Gen 1:1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 
	We are at the very beginning of everything that was created by God in this passage. That may seem to be an obvious statement, but sadly, it is one that is under great attack in this realm. We know that there are many within the educational system and within the sciences who are very firmly rooted in their absolute rejection of this truth of the very first statement in God’s Word. As well, there are very, very many within the Christian community for whom this passage holds no meaning. They are more than willing to set it aside in a complete capitulation and accommodation to the supposed scientific certainties of evolution and the Big Bang Theory. 
	I do not propose to put forth the arguments for or against the position of creationism v. evolution. This is neither the time nor the place for argumentation. It does not serve any purpose to even mount a learned defense of the issue, placing the pros and cons next to each other and dueling it out with the greatest of human intellectual capabilities. We will neither compare nor contrast the evidence on both sides of the issue to arrive at a conclusion that meets some arbitrary standard of the accommodation of scientific research and data collection. That has already been done. There are so many attacks and defenses on both sides of the subject, that should the urge to look into it be on any heart, the means and the writings and the argumentative authorities are readily available online or in the library or even in the video stores.
	Rather than enter into the fray of the fringes of the battle, I propose that we penetrate to the core of the very reason that this battle rages back and forth so fiercely and resolutely and violently. Everything that we believe as a Christian hinges on this very first statement of God’s Word. No matter what viewpoints and attitudes may have been incorporated into our understanding as a believer in the person of Jesus Christ, He stands or falls on this initial and all encompassing truth declared in Gen 1:1! It is that simple and that critical! If we do not accept that In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… we cannot accept the reality of anything else in God’s Word! 
This is the focal point of all that we believe as God at work in our lives. This is the focal point of the course of man’s history on this earth. This is the focal point of our understanding of reality and invention. This is the focal point of our very salvation. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. If we do not accept this proclamation as the divinely inspired Word from the very mouth of God, declaring His handiwork within the entire spectrum of the universes of universes, then we cannot possibly believe in the person of Jesus Christ. We cannot accept Him as God’s Only Begotten Son, sent to die for our sins to redeem us unto God through His death and resurrection. Nothing else in scripture means anything to us if we do not believe that In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth! 
This is why we have such fierce attacks on the validity of God’s account of the creation by the powers of this age. This is why our young people are constantly inundated with the teaching of every other possible explanation as to the manner in which life began. If doubt and uncertainty and questioning and discord can be planted in the minds and hearts of any person from the very beginning of the Bible, then that ambiguity, hesitation, and vagueness of thinking can be watered and fertilized until every truth of the Word of God becomes suspect and questioned as to its validity. Our very eternal life and the eternal lives of our loved ones, our children, and our friends hangs in the balance as to our complete acceptance of the Word of God that He created the heavens and the earth! 
Less you think that this is an overstatement and a dramatization of the matter, there is a direct link to our belief in Jesus Christ that comes immediately to the forefront as we read in John 1:1-3, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 
This passage in John specifically describes the Son of God as the Living Word of God by Whom all things came into existence. God spoke and it was. There is no conceivable manner in which Christ can be ignored or set aside in the creation account. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. This is the core of why there is such a rampant and uncontrolled battle centered on the very first account of God’s Word. It is this age’s adamant and desperate attack on the very truthfulness of God.
That is the summation of why we are so set in our focus on these opening words of the Bible. Either everything God tells us is true or it is all suspect. It becomes the matter as to whether we believe and trust in God and all that He tells us in His Word, or that we utterly reject Him and trust rather in the ideas of humanity. Do we accept the wisdom of God in all that He tells us? Or, do we consider it all to be a false hope, and trust rather in the ideas and the theories of the learned men who reject any notion of the Divine Creator? 
We cannot pick and choose what we want to believe in the Bible! There are no optional declarations of intent that we can either accept or reject as the situation presents itself! We either believe God or we believe man! We either accept the salvation based fully on the Word of God in the sending of His only Begotten Son for our sake, or we reject Christ as foolishness along with the creation account in this Book of Genesis! 
This brings up three distinct aspects of consideration. The first is the manner in which we choose to believe either God or man. It is centered in faith as we are told by the Apostle Paul in Rom 10:6-18. But the righteousness based on faith speaks thus, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down), or’ Who will descend into the abyss?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)." But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” —  that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; for "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved." How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things!"  However, they did not all heed the glad tidings; for Isaiah says," Lord, who has believed our report?" So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world." 
The Word of God has gone forth throughout all creation by the reality that it is in Christ Jesus that all things have been created. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. He has invested Himself into His creation in manners beyond our full understanding. When scientists study the workings of the world, from the smallest elements of microbiology to the vast vista of the universes, there are seen the complete evidences of God’s hand imprinted upon everything. Admittedly, they choose not to see and not to give God the credit. But His handiwork is seen in the marvelous manner in which He created the heavens and the earth and all the things that are incorporated into His universe. Despite their stubborn blindness, the design of God is fully evident. 
"Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” This is not a matter of being humiliated because we choose to believe in the Divine Creator. We will take punishment in this realm for believing on the Only Begotten Son of God. That is no mystery and no surprise. However, when the eternal ages of the ages commence in earnest, after the great Day of Judgment, we will not be disappointed. All the hope and trust and faith that we invested in Jesus Christ the Son of God, in God the Father, and in God the Holy Spirit will be validated. It will be recognized, not as some fantastical ruse of mankind to keep order within the social stratum of this world, but in the full reality of the truth as He declared it from the beginning. "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”   
	The second aspect of consideration in the belief upon the Word of God as true and as reality is that we will see the wisdom of God as He reveals Himself in this creation. We will witness the full outcome of how the supposed wisdom and learnedness of humanity utterly fails and disintegrates in the light of the declared glory and wisdom of God. Rom 1:18-25, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 
	The denial of the handiwork of God in His creation will be the cause for the eternal suffering of those who reject God and choose rather to worship the idol of their own foolishness. They will be without excuse in the light of the person of Jesus Christ, in Whom all is held together. They cannot even envision how what they call wisdom is utter folly in the light of the Blessed Creator’s own Word as to the truth of how all things came into being. They would rather choose to believe the lie and suffer the fires of hell than to admit that God created the heavens and the earth.  
	The last aspect to consider this morning is that the very wisdom that humanity purports as the basis of understanding and science does not even compare in a miniscule level to the Word of God given to us by the Holy Spirit’s infallible inspiration. Again, as the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Cor 1:17-31, For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void. For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside." Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord." Amen.
	Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Our wisdom is not of this earth. It is a divine wisdom as we read in this passage. It is not ours to claim as something that we can practice and use for our own purposes and endeavors. It is all back at the very beginning of creation, set in the Son of God, the Living Word made flesh. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord." 
	This is why we cannot compromise or accommodate in our belief that God created the heavens and the earth. To do so is to deny the very Christ by Whom we have eternal life. As He is our everything, so is He, the Word of God, fully trustworthy and able to answer our every question and concern. It is by Him that we live on this earth, a life far beyond any comprehension or understanding of the human mind. As He lives forth from us, so do we know, without any doubt or uncertainty, that In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Deut 8:6-10. Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you shall eat food without scarcity, in which you shall not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. Amen.