This is especially true in January, since many begin the year with the determination to read the Bible through that year, but often that is as far as they get.
However, if they only read this one verse, it will tell them a great deal about the God of the Bible. This one scripture is considered to be the FOUNDATION which the Word of God is built upon.
Since this is the case, is it any wonder that Genesis 1:1 is specifically targeted by those who try to discredit God's Word?
For example, there are different ideas about how Creation came about. Even children have their version.
Illus: Mrs. Harvey Kidd said, “My young grandson, Richard, and I recently vacationed in the Rocky Mountains. One day, we had stopped to admire their grandeur, and after a few minutes of thoughtful silence, Richard broke out, ‘Just think--God did all this with only one hand!’ I puzzled over this for a moment, then asked him what he meant. ‘Oh, you know, Grandmother,’ he replied, ‘the Bible says Jesus was sitting on the right hand of God.’" (Mrs. Harvey Kidd, Hernando, MS. Today's Christian Woman, "Heart to Heart.)
That is not exactly what the Bible teaches when it comes to the Lord sitting on the right hand of God.
Genesis 1:1 tells us at least THREE things that we need to consider about creation. First, let’s look at-
I. GOD'S PRESENTATION
In verse 1, we read, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
Through the centuries, men have argued about HOW THE EARTH, UNIVERSE, AND THE INHABITANTS OF EARTH CAME INTO EXISTENCE.
Illus: The noted agnostic, Col. Robert Ingersol, during a visit with Henry Ward Beecher, noted a beautiful globe portraying the constellations and stars of the heavens. "This is just what I'm looking for," he said after examining it. "Who made it?" "Who made it?" repeated Beecher in simulated astonishment. "Why Colonel, nobody made it, it just happened."
As Bible-believers, we believe that mankind is here because God created man and placed him here.
We call this CREATIONISM!
Illus: Even the single-celled organism is complex beyond the ability of scientists to understand, let alone duplicate. All of life is governed by the marvelously complex genetic code, which contains not only design and order, but what is equivalent to written information. This DNA code must not only be written correctly, the rest of the cell must be able to read it and follow its instructions, if the cell is to metabolize its food, carry out the myriad of enzyme reactions, and, especially, to reproduce. This code had to be present at the origin of life. How could it have written itself? And how could all the various organelles learn how to read and obey it?
Illus: Carl Sagan, the modern-day evolutionary spokesperson, had admitted: "The information content of a simple cell has been established as around 10 to the 12th power bits, comparable to about a hundred million pages of the Encyclopaedia Britannica." (impact January, 1992 Dr. John D. Morris (Inst for Cr Res)
God created every one of us. Sometimes we look at people and we think God did a better job on some than He did on others.
Illus: A little girl crawled up into her great grandmother's lap one day. And looking up into her great grandmother's face she saw all those crevices, lines, and wrinkles. Then she felt her own smooth baby-like skin. She said to her great grandmother, "Did God make you?" Her great grandmother said, "Yes honey, God made me." Then the little girl said, "Well great grandmother, did God make me?" Her great grandmother said, "Oh yes, God made you too." And then the little girl said, "Well great grandmother, don't you think God's doing a lot better job these days?" - Mike Minix
The Bible declares this astounding truth - GOD CREATED IT ALL! The reason this is considered to be THE FOUNDATION OF THE BIBLE is because immediately it tells us two things about God.
• It declares that there is a God
• It declares that God is the One Who created the EARTH, UNIVERSE, AND MANKIND
Notice, the God of the Bible refutes something that some of the leading scholars in America teach - He refutes EVOLUTION! Without argument, God, in four little words, refutes everything ungodly men teach concerning evolution.
God simply states, "IN THE BEGINNING GOD..."
We hear about the scientists today who do not believe in Creationism, but we seldom hear about those who do.
Illus: Several years ago a scientist wrote an article entitled, "Seven Reasons Why I Believe in God."
(1) He said, "Consider the rotation of the earth. Our globe spins on its axis at the rate of one thousand miles an hour. If it were just a hundred miles an hour, our days and nights would be ten times as long. The vegetation would freeze in the long night or it would burn in the long day; and there could be no life."
(2) He said, "Consider the heat of the sun. Twelve thousand degrees at surface temperature, and we're just far enough away to be blessed by that terrific heat.”
(3) He said, “Consider this, If the sun gave off half its radiation, we would freeze to death. If it gave off one half more, we would all be crispy critters."
(4) He said, "Consider the slant of the earth, twenty-three degrees. If it were different than that, the vapors from the oceans would ice over the continents. There could be no life."
(5) He said, "Consider the moon. If the moon were fifty thousand miles away rather than its present distance, twice each day giant tides would inundate every bit of land mass on this earth."
(6) He said consider this, "Think of the crust of the earth. Just a little bit thicker and there could be no life because there would be no oxygen.”
(7) He said consider, “The thinness of the atmosphere. If our atmosphere was just a little thinner, the millions of meteors now burning themselves out in space would plummet this earth into oblivion”.
These are reasons, he said, "Why I believe in God." (Frank Pollard, "Our Greatest Victory," Preaching Today, Tape No. 175. )
Some men would have you believe that we came through the process of evolution. They are not clear about exactly how it happened, but they think through something happening to a particle of dust, matter, energy, electrical impulse, atom, proton, neutron, electron, gas or something else, everything came to be as it is now.
Illus: Those who promote evolution do not need God to refute them, science itself refutes everything they try to teach, because the very laws of science and nature will be the first to tell you that SOMETHING CANNOT APPEAR OUT OF NOTHING BY ITSELF.
If you want to talk about the beginning of the earth and this universe, you have to talk about God because it all started with Him! The Hebrew word for God is Elohim - THE GOD WHO CREATES!
Illus: An old black preacher said it best when he said, "God stepped from behind the curtain of nowhere, and stood on the platform that did not exist, and spoke a universe into existence."
The skeptics say, "Prove to us there is a God!" To be honest with you, I can not! The only thing I can do is point to His creation, and tell you that in order to have a creation, you have to have a Creator.
However, we would like to look to the skeptics and the atheists and put the shoe on the other foot and say, "As you stand on this amazing, beautiful creation, prove to me there is no God!"
Illus: The reason the atheist cannot find God, is the same reason a thief can not find a policeman. THAT’S THE LAST THING HE WANTS TO SEE!
HOW DO WE KNOW THERE IS A GOD? We know it by faith.
• COMMON SENSE TELLS US THERE HAS TO BE A GOD
We have chosen to look at all we can see in this universe and it is clear, there has to be a God.
Illus: Sue Kidd said, “One August night, my children dragged me to the backyard to watch a meteor shower. I reluctantly joined them, thinking, I have so many details to tend to before we leave on vacation. I don't have time for idleness. Suddenly, golden fire balls streaked across the blackness. ‘God made this,’ I whispered. It was a rare moment. Not because of the sight, but because I stepped beyond my familiar world into one of wonder and discovered the Creator in the midst. Could it be God filled the world with such beauty to lift people like me away from our obsession with details--to touch our lives with a magnificent awareness of himself? (Sue Monk Kidd, Today's Christian Woman, "Heart to Heart.")
• THE SCRIPTURES TELL US THERE HAS TO BE A GOD
This Bible has been proven to be the most accurate book ever written. Ungodly men have tried their very best to discredit it, but they have come and gone, and the Word of God is still here.
And the Word of God says, in Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,"
We choose to believe what the infallible Word of God says, instead of what ungodly men have said about how mankind arrived on the face of the earth.
But, let me ask you something else; how does a person become an atheist? The answer is that they choose not to believe, and God says that those who choose not to believe are fools.
Look at Psalm 53:1, we read, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God..."
You see, God knows something a lot of us do not know, and that is, you cannot argue with a fool.
Illus: Someone said, “When you have two men exchanging ideas, you have two wise men; but when you have two men arguing whether God exists or not, you have two fools, and God is no fool.”
He just states, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," and leaves it up to us to BELIEVE or NOT BELIEVE.
• The Bible does not argue the existence of God
• The Bible makes no effort to prove God's existence
Why? Because God takes for granted that any man in his right mind could only come to one conclusion - THAT THERE IS A LIVING GOD.
In Genesis 1:1 we have looked at GOD'S PRESENTATION, but there is something else in this foundation verse. You also have...
II. GOD'S POWER
In Genesis 1:1, look at the word, "created" in this first verse. The Bible not only states the existence of God, but also declares that He is the CREATOR OF ALL.
The Hebrew word for "created" is "BARA," which means it is something only God can do. It is wrong for us to use the word "create" when you speak of something that man does. Man has never "created" anything.
Illus: You can take a building contractor in this congregation and point to a house he built, and say that HE CREATED THAT HOUSE, but the fact is, he did not "create" it.
However, we can point at that house and say that HE BUILT THAT HOUSE and that would be correct!
That is, the contractor took pre-existing materials, that God had created, and placed them together in such a way as to construct a house, but he did not "create" it.
Illus: We all can remember when mom would take several ingredients, that God had created, and make biscuits and she would say, "Come and get it. The biscuits mom made are done!" That's right, SHE MADE THEM!
We could not claim that she created them, because that would mean she had produced something from nothing.
It was God Who created the universe. Whatever we make, we make it from things that already exist.
Genesis 1:1 gives us GOD'S PRESENTATION and also gives us GOD'S POWER, but, notice something else, it also gives us...
III. GOD'S PURPOSE
Look at Genesis 1:1 again, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth..." It is clearly stated that He created the HEAVEN and THE EARTH.
WHY DID GOD CREATE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH?
He had a purpose. There are at least three reasons.
A. FOR HIS PLEASURE
Look at Rev. 4:11 we read, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."
God created everything that we can see, and the Bible tells us why He created it. The Word of God says, “…and for thy pleasure they are and were created."
• God did not consult any of us about what color the sky should be, or what color the grass should be
• God did not consult any of us about where the oceans or mountains should be located
God created everything the way He wanted it. Why? For His PLEASURE! But that was not the only reason. He also created the heaven and the earth...
B. FOR HIS PEOPLE
Look at 1 Tim 6:17, we read, "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy."
Paul was telling Timothy to tell the rich people not to put their trust in the things of the world, but instead, put their faith in God, Who had richly blessed them with all those things to enjoy.
Illus: There are some folks who love to collect books, just as others like to collect stamps or knives. They do not care about reading these books and finding out what is in them. THEY ARE JUST EXCITED ABOUT BOOKS!
There are a lot of people who are excited about GOD’S CREATION, but they are not excited about GOD THE CREATOR!
Illus: They make you think of a woman who a young man gave a beautiful ring to. She did not care a thing about him, all she cared about was the expensive ring he gave her.
God CREATED FOR HIS PLEASURE and FOR HIS PEOPLE, but there is another reason, and that is...
C. FOR HIS PRAISE
Look at Romans 11:36 we read, "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever."
God has a purpose for everything He created. For example...
• He created fish to swim through the water. As they do what they were created to do, they are fulfilling God's purpose.
• He created the birds to fly through the air. As they do what He created them to do, they are fulfilling His purpose for their lives.
• He created a hen to lay eggs, and that is exactly what the hen does.
• He created the rooster to crow, and that is exactly what he does.
• He created man, and placed within his heart love for a woman. As a man does this he fulfills God plan for his life.
Illus: God created man something on the order of a rubber band. Charles Paul Conn said, “ A rubber band is made to stretch. When it is not being stretched, it is small and relaxed; but as long as it remains in that shape, it is not doing what it was made to do. When it stretches, it is enlarged; it becomes tense and dynamic, and it does what it was made to do. God created you to stretch.” -- Charles Paul Conn in Making It Happen. Christianity Today, Vol. 36, no.
God created men to live on earth, and as man looks at all the things God blessed him with, he allows his faith to stretch and says to God, "HOW GREAT THOU ART" .
God's Word says, "Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord."
• If you are living on this earth and not praising God, you are not doing what God created you for.
• If you are living on this earth and loving the creation but not the Creator, you are not doing what God placed you here to do.
No wonder that lost men feel that something is missing in their lives.
Conclusion:
Illus: We are reminded of the little boy who was raised by folks who claimed to be atheists. One day he asked his parents, "DO YOU THINK GOD KNOWS THAT WE DON'T BELIEVE IN HIM?"
God knows exactly who does not believe in Him, but the good news is, He also knows those who do...
I. GOD'S PRESENTATION
II. GOD'S POWER
III. GOD'S PURPOSE
