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Voddie Baucham - Christian Environmentalism · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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Speaker 1: Well, as we continue our journey through Genesis, looking at
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Speaker 1: the first 11 chapters of Genesis, we have come to
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Speaker 1: Genesis chapter 2. We have gone from a poetic rendering
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Speaker 1: of the creation account to a more prosaic rendering of
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Speaker 1: the creation account. We've had the big picture and we've
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Speaker 1: hovered and looked down at the big picture of creation.
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Speaker 1: Now we get on the ground and we see and
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Speaker 1: we hear and we smell what it is that God
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Speaker 1: is doing in the nitty-gritty of creation. We've seen the what.
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Speaker 1: Now we see the how and the why. The picture
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Speaker 1: comes to us more clearly as we look through these
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Speaker 1: passages in the second chapter. of Genesis. Even the name
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Speaker 1: that is used for God has changed as we get
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Speaker 1: to the second chapter of Genesis. We are viewing the
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Speaker 1: same picture from a different perspective. It's like when you
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Speaker 1: go to an art museum and you go to a
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Speaker 1: gallery and you can look at a painting straight on
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Speaker 1: and see the picture from that perspective. But then you
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Speaker 1: can move over to the side of the painting and
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Speaker 1: look at it from a different perspective. And all of
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Speaker 1: a sudden you see the different textures of the brush
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Speaker 1: strokes and the magnificence of that piece of art can
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Speaker 1: capture your attention from a different perspective. And you see
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Speaker 1: the intricacies of the piece of work itself. That's what
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Speaker 1: we do here. Or if you're looking at a beautiful
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Speaker 1: Persian rug, And you look at it from one perspective
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Speaker 1: and you look at it from the front. If you
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Speaker 1: want to know if it's the real deal, you have
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Speaker 1: to do but one thing. That is turn around to
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Speaker 1: the back. And when you turn around to the back,
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Speaker 1: you see the intricacy of the work. Look closely and
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Speaker 1: see how close the threads are. And you understand the
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Speaker 1: intricacy of the work. That's what we're doing as we
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Speaker 1: go from Genesis chapter 1 to Genesis chapter 2. But
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Speaker 1: as we arrive here in Genesis chapter 2, there are
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Speaker 1: several issues that are raised. Now, we don't have time
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Speaker 1: to deal with all of the issues that are raised,
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Speaker 1: but we will deal with one issue in particular. As
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Speaker 1: we look at Genesis chapter 2, verses 4 through 14,
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Speaker 1: verses 4 through 14, I want you to see something
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Speaker 1: that's often not spoken about in church. I want you
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Speaker 1: to look at this from the perspective of environmentalism. What? Yeah.
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Speaker 1: I want you to look at it from the perspective
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Speaker 1: of environmentalism. And those of you who know me and
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Speaker 1: know me well know that I am as far from
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Speaker 1: a raving environmentalist as you could possibly get. The Green
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Speaker 1: Party is not my friend. Amen? But there are issues
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Speaker 1: raised here. Listen to this from John Jefferson's davis in
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Speaker 1: his book evangelical ethics says during the last century in
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Speaker 1: the wake of the publication in 1859 of darwin's origin
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Speaker 1: of species the opening chapters of genesis have often been
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Speaker 1: read by evangelical interpreters with issues such as creation and
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Speaker 1: evolution and the age of the earth in mind while
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Speaker 1: these issues are important debates about matters of the origins
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Speaker 1: of things have led to a neglect of other crucial
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Speaker 1: implications of the text such as humanity's relationship to creation.
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Speaker 1: I think Davis has a point. We need to get
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Speaker 1: into the debate as to how old the earth is,
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Speaker 1: as to how the earth came to be. We need
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Speaker 1: to be in that debate. We need to go toe-to-toe, eye-to-eye,
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Speaker 1: nose-to-nose in that debate. We need to yell it from
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Speaker 1: the rooftops and not let anyone have an inch as
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Speaker 1: it relates to the issues of the origins of the universe. However,
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Speaker 1: we also cannot give ground on the issue of man's
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Speaker 1: relationship to the universe. And much of what we have
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Speaker 1: seen in this perversion of environmental issues has come because
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Speaker 1: we have refused to go toe-to-toe and eye-to-eye and nose-to-nose
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Speaker 1: on those issues as well. There are basically three approaches
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Speaker 1: to environmentalism. I want to offer you a fourth, but
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Speaker 1: I want us to look at these three approaches to environmentalism.
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Speaker 1: There is one approach to environmentalism that I call the
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Speaker 1: pragmatic approach to environmentalism. It's pure pragmatism, the scientific approach,
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Speaker 1: if you will. It's about weights and measures. And so
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Speaker 1: a pragmatic approach to evangelism would say, we have this
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Speaker 1: many natural resources. Right now, the issue is all about
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Speaker 1: fossil fuels, okay? So here's how much fossil fuels we have.
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Speaker 1: Here's how much fossil fuels we're using. Therefore, you do
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Speaker 1: the math, by this date, we're out of those, might
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Speaker 1: need something else. That's a sort of pragmatic approach to environmentalism, okay?
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Speaker 1: But not only do you have pragmatic approaches to environmentalism,
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Speaker 1: but you also have political approaches To environmentalism. Political approaches
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Speaker 1: to environmentalism. Now the political approach to environmentalism is a
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Speaker 1: little bit different than the pragmatic approach to environmentalism. And
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Speaker 1: we're seeing that right now, by the way. The political
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Speaker 1: approach to environmentalism. And so here's the political approach to environmentalism.
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Speaker 1: The political approach says, for example, global warming is scientific fact.
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Speaker 1: By the way, that's a lie. Global warming is not
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Speaker 1: scientific fact. Global warming is up for debate, okay? The causes,
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Speaker 1: I should say. Temperatures rising and falling that's happened throughout
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Speaker 1: the history of the Earth. Not only the Earth, but
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Speaker 1: by the way, Mars is also experiencing a rise in
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Speaker 1: temperatures that correlates nicely with the rise that the Earth sees.
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Speaker 1: So for those who argue for an anthropogenic... It means
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Speaker 1: beginning with man. Man is the cause of global warming.
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Speaker 1: So greenhouse gases, CO2, and all this sort of stuff. Well,
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Speaker 1: if you begin there, man is the cause of global warming.
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Speaker 1: You've got to explain to me how we made it
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Speaker 1: increase on Mars. Amen? Last time I checked, we haven't
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Speaker 1: been there to mess that up, all right? But the
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Speaker 1: political approach to environmentalism says this. The political approach says...
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Speaker 1: You know, here we have these scientists who have said X.
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Speaker 1: And because they have said X, we have to enact
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Speaker 1: policy in order to rescue the world. And so we
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Speaker 1: have things like the Kyoto Protocols. And these Kyoto Protocols
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Speaker 1: come into effect and nations are forced, have their arms
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Speaker 1: twisted by the UN to reduce certain greenhouse gases by
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Speaker 1: certain dates. Why? because of debated science. And so political
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Speaker 1: environmentalism then says, we are the party who sees this
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Speaker 1: issue and we wanna rescue the universe. They want the
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Speaker 1: world to blow up. Political environmentalism. Don't give me the facts.
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Speaker 1: Give me information that I can use to demonize my
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Speaker 1: opponent and get myself elected. Amen. That's political environmentalism, all right?
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Speaker 1: But there is also pagan environmentalism. So we have pragmatic environmentalism,
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Speaker 1: we have political environmentalism, and then we have pagan environmentalism.
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Speaker 1: Pagan environmentalism sings a different song. Whereas political and pragmatic
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Speaker 1: environmentalism look at this thing from a scientific perspective. Here's
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Speaker 1: the earth. Here's our world. Here's our rainforest. And our
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Speaker 1: rainforests are disappearing this fast. And here's our water sources.
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Speaker 1: And our water sources are being polluted. Okay. They look
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Speaker 1: at data. They look at facts. Pagan environmentalism starts from
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Speaker 1: a different place. Pagan environmentalism says the earth is divine.
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Speaker 1: And we need to treat her as such. pagan environmentalism
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Speaker 1: says you human being should not think of yourself as
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Speaker 1: the crowning glory of the creation of God oh no
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Speaker 1: no no you are but one among many of the
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Speaker 1: creatures who occupy this globe and you are no better
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Speaker 1: than any other creature and that you're not as important
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Speaker 1: as this living entity on which you are hurled through
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Speaker 1: space Nature is alive. And more than just alive, nature
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Speaker 1: is divine. That approach to environmentalism takes us to an
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Speaker 1: entirely different set of conclusions. And so we have pragmatic environmentalism.
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Speaker 1: We have political environmentalism. We have pagan environmentalism. What about
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Speaker 1: biblical environmentalism? Could there be such a thing? Could there
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Speaker 1: be a biblical approach to the environment? Well, if you
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Speaker 1: believe in the inerrancy and the sufficiency of Scripture, there
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Speaker 1: has to be. If we believe that all Scripture is God-breathed,
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Speaker 1: And it's profitable for teaching and rebuking and correcting and
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Speaker 1: training in righteousness that the man of God may be
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Speaker 1: adequate and equipped for every good work, as Paul says. Or,
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Speaker 1: if you agree, as Peter says in 1 Peter 1.3,
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Speaker 1: his divine power has given us everything we need for
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Speaker 1: life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called
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Speaker 1: us by his own glory and excellence. If we believe that,
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Speaker 1: then there is no issue that we will face for
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Speaker 1: which the word will not equip us. if we believe that.
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Speaker 1: If we believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, and if
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Speaker 1: we believe in the sufficiency of Scripture, then we ought
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Speaker 1: to be able to find in the Bible an answer
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Speaker 1: to the question, how do we relate to nature? Because
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Speaker 1: that's the question. And based on the biblical principles of
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Speaker 1: how we relate to nature, we then can determine how
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Speaker 1: we fall on these other issues. So let's look at
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Speaker 1: these in turn, shall we? First of all, biblical environmentalism
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Speaker 1: will recognize the creature-creator distinction. Look at chapter 2 and
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Speaker 1: verse 4. And then 5. These are the generations of
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Speaker 1: the heavens and the earth when they were created, in
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Speaker 1: the day that the Lord God made the earth and
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Speaker 1: the heavens. So we already see a distinction there, but
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Speaker 1: look at verse 5. When no bush of the field
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Speaker 1: was yet in the land, and no small plant of
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Speaker 1: the field had yet sprung up, For the Lord God
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Speaker 1: had not caused it to rain on the land. There
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Speaker 1: was no man to work the ground. So we see
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Speaker 1: here in these verses that there is a distinction between
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Speaker 1: the creature and the creator. The earth is being created
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Speaker 1: by God. The earth is not divine. The earth is
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Speaker 1: not eternal. The earth is created by God. So that's
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Speaker 1: where we start. There is a distinction between the creature
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Speaker 1: and the creator. There is a distinction between the creation
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Speaker 1: and the creator. There is a distinction between the earth
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Speaker 1: and nature and the God of nature. If we are
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Speaker 1: going to approach the environment from a biblical perspective, we
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Speaker 1: have to start there. So pagan environmentalism is completely out
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Speaker 1: of the question. We don't treat the earth... as this
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Speaker 1: divine entity, or as this extension or expression of God,
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Speaker 1: as some would have us to do. For example, this
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Speaker 1: song will be familiar to those of you who love
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Speaker 1: Walt Disney and Walt Disney films. This song comes to
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Speaker 1: us from the film Pocahontas. You think you own whatever
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Speaker 1: land you land on. The earth is just a dead
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Speaker 1: thing you can claim. But I know every rock and
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Speaker 1: tree and creature has a life, has a spirit, has
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Speaker 1: a name. The rainstorm and the river are my brothers.
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Speaker 1: The heron and the otter are my friend. And we
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Speaker 1: are all connected to each other in a circle, in
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Speaker 1: a hoop that never ends. How high will the sycamore grow?
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Speaker 1: If you cut it down, you will never know. Do
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Speaker 1: we know this song? This is pagan environmentalism on steroids
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Speaker 1: in a children's film. This type of environmentalism says you
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Speaker 1: need to treat the earth right because it is a
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Speaker 1: spiritual being just like you are. See? And if these
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Speaker 1: creatures are my brothers, we got issues because I like
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Speaker 1: to eat them. Okay? I got a problem, okay? I
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Speaker 1: got a problem because, you know, Mr. Cow or Mr. Chicken,
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Speaker 1: you know, you're my brother and we're connected in this hoop.
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Speaker 1: Doesn't work too well, right? You know? So biblical environmentalism,
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Speaker 1: first and foremost, recognizes, acknowledges the creature-creator distinction. The earth
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Speaker 1: is not divine. The earth is not eternal. The earth
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Speaker 1: is not God. The earth is not an extension of
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Speaker 1: God itself. The earth is not a part of God.
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Speaker 1: There's going to be a new heaven and a new earth. Amen?
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Speaker 1: There is a creature creation distinction. Look with me, if
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Speaker 1: you will, in Isaiah chapter 40. I want you to
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Speaker 1: see this. Isaiah chapter 40. Let's look at 18 to
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Speaker 1: 23 there. Isaiah chapter 40. And it reads, to whom
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Speaker 1: then will you liken God? Or what likeness compare him with?
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Speaker 1: An idol? A craftsman casts it and a goldsmith overlays
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Speaker 1: it with gold and casts for it silver chains. He
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Speaker 1: who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that
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Speaker 1: will not rot. He seeks out a skillful craftsman to
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Speaker 1: set up an idol that will not move. Do you
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Speaker 1: not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been
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Speaker 1: told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood
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Speaker 1: from the foundation of the earth? It is he who
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Speaker 1: sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants
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Speaker 1: are like grasshoppers who stretch out the heavens like a
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Speaker 1: curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in.
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Speaker 1: who brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of
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Speaker 1: the earth as emptiness. That is our God whom we serve.
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Speaker 1: That is the God in whom we trust and in
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Speaker 1: whom we believe. He is distinct from his creation. God
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Speaker 1: is enthroned on high. The earth is not divine. Do
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Speaker 1: we need to have a biblical approach to the environment? Yes,
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Speaker 1: we do. And first and foremost, a biblical approach to
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Speaker 1: the environment starts by recognizing the distinction between the creature
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Speaker 1: and the creator. Secondly, biblical environmentalism recognizes the symbiotic relationship
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Speaker 1: between man and nature. Look back there in verse 5 again.
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Speaker 1: When no bush of the field was yet in the land,
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Speaker 1: no small plant of the field had yet sprung up,
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Speaker 1: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain
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Speaker 1: on the land, and there was no man to work
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Speaker 1: the ground. God has not caused it to rain, and
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Speaker 1: there was no man to work the ground. So for
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Speaker 1: the earth to produce all that God intended for it
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Speaker 1: to produce, two things had to happen. Number one, God
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Speaker 1: had to supply the earth with what the earth needed.
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Speaker 1: And number two, man had to tend and cultivate the
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Speaker 1: earth in accordance with God's plan and design. So there's
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Speaker 1: this symbiotic relationship between man and the earth. We were
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Speaker 1: made from the earth. You break us down, we're made
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Speaker 1: of the same stuff that the earth is made of.
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Speaker 1: God didn't make us from foreign material. We were made
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Speaker 1: from the dust. And when you look at what man
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Speaker 1: is composed of, and you look at what the earth
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Speaker 1: is composed of, and you look at what the other
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Speaker 1: creatures are composed of, we're composed of the same stuff.
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Speaker 1: You find the same elements in us. When we die,
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Speaker 1: we return to the same stuff, these same elements. So
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Speaker 1: there is this symbiotic relationship between us and the earth.
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Speaker 1: We have to recognize that. And we do recognize this,
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Speaker 1: don't we? If you are a hunter or you're a
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Speaker 1: fisherman in here, you recognize this. Somebody who's committed to
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Speaker 1: hunting and fishing, it always amazes me, you know, environmentalists
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Speaker 1: are always out there talking about, you know, all these
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Speaker 1: bad hunters and these bad fishermen. No, no. If you
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Speaker 1: are a true sportsman, you are a true outdoorsman, you
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Speaker 1: are a true fisherman, you are a true hunter, what
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Speaker 1: do you do when you catch something that's too small?
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Speaker 1: Throw it back. Why? So he can grow and spawn
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Speaker 1: and there can be more and we can hunt again
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Speaker 1: tomorrow or fish again tomorrow. Amen? Amen. True hunters, you
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Speaker 1: do what? You go get a license, you go get
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Speaker 1: a tag. When you get your license and you tag,
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Speaker 1: you know, what are you doing? You're making sure that
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Speaker 1: you don't overhunt. We don't want to overhunt because I
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Speaker 1: want to fill the freezer next year too. Amen? There
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Speaker 1: is a symbiotic relationship, which means we have to be responsible.
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Speaker 1: Imagine that. We have to be responsible. But we have
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Speaker 1: to help our children to understand things like, you know, sweetheart,
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Speaker 1: when you turn on that faucet, it's good when you're
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Speaker 1: finished with it to kind of turn it off. Why? Well,
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Speaker 1: number one, because that isn't like paying water bills for
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Speaker 1: you to water the sink. And number two, because we
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Speaker 1: need to be stewards. Amen. Amen. we need to be
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Speaker 1: stewards so when it rains and God waters the grass
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Speaker 1: I really try to work hard not to water it
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Speaker 1: with him anybody ever done that before raining outside your
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Speaker 1: sprinklers are on that's poor stewardship It's poor stewardship. And
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Speaker 1: I have done it a number of times. I don't
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Speaker 1: even realize it. You're sitting out there, it's raining. Oh,
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Speaker 1: the rain is beautiful. All of a sudden you look
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Speaker 1: down there, some of the rain is going. Oh, God's
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Speaker 1: raining and I'm raining too. It's a symbiotic relationship between
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Speaker 1: us and nature. God has provided everything that we need
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Speaker 1: in nature. We need to be stewards of what it
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Speaker 1: is that God has provided in nature. And we are.
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Speaker 1: We are. We grow crops better and more abundantly now
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Speaker 1: than we ever have before. Why? Because we understand this
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Speaker 1: symbiotic relationship between us and nature. We've had scientific advances
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Speaker 1: unlike any ever seen before in the world as it
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Speaker 1: relates to us and nature and taking advantage of what
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Speaker 1: it is that God has provided for us. It's incredibly important.
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Speaker 1: We do more with less. Than we've ever done before.
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Speaker 1: And that is important. A biblical understanding of the environment.
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Speaker 1: Will take you into account. This symbiotic relationship. Between man
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Speaker 1: and the rest of nature. God makes it very clear.
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Speaker 1: The earth needed a man. To take care of it.
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Speaker 1: So that it would produce. What God intended for it
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Speaker 1: to produce. The way God intended for it to produce.
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Speaker 1: We don't ignore this. We don't ignore this. Listen, we've
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Speaker 1: said this often. You know this phrase, there's a ditch
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Speaker 1: on both sides of the road. On the one hand,
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Speaker 1: there's a ditch over on the radical environmentalist side of
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Speaker 1: the road because it deifies nature and it ends up
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Speaker 1: in idolatry. But there's a ditch on the other side
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Speaker 1: of the road too. You can't tell me that you
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Speaker 1: can be irresponsible with the way you use natural resources
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Speaker 1: and at the same time say you love God and
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Speaker 1: you're a steward of the creation that he's given us.
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Speaker 1: If you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch.
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Speaker 1: We're a wasteful people. Sometimes unnecessarily so. Look at the
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Speaker 1: next part of this. The third part of this. We
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Speaker 1: also must recognize the sovereignty of God over creation. Look
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Speaker 1: at me in the next few verses. First of all,
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Speaker 1: we see the Lord hadn't caused it to rain. Look
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Speaker 1: at verse 6. A mist was going up from the
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Speaker 1: land and was watering the whole face of the ground.
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Speaker 1: Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from
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Speaker 1: the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
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Speaker 1: And the man became a living creature. Verse 8. And
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Speaker 1: the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east.
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Speaker 1: And there he put the man whom he had formed.
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Speaker 1: And so God planted this garden. Here's what's interesting. God
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Speaker 1: didn't put man there and say to Adam, hey, Adam,
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Speaker 1: why don't you choose a really good place and organize
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Speaker 1: it the way that you would like to have it organized? No,
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Speaker 1: God put the garden there and then God put the
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Speaker 1: man in the garden. God made man responsible for the
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Speaker 1: garden that God had created. So God created the earth,
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Speaker 1: so he's sovereign over all creation. Then God created the
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Speaker 1: place where God put man. We also see in Acts
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Speaker 1: chapter 17 that God has set up the boundaries for
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Speaker 1: every people group. So God is the one who places
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Speaker 1: us where he places us for us to exercise our stewardship.
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Speaker 1: God is sovereign over creation. Amen? Amen? And because God
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Speaker 1: is sovereign over creation, our approach to the environment has
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Speaker 1: to be one that's dictated by God. Real simple. God
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Speaker 1: made it. God determines what we get to do with it.
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Speaker 1: God made it. God determines the proper and improper way
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Speaker 1: to treat it or respond to it or react to it.
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Speaker 1: God made it. He has all authority over it. By
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Speaker 1: the way, we see here in this text, God not
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Speaker 1: only has authority over the earth, but over man as well.
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Speaker 1: God creates man and breathes into him the very breath
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Speaker 1: of life. So God not only creates man, but he
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Speaker 1: sustains man. God gives us life. Far be it from
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Speaker 1: you or from me to take the life that God
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Speaker 1: has given us. To take the place that God has
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Speaker 1: put us and for us to determine in and of
24:47
Speaker 1: ourselves how we will respond both to our life and
24:51
Speaker 1: to the life that's around us. No, God is sovereign
24:57
Speaker 1: over all things. Turn with me to the right and
24:58
Speaker 1: look at Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. We're going
25:10
Speaker 1: to look at the anti-deist passage here. Deism is the
25:18
Speaker 1: idea that, you know, God just sort of set things
25:21
Speaker 1: in motion and then divorced himself from them. He set
25:26
Speaker 1: up these rules and he set up these laws and
25:27
Speaker 1: then he just sort of removed himself from them. Look
25:31
Speaker 1: at Colossians chapter 1, beginning of verse 15. Look at
25:34
Speaker 1: 15 through 20. It's talking about Christ here. He is
25:38
Speaker 1: the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
25:40
Speaker 1: For by him all things were created in heaven and
25:43
Speaker 1: on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
25:46
Speaker 1: rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and what?
25:50
Speaker 1: For him. All things were created through Christ. All things
25:57
Speaker 1: were created for Christ, which means he's sovereign over all things.
26:03
Speaker 1: I was created through Christ. I was created for Christ.
26:08
Speaker 1: The world that I inhabit was created through Christ, and
26:12
Speaker 1: the world that I inhabit is created for Christ. So
26:16
Speaker 1: as I interact with the world, I had better make
26:19
Speaker 1: sure that I am doing with the world what Christ
26:22
Speaker 1: intended for me to do with the world. Because he's sovereign.
26:30
Speaker 1: Verse 18. He is the head of the body, the church.
26:34
Speaker 1: He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that
26:36
Speaker 1: in everything he might be preeminent. In everything, he might
26:41
Speaker 1: be preeminent. He has sovereignty over all things. He has
26:49
Speaker 1: sovereignty over everything. So even as we approach this, let's
26:54
Speaker 1: look at this from a scientific perspective. People want to
26:58
Speaker 1: make the argument that there's somehow this chasm between science
27:01
Speaker 1: and religion or between science and Christianity. And we've talked
27:04
Speaker 1: about this before. It's Christianity and the biblical worldview that
27:09
Speaker 1: gave us the modern sciences, okay? Anybody who tells you otherwise,
27:15
Speaker 1: they're lying. It's Christianity and the biblical worldview that gave
27:19
Speaker 1: us the modern sciences. But we start with God, not
27:25
Speaker 1: with science. Well, then it's not true science. According to whom?
27:31
Speaker 1: Who told you that? We start with God, not with science.
27:36
Speaker 1: Christ is preeminent over all things. So whatever I'm looking
27:40
Speaker 1: for scientifically, I am trying to find the supremacy of
27:44
Speaker 1: Christ in whatever I'm looking for. And so as I
27:47
Speaker 1: am going forward with these discoveries, what am I looking for?
27:50
Speaker 1: I'm looking for the supremacy of Christ. Well, okay, but
27:53
Speaker 1: sometimes you just want to find a cure for cancer. Why? Why?
27:57
Speaker 1: Because that's an expression of the healing work of Jesus Christ.
28:02
Speaker 1: That's why. Why? He's preeminent over all things. Do I
28:06
Speaker 1: start with myself? Do I start with the earth? Or
28:09
Speaker 1: do I start with Christ? I start with Christ. Therefore,
28:14
Speaker 1: if I start with Christ, here's the difference. If I
28:17
Speaker 1: start with science and I say, my desire is to
28:20
Speaker 1: heal disease, then I will take a human embryo and
28:25
Speaker 1: I will ignore the fact that it's an image bearer
28:28
Speaker 1: of almighty God waiting to be born, and I will
28:31
Speaker 1: destroy it for the sake of science. But if I
28:37
Speaker 1: start with Christ, I say, we need to get stem
28:42
Speaker 1: cells somewhere else. And by the way, we have. We
28:52
Speaker 1: have seen successful work with stem cells from umbilical cords.
29:00
Speaker 1: We've seen successful work with adult stem cells. Little news flash,
29:05
Speaker 1: we've had no success, no success with embryonic stem cells.
29:11
Speaker 1: People have been made better with other stem cells. Nobody's
29:15
Speaker 1: been made better with embryonic stem cells. Why are we
29:18
Speaker 1: still wanting embryonic stem cells? It's political. It's not scientific.
29:30
Speaker 1: We start with the sovereignty of God. We don't start
29:35
Speaker 1: with nature. We don't start with man. We start with
29:38
Speaker 1: the sovereignty of God. God is sovereign over all creation.
29:45
Speaker 1: So whatever I do as God's creation and whatever I
29:48
Speaker 1: do with God's creation, I do it according to the
29:51
Speaker 1: dictates of the one who created them both. You see that?
29:59
Speaker 1: It's all about our starting point, people. It's all about
30:03
Speaker 1: our starting point. Fourthly, biblical environmentalism recognizes the beauty and
30:10
Speaker 1: grandeur of creation. Look at verse 9. I love this
30:14
Speaker 1: here in verse 9. And oftentimes we look right past it.
30:18
Speaker 1: Genesis 2, 9. And out of the ground the Lord
30:21
Speaker 1: God made to spring up every tree that is, look
30:25
Speaker 1: at this, pleasant to the sight and good for food.
30:31
Speaker 1: Every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good
30:36
Speaker 1: for food. I like that. I like that. We need
30:40
Speaker 1: to recognize the beauty and the grandeur of creation. God
30:45
Speaker 1: didn't just create the world for purely functional and pragmatic reasons.
30:52
Speaker 1: He also created the world for beauty's sake. Here's what's interesting.
30:57
Speaker 1: Look at what's happened in art as we've moved as
31:01
Speaker 1: far as worldview is concerned. Art from a biblical worldview
31:06
Speaker 1: is about what? It is about man's ability to recreate
31:12
Speaker 1: what God has created in different forms and through different media.
31:18
Speaker 1: So when biblical worldview is dominant, art looks like what?
31:23
Speaker 1: Art looks like a Rembrandt. Art looks like the work
31:27
Speaker 1: of the masters. But all of a sudden, when worldview changes,
31:35
Speaker 1: art is no longer about me as an individual trying
31:38
Speaker 1: to recreate in different media, whether that's with clay or
31:41
Speaker 1: whether that's with, you know, canvas and oils. It's not
31:45
Speaker 1: about me trying to recreate the beauty around me and
31:48
Speaker 1: mimic God who made me in his image. So as
31:51
Speaker 1: worldviews change, we then move to impressionism. Not inherently evil,
31:59
Speaker 1: but it's got a different goal. It's not about accurately
32:03
Speaker 1: representing what God created. Impressionism is about slight distortion. And
32:09
Speaker 1: then we move from the impressionistic art to abstract art.
32:15
Speaker 1: Now we're talking about a distortion of what God made.
32:19
Speaker 1: Then we move to the Jackson Pollocks of the world
32:21
Speaker 1: who just throw paint randomly on the canvas. It's a
32:28
Speaker 1: journey of worldview, people. And now as we look at
32:33
Speaker 1: it from an atheistic, secular humanistic worldview, what do we
32:39
Speaker 1: say about art? Beauty is in the eye, which means
32:45
Speaker 1: you are sovereign. You catch that? What's beautiful? Whatever you like.
32:53
Speaker 1: Over here, what's beautiful? Whatever man creates in an effort
33:00
Speaker 1: to to mimic what it is that God has done.
33:03
Speaker 1: God has made these beautiful things and these beautiful colors.
33:07
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean it just has to be complete realism.
33:09
Speaker 1: Doesn't mean that we try to, you know, paint photographs. No,
33:13
Speaker 1: sometimes it is about the beauty of looking at some
33:16
Speaker 1: animal And seeing a color in a part of its
33:20
Speaker 1: wing that you've never seen before in your life, and
33:22
Speaker 1: you go to work with colors, trying to put on
33:25
Speaker 1: your canvas that color that God created. It doesn't necessarily
33:28
Speaker 1: have to be an exact picture of that bird, but
33:31
Speaker 1: you're trying to make a picture of that color that
33:33
Speaker 1: God created. You put stuff on your walls. That's what
33:35
Speaker 1: you're trying to do. So I'm not saying that only
33:39
Speaker 1: the purest realism is true art. It's not my point.
33:45
Speaker 1: But my point is, as we look at art history,
33:48
Speaker 1: we're not just looking at the history of art. We're
33:50
Speaker 1: looking at the development of worldview as well. A biblical
33:58
Speaker 1: view of the environment recognizes the beauty and the grandeur
34:06
Speaker 1: of creation. A biblical view of the environment will pull
34:12
Speaker 1: the car over every now and then And say, kids,
34:16
Speaker 1: get out. Why? It's the Rocky Mountains right there. We're
34:20
Speaker 1: just going to stand and look at them for a while. Amen. Kids,
34:29
Speaker 1: stop for a minute. What? I want you to go
34:33
Speaker 1: hug that tree. Wait a minute, Dad, I thought you
34:36
Speaker 1: weren't a tree hugger. No, no, no, no, no, no.
34:38
Speaker 1: Not hug the tree to love the tree. That's a redwood.
34:40
Speaker 1: I want you to go try to put your arms
34:42
Speaker 1: around a redwood tree. so that in your mind you
34:44
Speaker 1: can fathom how big that thing is. Just go stretch
34:47
Speaker 1: your arms out as wide as you can. Try to
34:49
Speaker 1: put your arms around that big old tree that God made.
34:51
Speaker 1: And now we're going to go a few miles up
34:53
Speaker 1: the road, and we're going to drive through one of those. Wow!
35:00
Speaker 1: A biblical view of the environment recognizes and appreciates the
35:05
Speaker 1: beauty and the grandeur of God's creation. When's the last
35:08
Speaker 1: time you did that? Or is it all just functional?
35:17
Speaker 1: Can I tell you I don't like modern church buildings?
35:20
Speaker 1: I don't. Why? Because so many of them are just
35:24
Speaker 1: purely functional. I like going inside old Lutheran and old
35:32
Speaker 1: Presbyterian church buildings where there's stuff that's there to create awe.
35:40
Speaker 1: Now can you go overboard with that? Absolutely you can.
35:43
Speaker 1: But look at God's instructions for the temple and tell
35:48
Speaker 1: me that that was just purely functional. It was not.
35:57
Speaker 1: There's room for beauty and grandeur. Again, not excess. And
36:09
Speaker 1: if that's all you got, again, Altogether now, there's a
36:12
Speaker 1: ditch on both sides of the road. All right? We
36:18
Speaker 1: can be on the ditch over here where we pay
36:20
Speaker 1: no attention to beauty and grandeur, or we can be
36:22
Speaker 1: in the ditch over here where that's all we're concerned with.
36:27
Speaker 1: And that becomes gaudy. And we've seen that. Amen? Don't
36:35
Speaker 1: point fingers. All right. Fourthly, Biblical environmentalism recognizes the temporal
36:42
Speaker 1: nature of the created order. It recognizes the temporal nature
36:47
Speaker 1: of the created order. Look at the last part of
36:49
Speaker 1: verse 8, and there's something real sneaky in there. If
36:53
Speaker 1: you're not careful, you don't recognize it. Or the last
36:58
Speaker 1: part of verse 9, rather. The tree of life was
37:01
Speaker 1: in the midst of the garden, and the tree of
37:04
Speaker 1: the knowledge of good and evil. Isn't that interesting? Tree
37:09
Speaker 1: of life... It's in the midst of the garden. And
37:11
Speaker 1: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that's foreshadowing.
37:15
Speaker 1: It's foreshadowing the fall of man, and it's foreshadowing death.
37:22
Speaker 1: A biblical view of the environment recognizes the fact that
37:25
Speaker 1: none of this stuff was made to last forever. Nothing was.
37:31
Speaker 1: You weren't made to last forever. I wasn't made to
37:33
Speaker 1: last forever. This table wasn't made to last forever. This
37:37
Speaker 1: gym floor wasn't made to last forever. Nothing. Nothing. was
37:39
Speaker 1: made to last forever. One day it's all going to burn.
37:48
Speaker 1: But there's something about me that goes beyond this earth
37:51
Speaker 1: suit that I wear. And that was made to last forever.
38:01
Speaker 1: So if I understand the temporal nature of creation, I
38:05
Speaker 1: always keep it in perspective. This is beautiful, but it
38:11
Speaker 1: wasn't made to last forever. This is incredible, but it
38:16
Speaker 1: too had to be redeemed. I love that in Romans
38:18
Speaker 1: chapter 8, where it talks about the whole creation groaning
38:21
Speaker 1: in anticipation of its redemption. Christ is the redeemer of
38:25
Speaker 1: man and of nature. Amen! When we recognize the temporal
38:36
Speaker 1: nature of the things around us, puts these things into perspective.
38:42
Speaker 1: It changes the way we view them. And it changes
38:47
Speaker 1: what we consider of most importance and of most significant value.
38:53
Speaker 1: And we always put people above things when we understand
38:57
Speaker 1: it that way. Finally, biblical environmentalism utilizes the resources, the
39:02
Speaker 1: natural resources of creation. Look at the next part of this,
39:06
Speaker 1: verse 10. A river flowed out of Eden to water
39:10
Speaker 1: the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.
39:14
Speaker 1: The name of the first was Pishon. It is the
39:16
Speaker 1: one that flowed around the whole land of Habilah, where
39:20
Speaker 1: there is gold. Gold! And the gold of that land
39:24
Speaker 1: is good. And delium and onyx stone are there. The
39:29
Speaker 1: name of the second river is Gihon. It is the
39:32
Speaker 1: one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And
39:35
Speaker 1: the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows
39:38
Speaker 1: east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
39:42
Speaker 1: So we know where this is. This is in the
39:43
Speaker 1: Middle East. But I want you to notice that there
39:46
Speaker 1: is gold there. There are precious metals there. A biblical
39:51
Speaker 1: view of the environment are going to recognize these as resources.
39:54
Speaker 1: And they're resources to be used. We're going to recognize
40:01
Speaker 1: that these things can be leveraged for us. I want
40:06
Speaker 1: you to understand something here. Because here's where we sometimes
40:09
Speaker 1: make a mistake. We look at this and we say, see,
40:12
Speaker 1: God created man and God put man in the garden. Therefore,
40:17
Speaker 1: when we cut down trees and we make parking lots
40:21
Speaker 1: and we make tall buildings and all this sort of stuff,
40:23
Speaker 1: that is somehow a violation of what God intended for
40:28
Speaker 1: the earth. God put man in a garden with natural
40:32
Speaker 1: resources in order to create things. Newsflash. When this thing
40:38
Speaker 1: is all wrapped up, God doesn't put man in a
40:42
Speaker 1: garden for all eternity. He puts him in a city. Amen, lights.
40:57
Speaker 1: So garden living is not superior to urban living. When
41:03
Speaker 1: God wraps this thing up, heaven is urban, people. Do
41:08
Speaker 1: you hear me? Heaven is urban. It is not suburban.
41:13
Speaker 1: Heaven is urban. It's a giant mega city. Amen. With
41:19
Speaker 1: gold and onyx and fine materials that are crafted to
41:24
Speaker 1: make something out of the natural resources. Are you seeing this?
41:30
Speaker 1: So do I enjoy the country? I most assuredly enjoy
41:34
Speaker 1: the country. I enjoy the trees. I enjoy nature. And
41:39
Speaker 1: I love big, tall, beautiful buildings. I do. And I
41:46
Speaker 1: love it when we make them bigger. and taller. I do.
41:51
Speaker 1: I love it when we do that. Why? Because that
41:54
Speaker 1: is man doing what's in him to do. Create. God
42:02
Speaker 1: creates ex nihilo out of nothing. But man as an
42:06
Speaker 1: image bearer of God picks up all of the stuff
42:10
Speaker 1: that God gave him and says, I'm going to make
42:13
Speaker 1: something out of what it is that you gave us.
42:17
Speaker 1: And so now You can go see grandma halfway across
42:21
Speaker 1: the world, and it doesn't take you six months to
42:23
Speaker 1: do it. I'm glad. You can get on a 777.
42:34
Speaker 1: In a little while, you're going to be able to
42:36
Speaker 1: get on a 787. Goo gobs of people. You can
42:42
Speaker 1: go from here to Florida in less than two hours. Why?
42:49
Speaker 1: Because since the creation of man, we've been picking up
42:52
Speaker 1: natural resources and using the minds that God gave us
42:56
Speaker 1: to turn those natural resources into something better, into something useful.
43:07
Speaker 1: And that's a good thing. So don't buy this sort
43:13
Speaker 1: of pious attitude that says, Well, if you are really
43:18
Speaker 1: a godly person, what you love is being in touch
43:22
Speaker 1: with nature. No, I'm really a godly person, and I'm
43:26
Speaker 1: going to love the city that God's building for us
43:29
Speaker 1: to live in when it's all said and done. You,
43:31
Speaker 1: on the other hand, might have a problem if you
43:32
Speaker 1: don't like cities. A biblical approach to the environment looks
43:47
Speaker 1: around us and sees resources and tries to take those
43:51
Speaker 1: resources and make something better. But again, there's a ditch
43:58
Speaker 1: on both sides of the road. So here's what I
44:01
Speaker 1: really like. I really like it when we go into
44:04
Speaker 1: a place and you build a house. And what do
44:06
Speaker 1: you do when you go into a place and you
44:08
Speaker 1: build a house? You find some land and there's stuff
44:10
Speaker 1: on the land. It's like the Garden of Eden. And
44:13
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you have to sort of push
44:15
Speaker 1: back the weeds and everything that we have because of
44:16
Speaker 1: the fall, and you have to make a place for
44:19
Speaker 1: your dwelling. But when you're making a place for your dwelling,
44:23
Speaker 1: what do you do? You save as many trees as
44:28
Speaker 1: you can. Why? Because there's something in us that likes both,
44:32
Speaker 1: and that's okay. That's okay. Because in the New Jerusalem,
44:38
Speaker 1: there'll be rivers and there'll be streams and there'll be
44:41
Speaker 1: trees and I'm hoping they'll be fly fishing. I really do.
44:45
Speaker 1: I really do hope that in the New Jerusalem you
44:47
Speaker 1: can go fly fishing somewhere. Amen? This is a biblical
44:53
Speaker 1: approach to the environment. And so what do we do
44:58
Speaker 1: with this? I'm glad you asked. You take all of
45:02
Speaker 1: the issues that we now face and you sift them
45:07
Speaker 1: through this biblical grid. And we say there's a distinction
45:12
Speaker 1: between the creature and the creator. So I know I'm
45:15
Speaker 1: not going down that road over there that tries to make,
45:17
Speaker 1: you know, the creation divine. There is a symbiotic relationship
45:22
Speaker 1: between man and nature. So I know that I have
45:27
Speaker 1: to be a steward of what God's given. So I
45:30
Speaker 1: can love to hunt, but I don't just kill everything
45:33
Speaker 1: because I want to go hunting next year too. And
45:35
Speaker 1: I want my neighbor to be able to hunt too.
45:37
Speaker 1: I want to, okay. There's a symbiotic relationship. Between us.
45:43
Speaker 1: We understand that God is sovereign over us and over creation.
45:48
Speaker 1: So whatever we're doing, it has to be done in
45:51
Speaker 1: accordance with the purpose for which God made us and
45:53
Speaker 1: the purpose for which God made his creation. We appreciate
45:59
Speaker 1: the beauty and the grandeur of the creation. Because it
46:06
Speaker 1: screams to us the glory of God. And it's awe-inspiring.
46:16
Speaker 1: We recognize the temporal nature of us and of the
46:23
Speaker 1: world around us so that we always keep our minds
46:26
Speaker 1: on the eternal. And we appreciate the beauty and grandeur,
46:31
Speaker 1: but we don't worship it. And finally, we recognize and
46:37
Speaker 1: we utilize the natural resources that God has given us.
46:43
Speaker 1: And we take the raw materials that God has given us.
46:48
Speaker 1: And to the best of our ability, we imitate God
46:51
Speaker 1: and we create something else through these minds that he's
46:56
Speaker 1: given us. If we take those things all together, number one,
47:06
Speaker 1: we'll be on safe biblical ground And number two, we
47:12
Speaker 1: will have a God-honoring approach to our stewardship of this
47:16
Speaker 1: world that God has created for His glory and our enjoyment.
47:22
Speaker 1: And I believe that would bring honor to Christ. Let's pray.