You can open your Bibles to Genesis
1. It's not our text, but we're
going to look at a few verses there in just a moment. The inspiration for this message is a very bold message preached
by a man that's recorded in the Scriptures. And I'll read that
in just a few minutes. But our topic today is God the
Creator. God the Creator. And I need to
warn the young people here that I'm going to mock somebody in
an illustration in just a minute. And that you should never mock
your parents. And that you should never mock
somebody in a position of authority. And for that matter, if you decide
to mock your friends, You have to realize they may not be your
friends for very long. But there is a time when it's
okay to mock. And I'll show you that in the
Scripture later. It's okay if you just might save somebody's
life by mocking them. And I want to give an example
of how that might happen for you young folks. Let's say you're
playing with a bunch of kids. near a railroad track. And you
hear that train coming down the way. You hear the whistle blowing.
There's always somebody in the crowd who claims to be a leader
or thinks they are. In this case, let's say it's
Johnny. And Johnny says, I've got a really cool game we're
going to play. He said, we're all going to line
up here along the railroad tracks. And when the train gets close,
he said, really close, we're all going to run across the railroad
tracks. And the first one that goes,
you're a big chicken. The last one who goes wins the
game. Now, several boys, there's always
these in a group, too, who go, cool, what a neat game. But you see, your parents hope
that you've been taught better and that maybe you'll have the
wisdom and the courage. And you might say, you might
say something like this. Now, guys, this is a really bad
idea and somebody could get really hurt doing this. To which there'll
be a chorus of jeers and name calling. You're a big scaredy
cat or you never want to have any fun. You're just a big chicken.
Those of us who are older have been there, done that, and this
is how it usually works out. But this is most likely what
would happen if you state the simple truth. It's a dumb idea. They're going to make fun of
you. But this is a situation where you just might mock Johnny
and save his life by saying something like this. Oh yeah, really cool
game, Johnny. Your folks are going to get a
real kick out of scraping you off the front of that train.
Now, that's mocking somebody. And it just might save somebody's
life. Or they still may pay no attention
to the danger. And forgive me if I take this
opportunity a little aside for a teachable moment. You kids
listen to an old guy who's been around a long time, seen a lot
of stuff, heard a lot of things, learned a few things. Anytime
you wind up in a situation when somebody's trying to get you
to do something, that in your mind there's even a whisper of
a thought that says, this is not right, this is wrong, or
this is not smart. Always, always, every time. Walk away. You can always get
new friends. But if you get yourself killed,
you've only got one life. You wind up spending that life
in jail doing something foolish that somebody else led you into
doing. Walk away. And you say, how do
I know when I should do that? And God's Word is recorded in
three words. A still, small voice. That's the mercy and grace of
God speaking to you. And when you hear it, listen
to it. It's recorded in 1 Kings 19 when
Elijah was fleeing for his life from Queen Jezebel. And he thought,
oh, I'll hide in a cave. He thought he'd be safe there.
Little did he know, Jezebel knew the cave really well. This was
the first place she was going to look. And there was an earthquake,
and a hailstorm, and a lightning storm, and old Elijah just slept
right on through it. But then came a still, small
voice that said, Depart. Get out of this place. He did. You listen for that voice. It's
the grace and mercy of God. It'll do you well all your life. Now I'm going to mock somebody
in an illustration. Who am I going to mock? Everybody
who prefers or chooses to believe in evolution. That the world
just came into existence. and that man just came out of
nothing. I'm going to mock those people,
that they choose to believe that instead of the truth, which is
that God, the one true and living God, He created man. And the
way I'm going to mock them is to give you this illustration.
Everybody here knows what this is, right? It's a cell phone. You know where this came from?
This is interesting. You see, this part here, there
was this black ooze down somewhere in Louisiana. And over millions,
if not billions of years, the sun baked it and stuff. And there's
all kinds of shapes of that goo down there. And then all of a
sudden it came together in this shape. And the front of this,
this glass part, you know, they got all that sand over there
in the Middle East and the sun bakes it and that stuff turns
into silicone and it hardens into what we call glass. And
it's amazing that it came out in this shape. And this red part
here, red comes from an element called iron or ferrous. It turns
red when it baked a long time and it got baked on this. And
these things here, these come from the button tree. You know,
there's a tree that grows buttons, and it's the most amazing thing
is that over the millions and billions of years, all the buttons
that grew one of them here has a two and an ABC written on it
and another's got nine WXYZ. It's amazing. These buttons and
just the shape. And, you know, this thing comes
apart and in the back of this, you know what's in here? There's
all this cadmium from over in Russia that got together with
this zinc in Idaho. And it got all wrapped up in
metal and made a battery. And you know what? It printed
on itself, made in the USA. It all came together here in
this country. Now that's where cell phones
come from. And you know what this is? This
is the chimpanzee of cell phones. Want to see the gorilla? Yeah, that's a G4, baby. And
you know, if we're around long enough, we may actually see the
caveman version. Or the human being version. Now, listen to me. This is one
opinion I just gave you. That's one opinion of where the
cell phone came from. You want to hear another opinion
of where it came from? some man or group of men who
used God's given intelligence and education, research, skill,
effort, manufacturing to create a cell phone. If common sense is all we had
to go by, our conclusion couldn't be anything other than this.
Man, by a God-given genius, created the cell phone. The only reason
anybody could believe otherwise Could hesitate or halt between
these two opinions would be willful ignorance. Here in Genesis one,
you know, we have so much more than common sense. We have the
written word of God, and what does it tell us about who created
man? Genesis one, one says in the
beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. That was the starting
point. And in the scriptures, it says
in one place, I don't know if you all ever been to the beach
and you pick up a handful of sand and you throw it. How many
grains of sand are there in that? I don't know. You ever count
them? You couldn't keep track of them if you could, if you
did, wanted to. The scripture says when God made,
when he created the universe, you know what he did? He just
took his hand and went like this. He hurled the stars into space. You hear Luke say, there's billions
and billions of them. He knows every one of them by
name. I couldn't name everybody in
this room, and I've known you for years. He knew them by name
when he hurled them out there. He started with that creation
and turned the page, and he made the earth. In verse 27 we read, So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God created he him. Male and female, created
he them. How clear is it to you that some
man created this cell phone? I hope that's obvious to you.
How insulting is it to the person that created this cell phone
to declare as fact that it evolved out of all that stuff I said?
How clear is it to you that man didn't evolve over millions of
years out of some primordial ooze? How insulting to God that
he did not create man. How insulting that man came from
an ape who came from a bird who came from a lizard who came from
a fish and so on. The evolutionist thinks we're
idiots to believe that God created man. In fact, only a fool would
believe that a cell phone created itself, or that man evolved himself,
rather than believe the truth, which is, God created man, the
true and living God. God in his infinite wisdom designed
all things. God, through His boundless love,
God, through His endless mercy, God, through His majestic Spirit,
God, for the glory of His person, God, through His almighty power,
created all things, including man. That's the truth. God declares it, and man is to
believe it. Turn over to Isaiah 40. Why is this so important, so
vital? Why is it such a big deal? You
may think, why are you beating up on those people that believe
that stuff? I'm going to answer that for you here. To deny God
as the Creator is to deny the God of the Bible altogether.
If this word is not true, completely true, then none of it is. There's only two opinions here. It's all a lie or it's all truth. You see that? And when men deny
the Creator, God the Creator, they then feel the license to
create their own God. And here's the evidence of that
in Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40, look at verse 18. To whom then will you liken God
with a capital G? Or what likeness will you compare
unto him? The workman melts a graven image, and the goldsmith spreads
it over with gold or with chains of silver. Now, he that is so
poor or impoverished that he has no gold or silver, he'll
just choose a tree that won't rot and seeks a man to carve
out or prepare a graven image. That shall not be moved. It's
a dead object. and he intends to worship. You
say, folks in our day don't make idols anymore. They don't do
that. The other night I'm flipping
through the channels and I think Discovery, they're in India,
in the Far East someplace, and they were showing all these statues
of Buddha. I mean, there was one monster
in a cave, and they're in these big buildings they built for
them, and they make all kinds of them. All you've got to do
is walk in a cathedral and they've got stained glass windows of
stuff. I grew up a few blocks from Mary,
Queen of Peace. It was a gold almond on the top
was a golden Mary, the statue of her. And they've got somebody
nailed on a cross over here stuck to the wall. I was in a place
of business recently where they had these little silver disks. And I said, what are these? In
a bowl. They said, oh, for a dollar,
you can buy one. It's an angel, a lucky angel. You put them in
your pocket and carry around, you'll have good luck. Really? The Muslims bow how many times
a day to Mecca. A place is an idol. And the evolutionist
is his own god. How do I know so much about them?
Let me tell you how I know. I went to college at a place
that for 32 years, if you were a biology major, you were not
refused at the medical school of your choice. Let me tell you, those professors
were good at what they did. And you know what? They didn't
teach evolution as a theory. You know what they taught? They
taught it as a fact. You know why? They were little gods. And
they were teaching us that we could be like them, that we could
be gods. I never even heard of God who created. I didn't
hear that from them. It was never even considered.
You say, why do they act like that? Why do they want to do
that? So they can make their own rules or break them as they
please. They make themselves a God. Look
in Isaiah 40 here. Verse 21 says, Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not
been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from
the foundations of the earth? It's him that sitteth upon the
circle of the earth. It's the creator. And the inhabitants
thereof are as grasshoppers. Men are like grasshoppers. Stay
with me on this just a minute, OK? Yeah, we're not as good as
grasshoppers, actually. And it's this God that stretches
out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as if you
were dwelling in a tent. Verse 25, To whom then will you
liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? Folks who
teach evolution believe themselves to be equal with God. That's
the point I'm making, and if we deny that, we deny God altogether. Verse 26, Lift up your eyes on
high, and behold who hath created all things, that bringeth out
their host by number. He calls them all by names, by
the greatness of his might, for he is strong in power. Not one
failure. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, or
speakest thou, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my
judgment is passed over from God? Listen to this, verse 28.
Here is the whole thing. Hast thou not known, hast thou
not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator, capital
C, of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary.
There is no searching of his understanding. Here's the key
to seeing all false gods for what they are. Men have false
gods, little g, have idols. And the key is, if men have a
false idol, they can put that idol where they want him. You
can make a big Buddha and put him in a temple. You can make
a little Buddha and put him on the shelf. You can park Muhammad
right over there in Mecca. You can put the angel in your
pocket. You can tack Jesus Christ on a cross and put him on the
wall. Do we see that? That's the key
here. If men who make their own God
can put that God where they want to acknowledge the true and living
God, the Creator, you know what he does? He puts man in his place. He puts man in his place. The evolutionist puts God out
of his man, altogether out of his life. The true and living
God, the Creator, puts men in their place. Turn to Psalm 53. There are two thoughts here. Two thoughts. Let me make them
clear. False religion says, man's getting better all the time.
He may have started out as a chimpanzee, but he got to be a gorilla and
then a caveman and look where he is now. God's Word says, I
created man perfect and upright and look where he is now. False
religion says, man is ascending, getting smarter all the time.
God says, man was created in God's image and he descended
into sin. There's only two opinions here,
only two thoughts. Man either came from dead nothing
to live again, or man fell from life to dead in trespasses and
sin. Which is it? Romans, I'm sorry,
look at Psalm 53, verse 9. I'm sorry, I've got that wrong.
It's verse 1. Psalm 53, 1. The fool has said
in his heart, there's no God, capital G. Corrupt are they and
have done abominably iniquity, abominable iniquity. There's
none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon
the children of men to see if there were any that did understand,
that did seek God. Every one of them has gone astray,
gone back. They're all together become filthy.
There's none that doeth good, not one. Now turn over to Romans. Chapter 3. So which is true? Which of these two thoughts is
true? Is man ascending, getting better all the time, or when
Adam fell, did we all descend into death and sin? Common sense
on the newspaper should answer the question. Are we getting
better or are we getting worse? Men and women over in Egypt are
killing each other in the streets. Aaron, I looked up, you know
how many people on death row for murder in Kentucky alone?
Thirty-seven. You probably know this. There's
six unsolved homicides in Fayette County right now. Lexington.
And this guy Qaddafi over there in Libya sent out airplanes to
bomb his own people. We're getting better, aren't
we? Yeah, we're getting better. You say, well, that guy's crazy.
Don't we realize we are, too? The only difference between you
and me is the restraining hand of God keeps us from killing
somebody or everybody. You see, that guy just had the
opportunity to make himself a god, and he still thinks he's going
to get away with it. Here's the question. Are we better
than him? Are we? God answers that question right
here in Romans 3, verse 9. He says, What then? Are we better
than they? The answer is two letters, no. I'm sorry, you're not any better
than that guy, and I'm not either. In no wise, for we have before
proved both Jews and Gentiles, no religion, they are all under
sin. As it is written, there's none
righteous, no, not one. There's none that understands
by nature. There's none that seeketh after God, capital G.
They're all gone out of the way. They all together become unprofitable. There is none that do us good.
No, not one. Our throat is an open sepulcher,
a graveyard. Our tongues are filled with deceit,
like the poison of a snake under our lips, whose mouth is full
of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood." Swift to shed blood, not slow swift. Destruction and
misery are in their way, and the way of peace they do not
know. What's the problem? See, verse 18, there's no fear
of God, capital G, before their eyes. By nature, we're not afraid. We're not afraid of this way. We're not afraid. Oh, and we
ought to be afraid. The train's coming down the tracks. The train of God's wrath is coming
down the tracks. Before it's too late, give up
the madness and bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God, capital
G. Don't halt or ponder or waver
between two thoughts. Let God be true in every man,
a liar. Bow to the true and living God before it's too late. You
know, we need God to do for us something we can't do for ourselves.
We can't save ourselves from our sin any more than we can
create ourselves out of nothing. But God, who is rich in mercy,
can save us from our nothing, our sin, and make us perfect
in Christ. It is glorious. The next time we have a clear
night, walk outside and just look up. The heavens are glorious. Everything God made is glorious,
wonderful glorious. And it is glorious that God created
this world and this universe and man in it out of nothing.
Let me tell you what is more glorious. He determined to choose
a people out of sin, out of nothing but evil, to create a people
that are perfect, just like Christ. That is glorious. Turn to 1 Kings 18, and I will
read you this message that was preached. And I want to read this great
message delivered by Elijah, the prophet of God, to folks
who had on that day to decide between two opinions. These people
gathered there, all of Israel, much as there may be some here
that have to decide today. 1 Kings 18, you see in verse 1,
it says that It came to pass after many days that the word
of the Lord came to Elijah. This is God speaking through
a prophet. And here is what he said in verse 17. He says, And
it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab was the king of
Israel, he said unto him, Art thou he that troubles Israel?
And Elijah answered, I have not troubled Israel. But you, in
your father's house, have made the trouble. You have forsaken
the commandments of the Lord, and you have followed after Baal
as this idol. Now, therefore, send and gather
to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal 450,
and the prophets of the groves 400, which eat at Jezebel's table.
So I have sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets
together unto Mount Carmel. And Elijah came unto all the
people, and here is what he said. How long? halt ye between two
opinions, between two thoughts. How long? How long have we halted? How long did we halt? Here's
the two thoughts. If God, if the Lord be God, capital
G, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him.
And the people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah unto
the people, I, even I, only remain a prophet of the Lord. But Baal's
profits are 450. And he said, let them therefore
give us two bullocks. Let them choose one they want.
Cut it in pieces. Lay it on wood. Put no fire under. And I'll dress the other bullock
and lay it on the wood and put no fire under. And he said, you
guys go, you 450, go call on the name of your gods, little
G. And he said, we'll see who answers. Now, all 450 of them
started praying and carrying on and do what they do. And you
see down here in verse 26, it says, And they took the bullock
which was given them, they dressed it, and they called on Baal from
morning till night, all day long. They leaped and did all this
stuff. In verse 27, It came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked
them. Now listen, this mocking is not
to condemn them. This is their last opportunity
to repent, to turn. And look what he said when he
mocked them. Cry aloud, he said, cry aloud
for he is a God, little G. Bale. And he said, where is he?
Is he talking to somebody? He's busy, he can't hear you?
He only talked to one person at a time, maybe. He said, is
he out pursuing? Is he out hunting for his dinner?
What's he doing? He said, or is he on a journey?
Or preventer, he's asleep. And you need to yell a little
louder to wake him up. Did they listen to him? Verse 28, they
cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with knives
and lances till the blood gushed out upon them. And finally at
the end of the day, nothing happened to their sacrifice. So Elijah
in verse 37, all the people come near unto me and all the people
came near unto him and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was
broken down. He took twelve stones and built the altar back up Verse
32, he said, and the stones he built the altar in the name of
the Lord, he made a trench about the altar as great as contained
two measures of water. He put the wood in order and
cut the bullock in pieces and laid him on the wood. And then
they filled four barrels with water and poured it on all the
whole thing, the sacrifice and the wood. Now, what wood is going
to burn with four barrels of water on top of it? Verse 34,
and he said, do it a second time. And they did it a second time.
He said, do it a third time. We have twelve barrels of water
on the wood now. That stuff isn't going to burn, right? And the
water ran down around the altar and filled up the trenches of
the water and it came to pass at the time of the offering of
the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and he
prayed to the Lord. He said, Lord God of Abraham,
Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God, capital
G in Israel, and that I am thy servant and I have done all these
things at thy word. He said, Hear me, O Lord, hear
me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, capital
G, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. And what
happened? And the fire fell. The fire of
the Lord fell and consumed the offering, I mean the sacrifice,
and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water
that was in the trench. Now, when all the people saw
it, they fell on their faces and they said, The Lord! He is
the God, capital G. The Lord, he is the God. And
Elijah said to them, Take the prophets of Baal, let not one
of them escape. They took them, and Elijah brought them down
to the brook Kishon, and he slew them all there. Now, here's what
this pictures. The 450 prophets of Baal picture
all false religions. They would not believe the gospel
as Elijah declared it, preferring to worship a God of stone that
they had made. more certain than the direction
of the train coming down that railroad track is the coming
of God's wrath. Not even the mocking of Elijah
could persuade them to not play chicken with God's wrath. They
kept on playing church until what happened to them down at
that brook made getting hit by a train look like nothing. And that's where that opinion
will lead. But what of those who believed the gospel that
Eliza preached? They had, you see, an acceptable
sacrifice. The fire fell, the wrath of God
fell, but it fell on the sacrifice and not the people. God the Father prepared a sacrifice
for his people. The sacrifice is Jesus Christ.
Now, he lived a perfect life without sin. He went to Calvary
and took the wrath of God for all his people. All the sacrifices
of Israel were burnt up on a fire through all those hundreds and
thousands of years. And at Calvary, the fire of God
was taken by Jesus Christ. When in three days He arose from
the grave, the wrath of God on the sin of His people, it was
gone. Now, all men and women, we're born playing chicken on
the railroad tracks. If God doesn't do something for
us, if He doesn't change our mind, our heart, our direction. If God doesn't do something for
us, one day the train's going to hit us. It's going to hit
us. So what's the difference for God's people? Christ does
something for every one of God's chosen people. And I hope I can
make this clear. Jesus Christ. We're standing
on the railroad tracks watching the train coming. and don't have
enough sense to get off. We just keep going, going, playing
our religion. Jesus Christ comes and He picks
us up and gets us out of the way. You know where that place
is? Out of the way is in the way
Jesus Christ. He puts His people in Himself. And therefore, when He lived
up till Calvary, He gives us that perfect righteousness we
had, and the new man, when he wakes us up, turns us, and we
stop seeing and believing that way, and we see the Lord Jesus
Christ and believe this way. When we're in him, you know where
we are now? We're seated at the right hand
of God the Father in Christ. That's where every new man, every
believer is. We're out of the way of the wrath
that's coming. So he picks us up and takes us
out of that way into his way. You know what he then does? He
takes our place standing in the middle of the railroad tracks.
And he stands there and lets that train hit him wide open
full bore. I promise anybody who's ever
been run over a train doesn't look anything as bad as what
the Lord Jesus Christ looked like at Calvary. He was taking
all the punishment for all his people. But let me tell you what
he did over the next three days. I don't know any other way to
say this than he ate the train. When he descended, when he died,
he suffered all the wrath of every train that would ever hit
every one of God's people. He just took it. And the proof is, he rose from
the grave. And I tell you what, our old
man, we were in him on those railroad tracks And buddy, we
got blasted. Our eternal punishment, He took
for us. That's why He's called our substitute.
He substituted for us the righteousness we need to go before God, and
He substituted for us as a sin offering. Over time, all those
thousands of sacrifices that were burned up in offerings,
the sacrifices got all burned up. At Calvary, you know what
Jesus Christ did? He burned all the fire up. He
took all the wrath of God, and it's gone for us. We don't ever
have to see it. We don't have to be afraid. He gives us a new heart. We hear
the gospel. By faith, we believe God. And
we realize that Jesus Christ, what he did for us. To the world,
it appears that he was a bloodied and utterly destroyed man. The fact is, Jesus Christ took
it all for his people. It's gone. We're free from the
wrath of God, and he gave his people his righteousness. We're
perfect. Now, folks, that's more than an opinion. That's more
than a thought. It's the truth. The only truth. The whole truth. Nothing but
the truth. This is all a lie. You can go there if you want
to. Now, which is it for you? Which is it? This opinion? This
thought? or the truth. Come to Christ. He is the truth, the way, and
the life. Ask Him to give us a new mind and a new heart, one
that can enable us to understand and believe and love the truth.
If we ask, we shall receive. Why do we halt between the two?
If the Lord be God, follow Him. Believe what Elijah said in that
day. He is the God, capital G. The Lord, He is the God. May the Lord bless His Word.