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