Scripture Reading: Job 38:1-7
New Testament Creation Believers
Intro.
1. The heavens declare the glory (largeness, abundance) of God and what His hand has done, Psa 19:1.
2. The inspiration of the Scriptures attest to their authenticity, credibility and reliability, Jno 16:12-13; 1 Cor 2:10, 13; 2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:20-21.
3. Gen 1:1: God is the mind and energy behind the existence of matter; separate from it and superior to it:
a. In the beginning: The starting point, 2 Pet 3:4.
b. God (Elohim): Deity, Supreme,
Eternal, Psa 90:2; Rom 1:20.
c. Created: bara (from nothing,
Gen 1:1, 21, 27); asah (make, fashion,
Gen 1:7, 16, 25, 31); yatsar (form,
Gen 2:7).
d. The heavens and the earth: Celestial and terrestrial, Job 38:1-11.
-God made earth and heaven with His
power, insight and skill, Jer 51:15.
4. The origin of life is key to belief in the creative God
of the Bible; All other efforts to explain the origin of life fail! cf.
Rom 1:21; Eph 4:17-19
-Ex. Spontaneous creation (Hawking): Energy converted to matter. But, what was the origin of this energy (another form of matter)?
5. Who believed in creation in NT and what they believed about it.
1) JESUS: “But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’” (Mk 10:6) [Jesus is a real, historical person, Lk 1:1-4]
1. Jesus did not believe matter is eternal (arche: “beginning, origin”). cf. Hawking’s “spontaneous creation”
2. Jesus believed God to be a personal and powerful Creator, Matt 19:4.
a. Humans are made in the image of God: Spirit (Jno 4:24). Man is not only flesh (matter), Gen 2:7 (Eccl 12:7).
b. Creation, not macro-evolution, Gen 1:27.
2) EARLY CHRISTIANS: “So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: ‘Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them…’” (Acts 4:24)
1. Saw the world as prima facie evidence for God. (prima facie: “used in modern legal English to signify that on first examination, a matter appears to be self-evident from the facts”, Wikipedia)
2. Recognition of and praise for God the Creator, Exo 20:11; Neh 9:6.
3) PAUL AND BARNABAS: “We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them...” (Acts 14:15)
-The living earth is evidence of the living God, Acts 17:25.
1. Paul affirmed Christ is the Creator and the Sustainer, Col 1:16-17.
2. Paul affirmed man’s moral accountability is based on the evidence of divine creation, Rom 1:18-20.
4) JOHN THE APOSTLE: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (Jno 1:1-3)
1. One cannot believe in Jesus and reject Genesis 1.
2. John affirms the deity and humanity of Jesus, 1:1-3, 14.
3. John the baptizer identified Jesus as:
a. The Lamb of God who takes away sins of world, Jno 1:29. If one rejects creation he also rejects his only Redeemer! Isa 44:24
b. The Son of God, Jno 1:18, 34.
5) PETER THE APOSTLE: “...knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water…” (2 Pet 3:3-5)
1. The creative word of God provokes reverence, cf. Psa 33:6-9.
2. Scoffers willfully forget and heap up condemnation, 2 Pet 3:7.
6) HEAVENLY BEINGS: “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” (Rev 4:11)
-Creation was an act of the divine will, not the action of inorganic physical forces producing organic life!
7) MEN AND WOMEN OF FAITH: “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.” (Heb 11:3)
1. Perceive the evidence for divine creation…reason for faith, Heb 11:1.
2. Faith in the God of Genesis 1 is not blind, but bold; not senseless, but sensible (understand: “perceive”).
Conclusion
1. The fool says there is no God, Psa 14:1. Many foolish things are passed off as “knowledge”, but they destroy faith! 1 Tim 6:19-20
2. Avoid and do not be deceived by the profane babblings of unbelievers who give counsel without knowledge! Job 38:1-3; 42:1-6