Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Not by Chance Genesis 1:1 We Believe Sermon Series #5 One day a group of scientists got together and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. So they picked one scientist to go and tell God that they were done with Him. The scientist walked up to God and said, "God, we've decided that we no longer need you. We're to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so why don't you just go on and get lost?" God listened very patiently and kindly to the man. After the scientist was done talking, God said, "Very well, how about this? Let's say we have a man‑making contest." To which the scientist replied, "Okay, great!" But, God added, "Now, we're going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam." The scientist said, "Sure, no problem" and bent down and grabbed himself a handful of dirt. God looked at him and said, "No, no, no. You go get your own dirt." Is the Genesis account, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” just a religious fable? A myth? Or, is evolution not science but just science fiction? Someone put it this way, Frog + Princess = Handsome prince (this is called “fairy tale”). Frog + 10 billion years = Handsome prince (this is called “science”). A recent Gallop poll found that even after some fifty years of evolutionary indoctrination, 47% of Americans hold to a strict creationist view, that God created man pretty much in his present form within the last 10,000 years. Then, some 30% believe in some combination of evolution and creationism, where God was involved. Yet only 9% of Americans believe in strict evolution. But in our colleges, universities, most public schools, museums and state parks – evolution is not taught as theory but as fact. Even innocuous children’s movies like Land Before Time teach evolution. As you listen to reports in the media about the evolution controversy, it’s not too difficult to see the way the two sides are usually characterized. Scientists supporting evolution are scholarly; Christians opposing evolution are backwoods Neanderthals. Scientists supporting evolution are being fair and intellectual, Christians opposing evolution are so stupid that they refuse to listen to reason or consider the evidence. The underlying premise is that is that, “You’d have to be stupid to believe what the Bible says.” “Any thinking person would obviously believe the evidence of evolution.” “If only those Christians would use their brains occasionally.” Yet Genesis 1:1 states “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The final description of God in this first clause of the Apostles’ Creed is “Maker of heaven and earth.” God is Father, God is Almighty, God is Creator. This is the God whom Paul introduced to the Athenians. “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth” (Acts 17:24). He is a Being wholly self‑sufficient, says Paul, "not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else" (17:25). The Apostles’ Creed attests that creation is Not by Chance, it is not the product of evolution but it is the miraculous creation of God. This is a basic and fundamental premise of Christianity. Yet we live in a world that gags at this thought. They scoff at the thought of a God Almighty Who is the “Maker of heaven and earth.” But we believe that God is the “Maker of heaven and earth,” that we, this world, all of creation are Not by chance. As we make our way through this portion of the Apostles’ Creed, let me suggest Several Insights on this matter of creationism. 1. The debate between Creationism and Evolution is philosophical. Please listen carefully to this statement, “True science deals with what can be observed and reproduced by experimentation.” That’s science, not philosophy. The origin of life and the universe cannot be reproduced in any laboratory. By definition, then, true science cannot give us any knowledge about where we came from or how we got here. Please mark this down belief in creationism is a matter of sheer faith but so is belief in evolution. Evolutionists scoff at the faith statements of Bible-believers. Let me share a faith statement from just one evolutionist. Dr. Jacques Monod is a French research scientist and Nobel prize winner. He said, “Chance alone is at the source of all creation, pure chance, absolutely free but blind, at the very root of this stupendous edifice of evolution. This central concept of modern biology is no longer one among other possible or even conceivable hypotheses. It is the sole conceivable hypothesis. And nothing warrants the supposition or the hope that on this score our position is likely ever to be revised.” When believers talk like that, evolutionists nearly fall on the floor laughing. But here a Nobel scientist says there’s absolutely no possibility of the theory of evolution ever being changed. That chance, blind chance, is the reason for everything, and there is no other hypothesis. How in the world does he know that? Yet people buy into this kind of thinking, turning the theory of evolution into a philosophy of evolutionism. Science is god in our modern world. This is what the Apostle Paul is warning about in Romans 1:25 “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.” Evolutionary theory is not new. Over 2000 years ago the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, was one of the first to propose it. But it did not come to be accepted on a popular level until the last century. Creation of life by God had been the prevailing theory of origins until the 1800’s. All European scientists from Galileo to Newton accepted the literal interpretation of Genesis and believed the Genesis account. But in the mid 1800’s some scientists began to question the Creation account. By 1968, historian, Richard Hofstaedter wrote, “At this time opposition to evolution seems only a very distant memory.” So what happened? In the mid-1800's, there was a major philosophical shift in Western Culture from Christianity to Humanism. Humanist belief falls into five main categories: 1) Atheism-they do not believe in the existence of God. 2) Amorality-since God does not exist, there are no moral absolutes. 3) Self-authority-Man is his own authority and not accountable then to any higher power. 4) One World Government-A global world order is seen to be the answer to humanity’s problems. There was just one huge gaping hole in Humanistic philosophy, if there is no God – how did we get here? Humanists had to deal with the problem of origins. And then Charles Darwin took his famous voyage on The Beagle and wrote, The Origin of Species. Most of Darwin’s theories today have been rejected and refuted by even modern evolutionists. 5) Evolution-man evolved from lower forms of life, man is an animal. Evolution became widely accepted because of a philosophical hole, not new scientific evidence. Please understand this. Evolution became popular and accepted not because it was scientific but because it gave humanistic man a way to explain away God. It was a philosophical move, not a scientific one. 2. The Genesis account of creation was not intended to be an apologetic against evolution. If you’ve ever been in my office, then you know that there is one thing that I have a lot of – books. Every now and then an obnoxious fly will come in my office. You know the kind that I’m talking about. You shoo them away and they keep landing on you or flying around your face. Now I don’t have a fly swatter in my office, but I’ve got all of these books. More times than I want to admit it, a book has become a fly swatter. But that’s not the purpose of a book. Can you just imagine me writing an author of one of those books, “Thanks so much for writing that great fly swatter!” He’d think that I was out of my gourd. Recently, I read the account of a man who attempted to quote Scripture from Genesis 1 as a defense and Biblical support for smoking pot. Herb Overton was arrested in Olathe, Kansas, for possession of the marijuana and based his defense on Genesis l:29, “and God said...‘I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of the earth’.” It didn’t work with the Judge and he was still found guilty of possession. While Herb Overton’s error is comical, many believers make the same mistake with the Genesis account of Creation and it’s not a laughing matter. The purpose of Genesis was never intended to be a defense against evolution. It was also not written to give us a historical account of creation. Genesis was written by Moses sometime after the Exodus and before the entrance to the land of Canaan. To find the purpose of Genesis, we need to ask, “What was the situation at the time of the writing of this creation account? Who received this revelation and what needs were to be met by it?” This is crucial to rightly interpreting and applying the message of the creation.   Genesis 1 was not written to help us recharge our apologetic batteries for Creation. The initial purpose of this account was for the Israelites of Moses’ day. What should they have learned? How should they have responded?   a) The creation account of Genesis was a corrective to the corrupted theology/idolatry of their day. Egypt, for example, believed in a multiplicity of nature‑deities. Israel, due to her close and prolonged contact with the Egyptians, was infected by their idolatry and polytheism. That’s why Joshua told the Israelites, “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:14). It was not enough to regard Yahweh merely as a god, one among many. Neither should He be conceived of as just the God of Israel. Yahweh is God alone. There is no other god. He is the Creator of heaven and earth. He is not just superior to the gods of the surrounding nations; He alone is God. The tendency to begin to confuse God with His creation was a part of the thinking of the ancient world. He must be regarded as the God of creation, not just God in creation. Every attempt to visualize or humanize God in the form of any created thing was a tendency to equate God with His creation. That’s where idolatry comes from.   b) The creation account describes the character and attributes of God.   1) It demonstrates that God is sovereign and all‑powerful. God creates with a mere command, “Let there be...” There is authority, order and progress.    2) It demonstrates too that God is not a mere force, but a Person. While we must be awed by the transcendence of God, we should also be awed by His immanence. He is not some distant cosmic force, but a personal ever‑present God. This is reflected in the fact that He creates man in His image (1:26‑28). Man is a reflection of God. Our personhood is a mere shadow of God’s personhood.   3) It demonstrates that God is eternal. While other creation accounts are vague or erroneous concerning the origin of their gods, the God of Genesis is eternal. The creation account describes His activity at the beginning of time.  4) It demonstrates that God is good. The creation did not take place in a moral vacuum. Morality was woven into the fabric of creation. Repeatedly, the expression is found “it was good.” Good implies not only usefulness and completion, but moral value. God’s goodness is reflected in His creation, which, in its original state, was good. Even today, the graciousness and goodness of God is evident, Matt 5:45, “God causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” The creation account is a prominent theme throughout the Old and New Testaments. We must always allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. When the creation theme occurs in Scripture, it calls forth a response from men. Unfortunately, we’ve frequently failed to call for any such response as we have taught Genesis chapter one. 3. There are only three basic theories of creation. Most people do not realize that there are a lot of theories of origins floating out there. One theory is called “Cosmic intervention.” This proposes that aliens landed here billions of years ago, planted the seeds of life, then left our planet allowing life to find a way. This theory does not explain where the aliens came from but Agent Mulder from X‑Files would be proud. More recently some NASA scientists proposed that a meteor from outer space with the genetics of life landed on hot, humid earth and started mankind. Basically, though, there are three viable options of origins. 1) The world is self‑created; 2) The world is self‑existent; 3) The world is created by something or someone other than itself and this person or thing is self‑existent. The first alternative may be reduced to logical absurdity. For the world to be self‑created presupposes the world exists, which is nonsense. For something to create itself, it has to be there before it is there. The second alternative raises serious scientific questions. To suggest that the universe is self‑existent posits that the universe is eternal. Some theories do take such a position, but with enormous scientific problems. More scientific questions are raised by these theories than are solved. The third alternative is that the universe is created by something or someone who is eternal and has the power of existence in himself. One thing is absolutely certain. If something exists now, then something always existed. There must be something or someone who is eternal. The issue is not whether something is eternal, but the question is, “What or Who is it that is eternal?” In a weekly quiz for a 9th Grade Earth Science class, a question read, “Where did the earth come from?” A student answered, “God created it,” and got 20 points taken off his grade. The expected answer was the “big bang”. But how did the “big bang” get started? What caused the “big bang”? One great quote concerning this debate comes from a Rabbi, who suggested that, “The ‘big‑bang’ theory may be valid, but we theists insist that there was a ‘big‑banger’.” This theory points to the fact that the universe had a beginning, just as the Bible teaches, but Creation was no accident. Personally, I don’t have enough faith to believe in random, chance evolution. The design of our world and the complexity of human life points to an intelligent Designer. 4. There is a great cost if evolution is true. In November 1994, Jeffery Dahmer, the Milwaukee serial killer was on NBC’s Dateline with Stone Phillips. When asked why he killed so many people, he said, “If a person doesn’t think there is a God to be accountable to, then what’s the point of trying to modify your behavior to keep it within acceptable ranges? That’s how I thought anyway. I always believed the theory of evolution as truth that we all just came from slime. When we die you know, that is it, there is nothing.” If I believe in evolution, what does that mean for my life? A prominent evolutionist named William Provine of Cornell University, was blunt in spelling out the implications of Darwinism. If evolution is true, he said, then there are five inescapable conclusions: 1) There is no God. Plain and simple we are a product of dumb luck, chance. 2) There is no life after death. Since we began by chance we die by chance and nothing else exists, why would it? 3) There is no absolute foundation for right and wrong. Who or what do we look to in order to understand my moral obligation? 4) There is no ultimate meaning to life. All there is, is birth, a few years and death. How aimless is that? No overall purpose to life or meaning. Everyone one of us wants to know “What am I here on earth for?” 5) There is no love except to self. Why love and treat others with love? If I’m a creature of chance and only have a few years than I need to live in every way for me! What’s in it for me? What can I do to up my advantage? Why waste time thinking about any thing or anyone other than me? Live for all the gusto, it won’t last long or lead to anything else! Creationist, Ken Ham, once gave a talk to a college class and a student came up to him afterwards and said, “Mr. Ham, I cannot accept your theory that a God created us.” Ken said, “Let me ask you, how do you determine right from wrong?” The student said, “Well, if I feel it is right I act upon it.” Ken said, “Ok, stay right here. I feel it is right to shoot anyone who disagrees with me, I’m going to get my gun.” The student said, “You can’t do that.” Ken said, “Why not?” The student said, “That’s wrong.” Ken said, “Who says it’s wrong?” “Well, it’s just wrong!” “Didn’t you say that you determine right from wrong by how you feel? What makes your feelings any better than mine?” If we are here by chance, how do we determine our moral obligations? If evolution is true, we have no Bible. You can’t pull out portions that are true and throw out others as false. It all stands or falls together. Jesus is a liar because our Lord used creation as the basis for His teachings. We have no basis for marriage, monogamy or the family. It’s no accident that the more our culture is influenced by evolutionary theory, the more that our view of monogamy and morality declines. Man has no ultimate purpose...your born, you live and you die – period! If I can believe that I am an animal, it’s easy to live like a beast. If survival goes to the fittest, I can eliminate the weak. Evolution laid the foundation for international violence and bloodshed. Racism is normal. Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Benito Mussolini were all avowed evolutionists. Evolutionary theory is the basis for abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research and human cloning. If I am an evolutionist, I can also not be an environmentalist. Evolution teaches natural selection and survival of the fittest. That means that beached whales should simply be left to die. It’s just getting rid of, to quote the popular television game show, "the weakest link." Evolution should impact the Endangered Species Act as well. Spotted owls will just have to adapt to logging in the Pacific Northwest or "another one bites the dust." Suckerfish can grow lungs, sprout legs and crawl out of a dried up lake or become compost. Extinction, then, is simply reality, part of the price to be paid for evolutionary progress. Those who assert the "fact" of evolution should get serious about applying it to every facet of life. If we are nothing more than animals, then it is time we start acting like it and treating other species accordingly. Remember, when the environment gets tough, the "tough" evolve, and the rest become museum exhibits! It is contradictory and delusional to say that you are an evolutionist and also an environmentalist. You can’t be a true evolutionist and also a member of PETA. 5. Faith in God as the Maker of Heaven and Earth makes an eternal difference. The implications of creation are glorious—quite contrary to the implications of evolution, which allows no purpose or meaning, significance, hope or salvation for man. The fact that God is the Maker of heaven and earth means that He is the sovereign Lord of what He has created and that His will will be done on this planet. The truth that God is the Creator of heaven and earth is not merely something to believe, but something to which we must respond. Let me suggest some implications of this part of the Apostles’ Creed, that “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth.”   a) We should submit to the God of creation in fear and obedience. People should have a healthy fear of the all-powerful God of creation. The greatness of God is evident in the work of His hands, the creation which is all about us. Men should fear and reverence Him for Who He is.   b) We should trust in the God of creation to provide our every need. We sing, “He owns the cattle on a thousand hills...I know that He will care for me.” That’s good theology. The God Who is our Creator, is also our Sustainer. God did not wind up the universe and then leave it to itself, as some seem to say. God maintains a continual care over His creation. The New Testament goes an additional step by informing us that the Son of God was the Creator, and continues to serve as the Sustainer of the creation, holding all things together, Colossians 1:16‑17.   c) We should be humbled by the wisdom of God as evidenced in creation. We cannot even begin to fathom the wisdom of God in creation. We cannot explain or comprehend it, let alone challenge it. How, then, can we possibly question the wisdom of God’s working in our lives. While we cannot see the purpose in it all, our perspective is not God’s. Let any who would question God’s dealing in his/her life contemplate God’s infinite wisdom as seen in creation, and then be silent and wait upon Him to do what is right. And if someone should choose to ponder any question, let them attempt to fathom why an infinite God would so concern Himself with us, any of us?   d) We should find comfort in times of distress and difficulty, knowing that our Creator is able and willing to deliver us. 1 Peter 4:19 says, “So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.” There is no situation beyond His power or care. For the believer, He is not just Creator but Father. He provides for all of creation and especially for His children.   e) We should respond to the God of creation with the praise that is due Him. Psalms 95:6 commands us, “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.” Revelation 4:11 states, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they were created and have their being." Adoration and worship, not skepticism and questioning are the only legitimate responses to our Awesome Creator. Conclusion: Three words summarize the Biblical teaching regarding where we come from: created, not evolved. Say that with me out loud, “Created, not evolved.” Teach that simple statement to your children. Write it in big letters so they can read it easily. Make sure they know what it means. Let them learn that they were created and that they did not evolve. Then, when they are older and are exposed to evolutionary ideas in the school system, tell them to give the required answers on the biology test and then write at the bottom of the paper “created, not evolved.” Our children need to know this before they are exposed to evolutionary teaching. They need it long before they go to high school or college. Nothing is more fundamental than that our young people should be fortified with the majestic Biblical truth that they were created by God and are not the products of blind evolution. This truth in the Apostles’ Creed, “Maker of heaven and earth,” bring us back to Genesis,  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” As we wrap up, let’s consider that truth in a personal way. God created you and God created me. I am not an accident or an oversight. I am not a product of impersonal time and chance. Others can speak for themselves; I am not the great‑grandson of a gorilla or second cousin to a kangaroo or even the brother‑in‑law to a baboon. When God put the world together, He put me in it, just the way I am, just where I am, just who I am. He fashioned my arms, molded my bones, and knitted me together in my mother’s womb. He made me nearsighted, short and squatty, with blue eyes, bald, illegible handwriting, and a Southern accent. He put inside me a passionate love for chicken-fried steak, home grown tomatoes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and peach cobbler. He called me to preach, gave me a love for reading, and blessed me beyond anything I deserve with a fantastic wife and three wonderful children. I don’t care for Brussels sprouts, I’m an Internet junkie, and love good jokes. I can’t jump. I don’t dance very well and I’ve never been asked to play on the church softball team for a good reason. I’m a designer original, one of a kind, a limited edition of one, as unique as any snowflake that ever fell to the earth. God made me just the way I am, with all my quirks...and they are many. And I have great news for you, God made you just the way you are. You are a designer original, a limited edition of one. What we say about others is true of us also: When God made you, He broke the mold. He made you with all your quirks, which are many. Because God made you, you fit in. You belong here. Think about this way: You are here because God wanted you here. That’s a valid application of Revelation 4:11. It doesn’t matter if you were a surprise to your parents. You weren’t a surprise to God. We belong to God, He made us the way we are, and we couldn’t escape Him even if we tried. We won’t be happy until we know Him intimately. He put a God‑shaped vacuum inside your heart that only He can fill. He made you, He loves you in spite of your sin, and He sent his Son to die on the cross and rise from the dead so that you could go to heaven. Your Creator has become your Savior. That’s how much God loves you. One day we will all stand before the Lord and give an account of our lives. We are all sinners, we have all broken God’s law, and we have all fallen short of God’s glory. We are all guilty in His eyes. If we are judged on our own merits, we will be condemned to eternal punishment. That means we have no hope except in the mercy and grace that has been shown us through the Lord Jesus Christ. One day you will stand before your Creator, the one who made you in His own image. If you are trusting in your morality, your goodness, your piety or your religion, you will not make it. Your only hope is to run to the cross and to embrace Jesus Christ by faith as your Savior and Lord. My friend, do not delay. Do not hesitate. Run to the cross. Run, run, run to the cross of Christ. Lay hold of Jesus by faith. Trust in him as your Lord and Savior. It all comes down to this: “He made us...and we ran away from Him. He loved us...and we paid no attention to Him. He sent his Son to die for us...  and we never knew it. He wants us to come back to Him … and we must do something about it.” He created you because He wanted you here. He wants you in heaven so much that He sent His Son to die for your sin. If you want to know the God who created you, you can. He’s done everything necessary for you to have a relationship with Him. Jesus died on the cross for you, and then He rose from the dead. He’s waiting for you to make the next move. What are you going to do about it?