St. Paul's United Methodist Church

“This Is My Father's World”

Rev. Richard W. Gray

September 18, 2005

Genesis 1:1

    This coming Thursday we change seasons. We will go from summer to fall. The amount of daylight we have each day is becoming shorter. The days and nights are becoming cooler. Already the leaves are beginning to change color.

    Do you know why leaves change color in the fall? Leaves are food factories. Trees take water from the ground through their roots. They take carbon dioxide from the air. Sunlight is used to turn water and carbon dioxide into glucose, a kind of sugar. This process is called photosynthesis. A chemical called chlorophyll makes photosynthesis happen. Chlorophyll is what gives leaves their green color.

    During winter, there is not enough light and water for photosynthesis. The trees rest and live off the food they stored in the summer. The food-making process shuts down and the green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the green fades away, the other colors that have been in the leaves all along begin to appear. They could not be seen before because the green covered them up.

    The reds we see in the leaves of maple trees happen when glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. The brown color of leaves is made from waste left in the leaves.

    What makes the leaves fall from the trees? At the base of each leaf is a special layer of cells called the abscission or separation layer. During the summer, small tubes pass trough this layer with water for the leaf, and take food back to the tree. In the fall, the cells of the abscission layer begin to swell, reducing the flow of water to the leaf

leaf and eventually stopping it all together. Glucose and waste products are trapped in the leaf. The cells in the top separation layer begin to disintegrate, while cells in the bottom separation layer form a seal between the leaf and tree. A sort of tear-line forms, and eventually the leaf falls off the tree or is blown off.

    This process happens every year. It is further proof that everything in the universe has been created by God, the Master Designer. When you see the fall foliage this year, I want it to be a reminder to you of God so you will be moved to worship Him.

    I want us to look at the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis today. The word Genesis means beginning. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

    This one verse answers several questions. How did everything begin? When did it begin? And who began it?

    The book of Genesis is a battleground. Many people refuse to accept what it teaches. If Genesis is not true, then we cannot believe anything else the Bible says. A lot rests on the accuracy of Genesis. If everything in the universe came into existence by random chance, then there is no God, there are no moral absolutes, and you remove value, dignity, and worth from humanity. We then may define morality any way we wish.

    If people are going to accept Genesis, they must accept the God of Genesis who has laid down how we should live, and we must answer to Him as our divine judge someday. People approach Genesis with prejudice. They do not want to believe because of scientific reasons, but because they do not want to have to answer to God. Evolution does not want to accept God, thus leaving people free to live the way they wish. Doing away with God allowed Hitler and Stalin

Stalin to mass murder millions of people.

    Darwin, the father of evolution, stated, “I am determined to escape from design and a personal God at all costs.” He tried to do away with God and the need for God. Yet he admitted that his own theory of evolution did not make sense. He stated, “Such simple instincts as bees making a beehive could be sufficient to overthrow my whole theory.” Speaking about the eye, Darwin said, “And to think that the eye could evolve by natural selection seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree.” He propounded a theory that does not make sense rather than bow to God in his life.

    The battle over origins is not just a scientific one, it is a moral and spiritual one. What we believe determines how we conduct our lives. There is a battle over the Bible right now. We do not need to defend the Bible. Martin Luther said the Bible is like a lion. We do not need to defend it. We need to turn it loose. The Biblical view of creation is the only rational view.

    When did everything begin? Isn't it interesting that the Bible does not tell us specifically. It simply says, “In the beginning.” That is all we need to know. We do not need to know when.

    There was a time when scientists believed that the universe had always existed. They are moving away from that view now. The evidence reveals there was a definite time when creation took place. Dr. P. Dirac, a Nobel Prize winner from Cambridge University, wrote, “It seems certain that there was a definite time of creation.”

    There was a time when there was nothing but God. Then God created and there was a beginning of all things.

    Who created everything? The Bible gives a very brief answer, “God.” “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Everything

Everything around us speaks of the existence of God, a God of great intelligence and power. We see intelligent design behind everything. You cannot get away from it.

    Paul Gentuso was an evolutionist who doubted God's existence until he studied the human hand in medical school. This is what he discovered, “In anatomy class we dissected a human hand. In investigating the hand, I first removed the skin, then isolated the individual tendons and muscles as I worked my way to the bones. The tendons of the hand are aligned in tendon sheaths, like self-lubricating pulleys, allowing the hand to work in a tireless, noiseless, almost effortless fashion. It was perfectly designed to carry out all the work it was called to do, everything from lifting a small object to lugging a tree trunk. In seeing how each tendon was perfectly aligned along the axis of each finger and how each finger moved in a coordinated fashion when tugged by individual tendons, it became obvious to me that there was a Creator who had intelligently designed and created the human hand. This was the first time in my adult life that I could say with assurance that a Creator existed. It was really a spiritual experience for me. I went from doubt to certainty based on seeing God's creation.” Dr. Gentuso went on to become a Christian, served as a medical missionary in the Ivory Coast, and opened a medical practice in Nashville, Tennessee.

    “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The word “created” comes from a Hebrew word meaning to call into existence something that previously had no existence. That Hebrew word is only used of God. Only God can create. He created something out of nothing. We can make things, but we have to have something we can use before we can make anything. God created out of nothing.

    Evolutionists would have us believe that nothing, plus no one, results in something. Only God can create.

    The story is told of a man who said to God, “I can create things, just as you can. Give me some dirt and I'll show you.” God said, “Get your own dirt.” Only God can create.

    Herbert Spencer, a very distinguished and honored scientist who died in 1903, made a very important contribution to science. He stated that everything that exists can be placed in five categories; time, force, action, space, and matter. He made this discovery in the 1800s. God made the same statement in Genesis 1:1, but it took thousands of years for scientists to discover it.

    “In the beginning” - that is time. “God” - that is force. “Created” - that is action. “The heavens” - that is space. “And the earth” - that is matter.

    The Bible is not a book of science. But what is says scientifically is correct. If it appears that the science proves the Bible to be wrong, just wait a while, science will change. Look at all the things science used to believe it no longer accepts.

    The purpose of the Bible is to reveal God to us. The late Ray Stedman said it is not to tell how the heavens go, but how to go to heaven.

    Sad to say, many people are more enthralled with what God has created than they are with God the Creator. God existed before any of this world existed. Too many people place a higher value on the things God has created than they do on God. They live for the creation, not for the Creator.

    There is more to God than creation can tell. But what creation does tell ought to lead us to worship God, obey Him, and live for Him.

    Everything God created shows His great love for us. Science has recently discovered that the galaxies

galaxies in the universe are not independent of one another, doing their own thing. They are interacting with each other. The galaxies need each other and they influence each other. Our galaxy needs other galaxies. They are there for us.

    More than 1600 years ago Basil of Caesarea stated in one of his sermons, “Our God has created nothing unnecessarily and has omitted nothing that is necessary.” Basil had little knowledge of science then, but how right he was.

    To try to explain the origin of all things, including life, apart from God is irrational.

    To live without God is irrational. To ignore God's plans for our lives is irrational.

    Sometimes some people think that since God's creation is so immense He does not have time for us or is not interested in us.

    Do not be fooled into thinking that with the immensity of the universe that God cannot care much about us. Scott Hoezee, on the faculty at Calvin College, says such a view does not make sense. He likens it to a child in awe of his father's strength. That does not make the child think that his father is so big that he must not be very important to his father. Quite the opposite, the child draws comfort and strength from knowing that his father's strength will take care of him.

    Not a moment goes by that God is not thinking about us. His creation shows everything He has done for us that we may have physical life. The Bible shows us what He has done for us that we may have eternal life. All of creation and what the Bible reveals show how valuable we are to God, and how much He loves us. This ought to make us value and love others, and ourselves, too.