Creation or Evolution?

Pastor Rod Thompson

Midland SDA Church

June 2, 2018

I want to start off this morning by asking you a question.

Are you a creationist or an evolutionist?

That is a question that  A. T. Jones asked in an article written for the Review and Herald on February 21, 1899.

That sounds like a very simple question doesn’t it.  And we would all (hopefully) say that we are creationists.  As Seventh-day Adventist Christians we believe in 6 literal 24 hour periods of creation.  We believe in a Seventh 24 hour period that was given as a day of rest and was sanctified, that is made holy or set apart for a holy purpose. 

But I ask you again, are you a creationist or an evolutionist?

According to the Oxford dictionary evolution is the process by which different kinds of living organism are believed to have developed from earlier forms during the history of the earth.

Listen to how Jones described evolution.

“It is the theory that represents the course of the world as a gradual transition from the intermediate to the determinate … and is synonymous with progress and transition from lower to higher, from worse to better.  Thus progress points to an increased value in existence, as judged by our feelings.”    Let me say that last part again!

In other words, you know you are better because you feel better.  You know there has been progress, because you feel it. 

So what is Jones saying?  He is saying, If you measure your progress, the value of your experience, by your feelings, than you are an evolutionist. 

Now why is this important to us?  Because today I want to talk to you about more than the creation of the world.  I want to talk to you about you and your re-creation.

Read Ephesians 4: 20-24

Notice here that Paul says to put off the old man and put on the new man.  He is essentially using the imagery of a change of clothing.  He says put off that old pattern of life and put on (the new) Christ.

But think about this for a minute.  As you look at your transformation from heathen to Christian what has been the process of your progress from the worse to the better?  Has it been through many ups and downs? 

Has your acquiring of the power to do the good – the good works which are of God – has it been through a long process of ups and downs from the time of your first profession of Christianity until now?  Has it been a long process to get you to where you are today?  As you look back and mark your journey do you feel like you have made progress? 

In other words, are you an evolutionist? 

Every one of you here this morning would say that you believe that God created all things – the world and all there is in it.  Evolution does not admit that; it has no place for evolution. 

But there is another kind of evolution that has crept into the church and that is called theistic evolution.  Theistic evolution is the belief that God started the thing, whenever that was, but since then He has just let it go on by itself. 

In other words He started everything but then just walked away and let it evolve.  But this is really just evolution with a disguise.  Because there is no half way between creation and evolution. 

Even today there are some who believe that we must have God forgive our sins and start us on our way, but after that we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

But I ask you how can we do that, if we don’t have the power of God in us to do that?

Read Philippians 2:12          If you read that one verse I can see how you might come to that conclusion

But look at the next verse

Read Philippians 2:13

So how can we believe in evolution?

Hebrews 11:3     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

Psalm 33: 6 & 9           By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth

                             For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.

So let me ask you a question.  How long after He spoke, before the thing was?  How much time passed, before the thing was?  Was it a week?  A month?  A long period of time?

When God said, let there be light, did it take a thousand years for the light to appear?  Because if it took long periods of time then that is evolution.  But if He spoke and it was that is creation.

Here is my point.  Creation has to be immediate or else it is not creation, if it takes long periods of time than it is evolution. 

The word of God is a living thing.  The life that is in it is the life of God – eternal life.  In other words it abides forever and it forever has creative energy in it. 

So when Jesus was here He said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.”  The words that Jesus spoke are the words of God.  They are imbued with the life of God.  They are eternal life, they abide forever, and in them is the creative energy to produce the thing spoken. 

Read Matthew 8: 8-10

Notice what this Centurion said, “Speak the word only.”  You see he recognized that God’s word has creative power. 

And I ask you, when the word went forth, how long before the man‘s servant was healed? 

Read Matthew 8: 13

Or how about the story of the Leper that came to Jesus in Mark 1:41-42.  As soon as Jesus said “be cleansed” what happened?

You see, we are not allowed to put a moment of time between His speaking the word and the accomplished fact:  Immediately the leper was healed.

Or how about the time when Jesus said to a certain person, “your sins are forgiven?  How long before it was so? 

You see, if we allow time to pass from the time the word is spoken and the thing is done, you are an evolutionist. 

The word of God to you is, Man – your sins are forgiven.  Woman – your sins are forgiven.

Read Matthew 9:2

Notice the present tense – your sins are forgiven.  So how long is it going to take?

In Psalm 51 David said create in me a clean heart, Oh God.  And how long do you think it took God to clean his heart.

Turn to Ezekiel 36

The children of Israel were always breaking God’s commands and going their own way, and because of that God often allowed them to be taken away in captivity and scattered throughout the world.

Read Ezekiel 36: 22-29

When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus He told him you must be born again.  You must be re-created.  He must take that heart of stone and turn it to a heart of flesh.  And when He does that – I ask you, how long is it before you are a new creation?

There is a mystery in how God can be manifest in such sinful flesh as yours and mine.  But the question that we need to answer is, Is there such a thing as creation?  Is there such a thing as a creator, who can create in you a clean heart? Or is the whole thing simply evolution?

In the beginning God said let there be light and it was.  He said to the leper be clean, and he was.  Jesus says to you, “be clean.”

You may ask, how shall I be clean?  By the creative energy of that word

John 15:3            Jesus said, You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Friends,  are you?       Will you from this moment be a creationist, or are you an evolutionist?

See what a blessed thing this is.  When you read the word, receive the word, and think upon the word, what is it to you all the time?  O, it is creation!  The creative energy is in you producing the things which the word speaks, and you are living in the very presence of the power of creation.  Creation is going on in your life.

God is creating in you righteousness, holiness, truth, faithfulness – every good and gracious thing. 

And when that happens, your Sabbath keeping will amount to something, because the Sabbath is a memorial of creation.  It is a sign that the one who observes it knows the creator and is familiar with the process of creation.

But if you are an evolutionist, your Sabbath keeping will be a fraud.  Why because you can’t keep it in your own power. Only by being a new creature in Christ can you keep it.  Why?  Because you have Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Read Ephesians 2: 8-10

You see brothers and sister, you need not expect to get any good works out of yourself.  You can try all you want.  The evolutionist tries and is always trying without accomplishing it.

Why go about trying to do good works, when you know you will fail?  Listen.  There will never be any good thing in you of any kind whatever, from now until the world’s end, unless it is created there by the creator Himself, by His word, which has in it creative energy.

Do you want to walk in good works?  It can be done, but only by being created in Jesus Christ unto those good works.  Stop trying.  Look to the creator and receive His creative word.  Let the word of God dwell in you richly;  then those good works will appear; you will be a Christian.

Then, because you live with the creator and are in the presence of the creative energy, you will have that pleasant, quiet peace and genuine strength that can only come from God. 

Now you are created new in Christ Jesus.  You should thank Him that it is so. 

Notice the present tense of Ephesians 2: 8 and 10.  You have been saved, you are His workmanship. 

You are created in Christ Jesus for good works – Are you brothers and sisters? 

The word is spoken.  It is the creative word.  How much time are you going to allow between that word of God and you being a new creation.

Paul said, I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me.

And because He is living in you, now you can live for Him.  Now you naturally do His commandments, statutes and His desires are worked out in your life.

Do you see how much we have been evolutionists?  But I say to you, let us be creationists.  Let us truly be Sabbath keepers.  Let us believe the Lord.

He speaks of forgiveness, He speaks of a clean heart, He speaks of holiness; He creates it.  Let Him create it in you.  Don’t be an evolutionist and let that creative power work for you, let that creative energy work in you.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus is coming soon, and He wants to make you ready.  I ask you, are you ready?

God can get you ready to meet Him. 

He spoke the world into existence, He spoke and the leper was immediately cleansed.  But when it comes to ourselves why do we think it’s going to take considerable time for His word to be accomplished in us? 

Are we evolutionists or are we creationists? 

Friends, you and I are to call people to the marriage supper of the lamb; we are to say to all people, “Come, for all things are ready.”  But how can I say to a man all things are ready, if I myself am not ready?  If I do that then my words won’t reach him.  They have no creative power. 

But o, when we have been cleansed from sin, that has created us unto good works, when we are held by the word of God like the sun is held in its course which God has marked out – then when we go forth and say to the world lying in wickedness, “Come for all things are now ready, “  then they will hear.

They will here in the call the tones of the voice of the good shepherd, and will be cheered to come to him for creative energy for themselves, to make them new creatures and prepare them for the supper to which we have all been called.

God’s mark is being set upon His people, upon those who are cleansed from every defilement.  God will not set His seal upon something that is not true, that is not good.  Would you ask Him to set His seal upon the unrighteous? 

You know that He is too righteous to do such a thing. 

Then He must cleanse uou so that He can put His seal upon His own work.  He cannot put His seal on your work. His seal belongs only to a document which He Himself has approved. 

Won’t you let Him write His character upon your heart?  And then He can set His seal there, only when His creative word has accomplished its purpose in your heart. 

Don’t let a moment pass between the word of God spoken to you and the accomplishment of the thing in you.  Thus, living in the presence of creation, walking with the creator, upheld by creative power, inspired by creative energy – why, with a people such as that, God can move the world in a little while.