In The Beginning God Created

I love the story of the scientist who come to God saying to Him.... God your nothing special, for we ourselves have discovered how to create life from non-life. God says, “ oh really, show Me!” the scientist reach down to pick up some dirt and God stops them… “Get your own dirt!”

This morning you and I are going to observe the power of God.

I desire for you today to leave here with a bigger picture of our God (we need that in these times)

I desire for you to leave with a greater appreciation for His Word and the authority it carries in our lives

Let’ look at this creation account found in Genesis 1…

DAY 1: Light & Time

Genesis 1:1-5

Genesis 1:1–5 NASB95

In the beginning God created the heavens 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 waters. 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. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

Notice we see the Spirit’s involvement in creation

There is a void

God speaks “Word”

Light was good

Evening and Morning “one day”

DAY 2: Atmosphere

Genesis 1:6-8

Genesis 1:6–8 NASB95

Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 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. God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

God spoke “Word”

Our atmosphere is unique to life...

God is creating and environment for Life

It was good

Evening & morning “a second day”

DAY 3: Dry Land & Plants

Genesis 1:9-13

Genesis 1:9–13 NASB95

Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 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 on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. 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. There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

God spoke “Word”

Dry land… takes time but here we see this occuring instantly

Like when they crossed the Red Sea or the Jordan River!

“KIND” not mutating into something else but ready to produce after its “kind”

Seeds in them as to reproduce!

It was good

Evening & morning a third day

DAY 4: Sun, Moon, Stars

Genesis 1:14-19

Genesis 1:14–19 NASB95

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. 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. 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. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

God spoke Word”

These would be “signs” of time… God already created time one day one

Signs for seasons, days, and years

This is why right away we can distinguish how long peopled lived!

It was good

Evening and morning a fourth day

DAY 5: Fish & Birds

Genesis 1:20-23

Genesis 1:20–23 NASB95

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.” 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. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

God spoke “Word”

“After their kind”

Sea creatures for their kind

Birds for their kind

Instructed to multiply… fill waters… fill earth

Fertility of life comes from God (BLESSED THEM)

It is good & blessing

Evening and morning a fifth day

DAY 6: Land Creatures & Mankind

Genesis 1:24-31

Genesis 1:24–31 NASB95

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. 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 all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 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 moves 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 every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Once again with the creatures we see “God Spoke” the Word!

We see Him make them after their “KIND”

And this “was good”

THEN… God spoke, but not into existence He spoke of what He would do!

Make man in His image

Have them rule

Male and female

Mankind was the pinnacle of His creation, unlike anything else...

It was VERY GOOD!

Evening and morning a sixth day

DAY 7: God Rested

Genesis 2:1-3

Genesis 2:1–3 NASB95

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. 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.

God ceased, stopped… WHY? because it was complete

It DOES NOT say God was tired… rather we would see Him giving man (His creation) and example to live by

There was a starting and a completion

I understand that what I will close with today may not be the popular stance of many, however I believe it to be the Biblical one.

GOD’S AUTHORITY: His Word

I will make this quick and be more than willing to discuss this in our Genesis Study Group or one on one.

I am not a scientist but I love to study science. I am a pastor passionate about God’s Word.

I appreciate this church Grace BIBLE Church where we hold to the teaching and preaching of the scriptures

I value the first point of our doctrine which reads:

1. THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (the sixty-six canonical books) to be the verbally inspired Word of God, the final authority for faith and life, inerrant in the original writings, infallible and God-breathed. God has divinely preserved the Greek and Hebrew texts so as to make His will explicitly known and obeyed (II Timothy 3:16,17; II Peter 1:20,21; Matthew 5:18; John 16:12,13).

Here at Grace we take the study of the scriptures in a literal approach.

Interestingly one of the greater controversies of scripture is the literal six day creation record.

There are varying approaches to these verses we looked at today. Some hold to Theistic Evolution, Some hold to a Gap Theory, Old Earth Creationist etc.

The debate comes from trying to put some things science states into scripture…

Interestingly scripture never changes, God never changes Hebrews 13:8

Hebrews 13:8 NASB95

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Science is constantly changing, discovering, and rethinking… which is one of the things that makes science so fun to study we learn knew things all the time!

However, science is NOT our authority

Science taught that the earth was flat, in Job we read that the earth is a sphere

2 Timothy 3:16 states all scripture is God breathed “His Word”!!!

2 Timothy 3:16 NASB95

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

God’s Word is powerful and so often people struggle with God creating everything in six literal days!

IF YOU READ Genesis 1 there is nothing that will indicate that day means anything but day (YOM in Hebrew)… evening morning, day one day two etc.

Brian Mariani on Jan 24, 2020 in Creation Nuggets:

…The word yôm, either singular or plural, is used with a number 359 times outside of Genesis 1…Terence Fretheim observes, ‘When the word “day” is used with a specific number, it always has reference to a normal day.’21…

… The two words, ‘morning’ and ‘evening’, are combined with yôm 19 times each outside of Genesis 1 … and with each occurrence a twenty-four day is signified…

…It should be further observed that when ‘morning’ and ‘evening’ occur together without yôm (this happens 38 times outside of Genesis 1, 25 of the 38 occur in historical narrative), it always, without exception, designates a literal solar day…

…The point of discussing the semantic approach should be rather obvious. God, through the ‘pen’ of Moses, is being redundant for redundancy’s sake. God is going out of His way to tell us that the ‘days’ of creation were literal solar days. He has used the word yôm, and combined this with a number and the words ‘morning’ and ‘evening’. God has communicated the words of Genesis 1 in a specific manner, so that the interpreter could not miss His point. God could not have communicated the timing of creation more clearly than He did in Genesis 1.

To be honest… when I look at the God portrayed in the scriptures, I see One powerful enough to cause all things in a split second!!!

Creation obeys to the Word of God instantly… we see time overruled by the creator of time in scripture

Red Sea and Jordan River dry

The storm stopping instantly

Water into good aged Wine

The shade for Jonah or the fish for that matter

Jesus, who is the Word, created everything by simply speaking things into existence. John 1 expresses this beautifully.

Now, consider Exodus 20:1: “And God spoke all these words, saying . . . .”

Now, when the Creator God spoke as recorded in Exodus 20:1, As we read on, we find this statement: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day” (Exodus 20:11).

Exodus 20:1 NASB95

Then God spoke all these words, saying,

Exodus 20:11 NASB95

“For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, 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.

God Himself states the very illustration of why He took so long in creation.... an example for you and me! These words were written on the stone tablets with the very finger of God!!! Jesus Himself states that we are to believe the words penned by Moses… if we don’t then we might as well not believe the words of Christ.

IF YOU QUESTION one part of this book than all other parts are up for debate and speculation too!

You and I serve a powerful God who never changes, Creator and Savior

You and I hold in our hands the very Words of God, powerful and authoritative

Be very careful when you try to take ideas of man who are sinful by nature, and filter them into your thinking of a Holy Righteous God and His Word