Genesis 1:1-31 (ESV) (2)

Introduction

For the first time in over a year, we are beginning a new sermon series. We are going to be looking at the book of Genesis. Let me give you just a little bit of information about the book of Genesis. The author of the book does not reveal himself. But the Bible does seem to give us some information about the Author. There are several places in the Old Testament and the New Testament that reveal that Moses was the author of the book, even though the end of the book takes place more than 300 years before Moses birth. But Moses was highly educated because he grew up in Pharaohs household. He was the leader of Isreal. He was the one who God spoke to and gave his commandments and Moses wrote it down. In this book is the history of the creation of the world, the sin of man, the Promise of the Messiah who would set all things write. Then we seen God’s choosing of Abraham and making him the father of the Jewish people. This is all here and we get to walk through this together.

And as we enter this book, I do want to talk about something that is very important to understand here. For 2 thousand years, the Church has looked at Genesis and said that this was a literal creation in 7 days. Then in the last 100 years or so there has been a question that has come up. Some theologians no longer believe in a 7 day creation story, but believe in a much longer story. It is called theistic Evolution. There are also a few other theorys that you can add to this list, such as the gap theory.

It has been said that this is not an important thing. That people can believe what they want on this. I find this interesting. I do believe that you can believe in theistic evolution and still be saved. I do not believe that this is a salvation issue. But I do believe that this is important. Why? Because of what this passage says. If this is the Word of God, then what it says matters. If it Genesis is not true, then what other parts of the Bible are not true? If Genesis is God’s Word and it is not true, then did God lie? If God can lie, is he really God?

You see to reject what Genesis says about creation is to question the entirety of scripture. To question the entirety of Scripture is to question who God is and who Jesus is. To question those things is to question our very salvation. So while what we believe about Genesis does not determine our salvation, it does raise questions about what we believe and if the Bible can really be trusted or not.

The beginning

Genesis 1:1-2

Right away we get a view that God was there in the begging of Time, Space, and Matter. Has been and always will be. He is the one who did the act of creation. John 1 tells us that God created all through the Son, who also existed with the father throughout eternity. Because of this, God is the one who began the entire universe in his sovereign time. We even see the Holy Spirit involved in the process of creation. We see here that he is hovering over the waters of the deep. All three persons of the Godhead were there. God is three in one.

So we see that there was nothing before God created. There was no matter, there was not time, there was no energy, there was Just God, and he is the one who did the work to create all that we see today.

Genesis 1:3-31

The 6 days of creation

Day 1

The first thing that we see God create is light. It is interesting how this occurs. God says let there be light and there was light. I have heard people say that this right here is what makes this impossible, because where did the light come from? They say, hey the son and moon and the stars are not created yet, so where did the light come from. I find this to be kind of a weird argument because when God started there was nothing. He spoke and things came into being because He spoke it and because he is God it came into existence. So where did the light come from? It came from God. If God can command everything to come into being then he surley can command light to come from him.

Then when he had created it, then he saw it was good. The idea that it was good, means that it was perfect, it was what God had created it to be. Then when he saw that it was good he named the light day and the darkness night. He was the one who named it. He created it, he named it.

Then there is something very important that occurs. He says there there was evening and morning, the first day. Now notice it was not millions of nights, and millions of days, it is evening and morning. For the Jew the next day began in the evening. The evening is when the sun goes down and the morning is when the sun comes up. It is singular here. It does not seem to be millions of years of dark, followed by millions of years of light. This is saying that it was night then morning, the first day.

Day 2

So now we have day 2 of creation. The second day God created the waters of the earth and the waters in the air. In other words, on the second day God created the heavens from the earth. In other words he created the atmosphere and he created the space above the earth, or the cosmos. God did this then again we see that there was evening and their was morning the second day. Again no long space of time.

Day 3

On third day God creates the land. He gathers the water into one place and land comes up from the water. Now their is dry ground. He again names the land and the seas. Then he creates vegetation on the land. He creates them according to their kinds. They are created in their kinds and do not evolve from other things. The things he produces bear seeds and fruit. In other words they are meant to reproduce and they are meant for something to eat it. These are the things that are needed to support life of animals and even man.

And what happens next? God saw that it was all good. He his good, his creation is good. There is no flaw in it. It is what it needs to be and it is perfect. Then again there was evening and morning the third day.

Day 4

Now on day four, God does something about the light and darkness. At this point the light and dark has eminated because he willed it to, but now he creates The sun and the moon. They will be what marks the day and the night. The sun comes out in the day and the moon in the night. They are to be in the sky and they are to give light to the earth that God has created.

They also were put there to mark the season and days and years. We will see this later when God will create a religious calender for the Jews based ont he movements of the earth around the son and the moment of the moon. Then God saw that it was good. He is good, he created it perfectly. Then there was evening and morning the 4th day.

Day 5

On day five God begins to fill the waters with fish. Some fish we have never seen. They continue to discover all kinds of fish in the deeps of the oceans to this day! So many fish that are their for his glory! Then he filled the skies that he had created with all kinds of birds that fly through the air! Again some that are long gone, and others that we have to this day. Again they were created each in their kinds. Again this does not allow for this idea of Macro-evolution. They were made in their kinds, they did not create new kinds from the old kinds. God saw that it was good. Again he does not create anything that is not good. He is perfect, his creation is perfect too.

Then God did something different when he created these things. He blessed them and he told them to be fruitful and multiply. God did not say this to the plant life, but the animal life is different from plant life. He told them to multiply. It is their Job on earth to fill it.

Again it was night and morning. Not millions of years, one day.

Day 6

We are now in the 6th day of creation, and this is the final day of work. God begins by creating all of the land animals. That are everything from live stock to the wild animals that we have today and those that are no longer with us. This is the day that dinosaurs would be created and the day ants would be created as well. And guess what, they were created in their kinds. A cat is a cat. A dog is a dog. A cat does not become a dog and a dog does not become a cat. God created all of them and saw that it was good.

Then he does something different than he has so far. This time we see a conversation occur with God. He says let us make man in our image. Again he is not talking to other God’s, there is only one God, but he is taking to the trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He speaks in plural here because he is speaking to them.

So he created man in his own image. What does this mean? One thing I can tell you that it does not mean is that it does not mean that we are god or little gods. That is not it at all. It does not mean that we look like God or have his DNA. It actually has to do with the personality, aesthetic appreciation, authority, moral, and spiritual qualities that both God and humans share unlike animals. He created them, Male and Female. This is what allows the relationship between God and man to be a focal point of the entirety of Scripture. Man has a self-conscious life in which he is able to thank and worship God the creator.

In this creation, he made mad to have authority over all of the earth. With the commandment to have authority over the earth, God also gave them a command to be fruitful and multiply. They are to fill the earth with humans who love and worship the creator, God. We are going to see here in the next few weeks that God provides marriage as the way that this should occur.

Finally God then tells them what they can eat. He says that he has given them every seed bearing plant and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. Those things are food. Notice there are not animals on this list. In fact until after the flood, man was a vegetarian. The flood must have changed some things in the soil and in the atmosphere that made it so now man needs meat in their diet. Meat is food. God made it food after the flood. There is nothing in the scripture that tells us that we have to return to the vegetarian lifestyle.

Finally God looks at everything that he had made on earth and he says it was very Good. Then there was evening and morning the 6th day.

Genesis 2:1-3

The 7th day

On the 7th day, God stopped the work that he had been doing, because it was complete and he rested from the work he had been doing. Now it was not because he needed rest, but because it was an example to all of mankind. They need rest from their work. He also blessed that day. It was set apart from all other days. it was different. One day God will command that the Jews take the 7th day and rest and worship Him.

How then shall we live?

What about us today?

We are told that the heavens declare the Glory of the Lord!

Romans 1:20 tells us that we can see God in the creation around us.

When we really look at it we cannot deny that God is in creation.

Do we worship the God of creation?

What do we believe about the Bible?