Transcript

“AND GOD SAID . . .”

(Genesis 1:1-23)

It is against the first few chapters of Genesis that Satan has launched his fiercest attack.  And rightly so as I suggested in our last session together if a person can believe the two chapters of Genesis he can rightly believe all of scripture.

If a person can by faith that God created the heavens and the earth in the first chapter of Genesis, you can then by faith believe in the last few chapters of Revelation that God will create a new heaven and a new earth.  Genesis provides the basis for such faith.  May I remind you, ladies and gentlemen, that if Genesis 1 is wrong then Jesus who confirmed this record, the prophets who declared this record, the apostles who continued to teach this record are all pathological liars.  And our faith has become mere delusion.

All that we believe, men and women, hangs in the balance of Genesis chapter 1 and 2.  And Satan knows this full well.  I think that is why he has kept up the mirage and theories attack against these first few chapters in the beginning of the book, beginning of the bible.

Let me read you a few, in 1808 there were catalogued no less 80 theories.  By the way I want you to understand that theories are not new.  They have been around as long as man.  You will soon learn.  In 1808 there were catalogued at least 80 theories of man’s origin.  Theories that we came from seaweed, theories that we come from ape, and even more recently the honest theory propounded by a scientist that said do we involve from garbage left on this earth by some prehistoric intelligence, maybe that’s why my kids always mess up their rooms, they inherited that from the garbage dump they were evolved from.

After nearly 200 hundred years, scientists are now openly admitting their frustration, like Dr. Herbert Nilsson, a Swedish Botanist who is also an evolutionist and still not a believer.  He wrote these words, My attempts to demonstrate evolution by experiment carried on for more than 40 years have completely failed. It may be firmly maintained that it is not possible to find nor construct new classes (species). Deficiencies are real.  They will never be filled.  The idea of an evolution rests on pure belief.

You see you are lead to believe that this based on fact and we have ours based on mere faith, both are based on faith.

The Texas Board of Education recently wrote an article, and I am quoting David Hogy who gave this, this article reads this, Teachers of undergraduate students that is junior and senior high, elementary and on up through college.  Teachers are urged to stop brainwashing their students.  The article says, you have legal and grave responsibility, teachers, to be truthful and honest and to fulfill your responsibility by presenting students with the facts that evolution is unproven.  It is impossible that the universal natural laws of dynamics reversed themselves to accommodate the theory of evolution.

Now if scientists are like mine, let me go back and remind you of something that you may had learned, I was supposed to had learned it.  I learned it best this past week by review.  But one of the laws basically states that things go from good to bad.  Things begin intelligent and they become dumb.  Things start strong and they become weak.  Look at a building.  Look at an oil painting.  Look at the human body.  The evolutionist would declare that those laws were reversed so that some amoebae floating in some merky puddle decided to become more intelligent until finally it reached its peak of intelligence and then the laws began digressing.  No one would believe that.  As if some amoebae wanted to become more intelligent.

An article in Life magazine concerning the origin of life said that some indeterminate point -- some say 2 billion years ago, some say a billion and a half.  You know they play with millions of years like we do with our budget. They say what took form, science cannot specify.  All that can be said is that through some agency certain molecules acquired the ability to duplicate themselves.  Imagine that, a giant molecule one day said, Hey, I think I’ll make another one of me.   Pouf.  And there is another molecule.  That is foolish. That is like putting a rooster in a hen house all by himself and saying lets wait a million years and we will get some eggs.  We just wait and be patient.  No one would believe that.

Let me read you one article that would fit the statement that I read by one scientist the data we have today fits the creation model better than the evolutionary model.

Biochemists, this is recent from UCLA at Berkeley, have concluded by their study of mitochondria DNA that if family trees that if your family tree and your family tree over here, if they were taken indefinitely backward, if they were charted backward, they would ultimately converge on a small group of ancients who were ancestors of us all.  In other words, if we went back far enough we would go back to one family.  Boy that is unique, isn’t it?  They said this in the article, now they think a single female is an ancestor of everyone on earth today.  Guess what they have nicknamed her?  Eve.

Man searches for his origins.  The world wants a beginning.  And they search.  What we have, ladies and gentlemen, in Genesis chapter 1 is the beginning.  Now as we approach the study we ought to at least stop for a moment and answer 3 questions as to why God gave the creation account.  If you are following along in your notes, this would be helpful.

1st reason we have of Genesis account is to encourage Israel’s faith.  To encourage their faith.  This God, the God that claims to be their creator is the same God that lead them into the promise land.  And He said, follow me and you will conquer it.  He better be a powerful God.  Moses declares his phonemically omnipotents.  He is powerful.  And it boaster their faith.

2ndly this creation account refutes the myths about origins.  As I said they are not new.  We have the Babylon creation aspects that have come down through time.  We can read that back in the time of Israelites there were also the aspects, the evolutionary theories.  The theories of man were fallen gods, somehow God procreated and came up with humanity.  There were the myths then and God said I want to set the record straight.  So he refutes all the myths.

3.  To paint a portrait of God’s character.  You will find Genesis 1 revealing His sovereignty, His power, His relationship to men and the world.  In fact, Genesis 1 will refer to God no less than 32 times in 1 chapter.

Now as we study this chapter lets divide it into 2 sections.

1st of all the length of days

and 2ndly the activity found in each day.

First of all the length days was a day here referred to in Genesis 1 a literally 24 hour solar day.  All of these events, do they follow one after the other as day follows night and night follow day?  The theorist would suggest that these are not to be taken literally.  The word day represents age. It could mean a million years so a day does not refer to 24 hours.  But millions, or perhaps billions of years.  And people by the way in churches and there are many men who preach would say to you that it is possible to have one foot in Genesis and yet one foot in evolution.  It is called figuistic evolution.  That God began and then over a process of millions of years things would evolve.  So it is very important that we understand that is this 24 hour days, or did God give us millions of years for each day to evolve what is recorded here in Genesis 1.

Let me give you for the sake or your notes 3 reasons why I believe this is literal 24 hour days, and I might add without any gaps.

#1. each day has an evening and a morning - notice as you read through, look at verse 5, and there was evening and there was morning - one day.

verse 8, there was evening and there was morning - a second day.  This is common Hebrew phraseology for a literal solar day.  That isn’t it even foolish that we would take the time to declare such obvious truth?  Men and women as you study the bible and we are beginning our study through the entire bible in the book of Genesis and the evenings of the book of Romans.  It is clear to us that God wrote what he meant.  If He didn’t write what He meant how will we ever know what He means?  So it is as simple as reading the account for yourself.

But lets find further truth.

2. each day is accompany by a number.  You notice as I read in the evening and in the morning one day or the first day, the 2nd day.  Anytime and everytime you find the word day “YON” in the Hebrew, accompanied by a numerical adjective.  It is always refers to a literal day.  Never figurative.

3.  I want you to look at 2 additional passages, we read one of them this morning.  Genesis 2: 1 & 2.  Notice how He summarizes all the acts of creation?  Some would say that there is a gap between verses 1 & 2 and the reasons I that I do not hold to that is verse 1 says, thus the heavens and the earth, that is the activity in chapter 1 verse 1, they were completed in all their hosts and by the seventh day God completed His work.

Look over at Exodus 20: 9-11, these are the commandments, you probably didn’t realize they are proof of creation as well.  verse 9, six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.  verse 11, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; you see it is conclusive and it is comprehensive.  God did everything that He did in 6 literal days.  And He rested on the 7th.  That is as clear as scripture.

Now lets know the activity of each day,

Day 1, begins with verse 1 defied.  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  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 water.  Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light.  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.

Let me give you 3 things that occurred on the 1st day.

1. light was created.  Not bodies that would give off light or reflect light but simply light.

2. God divided light from darkness.  He drew the boundaries.  God divided light from darkness.

3. God named the light day and the darkness night.   

I couldn’t help but notice as I read this chapter that God not only created objects, things, creatures and later mankind.  But He also created a vocabulary.  This is the first time we come up with words that are found in Genesis 1.  And you and I use them all the time whether you believe in creation or not.  Boy it is a beautiful day today.  Tomorrow means Monday morning.  Is it dark yet?  What are we having for supper this evening?  If you go through this chapter you will find the words just as light, darkness, day, evening, morning, water, heavens, the dry lands, sea, earth, vegetation, seeds, trees, plants, fruits, cattle, all of these words were created.  Everyone in this world borrows heavily from the Genesis account.  You take all of the words of the first few chapters of Genesis out of your vocabulary and you will be linguistically stunned. Whether you believe it or not.

Day 2

Verse 6 - 8.  God said, let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it separate the water from the water.  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 were evening and there was morning, a second day.  Now God will create the firanment and He does that by dividing water.  By now, and all we have is earth covered by water.   This isn’t appearance of dry land that will happen a little later.   And there is then a creation of the firanment where by God creates the heaven.  And this is the first heaven, this is where the birds fly, and the clouds float by.  That is the expanse.  So the water below covering the surface of the earth, the heaven and then He creates a body of water above according to the text.  A vaporous canopy.

And this allowed for 2 things.

1. God created then the conditions for paradise.  The conditions for paradise.  Because with this canopy of water above all the harmful rays of the sun can’t recur.  In fact, the only thing that recur is warmth.  Because of this greenhouse effect what you have is a world that is a tropical region.  The temperatures are constant and warm.  There isn’t need for clothing.  As Adam and Eve did not wear any.  In fact, after the fall they would wear clothing not because of the temperatures, but because of lost of innocent.  What you have is a world wide fertile region where the grasses would grow and the fruit trees flourish.  It was paradise.  It will one day be paradise again.  The absence of seasons, constantly warm.  That will mean a whole lot to you and I a month or two from now that it may mean to us now than it may means to us now.

2. But is also not only created the condition for paradise, it created the potential for judgment.  When man’s rebellion reached its horrible climax, God said to Noah to build an ark.  Why?  Because I am going to flood the earth.  This is of course after the dry land appeared.  Mankind is flourish. Where is He going to get the water from to flood the earth?  I’ve read this past week that if all of the clouds surrounded this globe were to drop all of the rain they carried, and if that water spread evenly around this globe it would only be as deep as about 1 1/2 inch.  Now where is God going to get the water from so that the water covers the face of the earth and in fact there are 15 cubits above the highest mountain.  That is a few gallons of water.  Well, we find in Genesis the account given in chapter 8, that God nudges the vapor above collapsing it and water then deluges planet earth.

This thing that was created by God to allow fir howl ?? paradise living will now be that of which He judges planet earth.  So He created this planet with the ability to produce and provide enjoyment,  but also to destroy and to kill.  Well, there is another judgment coming.  Turn to 1 Peter 3.  Now I want you to see a pattern that God established.  1 Peter 3:3  the first judgment was water.  This passage will tell us that the second judgment will be by fire. 2 Peter 3:3 (I am sorry) Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lusts, saying where is the promise of His coming?  For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just it was from the beginning of creation.  For when they maintain it, 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. You notice how He used the water that He created to destroy the world. verse 7, 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.

How is God going to destroy the presence heaven and earth?  Why I think He is going to nudge what He already created and fire will burn earth to a cinder.  Now I am pretty much out of my field when I deal with scientific fact or mathematical fact.  I did not do to well in math and when I got to college they looked at my records and they said, you need to repeat math.  So they put me in a bone head course that we called it for all of the bone heads.  And I studied math and barely squeaked out of there.  But I have been reminded over this past week of studying several things.

1. The earth and this will explain why I think that God will destroy the world by fire, the 74% earth is covered with water.  Now water is the liquid form H₂O and I can remember that.  That would be 1 atom of  oxygen and 2 atoms of hydrogen.  Now, if Christ would remove His sustaining hand because we discovered in Colossians 1:17 & 18 by Christ all things consist, literally all things hold together.  That includes the molecules and the atom.  What if God took His handle away?  And the simple molecule?  Or the simple atom of water?  What if that was split so that hydrogen were split from oxygen?  All waters, 74%, covering the face of this earth and all the water vapor in the air would instantly turn to flammable gas, and all it would take would be 1 little spark somewhere on planet earth.  And the fire ball would destroy this planet inside and out.  Do you know what I think?  I think a pattern is here.  God has created this earth with the ability to provide for life but He has also preserved it for judgment because of sin.

Day Three.

Genesis 1: 9-13, 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 is was good.  And then God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with seed in them, 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, a third day.

You know there is no mentioning of oceans, perhaps that is a remnant of the flood.  There are 2 key phrases in this text that I want you to underline or note:  The first key phrase is the phrase bearing fruit, I think what He is saying obviously is the trees were created mature.  When God created anything on planet earth He created in its mature state.  When He created man and woman, He created the mature.  It was not a little baby Adam and a little baby Eve.  There were adults.  When God created or snapped into existence a fruit tree, it was already bearing fruit.  Its present tense.  And I think it is important to note that when God created this planet it was in mature state.  So, you have an apple tree, you have an orange tree bearing oranges, you got a peach tree and  you have a money tree.  Just seeing if you are with me.  Are you awake?  I think that was the tree that God told Eve to stay away from myself.  I could be wrong.  At any rate I am in trouble.

The second phrase I want you to notice is after its kind the word kind is the word phylum meaning a direct line of descent within a group.  Why is this important?  Because He is telling us that a peach tree will always have peaches, monkeys will always have monkeys.  There is no such thing as a half beast, half man.  God created this universe to reproduce after its kind.

Day Four.

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 for years.  And let them be for lights and the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth and it was so.  And God made the 2 great lights, the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.  He made the stars also. 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 fourth day.  So God creates the sun, the moon and the stars and they are also created in this mature state that is when He created the stars their reflecting light was already reaching earth.  You see the evolutionist would declare an old earth.  They would say you see that star out there we know that 30 or 3 millions light years away so it would take 3 million light years to reach its ray from that star to planet earth.  But if God created everything mature, that means when He created the star He also created the trail of lights so that it was immediately reaching planet earth.  So we could still have in effect a young earth.

I think there are other reasons God created the lights than just giving light.  Let me give you two.   1st of all the constant illustrations.  The word Jesus Christ is always referred to as the light of the world. The son of righteousness.  Christians are also light.  Will you look at a fascinating passage of the scripture Philippians 2:14 look at what Paul says about the believer.  Philippians 2:14, He is writing to the church of Philippia and he says, do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights literally could be translated as reflected lights, in the world.

We reflect the light of the son.  And I think the stars and the moon of heaven reminds us that we reflect the light of Jesus Christ.  But I also think not only given us constant illustrations but they are constant reminders and I think there are reminders of coming paradise of Revelation 21 & 22 tells us that one day we will not need the moon, the sun, the stars because the light of God’s glory and presence will pervade heaven and the new earth and every time we look up we can think that one day we will never need them again, because it will be the light of God that will light our world. 

Day Five

Verses 20-23, Here is where we will stop, for we will only deal with 5 days this morning.  And God said let the waters team 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 waters 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 in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.  And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

And these as well provide fantastic illustrations for the believer.  Look at the bird it illustrates God cares accordingly to Matthew 6 for you and for me.  Solomon will tell us to go to the animal kingdom learn wisdom by their activity.  But I think we are to learn something else from the animal kingdom, would you look up Job 12:7-10 (the book just before Psalm).  beginning with verse 7, man speculates about origins, man is searching for the beginnings, Job says But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you; and the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you, Oh speak to the earth, and let it teach you; and let the fish of the sea declare to you.  Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this.  Boy, how clear that is. And in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?  If the fish could speak he would tell you that we were created by the hand of God.  If a bird could tell or speak he would speak to you of God’s hand in creating you.  If the animals even know, why is man the one that has been given a logical reason faculty declaring something else.  Even the animals know better than that.  In fact Darwin admitted the human eye was so complex that he wondered if he should even believe his theory of evolution.  He couldn’t even figure out the eye.  It was so complex.  John Wesley writing of God’s display of power in creating the world said, God created the heavens and the earth and He didn’t even half try. 

I’ve read where people of old wrote 3 words above their door ways in Latin, nice dominus grustra, translated, without God, frustration.

Is it any wonder that man today is frustrated in his attempts to discover his origin, because he is doing it without God.  Is it any wonder that man and woman and young people are frustrated in trying to find a fulfilling life?  Why?  Because they are doing it without God.  Do you know when I think of evolution as in Genesis 1 so comparably combat?  I think of tragedy what this is teaching the young people of this country as to their worth.  What kind of value do you have?  If your ancestor is a Meba from some merky puddle?  What kind of worth do you have if you go back far enough your great great ancestor is an ape?  No wonder man is frustrated.  My friend you learn value and worth when you discover by faith that you have been created by a loving God who created you in His own image.  That is fulfillment.

I can only end with one application.  I am studying chapter 1.  And that is this:  If God is indeed our Creator, He has every right, every ability to be our Savior.  My friends, God is your designer.  But He wants to be your redeemer.

Father, we thank you for the passage before us it so loaded with truth that we barely scam the surface.  But I praise the spirit of God would use it to boaster and to encourage our faith, it is so simple, it is so clear and yet we recognize that to the natural man that these things are foolishness.  I wonder while your heads are bow and your eyes are closed if there is someone here that is never learned of God through Jesus Christ as a Redeemer.  Perhaps you never had a problem with the fact that He is your creator, but maybe you find it difficult to believe in Him as your Redeemer.  My friends, He wants to be.  By all that He has done, all that He has created, in fact, before He ever created anything, before the foundation the world was laid, Jesus Christ was slained.  In the mind of God, He knew His son would die for you and for me.  Before you leave this building this morning, or when we sing in just a moment if you would slip to the back or approach one of us afterwards, we would love to sit down and talk with you from the Word and teach you how you can come to know Jesus Christ as your redeemer.  I would ask the keyboardists to slip to their place, would you stand with me?  You can remain with your heads bow and your eyes closed and I want us to sing . . .