In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of listening to the word of God. He shares a personal anecdote about his hearing checkup and how it reminded him of the significance of attentive listening. The preacher highlights the power of God's word to bring about change in people's lives and the ultimate goal of preaching and teaching the Bible. He references John 5:24, where Jesus states that those who hear His word and believe in Him have everlasting life. The preacher also discusses the self-interpretive nature of the Bible and encourages listeners to trace references and understand the context of verses. He concludes by urging the congregation to be attentive and responsive to God's word.

And you'll find it followed by the words, And it was so. How did this universe come into being? For your information, your Bible says God spoke it into being. Does that boggle your mind? Well, it should. Our finite minds cannot understand the infinite, but here's the record, friends, and you better believe that it's true. Now, if you will turn in your Bible to Psalm 33, you will see that this is what is taught throughout the Holy Scriptures. Genesis 1 is not an isolated reference to how God created the universe. Psalm 33. When you found Psalm 33, there are two verses there that I want you to note. Please look at verse 6. Psalm 33, verse 6. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Don't have to be a high school graduate to understand that. Verse 9. He spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. Do you know what that's teaching us, dear friends? There's God in the beginning. Nothing else. Are you ready? God spoke to nothing, and nothing became something. That's what your Bible says. Now, you don't have to be a grammar school graduate to understand that. You say, I don't quite grasp that. Just trust the record. God said it. Trust the record. I trust the record. It makes sense to me. I'm an average person with average intelligence. I don't have a low IQ, and I don't have the highest IQ, but I'm average. Trust the record. That is reasonable. In the beginning was God. There was nothing. God speaks to nothing, and nothing becomes something. So what do we have? We have a natural creation. And as I said this morning, the greatest discovery that our astronauts have made in our making is the orderliness of this vast universe. And we'll never probe the outer spaces. Never. I think when they get as far as they can get, they're out in the second heavens. They'll never reach the third heaven by man-made machines. That's God's abode. There are only three heavens. We're penetrating outer space. We'll never get into God's abode with a man-made machine. No way. There's only one way to heaven. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the light. But no man cometh unto the Father but by me. I quoted that in a message, and a man came up to me. He seemed to be a bit angry. He said, You have a closed mind. He said, The Bible is a biased book. I said, You're certainly right it is. He said, You don't believe in the freedom of religion, do you? I said, I sure do. You can go to hell your way or go to heaven God's way. You're free to make your own choice. You better trust the record, dear friend. You have a natural creation, and it'll keep in order until God's finished with the human race here on earth. Scientists say we're running out of energy. I don't believe it. In the beginning, God, that's the Hebrew word for, translated from Elohim, the strong, faithful one. You see, the God who put it together hasn't run out of energy because he is the eternal God, and he'll keep it going until he's finished with us on earth. We'll never run out of energy as long as man is here. God's committed himself. A natural creation by the words of God. Now we're going to turn to Genesis chapter 12, and I want you to see, secondly, there is a national creation, and how did it come into being, and what sustains this national creation? Turn now to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, I don't know how God spoke to Abram. There wasn't any Bible. There were no writings to which Abraham had access, but before the scriptures were given, God had various ways of revealing himself. Sometimes he would send an angel to reveal himself to certain people. Sometimes God would speak in a vision. A vision is a revelation from God in one's waking moments. Sometimes he would reveal himself in a dream. A dream is a revelation from God in one's sleeping moments. God has had many ways of revealing himself. We're not told how he spoke to Abraham, but he said this, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. Now note the I wills here in your Bible. Verse 2, I will make of thee a great nation. I will bless thee. I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curses thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Now God spoke. He spoke a natural creation into being. Now he's going to speak a national creation. He chooses one man, Abraham. Some of you say, Why did God choose Abraham? I have no problem with that. I look at my life and see how deserving of hell I am. I'm baffled by the fact that God ever chose me. Let's not have the Gentiles look down their nose and say, Why did God choose that Hebrew? If we all got our desserts tonight, we'd all be in hell, my friends, every last one of us. Every one of us. Not tomorrow. We'd be there now. Why did God ever choose you? Why did he ever choose me? Only by his grace and by his mercy out of love. So he chooses a man by the name of Abraham, and he promises to make of that man a great nation. And do you realize that when Abraham first got this message from God, it had to boggle his mind? You want to know why? Back up to verse 30 of chapter 11. Look at it. It's in your Bible. Sarah was barren. She had no child. You know what that means? She couldn't become pregnant. She couldn't become a mother. Now there are many women with this, if you want to call it an affliction, just for biological reasons unknown to me. The medical profession can answer the questions. Some women cannot become pregnant. Your Bible says that Sarah was barren. She had no children. She couldn't have any. She was barren. There was no fertility in her womb, only sterility. That's what the Bible says. Yet God said, I'm going to make of you a great nation. Now when God speaks, something has to happen. God can't back down on his word. Now this troubled Abraham because up to this point, Sarah couldn't have any children. So when you come into the 16th chapter, Abraham and Sarah are getting antsy and getting itchy. God made a promise, and to this point, nothing has happened. They're getting along in years. Abraham is approaching 100, and Sarah is approaching 90. Biologically speaking, both are beyond the age and stage of having children of their own. And Sarah suggested to Abraham that maybe they ought to help God out a little bit. God's dragging his feet, and they ought to help him out and have this baby by the Egyptian maid that they brought out of Egypt when they came. And so they had a son by Hagar, the Egyptian maid. His name was Ishmael. And Abraham thought, well, this must be the fulfillment of God's promise. But it wasn't. God intended Sarah to be the mother of that child. And so, chapter 17, verse 1, when Abraham was 90 years old and nine, wow, 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said unto him, I am the Almighty God. Walk before me and be thou perfect, not sinlessly perfect, but sincere. And I'm going to make a covenant between me and you. You don't take me at my word. You don't trust me. I'm going to make a covenant. And God made a covenant. And in that chapter, he said in verse 15, Sarai, thy wife, I'm going to change your name to Sarah, I will bless her and give thee a son also of her. Now he's 100 years of age and Sarah is 90. Do you know what the Bible calls that? Turn over with me, if you will, please, to Paul's epistle to the Galatians. And when you find Paul's epistle to the Galatians, you're going to find an interesting comment on this national creation. Well, let's see. Maybe we can find something in the fourth of Romans first. Let's look at Romans 4 first. Verse 17. As it is written... Romans 4, 17. As it is written. Where? Genesis 17, 5. Whenever you see in your Bible, as it is written, find out where. Go back and trace it. See the Bible interprets the Bible. The Bible is a self-interpretive book. As it is written, I have made thee a father of nations. See, it's in the past tense. That was before Sarah became pregnant. But you see, when God speaks, it's just as good as done. It's in the past tense. I have made thee a great nation, the father of many nations. Before him whom he believed, even God who quickeneth or makes alive or brings life to the dead and calls those things which be not as though they were, who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations according to that which was spoken. Genesis 15, 5. So shall thy seed be. Being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead. D-E-A-D. Biologically dead. Not capable of becoming a father. He was a hundred years old. Yet, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. See the language of the Bible? Biologically speaking, there was no life. There was only, there was a deadness there. But God spoke. And in the process of time, Sarah had a son by the name of Isaac. And God kept his word and raised up a nation that lives to this day. And it will continue to live. No nation has ever been able to destroy the little nation of Israel. Impossible. Every nation that has tried has fallen. Why? God said to Abraham, I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curses thee. When God speaks, something has to happen. I'll turn in your Bible to Jeremiah. That'd take a little longer to find than Genesis, but it's in there. I checked it out this afternoon. Jeremiah chapter 31. Now it's unfortunate, there are some people in the world who call themselves Christians who have a nasty, bitter spirit of hatred against the Jews. I don't know why, but they do. There are people, and some call themselves Christians. And if you ask them why, well, they say they dealt with a Jewish butcher and he put his thumb on the scale when he weighed the meat. He said he cheats. I know a lot of cheating Gentiles, too. Put the whole fist on the scale, not only from. The nature of the Jew is the same as the nature of the Gentile. We all came from Adam. We had the same bank. Now the Lord said, if you want to destroy the nation of Israel, I'll tell you how to do it. Would you like to know? God gives a way to do it in the Bible. Jeremiah 31, verse 35. Make note of this, because you might meet someone who just hates the Jew. And if you do, say, hey, do you want to destroy, would you like to wipe out those Jews? I'll give you the clue. Here's how you can do it. Jeremiah 31, 35. Thus saith the Lord. Ooh, God's going to speak again. Yep. Which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar. The Lord of hosts is his name. If those ordinances, sun, moon, and stars, if those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever. You have to destroy the sun, moon, and stars. That's what the Bible says. Anybody want to try for it? That nation will live on. There's a future for the nation of Israel. Why? God has spoken. When God speaks, it has to happen. So you have a natural creation. How did it come into being? By the words of God. You have a national creation. How did that little nation come into existence and why does it continue on? How is it sustained? The words of God. They are life-producing and life-preserving. And so the little nation continues on. Now the Bible predicts in the book of Ezekiel that there's a day coming when Russia will invade Israel. Just as sure as you're here tonight, when she does, that will spell the final doom of Russia. Who said so? God did. I will bless the nations that bless Israel and I will curse or damn or judge the nations that judge Israel. When God speaks, something has to happen. Now this does something for me as a minister of God's Word. One of the reasons why I asked the Lord if he would please spare me long enough to teach and preach his Word with more conviction and courage than I've ever done before. And I want to speak to you tonight finally on the power of the Word of God not only in bringing a natural creation and a national creation but 2 Corinthians 5.17 what the Bible calls a new creation. You know the verse, don't you? Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creation. Now 1 Corinthians 15.22 says for as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive. When you and I were born into this world we were born spiritually dead alienated from the life of God. Every person born into this world is born a loser, a lost sinner doomed to hell. Every baby born into this world. However when babies die as babies they don't go to hell, they go to heaven. That's another subject. We can prove that from the Bible. You might find that in one of my books out there but we're not dealing with that tonight. Babies who die as babies and children who have not reached an age or state of accountability to God will never be in hell. The love of God will not permit that. That is backed up with Scripture. But potentially every baby born into this world living long enough to reject the Lord Jesus Christ dying knowingly, intentionally willfully rejecting Christ makes a choice to go to hell. Now don't come to me and say I don't believe a God of love will send anyone to hell because I will agree with you. But you see dear friend if anyone here tonight goes to hell it's because you chose to go there. You don't have to go. God loves you. Christ died for you. And remember what I said if you end up in hell that was your choice. God has something better for you. He wants to save you in time and for all eternity. We come into this world spiritually dead. Alienated, Ephesians chapter 4 cut off from the life of God. God said to Adam in Genesis 2, 17 Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree which is in the midst of the garden thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. When God speaks something has to happen. And the day that Adam sinned Adam died spiritually. He alienated himself from the life of God and he began to die physically. He was moving toward the grave the day that he sinned. When God speaks something happens. Now if Adam and Eve would have had babies before they sinned before the fall the babies would have been holy sinless babies but they didn't have any children before the fall. And because there is a law that can never be altered it's the law that says everything reproduces after it's kind like begets like. If you plant red beets you're not going to pull up carrots. If you plant a peach tree you're not going to pluck apples. Everything reproduces after it's kind. Here's one for the evolutionists. How come apes reproduce apes? Huh? Claim we came from apes. Why or how come? I don't understand that. Mother apes don't have baby apes. And then some man educated or some woman educated above their own intellect says well there's a missing link. If we ever find the missing link we'll have the answer. Hey friends there's no link missing there's a screw loose. Don't you young people ever believe the unproved evolutionary theory. Unproved. Ask your professor give me the proof. He doesn't have any proof. Trust the record in your Bible. Everything reproduces after it's kind. So Adam and Eve sinned. They brought babies into the world spiritually dead. That's the way you and I came into this world. You're listening tonight to a man who was born dead. Now how does a dead spiritually dead sinner get repositioned from being in Adam to being in Christ? First Corinthians 15 22 For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Well there's only one way. It's the words of God. Now don't stumble over this it's so simple but it's so precious. It'll give you a new appreciation of your Bible. Now listen carefully. John 5 24 Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed out of death into life. He that heareth my word. Do you know why I want to continue to teach and preach God's word? Because when God speaks something happens. Things are going to happen in the lives of people every time the word is preached from this pulpit. Oh not everybody will respond to it but where there is response there's always a change. And the goal of all preaching and the goal of all Bible teaching is changed lives, changed behavior. That's the goal. Every time your pastor gets up to teach and preach the word of God the ultimate goal is changed lives. Don't we want to be better people? Why in the world do we come if we don't want to be improved on? Romans 10 17 So then faith now in order to be saved you have to believe. Acts 16 31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Somebody says, well I want to believe but I can't. Romans 10 17 So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Hear the word of God it will quicken faith. 1 Peter 1 23 Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. How is someone born again? To be born again is to receive new life. You pass out of spiritual death into spiritual life. 1 Peter says being born again not of corruptible perishable seed but of incorruptible imperishable seed by the word of God which liveth present continuous tense it never ceases to live and abideth forever. The power of the word of God. James chapter 1 We are told what to do with the Bible in James chapter 1 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your soul. When God speaks something happens. Now you've heard the voice of a man tonight but I've given you enough scripture and you've heard God speak. When you heard his words you heard God speak. Now if there's response to God's words then there's going to be some fruit. And that's where you and I come in. You see just as the word of God is the means for our salvation so it is the means for our spiritual growth. No Christian can possibly grow spiritually who neglects the Bible. May I repeat that? No Christian can grow spiritually who neglects the Bible. 1 Peter 2.2 As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. John 15.3 The Lord Jesus said Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. John 17.17 Our Lord prayed to the Father Sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth. The psalmist said in Psalm 119.9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Psalm 119.11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against God. Oh, the value and the importance of the word of God. The value and the importance of taking a few days out of your busy life to gather together for a stepped-up, concentrated study of the word of God. When God speaks, something happens. Careful how you hear. Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8 all three chapters have the parable of the sower, the seed, and the soils. Matthew says, take heed how you hear. Luke says, be careful what you hear. Are you listening? My cardiologist gave me a checkup before I left California and went from stem to stern, checked my hearing. I said, how's my hearing? Oh, he said, it's getting weaker like all old people get eventually. I said, thanks a lot. And then he said, one of his patients came in for a complete checkup. And he said, Doctor, I'm concerned about my hearing. And the doctor gave him the pitchfork test and a few other tests. And then the doctor took his watch and he held it a little distance from the patient's ear. And he said, now listen. Concentrate. Pay attention. Concentrate. Can you hear my watch tick? The man said, yes, I can hear it. The doctor said, I moved the watch away from him a little longer distance, about a foot. I said, now listen. Concentrate. Can you hear the watch tick from where I'm holding it? The man said, yes, I can hear that watch. Doctor Peacock said, you don't have a hearing problem. You have a listening problem. You're not listening. Are we listening, beloved, to what God says? We can hear and never listen. You know what I'm saying? I hear your voice, but are we listening? When God speaks, something will happen if only we will respond to that word. Let us pray.