Declaring Doctrine | Part 17 | The Doctrine of Creation
Tonight we’re getting back into our series on Declaring Doctrine. If you remember, the first time we covered this on a Sunday night, we spent the time learning about the doctrine of revelation. I preached six sermons on the doctrine of revelation and about how God reveals himself. And we spent a lot of time talking about the word of God. And then the last time we were in it we talked about the doctrine of the Godhead. I spent nine sermons going through and teaching about the attributes of God and we talked about God the Father and God the Son God the Holy Spirit and the Trinity. And we went through and learned those things. Tonight we begin a new section called the doctrine of man or under the heading of the doctrine of man. And we’re going to begin with the doctrine of creation. Next Sunday night we’re going to look at the doctrine of the fall. And I would encourage you to be here next Sunday night because we’re going to look at the story of Adam and Eve and the doctrine of the fall in a way that maybe you haven’t seen it before.
This morning we dealt with one of the most important major doctrines of Christianity and that is the resurrection. Tonight we’re dealing with another major doctrine of Christianity and that is creation and the fact that we believe that God is the creator. Genesis 1:1, the Bible says this. Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”. We’re going to look at this idea of creation tonight but I want to begin by giving you some statements in regards to creation. And first of all let me say this; creation is the belief that God is the creator, that God created the heavens and the earth. Creation is a theological subject and not a scientific subject. We have been duped into believing by our society that creation is a scientific subject. However, nothing could be further from the truth. This is a theological subject. This is something we know and we believe because of the word of God. Science does not have any answers in regards to creation. And you say “Well I read a science book and they said this.”. Well, the Bible calls science falsely so-called. Because when we talk about and the scientific method and research, it is something that can be observed, measured, predicted, tested and repeated.
And by the way, let me say this as an Independent Fundamental Baptist, as a Bible-believing, old-time preacher, I don’t have a problem with any of that. In fact, science is found in our Bible. But science, which means knowledge, when we talk about the scientific method and we’re talking about real science, we’re talking about things that can be observed. You can look at things upon this earth, whether it’s animals or whether it’s chemicals whether it’s in nature or whatever it might be, you can observe it, you can measure it. Based on those observations, you can make hypothesis which are predictions. You can say “When this chemical mixed together this happened and we predict that if we mix them together again it’ll happen again.”. You observe things, you measure things, you predict things. Then you test your hypothesis. And if you can test it and repeat it over and over and over again, you have science.
Creation is not within the realm of science because creation is not something that anybody observe. Nobody saw the creation. Even the scientists today, the ones that want to tell you about the big bang and all these things, nobody was there to see it. Creation was not observed. Creation cannot be predicted. Creation cannot be tested. Creation cannot be repeated. Creation was not a natural event. It was a supernatural event when God spoke the earth and the world into existence.
So tonight we’re speaking of creation. And I give you that introduction to say this, I’m not preaching a sermon tonight to try to convince you on the subject of creation. Now I don’t have a problem with those types of sermons. I believe there is a time and a place to stand up and preach those types of sermons. I’ve preached those types of sermons. In fact, I did an entire series called evolution versus creation where we went through and logically broke down a lot of the reasoning and the thoughts in regards to that. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with somebody preaching a sermon trying to convince somebody to believe creation. What I’m saying is that’s not what I’m preaching tonight. Tonight I’m preaching to you on the doctrine of creation. We’re going to take a theological view at creation and I’m going to highlight for you what it is exactly that you and I believe or should believe as Bible-believing Christians about creation from the word of God.
Now before we get into the outline and I give you those steps, I’d like to do an overview of Genesis chapter one and give you an overview of the creation week. The Bible says that God created the heavens and the earth, that God created everything in the universe in six days. Genesis chapter one outlines that for us. Notice Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void;” Meaning it was empty. And he spends the next six days filling it. “and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”.
So we see that on the first day of creation, God created the heaven and the earth. He also created light and he separated light from darkness and he called the light day and he called the darkness night. Notice the second day in verse six. “6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”. So we see here on the second day that God created the firmament which verse 8 tells us is called heaven. It’s what you and I refer to as the sky. And God divided the waters from above the firmament from the waters below the firmament. These things took place on day two.
Then on day three we start in verse nine. “9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.”.
So notice that on the 3rd day, God gathered the waters together and he called that the sea and when he gathered the waters together he made the dry land to appear and he called that earth. He also made plant life to grow upon the earth. Notice day four there in verse 14. “14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”. God created the sun, the moon and the stars.
Notice the fifth day in verse 20. “20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.”. So on the fifth day we see that God created the birds and God created the fish. God created the fowls of the air and God created the moving creatures of the sea.
Notice day 6 in verse 24. “24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”. Skip down to verse 31. “31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”. So we see that on the sixth day God created the land animals. He created the insects and then of course he created the climax of his creation which was mankind.
And I want you to notice that when God created mankind, there is a distinction or a difference between mankind and animal life. When he created animal life, he just created all the fowls of the air, all the fish of the sea, all the land animals. But when he created man, he said “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. So there is a difference between a human and an animal. There is a difference between a person and a beast. And I wanted to just kind of give you an overview of the creation story because we’re going to break down that creation story here in a minute. But what I would like to do tonight is give you four theological statements regarding what we believe about creation or what you should believe as a Bible-believing Christian about creation. Let me just say this, there are some things you may have noticed as we walked through that chapter and divided into the six different days and highlighted the things that God created. There are some things in that passage that God emphasizes over and over and over again. And if you actually take the time to notice, God repeats himself about several things over and over. There’s a reason why God repeats himself. There is some theological significance to what he is repeating over and over. He wants us to see it, hear it and notice it. There are some things that we can learn from it.
So let me give you four theological statements tonight in regards to the doctrine of the creation, a theology of creation. What is it that we as Bible believing Christians should believe in regards to creation? Number one regarding creation, we believe that God created all things through his word. I want you to notice what the Bible says there in verse number three. This is emphasized through the chapter. Genesis 1:3 “3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”. Notice verse 6 “6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”. Notice verse 9 “9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.”. Notice verse 11 “11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass,”. Notice verse 14 “And God said”.
Do you see the pattern here? Do you think that maybe God wants us to notice something? Why don’t you notice that when God created the universe, he did not take materials that already existed and rearranged them together. That’s what humans do when they call it creation. When God created the universe, he spoke and it was so. Verse 14 “14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven.”. Verse 20 “20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly”. Verse 24 “24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth”. Verse 26 “26 And God said, Let us make man in our image,”. Throughout the Bible we see this emphasis. Throughout this chapter we see that God created all things through his word.
God did not take material that was already there and rearrange it. God created everything through his word. He spoke and it was so. He said and the light appeared. He said and the heaven and the earth appeared This is a doctrine that’s found throughout the Bible. It reminds me of the joke about scientists. “We figured out how to create life”. And they went to God and said “We figured out how to create life. We don’t need you anymore God. We’ve figured out how to do it.”. And God said “Okay. Go ahead.”. And they said “Okay. Well let us show you how to do it.”. And they stooped down and grabbed a pile of dirt. And he said “You have to get your own dirt.”.
And the truth is this. They can take materials from wherever and say we cloned this and we did that and we accomplished this but what they’re doing is they’re just taking what’s already here, what God already created. God didn’t borrow dirt from anybody. God spoke and he created it. Hebrews 11:3 “3 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.”. Look, the Bible clearly tells us here that everything that you see was one day created by God when it had not yet appeared. God by his word. “3 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.”.
And look, let me just explain this to you. The belief in creation, the belief in a creator, we must come to God by faith. The Bible says that “without faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”. And we’re told that we aren’t smart because we trust in faith. And we agree that we believe creation by faith because we can’t test or make hypothesis or predictions. But the same is true with evolution. They accept it by faith. At least we’re honest that we believe it by faith. You have to come to God by faith. “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”.
Go to John 1. Number 1, we believe that God created things through his Word. There’s a double meaning there. Because we actually mean that God spoke the world into creation. But we also believe when we say that God created all things through his word that God created all things through the second member of the Godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you were to ask who’s the creator, the answer is God. But if you want to theologically ask which of the 3, it is the Son. You could make the argument that all 3 did but the Bible clearly teaches us that Jesus is the one who actually created the heavens and the earth. And this is consistent because not only did God create through his word by speaking into existence but he created through the Lord Jesus Christ which is the word. The Bible says there are three that bear record in heaven the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one.
John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”. The Word was with God speaks to the Trinity and the Word was God shows Jesus is God. Look at verse 2. “2 The same was in the beginning with God.”. Notice verse 3. “3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”. So when we say that God created all things through his Word, yes things were spoken into existence by God. However, they were spoken by the Word which is the Lord Jesus Christ. “3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”.
Colossians 1:14 “14 In whom we have redemption through his blood,” This is the Lord Jesus Christ. “even the forgiveness of sins: 15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:”. Look at verse 16 “16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:”. Verse 17 “17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”. This is why Jesus could say “Before Abraham was I am”. The Bible says that Jesus is the creator of all things. All things were made by him and for him and by him all things consist. He is the word. He is the creator.
This is why we believe in the deity of Christ. And today you have many who will attack the deity of Christ. You’ve got the Jehovah’s witnesses who’ll say that Jesus was not deity but just a good teacher. Islam says he was a Prophet. But what does the Bible say in Colossians 1:15 “15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:”. Now they take this verse and say that he is the firstborn of creation implying he was created. Or they take in Revelation 3:14 where it says “the beginning of the creation of God”. These verses do not mean that he was the first one created by God because that would contradict John 1. It means that when God began to create, it began with the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the beginning of the creation of God. He is the one who spoke the world into existence. He is before all things. He was before everything. He is the great I am. He is the self-existing one. He said before Abraham was I am. And he is before any man.
What do we believe about the creation? Number 1 regarding the creation – we believe that God created all things through his Word. What we mean by that is that God used his Word to speak the world into existence. And what we mean by that is that Jesus is the Word and he is the creator that spoke the world into existence. Let me give you a second statement. I’m giving you four theological statements about what we believe about creation. Number two regarding creation, we believe in a literal 24-hour day, six-day creation week as by believing Christians. We believe in a six-day creation week. Of course we know on the seventh day God rested but we believe that it was a 24-hour day.
Today you have so-called Christians who will say that’s just an allegory. Now look, I just preached a whole sermon about allegories a couple weeks ago and I definitely believe in allegories and I believe that there’s things in the Bible that are symbolic. But look, we take the Bible literally until the Bible shows us that something is symbolic. And by the way, some things could be literal and there could be symbolism in that literality. Some things are not literal at all like a parable that Jesus told that was just a story to bring forth a truth. But you can’t just take any random passage of scripture and say “Well I believe this is a story, I believe this is symbolic, I don’t think this is real.”. There’s nothing in the passage that indicates that this is a parable so we take the Bible literally and we believe in a literal 24-hour day, six-day creation week. And notice, this is the emphasis of the passage in Genesis 1.
Genesis 1:5 “5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”. This is signifying two times of the day. They’re signifying the time of the day when the sun is out which we would call daytime, the time of the day when the moon is out which we would call night time. And here God takes the time to tell us about the first day. Verse 8 “8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”. Verse 13 “13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.”. Verse 19 “19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”. Verse 23 “23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.”. Verse 31 “31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”.
Over and over and over he emphasizes a 24-hour period where the sun comes up for 12 hours and goes down for 12 hours roughly. These were actual days. The evening and the morning were the first day, 2nd day, 3rd day, 4th day, 5th day, 6th day. It’s a literal seven-day week, six-day creation week, seventh day of rest.
Go to Exodus 20. Exodus 20:11 “11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”. In the Old Testament God told the children of Israel to work 6 days and rest the 7th. By the way, I don’t feel bad when you go soul winning on Saturday. God says you ought to work six days. Now praise the Lord that you live in America where you work for five days and they give you Saturday off but get to work and go soul winning. God’s pattern is 1 day off which is why we give our workers 1 day off but not 2. God gave us a 6-day work week and then he gave the 7th day to rest. Now we believe in a literal, 24-hour, six-day creation week.
You say why is that important? It’s important for a couple of reasons. There are those who try to attack the doctrine of creation. What does the literal, 24-hour day, six-day creation week, what does that prove or disprove? It disproves the gap theory. The gap theory is a belief put out by dispensationalists. Let me read to you an article that explains it.
“What is the gap theory. Gap creationism also known as the gap theory is a teaching that does not believe in six literal 24-hour days of creation but that there was a gap of time between the first and the second verses of genesis chapter number one. The gap theory teaches that when you look at genesis chapter number one and you see that it’s outlined ending each day that this is not an actual literal week because there’s actually a gap of thousands and maybe millions or billions of years between verses 1 and 2.”.
I want you to notice Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”. Is there any indication of a gap between these verses? People get doctrines like this from commentaries like the Scofield Reference Bible. This is why we don’t recommend commentaries as these are the words of men. This is what Scofield wrote:
“Jeremiah 4:23-27, Isaiah 24, Isaiah 45:18 clearly indicate that the earth had undergone a cataclysmic change as a result of divine judgment. The face of the earth bears everywhere the marks of such a catastrophe that there are not wanting imitations which connect it with the previous testing and fall of agents”. Is anyone going to get this when reading Genesis 1:2? Is this how God expects us to read the Bible? We get to the 2nd verse and we have to jump forward to Jeremiah Chapter 4. This is why Dispensationalists will say that you need to get a Scofield Reference Bible to understand the Bible because what they teach is so confusing.
They say that between these 2 verses, there were all of these civilizations and angels and they got kicked out of heaven and they went down to the earth and they mated with women and they did this and they did that. I mean they make entertaining videos but this is Science Fiction. I mean literally I’m not joking but they talk about vampires, aliens, geek science stuff. The problem is that Genesis 1 and Exodus 20:11 clearly show us that this was an actual week. Exodus 20:11 “11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”. This disproves the gap theory.
Another theory that is disproved is the Day Age Theory. This theory suggests that each day is symbolic or represents a time period of thousands or millions or billions of years. Here is their proof text. 2 Peter 3:8 “8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”. In the context we can see what is being spoken of is the patience of God. It’s not big deal to God to wait a day or a thousand years. But this isn’t saying that one day literally is a thousand years for God. It definitely doesn’t say anything about the Creation week. So if you want to take random verses and apply them however you want to overhaul the Creation then you can but you’re not a Bible believing Christian. The only way to walk away from Genesis 1 is to believe that there was a 6 day, literal 24-hour creation week.
But even if you believe that those days represent a time period then you have some problems with the Day Age Theory. Because what you’ll notice in the creation week, and I’m just going to point this out to you really quickly, there is a pattern in the Creation week. The Bible says the earth was without form and void and then he filled the space. Let me give you an example of what I mean.
On day 1 he creates light and separated the light from the darkness but then on day 4 he creates the sun, moon and stars. On day 2 he creates the firmament or the sky and divides the waters. Then on day 5 he creates the birds and fish which are connected to the sky and waters. On day 3 he gathers the waters together and makes the dry land appear. On day 6 we see land animals. So day 1 light, day 4 the source of light. Day 2 the skies and water and day 5 he fills those. Day 3 the dry land and day 6 he fills them. So there’s a pattern here. What’s interesting in the pattern is that if we were telling the Creation story then we would tell it differently. This is why you can see this is God and not man.
Here’s what’s interesting. Look at Genesis 1:11 “11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.”. On the 4th day, look at verse 14 “14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:”. Look at verse 16 “16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.”. Obviously referring to the sun, moon and stars.
He makes the plant life appear day 3 but the sun appear day 4. If these are literal 24-hour days no problem. But if we’re supposed to believe that these days are symbolic and they actually represent long periods of times of thousands of years or billions of years or whatever then the day age theory has a problem because plants were created on day three of the creation week and the sun was created on day four of the creation week. And if these are actual times that are separated by a thousand years or a million years then how could plants survive without the sun? Photosynthesis is a process by which plants use the sun in order to survive. So you have people who want to believe in theistic evolution which we’re going to talk about in a minute and they’ll say “Well in order to make theistic evolution work that things just evolved and God just used evolution in order to make that work we can’t have the six-day week of creation. We have to make this thing last billions of years. Let’s just say that every day actually just represents a period of time of a thousand years or a million years or a billion years.”. Well the problem with that is that the order in which God created would not allow for evolution. Plants need the sun. I believe God did it this way to disprove evolution and the Bible being compatible.
I said number one regarding creation, we believe that God created all things through his word and we know that that is the Lord Jesus Christ. I said number two regarding the creation week, we believe in a literal, 24-hour day, six-day creation week. Here’s statement number three regarding creation. We believe that all things bring forth after their own kind. Notice again that this is something emphasized throughout the chapter. Verse 21 “21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”. Verse 24 “24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.”. Verse 25 “25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”. Notice that these words “after his kind” keep popping up.
God tells us in the very first chapter of the Bible in the creation week that everything brings forth after its own kind. Now is there variation within the kinds? Absolutely. Do things change within kinds? Absolutely. That’s actually scientific. You can actually observe that. You can actually predict that. You can actually test that. You can take one ugly little dog and mate it with another ugly little dog and create an even uglier little dog. But a dog will never give birth to anything more than a dog and a cat will never produce anything more than a cat and a fish would never produce anything more than a fish and a human will never produce anything more than a human. Are there variations within that? Absolutely. But the Bible teaches that everything brings forth after its kind. And by the way, that’s all we’ve ever observed. That’s all we’ve ever seen. That’s all that’s ever been predicted. That’s all that’s ever been tested. Why? Because evolution is a lie. The belief that everything brings forth after its own kind refutes secular evolution because evolution teaches that everything came from a chicken or a fish or a rock. Look, everything brings forth after its own kind. This is what we believe.
And actual science agrees with that. Everything brings forth after its own kind. Dinosaurs never give birth to chickens. But that’s what they teach in school. T-rex turned into a chicken. This is ridiculous. The Bible teaches that everything brings forth after its own kind this refutes secular evolution. But let me say this, this also refutes theistic evolution. You say what’s theistic evolution? Let me read the definition for you. “Theistic evolution or evolutionary creationism or God-guided evolution are views that regard religious teachings about God as compatible with the modern understanding about evolution. Theistic evolution accepts the scientific consensus of the age of the earth. The big bang and evolution supporters of theistic evolution harmonize evolutionary thought with a belief in God.”.
Basically theistic evolution is where Christians will say “Well I believe that God used evolution to bring forth life. I believe that God used evolution to create the things that we see on earth today.”. The problem with that is two things. Number one, that’s not what the Bible says. The Bible says it took six literal days and the Bible says that everything brings forth after its own kind. The other problem is that God does not equivocate with himself. You say what does that mean? It means that God does not produce things that are equal to him. In fact the that’s one of the reasons why we don’t believe that Jesus was created by God. Why? Because the Bible says that he was equal to God. “Wherefore the Jews sought the more to kill him because he not only had broken the sabbath but said also that God was his father making himself equal with God.”. The Bible says “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus that being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.”.
See, God does not create things that equivocate with him. One of the things that makes God to be God is the fact that he creates life. He’s the source of life. In him was light the Bible says and he is the light and he is the life of the world. So you say “Well God created a process that created life.”. The only one that can create life is God. God would not use something that could be equal to him or replace him. The scriptural argument is much simpler. The Bible doesn’t teach evolution. The Bible says that God created everything through his word. The Bible says that he created it in a 24-hour day, six-day week. The Bible says that everything brings forth after its own kind. So as Bible believing Christians, if you actually believe the Bible, you cannot believe in evolution. You cannot believe in theistic evolution. By the way, if you were honest, you couldn’t believe in evolution either because nobody’s ever seen it. No one’s observed it. They say look at this monkey and it lost a tail and it evolved because that helped the environment. But wait a minute, monkeys bring forth monkey. Of course some have small tails and some large tails but it must be a monkey.
I said number one regarding creation, we believe that God created all things through his word. What that means is that God uses words to speak the world into existence. And what that also means is that Jesus who is the word is the one who created everything. I said number two we believe in a literal, 24-hour day, six-day creation week. This disproves the gap theory. This disproves the day age theory. There was no gap in the creation week. And each day of the creation week is not symbolic for a longer period of time. It’s a six-day, 24 hour a day week. I said number three we believe that all things bring forth after their own kind. This refutes evolution secularly and it refutes evolution theistically.
Here’s the fourth statement regarding creation. We believe that God created a mature creation, a universe that was mature. Now what’s funny is that I had this sermon ready and Michael Johnson who has been attacking our church and our friend’s churches and fellowship churches for a long time came out with this thing that I want to deal with. I’m going to take every opportunity to just call this guy out as a heretic. Every time he opens his mouth, he just reveals that he has no understanding of scripture. I just found out this afternoon that Michael Johnson literally put out a video yesterday attacking Pastor Anderson for this belief that I’m going to explain. God created a mature earth and let me prove it to you and give you some thoughts in regards to that.
First of all, let me just show you that when God created, he created in maturity. The easiest example and the best example is just the example of man. Notice Genesis 2:7 “7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”. Look at verse 18. “18 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.”. You see, Adam was created as a man, not a baby. That’s referring to him looking for a wife. Verse 21 “21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”. What is that referring to? Marriage. They got married. This is a verse quoted at wedding ceremonies all the time. “25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”.
So did God create a baby? The answer is no. What did God create? A mature man. When God created Adam, he created a man. And if we would have taken Adam and took him to someone to guess his age, they would probably say 30 years old. And they would have been wrong because he was only one day old when God created him. But he was mature. He’s already getting married. When God created a man, he created a mature man. When God created the universe, he created a mature universe. Do you think when God created the heavens and the earth and there are all these little seedlings and it took hundreds of years to have trees and plants? No, when God created the earth, he created a mature landscape. When he created the great whale, it wasn’t just a little fish. All of the land animals were not babies but fully grown animals. A mature creation.
Now, not only do we see that he created a mature man and creation but also a mature universe. Notice Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. But then on verse 14, notice this “14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:”. Verse 16 “16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.”.
Here’s what’s interesting. On day one God creates the light. On day four God creates the light source. Now what science tells us is that light the nearest start to earth is 4.37 light years away. That means it would have to travel at the speed of light for 4.37 years to reach us. That’s the closest star. The farthest star is 13.4 billion light years away. This is one of the arguments from the secular world to say that the universe must be at least 13.4 billion years old. So what do we have to say about that as Creationists? I’d say it’s interesting because when you look at the Creation week, God created the light before he created the source. God measured it. God spread it. God put it there. He put the light for Adam to look up and see a star that was 13.4 billion years away light years away before he even put the star there. Then he put the star there. You say what do you call that? We call that a mature universe. Adam didn’t have to wait 4.37 years to see a star. God created a mature man, mature creation and a mature universe. If people look at Adam they would say that he looks like a 30-year-old man on day 1. People would assume that he was a baby and grew and went through puberty and was now 30.
And scientists would look at the stars and say this star is 13 billion years old. And God is saying that’s actually just one day old. See, it’s interesting because the creation week is out of order. Not because God is dumb but because he is intelligent. Why is this? The creation is not meant to be scientific but supernatural. You’ve got people like Michael Johnson who are criticizing and saying God is a deceiver. They say God wouldn’t deceive people by allowing the earth to look old. But yet the stars are billions of light years away. 2 Thessalonians 2:11 says “11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”. You know what delusion is? It means believing in something that is clearly FALSE regardless of the evidence to the contrary. The Bible says that God will send a strong delusion that they should believe a lie. So number one, God is not being deceptive by creating a mature earth because God doesn’t owe you an explanation. But number two, if you want to say that God being deceptive is a problem then have you ever heard of the reprobate doctrine? Or how about the great falling away? God says that he will bring a strong delusion that they should believe a lie.
And let me tell you something that evolution is a lie. It’s being used by this world to damn people to hell, to make people doubt a creator and doubt the creator God. It doesn’t matter how many light years away the stars are. Because if you just add up the lineages then the earth is between 6,000 and 7,000 years old. But we can’t take away what God said. He created the light before the sun and stars. He created a mature man. The earth, stars, animals, light, etc…were all mature. This is what the Bible says. People need faith to believe that garbage and we need faith to believe the word of God. And if they want to be deceived then let them be deceived. If they want to believe a lie then they can. There’s no proof of evolution. There’s no proof of the big bang. There’s no proof of any of that. Why do they believe that? Because they don’t want to believe the truth. That’s why.
So what can we learn about creation? We believe that God created all things through his word. H spoke the world into existence. We believe in a literal, 24-hour day, six-day creation week. This disproves the gap theory and the day age theory. We believe that all things bring forth after their own kind. This refutes secular evolution and theistic evolution. And we believe that God created a mature creation. So when science says the earth is this old, that doesn’t conflict the Bible. The creation was mature. God is the creator but that cannot be proven scientifically because it has nothing to do with science. Science must be observed. Science must be predicted. Science must be tested and science must be repeated and none of those categories fall into creation. Creation is theology. We believe it because the word of God says it. We believe it because when we look around, we look up at the stars, the heavens declare the glory of God. We believe it because God wrote it in our conscious. We believe it because it is the word of God.
Let’s pray.