What Is God Like? - Dr. Frank Turek

If I were to ask you what is the most important thing about you, what would be your answer? According to A.W. Tozer, he was a pastor that lived a couple of generations ago, he said that the most important thing about you is what you think about when you hear the word God. What do you think about when you hear the word God? This is the interactive portion of the program. What do you think about? All right, you guys are all like Charlie Brown's teacher right now. Wah, wah, wah. You think about a creator, love, grace, omnipotence. These are all attributes of God, but if you're thinking about the man upstairs or someone who is an old man in the sky with a beard, unfortunately the Sistine Chapel kind of gives us that impression. That's not God. In fact, what I want you to do for a minute, I want you to forget about the word God for a minute. You know, that's not his name. His name isn't God, okay? This is the word we use to describe the ultimate being. But I want you to forget that word for a minute, and instead of thinking about the word God, I want you to think about what or who is the source and sustainer of all things. Who is the source and sustainer of all things? And I think if we had time in here to go through this, we would conclude that the source and sustainer of all things, this being has certain characteristics. We lay this out in the book Stealing from God. What are these characteristics? First of all, this being is self-existing. He is the uncaused cause of all being. He didn't have a beginning. He won't have an end. He didn't have a cause. He is what Aristotle might call the unmoved mover, the being that has always existed and will always exist. This being is also infinite, meaning it's unlimited, this being. It has no potential to get better. It can't change because this being is maximally good, completely actualized, we might say. This being is also simple, meaning the being's undivided. It doesn't have any parts. It's not composed. This is one reason that we know God is uncreated. Everything that's created is composed. It's composed of parts. You're composed of parts. I'm composed of parts. This church, obviously, is composed of parts. If something is composed, then someone must have composed that being, put the parts together, in other words. The ultimate being can't be composed. The ultimate being must be uncomposed, simple. Also, this being must be spaceless to transcend space, timeless to transcend time. This being's eternal. This being created time. He's not inside of time. He created time. This being is also immaterial, meaning spirit not made of matter. Jesus famously says to the woman at the well, God is spirit and we must worship him in spirit and in truth. This being is also omnipotent, meaning all-powerful, omnipresent, everywhere present. That doesn't mean that God is made of everything. That would be pantheism. God is not this computer. God is not this table. But his power is present to all things. His power is holding all composed things together right now. He not only composed all things, he holds them all together. This being is also omniscient, all-knowing, immutable, unchangeable. What's this being going to change from if he's a perfect being? Any change would necessitate a change from perfection to imperfection. So this being doesn't change. This being is also personal, meaning he has mind, emotion, and will and he can make choices. And by the way, you can arrive at all of these attributes without the Bible. Good philosophical reasoning, reasoning that people like Aristotle and Aquinas use. You can arrive at these without any reference to any scriptural, without the Bible. Now this last one you can't. You need the Bible to know that this being is triune. This being is three persons in one divine essence. And finally, this being is holy, set apart, morally perfect. This being is morally perfect in love and justice. Now I mention all this because the Bible tells us how we can conceive of a being like this. How do we conceive of a being that is self-existing, infinite, simple, spaceless, timeless, immaterial? How can we actually conceive of this being? Because we're finite creatures. We don't have these attributes. The Bible tells us how to do it. Who is God? What is he like? Isaiah tells us. Isaiah chapter 40. And in Isaiah chapter 40, God is speaking. And he's telling us how we can understand what he is like. Here's what he says. To whom will you compare me or who is my equal, says the Holy One. In other words, he's saying, you want to know what I'm like? Here's a comparison. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name because of his great power and mighty strength. Not one of them is missing. In other words, you want to know what this being is like? Look to the heavens. If you look to the heavens, you'll get some concept of what God is really like. So, what we're going to do here tonight is look to the heavens. And when we look to the heavens, what are we going to see? We're going to see three things. First, we're going to see that the heavens are precisely created and designed. We're going to look at that first. Then secondly, we're going to see that the heavens are unimaginably vast. You're not going to be able to even comprehend how vast the heavens are, but we'll try. The Bible gives us a clue as to how to comprehend that. And then finally, we're going to see that the heavens are dazzlingly beautiful. And we're going to use the Hubble Space Telescope to help us see that. So, let's start right here at point one, precisely created and designed. You guys ready to go? Okay, good. And we know the heavens are created and designed because there's a theory that you've probably heard of. It is actually called the Big Bang. And you're saying, Frank, the Big Bang? We're Christians. We don't believe in the Big Bang. You guys don't believe in the Big Bang? I believe in the Big Bang. I just know who banged it. In fact, the evidence for the Big Bang is so good that even atheists are admitting the data. They're admitting that space, matter, and time had a beginning out of nothing. Well, let me ask you this, ladies and gentlemen. If space, matter, and time had a beginning out of nothing, what could have created space, matter, and time? Only something that's spaceless, timeless, and immaterial, right? Something outside of space, matter, and time. A spaceless, timeless, immaterial, powerful, personal, intelligent being. You can get those attributes of God by one argument for God, and that is the argument from the beginning of the universe. But I don't have time to dwell on that right now. I want to instead talk about the fact that the universe is fine-tuned. Not only was it created, but it was created in such a precise way that if any of a number of attributes about the universe were slightly different, there would either be no universe or no universe that could support life. And we're going to start with an atheist by the name of Stephen Hawking. You've probably heard of him. He was probably the most well-known physicist in the world until he died about four years ago. And here's what Hawking said about the beginning of the universe. He said, if the expansion rate of the universe was different by one part in a thousand million million a second after the Big Bang, the universe would have collapsed back on itself or never developed galaxies. In other words, if the expansion rate from the very beginning was that infinitesimally different, none of us would be here. Now, you can't make any sort of evolutionary explanation for this. Why? Because the expansion rate did not evolve to a particular point. The expansion rate started there. This is what scientists call one of the initial conditions of the universe. When space, time and matter were created, the expansion rate was perfect. Seems to me the same being that created space, matter and time is the same intelligent being that made the expansion rate exactly what it needed to be. If it was any different, there would be no universe or no universe that could support life. Not only that, the universe is precisely tweaked with regard to the gravitational force. If it were altered by more than one part in 10 to the 40th power, we wouldn't exist. Now, what's one part in 10 to the 40th power? That's one part in one with 40 zeros following it. You say, Frank, I can't get my head around that number. I know, neither can I. So, let me give you an illustration. Take a tape measure and stretch it across the entire known universe. That's a long way. You can't get that tape measure at Lowe's, okay? Set the gravitational force at a particular inch mark on that tape measure. I realize gravity is not measured in inches, but this is to give you a scale idea in your mind. If the strength of gravity were different by one inch in either direction across the scale as wide as the entire known universe, we wouldn't be here. Now, I don't have enough faith to believe that that value just landed there by chance. By the way, does chance cause things? Who caused this? Chance. He was just here. No. Chance is not a cause. Chance is a word we use to describe mathematical possibilities. When scientists are using the word chance, you know what they really mean? We don't know. That's what they mean. Look, there's only two possibilities for this value being where it is. It was either designed to be that way or it wasn't. What do you think is more reasonable? It was designed. Somebody put it there. Now, I just gave you two out of about a dozen of these parameters about our universe. If you change any one of them, imperceptibly, none of us are here. So, the universe was created and the universe is designed. The next point we want to talk about is how unimaginably vast this universe is. And in order to do that, we're going to start in our solar system. And our solar system will show us how big our galaxy is here, looking at the solar system and the galaxy. And even the solar system itself appears to be designed. Let's take a look at it right here. Here's the solar system. As you know, we're right here, third rock from the sun. If we were just a little bit closer to or a little bit further away from the sun, we couldn't survive. A little bit closer to, we'd burn up. A little bit further away, we'd freeze. We're what scientists call the Goldilocks zone. It's not too hot. It's not too cold. It is... That's a lie. It's too hot here in the summer. The axial tilt, 23.5 degrees. Change that slightly, we don't exist. Earth rotation, 24 hours. Change that slightly, we don't exist. The size and distance of the moon from us. Change that slightly, we don't exist. If Jupiter right here was not in its current orbit, we couldn't exist here on earth. Why not? What does Jupiter do for us? Jupiter's gravitational force is so strong that it attracts most of the meteors and space junk to it rather than us. In fact, Jupiter is a cosmic vacuum cleaner. If Jupiter wasn't there, we wouldn't be here. In fact, you want to know the close-up here of Jupiter. You see these dark marks on Jupiter? Those dark marks are comet fragment strikes that are bigger than the earth. Thank God for Jupiter. Because if Jupiter wasn't there, we wouldn't be here. Saturn does the same thing. In fact, let's take a look at the other planets. Here is Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Earth. Look at poor Pluto down here. You know, Pluto recently has been demoted as a planet. I don't know about you, but I think it's size discrimination. Take a look at this. You can hardly see Pluto. Take a look at this. All right, that's Arcturus. That's another star inside our galaxy. Here's the sun over here. Jupiter is one pixel in size on this scale. Earth is invisible. Pluto? Forget about it. All right, keep an eye on Arcturus now. Where's Arcturus? Now, way over to the right, right next to Regal, that's Antares. That's another star in our galaxy. The sun is one pixel in size on this scale. Jupiter is invisible. Earth, Pluto? Forget about them. In fact, if the earth was the size of a golf ball, Betelgeuse here. Look, I don't name the stars, okay? If the earth was the size of a golf ball, Betelgeuse would be five or six empire state buildings high. The heavens are awesome, and that's just in our galaxy. This is not outside our galaxy, and the average distance between stars in our galaxy is 30 trillion miles, and all that distance is necessary for us to exist here on earth. Now, 30 trillion miles, how far is that? Far. Take you at least two tanks of gas and a Toyota Prius to go 30 trillion miles. Number of years ago, my wife and I took our three sons out to Tucson, because that's where my in-laws live, and we took our sons to the desert museum. If you ever get to Tucson, Arizona, south side of town, they've got this desert museum out there, and if you go there at night, on a clear night, you can see thousands of stars in the sky. So, we're out there one night, and the guide says, hey, it's so clear tonight that if we look up at 903, we will see the space shuttle in orbit. Oh, come on. We're not going to see the space shuttle. It's only 120 feet long. It's 350 miles up. We're not going to see it. Oh, me of little faith. At 903, the guide goes, look, and we look up in the sky, about 70 degrees above the horizon, there's an object streaking across the western desert sky, relative to us, about like this. When it got right about here, it disappeared. I don't know whether Scotty beamed it up or what. Actually, what happened was, despite the fact that we were in total darkness, the space shuttle was so high up that the sun was still reflecting off of it, and when it got out of the range of the sun, we couldn't see it anymore. Now, when the space shuttle was in orbit, the space shuttle was traveling at about 18,000 miles an hour. That's five miles per second. You got trouble getting to work in the morning? Take the space shuttle. You'll be five miles a second. Think about how fast that is. Well, I did a little calculation to try and figure out how long would it take us if we could get in the space shuttle and go from our star, the sun, to another star in our galaxy, an average distance away, 30 trillion miles. In other words, how long would it take us to go 30 trillion miles if we could go five miles per second? What do you think? Long time. You must be a math major. It's a really big number. It would take us 201,450 years to go from our star, the sun, to another star an average distance away in our galaxy. That means if you got in the space shuttle at the time of Christ and started traveling from our star, the sun, to another star in our galaxy an average distance away, you've been going five miles per second for 2,000 years. You'd be less than one hundredth of the way there right now. And we're going to explore space. No, we're not. We're not going anywhere in space. We can hardly get out of our solar system. It took us nine years to get to Pluto. Now, that's just inside our galaxy. And how many stars are inside our galaxy? They say billions. What about outside our galaxy? Remember, we're looking to the heavens to try and figure out what God is like. Well, the Hubble Space Telescope has helped answer that question for us. A number of years ago, they trained the Hubble Space Telescope on 1 24 millionth of the sky for several weeks. What's 1 24 millionth of the sky? Go outside tonight, put a piece of rice on the your finger, hold it up at arm's length. That piece of rice represents about 1 24 millionth of the sky. What did they find when they did that? What I'm going to show you is the video from the mission. And it's just a series of pictures. And it's going to zoom in on 1 24 millionth of the sky. This is called Hubble Ultra Deep Field. It's in the public domain. You can Google it or duck, duck, go it, okay, and find it. Now, I don't know if you can see this on here, but you see these are mountains down here. This is the southern sky, southern hemisphere. I'm going to start the video, and you're going to see the constellations come up, and then Hubble's going to zoom in to the ultimate picture they took. There is no audio. It's just video. Are you ready? Here we go. 1 24 millionth of the sky. There are the constellations. What you're looking at are nearly 10,000 galaxies in 1 24 millionth of the sky. How many stars are out there? Researchers at the University of Hawaii figured it out. The number of stars in our universe are about equivalent to the number of sand grains on all the beaches on all the earth times 100,000. And to go from one star to another star just in our galaxy, going over five miles a second, will take you over 200,000 years. And God says, if you want to know what I'm like, look to the heavens. What do you see when you look to the heavens? You see a virtual infinite expanse. Ladies and gentlemen, I never want to hear any of you ever use the word awesome again unless you're talking about the heavens or God. Awesome shirt, dude. Awesome shot, dude. Awesome TikTok video. No. What word are you going to say for this? You feel small now? You shouldn't. Why? Because as amazing as the heavens are, you're actually more amazing. The heavens are not made in the image of God, but you are. In fact, here's what God says about you. He says, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love to those that fear him. So great is his love for those that fear him. As high as the heavens are above the earth, how high are the heavens above the earth? Stars equivalent to sand grains on 100,000 earths, over 200,000 years at five miles a second between those stars? It's infinite. That's the point. He's not a man on a cloud. He's not the man upstairs. He's not your buddy. He is the source and sustainer of all things. And you'd imagine the source and sustainer of all things, if he created a precisely designed universe and he made it unimaginably vast, you would think it would be beautiful as well, wouldn't you? Here are some pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope. They need no narration, so I'm just going to be quiet. He's watching. God says, you want to know what I'm like? Look to the heavens. What do you see when you look to the heavens? You see a precisely created and designed universe. You see a universe that is unimaginably vast and you see one that's dazzlingly beautiful. Now, what I just showed you is an abbreviation of a longer presentation. If you want to see the whole thing, the DVD is out there somewhere in the lobby and the book Stealing from God, which talks about this is out there as well as I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. But if you want evidence that Christianity is true, there's a lot more than what we talked about here. Just text the word evidence to 44222. Text the word evidence to 44222. I'm going to send you a PowerPoint presentation in a PDF format that will explain why Christianity is true. Don't put quotes on evidence, just type the word evidence. Now, let me conclude by pointing out that that verse I just quoted from Psalm 103, there's a second half to it. Here's what it completely says. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. How is he removed our transgressions from us? He not only created and sustains this vast universe and created and sustains you. He actually entered the bloodstream of humanity in order to rescue us from the transgressions we've committed. He came to earth and he lived the perfect life. And then he allowed the creatures that rebelled against him to beaten, torture and crucify him. So he would take our punishment on himself. And by accepting what he's done, you're not only forgiven for what you've done, you're given his righteousness. And how do we know this actually is the truth? Because not only did Jesus of Nazareth die on the cross, he actually rose again. And one day we will all rise again because of what he did for us. So the creator of this vast and beautiful universe entered this universe to save us from our own sins. So when you ask the question, what is the most important thing about you? It should be, what do I think about when I hear the word God? And what have I done with that information? By the way, this God who created this vast and beautiful universe, if he is that vast, that infinite, that powerful, is it possible that he has a reason for some difficulty that you've been going through? That you don't know what that reason is? Is it possible a being that literally awesome might know what he's doing? Even if we're sitting down here going, God, I can't figure out why this has happened. Yeah, this God isn't just the source and sustainer of the universe. This God is also the being that died and rose again for our sins. And I want to give everybody an opportunity here today, if you've never accepted what he's done for you, I'm going to give you an opportunity to do that. And my question is, is if you haven't accepted it, why not? Because as awesome as this being is, he's provided you a way out. I'm trying to figure out why you wouldn't take it. Father, I pray that if there's anyone here today who has not accepted the salvation that you have provided freely, it's free.