God of Creation: Waterworks

Water is so common that we forget how strange it is and how perfectly suited it is for life. We start with what you can see with your own eyes: dew that glistens, rain that sings, frost that shines, and the rainbow’s colors riding on tiny drops. Then we ask the harder questions a thoughtful listener can’t avoid. Why does water behave the way it does, and what does that behavior say about the world we live in? 

From there we walk through several “built-in” mercies: ice forming on top so lakes don’t freeze solid, the planet holding neither too much nor too little water, and the staggering movement of water through rainfall and the global water cycle. We connect these observations to Scripture that speaks about God “measuring the waters,” laying up “the deeps in storehouses,” and causing “the vapors to ascend” (Isaiah 40:12, Psalm 33:7, Psalm 135:7, Ecclesiastes 1:6-7). The point isn’t to turn the Bible into a science manual, but to show how biblical Christianity frames creation as intentional, wise, and personal. 

The message turns personal at Jacob’s well in John 4. Jesus, weary and thirsty, offers the Samaritan woman living water that ends thirst forever, and her response becomes a picture of real conversion and real change. We end by looking at rivers and ocean currents like the Gulf Stream and their impact on climate and human life, then we land on the invitation: if your soul is thirsty, the true river of living water is the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Transcript

Welcome And Creation Series

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Well, greetings and good day. Once again, welcome to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast. I'm Brother James, and I am very glad that you've seen fit to tune in the program today to join with us as we continue on in our series of messages on God the Creator, the creation of God. This will be our fourth lesson in the first three programs in this series. We discuss the little bumblebee and the little honeybee and all the marvelous miracles that are connected with its uh creation, with its work, and with its life. And truly, as we speak of the creation, we are speaking of the creator. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. And truly, all the things that pertain to God's marvelous creator are simply a testimony to God's goodness, God's greatness, God's almighty power and wisdom. The beauty of God's person is manifest in the things which he makes. And we are going to talk on the program today about water. Talk on the program today about water. Now, the dictionary definition of water as a limpid liquid composed of hydrogen and oxygen is not very exciting news. But what a blessing to mankind it is, and how indispensable to life, how pleasure-giving as a beverage made for us by our Heavenly Father. Yes, God makes the water for us to drink in the grassy dells where the deer, the antelope, and the child love to play. He forms it on the mountaintop where the granite peak glistens like gold in the sunlight, and he broods it in the depths of the seas, in the subterranean caverns. You see it glistening in the dewdrop and singing in the summer rain. It sparkles in the ice gem when the trees seem as if loaded down with rare jewels, and it gleams in the hoarfrost when struck by the rays of the morning sun. All this water is often found hidden snugly in the depths of the evening clouds resting in the horizon. God paints a gorgeous sunset, shimmering with all the hues of heaven until our senses fairly reel with its beauty. This water of life brings refreshment and energy to man and beast and lowly plant. It is one of God's greatest gifts to the world. Water is responsible for the beauty of the rainbow, which is a circular spectrum. The drops of water falling out of the rain cloud become prisms by which the rays of light are separated into their primary colors. The component parts of water, as everyone knows, are two gases, hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is the most inflammable of gases, and oxygen is necessary for all their living inhabitants. So by changing an almost best fire extinguisher known, the action of low temperature on fluids is to increase their weights. This is true of water also until the temperature reaches within four degrees of freezing. When instead of the specific gravity increasing, water becomes lighter and rises to the surface as ice is formed. The reason for this is not difficult to understand. If ice sank as soon as formed, all lakes and rivers would soon be solid, and the result would be death to all fires. Yet when these combine, they produce the universal law, God removes from ice its death dealing properties so far as the fish are concerned and causes it to act as a protective covering which keeps them warm during the months of severe cold. Certainly this does not appear to be simply due to chance. Water in great quantities constantly is needed to sustain life in all organic realms. No water, no life is a basic law of the universe. There must be enough, but not too much. A mistake in either direction would be disastrous, so it is absolutely necessary that a definite and calculated amount should be available. In other words, if there is a person in charge of these adjustments, we expect that he will in some way measure and prepare the right quantity. To put it another way, the Earth's surface would have to be accurately apportioned as to land and water, and the ocean depths must be exactly the size to hold the necessary amount of liquid. There are one hundred and ninety-seven million square miles to the surface of the earth. What do we find? Most interesting phenomenon. There are one hundred and forty five thousand or one hundred forty five million square miles of water and fifty two million square miles of land. This seems to us a strange proportion at first glance, but of course it is just what is needed by a thirsty earth with countless millions of inhabitants. It is estimated that approximately sixteen million tons of water fall every second from the skies to earth, truly a vast quantity. How this is lifted from earth to heaven and then delivered to the earth will be considered later in our study, along with other miracles of water distribution, but it may be said at this point, and very forcibly, these requirements demand a master workman, an engineer. What does the Bible have to say about water? Well, some remarkable scientific statements are hidden away in out-of-the-way places in the Bible, but full of meaning when the light of modern knowledge is focused upon them. The fact is, one of the surprises the ancient books bring to us is that it unexpectedly flashes upon our consciousness miraculous conceptions. They come, as it seems, from the pens of ignorant human writers. However, they are truths, which it may be we have recently discovered, but have been handed down for thousands of years in this astonishing library of holy books. One time in the long ago, Jesus carried on a conversation about water with a woman of Samaria, from whom he requested a drink of water when he sat near to Jacob's well, very weary after miles of walking in the hot Palestinian sun. But let the record speak for itself. It's found in John chapter number four. He must needs pass through Samaria. So he cometh to a city of Samaria called Sikar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph, and Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat as he was by the well. Here is a picture of a tired Christ seeking rest and dropping wearily to a seat, and he was. Note these strange words, as he was. Mark uses them to describe his exhausted condition at another time when the disciples persuaded him to lie down in the boat. They took him as he was. Did the Son of God become completely fatigued? Well, there can be no doubt about it, as God manifest in the flesh, he became the man, Christ Jesus, and so was subject to human weakness in his physical body. But let's continue the story. It was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink, for his disciples were gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore saith unto him, How is it that thou being a Jew, askest drink of me who am a Samaritan woman? Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank thereof himself and his sons and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But who shall drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. This well known incident in the life of our Lord carries great truth and many lessons. For weary Christ, seeking physical refreshment from a woman of the world, took this trip for the purpose of bringing salvation to this obscure citizen of a Samaritan village. Yes, he must needs go through Samaria. Why must? Because if he had not gone out of the out of the way, this child would never have found the way home. She was lost in the wilderness of sin, but the Lord searched her out. He did a bit of personal work that day that has come down through the centuries to us, and wherever it is told it brings blessing. It reveals God's interest in one insignificant person, and that individual must be saved. She was on God's list of children to be brought into vital contact with the Lord Jesus Christ. Her thirst would never have been satisfied by the sparkling water from Jacob's well. She would, Jesus said, thirst again, and she knew it. We must recognize her acute perception, her sharp intelligence. She took him at his word and quickly made her decision. Sir, give me this water that I thirst not. She didn't understand, but she believed that he could do it. When she tasted, what did she do? Well, the Bible says she left her water pot. We read, and she hurried back into the city without it. She had something better than a water pot of H2O. She had found Jesus Christ in eternal life, and so she called out, Come see a man. Can this be the Christ? From a water carrier to thirsty Samaritans, who desired the physical satisfaction of water trickling over the tongue and down the throat, she became a flaming evangelist. So that the record says, and from that city many of the Samaritans believed on him because of the word of the woman who testified. Now, folks, that was a real conversion. Do you know anything about such a salvation experience? Have you ever tasted the water of eternal life handed out by the Savior Jesus Christ? Well, there's only one place you can get it, and that's from the nail-pierced hand of this wonderful man of Galilee. It's free, it cannot be purchased, but you personally must seek it from the one and only original source. You must ask for it and take it freely. By grace are you saved through faith. That not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, and what a gift. Ah, I tell you to slake your thirst today. That fountain of living waters, you'll find it to be the most satisfying drink you've ever known. Gloriously true it is, whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, Jesus said, shall never thirst. Eternal life for the taking. Just think of it. Now, Alfred Russell Wallace, one of the greatest scientists of the nineteenth century and an eminent authority, wrote a book Man's Place in the Universe, in which he pointed out a number of remarkable evidences of planning in order that life might be possible on this planet. There are five conditions essential to life. One of these is water in abundance and generally distributed. Obviously there must be a calculated amount, neither too much nor too little. In other words, it must be measured by the one who is in charge of this detail. Also, in order to hold this vast amount of water, there must be adequate basins or excavations in the earth itself. In the third place, if millions of tons of water are falling out of the sky every second, this water must have been lifted previously into the upper atmosphere. Another requirement is that the moisture must be distributed more or less evenly across the world if a wide area is to be changed from arid desert to inhabitable land. I suggest that there are several problems of supreme importance presenting great difficulties in solution. The machinery, which makes these various operations possible, works smoothly, constantly, and effectively. Does the Bible have anything to say about this? Now, I do not claim that the Bible is merely a scientific textbook, but I'll tell you, whenever it touches a scientific question, it speaks with infallible authority, far more so than any science textbook that's ever been written. What does the Bible say about the amount of water? Well, in Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 12 we read, speaking of God, who measured who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. This verse, with its four amazing suggestions, has long been judged nothing more than in picturesque language without factual reality. When we give the matter a little thought, we see that God is directing sceptical human intelligence to notice a few of the adjustments without which would be no life on this globe. He is asking as to the source of the power behind these adjustments. This entire chapter deals with the obvious evidences of God's personality and wisdom, contrasted with the importance of the idols held in such reverence by ignorant and thoughtless people. Think of the first statement of this verse. Who had measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? Now, there can be no doubt that the Creator must have carefully planned the exact amount of water which covers such a great area of the earth, the words in the hollow of his hand may be taken figuratively by some, but it must have been necessary to calculate a definite quantity, since a haphazard arrangement would have resulted in death. The method of measurement may not be important to you, but the fact of the measurement is there is a God who has measured the exact amount of water necessary to sustain life on this planet as we know it. Next How should this water be held or retained in certain locations? If the earth were a round, even ball, the water would run at random over its surface and thus making ordered life impossible. The only solution would seem to be excavations in the surface of the earth deep enough and wide enough to hold the vast tonnage of liquid. Now listen to this interesting statement. This is from Psalm 33 and verse 7. He layeth up the deeps in storehouses. What a beautiful explanation, for that is just what the ocean depths are. They are storehouses. If they were too shallow, the plan would be defeated. If they were too deep, there would be difficulty because ships could not travel on the surface, which would be far below the shorelines. But this great architect makes no mistakes. Men build storehouses for grain, which have a definitely measured capacity. Is it strange then that God should exercise forethought in this matter? The wonder is to have this explanation hidden away in the back of this psalm. He layeth up the deeps in storehouses, a perfect figure of the Creator, piling deep upon deep, laying it up in his basins of calculated capacity. The third engineering problem concerns the job of lifting a fluid, which is eight hundred times heavier than air, high into the atmosphere and holding it there, and then causing it to fall in gentle showers on thirsty ground. How is the force of gravity to be defied and conquered? Not once, but constantly, in order to raise sixteen million tons without apparent effort or disorder every second. To man this would be impossible, but with God all things are possible. Again, from the Book of Psalms, the one hundred and thirty-fifth Psalm in the seventh verse has three short clauses, which are packed full of surprising scientific ideas, truths which were not certainly known or even imagined when this record was written. Listen to verses five, six, and seven. For I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, he hath done, in heaven and in earth, in the seas, and in all the deeps, who causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth, who maketh lightnings for the rain, who bringeth forth the wind out of his treasuries. Now let's glance at another interesting and significant passage. This is from Ecclesiastes chapter one, verses six and seven. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north. It turneth about continually in its course, and the wind returneth again according to its circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. Unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. Now, these are remarkable observations regarding puzzling phenomena, great quantities of water emptying into inland seas without any outlet, and yet the water level in these seas remaining constant? The question which arises is what becomes of the inflowing water? Why is the sea into which it runs not full to overflowing? And then the author of Ecclesiastes answers his own question by telling us an incredible thing, that the rivers which came from the high places into the low return again to their first location on the heights. Now, how can water, weighing eight hundred times more than air, be raised against gravity miles above the earth in high quantities daily? And the answer is found in the first clause of this psalm that we read. He causes, he, that's God, causes, that's a definite action, the vapor, to ascend from the ends of the earth. That is evaporation, with all its amazing wonders, is God's solution of this problem. This answer to our question lies hidden in one of the Psalms, again in the book of Ecclesiastes, revealing very casually and without excitement the infinite wisdom of God, to whom all things are not only possible, but easy. Learned by the scientists, though some few years ago, but known by the Bible writers thousands of years ago, as they spake under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, that which was far, far ahead of their time and their knowledge. What is evaporation? Well, it's merely the strange effect of sunlight striking molecules of water and changing them instantly and noiselessly into molecules of watery vapor, in which form the new molecules occupy one hundred or sixteen hundred times the space they did as water. That is, they are now water vapor balloons, if you will, ascending on high in countless numbers each second of time, invisible to human vision, and causing no disturbance of any kind. This is a mighty God in action. If it was the Dead Sea which Solomon visited, he saw the torrential waters from the Jordan emptying their load daily into the sea without any resulting overflow. This man under the sun made a discovery thousands of years ago because he had asked God to give him wisdom. Only thus can we explain this altogether unexpected statement about evaporation, suggesting some sort of circular irrigation system of the earth. Water reaches the hills and mountains, unites into rivers, tumbles into the sea, and then mysteriously causes no increase in the waters into which it is empty. Stranger than all this is the observation that the rivers, after their visit to the sea, return again to their original place in the heights. Another impossible event, according to human wisdom. Is there any wonder then when we read, I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods? Now I ask you, what God are you worshiping today? Everyone worships someone or something. Everyone experiences both hunger and thirst. How are you endeavoring to meet these two needs? Is your food satisfying? Is your liquid nourishment uh really thirst quenching? Now you'll agree with me that the man who knows not God is never satisfied as to hunger or thirst. There's only one food that nourishes and removes the pangs of spiritual hunger. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. Are you hungry for satisfaction? Are you hungry for something to make you content? You're thirsty, your soul longs after that which will bring relief, and you're drinking of what the world has to offer, partaking ceaselessly but without relief. Don't you remember Jesus said, Everyone that drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. What do you think about trying something new which offers an instantaneous and complete cure for the hunger and thirst in your life? You know, that infallible cure is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the bread of life and the living water, and you really ought to try Him. Now, also in connection with this water that we've been talking about, what about the magnificent system of rivers which furrow the earth, consisting and constituting a grand system of drainage and irrigation? The benefits derived from the magnificent network of rivers which cover the globe are obviously incalculable. Besides draining the earth of its surplus waters, without which some of the fairest portions of its surface would soon be submerged, they are the means by which living creatures on the dry land are furnished with their needed drink, and man is given a most valuable food supply from the fish that are bred in these waters. They also open great channels of commerce with distant and interior countries, while in their course for the sea they provide unlimited power and facilities for manufacture. Rivers have built and have furnished the wealth of the most renowned cities of the earth, where the richest monuments of art and industry have been assembled. In Europe we find four great rivers, the Rhone, four hundred miles long, it drains about seven thousand square miles. The Rhine, which is seven hundred miles in length and carries to the sea the waters from about fifteen thousand square miles. The Danube pursues its course for eighteen hundred miles, taking the waters from an expanse of not less than fifty-five thousand square miles. And there's the two thousand mile-long Volga River, which winds slowly along its course and gathers the waters of one half of the great Russian Empire. Asia has a still more magnificent system. China has two rivers each, which are more than three thousand miles long, and Siberia two others of equal size. In Siam, there's the Irrawaddy and the Mekong, while in Western Asia there's the Euphrates and the Tigris, which you remember from biblical writings. British India has large rivers running for thousands of miles, the most celebrated being the Ganges, which leaps into sight for the first time from a perpendicular wall of ice in the Himalayas and pursues a course of almost 1900 miles. These waters are called sacred and And they're drawn from a district of unequaled fertility. They embrace an area of not less than 400,000 square miles. By comparison, Africa has really very few rivers. The Niger uh stretches its crooked length for 2,000 miles in the west, and the Nile, 3,200 miles long in the east. At least the last 800 miles of this don't receive a single tributary. In America, there's of course the St. Lawrence River and the Mississippi River, 4,000 miles long, draining about a million square miles of land, and then there's the King of Them All, the Great Amazon. Its mouth presents a stream a hundred miles wide and six hundred feet deep, as the mighty river flows through Brazil. There are ocean rivers which flow as definitely and regularly as the Danube or the Nile. Their channels are established for thousands of miles as they pursue their course along beds and between banks of other and different water as mixed as or as fixed as if they're built out of granite rock, actually streams and rivers and waterways in the very ocean itself. The most remarkable of these is the famous Gulf Stream, so named because it was long supposed to originate in the Gulf of Mexico, but its exact origin is really well, it's really not a starting point and a finishing point. It's actually a great circular concourse. But from the Gulf of Mexico, this stream flows into the Atlantic between Florida and Cuba, and it runs northward nearly parallel to the coast of the United States until it reaches Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, where it makes a great bend, throwing one branch downward toward the Azores, and the other spreads out and flows north to the British Isles and thence to the Polar Sea. The banks and bottom of this magnificent river are of cold water, while its mainstream is warm. It is seventy miles wide and three thousand feet deep, and equal in volume to more than a thousand Mississippi rivers at full flood. Along the Florida coast, its speed is about eighty miles a day, but by the time it reaches the Azores it is slowed down to ten miles a day. Its color as far as the coast of the Carolinas is indigo blue. Its banks or edges are well defined, with the middle of the stream considerably higher than the edges, so that it runs like a great serpentine ridge upon the surface of the ocean. What is still more remarkable, it runs uphill. In part of its course, the gradient of its bed is not less than five or six feet to the mile. Its most notable characteristic is its effect on climate due to its high temperature. As it leaves the Gulf of Mexico, its temperature is 86 degrees Fahrenheit. After traversing ten degrees of latitude, it remains eighty-four degrees. And when it has traveled 3,000 miles north, it still preserves in winter the heat of summer. Continuing its course, it overflows its liquid banks and spreads over thousands of square miles a mantle of warmth. This heat is carried by the west winds over all the west coast of Europe, softening its climate. Thus the British Isles are made habitable, even though in the same latitude as Labrador, which is bound in the grip of ice and snow. Life is made possible in Norway and Sweden, where otherwise eternal cold would prevail. In view of these considerations, are we not justified in believing that the Gulf Stream is another evidence of our God's design and forethought? Scarcely less remarkable is the Japanese current, which runs along the Pacific coast and has a somewhat similar effect there. Then there's the great polar stream bearing down in the opposite direction to the Gulf Stream, a sort of compensory current. This rises in the distant recesses of Baffin's Bay and the Greenland Sea and studded with icebergs, it sweeps along the coast of Labrador, encircling the island of Newfoundland in its chill embrace. As it journeys south, it encounters the Gulf Stream running northwestward. As the paths of these two giants cross each other, they seem to struggle for right of way. Their hostile waters refuse to mingle, and each continues to retain its color and temperature. From the force of the shock, the Gulf Stream falters in its course momentarily and is deflected toward the south. The polar current, unable to break through the mass of water in the Gulf Stream, dives under its bed and hastens on to the tropics, bringing its refreshing coolness to those heat ridden countries. Now it's obvious that by reason of this perpetual circulation of the waters of the deep, the streams flowing from and to the equator, not only is the rigorous cold of the polar regions relieved, but the exalting and exhausting heat of the tropics is modified. There's another interesting fact. The streams which flow from the polar seas toward the south carry along with them vast numbers of excellent fish from the colder latitudes. In this way there is supplied to the people of the water warmer regions food which could not be found in the heated waters of the southern seas. You know, as you view the globe and its outlines of land and water with its manifold complicated arrangements, you can't help but see a bit of God's mind as he formed and fashioned and measured and weighed and imposed his divine will and all the details of this marvelous system. When the waters gathered themselves, it was not at random, but in strict conformity to his plan. When the various currents devised by him began to circulate, there was no chance, but rather an omniscient God in action. No wonder he pronounced everything good. Some day Jesus Christ will once more visit the earth and will reign in person as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We read in Isaiah 33, verses 20 and 21, of Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. What a charming picture of restful beauty, and how we covet that quietness which is almost impossible to secure today, because the increasing demands of business and the thousand and one things which distract our minds and unsettle our spirits, but one day God again assures that He again will take control, and we will rest in the Lord, and all the earth shall be at peace and at rest. This will be the reward conferred upon the Lord Jesus Christ to all those that know him and love him and believe upon his holy name. One day all the rivers and streams and all that is in them shall praise the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll close our program today with this quotation concerning water. Jesus said in Isaiah 55, Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. He that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come by wine and milk without money and without price. Incline your ear and come unto me, hear, and your soul shall live. Who is the satisfier? The true river of living water is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you believe on him, you'll find rest and satisfaction.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Thanks for tuning in today. Join us every weekday for another episode of the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast. For hundreds of hours of in-depth expository Bible teaching, please visit our YouTube channel, James W. Knox Sermons, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptist the Land. Or our website, BibleBaptistteland.com. Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.