In the Beginning, Part 4

Genesis chapter 1. Turn with me in your Bible there if you would. Genesis chapter 1, verse number 1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. I trust you have that verse memorized at this point. By now I trust that you do. And I trust that you have gleaned much from verse number 1 of Genesis chapter 1 over the last 3 weeks. We will need you to understand that the opening verse of the Bible denies several things. You might want to write these things down. Number 1, it denies atheism.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The opening verse of the Bible, number 1, denies atheism. How does it do that? Very simply. Romans 1 tells you. 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. Number 2, the opening verse of the Bible also denies polytheism.

There are not many gods. There is only one God. The Bible is very clear about that. Deuteronomy 6, 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. Isaiah 45, verse number 5. I am the Lord, and there is no other besides me. There is no God. Verse number 6 of Isaiah 45. There is no one besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. There is only one God, and that is the God of the Bible. There are no other gods. And yet, there are people who believe in polytheism, who use Genesis chapter 1, verse number 1, to prove their point.

That there are many gods. For example, the Mormon church believes that we are gods who became men, who then in turn will become gods again. Is that what the Bible teaches? Answer, of course not. That's heresy. The Bible is very clear. There was only one God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. You say, well then how does Genesis 1, 1 disprove polytheism when you talk about the triunity of God? God is Elohim. It speaks of a plurality in the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

Very simply this. The verb create is masculine singular. There aren't many gods doing the creating. There's only one God who does. The creation. There are not three deities. There's only one deity. That is the God of the universe. That's how you answer that objection. Very simple. Also, it lets you understand that all the feminists who believe in the motherhood of God cannot be. It's the fatherhood of God. God is not your mother. God will never be your mother. God is always father. Please understand that.

Hopefully, there are no feminists in our audience today. Don't want to offend you, but we need to tell you what the Bible says.

Number three. The opening verse of the Bible denies materialism. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Material is not eternal. But if you don't believe in God, then you got to believe in something. So the materialist will say that matter is eternal. Well, that can't be. Because it tells us that God created Barah. That is ex nihilo. That means out of nothing. There was nothing there and God brought something into existence. And as we go through Genesis chapter one, you're going to understand that God took absolutely nothing and made something.

Because that's the way God is. He created out of nothing. So therefore, God is not material and material is not God. So the opening verse of the Bible also denies pantheism. God is not the tree and the tree is not God and the pew is not God and the book is not God. God is not in those things. God is separate from His creation. If He created it, He had to be separate from it. Not only is He separate from it, He is superior to it. We also see that the opening verse of the Bible also denies naturalism.

Things are not continuing as they always have been continuing down through the ages. The naturalist denies the supernatural. They don't want to believe in a supernatural God yet at Halloween, October 31st. They will believe in demons and spirits and witches for the sake of making more money. But when it comes to believing about a supernatural God, they deny that. So the opening verse of the Bible denies naturalism. All things do not continue as they always have been. Why? From the standpoint of creation and from the standpoint of catastrophe.

God brought a flood and we'll talk about that in days ahead. Genesis chapter 1, verse number 1 denies an awful lot of what pagan culture teaches. But it reveals to us many things about our God and that's what we've been talking about. The powerful revelation of Genesis chapter 1, verse number 1 talks to us about the eternality of God. That is, He has always existed. He always was because He always is. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now you're going to ask me, what was God doing in eternity past?

Answer, I don't know. Was God just sitting in a pool of darkness and that's all there was in eternity past? I don't know. I do know that God is light, so wherever He was, there was some semblance of brightness. But I don't know what God was doing in eternity past. When you get to heaven, you can ask Him if you so desire. Alright? But we know the Bible speaks of the eternality of God. Number 2, it speaks of the triunity of God. We talked about that last week. Elohim, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

They were all involved in the creation of the universe. One God manifesting Himself in three distinct persons. Number 3, we saw where the opening verse of the Bible reveals to us the self-sufficiency of God. That God is self-existent. He is self-sufficient. He does not need to create anything to make Himself happy. He did it for His own good pleasure. He did it because He chose to and that's why He created. There was nothing outside of God that's more powerful than Him that will cause Him to do something, that will cause Him to change His mind, that will manipulate God into doing something you want Him to do.

God is all-powerful. He is self-sufficient. We talked about that last week. But there was one other thing that Genesis chapter 1 verse number 1 reveals and that is God's priority. God's priority. You say, where do you find that in Genesis chapter 1? Bear with me. I'm going to explain it to you. This is so important. What is God's priority in creation? If you miss this, you will come up with all kinds of views of Genesis chapter 1. I'm going to hit one this week. I'm going to hit one next week. The one I'm going to hit this week is what is commonly called the gap theory.

Some of you have been waiting with bated breath to have me address this issue. Why is that? Well, there are some people in our church who believe in the gap theory. And I want to, you know, treat it fairly and be honest about that. There are some people who believe that. There are many theologians who believe in what is commonly called the gap theory. What is the gap theory? Well, this is it. Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And there was a tremendous gap between Genesis chapter 1, verse number 1, and Genesis chapter 2.

A tremendous gap of millions of years where there was a pre-Adamic race. All gap theorists believe in a pre-Adamic race. There was another individual or individuals before Adam. And it's the Christian's answer to evolution. And there are millions of years where there was death, there was disease, there was decay. And then, verse 2. And the earth became formless and void. And darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, let there be light.

So at the end of verse 2, there is what is called a recreation of the earth. That's why the gap theory is also called the ruined reconstruction theory. So there's a gap of millions of years between Genesis 1, verse number 1, and Genesis 1, verse number 2. And then, on verse 3 and following, then becomes the literal six-day recreation of the world. That is the gap theory. How did all that happen? It happened because of Lucifer and his fall from grace. And therefore, they say it happened between Genesis 1, 1 and 1, 2.

And because Lucifer rebelled against God in heaven based on Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 because he rebelled. Therefore, there was a terrible catastrophe that happened. It culminated in a flood called Lucifer's flood. And therefore, that whole race of people, all those animals, all those plants, all that vegetation was all destroyed as a result of that catastrophe. And that's how we explain geology. And that's how we explain all the millions of years of our earth. That, in essence, is the gap theory.

And I look at that and I say, well, wait a minute. I don't see that between Genesis 1, 1 and 1, 2. And in a moment, I'm going to give you the four main views of the gap theory. But before I do that, I'm going to give you five verses. Remember, all you need is one verse. Remember? But I'm going to give you five. Five verses off the top before I ever tell you exactly why the gap theorists believe what they believe. You say, now, pastor, why are you going into detail about this? I'm going into detail about it because there are many great theologians who believe in the gap theory.

How did it all happen? It happened in 1814. That's how it all began. Before 1814, there was no such thing as the gap theory. In 1814, this is when it all began. By a man by the name of Thomas Chalmers from Edinburgh University. He's the one who came up with the theory because the geologists said, and from their standpoint proved, there were millions of years. The earth was millions of years old. I'm saying all this because when I get through Genesis 1, I'm going to prove to you that the earth is no more older than 6 to 8,000 years old.

I'm going to prove that to you. But there are people who believe that the earth is millions of years old. To answer that, they had to come up with some gap between Genesis 1.1 and 1.2. Throw everything in there to answer the evolutionist problem. Folks, I don't have to answer the evolutionist problem. I just got to tell people what the word of the Lord says. If that doesn't answer their problem, I'm sorry. But I'm just going to tell them what God's holy word says. From Dr. Chalmers came George H.

Pember, who wrote a book, Earth's Earliest Ages. And from him came C.I. Schofield. And if you have a Schofield reference Bible, which many people do, he reiterated this whole gap theory in his Schofield reference Bible. And if you're like me who grew up, my hope is built on nothing less than Schofield notes and scripture press. That's what I was raised on. And so I had my Schofield reference Bible, man, and I had that baby open, and I would read about the gap theory. I think, man, this is pretty neat because C.I.

Schofield says it was a gap theory. But is that what the Bible says? We have to come to grips with what the word of the Lord says. Let me give you five verses.

Verse number one is this, Exodus 20, verse number 11. It goes as follows. You don't have to read them all, just write them down. Exodus 20, verse number 11 says this, For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Evidently, God made everything he made in six days. That would include day one. Okay? It does not tell us of anything about a gap at all between Genesis 1.1 and 1.2.

More on that later. Verse number two is this. Genesis 1, verse number 26. Hopefully you're already in Genesis chapter 1. It says this in verse number 26. Then God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. How does that verse disprove a gap theory? Well, that verse says that Adam had dominion over every creeping thing upon the earth.

That's very important. Because if there was a gap between Genesis 1.1 and 1.2, that means that there are many animals, many creatures that Adam did not rule over, that he did not have dominion over. So the gap theory then would compromise Genesis 1, verse number 26. And Adam was to have dominion over every living creature upon the face of the earth. Number three, Genesis 1, verse number 31 says this.

And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Now, if God says that everything he made was very good, then that would mean if there was a gap, that all the death and all the fossils of all those who died previously to Adam was good, and that Adam walking upon the surface of the earth with all those dead things was good, and that the fall of Lucifer was good, and the rebellion of Lucifer was good.

See? Because Lucifer would have happened to fall between Genesis 1.1 and 1.2 to prove Lucifer's flood that was a catastrophe that made the earth without form and void. Follow me? Verse number four is this. 2 Peter 3, verses 5 to 7. We'll start with verse number three.

It says this. Now this, first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming?

For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. That is naturalism. That is uniformitarianism. Everything just continues as it always has been. That's the way it's going to be in the last days. That's what people are going to say. Verse number five. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.

But the present heavens and earth, by his word, are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. Now, if there was a gap between Genesis 1.1 and 1.2, and there was this terrible catastrophe, it is nowhere ever mentioned in the pages of Scripture. Nowhere. It's a classic case of eisegesis, not exegesis. Eisegesis is reading into the text. Exegesis is letting the text speak for itself. Christ himself would refer to Noah's flood and the great catastrophe. There are two great catastrophes.

One is Noah's flood in Genesis 7. Two is the fire that's going to come in judgment when God destroys the whole earth. Those are the two classic catastrophes that God is going to bring upon the world. One past and one future. There is no record of any cataclysmic Lucifer's flood ever mentioned in Scripture at all. Now, the last verse. And this one, I think, is extremely important. So if you had to use one, use this one. Romans 5, verse number 12. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Listen very carefully. It is impossible to have death, decay, and disaster before the sin of Adam. This will also completely disprove what is called the day-age theory. We'll talk about this next week, where each day was a long period of time where there was a lot of disease and death and decay and what is commonly called survival of the fittest. Folks, let me tell you something.

The animals did not feed off of one another till after the fall. How do you know that? Genesis chapter 1, verse number 29, says this. Then God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed, it shall be food for you. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food. The animals did not feed off of one another.

They weren't chewing each other up so they could eat each other. They fed on the plants. They fed on the grass. That's the way God designed it. The animals were vegetarians. Humans were vegetarians. That's the way God designed it. Death did not come into existence until Adam's sin. People will say, Well, what about Lucifer's fall? Lucifer is not that figure that brought sin into the world. Adam is, not Lucifer. The Bible is very clear about that. The earth he has given to us, to you and me. That shows his priority.

There's a purpose behind all that he did, and that is to put together this magnificent structure that would declare the glory of God and then place you and me on it. That's why we didn't come to day six. Everything was just perfect. And then God created man after his own image, in his own likeness, that we might inhabit this beautiful masterpiece that God has put together. And he did it because he wanted to give the earth to us. It was God's gift to you and me. See that? And that's the priority of God.

God's got a priority in his creation. Who's the priority? You and me. And the materialist and the naturalist has destroyed all that by saying that we just came from nothing, we are nothing, life is absolutely meaningless. And that's not true. It's not meaningless. Why? Because there was a God who created us in his image and gave to us what he created because he loves us so. That's the priority. That's what Genesis 1-1 teaches. Folks, this is so crucial to our understanding. It teaches us one more thing.

Not only God's eternality, God's triunity, God's self-sufficiency, God's priority, it teaches us man's accountability. Man's accountable to, in the beginning, God. Can't get around it. You are accountable to that. Revelation, excuse me, Romans chapter 1, we read it earlier, read it last week, before that. Romans 2, 14, 15, 16, all speak of how man is without excuse, how he is accountable when he stands before God because the invisibleness of God, those things that cannot be seen physically are clearly seen internally, yet man has suppressed the truth.

We are accountable to God. With that in mind, it was the evolutionist Sir Julian Huxley when asked why people had so quickly embraced the theory of evolution, this is what he said, it is because the concept of a creator God interferes with our sexual mores, which leads us to our final third point, some powerful conclusions, or some practical conclusions, excuse me.

As we close our time out on Genesis chapter 1, verse number 1 and verse number 2, what are some conclusions that we can draw? One is a reassurance to every saint. Number two is a reminder to every seeker.

And number three, a rebuke to every sinner. Number one is this, a reassurance to every saint. A reassurance to every saint. If you're a believer today, and you've given your life to Christ, there is great reassurance in Genesis chapter 1. It says over in Isaiah chapter 40, verse number 28, these words, Do you not know, have you not heard, the everlasting God, in the beginning God, the eternal God, the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, the master architect, the one who has always lived, and will always live, because he is self-existent, does not become weary or tired, his understanding is inscrutable, he gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might, he increases.

That's great reassurance for you and me. Number two, a reminder to every seeker. If you're here today, and never given your life to Christ, I will let you know that you're here because, as Ecclesiastes said, God has put eternity in your hearts. What does that mean? I believe that that eternalness that's in man is there because of the soul of man that's been created in the image of God. And the eternality of God is known by you because he has placed eternity in your hearts. And you're here today because maybe your parents brought you, or maybe a friend brought you, or maybe you heard by way of radio, and you're just curious, but you're accountable.

And if you're seeking for truth, God's Word is truth. And over in Psalm 95, these words are to you. When the Lord God said this, Verse number three, For the Lord is great, is a great God, and a great King above all gods, whose hand are the depths of the earth, the peak of the mountains are his also.

The sea is his, for it was he who made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God, and we are the people of his passion, the sheep of his hand, today. Today, if you would hear his voice. Do not harden your hearts, says that Meribah, as in the day of Massa in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me, they tried me, though they hadn't seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation, and said they are a people who err in their heart, and they do not know my ways.

Therefore I swore in my anger, truly they shall not enter into my rest. God says, today if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts.

A reminder to every seeker, to turn from their sin, and follow God. Which thirdly is a rebuke to every sinner.

Every man who says, I want nothing to do with this God, I want nothing to do with his rules, I want nothing to do with his life, I want to do my own thing, follow my own desires, the scriptures rebuke you. And they say one day, you will face your maker. For every man will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. It's appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment. And you will receive in your body, that which you did here on earth, whether it be good or whether it be bad, and God will judge you, based on what he has told you, in his word, and what he has revealed to you, through the creation of his hand.

Let's pray together.