TPW 33 Genesis 1-11 Creation Versus Evolution

If there is any place in the Bible that we must bury our heels in the sand and stake out and defend, this is that section of Scripture that we must defend at all costs. Because if you get rid of this, you get rid of everything.

It's only because there is a God who created us, who we are in covenantal relationship to, that we have moral obligations to love, to be kind, and to worship and love and know God. Welcome to the Protestant Witness.

This is Pastor Patrick Hines here at Birdwell Heights Presbyterian Church. And today I'd like to start posting a series I preached a while back through the book of Genesis. Now, this whole series is, I think, 80 sermons.

I don't know if I'm going to do all of them, but I might just post the sermons I did on Genesis 1 through 11, because I think that those are vitally, vitally important passages. And I did a lot of excursuses along the way, talking about evolution and Noah's Ark in particular, and the flood and animals, and a lot of the questions that people really have big objections to and questions about that, sadly, a lot of Christian people today don't know really how to answer.

And there's so much compromise emanating from even Reformed seminaries on the issue of Genesis, the age of the earth, and a proper understanding of creationism, that I felt very much alone when I was in seminary, even though I went to a good seminary.

When I took Genesis through Joshua, I had Dr. Mark Futato, who is a really good Hebrew scholar, and I learned a lot from him about Genesis to Joshua, but he gave us the framework hypothesis. Now, I'm not going to go into the details of that, but what I'm hoping people will do in these episodes of the Protestant Witness is just take the book of Genesis and just read through Genesis 1 to 11 several times and just listen to the verse-by-verse exposition of those 11 chapters.

It really is earth's foundational history, and there is absolutely nothing good that can come from trying to mingle this with the ideas of evolution. So I'm hoping that you will find this edifying and helpful.

It is a foundational issue of our time, and our children need to have a love for the book of Genesis and for biblical creationism and believing what the Word of God says instead of compromising it with the unbiblical, anti-scriptural theories of men and deep time in millions of years, etc.

So I hope you enjoy this. Let us pray and ask the Lord to bless our minds with understanding now of his Word. Heavenly Father, we would ask of you in the name of Christ that you would enlighten our minds in the knowledge of the truth that you have revealed to us in your infallible and inerrant Word.

Or may we do as Isaiah said and tremble before these words as they are our God speaking to us. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Two passages of scripture this morning. As our scripture reading, please turn to Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians chapter 1. And one of our sermon texts this morning is Colossians 1 .16. Colossians 1 .16, but I would like to read verses 15 -18 for some context for verse 16. Colossians 1 .15 -18. This is God's Word.

Speaking of Jesus Christ, verse 15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body of the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence.

If you'll turn over to the right in your Bible to Hebrews chapter 11. For our second text for this morning. Hebrews chapter 11, verses 1 -3. Hebrews chapter 11, verses 1 -3. Hebrews 11, 1 -3. This is God's Word.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By 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 are visible.

May God add his blessing to the reading of his infallible Word. This morning we're beginning a new sermon series that I'm calling Earth's Foundational History. Genesis 1 -11. Earth's Foundational History.

Genesis 1 -11. And this first sermon this morning will be sort of an introduction to this very important section of the Bible. Genesis chapters 1 -11. This first sermon I've called the Bible versus the evolutionary worldview on creation.

The reason that such a sermon series is so vital in our day is that no section of the Bible has been more heavily attacked from, sadly, both inside and outside of the church than Genesis chapters 1 -11.

The fertile minds of men have found ways to deny its historicity altogether, ways to cram millions or billions of years into it, and ways to turn it into nothing more than poetry. And yet, as we will see in this series, the Lord Jesus and his apostles accepted and believed in Genesis chapters 1 -11 as real, literal, and actual history.

Jesus and the apostles believed in and taught explicitly about the literal and historical Adam and Eve, the global flood of Noah, and all the other miraculous narratives found in the Old Testament, such as Jonah being inside the belly of a great fish for three days and nights, and etc.

The world history that is chronicled in Genesis 1 -11 is the foundation upon which every other doctrine of the Christian faith stands. If you doubt this, consider with me for a moment just a few of the doctrines that are found and based upon Genesis 1 -11.

First, marriage. Genesis 2, God made Adam and Eve. What is the basis for our understanding of marriage in all societies throughout world history? Genesis 2. The fall of man into sin and the need for redemption.

Genesis 3. The promised gospel and the beginning of the covenant of grace. Genesis 3. The Sabbath day. Genesis 1 -2. The major people groups of the ancient world and where they lived. Genesis 10. The origin of human languages.

Genesis 11. That animals and plants reproduce after their own kind. Genesis 1. That man is created in the image of God and is distinct from, and has dignity above, that of animals. Genesis 1. That there is a covenant of works man is obliged to keep.

Genesis 2. Pain and childbirth. Genesis 3. The origin of physical death. Genesis 3. The explanation of the fact that there are billions of fossilized dead things buried in rock layers laid down all over the earth.

The Noahic flood. Genesis 6 -9. Do you see why the atheist and secular counterparts that we have in the world would aim their guns primarily at Genesis 1 -11? If there is any place in the Bible that we must bury our heels in the sand and stake out and defend, this is that section of scripture that we must defend at all costs.

Because if you get rid of this, you get rid of everything. There are few questions whose answers are more far-reaching in their consequences than, where did everything that exists come from? Two, what, if any, purpose does the history of the universe have?

Three, who are we? And whose are we? Anyone who thinks that there are religious versus non-religious ways of answering these questions simply does not understand the nature of the questions themselves.

The origin of the universe is not open to scientific inquiry or investigation. That question cannot be answered by science. It cannot be answered by science. Unless someone develops time travel. Unless someone invents a time machine and we can go back and watch what happened, the question can't be answered scientifically.

Joe Moorcroft, in his Mass of Commentary on the Westminster Larger Catechism, wrote these words, quote,. Scientific investigation and human experience can tell us nothing about the origin of the universe, since no human being was present at the creation of the universe.

Therefore, the theory of evolution does not have the competence to explain the origin of life. Its basis, that matter in its undeveloped state has existed eternally, is a totally indemonstrable assumption based on blind faith, not on reason, experience, or scientific investigation.

Moreover, it is fully out of accord with the word of God. Although man was not present at the beginning of the universe, God was. Therefore, only God can reveal why and how he created the universe, and he has done this in his special revelation, the Bible.

God alone can tell us how the world began, because no man was there to see it being created, and even if a human observer had been present, he could not have understood fully what he saw, apart from God's own interpretation.

God taunts rebellious man who seeks to understand our origins apart from his word. In Job chapter 38, God comes out of the whirlwind. When Job demands an audience with God and says, I demand to know why this has happened, God appears to Job and says, Gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct me.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding, who sets its measurements, since you know? Or who stretched out the line upon it? Or where were its bases sunk?

Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? What's the answer to that question? Job, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

The answer is Job didn't exist. We did not pre-exist our conception in our mother's womb and being created by God. Man cannot answer this question of origins. Very often the mindset that prevails in our society and culture, sadly, seems to be that, well, there's a religious way of answering the question of origins that invokes God, the Bible, and things like that, and then there's the scientific way of looking at origins.

People also often think that the evolutionary worldview is not religious, while biblical Christianity is. What we must understand clearly, however, is this. The answers to the questions about the origin and purpose of the universe and the origin and purpose of mankind are inherently religious.

I say religious because the way in which you answer such questions will be based entirely and completely upon your worldview. The way you answer those questions will be based entirely and completely upon your worldview and the way in which you view the world.

The answers that you give to the questions, does God exist? What is real? Is it matter only or is there a realm of existence beyond nature? Is there a supernatural realm? Are there moral absolutes? Does history have purpose and meaning?

What is man and what is man's duty and purpose in life? Your answers to those questions comprise your worldview, and not one of those questions can be answered scientifically.

Not one.

And yet the way in which you understand the origin of the universe and the origin of man will be completely based upon your worldview and not anything you observe. Evolution and creation, as theories of origins, are on equal footing in the sense that both are religious in nature.

Neither are scientific. Both are philosophical and based upon assumptions that are not open to scientific investigation. Whatever you want to call the Christian view of creation, call it religious, call it a fundamental conviction or a matter of worldview, whatever our theory of creation is, evolution is that same thing too.

It's the same thing. And here is one of the key points I want to make to you this morning. This is a point that we have to make over and over and over again, especially to the world out there. Evolution is not a scientific theory.

Evolution is not a scientific theory. Evolution is a philosophy.

It is a worldview.

It is not based upon anything anyone has ever observed. No one ever observed matter coming into existence out of nothing. No one has ever observed the formation of new species from other species. No one has ever seen life originate from non-life.

Therefore, it is not science. It is not a scientific theory. It is a philosophy. It is a worldview. Yes, I know it's taught in textbooks as a theory and sometimes as a fact. When I was in sixth grade in my government school, I was taught that evolution was a fact.

In fact, we had to write down on the test. I remember writing this down because I didn't believe it. Where did life originate? There was a little line there. I had to write the words in a little warm pond.

That's what we were taught. That's a fact we were told. No, it's not. That is a religious dogma. That is a worldview. That is a philosophy.

And it's very important.

Please hear me. There is no neutrality on these questions. There is no neutrality on these questions. Even attempting to be neutral about the questions by claiming to be agnostic about them is itself taking a position on those questions.

Man is inherently religious and worldview-oriented. Man, he can't help himself. He wants to believe and embrace something. And he will try to live consistently with that something, whatever it may be.

Such has been borne out by world history. The conflicts between men, the rising and falling of empires, wealth and poverty, genocide and love for human life, purity and perversion, totalitarian oppression and freedom, all of these things will find their way back to these key questions that humans answer.

That I've asked.

Does God exist? What is real? Are there moral absolutes? And is there purpose and meaning to our existence in the human history? Ravi Zacharias, in one of his earlier books, it's a fantastic book, I highly recommend it, called A Shattered Visage, The Real Face of Atheism,.

Wrote these words, quote,.

Several years ago, Encyclopedia Britannica published a 55-volume series entitled The Great Books of the Western World, which, by the way, my father recently gave me, which I probably will never read.

But if you ever want to borrow them, all 55 of them are in there. They make you look smart if you have them on your bookshelf. Mortimer Adler, a noted philosopher and legal scholar, was co-editor of this series, which marshals the eminent thinkers of the Western world and their writings on the most important ideas that have been studied and investigated over the centuries.

This includes ideas in law, science, philosophy, history, theology, and love that have shaped the minds and destinies of people. These are assembled for comparison and contrast. Very striking to the observant reader is that the longest essay is on God.

When Mr. Adler was asked by a reviewer why this theme merited such protracted coverage, his answer was uncompromising. Adler answered, It is because more consequences for life follow from that one issue than from any other.

Even the most unsympathetic individual toward things religious will not want to contend with Adler's conclusion. Nothing, absolutely nothing, has a more direct bearing on the moral choices made by individuals or the purposes pursued by society than belief or disbelief in God.

Personal and national destinies are inextricably bound to this issue. It is not accidental that the key issues of the day that are felt with deep emotion and conviction, whether it be the issue of sexual orientation and practice or life in the fetal stage, sooner or later filter down to whether there is a God and if so, has he spoken?

I would personally add these comments to Dr. Zacharias. How one views the authority and inspiration of the Bible is exactly parallel to the question of God's existence too. Let us always remember as Presbyterians that our sadly liberal and unbelieving counterparts in the PCUSA and other mainline denominations that have long abandoned the Bible as their authority.

They used to see themselves as standing for social justice. Why did they see themselves that way? Because they had a foundation to stand on, the inspiration, authority and inerrancy of the Bible. But after that was rejected two generations later, those very same denominations that once saw themselves standing for social justice are now pro-homosexual marriage and pro-abortion.

And if you saw the television show I was interviewed on where they interviewed my liberal counterparts in the clergy, those that say they stand for social justice are now pro-choice. Ideas have consequences and nothing has more consequence than is there a God and has he spoken?

Has he revealed himself to us?

Who are we? What are we?

Why are we here? And is there purpose to our existence? If God created the universe, then the universe has purpose. If God created man, then man has certain obligations and duties to which God will hold him accountable.

If the universe just happens to exist and man is the, as Bertrand Russell the atheist said, the accidental by-product of physical and natural forces which never had him in mind. If that's true, then man has no inherent dignity and answers to no objective standard of right and wrong that exists outside the Bible.

In fact, there's no reason for us to treat each other with any dignity at all or kindness. Because what one highly complicated bag of protoplasm does to another highly complicated bag of protoplasm.

Is morally irrelevant.

It's only because there is a God who created us who we are in covenantal relationship to that we have moral obligations to love, to be kind, and to worship and love and know God. If all we are is matter plus time plus motion, then man has no more dignity than an aardvark or a piece of broccoli.

As atheist author Dan Barker in his book, Losing Faith in Faith, said that man has no more significance in this universe. This is a quotation from an atheist. Man has no more significance in this universe and dignity than broccoli.

While in some cultures they grow broccoli and others they eat it,.

What does that tell us?

We need to think about the implications of such statements. One last point in this introduction. We're often told, well, the Bible is not a scientific textbook. In a sense, that's true. The periodic table, calculus, and the structures of living cells are not detailed and outlined in the Bible.

But the Bible is. Please hear me. It is the history book of the entire universe. It is the history of the universe from the very beginning to the very end. It is a revelation. It is a making known to us of the origin and purpose of the universe, the origin and purpose of man, a detailed description of why the world looks the way that it does today.

God's nature as holy, righteous, and just as well as merciful, kind, and gracious. And finally, God's ultimate revelation of himself in the person and saving work of his son, Jesus Christ. And finally, God's call to mankind to repent of sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be reconciled to God.

The Bible gives us real history, not just religious history, but real history. From the moment time began and God created matter in the universe, the heavens and the earth, all the way to the very last day when Jesus comes back.

That's what the Bible covers from the beginning to end. And that we can't give away any part of that history to the secular world because of their unbelief. The Bible gives us what we must know in order to be able to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

And one of the key points that God reveals to us that we are to believe about God is that he created us. We did not evolve. We are not the accidental byproduct of natural physical forces, chemistry, and materials in little warm ponds that eventually got more complicated with the special creation of God.

Man has always been man. He's always been what he is now, except now we're fallen. So let's walk through these two passages.

That we read now.

The Origin and Purpose of Everything That Exists

Let's look at Colossians 1, verse 16. You have an outline there in your bulletin. Point number one, the origin and purpose of everything that exists. It's really remarkable how much wonderful truth God can pack into a verse of Scripture.

Look at verse 16 there in your Bible of Colossians chapter 1. Speaking about Christ, it says, For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

All things were created through him and for him. In this particular passage of Colossians, as we saw when we read the context, we have a statement that begins in verse 15 and goes through verse 18 of Colossians 1, describing the preeminence and authority of Christ and what he did and who he is.

He is the image of the invisible God and by him all things were created. What does that tell us about who Jesus is? Jesus is God. He is the creator of all things that exist, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities and powers.

All things were created by him and for him. What was created by Christ?

Everything.

Everything that exists was created by the Lord Jesus and therefore everything that exists has a purpose. Everything that exists was specifically created by God. There is not a stray molecule in the farthest reaches of the universe that does not have a purpose in God's creative decree and in his purposes for the universe,.

Which he made.

As an illustration,.

When I took art when I was a youngster in school, we were taught how to interpret and understand paintings. I remember going to the art museum.

In elementary school.

And walking past painting after painting. A dog, a bird, a woman, people at a park. What's the big deal? Why are we walking through here? Well, it takes a little more time than that. You need to sit and look at the painting and observe what all is the artist trying to do here?

What does he put around the main centerpiece of the art? What is its purpose?

One of the things.

That my art teachers taught me was that everything on the canvas is purposeful and has some kind of input to the message and meaning of the painting.

The Mona Lisa,.

I pulled that up on the internet this week just to look at it. It's not just the woman's face on her upper torso. It's also the beautiful scenery in the background,.

The flowing river,.

The trees, the path that you see in the dirt, the greenery, the clothes she is wearing and the expression on her face. It's captivating to look at and you have to wonder what is this man trying to portray here?

It's almost like she knows something you don't know and she's got a scowl on her face sort of grinning at you, but there's also this peaceful serenity created by the painting.

The point is,.

It all has purpose. It all has meaning because that's the artist's creation. It's his artist's masterpiece. It creates the mood and adds to what the artist is trying to accomplish. In other words, you have to invest time in observing the painting to get its full force and message.

This is absolutely foundational to noticing just how gloriously the creation speaks of God's greatness. Remember the Psalm 19? The heavens do what? They declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork.

Day unto day utters speech and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. God is an incredible divine artist. How many of you have ever been driving somewhere or walking somewhere and you see something that's absolutely astoundingly beautiful and you can't help but your heart is rising up to praise God for it and you see God's creation is glorious and it reflects the beauty of who he is.

Just a couple of evenings ago, we finally had a short break from the rain.

The sun was peaking.

As it was setting a couple nights ago and it was very dark and foreboding over here but the sun was shining brightly.

Over there.

And it was shining this way and it started pouring rain again and immediately I thought.

There was going to be.

A rainbow somewhere. So me and some of my children went outside.

And stood there.

And sure enough there was not only a rainbow but a double rainbow over against the dark.

Foreboding backdrop of the sky.

With the sun shining under the clouds on the other side and it was just spectacular. The green trees and the blue sky back there and the sun shining on it and the double rainbow in the sky and you just think that's incredible how God has made this world and it just screams.

To everybody.

That's willing to stop for a second.

And look,.

I exist.

I am magnificent. You are accountable to me. You cannot live in this world and not know I am here. Day unto day utter speech.

There is no voice or language.

Where their voice is not heard. The heavens declare the glory of God. Look around you. Look at the bugs.

Look at butterflies.

Look at the things.

That God has created. They bear witness of the purposeful nature of everything that he made. That great line in that psalm day unto day utters speech. The creation is talking to people. God is saying I am here.

Look.

Look unto me.

Sometimes it's as if God by the display of unspeakably beautiful artistic genius is not just making his glory known but is shouting to the world you must worship me. You must bow before me. Don't be a fool and say in your heart there is no God.

Don't think you will get away with your wickedness. My arms are graciously opened wide to any and all who repent and believe. Indeed, I am here and I am not silent.

Listen.

Do you hear the speech pouring forth from everything that God created? It's not just religious things. It's everything that exists was created by God for his purposes. The French opponent of Christianity Voltaire I remember reading a little anecdote about him a noted enemy of the gospel enemy of the Christian faith himself once said these words while watching a beautiful sunset.

Lord I believe I believe. But your son.

That's another matter.

Even he.

Couldn't help. God exists.

Look at what he made.

There's no way you can watch a sunset. There's no way you can watch the beauty of creation and not know. God is there. Notice the last sentence of the verse verse 16 there. The last sentence. All things were created through him and for him.

Everything that exists exists for God. For his pleasure. The book of Revelation. In the throne room of God where worship is going on these words are said to God.

You are worthy oh Lord.

To receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things and for your pleasure they exist and were created. All things were created by him and for him.

For God.

It pleases God to display his glory. As we have seen the Bible states that the created order displays the glory of God to everyone and everything that exists in all the universe. And this is why my friends it is such a serious blasphemy it is such a serious sin.

Against God.

To fail to glorify him and to thank him for creating all these things. What is the most the biggest thing we should thank God for.

Is our lives.

He made us. We did not make ourselves. Remember Psalm 100 it is he who made us and not we ourselves. There is no self made man. God made us. When God knits you together in your mother's womb he was the one doing that knitting.

He is the one who made your body and your soul. We owe everything to him. Our moment by moment existence depends upon his good pleasure. No one has any independent existence apart from the good pleasure of God.

And failure to glorify and thank him for this is one of man's chief sins. And it dreadfully provokes the wrath of God. Remember Romans chapter 118.

Please hear the word.

Romans 118 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness because what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them.

For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. Because, and here is the key part, because although they knew God they did not glorify him as God nor were they thankful but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened professing to be wise they became fools.

Consider for a moment man, the rebel sinner. Man, the foolish immature child in God's world. Man who willfully suppresses the knowledge of God that he has which every one of us apart from the grace of Christ would willingly do so ourselves.

How could we be more reprehensible than we are? Man lives by God's power and sustaining strength. Man eats the food that God provides to him. Man sleeps peacefully and warmly in his bed which God gave him.

Man drinks purified water which God also provides. Man enjoys so many parts of the creation but is absolutely insistent on living as if he is not accountable to God and he refuses to glorify and thank God both for making him and providing for him.

That is us and our sins. Failure to glorify and thank God for creating our bodies for creating the world. And man walks around in his rebellious heart and says it just all happened.

By accident.

We just emerged by chance from the primordial slime and have been getting more and more complicated over genetic mutations in billions of years. That's blasphemy against God. It is so foundational that we thank God first and foremost and glorify him for creating us because we have no existence apart from his pleasure and his creative.

Decree.

All things were created by God for him, for himself. No part of our lives or world can ever be divorced from the fact that God is its creator. And as Abraham Kuyper said so well long ago, there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ who is sovereign over all does not cry,.

Mine.

How foolish indeed it is for men to pretend to be scientific and morally neutral in their study of what they already know God created only to turn right around and brazenly and arrogantly announce to the world it all exploded out of nothing and life emerged by pure unaided chance plus time plus natural selection plus a lot of luck.

Remember the rebuke from God's word in Romans 1, professing to be wise they became fools. Professing to be wise they became fools. Let us never forget that everything in creation was created by Christ and for his purposes and pleasure and therefore we must see it for what it is and glorify and thank him accordingly for it.

In the beginning, before there was a world, there was God. God then created the world. He brought it into existence out of nothing. Let's look now at Hebrews chapter 11 point number two in this morning's sermon outline.

Hebrews chapter 11, one through three. Again, allow me to read this text for us again. Hebrews 11, one through three. I'll title this heading, God's making all things of nothing. Hebrews 11 verse one, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By 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 are.

Visible.

Creation out of nothing is a distinctively biblical way of looking at the world around us. The universe and all that is in it is not eternal. It has not always existed. The matter that you see that makes up the stars, the moon, the earth, our bodies, that matter depends, it's kind of a staggering thought to consider, depends moment by moment for its existence upon the power.

Of God. The Latin.

Term that's often used is creatio ex nihilo, creation out of nothing. It is an astounding proposition to consider that every atom, every quark, every particle of which we ourselves are made, of which the entire universe made, did not exist prior to God's creating them.

Everything that we are, our bodies, minds, souls, etc. were non-existent. They were not. Everything that we're made of had no being before God spoke and created it and called it into existence. God's.