Ep 184: Genesis and The Software of Life - Why Creation Points To God

"Today we will discover how Isaiah 48:16 points to Jesus, explore whether creation reveals a Designer, and learn practical ways to stay consistent in Bible reading. Which verse has most changed how you see God?"

We go back to “before the beginning” to show why Scripture presents God as the uncaused first cause and the intentional Designer of reality. We connect creation, meaning, and daily life to Jesus as the living Word, then land on practical ways to keep reading when the Bible feels hard.
• Why starting with “In the beginning, God” steadies theology
• The uncaused first cause and why every effect demands a cause
• The watchmaker logic and why design implies a designer
• The computer-in-a-box illustration and the “software problem”
• Why a Designer changes meaning, purpose, and how we live
• The Bible as God’s manual and why it is “alive and active”
• Jesus as the Word in John 1 and the One Scripture testifies about
• Seeing Christ throughout the Old Testament
• Isaiah 48:16 as a clear window into the Trinity
• Getting through hard books like Ezekiel with audio plus reading
• The mindset shift from “I have to” to “I get to”
• Praying for hunger for God’s Word and consistency day by day

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Transcript

Isaiah 48:16 Cold Open

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Lord, you know. You're now listening to play is the best. From the beginning. Who's been there since the beginning? It wasn't Isaiah. Isaiah wasn't around since the beginning. Somebody speaking who's been there from the beginning, from the time that it came to be. I have been there. And now the Lord God has sent me and his spirit. What is going on here? The Lord God, if you look at it this way, the Father, who did the Father send? He sent the Son. And when the Son died and rose again and ascended, who was sent on Pentecost?

SPEAKER_01 0:33

His Spirit.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Diving in, y'all. Amen. Amen.

Welcome And Why We Dive In

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Thank you very much, Josh Taylor and Katie Kenny, for that great, fantastical introduction. Welcome to everybody. Listening to Plays on Word Radio. My name is Fred David Kenny Jr. Thank you very much. We have been rocking steady at this for some years doing this broadcast. And I'm grateful for everybody who's listening. Hey, you know what? Maybe you just need to just enjoy dive through the through the word, you know, like a diving into a nice on a hot day into a cool pool or into the ocean or something. And you know, it just it just recalibrates everything. So with that in mind, with that being said, one of the things, if you're new to to plays on word, plays on word radio in particular, we we go through the word, we we talk about the plays that we do, but we also talk about some plays we're gonna do, and we also talk about scripture and all kinds of things, anything related to the good Lord, whom we serve with our whole heart. And we're looking forward to the day when we stand in his presence. Oh man, hallelujah to that day, and that day's closer than when this program first started. Amen. Amen.

Genesis And Before The Beginning

SPEAKER_02 2:55

So at Calvary Chapel, Southport, my home church, where I am the pastor of that church, we are going through the book of Genesis right now, and we are it's been eye-opening to say the least. It's been eye-opening to many people, including the pastor. The journey we have taken through the book of Genesis. We started out by looking at the big before the beginning. The Bible actually talks about that, believe it or not. It talks about before the beginning. In the Gospel of John, it yeah, the scripture starts out by saying, In the be in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning, and through him all things were made. And guess what? Without him, nothing was made that has been made. So basically, that's that's everything. And it goes on to say, in him was life, and that life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and that darkness has not overcome it. And the Gospel of John is is interesting how it goes before the beginning. He goes all the way back, man. Way back to when it was just God. In the beginning, it was just God. In that's the beginning of all theology, actually. In the beginning, God. You start there, you're on the right, you're on the right path. In the beginning was God. And as the scriptures open up, then you start to realize, wait a second, this God has revealed himself

First Cause And The Watchmaker

SPEAKER_02 4:46

through his word, which is true. And we we looked at that. We looked at the different causes for the for what we see, the effect that we see. When people look around, you you s you see an effect. And every single effect has a cause. But there must be a cause that does not have a cause. The first cause of everything. What caused everything? What was the very first effect? The very first cause. You can't have a thunderclap without a lightning bolt. The lightning bolt caused it, caused the thunderclap. And everything we see, the effect that we see, there is a cause. You can go back. You know, my you could make the argument, my parents were the cause of me. And keep just going back. Their parents cause of them. And just, you know, but at some point, there is a first cause that it demands that there's an uncause that does not have a cause. That is the beginning and the end and the alpha, the omega, the the start and the finish. And we just happen to know who he is. He has he reached out to us? Has he tried to communicate? Has he made himself known? And the answer is yes. Oh, oh, he has. Not even with just the word of God, which is him, which is amazing, but you know, the heavens declare him. The argument, it's old in theological terms. They call it the teleogic, teleological argument. It goes back to this idea of a watchmaker. You'd never you'd never be walking along the beach and see a watch on the sand there and say, oh, that just happened. No, it demands that there's a somebody who built somebody who built it. I've actually used this demonstration for for I think primarily youth groups. And when I went to a what was it? It was a student gathering, really young kids, and then other uh junior high,

The Computer Parts Thought Experiment

SPEAKER_02 7:10

high school kids. I did one many years ago, but the most recent I think was at for homeschool kids. They they have an assembly that they do at America's Keswick in New Jersey. And man, I brought my I brought my old computer, and it was the computer was kind of busted. It was, it was cooked. The hard drive was all jacked up on it. And it wasn't working very it wasn't working anymore. And I I've I've moved on since that. But I said, this is this will make a good thing. So I brought the computer and I brought my cordless drill and I started zipping the screws out of it. Zip, zp, zp, zp, zipping, zipping all the screws out. I took out the hard drive. I took out the memory chips. I took out the power supply. And as I was taking the stuff out, I would take it out and I would put it in this uh cardboard box next to me. And I took all these, all the parts, took the cables out, and the kids were like, no, what are you doing? What are you doing? And I was, I started taking it apart in front of them. And I put all the pieces in this box, and then I took some duct tape and taped up the box. And then I start tossing the box up in the air. And I I I remember one at one point I was like, man, I didn't really think this through because it was a desktop computer, so it was heavy. I should have used a laptop or something. And I'm throwing the box up in the air, and I looked at him, I said, Do you think if I throw this up in the air a thousand times, it's does it'll land and it'll be a working computer? And the kid's like, no, no. I said, You're right, you're right, you're right. It won't, it won't. I said, How about if I did it for a thousand years? And they were like, nah, nah, nah, nah. I said, How about if I did it for 4.5 billion years? I threw everything up in the air. I threw it up in the air and just, and they were like, Yeah, I don't think so. I don't think it's gonna land. It's a working computer because I had all the pieces apart. The memory chips, the motherboard, the daughter board, the I mean, it was completely taken apart. And I said to them, I said, you know, there's a design for this. This thing was designed, it didn't just happen. There are there are blueprints for this computer. Somewhere there are blueprints. There is someone who designed it. There's a person that actually designed, actually, a team that designed this computer that designed every part in it and designed the whole thing. And it's ridiculous to think that it just happened by itself. It's ridiculous. It's it just it defies logic. And they're looking at me like, yeah, yeah. I said, but I tell you what, let me help out the people that are trying to make you think that all this is just random and just happened by accident. I said, you know what, just just just for for to help their conversation. So I start putting the computer back together. I said, just say after 4.5 billion years, or even 13 billion years of doing this, maybe the screw lands, maybe another screw lands in the right spot. Maybe the motherboard just happens to land in the socket, and the hard drive just happens to land the right way. Oh, and the power power cable just happens to connect up, just happens to, oh my goodness, it's just a miracle. And everything lands the right way, and the power lands the right way. I look at him and I say, How do you explain the software? How do you explain the operating system and the programs? How do you how do you explain that? And then I said, usually I get a blank look on their face, they're like, oh. And I said, you know what? And I've been extremely generous to their argument, to really make the argument, to honestly make the argument of the sewage that the the society has tried to perpetuate on us the culture, the anti-God culture, has this nonsense that they have perpetrated for the last 200 some years. This nonsense that random chance and enough time can bring about the complexity we see. Listen, I've been very generous in my in my in my conversation with them. I've been very generous to make their argument the way they're making it. You need to start out by taking this computer and grind it into sand and start there. Start there. Don't start with a hard drive. Don't start with a memory chip. Don't start with a harness. Don't start with any of the cables. Don't start with a power supply. Don't start with the housings. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. They want you to believe that this that, oh, it ch it just happened. Yeah, just enough time and enough random chance. That's ridiculous. And the majority of kids go, oh, you know you're right, man. Look at that. The bottom line is there's a designer, man. You can't explain, even if by chance you are able to get these pieces to fall in place. You can't explain the software, man. You can't explain the operating system. Come on now. Therefore, I submit that there is a designer, and I'm it's important for me in particular. I want kids especially, but adults as well. You might be listening thinking you're just some random, random chance type of thing. Well, that's the farthest thing from the truth. There is a designer. Yes. Whether or not he has blueprints on file, I don't know. He probably doesn't need them. But there is a designer, and he has uh communicated with us and spoken

Meaning, Purpose, And God’s Manual

SPEAKER_02 13:50

to us. And he wants you to because listen, how you live your life, if you're just random chance and everything is completely meaningless, and it's all just random, and there is no intention or intentionality when it comes to you, then nothing matters. Nothing matters, man. But that's not the truth. There is an uncaused first cause. There is a designer and architect to all the effects that we see. We just happen to know who he is. And I pray that you would come to know who he is if you don't know who he is. The next time you walk out and get into your car, think about this. Know that there was an assembly line where it was put together. There are blueprints on a computer somewhere, maybe even printout, of that car you're in. It didn't just happen over time in random chance, random chance. No, oh no, no. And if there is a designer, what does that say on how we're supposed to live? How do we live? Has he given us any instructions? Well, he actually has. This designer has given us a manual. It's the best-selling publication of all time. And it's the word of God, and you can get it for free, actually. You can get it, it's on display everywhere online. You can get the entire counsel of God, what he has had to say. And it's different than Shakespeare or anything else that's been written. It's different. And its own testimony of itself is that it is alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. This is from the book of Hebrews. Yeah, it's alive and active. And the other test other testimony we get about the word, there's other places too, that it's truth in John 17. Jesus praying to the Father, your word is truth. You back up a few, a bunch of chapters to the

Jesus As The Word In Scripture

SPEAKER_02 16:20

beginning of that book. It says, In the beginning was the word. So Christ Himself, Jesus Himself is the very Word of God that is God. In verse 14 of John, it's still talking about this word that made everything, that through everything was made without it, or without him. I use the proper terminology, the proper pronoun. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. Well, in verse 14, it says, This word, he became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. This word of God is none other than Christ Jesus himself.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Jesus says also in the Gospel of John, he says in John chapter 5, he's speaking to the religious leaders, and he's like, You go, listen, y'all, man, you guys, you search the scriptures, you think in it, you have eternal life. You don't realize these scriptures are talking about me. They testify of me, the scriptures. And he's not talking about the New Testament at the time because it wasn't written. No, sir. He's talking about the Old Testament, that what we would call the Old Testament. Yeah. Think about that. He's not talking about the Old Testament that mentions Jesus all over the place. I mean the New Testament that mentions Jesus everywhere. No, no, no, no. He's talking about the Old Testament. He said, they that's testifying of me. And I believe when when Christians see Christ, when they see him and they get it, you can't unsee him in the in the Old Testament. It's easier to it's easy to see him in the New Testament, but it just because of his name is there, boom, boom, boom. But he is just as visible in the old. Yeah. He's this he's the seed of the woman in Genesis 3.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

He's the lamb of God that Isaac asks his father about. He's the ark through whom eight people were saved in the flood, Noah and his family. He's the ark that was covered in pitch, that provided salvation, a great salvation.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

He's the Passover lamb whose blood prevented the angel of death from harming anyone at the Passover. He's that he's that Lamb of God. I'm telling you, he's all He's all over the place. He is the Ark of the Covenant. He's the mercy seat. He's the tabernacle. Much could be said about this. And we do it when we at my home church, we we dive in deep on it. And to see Christ, if put it this way, if you miss Christ in the Old Testament, if you think it's just rules and killing animals and stuff like that, then you've missed uh you've missed everything. You're missing the point. And unfortunately, there are groups of people that have missed the point. They're missing the communication that he's coming. This one's coming. This one. The the and then the virgin will be with child. She'll give birth to a son. She'll she'll call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

From out of Bethlehem will come the one who will be ruler of God's people. That's this is Micah, whose origins are from eternity, or

Seeing Christ Throughout The Old Testament

SPEAKER_02 19:40

origins are from ancient times. You know, Isaiah, Isaiah 48, 16. Isaiah 48, 16 is like one of my all-time favorites. And the first time I saw, I was in a study with Lloyd Pulley, Pastor Lloyd Pulley. And he he just in passing mentioned, he said, Yeah, you have the you have this you have the Trinity here right here. I pointed out, and just kept going through this through the study, and my head exploded. I was like, wait, what what? What are you huh? Let me read it to you. Isaiah 48, 16, 16 says, Draw near to me. Hear this. From the beginning I have not spoken in secret. From the time that it came to be, I have been there, and now the Lord God has sent me and his spirit. Well, that, you know, on the surface, uh, you could just pastor it about I don't know what's going on there. But if you look at it and what Lloyd correctly pointed out, from the beginning, who's been there since the beginning? It wasn't Isaiah. Isaiah wasn't around since the beginning. From the beginning, I have not. This is this is somebody speaking who's been there from the beginning, from the time that it came to be, I have been there. And now the Lord God has sent me and his spirit. What is going on here? The Lord God, if you look at it this way, the Father, who did the Father send? He sent the Son. And when the Son died and rose again and ascended, well, who was sent on Pentecost?

SPEAKER_01 21:31

His Spirit.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

The Spirit, capital S, the Spirit of God. And Jesus uses the pronoun he will bring to your remembrance all that I've said to you. He is the counselor, the spirit of truth. He, not it, he. There are three distinct people here, yet Christians do not worship three gods. Christians worship one God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who created the universe. Yet He's revealed Himself in three distinct persons. The Lord God has sent me. Who is this me that's speaking, that's been there since the beginning? Well, you look at John 1 1. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. And that's the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. It's all there, folks. You can't unsee it once you see it. You can't unsee it once you see it. Oh man, I love the word. I was speaking with some people just yesterday. We had a uh we have a fellowship meeting Wednesday mornings, and I was describing to them how when I first made

Isaiah 48:16 And The Trinity

SPEAKER_02 22:55

up my mind to read through the entire scripture and get the entire counsel of God many years ago. And I was, you know, I was reading through and I remember I remember getting bogged down in the book of Ezekiel, really bad. Bogged down. I was like, man, I don't know what is going on here. I don't understand any of this. I'm as lost as it gets. You start reading, like start reading, and it's and there's the words just just they don't blur, but there's no comprehension. And you find like like you read a page and you don't even know what was on it. Well, that was pages for me. I was like, I don't, man, I'm low. And I remember praying, Lord, I'm about to give up. Lord, I can't, I don't think I can do that. I'm about to give up. I don't get this, man. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what's happening. I had no context, no nothing. And I felt in a gentle way, the Lord very gently put on my heart to to not to get discouraged, to let my eyes see the see the words, and to get a get a, you know, get a dose of the scripture, even if I don't understand it, let my eyes see it. And then he pointed out something to me. This was this was man 25 years ago when Bible Gateway was brand new, basically brand new, and they just uploaded their audio Bibles. And they only had one, actually. They didn't even have multiple. They had like one, one audio Bible. This dude, Max McLean, came out with an audio Bible. And Alex Alexander Scorby had one in in King James, but Max McLean did his in NIV. And subsequently, he's done different translations as well now. But at that time, I think it was NIV, was the audio Bible. And the Lord pointed out to me the speaker icon. And it was basically like, well, click that. So I I was I clicked on it and I was like, What? I got I can listen to the Bible and read it at the same time. And let me tell you something. That got me through Ezekiel in my very first pass of reading the entire book straight through, like reading it all through. I was able to read the word and listen at the same time. And it was able to get in the ear gate and the eye gate. And I still didn't understand,

How To Keep Reading When It’s Hard

SPEAKER_02 25:15

I still had no clue what was going on. I didn't understand it. But it did something to me where I was like, wait a minute, okay. And I made that a practice of reading and listening at the same time. And and it just helped lock my focus in. And as I got more and more of the scripture, the Lord started reminding me of what I've what towns we've passed through and reminded me, doesn't that, does that sound familiar? Does that look familiar at all? And he started slowly putting things together for me. And believe me, I didn't get it. I still don't get it all. But I made it a point to not go to sleep unless I got a dose of the word, even if it was one verse. I'm gonna not miss a day of getting a dose of, I'm not gonna be malnourished, I'm gonna get a dose of the scripture. And when I was talking to the people yesterday at our fellowship, I told them, I said, one of the prayers you can pray, if you find it boring reading the word, or it's like a chore, gotta read the Bible. You know, one of the things you can do first and foremost is change the way you approach it. You instead of I've got to do this, change your mentality to I get to do this. Wait a minute, I get to read the word. Wait a second, and just that one word change. I gotta or I get to. And just that little change is enough to change your one degree off to one degree on to be right. And or not one degree on, but be a hundred percent on. And the the other thing is I pointed out that it's a good practice to pray and ask, say, Lord, will you hook me up with a hunger for your word and a thirst for your spirit that can't be quenched, and a hunger for your word that can't be satisfied? He will do that. Uh he's faithful to do that, he'll give you hunger. He did that to me, and I can't tell you how many times I pray, and Lord, I'm like, Lord, what did you do to me? I'm a madman in the scripture. I just love the word of God, and I'm I'll be reading scripture and I'm tearing up, crying, just moved. And I'm like, Lord, what did you do to me?

Final Blessing And Where To Learn More

SPEAKER_02 27:41

And I'm sure he's probably laughing. He's like, Well, that's what you asked for. Anyway, I want to encourage every one of you, get into the word, ask him, he will bless you with a hunger for it. Get up into that. Amen. Amen. That's all the time we have. The Lord bless you, keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

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