The Creation, Part 1

Genesis chapter 1, very easy to find, first chapter of the Bible. We want to read through that with you this morning as we look at the creation of God.

We're going to spend some time here on Genesis chapter 1. You already know, we're finally going to get off verse number one after four weeks and get on to verse number two and three and following.

And we trust that as we go through the creation accounts, that you will understand more of our glorious God. Genesis chapter 1, verse number 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was 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. And there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light day.

And the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there was morning. One day. Then God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse, and it was so. And God called the expanse heaven, and there was evening, and there was morning a second day.

Then God said, Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters he called seas, and God saw that it was good. Then God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with seed in them, and on the earth, and it was so. And the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them after their kind.

And God saw that it was good, and there was evening, and there was morning. Third day. Then God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light. On the earth, and it was so. And God made the two great lights: the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night. He made the stars also, and God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.

And to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good, and there was evening, and there was morning. A four day. Then God said, Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth. In the open expanse of the heavens, and God created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that moves, with which the water swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind, and God saw that it was good.

And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters and the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. And there was evening, and there was morning, a fifth day. Then God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind. And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. And God saw that it was good.

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 the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female. He created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky.

And over every living thing that moved on the earth, 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. And it was so. And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth. were completed, and all their hosts. And by the seventh day God completed his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it. because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. Thus endeth the reading of the word of the Lord. Now As your pastor, it's my responsibility as well as my privilege to tell you what the Bible says about the creation account.

And our intent is to tell you everything that the Bible says about God's creation. We're not going to guide you through every scientific detail, mainly because the Bible disagrees with science on many, many details. So, because God's word is my authority, God's word takes supreme precedence over science. In fact, If you believe that God's word is your authority, it will evidence itself more so in Genesis chapter 1 than in any other chapter in the Bible. Let me say that to you again.

If you believe that God's word is your authority and that you are subject to it and you live by it, It will evidence itself more so in Genesis chapter 1 than any other chapter in the Bible. Because there are many things that society says, there are many things that science says that will contradict Genesis chapter 1. The question is: which will you believe? Science? Or Scripture. I trust that you will believe what the word of the Lord says. It was John Calvin who said this: the Bible, God's special revelation.

Are spectacles that we must put on if we are to correctly read the book of nature, God's revelation in creation. Unfortunately, between the beginning of science and our day, many scientists have discarded these glasses and many distortions have followed. He was right. If we're going to understand the creation account, then we must understand God's special revelation, that is, the scriptures. There, whenever we want to understand creation, we must go through exegetically what the Bible says.

Taking from what the Bible says and interpreting it rather than reading into Genesis chapter 1 what we think it might say.

Unfortunately, there are many people, so-called Christians, who have read into Genesis chapter 1 all kinds of ideas that just are not true. We will talk about some of them this morning. But as we go through Genesis chapter 1, our desire is to help you understand the creation account and what it demonstrates to people like you and me, what it shows to us. And so, as we go through each of the days in Genesis chapter 1, as we go through the verses in Genesis chapter 1, we will notice several things.

And this morning I'm going to point out to you two of them. The first one is this. The creation account illuminates the phenomenal work of God. And number two, it accentuates.

The sensational ways of God. Those are the two points we're going to cover this morning. And Lord willing, we will be able to get through those two points. But number one, the creation account illuminates the phenomenal work of God.

And I want you to notice two things about God's work. Its commencement. and its completion. First of all, its commencement.

Thirty five times, if you were to count them as we read through Genesis chapter one, and I'm not sure whether or not you counted them or not, but thirty five times the word God Is mentioned in Genesis chapter 1. God wants us to understand that He is about creation and He is the one who brought life into existence. And so 35 times God's name is mentioned in chapter 1. If you take God out of creation, you're going to have a major, major problem. Because God is the originator. God is the creator. Psalm 19 tells us the heavens declare the glory of God as you look at the heavens and their wonderful expanse.

You're able to see and understand about the eternality of God, His divine attributes. There is someone who created that in which we li on. Now how did everything come into being? How did he commence his work? How did it all begin? Well, the Bible tells us, Genesis chapter 1, verse number 1, in the beginning God created Bara ex-Nihilo out of nothing. He brought everything into existence when there was nothing there to work with. It's God's word that gives light to people. I can stand up here and I can argue from a scientific standpoint, but it will not give you any more light.

But if I take the Word of God and open the Word of God to you, it's the entrance of Thy Word that gives light. It's God's Word that gives light as He spoke His Word into existence. Light, so too, as he gives forth his word, it sheds light on the soul of man. That's good news. And I trust that you have experienced the light of the Lord. I trust that He has shone down upon you and you have seen that He is the way, the truth, and the life. The speaking forth of God's word, the giving forth of God's word, is so important as we understand our ministry, as we understand our responsibility to one another, to encourage each other.

To take God's word, for it gives lights. The creation account illuminates the phenomenal work of God. Its commencement. Number two, its completion.

Look at me at chapter two, verse number one. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed. Maybe your text says finished, and all their hosts. And by the seventh day, God completed his work which he had done. The Bible says that at the six days were over, God was finished with his work of creation.

It was all complete. It was done. Now, my question is: what took them so long? Why six days? Why not six seconds, or six milliseconds, or six nanoseconds, or however you want to say it? Why not do it just real, real quick? Because God had to set forth a pattern, a pattern that we're going to look at in just a moment in Exodus chapter 20.

God set forth a pattern for man. Why? Because the apex of God's creation was what? Man. The creation of man in his image. And so even the creation account tells us about how God cares for man. He would take six days because he was setting forth a pattern for man to follow. For he would work six days and he would rest on the seventh. And so God would set forth a pattern for his great creation, that is man, that he might have a pattern him to follow after his creat. Now look with me at Genesis 1 verse number 31 for a moment because it says this and God saw all that he had made and behold it was very Good.

As we read through Genesis chapter 1 earlier, there are certain things that were not there. Number one, there was nothing bad there.

Number two, there was nothing inferior there. Number three, there was nothing that died out there. Number four, there was nothing that was killed there. There was no de. Listen very carefully. For you to believe in a day-age theory means that you read into the text You don't take out from the text what is literally said there. There was no death. There was no inferior beasts. There was nothing going on that would cause a quote survival of the fittest. You don't read that in Genesis chapter 1. There's nothing there.

You must understand that. For if there was a survival of the fittest, God would have had to say in Genesis 1:3, the good made it to the end. Thank God. But he doesn't say that because everything he made was good. You see? Important to understand. There was no evolving, there was no death, there was simply the creation. Of God in six days, and everything it says was very good. We said it last week, we'll say it again this week. There was no death until Genesis chapter 3. So important. That's when the earth was cursed.

That's when death entered the world. Death made the second law of thermodynam operative. Without sin, no death. No de, no evolution. It 's as simple as that. When God made everything, He made everything mature. He made it all with age. You can call me a mature creationist. That is, that everything God created, He created mature with age, capable of procreation, capable of reproduction. I believe in miracle. Alone. I don't believe in miracle plus process. The progressive creationists believe in miracle plus, excuse me, process.

Which would incorporate billions of years for the age of the earth and for the age of our solar system. No, God created everything with age. So the answer to the question, which came first, the chicken or the egg?

The answer? The chicken came first. Very simple. All you got to do is read Genesis chapter. One. Remember John chapter two? The first miracle that Christ performed when he was on earth?

The wedding at Canaan? The wine, the water he turned the wine, and everyone said that was the supreme wine, that was the best wine. Why did it save the wine for last? It's a perfect illustration of what God did in Genesis chapter 1. He didn't have to age the wine. The wine didn't have to go through a long process to be a mature, good wine. He just turned the water, the murky water. The water you use to wash the utensils into the finest, supreme wine that had been ag, because that's what God does.

Very important for us to understand. The Bible speaks of creation as a past ev. Number two, the creation of acc not only illuminates the phenomenal work of God, but it accentuates the sensational ways of God.

It acc the sensational ways of God. When we look at Genesis chapter 1, there is something there that helps us understand God's ways.

That are so different than our ways that we'll never completely understand them. But we need to understand that God's ways are different than our ways. And Genesis chapter 1 accentuates that by helping us to understand the ways of God. And three things I want you to notice.

Number one is the source of creation, the sequence of creation, and the six days of creation. Those all accentuate the sensational ways of God. Now let me take for a moment just to pause for a second.

Because there are many people who claim that the fossil record demonstrates millions and millions of years. And let me say this: if you believe in a fossil record, That demonstrates millions and millions of years.

You don't believe in a global flood, you can only believe in a local flood. And when we get to Genesis chapter 7, you're going to see that there's only one way to explain the flood, and it was a global catastrophe. So, if you believe in the fossil record that it states there are millions and millions of years, you cannot believe in a global flood because of the global flood in Genesis chapter 7 is of such magnitude. And such catastrophe that it would have destroyed every fossil record up to that point if that was the case.

See that? So clear to understand. But what about that fossil record? One author says it this way: Most of us have been taught in school that the fossil record is a strong evidence for evolutionary development, allegedly demonstrating slow, upward evolution from simple to more complex species. In actual fact, the fossil record is one of the greatest empirical evidences against evolution for its finding. Findings contradict the very premise of evolutionary theory and instead speak of sudden appearance of species.

and lack of intermediate or gradual links. In other words, these fossil facts are concordant with the Genesis record of immediate creation and stability of the kinds. The first thing I want you to see is the source of creation.

We've talked about this. We spent four weeks on it. In the beginning, God. I thought I might spend just a few more minutes on it with you this morning. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The Bible does not say anything about amino acids or any one-celled amoeba beginning everything. It does not believe that matter is eternal. In the beginning, it was all about God, for God brought it into existence. He is a source of creation. Evolution is best defined this way: ev is a philosophy of life.

Which teaches that man, independent of revel, determines truth. That 's evolution. Man, independent of revelation, can determine truth. In other words, his opinion is truth. That is what evolutionists believe. Psalm 14, verse number 1: The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. Those who believe in evolution. Believe and know God. And the Bible says they are fools.

Number two, not only the source of creation, but the sequence of creation. As you read through Genesis chapter 1, we got a problem. Because science does not agree with the order of Genesis chapter 1. In fact, it was John Skinner. Principal and professor of Old Testament language and literature at Westminster's College in Cambridge, a great scholar of Hebrew who said these words. the order in which the various living forms are created, the manner in which they are grouped, and their whole development compressed into special periods, are all opposed to geological Evidence, end quote.

And to that, I say, absolutely. That is true. Why is that? Because God's involved in it. That's why. And God is going to make it different than what we think it's going to be. And I could sit here and list all the different things for you, and I'm not going to bore you with all the scientific things that. That should happen versus the way they happen in Genesis chapter 1. But I'll give you just a couple of them. And one is this: if the light is created on day one, But yet the sun does not appear till day four.

It must mean, as science says, that the sun was actually created on day one. But did not appear until day four. The problem with that is, God doesn't say that the Sun appeared on day four, He said that He made the Sun on day four. You say, well, does the word appear in Genesis chapter 1? Yes, it does. Verse number 9, it says that. It says what? That the dry land appeared. So if God wanted the sun to appear. He would have said the sun appeared. And so you automatically have a problem. How could you have plant life without the sun and the moon?

You see, science has a problem with scripture, and so it should. You see, just because there was light created on day one doesn't mean that the sun was created on day one. Read Revelation 21. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, is going to light up the whole city of Jerusalem because of his brightness. There is no electricity in the city of Jerusalem. Why? Because Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, is going to light up the New Jerusalem. And so for there to be lights. God can create light without ever having to create a sun.

That's not a problem for God. But I don't find myself as a theologian having to defend science. All I got to do is believe what God says in His Holy Word.

And that's enough for me. But I do believe that as we go through this account, everything will come very clear to you as to what God was doing. How he sustained life, and how he brought everything into existence through the spoken wor. Which leads me to point number three: the six days of creation.

The six day of creation also accentuate the sensational ways of God. How does that happen? The Bible does teach six literal 24-hour solar days and not long periods of time. The first one is this: the normal usage of the word day.

That word. Yom or its Hebrew word Yam is used over nineteen hundred times in the Bible. Nin hundred times. There is a mere sixty of those times that reveal a period of time and not a literal 24-hour day. So over 1 times the word day, yom, or its plural yam, is used, it refers to 24 hours. The phrase evening and morning. Evening and morning, day one. Evening and morning, day two. Evening and morning, day three, etc. etc. etc. Now, that phrase, according to the progressive creationist, means beginning and ending.

The problem with that is that that is nowhere substantiated in Scripture. It doesn't mean beginning and ending, it means. even and morning. They say if it meant 24 hours, it would be morning and even. Wrong. Because in the Jewish mind, when does the day begin? Sunset. Evening and morning. Which solidifies the fact that God defined the day as evening and morning as day one. I don't want you to leave here trivializing God, minimizing God. I want you to leave here saying, My God is incredible to do what He did so quickly.

And so good that I want to fall down and worship His holy name. And that's the way we should respond. Let's pray together.