The World in One Week

I. Introduction

Would you turn with me in your copy of God’s Word to a very familiar place....in fact, it is the same place we turned to last week, it is Genesis 1 and verse 1. The very first book in the Bible, the very first verse of the very first chapter....last week we only looked at verse 1....this week we will be looking at verses 1-5. Today we’re speaking on this subject: “The World in a Week”—“The World in a Week.” We find here the story of the creation and the formation of the world in a week.

In 1859, Darwin wrote his famous book, The Origin of Species, and in that book he proposed to tell us from whence we came. And he talked about the origin of the species. I’ve been thinking about that. And I believe that the destiny of the species is far more important than the origin. Now I’m not demeaning the origin. And we need to know and learn from whence we came. And I trust this morning we will, and I just want you to draw close and listen, and tell you, dear friend, from whence you’ve come has already been decided, wherever it was. But where you’re headed—the destiny of the species—may not yet be decided in your own heart and in your mind. And so you’d better pay attention. And it is the Bible, not Charles Darwin, that’s going to tell you both about the origin and the destiny of the species. And I’m so glad today that we could talk about these things.

And you say, “Oh, the destiny—that’s so far away.” Not necessarily. Eternity is just a heartbeat away. Eternity is just around the corner. You know, sometimes we get in a habit of talking about some horrendous experience we went through—maybe an automobile accident or something like that—and we say, “I’ve never been so close to death in my life.” But, friend, you weren’t close to death at all, because you’re still living. You are closer to death now than you’ve ever been in your life this moment; you’re closer to death now than you’ve ever been. And one second from this, you’ll be even yet closer to death.

What I’m trying to tell you is this, that your destiny is right around the corner, only a heartbeat away for many who are listening to me right now. And so we need to pay attention as to what God says, not only about the origin of the species, but the destiny of the species. And I believe that both are told to us very clearly here in the first chapter of the book of Genesis.

a. Scripture: Genesis 1:1-13

And as always, I’m going to ask you to stand with me, if you are able, as we read from God’s Holy, Perfect, Sufficient and inerrant Word.

<Pray>

Thank you, and you may be seated.

II. Contextualization

a. Now I want to tell you something this morning: What you believe about creation matters. I had a lady at a church I pastored many years ago question why I would waste time preaching about Creation....she said there were so many other important topics and that she didn’t believe the biblical version of creation, but that she believed in God and believed the rest of the Bible....

Did you hear that? She beleived the REST of the Bible....but not this part....I have one question for her....WHY?.....Why believe ANY of it at all? If the Bible is wrong about Creation....that means it is wrong in its very first words....if it’s wrong from the start, why would we believe ANY of it?

Folks, it’s very simple here: It’s not creationism that is on trial....it’s not a Bible story that is on trial....It’s the ENTIRE Bible that is on trial....it’s God that is on trial....

Once you say “THIS part” is flawed....well then, it can’t be from an unflawed God....and when God has a flaw, He ceases to be God.

So don’t dismiss this.....what you believe about Creation matters....if you can’t believe God is powerful enough to make the entire universe in 6 literal days....why in the WORLD would you believe that He can save you fro your sin? Think about that as we discuss this morning.

III. Major Points

The Meaning

The Miracle

The Message

IV. Point #1: The Meaning

Explanation

But notice, if you will, please, in Genesis chapter 1, verse 5: “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” (Genesis 1:5) And then look, if you will, please, in verse 8: “And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.” (Genesis 1:8) And then look, if you will, please, in verse 13: “And the evening and the morning were the third day.” (Genesis 1:13) And six times we find this specific statement: “The evening and the morning were the first day, the second day, the third day, the fourth day, the fifth day, the sixth day.”

Now, what is the meaning of these days? Because the word day is used in the Bible in many different ways; over 1,400 times it’s listed in the Bible, this word day. And it’s translated about forty-four different ways in the King James Version of the Bible. This one Hebrew word yom is translated many ways. And so as we look at these days—“the evening and the morning were the first day”—we want to ask ourselves, what did God mean? Did He mean literal twenty-four-hour days as we mean them? Because some people have tried to make the Bible coincide with geology. You know, the geologists and the uniformitarian school of thought tell us that the world is actually billions and billions of years old. And so they try to say that these days were not literal days, but these days were great ages that God just simply called days…in other words, they believe that the writer of Genesis, whom we believe to be Moses, was using the word for days to simply mean “stages.”…or like an “indefinite” amount of time…like the word “ages” or “eons.” - “I haven’t been to the beach in ages...”....or “it seems like its been eons since our family all got together.”...In other words, these people who believe this argue that the word for day that is used in these early verses is like a figure of speech.

Now, let me say that the word day is used in the Bible in several senses. The word day does mean a twenty-four-hour day. That’s the one use. Actually, it’s not twenty-four hours; it’s twenty-three hours, fifty-six minutes, and four seconds, if you want to be a nitpicker. But anyway, that talks about the time that the earth revolves on its axis one time. And the Bible calls that a day: “The evening and the morning were the first day.”

But then, that portion of a day we call the daytime—or daylight—the Bible also calls that a day. For example, you can see in chapter 1, verse 5, “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.” (Genesis 1:5) So right away, there’s a different use of the word day other than the twenty-four-hour day, the evening and the morning being a day. But then God also uses the word day in a generalized sense just to mean an indefinite period of time.

In Isaiah 4:1, for example, it says:

Isaiah 4:1 NASB95

For seven women will take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach!”

So there God is, indeed, speaking of “in that day” as a general period of time.

So to be truthful with you, the Bible uses the word “day” in both senses....it CAN be used to mean a literal 24 hour day....and it CAN be used to simply mean “a stretch of time”....

The question is this: In the Genesis Chapter 1 account of Creation, how did Moses, the author, intend for the word day to be understood? Are these 24 hour days that we’re talking about—are they indefinite periods of time, sort of like geological ages…like what scientists call the Cretacious period or the Jurassic period? Or do these days refer to twenty-four-hour periods of time? Or do they refer just to JUST the daylight hours?....those fulctuate, you know.... Or do they refer to an inclusive period of time, and so forth? I want to tell you today that I believe that God made this world in six twenty-four-hour days. That’s what I believe. Six twenty-four-hour periods of time…now you are welcome to your opinion on things and I’m welcome to mine…but when it comes to interpreting Scripture, what matters is not my opinion or yours, what truly matters is what Scripture actually supports. I believe Scripture supports the idea of a literal 6, 24 hour day creation…and I hope to show you why today.

Now having said that, let me just tell you a few things too: First of all, I don’t have any difficulty believing that God can create the universe in just 6 days, because I believe in God. You know <laugh>, it’s no difficulty for me to believe that God made it all in six days because, you know what?: God could have made it all in six SECONDS if He chose to, do you believe that? That’s no difficulty. If you believe in God; you don’t have any difficulty with those kinds of questions. That doesn’t bother me one little bit, because I believe in God. Remember the Bible says, “In the beginning God[Elohim] created the heaven and earth.” (Genesis 1:1) The Hebrew word Elohim is that word for God there, which speaks of His mighty strength. Elohim made it all. So in the Creation, I believe very simply and practucally that “day” means “day”....not “age,” not “period of time”....not ANYTHING but day.

Illustration

About 7 years ago I got to meet a remarkable lady by the name of Dr. Doris McNeal and she told me this story…Dr. McNeal was born to a Jewish family in Germany…in the midst of the Holocaust she was a young girl. One day the Nazi’s came to her home and she was outside playing and didn’t realize it…when she heard some noise going on inside, she came to the back door where she saw her mother leaning against the door’s window…she tried to open it and come in, but her mother quickly shoved her back outside and told her to hide....she hid under the staircase and watched the Nazi’s take her mother, father, and older brother away in a van....and she never saw them again....after that, Doris bounced from house to house as friends of the family tried to protect her…one night, she was at a friend’s house....she was perhaps only about 11 or 12. The Nazi’s sent inspectors into the home and there was no time to hide....she thought for sure they had her. At that time, all people in Germany had to carry a national identification card....Jews had a red stripe across theirs, indicating that they were Jews. When the man came in, Doris said he had sandy blonde hair....bright blue eyes…he was a young man…she said he was the most handsome man she had ever seen in her life…and she wodnered how the Devil could be so beautiful....he looked right at her and asked to see her ID card....she slowly walked over to the mantel piece above the fireplace, grabbed the card…and handed it to him…she knew the gig was up....he looked at the card, looked at her, smiled, handed the card back to her, told her to have a nice day, and left and he was gone....she didn’t understand it! She had surely been caught!.....then she looked at her ID card and realized what had happened: the red stripe across her card had melted away while it was on the mantel piece....and that saved her life....

Doris went on to survive the war....move to the United States, finish school…meet a man, fall in love…and she had a rewarding career teaching German at the University of Georgia until she retired.

Application

Now you ask me: do I believe that story? Oh you bet I do …I absolutely do. Because that’s a small miracale....you say “well it wasn’t small to her”....see there are people that start with the small thing and use it to seek to understand the big thing, and that’s backwards, my friends. Look, I have had skeptics ask me: Do you REALLY believe in the talking snake? Do you REALLY believe that God flooded the entire earth? Do you REALLY believe God can save a young Jewish girl from death....

You’re asking the wrong question: do I believe in a BIG God who can create the entire universe? YES....that’s the BIG thing right? If I can believe in the BIG thing, then that makes a talking snake seem rather small and EASY to believe, doesn’t it?

I believe in a God big enough to speak the entire universe into existence....therefore I have no problem believing that He did that in 6 literal 24-hour days....that’s easy for me…if you have trouble believing in miracles…if you have trouble believing in the creation account…if you have trouble beliving that God made you and meand every cell in our body, then friend, maybe it’s not that what I’m asking you to believe is to great, but that the God you claim to believe in is too small....

The Meaning of the word Day here, in my estimation is a 24-hour day…and I have no trouble believing that…I hope you don’t either...

V. Point #2: The Miracle

Explanation

Now, let’s talk—let’s move on and talk not only about the meaning of the days, but let’s talk a little bit about the miracle of the days. I believe that God did it miraculously. Now you say, “Well, Brother Rogers, doesn’t that bring you into conflict with science?” No. True science and true Bible never conflict, because God wrote two books. God wrote this book—His inspired, inerrant, infallible Word—and then also God made the book of nature. I mean, God created nature, and nature is, in a sense, His book. The Bible says, “Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.” (Psalms 19:2) There are books and brooks, and sermons and stones, and God in everything. You see, all of this shows the glory of God. God made it all. And God, who wrote this book, and God, who created this world, He’s not going to have any difficulty putting these things together. I mean, scientific proof didn’t sneak up on God. God knows it all. Nobody needed to inform God. God knew about all of this. And if all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, there is no conflict between true science and true Bible.

But now, what about this matter of evolution, therefore? What about the theory of evolution? And notice I call it theory—the theory of evolution. Evolution is a theory. Now anybody who tells you that evolution is a fact is lying to you. I mean, he may want to believe it is a fact, but it has never been proven as a fact. It is a theory—it is a theory.

Now let me say this, there are two kinds of evolution: Microevolution, that is small changes that take place within a species over time....and this type of evolution has some merit..I believe God can allow small changes in species to help them to better survive in their environment.....and then there is Macroevolution....that is Darwinian evolution that says you, me, the tad pole, the rabbit and the monkey in the tree are all related....here’s what Darwin said in The Origin of Species, on page 523: “Analogy would lead me to the belief that all animals and plants”—all of them now—“are descended from some one prototype. All organisms start from a common origin, and from such low and intermediate forms both animals and plants may have been developed. All the organic things which have ever lived on the earth may be descended from some one primordial form.”.....that we all came from a common ancestor....no idea where that common ancestor came from of course, but whatever it was…a single-celled organism of some sort, a blob....scum…somehow, that is how life began and somehow that little thing is Great Great Great Great Great Grandpa. Imagine that picture at the family reunion. Mama zoom in, Grandpaw’s microscopic and we can’t see him!

Science, by definition, covers that which can be obeserved…everytime somebody finds a hole in the theory of Macroevolution, the scientific community simply says “well it just took a few more million years than we originally thought”—and all THAT does is make their theory more impossible to prove…why? Because we don’t have millions and millions of years worth of data, do we? At best we have less than three thousand YEARS worth of human writing about ANYTHING....how can we observe changes that supposedly took MILLIONS of years to happen? What they are proposing is, therefore, totally theoretical....it’s not science at all....no observing can be done....so it simply doesn’t work. It’s a theory that cannot be tested and does not work.

I heard of a woman who called her husband “Theory” rather than “Deary” because he didn’t work.

And you need to understand that this thing called evolution does not work. It is a theory and I reject it. I’m going to tell you why I reject it in a moment. I reject it for three reasons. I reject it, first of all, for a logical reason. I reject it, secondly, for a theological reason. I reject it, thirdly, for a moral reason.

Logically: Now don’t think that only Baptist preachers don’t believe in evolution. There are many scientists today—eminent scientists, qualified scientists—who do not believe in evolution—I mean, men with impeccable pedigrees and brilliant, scintillating minds. Many of these are not even Christians. They just don’t believe in evolution because it doesn’t make sense; it will not wash. Listen to some intelligent men. Dr. Newton Tahmisian, who is a physiologist for the Atomic Energy Commission, has wisely stated, “Scientists who go about teaching that evolution is a fact of life are great con men, and the story they are telling may be the greatest hoax ever. In explaining evolution, we do not have one iota of fact.” That’s what this great physiologist had to say. It does not make sense…there is no explanation for the origin of life....there is no explanation of the order of Creation around us....the Creation points to a Creator....and there’s no explanation for the non-physical qualities of man: his critical thinking ability....His propensity for love and justice beyond his instincts....His ability to do good out of sheer kindness....Evolution explains none of that.

Theologically: I don’t believe it, very simply, because I believe in God, and the Bible is His Word…and the Bible tells me something different. It explains everything so-called science fails to: it offers a creation story that explains the origin of life....it makes sense....if explains the order in our universe....it explains humanity’s special nature and his non-hysical qualities....Theolgically, I can’t believe in macroevolution....

Morally: When Darwin came out with this business about the origin of the species, and when evolution became a philosophical idea, there was a man in Germany whose name was Nietzsche. Nietzsche latched on to that idea. He loved it. Nietzsche became the father of what is known as Nazism. There was another man in Russia who heard of this idea of evolution. He latched on to it. He loved it. His name was Karl Marx. He’s the father of communism, with its unspeakable atrocities. It’s only a step from evolution to the gas ovens. You see, when you believe that men sprang from animals, it’s much easier to treat them like animals rather than people made in the image of God. Do you want me to tell you why we have so much difficulty with young people today and they are living, hopping from bed to bed, and practicing what they call free love? They don’t know anything about love. Friend, if it’s love, it’s not free. It costs; it demands commitment. Do you want me to tell you why we’ve gotten this hippie philosophy, “If it feels good, do it”? Because we’ve finally gotten across the idea that man is an animal. I’ve said before, an animal lives for three things: self-preservation, self-propagation, and self-gratification. That’s what animals live by, and that’s what we’ve taught our generation. They have been taught that they are not made in the image of God—that they just happened, that they’re an accident—out of spontaneous generation. God forbid. I reject it on moral grounds.

Application

Church: what does this mean to US? We are supposed to just preach Jesus and not worry about this stuff....that’s what some preachers preach....let me tell you something dear friends: if we don’t get this thing straightened up, we’re going to have to rue the day. We have a generation of people who think nothing about murdering little unborn babies. After all, to them it’s a blob of protoplasm. That’s what they believe. Oh, they get incensed. There are people out there right now, mad as a wet hen, because I call that murdering little unborn babies. If that makes you mad, you come to me and apologize, and I’ll forgive you. I’ll tell you something, friend. We have begun to treat human life on a low plane, and I predict, if Jesus tarries, the time will come when they’ll start doing away with some of you older people, because you, like an unwanted pregnancy, may become an inconvenience. I believe with all my heart that is where the Coronavirus came from....I have no proof, but I believe that the Chinese figured out the world hated their one-child policy, so they softened it and then unleashed a biological weapon that is meant to take out older people....and it unintentionall made its way over here....call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, but look around us at what’s happening....and, by the way, it came from an evil, Communist, Marxist country....

VI. Point #3: The Message

Explanation

I believe here in the first chapter of the book of Genesis—not only does God clearly delineate the origin of the species, but I believe that God gives us a wonderful clue and help to understand the destiny of the species. I believe that God here, in His infinite grace, has put the plan of salvation right on the front door of the first page of the first book of the Bible. I believe it’s there. You see, the Bible calls a Christian “a new creation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) That is, there’s something very much like what happened at the first creation that happens to us when we are saved, or born again. Second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new [creation].” (2 Corinthians 5:17) And there is a parallelism between the first creation and the new creation—what God did to that physical world and what He’s done now in the spiritual world.

Illustration]

Let me show you the parallelism. For example, read the first two verses, and you’ll see that the world was born in deadness and darkness. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void.” (Genesis 1:1–2) So “in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” (Genesis 1:1–2)

I want you to see that that chaotic condition—without form, void, dead, sterile, and dark—is a picture of every man without the Lord Jesus Christ, for every man, woman, boy, and girl without the Lord Jesus Christ is alienated from the life of God. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 18, says, “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” (Ephesians 4:18) God says that the man without Christ is dead. He’s darkened. He’s ignorant. He’s blind. And this world, when darkness was upon the face of the deep, this first creation, is a picture of man’s condition needing to be saved.

Application

And friends listen: we have an entire world out there of unsaved people who are exactly in that state....and the world would have stayed in that state without God doing something about it. Friends, our unsaved friends are out there…lifeless…formless....DEAD without the Gospel....and it is incumbent upon US to share the message with every single one of them.

Isn’t it wonderful how God wrote Jesus into even the very first pages of the Bible, not just at the end? The Message of Creation is that it doesn’t happen without God....and the message of OUR re-creation is that it doesn’t happen without God either....it doesn’t happen with out Jesus....it doesn’t happen without His Gospel....and you can forget it if you aeen’t willing to be made brand new....

VII. Conclusion

a. Let me ask you this morning, are you are you brand new this morning? Or are you the same as you always were? The same God who made everything in one week, wants to save you from your sin....are you there? Are you a new creation?

b. Let’s Pray