Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Colossians chapter 1 as we look at Christ and His creation. Keep in mind that Paul’s letter to the church in Colosse was written to combat some heresy’s that were creeping into the church. And it wasn’t just one issue but was a mixture of Greek philosophy, Jewish legalism and early Gnosticism. And here in chapter 1 Paul shows us the supremacy of Christ over all!
Paul starts out with the preeminence of Christ in creation, which we will be looking at this morning and he lays this out in Colossians 1:15-18. Then Paul moves to the preeminence of Christ in redemption, that He alone can save, and that is found in Colossians 1:19-23. Then Paul closes out this section on the supremacy of Christ by looking at the preeminence of Christ in the church, that He is the head, the command center and the body of Christ not only gets its life from Him, but is directed by Him, and this is seen in Colossians 1:24-29.
Now as we look at Christ in creation, in some circles, just to mention the word “Creation” would cause an uproar. You see, in their minds creation is unscientific religious beliefs while evolution is mainstream science. Creation is fiction while evolution is fact. I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but the exact opposite is true and we will see that in our study this morning. Now just to show you that this is not just some religious belief, listen to what a secular mathematician had to say regarding the evolution of life. We are told:
The French Mathematician, Lecompte de Nouy, examined the laws of probability for a single molecule of high dissymmetry to be formed by the action of chance. De Nouy found that, on an average, the time needed to form one such molecule of our terrestrial globe would be about 10 to the 253 power billions of years.
“But,” continued de Nouy ironically, “let us admit that no matter how small the chance it could happen, one molecule could be created by such astronomical odds of chance. However, one molecule is of no use. Hundreds of millions of identical ones are necessary. Thus we either admit the miracle or doubt the absolute truth of science.”
- Quoted in: “Is Science Moving Toward Belief in God?”
Paul A. Fisher, The Wander, (Nov 7, 1985).
That seems like blind faith and not science on their part, doesn’t it? And folks, that is just the tip of the iceberg in regards to the complexity of life and we will see that in our study this morning. Thus, with that said, let’s begin reading in Colossians chapter 1, starting in verse 15 and see the Preeminence of Christ in Creation!
Paul first starts out by telling us that Jesus is God, He is deity. Remember what we are told in John 14:8-9, “Philip said to Him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, “Show us the Father”?’” In other words, God became flesh and dwelt among us. He is the exact representation of the Father, the Word became flesh but He did not cease being God! Without that as your basis, the rest is meaningless for Jesus tells us in John 8:24, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am [He, you will die in your sins.” Thus, every cult denies to some degree the deity of Jesus Christ, that He is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Why do they do that? Because the Devil knows that unless we believe that Jesus is God, we will die in our sins and not only believe that He is God, but ask Him to be Lord and Savior of our life because even the demons believe that Jesus is God and they are not saved!
With that as our foundation we are now going to build upon that showing not only is Jesus God, but since He is God He is also the creator and sustainer of life. And with the remainder of our time this morning we are going to examine these two important facts regarding Jesus, the CREATOR and SUSTAINER of life!
1. CREATOR GOD – COLOSSIANS 1:16
When you read in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” do you think that is just a fable, a fairy tale? I hope not because if you don’t believe Genesis 1:1, that in the beginning God created something out of nothing, then you are going to have trouble with the rest of the Bible. He just spoke creation into existence, but our redemption cost God His life, He laid it down for us so that we may live. So creation was simple, redemption was costly! You see, God can create something out of nothing, and that is exactly what He did and out of those elements He created the universe, the earth and all the life we see on the earth!
Now I understand that for many, that is very simplistic, it is based upon faith and not science. Before I deal with that, let me share with you what evolutionists say regarding how all this got started. It is called the Big Bang theory and let me say this, the Big Bang hasn’t come yet, but it will and we will see that as we finish up our study this morning. But here is their explanation of how the universe got its start:
“Once upon a time, say a dozen or so billion years ago, space and matter came into existence out of nothing and expanded a million trillion trillion-fold. And that’s how we got what exists today.”
That sounds like a fairy tale and it is, there is nothing to support the Big Bang. The Big Bang is a dud. Let me show you what I mean. First of all where did all this matter come from to explode and make this universe? Now, even if we negated that issue there still are so many problems with this theory that to believe in it you have to have blind faith, it is not science!
Think of it like this. If the Big Bang theory was true then all the planets should rotate in the same direction on their axis, but we don’t see that. Venus and Uranus both rotate backwards! I love God’s sense of humor. And just in case we might miss that, with the over 50 moons in our solar system, at least 11 of them rotate in the opposite direction. Isn’t God good!
I think since I have been out of school the universe has aged some 10 billion years or so and I haven’t been out of school that long! For the evolutionist, time is important and as we look out into space we are finding that it is vast, we may never find out how big it is. So how big is the universe according to the latest estimates? The answer given to us here is by Stephen Murray, Post-doc/Fellow, Astrophysics at the University of California, Berkeley. This is how he answered this question:
Boy, Sue, this is one of those embarrassing simple questions that is actually tough to answer.
Obviously, the brighter something is, the further away we can see it. The most distant objects in the universe which we have observed are quasars. They are more than a thousand billion times brighter than our own Galaxy, probably because of material being pulled into enormous black holes in their centers. Because they are so bright, we see quasars at enormous distances, up to about 10 billion light years away.
Distance begins to have a funny meaning, because it also corresponds to time. The name “light year” even indicates the double meaning. It is defined as the distance that a ray of light will travel in one year. Because light travels at a finite speed, when we see an object that is very far away, we are also seeing it as it was a long time ago. We are seeing the most distant quasars as they were almost 10 billion years ago. This is close to the actual age of the universe, which is probably not more than about 15 billion years.
Now some are saying that light is slowing down and thus, in the past, maybe some 6,000 years ago, light traveled faster than it does now. That is still being debated, but the thing I want to focus on is that when you look at the universe you don’t see a mess but it is finely tuned as we are told in the June 1983 issue of National Geographic, page 741 as one astronomer tells us:
“To get a universe that has expanded as long as ours has (an assumption) without collapsing or having its matter coast away would have required extraordinary fine tuning. A Chicago physicist calculated the odds of achieving that kind of precise expansion . . . would be the same as throwing an imaginary microscopic dart across the universe to the most distant quasar and hitting a bull’s eye one millimeter in diameter.”
So is that faith or science? In Psalm 19:1-6 we are told, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, And rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising is from one end of heaven, And its circuit to the other end; And there is nothing hidden from its heat.” Folks, nature itself declares there is a God, He is seen through His creation.
Not only do we see Him through His creation but we come to know Him through His Word as we read in Psalm 19:7-10, “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”
And then in Psalm 19:11-14 God shows us what He desires of us as we meditate upon His word, “Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.”
Thus, as you look at creation you have to come to the conclusion that there is a God who created all this, life is to complex to think it happened by random chance occurrences, mutations! We saw the futility of that kind of thinking already and so as you look at creation through the eyes of a scientist or a layperson, you should be able to see God’s hand everywhere!
John MacArthur tells us:
By studying the creation, one can gain a glimpse of the power, knowledge, and wisdom of the Creator. The sheer size of the universe is staggering. The sun, for example, has a diameter of 864,000 miles (one hundred times that of earth’s) and could hold 1.3 million planets the size of earth inside of it. The star Betelgeuse, however, has a diameter of 100 million miles, which is larger than the earth’s orbit around the sun. It takes sunlight, traveling at 186,000 miles per second, about 8.5 seconds to reach earth. Yet that same light would take more than four years to reach the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, some 24 trillion miles from earth. The galaxy to which our sun belongs, the Milky Way, contains hundreds of billions of stars. And astronomers estimate there are millions, or even billions of galaxies. What they can see leads them to estimate the number of stars in the universe at 1025. That is roughly the number of all the grains of sand on all the world’s beaches.
. . . Scientists now speak of the Anthropic Principle, “which states that the universe appears to be carefully designed for the well-being of mankind” (Donald B. DeYoung, “Design in Nature: The Anthropic Principle,” Impact, no. 149 [November 1985]: p. ii). A change in the rate of the Earth’s rotation around the sun or on its axis would be catastrophic. The earth would become either too hot or too cold to support life. If the moon were much nearer to the Earth, huge tides would inundate the continents. A change in the composition of the gases that make up our atmosphere would also be fatal to life. A slight change in the mass of the proton would result in the dissolution of hydrogen atoms. That would result in the destruction of the universe, because hydrogen is its dominant element.
The creation gives mute testimony to the intelligence of its Creator. Max Planck, winner of the Nobel Prize and one of the founders of modern physics, wrote, “According to everything taught by the exact sciences about the immense realm of nature, a certain order prevails – one independent of the human mind . . . this order can be formulated in terms of purposeful activity. There is evidence of an intelligent order of the universe to which both man and nature are subservient” (cited in DeYoung, “Design in Nature,” p. iii).
- John MacArthur
And look at these examples that show to us the vastness of not only the universe but also our Creator God who created all these things.
When you look at life and the complexity of life how in the world can you come up with the idea that life arose from non-life, matter out of non-matter, and through a series of mutations life diversified and mutated into all that we see today, all you need is enough time? Garbage! Our brains, at least for most of us, are about 3 pounds and they contain twelve billion neurons each connected to about ten-thousand neurons in the most complicated arrangement of matter known to man, 120 trillion connections in the human brain and we want to say that it just happened by chance!
The late Carl Sagan, who is now a creationist, in fact all one day will believe in the Creator God, that He is real. That does not mean they are saved, but they have meet Him face-to-face and bowed the knee to Him. But Carl Sagan said that the probability of spontaneous life to occur is 1 in 10 to the 2 billionth power. The big problem with that is that anything beyond 1056 power is beyond any mathematical probability, it can’t happen! So why do they believe it? Because they refuse to believe in God and they worship the creation instead of the Creator!
In fact, one of the foremost biologists in this country said it perfectly regarding spontaneous generation or life from non-life. Dr. Wald tells us:
Spontaneous generation was totally disproved 100 years ago by Louis Pasture . . . that leads us only one possible conclusion. That life arose as a super natural creative work of God. I cannot accept that philosophically, because I don’t want to believe in God. I chose that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation arise to evolution.
- Ron Carlson, Humanism and Evolution tape
You see, it is the evolutionist that has blind faith and it is the creationist who looks at the evidence that is out there regarding life and has to come to the conclusion that there is a Designer and a Creator, just as the Bible tells us and His name is Jesus! Thus, may we worship the Creator God and not His creation, for He alone is worthy of our praises. It is as Paul said, “For by Him all things were created . . .” and that really is the bottom line. We do not have evolution from one species to another or vertical evolution. Cats don’t become dogs nor do dogs become cats. Yes, we have a variety of dogs and cats within a species but they are still dogs and still cats! Watch National Geographic and they will tell you that sharks have not evolved over millions of years, the same with bats because they have reached their potential? I don’t think so. In fact, why aren’t we evolving more, because we sure could use the ability to fly without a plane or other device, use sonar, go underwater and-so-on. But humans have always been humans and we were created some 6 to 10,000 years ago!
The bottom line is this, there has never been an undisputed transitional life form found in the fossil record and with the millions of fossils we have, you would think there would be many. As I close out this section let me show you what I mean by reading you this quote from Dr. Colin Patterson, a Senior Paleontologist at the British Museum of Natural History in London, who has one of the foremost books on evolution, and in this book he has no transitional or intermediate life forms and there are over 7 million fossils in his museum. We are told:
Before interviewing Dr. Patterson, the author read his book, Evolution, which he had written for the British Museum of Natural History. In it he had solicited comments from readers about the book’s contents. One reader wrote a letter to Dr. Patterson asking why he did not put a single photograph of a transitional fossil in his book. On April 10, 1979, he replied to the author in a most candid letter as follows:
‘ . . . I fully agree with your comments on the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them. You suggest that an artist should be used to visualize such transformations, but where would he get the information from? I could not, honestly, provide it, and if I were to leave it to artistic license, would that not mislead the reader?
‘I wrote the text of my book four years ago. If I were to write it now, I think the book would be rather different. Gradualism is a concept I believe in, not just because of Darwin’s authority, but because my understanding of genetics seems to demand it. Yet Gould and the American Museum people are hard to contradict when they say there are no transitional fossils. As a paleontologist myself, I am much occupied with the philosophical problems of identifying ancestral forms in the fossil record . . .
. . . You say that I should at least “show a photo of the fossil from which each type of organism was derived.” I will lay it on the line – there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument. The reason is that statements about ancestry and descent are not applicable in the fossil record. Is Archaeopteryx the ancestor of all birds? Perhaps yes, perhaps no there is no way of answering the question. It is easy enough to make up stories of how one form gave rise to another, and to find reason why the stages should be favoured by natural selection. But such stories are not part of science, for there is no way of putting them to the test. So, much as I should like to oblige you by jumping to the defense of gradualism, and fleshing out the transitions between the major types of animals and plants, I find myself a bit short of the intellectual justification necessary for the job . . .’
- [Ref: Patterson, personal communication. Documented in Darwin’s Enigma,
Luther Sunderland, Master Books, El Cajon, CA, 1988, pp. 88-90.]
So I think we can safely say that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, all of life, all that exists and the evidence supports this if people would just open their eyes and look, ask those difficult questions instead of having a blind faith when it comes to things!
2. SUSTAINER GOD – COLOSSIANS 1:17
Now we probably don’t think about this too often but did you realize that Jesus holds life together? There is a delicate balance for life to exist and Jesus holds it together so it does not just fly apart. Let me show you what I mean by quoting out of Dr. Lee Chesnut’s book, The Atom Speaks. He tells us how puzzling it is why the nucleus of the atom holds together, why it does not split apart. We are told:
Consider the dilemma of the nuclear physicist when he finally looks in utter amazement at the pattern he had now drawn of the oxygen nucleus . . . For here are eight positively charged protons closely associate together within the confines of this tiny nucleus. With them are eight neutrons – a total of sixteen particles – eight positively charged, eight with no charge.
Earlier physicist had discovered that like charges of electricity and like magnetic poles repel each other, and unlike charges or magnetic poles attract each other. And the entire history of electrical phenomena and electrical equipment had been built up on these principles known as Coulomb’s law of electrostatic force and the law of magnetism. What was wrong? What holds the nucleus together? Why doesn’t it fly apart? And therefore, why do not all atoms fly apart?
- San Diego: Creation-Science Research Center, 1973, pp. 31-33
He goes on to describe some of the experiments that were performed in the 1920’s and the 1930’s that proved Coulomb’s law applied to atomic nuclei. He said that powerful “atom smashers” were used to fire protons into the nuclei of atoms. Those experiments also gave scientists an understanding of the incredibly powerful force that held protons together within the nucleus. Scientists have dubbed that force the “strong nuclear force,” but have no explanation for why it exists. The physicist George Gamow, one of the founders of the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe, wrote, “The fact that we live in a world in which practically every object is a potential nuclear explosive, without being blown to bits, is due to the extreme difficulties that attend the starting of a nuclear reaction.”
Karl K Darrow, a physicist at the Bell (AT & T) Laboratories, agrees: “You grasp what this implies. It implies that all the massive nuclei have no right to be alive at all. Indeed, they should never have been created, and, if created, they should have blown up instantly. Yet here they all are . . . Some inflexible inhibition is holding them relentlessly together. The nature of the inhibition is also a secret . . . one thus far reserved by Nature for herself.”
Let me say this, it is not a secret. Like I said on Thursday, maybe I should get the Nobel Prize in Physics for this one, discovering what holds everything together, and it is not atomic glue! It is the Lord, Jesus Christ who holds everything together! In saying that, let me also mention this because I believe it is important. If you feel like things are falling apart in your life, give it to Jesus, you can’t hold them together, only He can and maybe there are some things that you need to let go of, things that need to fall apart because they are holding you back from what God wants to do in your life. God is not only the Creator of life but He is the Sustainer, He holds them together!
As I begin to close this morning we have clearly seen that evolution is a religion, the religion of humanism and it is a blind faith, the facts do not support it. On the other hand, creation is also a theory because it can’t be reproduced but we can look at the evidence out there and see that Jesus is Creator God, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit; and He is the Sustainer God, the one who holds life together.
Now some of you may be wondering what will happen if Jesus ever lets go? We don’t have to guess because Peter tells us what happens when He lets go, boom! We might call it a thermonuclear reaction but Peter describes it like this in II Peter 3:10-13, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” The Amplified Bible puts these verses like this, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will vanish (pass away) with a thunderous crash, and the [material] elements [of the universe] will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up. Since all these things are thus in the process of being dissolved, what kind of person ought [each of] you to be [in the meanwhile] in consecrated and holy behavior and devout and godly qualities, While you wait and earnestly long for (expect and hasten) the coming of the day of God by reason of which the flaming heavens will be dissolved, and the [material] elements [of the universe] will flare and melt with fire? [Isa 34:4.] But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to His promise, in which righteousness (uprightness, freedom from sin, and right standing with God) is to abide. [Isa 65:17; 66:22.]”
All of a sudden Coulomb’s Law will come into play and as the like charges repel and the nucleus of the atom blow apart the universe will explode, it will melt with fervent heat and that gives way, at the end of the Millennial reign of Christ when this happens, for the Lord to create a new Heavens and a new Earth with a new Jerusalem for us to dwell in with the Lord for eternity!
Thus, Jesus must be God, for only God can create something out of nothing and then out of those elements create life and not only create life but sustain life! Remember what Paul said, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” Colossians 1:15-17. God is actively involved in our lives, praise the Lord for that!