VIDEO RECORDING OF THIS SERMON

AUDIO RECORDING OF THIS SERMON

God created the earth, Gen 1:1, and gave man dominion over the earth, Gen 1:26-28.  Everything God created in the earth was very good, Gen 1:31.  Yet, when Adam sinned, the earth was cursed, Gen 3:17-19.  And thus began our environmental problems.  Thorns and thistles are still with us today.

The attitude of environmentalists ranges from the control of man and the protection of natural resources (as in fish and game laws) to the worship of the creature and mother earth as in Rom 1:25.  Their attitude is that man inhabiting the earth is the problem.  But in Is 45:18 God formed the earth to be inhabited.  Wisdom rejoices in the habitable parts of his earth; and her delights are with the sons of men, Prov 8:31.  

To get to the point where environmentalists run the earth without God, they have to change the truth of God into a lie.  That’s why evolution is such a damnable heresy.

God created the earth and he certainly knows how to deal with the environment.  

God’s conservation and management – God has some excellent environmental laws and practices recorded in the Bible.

• He instructed Israel not to take a dam and her young or her eggs – Deut 22:6-7
• He instructed men not to sow with divers seeds in order to protect the integrity of the seed for future crops – Deut 22:9
• He gave us instructions to eat what we take in hunting – Prov 12:27
• He gave us examples to keep from overgrazing – Gen 13:5-6
• He commanded us to let the land rest – Lev 23:3-5
• He gave Israel the sabbath so they and their animals and servants could rest – Ex 20:8-11
• Men are to work until the evening; this 24-hour work day is taking its toll on employees – Ps 104:23
• A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast – Prov 12:10
• We are given an example to not overdrive flocks in one day – Gen 33:13
• Israel was commanded to not destroy the trees from which they could eat – Deut 20:19-20
• God said that he would drive the inhabitants of Canaan out by little and little – Ex 23:29-30, lest the beast of the field multiply against them.

God’s help and provision – God provides for all people and animals around the world.

He makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and he gives rain to the just and the unjust – Matt 5:45

He provides worldwide rain from heaven, fruitful seasons, and food and gladness – Acts 14:17 

He intervened in specific cases like:

• Elisha casting meal in the pot to heal the pottage – 2 Ki 4:40-41
• Moses casting a tree into the waters to make them sweet – Ex 15:23-25
• Elisha casting salt in waters to heal them and the land – 2 Ki 2:19-22

God’s wrath – but because the Lord created the earth, he can also do with it as he pleases.  He can use the environment against you, as well.  Consider:

• Noah’s flood – it repented God that he made man in the earth and so he destroyed everything that had the breath of life except for those people and animals that were in the ark with Noah.
• God said, “I will consume all things from off the land” – Zeph 1:2-3 
• God prophesied that he would send the palmerworm, locust, cankerworm, and caterpillar against Israel – Joel 1:4.  You can’t stop these with pesticides and insecticides.

The worst thing men can do for the environment in to disobey the Creator.  Look what God said he would do to Israel when they disobey him in Deut 28:15-24.

Consider the plagues in Revelation that affect the whole earth.  God will withhold the wind in Rev 7, thus stopping all wind energy.  When the wind resumes, it comes in as a whirlwind.  The sun will be smitten in Rev 8, thus reducing all solar energy.  Then darkness will be over all the earth and the sun will become black as sackcloth.  There will be no solar power then. The witnesses will withhold the rain in Rev 11, ending hydroelectric energy.  These sources of energy are not sustainable and renewable.

You know who will be in charge during the Tribulation?  The antichrist, Dan 7:23.  He will destroy the earth, tread it down and break it in pieces.  Some environmentalist he’ll be.

You’d be a fool to believe that men without God could improve or protect the environment.  They’ll do nothing of the kind.

Conclusion: Let me show you just a little of what God will do without man to restore the environment after the plagues of the Tribulation and the destruction wrought by the antichrist.  In Is 41:17-20, God will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the valleys.  He will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs.  The wilderness and desert will be full of trees.  In Is 51:3, God will make the wilderness like Eden and the desert like the garden of the Lord.  In Is 55:12-13, “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree.”  He reverses the effect of the curse.  And in Is 11, the lion will lie down with the lamb.  No man is able to restore the environment like God can and will.  

Don’t let all the political and global attention on the environment fool you.  As men turn their backs on God, the condition of the environment will become worse than ever before.  Not until Jesus returns will things ever be even close to what they were when God created the earth.  Make sure your children and grandchildren understand this.