Baptists Believe in Creation

Turn if you would to Genesis one and I'm gonna have brother David Vogt come up here for us this morning and read Genesis chapter one as we follow along in our bibles rather than you enduring me reading an entire chapter with this gravelly voice. So brother David if you would come on up. The new preacher didn't last too long, the last one. Genesis chapter one and we want to help pastor Polar's voice to last for the whole message. So, we want to help him out this morning.

Genesis chapter one, if you follow along, I'll read the entire chapter. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth 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. And God said, let there be light and there was light and God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness and God called the light day and the darkness he called night and the evening and the morning were the first day and God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters, 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. And God called the firmament heaven and the evening and the morning were were the second day. 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 and God called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters called he the seas and God saw that it was good and God said, let the earth bring forth grass and 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.

And the earth brought forth grass and the 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. In the evening and the morning were the third day. 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 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so and God made two great lights and the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and he made the stars also and God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth 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. In the evening and the morning were the fourth day 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 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, God saw that it was good.

And God blessed them, saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let the fowl multiply in the earth. In the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 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. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind and cattle after their kind and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and God saw that it was good. 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, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

And so God created man in his own image, in the image of God created him, he, him, male and female created he them, and God blessed them. And God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth and God said, behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to to you it shall be for meat and to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and everything that creepeth upon the earth where we wherein there is life, I've given every green herb for meat and it was so. And God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good and the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother Vogt. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for this day that you have given to us this wonderful opportunity to serve you here and praise your name and to look into your word that we might glean from it more about our savior and our Lord and the God who created us. Lord, may you be magnified in all that is said and done in this place today. May we be drawn closer to you.

May our faith be strengthened in you and in your word that we might go from this place and loudly and boldly declare it to others. The God who created us and the savior who came to die for us, who is risen again. In his name, we do pray. In Jesus name, amen. If I hadn't read it earlier, you didn't notice it in the bulletin, you might have figured out by now.

Message is on creation, okay? And we just read from Genesis one. We'll be back here in a minute. Also want to start out with this verse, Hebrews 11 and verse three. Through faith, we understand that the words, worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

The worlds were framed. This this universe in which we live which we come to find out more and more as time goes along. How small we are by comparison to this vast universe is created all created by the Lord, by God and for his glory including mankind. And we just read in Genesis one God's record of a man's creation of the world's creation. In chapter two verse one it says thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

So in six days God created on the world on the seventh day he rested. That is God's record. That is God's revelation revelation to us that we might know how we got here, okay? And do you think it's important that we know how we got here? I think it is.

There's a lot of people today that are walking around that don't know how they got here, don't know why they're here, don't know who made them. And a matter of fact, most of them or many of them believe that they're simply products of an accident. There is no god who made them and there is no true purpose in life and therefore they are confused. Therefore they are empty and therefore they do not know the God who created them because they think that they're simply products of an accident in a world that has no purpose. And so they wander from thing to thing trying to find fulfillment, trying to find happiness, trying to find purpose.

When God who made us has told us right here in his word Where we came from and why we are here. This Genesis one in Hebrews eleven three is one of many passages that declare to us excuse me, the manner in which we were in this world is created. There should be no doubt for the Christian. How we got here? Why we were here?

And where we're going. There should be no doubt. For God has clearly revealed it in his word. First thing I want to look at this morning is who created the universe? Who created the universe?

Well, yes, our universe does have a creator. It didn't happen by accident. There was a big bang of sorts. We'll get back to that in just a moment but not the big bang that scientists and evolutionists tell us about. That was just some random particle of something that don't know where it came from that somehow by accident exploded and produced all of this.

If you go to a junkyard and you plant a big bomb in the middle of the junkyard and you blow the junkyard sky high, is it going to produce 100 brand new Mercedes Benz? The answer is no it's not. You can blow it up over and over and over and over again for a million years and you're never gonna produce a new Mercedes Benz. You can blow it up and then let it sit there for a million years and it's still not gonna produce another Mercedes Benz because that is not the way things work. Things that have a design require a designer that makes them.

This world just the human eye the design of the human eye and the human body is so vastly incredible that scientists are still discovering new things about our very own body today and how it works. Because it has an omnipotent designer, God. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The name God Elohim speaks of the supreme one, the almighty one, the omnipotent one and indeed that's who he is. For only the omnipotent God create such a seemingly infinite and vast universe of such complexity as the one in which we live.

And not just any God but as we study scripture we've come to know more and more and more about the true God, the almighty God, the all powerful God that made us. In chapter two and verse four, we learn his name. Chapter two and verse four, not only is he called Elohim but is he called he is called Jehovah Yahweh. We're not sure how to pronounce in Hebrew his name but it's in all capital letters in our English Bible. It says in verse four of chapter two, These are the generations of the heaven and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the heavens and the earth.

Lord there is an all capital letters. That's Jehovah. That's the name of our God. The uncaused cause. The one who has always been the eternal God who made heaven and earth and who has a personal relationship with those with mankind whom he has created.

And therefore in chapter two when it's speaking of the personal creation of man he is introduced by a personal name. The name Jehovah, Elohim, the Lord God. In chapter one and verse two, we're introduced to his spirit. It says in verse two, the second verse in scripture, the earth was without form and void. Darkness was upon the face of the deep and the what?

The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. As you read through scripture, it becomes more and more clear that the spirit of God isn't speaking of just a description of God but actually a person of the trinity, The holy what? The holy spirit who is involved in the creation of the world. And then in John chapter one, John chapter one through three It says this, it begins very much the same way as Genesis one. I don't know if you've noticed that.

In Genesis one you have in the beginning God. In John one you have in the beginning was the what? Was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. So, essentially, if you take that verse, you see that the word was with God, the word was God.

Therefore, you could simply say in the beginning was God. Okay? Because Jesus who is represented by the title, the word here is who? He is God. He is God the son.

He is the son of God. He's the second person of the trinity and the Bible tells us in the next verse the same was in the beginning with God. Back to Genesis one. Genesis one and all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. So who made the world?

Jesus Christ is the creator. Without him was not anything made. All things were made by him. That him is the word. That him is Jesus.

So we see that God created the world. We see the Holy Spirit involved in the creation of the world and we see in John one that who created the world? The word did. Jesus Christ who is God made all things. Couple more verses here.

Colossians one sixteen and seventeen. For by him that is Jesus were all things created. Just to make sure you understand all things that are in heaven, all things 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. Who is the him?

The him is Jesus Christ. All things were made by him. Everything. Things you can see. Things you can't see.

Everything in this vast universe created by Jesus Christ. Hebrews one two, hath in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the what? He made the worlds. Revelation four eleven speaking again of Jesus, thou art worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created. So, who is our creator?

Specifically, Jesus. The son of God is the creator of the world. God is the creator of the world. Matter of fact all three persons of the Godhead are involved in the creation of the world. That's why when you get to Genesis one twenty six if you look in Genesis one twenty six it says and God said let, what's the next word?

Somebody's there. Just the next word and let us, us. Now who's the Us? The Us is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We looked at that last week too when we spoke on the trinity.

The us is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All involved in the act of creation. Well second of all not only do we know who created us we know how he created us. Back to Hebrews 11 and verse three. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.

Second Peter three:five says, For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. Psalm thirty three six say by the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. As you read Genesis chapter one you might notice in verse three it says and God said and in verse six and God said and in verse nine and God said and verse 14 and God said in verse 20 and God said in verse 24 and God said in verse 26 and God said, do you catch the pattern? How did we get here? God spoke and it what?

And it happened. Okay? God spoke and it happened. We were created by the direct act of God. His very thoughts and words became reality through his omnipotent power.

As we were created out of what? Out of nothing As we were created from nothing. God simply spoke and it came to what? It came to be by faith we believe that we were created by the words of God who spoke so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. That means out of nothing.

God spoke and it happened. There was in a manner of speaking a big bang. God said, let there be light and bang, there was what? There was light. God said, let there be fish and poof.

There was fish. God said, let there be birds and immediately there were birds. God said, let there be lights in the heaven and there they were. There was a sudden creation of things in this universe. Too bad scientists don't recognize that that's a result not of some random collision of anti matter that they don't know where it came from and not rather the hand of Almighty God who spoke and and it happened and it came into being not over a process of billions of years of this happening, that happening by random chance and disorder.

But as an orderly omnipotent designer spoke it into existence. You say pastor that's hard to believe. I can't understand that. I can't fathom how something can come from what? From nothing.

That's because we don't understand the power. And the person of the almighty God who made it. And I would rather trust in the power of the almighty God than trust in eternal antimatter. If you're evolutionist something had to go what? Something had to go bang.

What was it? Why where did it come from? Something still had to go bang. I choose to trust an eternal God rather than an eternal dirt. Not only did he speak it into existence by his power but he did it in six what?

He did it in six days. It repeats it over and over again in the passage that we read from Genesis one and in Exodus twenty eleven we're reminded 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. Exodus reminds us that God created the world in six days. Now it only makes sense that I believe that those six days seeing they're being compared to six normal days here in Exodus most likely were just twenty four hour normal days. A matter of fact, if you look back in Genesis it says at the end of each day, the evening and the morning were the what?

The first day. The evening and the morning were the second day, the evening and the morning were the third day, so forth and so on. Why would God bother to say evening and morning? Well, first of all, say, pastor, don't you have it backwards? Should it be morning and evening?

Well, the one who penned these words as led by the Holy Spirit was Moses. Moses was a Hebrew. The Hebrew day started at 06:00 in the evening. So, their evening preceded their what? Morning.

So the evening in the morning and the evening in the morning. Why use those words? Why use that description? Because the writer wants us to understand that these are literal days. These are not vast amounts of an indiscriminate amount of time.

God gives us every reason to believe that God created the world in six literal days. I see no reason from scripture to believe otherwise. For that is what the scripture seems to clearly teach me. So how did he create this world? First of all, he spoke it into existence.

He created it out of nothing. Number two, he created it in six literal days. That seems pretty clear from scripture. Number three, what did he create? Well, we read Genesis one.

He created matter that is earth, space, that is the heavens. By the way sometimes it's a little confusing when you read through, Genesis or some other passages in scripture. The term heaven in English actually translates three different ideas related to heaven. There is the heaven where God lives. Okay.

Paul evidently calls that the the third heaven in one of his race. So, there was a man that was caught up to the third heaven. That is where God's throne is. That's where Jesus went to prepare a place for us who believe in him. Often that's what we call heaven but there is also the heavens as in outer space.

Okay? Where the stars and the planets and all those things are. Those are also called the heavens. And then number three, there's the the first heaven. We're going in reverse order here.

And that would be the atmosphere. The sky itself is actually called heaven where the birds fly. Okay? So you have to look in context sometimes to see which heaven it's talking about. Here it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

It's talking about the earth matter and outer what? And outer space. Then he created light and he separated the light from the darkness and became day and night. He created the atmosphere, the expanse called the firmament in Genesis one that separated the waters over it from the waters beneath it. The firmament is where the birds fly.

The first heaven so to speak and then he separated the waters that were below the firmament and made seas and when the seas formed, it produced, it uncovered the land and those became continents or islands, land as we call it and then he calls the vegetation to instantaneously spring up on the land. Day number four, he created all the celestial bodies. He filled outer space. He filled it with stars and he filled it with planets and he filled it with comets and he filled it with nebulas and he filled it with with galaxies and he filled it with things we are still discovering today. It is so vast and we are so small by comparison.

But we are the apple of God's eye even in this vast universe. He created it for his glory and our our pleasure as well as his. For our need because we need the sun to light this planet on a daily basis. To keep count of days and months seasons and years. He created the birds to fly in the air and the fish to fill the sea.

He spoke and the water swarmed with fish from little minnows to great big whales. And you say yes whales are not fish I know that but that's man's description that's man categories not God's categories. Alright. He filled the waters with whatever swims in them. He filled the skies with whatever flies in them.

What day did he create bats? I don't know. I don't know if it was day number five or day number six. Bats are mammals but what do bats do? They fly.

Day number six created the land animals from insects to dinosaurs both domesticated and undomesticated. In each case whether it be an animal or plant life he said that they would produce after their what? After their kind. Look if you would in verse 21 of Genesis one. Verse 21.

God created whales, every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winged foul after his kind and God saw that it was good. Look, if you would at verse 25 and God made the beast of the earth after his kind. The the cattle after their kind. Everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and God saw that it was good. How did God create things?

He created them fully formed to reproduce after their own what? Own kind. He didn't create amoebas that evolved into fish, that evolved into lizards, that sprouted wings and flew away over billions of years. He created fully formed birds, fully formed fish, fully formed cattle and fully formed man. That is what the Bible says.

And he made it so each one of those creatures reproduced only after their what? So an apple tree doesn't produce what? Oranges. You know, lizards don't give birth to birds. Okay?

It doesn't doesn't work that way. A matter of fact, horses don't give birth to dogs. It doesn't work that way. Each produces only after its own kind. The laws which govern our universe that science has discovered via observation and experimentation bear this out.

Everything produces after its own kind. Interbreeding, adaptions and mutations produce variations within a kind but never lead one kind into becoming another. You have different colors of finches. You have gold finches. You have purple finches.

You have finches with big beaks and finches with smaller beaks. That happens. But finches do not turn into egrets. Okay? And egrets do not turn into whatever else.

Each produces after its own kind. You have variations within a kind but one kind never turns into another. The laws of science that we have discovered do not permit that. We discover them who made them. God made them.

And this world functions in response to the laws that God established when he did what? When he created it and things only produce after their own kind. Physics does not allow otherwise. Biology does not allow otherwise. Genetics does not allow otherwise.

History does not even suggest otherwise because God made it this way. He created man and woman. He created man and woman in the image of who? In the image of God. We are unique.

Human beings are unique from the rest of creation. The evolutionists would like us to think that we evolved from apes. Matter of fact go to the Natural History Museum, part of the Smithsonian in DC and they have taken it to be their mission to convince people that visit that museum that you have evolved from apes. But there is actually no evidence in the fossil record nor in any other that man evolved from apes. There are apes that are more human like than others.

There are humans whose skeletal remains because they had rickets or something else look more ape like. But humans and apes are much different because humans were made in the image of who? Created in the image of God uniquely. In Genesis chapter two it describes the unique creation of mankind. Look, if you would in chapter two verse seven, the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.

We see God's personal touch involved in the creation of man and God breathing life into human beings created in his image. If you look in verse 21 we see the creation of woman and the Lord God caused the deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he woman and brought her under the man. 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. We see the unique creation of man and the unique creation of woman made both in the image of God.

We are separated from animal life by our self awareness, our sentience, by our intellect, by our logic, by our communication skills, by our moral code, our free will, our eternal soul. We were made in the image of God. Does that make a difference to you and how you view life? Whether you think you evolved from an ape or whether you think you were made in the image of God. I dare say, I think it makes a difference.

There are many people today that will never darken the door of a church or even consider the purpose for which God made them because they don't believe God made them. They are the product they believe of accidents of random chance having no purpose and not created in the image of God. We are special. We are the purpose of Genesis one. We were not made for the earth.

The earth was made for us. The plants were made for us. The oxygen in the atmosphere was made for us. The light that shines from the sun that keeps the time was made for us and it was only after God made us in his image that it says in Genesis one, it was very good. It was very good and it was complete.

And then he ceased from all his creative works that were completed. Apart from it being altered by the fall of man into sin and the results of the flood, the world has continued basically unaltered functioning according to the laws that God set in place thousands of years ago. So a conclusion. Why does it matter? Why does it matter how we got here?

Why does it matter that we accept that we were created by the direct act of God? Well, first of all it matters for this reason and as Baptist we believe that the Bible is the what? Is the word of God. So if the Bible says that God did this, then I must believe that God did this because the Bible says it. This isn't the the writings of the imaginations of men.

This is the record of almighty God. You wanna know how you got here? What better source than to go to the one who created us and who's recorded for us how we got here? Why we're here? If you believe the word of God then you must believe in the creation by the direct act of God.

If not, then you are denying what the scripture says. You say but science says this, science constantly is disagreeing with itself. If you buy a science book this year, they have to update it next year because they found that something they said last year was wrong and it has to be updated. The reason that scientists do not believe in creation is not because of the evidence. The reason scientists do not believe in creation is because they have abandoned a belief in who?

God. And if there is no God, then there can be no what? Creation. Therefore, we have to find some other way to explain how we got here. That's evolution.

Okay. And it's not the right way and it's not the truth. So, first of all, it's important because if we believe God's word, that's what it says. And if you say you don't believe it, then you have a problem with who? You have a problem with God.

Not with me. Second of all, why does it matter? It matters because there's an all powerful creator who alone has the power to create and destroy this universe he created. An almighty all powerful creator who is the judge of all that he created and we are a creation of his and are dependent upon him for our lives and accountable to him for our actions. Isaiah 2nine 16, surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay.

For listen to this, shall the work say to him that made it, he made me not or shall the thing framed or designed, say of him that framed it or designed it, he had no understanding. Shall the thing made say to the thing that made it, you didn't make me or shall the thing that's made in design say, you don't have any understanding. That's absurd, is it not? It's just as absurd for we who are the creation to say of God that he didn't make us or to say that he has no understanding and to not regard his word and to receive it and believe it. Is it important that we accept that we were created by God?

Oh, yes, it is. It is very important because your whole outlook on life and whether you are accountable in your mind to God depends on whether he made you. He made you for a purpose to glorify him and to bring him pleasure. Or whether you're just a random accident. Thus, we have the ability and the responsibility therefore to do right by our God, to fulfill our purpose.

Because one day, he will be our what? He will be our judge and we do have an eternal soul and the Bible says, as it appointed on demand once to die but after this the what? After this the judgement. The fact is one day, you are going to meet your maker. You are going to meet your creator and as we'll learn in a couple weeks, Adam and Eve sinned, did they not?

And we became sinners. Humanity became sinful. Sinners are an affront to our maker. And our maker cannot allow sinners to live forever. Thus, he sent his son, Jesus, to die for you.

To rise again from the, he became the God of heaven, became the creature. He didn't cease to be God but he also became man and he lived for you and he died for you. That you might be redeemed, that you might be cleansed, that you might be forgiven. One day, when you stand before God at the end of this life There will be no questions as to what you did or there will only be this, does he know you? Through faith, through your faith in his son?

Do you know him? Through faith in his son or do you not? It says in Matthew seven, that there will be those that stand before him on that day and say, Lord, Lord, haven't we done things in your name and God will look at them and he will say, I never what? I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work iniquity.

Do you know him? Have you put your faith in his only son? Have you received his gift of eternal life? For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. On that day, after this life is over, that will be the only thing.

Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord. For your word and the revelation that you provided that we might know you not only know who we are, why we were made, who made us, and for what purpose but Lord that we might also know you our God, our father which is in heaven, through faith in your son, Jesus Christ, that we might know the way, the only way to the father. His name Jesus, who came and died for us. He is both our creator and he is our savior.

Lord, I pray if there be one here today that does not know you personally. Through Jesus Christ our risen Lord. I pray they might come as we give the femme of invitation. In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen.