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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
(***This message outline and text come for the most part from Dr. James Merritt)
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.
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