible and then eventually present them with the gospel of Jesus Christ so that they can be saved. So, they're doing all these steps and even though they're sincere because they want to answer unbelievers concerns and complaints and they're very sincere because they want unbelievers to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, we have to ask, is this really biblical what they're doing to try to go through these steps to show that there's quote unquote evidence for God?

[00:05:04]Now, don't misunderstand. There's a bunch of um arguments that these type of apologetics will apologetics apologetics. No, I can't say it.

[00:05:16]Apologists, excuse me, um would have to give the unbeliever. And many of them are actually biblical. They're they're grounded in scripture. though many times the classical apologetics uh apologists won't use scripture.

[00:05:34]Um, excuse me, I'm clearing my throat again. I'm so sorry. I'm stuffy.

[00:05:41]Uh, they they really won't use scripture even though it's grounded in scripture.

[00:05:46]Uh, there's the cosmological argument and this is the arguments based on showing that creation itself, particularly the universe, has to have a first cause. And then there's the teological argument and this is the design argument which is basically basically saying if there's a creation there should be a creator. And then there's of course the moral argument.

[00:06:09]This argument shows that there must be an absolute foundation of morality because without it it's only relative or it's only subjective. And I agree with that wholeheartedly.

[00:06:22]The problem is anybody that's um practicing this type of apologetics classical nine times out of 10 they will not quote the word of God. They may quote it here and there but it's not the foundation of their argument. All those other things are. And as Christians should we be going that route to give an answer for the hope that we have? That's where we get apologetics from. Uh 1 Peter 3:15 that we have. So there are many ways this complaint can be formed by the unbeliever, but what I want to do is just present three of them because these are three that I hear a lot. Number one, where or what is the evidence for God?

[00:07:14]Straightforward question. Number two, if God were real, he would show himself.

[00:07:21]Uh, I've heard that before. In fact, I'm I'm hoping to actually uh give you an example of that. I'm going to give you an account and a story of an evangelical um event uh that me and another believer, it's not really an event, I shouldn't say that. Basically, we were we went out to give the gospel to somebody and then we got challenged with this question or that complaint. Number three, extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence. I'm sure you guys have heard that before. So, first let's answer a fool according to his folly. But let's answer this complaint based on um but then let's answer this complaint based on the scripture. Okay.

[00:08:09]So, um let me repeat that. I'm I'm so sorry. I'm so foggyheaded right now and I'm stuffy.

[00:08:16]Um, let's not answer a fool according to his folly. Let's not do that. Let's answer biblically. And that's what I want to do. I want to answer this biblically. So, what I want to do is I want to read some scriptures as it pertains to the evidence quote unquote for God.

[00:08:36]Want to go to Romans 1:18 through 22.

[00:08:40]Uh, now I've referenced these verses so many times in my videos. It's like second nature. I'm constantly referencing these verses and I'm quoting these verses and it's important that I do so.

[00:09:03]I feel so bad that all of a sudden I feel like I'm coming down with a cold right in the middle of this live. And it's just like I I felt okay like 10 minutes ago and now all of a sudden but I am going to keep trucking. Okay.

[00:09:19]So if you guys just pray for me and hang with me, we'll be cool. So this is Romans 1. I want to read uh verses 8 18 all the way to 22.

[00:09:32]It says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness."

[00:09:42]That's the key. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them. For God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even even his eternal power and godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became feudal in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

[00:10:13]Professing to be wise, they became fools.

[00:10:18]Now, these verses right here sum up the unbeliever, particularly the atheist, when they ask about evidence.

[00:10:28]I want to go through these verses again, and I want to key in on some key elements of what I just read. First of all, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

[00:10:42]Unbelievers suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

[00:10:48]They know what truth is, but their sin nature suppresses it. And it says because, and this is the reason why, what may be known of God, you understand, what may be known of God is manifest or revealed in them, for God has shown it to them. I don't know how many times I tell Christians, do you believe this verse?

[00:11:16]Do you believe that they suppress that truth and that God has revealed it to them and shown it to them and that they actually know? Verse 20, for since the creation of the world, since Genesis 1:1, his invisible attributes are clearly seen.

[00:11:35]He's basically saying everybody knows about the attributes of God. And I honestly believe unbelievers know about the attributes of God. They just like to tweak it or redefine it or deny it.

[00:11:49]Being understood by the things that are made.

[00:11:53]How are they understanding it? By the things that are made, the creative order, creation itself, even his eternal power and godhead. So that they are without excuse. So when they die and stand before God, they're not going to say, "Hey, I didn't know that you exist. Nobody told me about Jesus Christ. I'm ignorant. I don't know." No, there were without excuse.

[00:12:18]When they stand before God, they're not going to have any excuses before God on judgment day. Verse 21. Because although they knew God, see, they're saying it again. Now, when it says know God, it doesn't mean it in a relational way, not like a Christian. It means in anformational way. They know they did not glorify him as God nor were thankful but became feudal in their thoughts. Doesn't that describe unbelievers today? They're not thankful to God and they are feudal in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened.

[00:12:53]What does that mean?

[00:12:55]The heart in the scriptures talks about the thinking, the intellect, and the emotion. Both of those things were jargon professing to be wise because don't they profess to be wise? They became fools.

[00:13:12]That's exactly what happened. They became fools. The creative order screams that God exists and they know it.

[00:13:23]They suppress that. In fact, I want to go to Psalm 19 and I want to read verse one because and basically says that it says in verse one of Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork.

[00:13:52]When we look out at the night sky and we see the stars, you know, we look through those grand telescopes and we see other solar systems, other galaxies, it what it declares the glory of God. It It's what? It shows his handiwork. It shows that he is the creator.

[00:14:19]I want to read something else going back to Romans.

[00:14:30]Now, I just read Romans 1 and it talked about how they know that God exists great uh um based on the creative order. They know that God exists because of that.

[00:14:47]So when they're asking for evidence that they want us to show them, so to speak, they already know. And in that respect, Christian, you need to be careful about going down that rabbit trail. And I'll talk about that more as as we go on. But in Romans chapter 2:1 15, it says this.

[00:15:14]Now I should read verse 14 so you kind of get the context.

[00:15:18]It says for when Gentiles and when he's talking about Gentiles in this context he's talking about unbelievers who do not have the law by nature do the things in the law these although not having the law are a law to themselves. So he's saying even though they do not have the law, they don't have the law of God, so to speak, and they're not going to subject themselves to the law of God. In fact, they have a hostile mind uh towards God and his word. We read that in Romans 8:7.

[00:15:54]Even though they do even though that's true, it says by nature do the things in the law. So they realize that there is a law of God. That's why verse 15 says, "Who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them." What is this Bible verse saying?

[00:16:22]Every human being on the face of the earth has a conscience.

[00:16:26]And that word conscience con and science means with knowledge. They have the knowledge of right and wrong. They have the knowledge of morality.

[00:16:39]Who gives them that? Where does that come from? It comes from the absolute ultimate starting point. The first cause, it's God. God is the self-existing God, the great I am of Exodus 3:14.

[00:16:56]So all morality begins with him.

[00:17:00]And he puts that on the heart of every single person.

[00:17:06]That's why people know right from wrong.

[00:17:10]Even the people that are doing wrong things, they know all about right and wrong. Now, the Bible says elsewhere that you can sear your conscience. That happens, but it's still there.

[00:17:25]So when people say, "Oh, I don't give me evidence for God." God's law is written right on their heart. That's why I want to go to Psalm 14:1 and I want to read something interesting in that verse. In fact, I'm going to read Psalm 14 1-3.

[00:17:50]It says, "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside.

[00:18:09]They have together become corrupt. There is none who does good. No, not one.

[00:18:16]Do you know why the person that says there there is no God that God considers them a fool?

[00:18:26]because it's not an intellect problem. It's not a logic problem. It's not a reasoning problem.

[00:18:35]It's a moral problem.

[00:18:38]Going back to what I just read in Romans uh two, they know all about right and wrong.

[00:18:46]They have a moral foundation. They just either sear their conscience or they try to make morals subjective. And that's what most unbelievers do. And because they're morally corrupt, they will deny God. That's exactly what they'll do.

[00:19:04]These set of verses that I just read tell you that everyone knows that God exists. They know it by creation and earlier I talked about the teological argument. So that's what that's talking about. And by their conscience and that's the moral argument.

[00:19:22]though unbelievers will reject it. We need to understand this is the only quote unquote evidence that we need to give.

[00:19:32]I'm gonna say that right out. That's the only thing that we need to give a reminder that down deep they know God exists. They just suppress that truth in their foolish, unrighteous nature of sin. And because of it, we should never entertain giving them the evidence they're looking for. That is the key.

[00:19:52]We should never give them the evidence they're looking for. To do so puts them in the seat of judgment against God when God is actually their judge.

[00:20:05]That's something I don't think that we think about.

[00:20:10]Who in a court of law do we give evidence to?

[00:20:16]We give it to the jury and we give it to the judge.

[00:20:21]and then we let them decide. When we give evidence to an unbeliever, we're making them the jury and the judge of God.

[00:20:32]But Isaiah 33:22 says he is the lawgiver, the judge, and the king. It is God who judges us. We do not judge him.

[00:20:46]We're his creation. He's the creator.

[00:20:50]He if it wasn't for God, we wouldn't even be alive. We wouldn't even be breathing. And yet unbelievers want to judge God. So when we're giving evidence that they're looking for, we're basically telling them that they're the judge of God. Now, they may just think that they're judging our faith, but it's actually the same thing. Our faith in Jesus Christ and God, that goes hand in hand.

[00:21:16]And that brings up the three complaints that we may hear. The three complaints I uh spoke about at the beginning of this live.

[00:21:26]So, let's go over all of them. Before I do that, just want to check the chat. I see a lot of people in the chat. I please forgive me. I can uh lean forward and look, but it's easier for me to look here. So, if I'm looking away, I'm not ignoring, you know, the camera here. Um, hi Tekken. I know you like to come in and talk about a lot of things, but I am not going to engage with you, you know, and I would believe in please do not engage with uh Tekken. He just wants to debate and argue. And of course, he wants me to go back and forth with him.

[00:22:05]So, I get off what I'm teaching. I don't do that when I'm teaching. I've said that in other lives. I don't go back and forth. As a courtesy, I may answer some questions, but a lot of the things that he's complaining about here is probably going to be covered in this live. So, uh, he can get the answer there. And some things I probably answered already.

[00:22:24]So, I'm not being disrespectful, just not going to go off on a tangent. But, hey, you can stay in the live. I would just ask that you'd be respectful, that you don't be profane. Um, you can complain and you can disagree. That's fine. but you know have a semblance of uh decency uh while you're in the chat.

[00:22:46]So here's the first one. When the unbeliever asks where or what is the evidence of God, notice that they're not asking for specifics.

[00:22:58]This is purposeful purposeful because then the Christian will give evidence and the unbeliever says it isn't convincing or sufficient. I've heard that so many times and I've seen Christians that bend over backwards to give evidence and it's never ever enough.

[00:23:19]But by what metric or standard is it not convincing or sufficient?

[00:23:25]By being non-specific or vague, it's left to the Christian to present evidence that we only think will be convincing to the unbeliever.

[00:23:34]Remember, evidence is any information, facts, or physical objects that indicate whether a belief or proposition is true or valid. In this respect, asking for evidence presupposes you have an ideal or meaning of whatever you want evidence for.

[00:23:51]Because of it, you should have some specifics about that evidence. For example, if I said person A murdered person B and you wanted evidence of this proposition, you would have to know at least knowledge that there was or could have been a person A or a person B and have knowledge of what murder is.

[00:24:18]That's just common sense. Because of this, you could now ask for evidence like a murder weapon with person A's prints on it, a videotape of the murder, multiple eyewitnesses, or even a signed confession. You could ask for these types of evidence specifically because they would fall in line with your knowledge of murder. And that just makes sense. If you're asking for evidence of a particular thing, you would have to have an ideal of what that part particular thing is to ask for the evidence.

[00:24:53]In the same way, if a person asks for evidence for God, they should have their own idea of what of who or what God is and be able to ask for it specifically.

[00:25:05]They shouldn't be asking for it in a vague way. They shouldn't be asking for it in a non-specific way. And I've seen unbelievers do this. Give me evidence for God. And what a Christian will do is they will spend five minutes, 10 minutes going back and forth with an unbeliever.

[00:25:26]I've seen YouTube videos of it. Or they'll go back and forth in the comment section and they're writing and they're just typing up, you know, five comments, 10 comments, 20 comments. And the unbeliever will just basically keep saying, "Oh, that's not good enough.

[00:25:40]That's not convincing." But he's not being specific. He's not ask he's not asking for a specific amount of evidence. If you're asking for evidence for a murder, you know what murder is and you would have some idea of maybe the people involved. So the evidence you're looking for should revolve around that. It really should.

[00:26:04]But once they ask for evidence, you can still answer biblically.

[00:26:10]Now, I'm going to give you a story of how that happened to me.

[00:26:16]There was a friend at church. Him and I would go door todo evangelizing.

[00:26:22]We literally would knock on the door of, you know, different people houses. We would go up and down the neighborhood and say, "Hey, you know, my name is Eric. My buddy's name was Scotty." And we would tell them what church we're at, and we're just going door to door and we're giving the gospel. Have you ever heard the gospel? Do you want, you know, do you want to hear it? Some people would be like, I'm not interested. And just be like kind of close the door in our face or just, you know, was was polite and like, hey, no, I'm not interested. And you know what? We wouldn't bother him. They're like, oh, okay. Thank you for your time. And we go on. One time we knocked on the door and it was a person that was an atheist and he was just going back and forth with us the whole time. And he was like, "I want evidence for God. You need to show me evidence for God." That's basically what he was saying. So what he did was he said, "I'm not going to be convinced until, you know, you show me evidence.

[00:27:20]You can't show me any convincing evidence." But that's all he kept saying. And he was talking to my buddy Scotty, and I finally interjected, and I'm like, "Sir, what specific evidence are you looking for?"

[00:27:34]I'm like, "You're asking for evidence.

[00:27:35]specifically, what are you looking for?

[00:27:37]And he's like, uh, in the Bible, doesn't God show himself? I want God to come and show himself like a ball of light. Like, I want him to come like a ball of light with a booming voice. You know, I want him to show himself to me. So, this is what I explained to him. I said, you know, in Exodus 33:20, it says if you see God in his glory, you would die. So if you're asking for God to come in a ball of light and reveal himself, unless God is revealing himself for his purposes and his plans, if he was to reveal himself in his glory, you would die.

[00:28:19]And I said, and that's why God is not going to show himself. But then I asked him this. I said, "But if God did come in a ball of light and said to you, I am God. I'm showing myself to you. You need to repent and believe in my son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for salvation because if you don't, you're going to die and you're going to stand before me and I'm going to judge you." If God came to you like that, would you repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? And you know what he said? He said, "No.

[00:28:52]No, I wouldn't." And I'm like, so what is the point of asking for evidence or me even presenting evidence to you if you're not going to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?

[00:29:09]Do you see how silly it is?

[00:29:12]He just wanted us to jump through hoops for his own entertainment.

[00:29:16]And you know what? It's a waste of time to do that because our mission as Christians is to pro proclaim the gospel so that he can be saved.

[00:29:27]That's Romans 10:14-17. I'm supposed to give him the gospel. I'm not supposed to be doing all that kind of stuff.

[00:29:34]To the atheist, it's a game.

[00:29:38]It's a philosophical game. It's a hypothetical game. To the Christian, it's a matter of eternal life or eternal judgment.

[00:29:46]Do you see the difference? So, they're asking for evidence. And I'm like, you're not asking for evidence because you want to know God.

[00:29:55]You You're asking for evidence because you just want to debate because you think it's funny. Now, we know that unbelievers are going to mock our faith.

[00:30:03]That's why people come in the chat and mock, you know, me and mock what I'm doing. I understand that. I expect that.

[00:30:11]I've been a Christian for over 25 years.

[00:30:13]Do you think anything someone's saying to me or writing about me, I haven't heard or read before, we're going to get that kind of, you know, type of persecution, so to speak.

[00:30:28]You know, persecution doesn't have to be somebody harming me. It could just be somebody attacking me uh online or attacking me in the comment section or saying things in my face. We expect that as Christians.

[00:30:41]All right. So, here's the second one.

[00:30:45]If God were real real were real, he would show himself.

[00:30:50]So again, that is like it ain't going to happen because if God showed himself, like I told the atheists, you know what's going to happen? You're going to die.

[00:31:06]But the unbeliever is basing the existence of God on his own presupposition, standard or criteria.

[00:31:13]It's all dependent on the condition that God shows himself in determining if he is real or not. But sinful man has a faulty condition because God is not like man.

[00:31:26]He's not. He is spirit. John 4:24. And God is invisible. That's one of his attributes. Colossians 1:15, 1 Timothy 1:17. So the existence of God is not dependent on sinful man's condition or criteria, but on who God reveals himself to be in scripture.

[00:31:45]And that's what happens with a lot of unbelievers.

[00:31:49]They'll be like, "If God were blank, then why blank?"

[00:31:56]You catch it? There's this condition. If God were loving, if God were all powerful, if God was this, that or the other, then why doesn't he do blank or he should have done this?

[00:32:12]They're setting the standard. They're setting the criteria for God.

[00:32:16]An unbeliever doesn't set the criteria or standard of who God is.

[00:32:22]God is who he reveals himself to be.

[00:32:26]And he reveals himself in the scriptures. If you don't want to believe that, you can't put your own standard and criteria on it. And what will happen is a lot of times Christians will entertain that. Whenever somebody asks a question in that way or they give me a challenge in that way, I just tell them, listen, God is not who you think God should be.

[00:32:52]God is who he is.

[00:32:56]In fact, God knows more about you than you know about him. And the only reason God knows more about you is because he's the creator. The only reason you don't know God the way you should is because you have information about God, but you don't have a relationship with God. If you had a relationship with God, you would know him. But you don't. So, you don't know him. So when they ask these type of questions, you know, if God were something, if God were real, he would show himself.

[00:33:27]God is real whether he shows himself to you or not.

[00:33:32]That's not the criteria. You don't set it. Here's the third one. Have you ever heard this one? And I've heard it.

[00:33:42]Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.

[00:33:48]Um, this was actually popularized by Carl Sean and it can actually be a logical fallacy when applied subjectively to dismiss valid evidence without proper investigation. And an unbeliever's view is not only subjective but biased against God. See, unbelievers are not neutral. They're not. I've said that in a lot of videos and lives.

[00:34:12]They're not. They hate God, Christ, and Christians. according to John 15:18-23 and those are the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Romans 8:7 and 1 John 3:13. Therefore, the quote unquote extraordinary evidence they seek will be vague or unsatisfactory or both. And the adjective extraordinary to describe the evidence is based on the unbeliever's faulty premise that it is necessary.

[00:34:42]They believe the evidence needs to be extraordinary.

[00:34:47]Actually, it doesn't have to be. It It doesn't have to be. If there are actual eyewitness accounts or enough circumstantial evidence to support it, then the evidence presented is fine. It doesn't have to be extraordinary.

[00:35:03]It just has to be what? Evidence.

[00:35:07]They're the one that's making the evidence seem like it needs to be grand.

[00:35:10]No, it doesn't.

[00:35:13]Let me tell you something. You could have someone say, now I'm just using this as an example. I'm not saying this is real, but you could say to someone, "Hey, I saw a flying saucer." And someone says, "That's an extraordinary claim. I need extraordinary evidence of that."

[00:35:31]Well, no, I don't have extraordinary evidence, but I I have normal evidence.

[00:35:35]I got a videotape of it. Here it is.

[00:35:38]Right. It could still show you know what he wants. But is it extraordinary? No. It's just a video.

[00:35:48]But it's evidence.

[00:35:53]The problem is this. Like I said just a minute ago, no sinner is neutral.

[00:35:58]They're not neutral in their thinking about God. Therefore, the way they view the evidence is biased and nothing you say will satisfy them.

[00:36:08]Unbelievers are basing evidence on their sin nature and on their worldview.

[00:36:15]It's going to make the evidence different in their mind.

[00:36:20]So you can give them all the evidence you want because they hate God. They're not going to buy it.

[00:36:29]They're not.

[00:36:33]Not unless God is drawing them to the gospel.

[00:36:38]This is the reason no believer in scripture gives evidence for the existence of God. They just proclaim the truth of God's existence and proclaim the gospel. And I'm going to read an example of that from the book of Acts.

[00:36:59]I've referenced these verses in the past and I'm going to reference and I'm going to read the verses. Now, this is the account of the Apostle Paul in Mars Hills, Mars Hill in Athens. And he's talking to the philosophers and the idoltors there. And I want to start at verse 19. I was going to start at verse 22, but I'm going to start at verse 19.

[00:37:23]Let me set the stage here. Paul was preaching the gospel because he was really grieved that they were given over to idolatry. So he started giving them the gospel of Jesus Christ and told them that they need to repent and believe and believe in Jesus who was resurrected because that's the key to believing in Christ. You have to believe he died and rose again. Verse 19 says, "And they um well, wait a minute. Let me go back to verse 18. I'm start there. It really sets the set the stage. Then certain Epicurian and Stoic philosophers encountered him and some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Now, babbler is an insult. Okay? They're calling him a name.

[00:38:10]Others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection." And they took him and brought him to the Aropagus, saying, "May we know what this new doctrine is of what you speak? for you are bringing some strange things to our ears.

[00:38:26]Therefore, we want to know what these things mean. For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. That's what philosophers do. They want to kick around philosophy all day long. They'll sit they'll sit around drinking some wine, talking for hours and just talking philosophy, that search for truth. They don't come to any conclusions. They're just all kicking around ideas. Same thing's happening here. Verse 22. Then Paul stood in the midst of the Aropagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious." Now, you see how he starts? He's telling them that they're religious. They're philosophers and idoltors. They have their own religion. For as I was passing through and considered the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.

[00:39:25]So he saw an altar that says to the unknown God.

[00:39:31]And it was it was what? An object of worship. Now ask yourself something.

[00:39:38]How do you worship an unknown god?

[00:39:43]You're you're saying that you know there's a god but it's unknown but you know enough that that it's a god but it's unknown which means you don't know what you don't know most of his attributes of that god's attributes though you know he's a god because you're saying he's a god but you're putting unknown in front of there. So what don't you know? You don't have a relationship with that god. You don't know have any information about that god. You don't know anything. And yet you're worshiping it. So how do you know your worship is correct?

[00:40:20]How do you know that? It's an unknown god. Did it tell you how to worship him?

[00:40:25]Did it tell you that that altar was fine?

[00:40:28]And see Paul will key in on that. So he says, "Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing him I proclaim to you."

[00:40:39]So he's like, "You don't know about this God, but now I'm going to proclaim that unknown God." I love what Paul did. He took their idolatry and now he's going to show them the true and living God.

[00:40:53]And what I want you to understand as I'm as I'm reading this, what Paul is going to do is he's not going to do what? Prove anything. He's going to declare God's attributes.

[00:41:09]Verse 24, God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Just in verse 24, you know what he's saying? God is the creator and he's self-sufficient.

[00:41:21]Verse 25. Nor is he worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything because he gives to all life, breath, and all things. He's reiterating it. God is self-sufficient. He doesn't need you.

[00:41:33]In fact, he gave you life. And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings. You know what he's saying now? God is king over everything. He created all men. They're all created equal because they're all of one blood.

[00:41:53]And guess what? He determines their times and their boundaries. It is God that does that. Verse 27, so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. He's like, I make myself known. They should be able to seek me. They really should.

[00:42:16]In verse 28, for in him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. What he's basically saying is you're all creations of God. Verse 29, therefore, since we are the offspring of offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. He's saying the true and living God is not an idol.

[00:42:50]He's not. Truly, these times of ignorance, God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.

[00:42:57]Here it comes. Because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead.

[00:43:12]You know what Paul did?

[00:43:16]He gave them the gospel. They said he was a babbler and they wanted to know what he was talking about. He connected their dumb altar to an unknown God to the true and living God. Gave God's attributes and then told them that they needed to repent because they're going to be judged by that man that was raised from the dead. the very same message he gave before they start asking questions.

[00:43:44]He gave the gospel.

[00:43:47]Oops. Sorry, my camera fell. He gave the gospel and then he told them who God was and then went right back to the gospel.

[00:43:54]That's what we read there. This is the Apostle Paul.

[00:43:59]Did he sit there and go, "Well, let me give you evidence for God.

[00:44:04]Let me just sit here for hours debating with you about evidence." No. He told them all about God. He just proclaimed it. That's exactly what he did.

[00:44:17]The Apostle Paul never tries to prove the existence of God to the idolattorous philosophers at Mars Hill. He just asserts the attributes of God and then he tells them to repent.

[00:44:28]Today as Christians giving evidence to unbelievers on their terms, give I'm going to say it again. Giving evidence to the unbeliever on their terms is sheer foolishness and a waste of time.

[00:44:47]Quote Bible verses. Quote the verses in Romans. Tell them about their nature of sin because that's what they're trying to avoid. They're trying to avoid talking about the fact that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23. They're trying to avoid the fact that sin is the transgression or the breaking of God's law. 1 John 3:4. They don't want to talk about that because then that makes them what?

[00:45:12]Accountable to God. They rather ask for evidence of the God they know already exists. They just suppress it. But what we need to do is quote the Bible, tell them their need for the savior and and then if they want to ask questions, keep answer it. Answer the objections, but then go right back to the gospel.

[00:45:38]Now, I know their Christians might be will watch this or maybe watch this on the replay and go, "Man, I thought you were going to give me, you know, all these things I can give to unbelievers to give them as evidence." So, if they ask me a question, I can give them this, this, this, and this.

[00:45:58]Listen, there's some things that you can do to show that God exists and the validity of the Bible and all that, but again, how the unbeliever views it is going to be based on their worldview. Their worldview is secular. Their worldview is sinful. It's against God. So, any evidence you give them is going to be what?

[00:46:24]It's going to fall on deaf ears. God has to open up their hearts and minds to actually receive that.

[00:46:31]But you know what is the best evidence of all the best evidence for God?

[00:46:39]The Bible.

[00:46:43]It is the God breathed supernatural word. It's supernatural, sanctifying, and sufficient. 2 Timothy 3:16-17, John 17:17, 2 Peter 1:es 20 and 21.

[00:46:59]It's God's word that reveals who he is and who we are.

[00:47:06]It reveals everything about God and it reveals everything about man. So when people like, "What's the evidence of God?"

[00:47:15]It's right here. It's in the scriptures.

[00:47:17]And let me show you two verses really quick because this word is not to be used to debate unbelievers.

[00:47:32]In John 20:es 30 and 31, the apostle John is giving the purpose of this gospel that he wrote. It says in verse 30 and 31, "And truly Jesus did many signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book." So he's saying there's tons of things that aren't even in this gospel that I could have mentioned. There's just so many of them.

[00:48:02]But there are written But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

[00:48:16]This is the purpose of John writing this gospel.

[00:48:19]It's so that people would know that Jesus Christ is the son of God. He's the savior. And if you repent and believe in him, you will have eternal life.

[00:48:34]That's why we give the gospel to unbelievers. It's not about a debate.

[00:48:41]It's not a game. It's not trying to win an argument. It's not trying to go on podcast and going back and forth for two or three hours.

[00:48:50]Now, people want to do that. And there's a lot of Christians that do that. And praise God, they're way smarter than me.

[00:48:56]and they can go back and forth with the smartest smartest atheist.

[00:49:01]But you know what? You don't have to have a 180 IQ to proclaim the gospel and just proclaim what the scriptures say. That's what we need to do as Christians. We don't need to do jump through all those hoops. And in 1 John 5:13, the same author of the Gospel of John is now writing to believers. And this is what he says. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God, that you have eternal life.

[00:49:47]Because sometimes Christians are going to doubt that happens in our sanctification. We're still going to doubt.

[00:49:58]You know what is it? Galatians 5, I I believe it's verses 16 uh 17. I may have the verses wrong. The flesh wars against the indwelling Holy Spirit of the believer. So sometimes our flesh is going to fight against the spirit. It's going to fight against the truth of God's word.

[00:50:15]But we have the written word. Not only so unbelievers can know who God is and know how they can repent and believe, but it's an assurance to us that we are saved and that we have eternal life coming.

[00:50:30]So the best evidence for God besides the fact that there's the creative order, besides the fact that everybody has a conscience is the scriptures itself and the testimony of Jesus Christ in those scriptures. So the next time somebody asks for evidence for God, really that's all you have to give them.

[00:50:55]Because if they're asking for evidence outside of the scriptures of what the scripture says about God, it's a waste of time. That's why you can have people, no matter what you say, they're going to be against our faith and they're going to be against the gospel.

[00:51:19]That's why First Corinthians, I've read this before and I'm going to read it again.

[00:51:32]118 says this, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

[00:51:40]For those that are unbelievers and they're unrepentant and one day they're going to die and stand before God, it's foolishness to them. But to to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

[00:51:54]That's is the power of God.

[00:51:59]We know it's the power of God because God has saved us and changed us. We're new. We're new creations in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17. The unbeliever.

[00:52:12]Listen, it's foolishness to them because this life is all there is to them. They're born, they live, they die, they turn to dirt, that's the end of it.

[00:52:25]And for people that are living their lives like that, they could have miserable lives and then they die.

[00:52:34]There's no hope.

[00:52:36]Think about that.

[00:52:40]As a Christian, I can go to a hospital and sit down with an unbeliever that has serious problems. They could have cancer or they could have a month to live. You know what I can offer them?

[00:52:57]Hope. Hope in Jesus Christ.

[00:53:01]When's the last time you saw an atheist go to a hospital and talk to somebody that is about to die in a week or two?

[00:53:08]What is he going to say to them?

[00:53:11]Yeah. Hope you had a good life.

[00:53:15]Well, what if that person didn't have a good life? What if their whole existence sucked?

[00:53:21]What are you going to say to them as an atheist? What hope are you going to give them? You got nothing to give them.

[00:53:29]It's a hopeless existence.

[00:53:33]I can come and tell somebody, listen.

[00:53:37]Here's the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[00:53:40]God has revealed himself in the scriptures. You know down deep that God exists. And you can have a relationship with that God if you understand that you're a sinner and you violated God's commands. You've been against God the whole time.

[00:53:58]But if you repent and turn from your sins and turn to Christ and believe that he died on the cross for your sins and rose again on the third day, you will be saved from the penalty of your sins and from the punishment of your sins as well as the bondage of your sins and have eternal life.

[00:54:24]Now, somebody may think that's a fairy tale, but you know what?

[00:54:30]I'd rather believe in that quote unquote fairy tale in this sinful, wicked world, then believe anything an atheist has to tell me.

[00:54:40]What are they going to tell me?

[00:54:43]Can't go out and smoke a joint, drink some booze, party a little bit. You only live once.

[00:54:50]That's not going to take away my sickness. That's not going to take away the fact that someone passed away. That doesn't take away the fact that I lost my job. That doesn't take away the fact that I may be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. That doesn't take that away.

[00:55:05]But you know what?

[00:55:08]This is what Jesus says about that. Just thinking about that. So, I'm going to find it and go there.

[00:55:22]In Matthew 11:es 28-30, this is what Jesus Christ says.

[00:55:28]These are to sinners when God shows them that they're sinners and that he's God and they need to repent and believe.

[00:55:40]Jesus says, "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

[00:55:59]That is the promise.

[00:56:02]And let me tell you something.

[00:56:05]through all the things in my life, losing family members, losing brothers and sisters in the Lord at church, my daughter having ju juvenile arthritis and having to take shots and inflammation in her legs and her eyes swell up.

[00:56:24]Me having prostate cancer and having my prostate removed.

[00:56:28]My wife having back pains and aches.

[00:56:32]Our financial difficulties. me losing jobs.

[00:56:38]I can go on and on about stuff that has gone wrong, things that would drive people crazy and make them want to commit suicide or attack somebody or just be an alcoholic or a drug addict to ease the pain.

[00:56:53]Through all that, God has been my rest.

[00:57:01]God has taken care of me.

[00:57:05]He's made me content so I don't look at others in envy. He's given me peace when the world acts whacked.

[00:57:14]He gives me strength when I'm weak and I'm always weak.

[00:57:22]He shows me the joy of salvation and he gives me assurance of my glorification.

[00:57:35]Listen, there's plenty of evidence for God.

[00:57:40]Just a testimony of true Christians that's gone to glory.

[00:57:46]Those are testimonies of God and evidence for God.

[00:57:55]Dear Christian, next time somebody asks you evidence for God, you quote those verses verses in Romans, you tell them that the Bible declares who God is and then give them the gospel.

[00:58:12]Don't give them the evidence that they're looking for. Amen.

[00:58:17]All right. Uh h there's a lot of chats going on here.

[00:58:25]So, all right. Well, for all you that came into the chat, I I appreciate that.

[00:58:35]I apologize. I am really stuffy. Like I said, my wife and my daughter, it looks like they caught a spring cold and it looks like I'm catching it.

[00:58:46]Um, but I'm glad I did this live. I'm sorry I wasn't able to do it on my daughter's laptop. I wish I was more techy. I'm not. You know, it's just the old man in me. I just wish I wish I knew uh technology better. But one, you know, my kids are teaching me. So hopefully the next time I try to do a live, I will try to do it on her laptop. But let me close in a word of prayer.

[00:59:12]Dear heavenly father, I just thank you for um giving me the strength to do this live. Thank you for your word. Thank you that you are real and we have assurance of that. We know that unbelievers are going to scoff at that. They're going to challenge us on it. And we understand that. But your word shows us how we need to respond to that. And we need to respond with the gospel. We need to respond with the truth of your word.

[00:59:42]We need to respond with love and grace and mercy.

[00:59:47]And we need to respond prayerfully hoping that an unbeliever will come to know you as Lord and Savior. That you would open up their heart to see that they're sinners and that they need to repent and believe in you for salvation.

[01:00:03]That is the best thing that we can give an unbeliever.

[01:00:09]I hope and pray that many Christians will do that. And I hope and pray what I taught even though it was a little shaky there. I hope that has been helpful for any believer that came into the live.

[01:00:23]Please fill them with your Holy Spirit and guide and strengthen them through their walk. I pray for physical healing if they need it. And I pray that you'd bless and guide and direct them as I pray that you would do that for me as well as my wife and children.

[01:00:37]And I want to lift this day up to you.

[01:00:38]And I pray today would be the day of salvation for an unbeliever wherever they're at. I hope and pray that they would repent and come to know you as Lord and Savior. I lift all these things up to you, Lord, and I give you praise, honor, and glory for being the good God that you are. In your holy name, Lord Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen. And amen.

[01:01:01]All right. H, it's been a long live, longer than I thought. Um, I thank thank you guys for showing up. Um, uh, Tekken.

[01:01:17]Yeah, Tekken. I hope that cold goes away. It will, you know, it's a it happens. You know, I live in upstate New York where we have like 85 degree day and then the ne then two days later it goes down to 50. So sometimes, you know, I think people's immune system gets caught up with that. I appreciate that you, you know, I know you're not a believer and, you know, you don't believe what I'm talking about, but I do appreciate that you came into the chat.

[01:01:44]I appreciate that, you know, you have your opinion about that. I don't disrespect unbelievers in um because you're still made in the image of God.

[01:01:56]Genesis 1:27.

[01:01:58]and we respect all life because you're made in the image of God. And because you're made in the image of God, my desire and prayer is that you would come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

[01:02:09]I don't know if you think of it as a joke or it's just something that you want to come in and debate. And I I get it, but for Christians, we are really serious about that. When God has saved us, he opens our eyes. And we want other people to have their eyes open too because there's there's uncertainty in this life and you don't know what's going to happen. But Jesus Christ is a certain thing and salvation in Christ is certain.

[01:02:36]So I just wanted to share that with you.

[01:02:38]For anybody else, if you want to like this uh live, hit the like button, but only hit the like button if you like it.

[01:02:48]I don't want to solicit a bunch of likes, you know, if you don't like it.

[01:02:52]If you like it, hit the like button. If you think it's going to help other believers, share it with other believers. So, you know, share and like this video if you want to do that. If not, then when the video drops, leave a comment in the comment section and, you know, tell me what I did wrong and or what I said that was wrong or if you think I could do things better. I'm not the greatest ortor and my channel isn't the greatest channel, but you know what I always say? As long as God gives me an open mouth and an open Bible, that's all that matters. But having said that, I'm going to give you guys back your day. I thank you for spending time with me. I have another live uh coming up soon and I will let you know what that's about.

[01:03:35]But until then, I want you guys to have a blessed blessed day today. And um hopefully I will feel better by the next live. You guys have a good one. You have a nice afternoon and if I don't see you again, uh good weekend ahead as well.

[01:03:53]All right. Thanks so much and God bless.