2 ¹ Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. ² By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³ And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Dear friends in Christ, If you want to know where you’re going, it’s important to remember where you came from. That’s why God begins his book on getting to heaven, by telling us how we got here on earth. It should come as no big surprise that those who in the name of wisdom and knowledge reject God’s first hand account of creation, also haven’t the foggiest idea where they’re going or even why they’re here on earth. They can’t even answer a simple question like: "Which came fist, the chicken or the egg?" That’s really a simple question. God gives the answer in Genesis, chapter 1. The chicken. But ask an evolutionist how we got chickens without eggs, or how we got eggs without chickens. Ask them how flowers and fruit trees pollinated and spread for millions of years without bees, which they say came so much later. It’s sad how someone so smart can be so foolish, but that’s exactly what God says they are. St. Paul wrote in Romans: The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. (1:18-22)

Little has changed since those inspired words were written almost 2000 years ago. People still profess themselves to be wise and become fools. Yet the truth has been made known in all the world. We are here in God’s house because we know the truth. God has revealed it to us in Scripture. The Holy Spirit has brought us to faith, so that we can "Acknowledge Our Creator, and Trust Him to the End."

It’s important, we said, to know where we came from, so we can know where we are headed. We came from paradise, and God’s whole saving plan is designed to get us back there. Our only experience is with a fallen world. We’ve never seen paradise, but it once existed. Our own first parents lived there, for however brief a time. Even then, in this fallen world, we can still see the awesome splendor of God’s creation as St. Paul said.

Those who in utter foolishness deny the existence of God never have and never will be able to explain where everything came from. They talk about the big bang, for example, and can’t for the life of them say where all the stuff came from that supposedly went "bang." A simple rule of thumb for the evolutionist is this: If you can’t explain it, just add another billion years to your equations (which is a corollary of the old rule: ‘If you can’t overwhelm them with the facts, baffle ’em with baloney).

But the Scripture simply states the obvious: "In the beginning God…" God always was and always will be. Moses wrote in Psalm 90 "Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God." (vv.1,2) And his invisible qualities certainly can be seen in creation. He is eternal. He is all-powerful. He is wise beyond our ability to comprehend. And he is good. Just look at the incredible diversity of creation, from marsupials that carry their young in built-in pouches to multicolored papagoyas to the bacteria we need in our digestive tracks to stay alive.

And Moses’ account of the creation makes one more thing known to us about God. He is Triune. God the Father spoke. The Word of God—his Son, proceeded from the Father and brought all things into being, as the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep.

When God created the world, it was perfect. God created his perfect world because he is love. He wanted to pour out his love. Not that man deserved anything. But God is perfect grace. God made man to live in fellowship with him and in perfect fellowship with one another.

And then man ruined it. He questioned the father’s love. He refused God’s grace, and instead assumed he deserved to be a god himself. And rather than living in fellowship with God, he chose to let the devil be his friend and guide. The consequences not only ruined man, it doomed him to death and decay. Sin separated us from God and made us his enemies.

Even creation suffered in the fall. How many thousands and thousands of the wonderful species and variety God created have died out? Every year scientists find more fossils of creatures that are no longer around and we begin to realize how poor our world is compared to the glory it had when it was new. Even the globe groans under the weight of sin, spewing forth lava, creaking with earthquakes and swallowing itself, as hurricanes, cyclones and tornadoes sweep destruction across the surface of the earth. To paraphrase Laurel and Hardy: It’s a fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into!

Yes it is! But our Creator’s been working ever since to get us out of it. Let me quote St. Paul once again: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. (Rom 8:18-21)

Our Triune God is restoring us for paradise. God our Father and Creator was grieved over man’s sin and the ruin of paradise. But since God is love, his grief didn’t lead him to abandon or destroy what he had made. Instead, in love he promised to let his own Son come down to the earth he’d created, but man corrupted. He chose to send His Son to live among sinful men, and even be killed by man in his madness, so that he could restore us to paradise.

God the Son obeyed his father’s will and came down from heaven. He was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the virgin Mary and became man. "When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." (Gal 4:4) He lived perfectly. He died innocently. And he rose again and ascended to heaven to draw all men to himself.

And then God the Holy Spirit came. He came to lead men back to the truth. He came to tell them of the Father’s love. He came to tell us of the Son’s sacrifice. He came to give us faith and hope and the knowledge of the truth. And by a miracle of his grace, we have now been justified through Spirit-wrought faith. The Holy Spirit is still at work among us. He is sanctifying us, i.e. he is setting us apart for what is yet to come—the restoration of all things—a new heaven and a new earth—the home of righteousness.

God created the first paradise for man. He wanted his dear creatures to have the most wonderful place to live. God’s will is the same today. He still wants us to live in the most beautiful paradise. But it can only be paradise if there aren’t any slaves or rebels there. God will not force anyone to enter his paradise, so he tenderly invites us through the Gospel. We need to want to be there. We need to enter on God’s terms. We need to know who he is and believe in him. We need to acknowledge him and trust in him. We need to believe what he tells us.

That’s hard for us. In fact, it’s impossible for us. It would have been amazing if man had not invented the theory of evolution. Sinful man will do everything in his power to refuse to acknowledge God, because if there’s a god, then we have to own up to our guilt. And if there was a creation, there has to be God. If there’s a God, we’ve got some explaining to do. If there’s a God, then we have to trust in him.

The fall into sin happened because of Satan’s appeal to the arrogance of man. "You can be like god." Man still wants to be his own god. But that will never lead us back to paradise, only further and further away until we arrive in hell.

We need to trust what he tells us. He tells us we are members of a rebellious race called humanity. He tells us that we are guilty and we deserve capital punishment for our crimes. But he also tells us who he is and what he has done for us. He tells us how he still cared about us after the fall, how he went searching for us and tried to persuade us of the truth. He tells us how he sent his Son behind enemy lines to rescue us for paradise.

And so this day we stand up and confess before all the world that we do believe. We confess by the power of God’s Spirit that we know who we really are, where we came from and how we got into the mess we’re in. And we confess our faith in the God who made us and is rescuing us to take us back to paradise. We believe in the Triune God. We believe in the Father who created and still preserves us. We believe in the Son who lived and died for us. We believe in the Holy Spirit who has given us the Scriptures and has come to live in us and sanctify us to be his eternal temples here and hereafter in the new paradise above.

If you want to know where you’re going, you need to know where you came from. God created us. God redeemed us. And God will take us home. Never lose faith in the God you have come to know. The only God. The creator of the whole universe. Trust in him forever, and you too will enter his new and more perfect paradise. Amen.