Youth Discussion/Presentation in LLC Summer Services 2012, Baxter, MN 07.07.2012

Let's begin our evening by joining together in opening prayer and thanksgiving. Holy and righteous God, our beloved heavenly Father, we thank you, dear Father, for the abundant gifts and blessings that you've given to us on this day. We have been mindful of the abundant blessings and gifts that you've given to us as your children on this temporal endeavor and journey in this strange and foreign land.

But more than this, dear Father, on this day we also experienced the blessings that come through living faith, the blessings of your kingdom, the blessings where we have been able to gather together around your holy and precious Word to be nourished and strengthened in our faith that one day leads us to our eternal destination, the glory of Heaven.

This evening, dear Father, we gather together at this discussion specifically pointed towards our beloved young.

Dear Father, you know the hearts of each of your children. You know the needs. You know the concerns of each of us. You, dear Father, can see into the hearts. And so we humbly and simply ask this evening for your blessing as we discuss around the way and the journey that leads one day to Heaven.

We simply and humbly pray for your blessing. We ask it all in the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus. Amen.

Good evening and God's peace, beloved young and also some of you elders. This is quite interesting when we look around us.

Although I don't look that old or rather I don't feel that old. It doesn't feel like it was so many years ago that we were at HAPS activities in my youth, and the numbers have increased and multiplied to such a degree. I read now I understand more perfectly what the older brothers would say that with these young, so many young and so many believing young, we have a good future in God's kingdom.

This evening, we have a presentation, Did God Really Say? And it's a presentation that I put together, compiled much of a couple of presentations that were put together by Gail Nisela, nineteen eighty-four, nineteen ninety-four, rather than 2012.

Although much of that work is attributed to Gail, it's not his presentation, so I wouldn't want to have him see this and say that's not my work. But at the same time, I would like to attribute much of what's been done here to brother Gail.

So did God really say? It's a question. You have to excuse me.

When I left Phoenix, it was so dry there. Many of you have been to Phoenix, right? Welcome, but just the words of the wise, come in the winter. The summers get so hot that it dries everything out including the poor people that live there.

So I caught this dry bugger cold or whatever was on the way up here, so bear with me.

But this question, did God really say? Where did it come from and where did it start? Why was this question asked? People generally ask a question when they want to know about something.

Children will ask something of your parents. Parents might ask something of the children. So a question is asked most often when we want to know something.

But is it possible to ask a question for other purposes? A question can also raise doubt.

And then this basis of this presentation, the evil one asked Eve, did God really or did God truly say? What does this question mean or imply? These questions that we have before us are questions I think that we can consider and ponder. And we will try to answer these questions as we go forward in this presentation.

First of all, in the Garden of Eden, this question was asked to Eve.

God created man in His image and as a companion. Invisible God made Himself a visible picture. Man. He created them man and woman, and God created everything with His Word and saw that He was good.

And when God created man in His image, I have pondered this many times as a young boy, also as a grown man.

What is, and how is, and is it possible that God really is? And this is where I quickly go to that place where Eve did when I start to ponder questions that God's Word says we are created in the image of God. Is it so? How can it be that God, the omnipotent, powerful God and Father, created us in His image, what God's Word says? And He created us to be in His image, and He did not create man for the reason that man would prove himself or would himself be fulfilled, but God made man to fulfill His desire that man would renew and protect the earth that He had created.

God created man to be a companion, and in this human companionship, man and woman is the picture of God. They are united by love to God as well as to one another. To man was given the ability to hear God's speech and to speak to God, their creator. This companionship was God's prerequisite to be observed. But also there was the snake.

The snake is a picture of the enemy of the soul and the enemy of God. Man was created as the companion of God, and this picture of the enemy is a picture of the enemy of souls or the enemy of God. And it says about the serpent that the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. How subtle was the enemy of souls? He was so subtle that he was able to come close enough to Eve and to tempt her.

I don't know how many of you. I've lived now for a year and a half in the desert, and I often run in the mornings. And I run in the desert most of the time only in the winter when the snakes are hiding. I've seen hundreds of snakes on my runs. Not really.

I've seen hundreds of snakes in my own imagination. When I'm running, I run very carefully, especially in the summertime when I know there's snakes around. And every stick that seems to be a little bent in my path, I might catch myself and stop. Or not stop, but I might catch my breath. And I'm so cautious and aware of serpents that I thought many times, why can't I be as equally fearful of the enemy of souls?

But when Eve was tempted, the serpent was in this kind of image and form that this serpent, the enemy of souls, was able to begin a dialogue with Eve. It must have been something that was relatively pleasing. Surely it wasn't the same image in the snake that we know. Most of us would flee. I asked this at a youth camp one time, how many of you boys are afraid of snakes?

None of them raised their hands. They're tough little boys. I asked the girls, and they all raised their hands. In all honesty, I think all of us are afraid of them.

Well, most of us. Like, some of you boys probably aren't. But this serpent was more subtle. And so he was so subtle that he was able to approach Eve. And the serpent, first, is as a symbol of understanding, of wisdom, and of cunning.

And secondly, the serpent is connected to death. A serpent is dangerous. It is poisonous. A snake bite can lead to death. They have training sessions in Arizona.

They teach you how, here in the North, in Minnesota, how to take care of tick bites. Down there, they train the children how to take care of snake bites. So this snake is dangerous. It's poisonous. And this serpent was the lowliest of all of the animals in paradise.

It slithers along the ground full length on its belly. In paradise, it greatly elevated its own profile when it sought to converse with man. It set itself in the place of God when it set about to converse with man who was in the image of God and created to be God's companion. God's enemy raised himself into the place of God. He was created to slither along the ground, but in paradise, he climbed up into the tree as a companion equal to man.

And in the discussion, wriggled, climbed even higher than that. So the serpent begins this discussion. It opened this discussion with this question, did God actually say? I want you, brothers and sisters, and especially your beloved young, as a little boy or a little girl, how was it?

Wasn't it the same kind of question that the enemy has used from this time when he was tempted to the time that now two thousand, four thousand, six thousand years later, he still asks the same question. The first question, did God actually say? What was the intent of this question? Did God actually say? Here the serpent's word is set against God's Word.

Did God say? And so then he starts to ask this question. Did God really say that you cannot eat of every tree? It was a small hook. Did God really say?

But those of you that are fly fishers and you cast little tiny bugs into the water, you guys know you can catch a very, very big fish with a little tiny hook. And this is what the enemy did. He used the tiny hook, something that seems almost innocent. Did God really say? So this serpent's question was bold.

Eve noticed this and began to defend God. The serpent's question also touched indirectly on man. It tugged at man's mind. It caused one to ponder things. Could such a denial really be God's Word?

How could God who had created such a wonderful paradise for man have created one individual tree to destroy man and cause his death? Is there any sense to such a denial? Has God truly said this? The serpent questioned God's Word. Now what was Eve's reply?

You remember, Eve said, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it. And here Eve quotes God's Word. This is the instruction that God had given them. Ye shall not eat of that tree. But now Eve adds to what God said.

Excuse me. She adds neither shall you touch it, lest ye die. This isn't what God had said, but Eve adds this part. Eve did not contradict what God said, but she said more than God had said. How should Eve have replied?

Think about this. In its cunning way, the serpent gave Eve the chance to explain the matter correctly and to support God. It gave Eve the chance to show herself as a true or a correct believer and a supporter of God. This opportunity, Eve used well and correctly, but at the same time, something else happened. The serpent's sly plot succeeded, and it got Eve onto its hook.

He was able to continue the discussion about God's Word and to direct or lead man. Eve was fully, fully carried away into this discussion. She was drawn into this discussion. So not only did she answer with God's Word, but she added to what God's Word said. Now the serpent debates, and we see how he starts, right?

He starts, did God really say? An innocent question. He allows Eve to answer. And then second of all, Eve answered in addition to what God said. And the serpent said unto the woman, he starts to debate this, "You'll not die. You won't die, but rather than this, you become as Gods."

Now this debate that began, it leads where? It leads to death. The serpent allows, yes, that God has said thus, but argues that it was not the truth. The serpent draws man in. He to whom death is the most negative, terrible, and fearful thing.

By denying the danger of death, the serpent frees man from the fear of opposition and punishment. The discussion is conflicting. The serpent denies death, yet leads to an act which God had already determined would mean the punishment of death to man. They knew that death was the punishment for this sin.

So the voice of reason, it leads to doubts. We heard this evening at services, didn't we, of this matter of reason and faith. So then, the fall into sin, the fall of all falls. The conversation which the serpent concludes and Eve is then left in her own thoughts. When I think of this place, we've all been there.

How easily the enemy draws us in, allows us the beauty of the temptation, then we fall into sin, and then what happens? We're left with our own thoughts and our own doubts. So also is Eve. She's tempted to go from thoughts and words to actions. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and the tree to desire to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her, and he also did eat.

Martin Luther describes the fall into sin in this way. When the process of sin is underway, Satan does not think or suppose anything. He does not frighten, he does not bite, but merely flatters and charms. So the nature of sin belongs just this, that up to a certain point, one is not even aware of it. But when later the Law reveals it as sin, it begins to more and more severely bother and oppress a person.

Before this revelation occurs and action is still in process, Eve's eyes did not open. In this case, she had already died before she had even touched the apple because her eyes were not yet opened and doubt remained strong in control. So also remained in her the forbidden fruit's charm as well as the enthusiasm and the hope of gaining wisdom. Even though it was denied, dear Eve was drawn into both spiritual and temple doubt in such a way that she did not see that she had done wrong. This is a scary place to be, brothers and sisters, where we are drawn into things to do things where we do not even know what we're doing is wrong.

May God help us. May God give us an awareness of sin. May God allow us. I don't like personally. I don't like sin.

And I really especially hate it when it attaches. And it does so easily attach. And I've lamented many times in my own corruption. On the other hand, I've also felt it to be a blessing that God has given me a conscience to this day that has been tender and that has recognized what sin is. May God give us a conscience and a heart that recognizes sin.

So the consequences of sin, and the eyes then of them were opened, but not as God's, but to shame. Then God asks two questions to Eve. Who told you that you were naked? And the second: Have you eaten from that tree which I commanded you not to eat? This fall into sin spoiled the condition of innocence.

When their eyes were opened, they opened to see their nakedness instead of becoming all knowing, feelings of shame overpowered them. Adam said, and he blamed who? The woman you gave me to be as a companion gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate. Eve also defends herself and she turns and blames unto the serpent, the serpent beguiled me and I ate. This then led to the explanation of sin by defending themselves and from this then came their blaming or turning the sin back to God.

The devil's tricky scheme was thus so well that God got unto himself, got unto himself the blame. This is how it turned that all of a sudden God is blamed for the sin of these two. That He was the one that introduced sin in the beginning, in the beginning, and He was the root of all bad. He who created all from the beginning now was blamed for this, the one who created all that was good. So this forbidden fruit of the forbidden tree is a picture of the mystery of faith.

It was a trial of obedience. Faith is obedience. Obedience on its part is part of the fellowship into which God created man. Obedience is hearing what God speaks and following it in faith. The Fall began with man allowing himself to listen to the sermon of God's adversary.

At the same time, man ceased hearing and following God's will. So, the temptation in Paradise was to be able to enjoy the good and beautiful fruit, and to come to know and understand all things like God. Thus reason guided man, and the pleasures of his senses tempted him. After the fall into sin, each person is susceptible to the sermon of God's adversary, which appeals to reason and the enjoyment of the senses.

Man wasn't able to honor the mystery of faith. Honoring the mystery of faith is the road of self-denial. The voice of reason led away from the place of an obedient child. Man wanted to satisfy his own will more than God's will. So the relationship between faith and reason was distorted by the fall into sin.

Faith in the beginning was the condition of the unity of the fellowship between God and man. And reason was given to man so that he could cultivate and care for Paradise. Two different things, faith and reason. So let's talk now a little bit about faith and reason. What is faith?

Faith is spiritual. And when we consider what faith is, we have heard in recent days much. In our days and any beloved young, I know I visited with many of you. You've heard from among some of your peers how some have questioned God's Word. They've used quibbling questions to ask questions about possibilities in the Bible.

They ask questions that seem in their own mind to contradict Biblical teachings back and forth. But one thing that they lose sight of is that the Bible is not a textbook of natural science or geography, medical science or history. The Bible is a textbook of one matter alone, which is faith. Reason on the other hand is carnal, meaning it comes from our fleshly human portion. Reason is prone to turn against the written Word of God.

It is at odds, it is combative against the Word of God. The Bible is often expected with reason to answer questions which come from reason, and this reason then creates doubts. Questions that arise from reason are more or less often quibbling. A certain quibbling question is, and we've heard this, where did Cain get his wife from? Or another question is: How did Jonah manage to get into the whale's stomach when nothing bigger than a herring fits in its throat?

Or how can the Bible's portrayal of the earth being the center of the universe be explained according to which the sun circles the earth? Recently these doubts have been raised regarding Biblical miracles as well. For example, the crossing of the Red Sea. How is that possible? Jesus being born, being born to a virgin, this is impossible.

How about Jesus walking on the sea? Some have tried to explain this phenomenon away as it must have been that Jesus was near the shore and He was only ankle deep in water, and it only appeared that He was walking on the water. What about Jesus rising from the dead and being resurrected? It's an impossibility, reason says. But the voice of reason leads away from the place of an obedient child.

So what is faith? The Bible, generally speaking, does not describe faith. Have you ever tried to describe it? The Book of Hebrews says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It's a mouthful.

And I ponder this, what exactly is faith? But in Hebrews when it says, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which are, which were not made of—let me back up—so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. So faith is hope.

Faith reaches far. It reaches to what's ahead of us and what we otherwise would not be able to experience. With faith, the future is present immediately. In faith, the object of hope affects here and now. Even though the matter in question is in the future, not yet experienced.

But faith believes that it will happen and lives in accord with it and receives strength for life from it. One beautiful illustration of this seeing afar off was Abraham. Abraham's faith was obedience to God's call and trust upon God's guidance. You remember when Abraham was told to go to that faraway land. I can't imagine myself personally.

I've lived in Minneapolis. We moved to Washington as a young man. We moved from Washington to Colorado, and I moved from Colorado to Phoenix. But each one of those places I moved, there were believers. But the closest thing, and it, it's not even a—I don't even go there.

Abraham's faith, it was hope. He had been given hope of a future. God told him to go and he would be blessed. So faith leads from one day until tomorrow. Abraham heard God's call.

He followed it. And he left from the midst of the land and family toward that land which God had promised him for an inheritance. Abraham left, although he did not know where he was going. Have you ever done that? Gone somewhere where you didn't know where you're going?

Now in our day, we have these smartphones and you can just simply plug in Google Maps and it'll tell you exactly where to go. Abraham didn't have a Google Maps guarantee, but he trusted and he went. Did God bless him? Abraham left and went because he believed. Abraham's faith was obedience to God's call and God's guidance.

Abraham's faith was hope. When Abraham believed, he had hope, and in that hope, he had the future and the meaning of his life immediately. He didn't have to wait for years and years, but he saw through faith immediately the blessings of his father. We also, brothers and sisters, when we have faith in our heart, and most of all, faith brings us this peace and joy of conscience, and we have through faith already a glimpse of heaven, don't we? When our sins are forgiven, we have no worries of death.

We say as God's word says, come, I am ready. This is what faith allows. Abraham's faith is especially a model for you, beloved young. Your life is ahead of you. You have—and I know as an 18 year old, a 17 year old, a 16 year old, you've got the world by the tail.

You have all the answers and you're just charging ahead. I—I—I was there once. Doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but it has been. And those years were such years filled with, with, let's go forward. Faith in the heart just propelled you forward to this joy and this happiness and the joy of believing is affected in such a way that we were excited as God's children to go forward and face that which God was going to bless us with.

Faith is God. Faith in God is hope, and that hope is the future and the meaning of life. Faith leads from this day to tomorrow. I thought this picture illustrated this, that faith is directed toward that which we cannot see. Thus, faith is the evidence of things not seen.

So with faith it functions like a telescope. Through a telescope we see those celestial bodies which we cannot see with our own eyes. With our eyes we see this temporal life. Through faith we see further—a new Heaven and a new Earth and eternal life. This awaits, brothers and sisters, for us as God's children.

Another example is Noah. Someday when I get to Heaven, I'm going to look up Noah. I'm going to find out, what were you thinking? You know Noah preached for a hundred and twenty years, and he preached and he built and he preached and he built. Can you imagine how much ridicule and mockery Noah endured building this ark in the middle of a desert?

I know what a desert is now. If someone was starting to build an ark in Phoenix, I'd scratch my head and call the guy nuts. I—I would. I—I couldn't help it. I'd probably go by, pedal by, run by, and just laugh at him.

Like, hey. What are you doing? What are you thinking? But someday, I would like to go when I've been having, find Noah, and I would like to ask him. And I made this comment one time in the congregation, and one brother came afterwards, and he says, how are you gonna find Noah?

So, you know what I told him? I said, I'll find him because I got eternity to find him. But Noah's life was that kind of life where he was able to see afar off, wasn't he? Noah's faith was the evidence of things not seen. Noah's faith was contrary to reason.

It didn't make any sense at all for him to build that Ark in the middle of the desert, but he did. He was obedient, and this reason is contrary to God's Word and to people's. Noah's faith was contrary to reason and to people's general opinion.

In the world around us, the general opinion—let me generalize again—but the general opinion of the believers in the world today, they think the believers are quite foolish. But when we think of the saving ark, we think of that ark that God gave to Noah. It was that ark that allowed the children of God to be preserved from death and destruction.

God's Kingdom today is that same kind of saving ark. The world may ridicule, may make mockery of it. Noah's faith was upon those things not seen, which caused people to ridicule Him. But God revealed to Noah the coming of the destruction of the world and told Noah to build an ark to save his family. Noah was obedient.

This is the key with Noah. He was obedient as all of the former saints were. He was obedient and he built it, even though he couldn't see any sign at all of the ending of the world. Thus, Noah's faith was the evidence of things not seen. Noah's faith was contrary to reason and to people's general opinion.

Noah's faith upon things not seen caused people, again, to ridicule Him. So what's one mystery of faith today? I wanted to touch on this just briefly. The foundation of the family is marriage. We heard last evening at this presentation that our brother gave of the foundation of marriage.

Our society, our country, our neighborhoods, our towns, they've been established and built on the foundation of marriage and families. A firm family foundation means a firm foundation of community, of our cities and everything. The world ridicules this matter of marriage. And of course, we heard last night as well that marriage is, we believe, between one man and one woman. It's very scriptural and according to God's Word.

But in God's Word, before marriage comes a time of courtship and engagement. And it isn't until after marriage that the mystery of a man and a woman is unlocked. What this means in the day that we live? In the world around us, what is the teaching of courtship? I wonder if there really is too much courtship actually taking place in the world around us.

They go dating, you know, they have girlfriends, they have boyfriends. Courtship is for a purpose that would lead towards marriage, very simply put. And in courtship, any kind of sexual relations, according to God's Word, is sin. The world frowns on this teaching. The real world, rather, teaches what?

Say sex. And this then, which is contrary to God's Word, also, before marriage, unlocks the mystery of man and woman. I had an interesting—I don't know why she's chair this year—but it was at couples camp. And I was putting together a presentation for couples camp, and I asked the question to my wife. She's not here, so I can—well, she might be listening.

That's the problem with this Internet stuff, right? I'm sorry, honey. I asked her the question: Why do you think when God created man, when God created woman, it says in the Bible that God gave a deep sleep to Adam? And when God created woman, He took the rib out of man, and with that rib, He created woman.

I asked her that: Why do you think God created, or gave Adam the deep sleep? I thought, I think it's maybe for this reason—that man wouldn't meddle in the affairs of God. How would we as men create a woman to be our wife? I would create her in such a way that she could carry a heavy burden. She could work forty hours a day, twenty-four hours a day.

She could do all kinds of things so I could be lazy. That's how I would create her. But God created her in a much different way, didn't He? And so I asked my wife this question.

You know what she said? She said, so I think when he woke up, he said, wow. I think that's the reason myself. After marriage, this wow was unlocked. The mystery of marriage, the mystery of man and woman then is unlocked in its mystery of faith.

Beloved young, don't listen to the enemy of souls. Don't listen to the teachings of the enemy. Don't listen to the teachings of the world. But may God give to each of you, to each of us, and preserve us with this childlike obedience that we would be preserved until the day of our marriage in holiness. Pray that God would give this kind of blessing into your life.

It is a very rich and a wonderful blessing. Okay. This also in the world around us asks this question, has God truly said so? Faith is God's gift. The Bible states that not all men will be able to believe.

But faith is a grace gift from God. The Gospel then is that which sustains us in faith. The Gospel is the mystery of God, which is hidden from the world, but it is manifested and revealed to believers. And as we have heard so often, the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. I want to even now this evening, at this moment, encourage and then uplift each one of you beloved young, that that gospel is your source of strength as well.

You can believe in the place you find yourself in the midst of your own trials, in the midst of your own temptations, the worries, the doubts, the fears, and your sins are forgiven. We name in precious blood of Jesus. That's your source of strength that will carry you as well as me home all the way to the glory of heaven.

But what was the highest example of faith? We look directly to the Lord Jesus Christ. For future Heavenly joy, He endured the world's ridicule, and He suffered on the cross.

And He now sits at the right hand of the throne of God. The Book of Hebrews encourages, "For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." Faith