Creation (2)
September 24, 2000 / No. 3012
Dear radio friends,
If you listened to our program last week, you will remember that we confessed the truth at that time that God is the Creator of all things. If you did not hear that message, you will want to get a copy of it in order that, with today’s message, you will have a clear and concise confession of the truth of the Scriptures concerning the question of who made all things, and how things came into being.
We entered that discussion last week by making an observation concerning the recent debate which was provoked by the decision made in Kansas to allow creation to be taught in the public schools. The opponents of that decision argued vehemently from the assumption that the evolutionary explanation of the origin of the world is a scientific fact. The decision that was made in Kansas pointed out that evolution is not a fact but is a theory. That is, the evolutionary explanation of the origin of the world is an explanation which is ultimately unprovable by the accepted scientific method. The opponents to the decision taken in Kansas to allow creation to be taught simply would not hear of that. In a furor, they misrepresented the decision, claiming that the intention was to strike from the state’s science curriculum all overt references to the theory of evolution. Although such an end would indeed be commendable, yet that representation of the decision was not accurate. That was not the decision. The decision was to allow either creation or evolution to be taught, on the ground that both were theories.
Now, although we may find it refreshing to hear the admission that evolution is only a theory, and although we might note with interest how the advocates of evolution become unsettled when they are reminded of that fact, it must be understood that, for the Christian, it is not enough that creation and evolution be placed on equal footings and that it be left simply to the decision of parents or others to decide which one is truth and therefore which one ought to be taught to children. One is true, the other is the lie. The truth is creation. Evolution is a lie.
Evolution is a lie because it contradicts the Word of God. And God is the Creator. The Bible is the declaration of His word. And in that Word, He makes very plain that He is the Creator of all things.
We looked last week at the third verse of Hebrews 11, where the Scriptures say that by faith we understand that the worlds were made by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Open your Bible with me to that beautiful chapter of the Word of God.
Note with me that the chapter begins with a definition of faith. We read, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The things which are hoped for and the things which are not seen are the same. They are the things that God has surely promised to the Christian but which we do not have in all of their perfection and fullness. God has promised us heaven, the perfect deliverance from our sins, the day when we will be with Christ. These are the things for which we hope. Now faith is the substance of these things, the evidence of the things we have not yet seen. By faith we actually possess those things, even though we do not have them yet in their fullness, because, you see, faith is that spiritual union, that spiritual umbilical cord, whereby we are actually united to all of those things that God has promised for us.
Faith is not a natural something. The origin of faith is not in the human heart. Faith is not something that is produced by the human will. No, faith is a heavenly thing. It is the gift of God whereby God actually joins us, gives to us the spiritual capacity whereby we are united, to all of those things He has promised, even though we do not yet have them.
Still more, faith is the evidence of the things not seen. The things which are not seen are similar to those things which are hoped for – only the idea there is that the human eye cannot see them. We have no knowledge of those things that God has promised us in Christ and that are laid up for us in heaven, according to our own earthly senses of eye, ear, hand, and nose. The pleasures at God’s right hand, to be seated at the table of Christ in eternal glory, to stand with all of the saints of all ages – we have not seen that and we cannot see that now. But faith is the evidence, the positive proof, the abiding and confident assurance, of the reality of those things.
Then, in verse 2 of that chapter, that beautiful chapter of Hebrews 11, we are shown that this faith was in the elders, in the fathers, in the Old Testament saints. They obtained a good report by faith. That is, they received a good testimony from God. The Old Testament believers received from God these things of faith. And, by the grace of God, they believed them and received a good testimony from God.
Then, in verse 3, we go on to read that by faith we understand that God created the world. That is very interesting. You will note with me that the same faith which confesses Christ, the same faith that looks ahead toward the things which we are hoping for in God’s eternal kingdom, the same faith which says concerning Christ and all that He has promised, “I know Him, I know those things, I am persuaded of them,” that same faith also looks back to the beginning of the world and confesses, “I know the origin of all things as certainly as I know the end of all things.” The faith that looks up to God and hopes in God is also a faith which looks upon the creation and with the same certainty knows where the creation came from. The faith which embraces the end, the final day when Jesus comes again and all of our salvation is perfected, that same faith, not a different faith, embraces the beginning, the creation, when all things were made by God.
You see, the Christian faith is not simply about the future. The Christian faith is not only about our spiritual relation to the living Son of God. The Christian faith is not only a hope for a coming spiritual realm in eternal glory which, right now, the human eye cannot see. That is not the end of the Christian faith. The same Christian faith knows the past. The same Christian faith has the evidence, the certainty, that, as God is going to come in Jesus Christ and make the new heavens and new earth where all of His saints shall dwell, so has God made the present world in which we live. He made it in six days by His word, out of nothing.
You see, faith is not simply a feeling. It is not, “I like to think this way,” or “I hope so.” But faith is the substance of those things. Faith is the evidence of those things. It is the substance and the evidence of all that God has promised us to come. And it is the substance and the evidence of all that has been. Therefore, we say that we believe that God created the world. Just as surely as we know by faith that we belong to Jesus Christ and that He is coming for us again and that we shall be with Him in eternal riches, so surely does the same faith tell us that which eye was not there to see, that for which there is no scientific evidence, that the origin of the world was by the creative hand of God. We understand this by faith.
That is very powerful and very striking. Because we understand this by faith, we know that the world did not come into existence by itself. That is very striking also in Hebrews 11:3, for it goes on to say, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Let us focus our attention on that last part.
The Holy Spirit is teaching us that it is not enough to confess only the positive, that God framed the world, that He made it. But we must also reject the lie. You see, there is an alternative to the biblical truth of creation. If God did not make all things by His word, then the alternative is, obviously, things made themselves. We repudiate that. God puts in my mouth and in your mouth right now as you confess the truth of the Scriptures, not only the positive confession, “the worlds were made by the word of God,” but also the negative, “so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” I believe the first: God made the world. I reject the second. I deny, by faith, that things made themselves, that things which are seen were made of things which do appear, that things evolved from other things. That is the only alternative to the Word of God’s explanation of the origin of the world.
You have there the perfect description of evolution. Evolution says that the things which you see were made from things which do appear. Things made things. The amoeba made a more complex cell. The fish produced a reptile. The reptile, the bird; the bird, the mammal; and so on. Lower life forms evolved into higher life forms. Things made things. Now note, as you read your Bible, that the Bible explicitly denies that. Evolution did not originate with Charles Darwin in 1851. Already the Greek philosophers before Christ’s day were saying the very same thing. Only they would sum it up this way: Things which are seen were made of things which do appear.
Now God’s Word is as up-to-date as it ever has been. God’s Word, to His church of every age, says: Not so! That is a denial that all things came into being by the word of God. Things did not make things. Each creature, every kind of species, came into being independently of other creatures because they came into being by God’s word. Evolution is false! Evolution is unbelief.
First of all, evolution cannot and does not explain what it says it explains. It says, “We will tell you where things came from, how it got here. Things evolved from lower things.” First there was the Big Bang. Then we are told that there were huge masses of gas exploding to create the first life. And the theory continues to change. But they have no answer as to where that gas came from, where that first particle or speck came from. They have no answer to that.
Still more. The Bible teaches us that the present state and the arrangement of the world is not due to natural selection or to development from one life form to another, but by the word of God. God, by His word, brought into existence each distinct creature, genetically unrelated to the other. Man did not evolve from the animal. Birds did not come from reptiles. God created each one by His own word. The text tells us that the creation was passive. The worlds were framed by the word of God, they were acted upon by God. Evolution has things actively producing other things. God’s Word says that it is not so. Things did not make themselves. They were made. Evolution says one species made another, and finally, man, so that man produced himself. The glory is to man. The Bible gives the glory to God alone.
Man was made by God. We understand this by faith. We do not simply believe this – although our believing is the believing of faith. We understand this. Hebrews 11:3 does not say, “I accept it even though I don’t have the foggiest notion about it at all.” No, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. The Holy Spirit says, “We have some very clear, mental perception of this great truth of creation.” We are able to think rational, logical, consistent thought on this beautiful work of God. It makes sense to faith. It is totally consistent when one is governed by faith. Faith does not reject learning. Faith is not suspicious of the knowledge of the creation made by God. Faith is not hostile to genuine science and does not say, “Well, it’s best to be ignorant of true science lest we be swept away.” In submission to faith and out of the confession of this Word of God that God made all things, we study the creation – even as the saints in heaven study it. And we say, “Thou art worthy, O God. For thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Rev. 4:11).
That does not mean that we comprehend the work of God. There is only one who comprehends this work and that is God who created it. It is a wonder, a marvel. We worship God for this.
Have you ever done that? Have you ever gone out on a starry night and gazed up at the stars and thought that God says He holds them in His hands? He calls them all by name. Does that make your heart swell in wonder so that you can say with the psalmist in Psalm 8, “What is man that thou art mindful of him?”
Have you ever walked by yourself in the cool spring day across the grass or woods and see each blade of grass and flower and insect all moving by the word of God? And God says to us through the Bible that this shows that He is glorious. He speaks to us of His power, of His faithfulness, of His love for the creation. We remember the words of the Son of God when He said to us, “My heavenly Father feeds the sparrows. Are ye not much more to Him than the sparrows?”
When there was no eye to see and when there was no scribe to record, God made heaven and earth. And He gave us the inspired account in His Word. Through the word of God you were there and you understand that there was nothing before He spoke. The earth and the dry land appeared when He spoke, as did the plants and vegetation of every sort. The stars were created already shining. And birds and fish of every size and color were created. We do not comprehend it. But I would remind you that we also do not comprehend that which is coming – the new creation. This is the creation in which there shall be no unclean thing. It shall be perfectly righteous. For nothing that is abominable and defiled shall enter. This is the creation into which one enters only through the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Now we understand that, as children of God. We lay hold upon that new creation which has been promised to us by faith. By faith we lay hold upon and we know and understand the origin of the world. This is our confession before the world.
It is fundamental. Because God’s Word teaches this to be the origin of the world, to challenge this truth is to deny the holy Scriptures. That is the heart of it. When men tamper with the Word of God and inject the idea that the Word of God must be judged by man and that the Word of God contains myth and error, they are attacking God Himself and His church. They are attacking the young people of the church. They are attacking the church at her very core and existence. For the church has nothing to witness except the Word of God. That is our witness. God has spoken. Will ye not hear Him?
Therefore we confess, with all the saints of God, that God made the world and all things in it in six days. He created them for Jesus Christ. He created them in order that He might redeem His church by grace, through Jesus Christ, and glorify Himself in them in the new heavens and the new earth. Therefore, out of love for Jesus Christ, and out of reverence for our heavenly Father, we confess today the same truth that the church confessed throughout the ages: God is the Creator of all things.
Is that your confession?
Let us pray.
Almighty God, we have heard Thy Word. Bind it now to our hearts. Amen.