\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDownload Audio\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: Isaiah 45:9-13<\/p>\n
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I. The ancient language of Hebrew contains two words for making something:<\/p>\n A. The word ‘asah <\/i>refers to what we do with our talents. We make things from what\nalready exists.\n B. But there is another word, bara<\/i>, that is used in connection with God. It is the\ncreation of something from nothing, or in another way to look at it, to create\nsomething that never existed before.\n
1. Romans 4:17 – God calls into being what did not exist<\/p>\n
2. It doesn’t have to be things<\/p>\n a. Exodus 34:10 – God promised to do marvels never seen before\n(bara)\n
b. The earth swallowing people – Numbers 16:30<\/p>\n
C. Notice in the creation account what was made versus what was created.<\/p>\n
1. Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth<\/p>\n
a. Time (in the beginning)<\/p>\n
b. Space (heavens)<\/p>\n
c. Matter (earth)<\/p>\n
2. Genesis 1:21 – God created living creatures (life)<\/p>\n 3. Genesis 1:27 – God created man in his own image (a spiritual being in a\nphysical body)\n 4. Everything else was a repackaging of existing things and ideas. But even\nthat is beyond comprehension.\n
II. God made things to reproduce after its own kind – Genesis 1:11-12, 21, 24-25<\/p>\n A. Unlike the unproven claims of evolutionists, the Bible states each kind of creature\nreproduces to produce more of the same kind.\n
1. This does not eliminate variations within the kind.<\/p>\n
2. Variation is what allows creatures to adapt to differences in environment.<\/p>\n
3. But evidence of one kind becoming something different doesn’t exist.<\/p>\n
B. The problem is one of design.<\/p>\n 1. Let me illustrate it with the common loon. The loon is able to dive up to\n200 feet under water to catch a fish.\n a. Even ducks and geese can’t do this because they have the hollow\nbones all other birds have. Loons have solid bones, like mammals. \n b. Evolutionists would claim that loons changed trying to reach fish.\nBut note that other birds survive just fine without the need to dive\nso deep. If diving deep is required, then the other species should\nhave died off.\n c. It isn’t just the bone structure that is different. Muscles, ligaments,\nand other tissue have to also change because the bones are\ndifferent.\n d. The DNA sequence for the loon’s structure is vastly different from\nthat of other birds. It isn’t that just a few small changes came into\nplace.\n 2. Design means there is a purpose, a coordinated set of choices made to\naccomplish a set task.\n C. In his fairy tale, “The Elephant’s Child,” Rudyard Kipling fictionally describes\nhow the elephant got its long trunk. \n 1. Originally, we are told, elephants had short noses, but one day a young\nelephant got too close to the river and was attacked by a crocodile. Biting\nthe elephant on the nose, the crocodile tried to pull him into the river. \n 2. As the elephant pulled back, his nose stretched until it became the trunk\nwe see today.\n
3. Of course, we see this as fiction<\/p>\n D. But this is how evolution is described. A need is presented and somehow\norganisms gain the ability to fit that need.\n
1. Thus, giraffes got longer necks to reach higher leaves<\/p>\n 2. Humans got lighter or darker skin depending on how long their ancestors\nspent in the sun\n 3. In 1893, German biologist August Weismann cut off the tails of\ngeneration after generation of mice. Guess what happened? Mice were still\nborn with tails.\n E. Variation shows a flexible design, one able to handle a wide range of conditions.\nIt is not an example of organisms changing themselves.\n
F. God made, not creatures self-generated.<\/p>\n
III. Survival of the fittest?<\/p>\n A. Evolutionist will claim that creatures best able to survive and adapt to an\nenvironment live to produce offspring while the less fit tend to die off. \n B. Hence, as mutations occur, the belief is that the changes which enhance survival\nremain while harmful mutations are removed from the gene pool.\n
C. Yet the best don’t always survive – Ecclesiastes 9:11<\/p>\n
D. Think about the death of Abimelech in Judges 9. <\/p>\n 1. Abimelech managed to make himself king of Israel for three years during\nthe days of the Judges. \n 2. He was a brilliant warrior, winning many battles. He led a strong group of\nwarriors and managed to squelch many rebellions. \n 3. But in the town of Thebez, while getting set to burn a group of rebels holed\nup in a tower, a woman took the upper stone used to grind flour by hand,\nthrew it at Abimelech from the top of the tower, and managed to crush his\nskull. \n 4. Did this mean that the woman was stronger than Abimelech because she\nmanaged to kill him? Was she the better warrior? Or was it simply because\nshe happened to get a lucky shoot at the better man (quite possibly with\nGod’s aid).\n
E. Or how about another “lucky” shot. <\/p>\n 1. The young boy David, inexperienced in war and wearing no armor,\nbrought down a gigantic Philistine warrior with a single stone from a\nsling-shot – I Samuel 17:50\n 2. Who was the better warrior? Who had the superior strength, weapons, and\narmor? And yet an apparently “lucky” shot from a small boy brought him\ndown \n F. The fittest don’t always survive. It isn’t how God made this world – I Corinthians\n1:27-29\n
IV. Evolution claims that what never existed before came about by blind random chance.<\/p>\n A. The Bible says that God and only God creates what never existed, in physical\npresence or in thought.\n B. Look around you and ask yourself if this world shows evidence of random\nchanges or of purposeful, yet flexible design – Isaiah 44:24-26\n
C. Isaiah 45:9-13<\/p>\n
D. God deserves our respect and our gratitude – Isaiah 29:16<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Download Audio by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Isaiah 45:9-13 I. The ancient language of Hebrew contains two words for making something: A. The word ‘asah refers to what we do with our talents. We make things from what already exists. B. But there is another word, bara, that is used in connection with God. It is the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[302,80],"class_list":["post-36443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-creation","tag-evolution"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":63367,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/remember-your-creator\/","url_meta":{"origin":36443,"position":0},"title":"Remember Your Creator","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Download Audio Text: Ecclesiastes 11:7-12:7 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Have you made something? (No, no, besides that mess in your room.) Something that originated in your own mind and formed with your own hands. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As creative as we are, man only takes existing things and joins them in new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46215,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-god-create-the-matter-we-see\/","url_meta":{"origin":36443,"position":1},"title":"Did God create the matter we see?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hebrews 11:3 says \"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.\" Is this verse an argument that God did not create the matter we see but rather formed it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1835,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-there-a-world-before-genesis\/","url_meta":{"origin":36443,"position":2},"title":"Was there a world before Genesis?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 28, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was there a world before Genesis? Answer: \"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth\" (Genesis 1:1). Approximately 4,000 years after this event, Jesus stated, \"And He answered and said to them, \"Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14733,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/born-again-by-the-word-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":36443,"position":3},"title":"Born Again by the Word of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Cantrell Finding Our Purpose from the Past","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16272,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-it-matter\/","url_meta":{"origin":36443,"position":4},"title":"Does It Matter?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Download Audio Text: Genesis 1 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The teaching of evolution has made significant inroads in the beliefs of common man \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 1999 Gallup found \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a047% believed in a recent, special creation \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a040% believed in a God-directed form of evolution \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a03.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a09% believe a strictly natural-caused evolution \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28307,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-genesis-11-say-there-was-nothing-except-god-before-the-beginning\/","url_meta":{"origin":36443,"position":5},"title":"Does Genesis 1:1 say there was nothing except God before the beginning?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Here's another question and it may seem silly but all I want is you to answer it in the best way you can. Genesis 1:1 \"in the beginning there was nothing except God.\" or \"in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth\" (different versions of the Bible)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}