Hellen Keller Quotes
Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.
I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a man made world.
It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.
People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.
Unless we form the habit of going to the Bible in bright moments as well as in trouble, we cannot fully respond to its consolations because we lack equilibrium between light and darkness.
Many people know so little about what is beyond their short range of experience. They look within themselves - and find nothing! Therefore they conclude that there is nothing outside themselves either.
He Sets the Captives Free (57 Min Sermon About Spiritual Bondage)
Helen Keller in a letter said she had always known about God, even before she had any words. Even before she could call God anything, she knew God was there. She didn't know what it was. God had no name for her -- nothing had a name for her. She had no concept of a name. But in her darkness and isolation, she knew she was not alone. Someone was with her. She felt God's love. And when she received the gift of language and heard about God, she said she already knew.
Romans chapter one tells us that the answer, in a word, is Yes - and that a change of heart is possible for the one who denies God's existence.
The Bible's Pronouncement
Twice in the book of Psalms the Bible declares, "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God'" (14:1 and 53:1). The Hebrew word for "fool" is nabal (pronounced na-báll). Used eighteen times in the Old Testament, nabal describes a person who is a deliberate rebel against God, and who thinks and acts accordingly. The Hebrew word for "fool" denotes deliberate immorality in thought, word and deed, not lack of intellectual capacity. As we shall see, this is an important distinction.
You may recall that there was a man in the Bible who bore the name Nabal (1 Samuel 25:2-39). It was said that he behaved in a way befitting his name (verse 25). So obstinate was his state of mind that people couldn't even have a reasonable conversation with him (verse 17).
Every Human Being Knows God
Sadly, the God-denying state of mind is also like that. The Apostle Paul develops this thought in Romans chapter 1, beginning at verse 18:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools...
Note several things about man's knowledge of God:
But, this passage tells us, fallen mankind has made the conscious choice not to glorify God or accord Him due honor as God (verse 21).
A God-Denying State of Mind
The passage also tells us that this conscious choice involves the God-denying state of mind that causes some people to go so far as to declare, "There is no God." Like Nabal of old, it is often difficult to have a reasonable conversation with them - in their case, a conversation about the existence and attributes of God. In their God-denying state of mind:
This God-denying state of mind drives key developments in postmodern society. The "freedom from religion" movement suppresses the truth of God by seeking to remove acknowledgment of God and instruction about God from education, government, business, the media, and even the family.
Naturalism, the belief that the world came into being and operates by time and chance without the intervention of a Creator, in effect worships and serves the created order, and man himself as the pinnacle of that order.
Many atheists who choose spiritual darkness ironically refer to themselves as the "Brights" of this world, openly stating that those who believe in God are not-so-bright and therefore inferior. The Brights promote atheism as the cure for the worlds ills, which they contend are the results of religion.
He Sets the Captives Free (57 Min Sermon About Spiritual Bondage )
Atheism is a Belief System
The Apostle Paul writes that those who deny the one true God have "exchanged the truth of God for the lie" (verse 25). The force of the original language is that they have exchanged the intelligent understanding of God and His attributes - creatorship, power, divine nature, and right to be worshipped as God, an understanding which corresponds to the facts of the case shown to them by God Himself through the created order - for the denial of the facts about God and His attributes.
In other words, professed atheism is a belief system that is the product of intellectual dishonesty resulting from spiritual darkness.
Christian biologist and author Dr. Gary Parker, a former atheist,puts it this way: Everyone believes in the Creator God. It's just that Christians are really happy about it, while professed atheists are really unhappy about it!
He points out that atheists' anger against God reveals their intellectual dishonesty: "Who's the maddest and the angriest against God? The atheist...You don't get that angry at Somebody who doesn't exist!"
Is Change Possible?
Is it possible for a professed atheist to become a believer - not merely a theist, but a believer in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? Yes, but this radical change must be brought about by the God the atheist denies! Christians can present all the evidence for the existence of God. In fact, as Romans chapter one tells us, God has already placed such evidence within every man. But in the end, for everyone who is not a true believer in Christ - whether theist or atheist - understanding must come to the darkened heart. And it is God the Holy Spirit who brings that understanding.
In 1 Corinthians 2:14 we read this: "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can be know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Man in his natural, unredeemed state is incapable of accepting God's Word as true, because he is a rebel. As Jesus said in John 3:18-20, "He who does not believe is condemned already...and this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light..."
Man in his unredeemed state lacks the ability to understand God's Word properly, because he refuses to come to the light. Understanding the truth about God and His Word is only possible when God the Holy Spirit brings an individual to spiritual light through His work of regeneration.
Often Christians tend to think about this matter backwards. We think that an unsaved person - especially a professed atheist - needs to come to a deeper understanding of God's Word in order to be saved; all of his objections must be dealt with first. But that is not what the Bible teaches. The unsaved man, it says, is incapable of accepting God's Word as true without God's help. New life, by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, must come first; saving faith, the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8) comes first. The rebel must bow the knee in faith before the God of the universe.
"Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6). Saving faith comes first, then the fuller understanding of God's Word comes as the Author of the Book takes up residence in the individual.
Only a Christian is capable of being taught, "not in words which man's (false) wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual (literally, "things from the Spirit with things from the Spirit", i.e., comparing Scripture with Scripture).
If you have friends or acquaintances who profess to be atheists, the best thing you can do is to recognize the spiritual bondage the Bible says they are in, and pray for them. Pray that God the Holy Spirit would bring light to their darkened hearts. Pray for opportunities to bear witness to them about that light, using God's Word as your sole authority. And trust God for the results.
He Sets the Captives Free (57 Min Sermon About Spiritual Bondage)
Sermons (Mount Calvary Baptist Church)