The Truth is Obvious

Romans 1/Genesis 1

The truth is obvious. The truth about our Creator is obvious. The truth that He is the first cause of the universe is obvious, because all nature is built on cause and effect, and the grand effect we see around us leads us back to the first cause. The truth is obvious. But men suppress the truth.

v. 18        hold = suppress. We all have the truth, but what do we do with it? Many suppress it, and ‘hold’ it away. God is truth. That’s why the Son of God is the ‘way’, because He is truth. That’s how the way leads to eternal life, because He is the truth. That truth, when known, sets us free, but when suppressed, it earns God’s wrath.

v. 19        manifest = obvious. God has revealed Himself.

Psalms 19:1

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

v. 20        You can look at the creation of the world and see His invisible attributes. You can look at creation and you know that God is powerful. You can look at creation and you know that God is intelligent beyond comprehension. You can look at creation and know that the mind of God is so massively and vastly and infinitely complex as to be absolutely unfathomable to our puny brains.

You can see His goodness manifest in the rain, and the sunshine, and the food we enjoy, and the beauty of the world around us, and the love that He’s poured into life, and the wonder of romance, and the blessing of children, and the exhilarating joy of adventure.

It’s so obvious that if you claim you don’t see it, you’re without excuse. In order to miss it, you have to choose to overlook it. And then you must believe the ridiculous: That a big explosion landed it all where it is, and even that doesn’t explain what exploded, and how. People with PhDs claim that life went from a puddle of goo, to the zoo, to you! This beautiful creation is not intended to point you back to some single-celled thing in a primordial soup. It’s meant to point you back to God. But if you don’t want to answer to Him, just do this: Invent a fairy tale for adults.

God is not glorified, God is not honored, when we give evolution the credit; only when we give Him the credit for all of it.

v. 21        They trade in the Creator God for absurd speculations. And then, “Their foolish heart becomes dark,” and the light goes out. And, “They profess themselves to be wise,” and they get more degrees than a thermometer, and they write books – “but they are actually fools,” with a garbled, impossible, irrational viewpoint. God calls it folly.

And therefore, verse 23 says, “They literally steal the glory of the incorruptible God.” They worship the creation instead of the Creator, verse 25 says. They exchange the truth of God and they believe Satan’s lie that perpetuates his long war of the ages against God.

And so, God gave them up, gave them over to perversion and every other kind of sin that He lists in verses 26 to 32. That’s the real story of where evolution comes from. It’s part of the long war against God. And if we had time I’d share numerous quotes from evolutionists who give galactically stupid, blasphemous, mocking statements about God. But there’s no need to listen to them. The Bible, on the other hand, clearly and repeatedly states things worthy of our attention: that God is the Creator of everything.

Genesis 1:1 says it all. It can’t be said any more clearly: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” That’s unmistakable. And if you don’t believe the first verse of the Bible then don’t bother with the rest.

John 1:1-3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² The same was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Now how else can you say it? There’s no evolution in John 1:3.

Hebrews 11:3

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Now there is an absolute statement that totally discounts evolution. What you see in the created world was not made out of some other material, but rather, everything you see in God’s created universe was made by Him out of nothing [ex nehilo]. And we believe it by simple faith. The faith that the evolutionist must pretend to hold is not simple at all. It’s unreasonable to the degree of impossibility.

Colossians 1:16

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

You can see a mountain, He made it. You can’t see the wind, but He made it. You can see an ocean, He made it. You can’t see an electric current going through the air, but He made it, visible and invisible; and that includes angelic beings called thrones, dominions, principalities. As you flow through the Bible it is relentless in its affirmation of this truth.

Deuteronomy 4:32

For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth…

Man is not the final stop in a multi-billion year process. It was in the first week, on the sixth day, as Genesis tells us, and then God rested from His creation. And Exodus clarifies what a day means when in the 10 Commandments it tells us to also rest after our week of work.

Psalms 104:1-2

Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great…who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:

How do you explain an infinite universe? God stretched it out.

Psalms 104:5

Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.

There’s no credit here given to some irrational mathematical chance.

Psalms 104:24

O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

He made it all; there’s never any other explanation given.

Psalms 148:1-5

Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights. ² Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. ³ Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. ⁴ Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. ⁵ Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.

The prophet Isaiah speaks of God’s creative power:

Isaiah 40:28

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

His mind is so far beyond us that we can’t even begin to approach it.

Isaiah 42:5

Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:

Always the Creator of everything and everyone.

Isaiah 45:6-8

I am the LORD, and there is none else. ⁷ I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. ⁸ Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.

He’s talking about what He’s going to do in the great and glorious recreation of the earth in the kingdom. It’s His creation, He can do with it as He pleases. And then He gives a warning to the evolutionists:

Isaiah 45:9

Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!

Isaiah 45:12, 18

I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. ¹⁸ For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

Malachi 2:10

Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?

Man is not the end of an evolutionary chain, but the direct creation of God.

Mark 10:6

But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.

God created man, He did not just evolve. Mark continues to hammer this home as he speaks of the coming tribulation...

Mark 13:19

For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.

We saw it in the Old Testament prophets; I showed it to you there in the gospel of Mark. And you have it in the epistles…

Ephesians 3:9

And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

The apostle Peter, along with Paul, makes the same emphasis.

1 Peter 4:19

Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Let’s peek into heaven and see what is chanted by some holy beings for all eternity…

Revelation 4:11

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. [notice created things]

Revelation 5:13

And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth...

Lit. “Every created thing,” and that’s all there are. There aren’t evolved things, there are just created things. It doesn’t say, “Every created thing and all the mutated things.” This is the redemption of all the created universe.

In Revelation a strong angel comes down out of heaven. He has in his hand a little book which describes the judgment of God.

Revelation 10:6

And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:

Absolutely unmistakable. You know, when the tribulation time comes man’s demon inspired war machine reaches its apex. It is then that the war machine in heaven cranks up, and terrible judgments are going to come flying from the throne of God.

Revelation 14:6

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,

You’ve seen a little airplane pull a message on a banner. You’ve seen messages put on the side of a blimp. Well, that’s sort of the idea, but not quite. You have here a flying angel in midheaven, and he’s got the eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth. It’s pretty exciting stuff. If you want to know the gospel, just look up.

And this is what the angel preaches; here’s the everlasting gospel.

Revelation 14:7

Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

The sinner has the capacity to know God, and to adore Him. The same God who created in the beginning will in the end bring judgment in anticipation of His recreation.

Centuries previous the Levites got together and they said,

Nehemiah 9:6

Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

That’s how it is always in Scripture. God is given full credit for the creation. Now, how did He do it?

Psalms 33:6, 9

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. ⁹ For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

In Acts Paul and Barnabas are preaching in the pagan environment at Lystra, where the people worshiped the typical gods of the day.

Acts 14:15

We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:

It was on Mars Hill that Paul ran into the philosophers. They had established an altar to the unknown god just in case they left somebody out in their pantheon of deities. So he said, “Let me tell you about the God you don’t know. I’ll tell you about Him.”

Acts 17:24

God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;

You want to worship something made with hands? Then look at what was made by the hands of God!

Now with all that in your mind we go back to Genesis 1:1. This simple statement, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” You either believe that or you don’t. God has led that our next study go back to the beginning…origins…so next time, we look beginning at the first verse.

And when we believe the first verse, the rest of it makes perfect sense, and leads us to our Maker, to His Son, His cross, salvation, and heaven! The truth about our Creator is obvious. Don’t suppress it. Let it set you free!