With God In the Beginning

1. I read a fictitious story about a group of engineers, geologists, chemists, and scientists, who came together to try to answer the question, "Where did the universe come from?" They spent years compiling information, checking it and re-checking it. They fed all of their data into a gigantic super computer.

2. The magic moment came when they had fed all of their knowledge, theories, and research into that computer, and they asked it the question, "Where did the universe come from?" Everybody gathered around; there was a holy hush in the laboratory. A button was punched, lights flashed, bells rang, and finally a flashing message emerged: SEE GENESIS 1:1.

3. There are 66 books in the Bible. Genesis is the foundation upon which the rest of the Bible sits. There are 1,189 chapters in the Bible, and Genesis chapter one is the foundation for all of the other chapters. There are 23,214 verses in the Old Testament alone. Genesis 1:1 is the foundation of all of the other verses.

4. Genesis is the front door to the rest of the Bible. Genesis 1 is the knob that turns the door. But Genesis 1:1 is the key that unlocks the doorknob.

5. This first verse, made up of ten words. In ten short and simple words, we are told the WHEN, WHO, HOW, and WHAT of all things.

6. "In the beginning" - that's the WHEN! "God" - that's the WHO! "Created" - that's the HOW! "The heavens and the earth" - that's the WHAT! The rest of the Bible is given to WHY!

7. The first verse gives us the theology of creation. The rest of the chapter provides us with the chronology of creation. We are told at the very beginning that God created all things, from electrons to electricity, from gold to galaxies, from dandelions to dinosaurs, and from apples to Adam.

8. Now we need to understand how important this is. Because if Genesis 1:1 is true, then everything else written in God’s word is also true. If God was in the beginning, then God will be around to the ending. And if God is in the beginning and will be there at the ending, then it’s certainly true that God is still here now! Notice four profound truths we can glean from this one simple verse.

I. THE ETERNAL PRESENCE OF GOD

1. Just the first four words boggle the human mind, "in the beginning God." Now immediately we are told two things about God:

A. God Transcends Time

1. The word Genesis literally means "beginning." Genesis gives us the beginning of all things except God, because God had no beginning. God was in the beginning, but He was not of the beginning. There was never a time when God was not. There will never be a time when God will not be.

2. Before there was anything, there was God. God was in eternity past. In Isaiah 57:15 we are told that God is the One "Who inhabits eternity." Abraham called him "the everlasting God." (Genesis 21:33)

Moses said, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God." (Psalm 90:2)

The psalmist said, "But You, O Lord, shall endure forever...and Your years will have no end." (Psalm 102:12,27)

3. Quite honestly, this is impossible for the mind to understand. Because logic tells us that everything must at least have a beginning, if not an ending. Yet God is without either. He transcends time.

B. God Transcends Thought

1. Notice that God is not argued for, defended, or proved. He is simply asserted and assumed, "in the beginning God." You may not know this, but there is not one proof presented in the Bible for the existence of God. Why?

2. Well, first of all, it is impossible to improve the existence of God. How can a finite human prove the existence of an infinite God? It is impossible. But may I also say it is impossible to prove the inexistence of God.

3. I cannot prove there is a God. But you cannot prove there is no God. You do not come to God by reason. You come to God by faith. Likewise, you don't reject God by reason. You reject God by faith. There is a simple difference between a believer and an atheist. A believer chooses to believe in God. An atheist chooses not to believe in God. But something else must be added. The facts are on the side of the believer, not the unbeliever. When it comes to God, it takes more faith not to believe than it does to believe.

4. A professor at Purdue University, a Ph.D. educated at Oxford, was boasting to his class that he was an atheist. But he did it in a refreshingly honest way. Here is what he said: "Even as the evangelical Christian accepts God by faith, I reject the idea of God by faith. I cannot reject God by reason alone, for there is too much evidence of His existence. By faith I am an atheist."

5. That is why only one-half of one verse in the entire Bible is even given to the atheist. The Bible says in Psalm 14:1, "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'" Incidentally, whether you believe in God or not, is absolutely irrelevant as to whether or not God exists.

6. I heard about some parents who taught their child from the time he was born that there is no God. Finally, when this little fellow got old enough to do a little thinking on his own, he came in one day and said to his dad, "Dad, do you think God knows we don't believe in Him?"

7. But I would add also that it is inessential to prove the existence of God. God doesn't need to prove anything to anybody. Nor does He need anything to be proved by anybody. God has left his footprints all over this universe and only a fool would deny it.

8. I heard about a little boy that got on a bus one day and sat down next to an atheist. Well, this little boy loved God and was singing about God. The atheist thought he would have some fun with the little boy and he said, "Son, I will give you an apple if you will tell me where God is?"

9. The little boy looked up sharply at the man and shot back, "Mister, I will give you a whole barrel of apples if you will tell me where God is not."

II. THE EXALTED PERSON OF GOD

1. The first fact of faith presented in the Bible is God, "in the beginning God." God is mentioned thirty-two times in the first thirty-one verses of the Bible. The emphasis of the first chapter of Genesis is not on the creation created by God. It is on the God who created creation. The subject of this first chapter is not creation, that is the object. The subject is God.

2. The very name that is used here for God is most revealing. There are many names for God in the Bible. It is interesting that the first name used for God; the way that God introduces Himself is with the name "Elohim." This name is used over 2,500 times in the Old Testament. It is very important to understand the names of God because the names of God reveal the nature of God. This name is pregnant with meaning.

3. It is actually a compound of two names: El and Alah. The name El literally means "strong one" or "Almighty." Now this tells us that our Creator is a God of unlimited ability. This is the God for whom nothing is impossible. The very fact that God created the heavens and the earth ought to tell us this. The prophet Jeremiah said, "Ah, Lord God! Behold You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You." (Jere. 32:17)

4. The other half of this name, the word Alah, literally means "to swear," "to bind with an oath," or "to make a covenant." This tells us that our Creator is a God of uncompromising integrity. He is a God who always keeps His word.

We are told in Hebrews 6:18, "...it is impossible for God to lie..." God cannot break a promise. He cannot tell a lie.

5. We learn also that this Creator is a God of undeniable personality. God has a mind, a will, and emotions. Over and over we are told that God "knows," "grieves," "loves," "chooses," "decides."

6. These four words are the key that hangs on the latch that opens the front door of the rest of the Bible. It destroys all kinds of philosophical error. Atheism is destroyed, because there is a God. Polytheism is destroyed, because there's only one God. Pantheism is destroyed which says that God is simply in nature because we know that God created nature.

7. It is not an overstatement to say that these four words are vitally important and virtually indispensable to understanding the meaning of life itself.

III. THE EXCLUSIVE POWER OF GOD

1. "In the beginning God created." We are told here that God is the originator and the initiator of everything and everyone. God did not create this universe because He had to, but because He wanted to.

2. We are told that "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The Hebrew word Bara literally means "to make something out of nothing." There's no need for the scientist to try to go back and verify this because by the very nature of the case it is unverifiable. It has to be accepted by faith, not by reason.

Hebrews 11:3 makes it plain. "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." Throughout the Scripture, only God is the subject of this verb. This verb never refers to what man can do, but only to what God can do. You see, man can build and mold and make, but He cannot create something out of nothing.

3. There is a difference between a craftsman and a creator. A carpenter can make a chair out of wood, but he cannot create the wood out of nothing. There is a difference between making something out of something, and creating something out of nothing.

4. Several years ago some scientists announced that they had been able to create artificial protein in the laboratory. Since protein is the basic building block of life, this achievement took the scientific world by storm. The Saturday Evening Post interviewed a number of scientists to get their reactions.

5. Dr. Vincent Allfrey of the Rockefeller Institute, said, "This is the biggest story of the century." A famous bio-chemist said, "This century will go down in history as the century when life ceased to be a mystery. Life is only chemistry." One British scientist became so confident after this discovery that he said, "I now no longer find it necessary to believe in God."

6. But then the Post interviewed a Roman Catholic by the name of George Kelly. George Kelly said, "When a bio-chemist is able to create matter and energy out of nothing, then I would like to talk to him.

7. The Bible makes it plain that God created this world ex nihilo, that is, out of nothing. I do not think I can improve on the way an eloquent black preacher put it when he said, "God stepped from behind the curtain of nowhere, onto the platform of nothing, and spoke a world into existence. The reason God came from nowhere is because there wasn't anywhere for him to come from. And coming from nowhere he stood on nothing, and the reason he had to stand on nothing was because there was nowhere for him to stand.

8. "And standing on nothing, he reached out where there was nowhere, and caught something when there was nothing to catch, and hung something on nothing and told it to stay there.

9. "Then standing on nothing he took the hammer of his own will and he struck the anvil of his omnipotence and sparks flew everywhere. He caught these sparks from the tip of his fingers and flung them out into space and bedecked the heavens with stars.

10. "And nobody said a word. The reason nobody said anything was because there wasn't anybody there to say anything. So God himself said, 'THAT'S GOOD!'"

IV. THE ELABORATE PURPOSE OF GOD

1. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Very plainly we are told that we are not here by chance. We are here by choice. Man is not an accident, nor is he an incident. Behind all of this creation lies the Sovereign hand of an Omnipotent God who has a plan for all of His creation. We are told why created the heavens and the earth.

A. For His Employment

1. All of this creation was made to please Him.

"You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created." (Rev. 4:11) This creation is here to give God pleasure.

2. But all of creation is also to praise Him.

Romans 11:36 tells us, "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen."

The psalmist said, "Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord." (Psa. 150:6)

B. For Our Enjoyment

1. God created this world for us to dwell in.

"For thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord, and there is no other." (Isaiah 45:18) This world was built for us as a temporary dwelling place. God intended for us to live in it, explore it, learn about it, use it.

2. But God also created this world for us to delight in. Paul said in I Timothy 6:17, that God "gives us richly all things to enjoy." This world was created for God's glory, and for our good. So this verse brings us to a reality that every person must face.

3. This God who conceived this universe, and created this universe, also controls this universe. We should give God the same place in our hearts that He holds in this universe.

4. Someone has said there are three great questions for all of life:

1. Who am I? 2. Why am I here? 3. Where am I going?

5. May I say to you that the only satisfying way to answer these three great questions is by beginning with God."

6. Who am I? I am a creation of God, made in His image.

Why am I here? To bring glory and honor to the God who made me.

Where am I going? To heaven to spend eternity with the God who made me if I know His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

TEXT: Genesis 1:1

TOPIC: With God in the Beginning

Bible Survivors Series, Message 1

Pastor Bobby Earls, First Baptist Church, Icard

Sunday, September 9, 2001

There are _______ books in the Bible.

There are ________ chapters in the Bible.

There are ________________ verses in the Old Testament.

Genesis 1:1 presents four profound truths:

I. THE ETERNAL ___________________ OF GOD,

"in the beginning God." Genesis 1:1 tells us two things about God:

A. God Transcends T_______________

1. The word Genesis literally means "beginning." "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God." (Psalm 90:2)

B. God Transcends T________________

Psalm 14:1, "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'"

II. THE EXALTED ___________________ OF GOD,

"in the beginning God."

God is mentioned thirty-two times in the first thirty-one verses of the Bible. The emphasis of the first chapter of Genesis is not on the creation created by God. It is on the God who created creation. The subject of this first chapter is not creation, that is the object. The subject is God.

Jeremiah said, "Ah, Lord God! Behold You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You." (Jer. 32:17)

III. THE EXCLUSIVE __________________ OF GOD,

"In the beginning God created."

The Hebrew word Bara literally means "to make something out of nothing."

Hebrews 11:3 "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible."

IV. THE ELABORATE __________________ OF GOD,

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

We are not here by chance. We are here by choice. Man is not an accident, nor is he an incident. Behind all of this creation lies the Sovereign hand of an Omnipotent God who has a plan for all of His creation. We are told why created the heavens and the earth.

A. For His _________________________

"You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created." (Rev. 4:11)

This creation is here to give God pleasure.

B. For Our __________________________

God created this world for us to dwell in. "For thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord, and there is no other." (Isaiah 45:18)

But God also created this world for us to delight in. Paul said in I Timothy 6:17, that God "gives us richly all things to enjoy."

1. Who am I? 2. Why am I here? 3. Where am I going?

"In my opinion, those are the three greatest questions of life."

1. Who am I?

I am a creation of God, made in His image.

2. Why am I here?

To bring glory and honor to that God who made me.

3. Where am I going?

To heaven to spend eternity with the God who made me if I know His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.