And as you find your seat, let me invite you to open your
Bibles to the book of Genesis. We are starting a new series
this morning in the book of Genesis.
I, I usually try to alternate between the Old Testament, New
Testament and we did Numbers and then we went James and then now
we're back in the Old Testament in the book of Genesis.
Somebody asked me this morning, how long do you plan to be in
Genesis? And I said, my, my hope is 2
years or less, but I will be in it for as long as the Lord wants
us to be in it. But this morning we'll be in
Genesis chapter 1 verses 1 to 23.
I won't read the text upfront because as I go through it, I'll
read it. So if you will open with me.
In a word of prayers, we ask God to please speak to us through
His Word. Father, we are thankful for your
word and opportunity to to gather as a church and as we
start this new journey in the book of Genesis.
God, I pray that you would give us everything that we need over
the next year, two years or 10 years, however it long it may
be. God, you see where we still need
sanctification. You see it perfectly where we
are blind and, and, and have blind spots and, and are unaware
of the, the, the areas of our life that need to be refined.
We know that you see perfectly. And so Lord, we pray that you
would please give us what is needed to have sanctification in
those areas. Would you use this book?
Would you use the text this morning, Lord, to sanctify us,
to make us more like Christ? God?
Would you give us a greater vision of you, Lord, as even as
we consider your creation, we consider the stars and the
heavens and mountains and trees and rivers and rocks?
Give us, please give us an awe of you, God, that that
transcends what we are capable of in and of ourselves.
I pray this now in the name of Jesus.
Amen. Over the past 15 years that I've
been here in Seattle, 2 of the topics that I have been asked to
teach on the most are Creation and Eschatology, Genesis and
Revelation, the first book of the Bible and the last book of
the Bible. I have actually wanted to preach
on Genesis for several years. It's it's a phenomenal book, but
I haven't, it's been, I haven't done it in 15 years.
I never have in my whole life for two reasons, 2/2 of many
reasons. Number one, it is quite long
based on word count. It's actually the second longest
book in the Bible based on word count behind Jeremiah.
And #2 there has been more written on the topic of
evolution than I ever care to read about.
But being that we are a new church, if you're busy with us
this morning, we're called Grace and Truth Baptist Church.
We formerly were called Chinese Southern Baptist Church.
We just started this new church January 1st.
Being that we are a new church, this is our genesis.
I thought it would be befitting to finally teach on this book.
I, I, I won't be going through all of it.
There are sections here, there's genealogies and, and, and, you
know, other sections that I probably won't spend a whole lot
of time on, but we'll hopefully attempt to be led by the Spirit
as far as far as what God wants us to focus on.
Let me say upfront, especially in the first few chapters of
this book, I may leave you wanting.
I may leave you wanting. I have no desire to get into the
dozens and dozens and dozens of theories of how to interpret the
first few chapters. I think that's better left to
seminary class. But I will do my very best to
give you some of the main proponents.
I'll give you what I hope that the Spirit has led me, that this
is what you, the church body, need to hear.
And if you would like to dive deeper, let me encourage you to
take a seminary course. There are online courses you can
take. You don't have to be a seminary
student. Anybody can sign up for them.
You can take a biblical class on the book of Genesis if you would
like to dive more into that. One thing I want to remind us of
is that we must remember that the Bible is not primarily
concerned with how things began with Adam, but how things were
finished with the second atom. We often get so hung up on how
things began, but that's not what this book is about.
This book is about how things were finished with the second
atom. I want to remind us of that as
we go through this, but I want to give you your time's worth
here. So well, let's dive in.
We got a lot to get to Genesis 11.
I'm going to be doing expedition application together because it
just, it seemed to fit well that way.
So let's look at this section by section.
Genesis 11 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth. We can just pause right there.
What a glorious verse. One of my favorite things to
watch is documentaries. I love watching to see how a new
company, how a company began. Do you know what?
Like how did Amazon begin? How did Coca-Cola begin?
Or maybe seen a documentary on a movie star or an athlete.
Like how did their career begin? How did they get their start in
acting? How did they get their start?
And music or you know, movies, whatever sports here we are
told, how did this world begin? Right?
We, we, we look at this world and we think, how did we get
here? Where did all this come from?
How did we get all of this beauty?
We see right here we're told where it all began.
And I want to begin the sermon by breaking down verse 1 into 4
parts, four parts. Let's let's start with the first
part in the beginning. In the beginning, the name of
this book, Genesis is actually a Greek term.
It's not a Hebrew term. It's a Greek term.
It's it which it's translated birth or genealogy.
It's a term that reflects beginnings.
It it, it's meant to tell us what is the beginning of
something. And I think one of the main
questions that people have surrounding this topic is this
when was the beginning? The Bible says in the beginning,
when was the beginning? You wish, you know, they would
say in the year, you know, like, but we don't get that.
So when was there are two main theories that are out there.
You've heard of them as old Earth and young earth.
I'm sure you've heard this before, young Earth.
Some people will attempt to trace the timeline in the Bible
through the genealogies though the there be people have
actually sat there and traced all the genealogies and they
come up with around maybe 6000 to 7000 years old, right.
This earth is around 6007 thousand years old.
Some will assume, some scholars will assume that genealogies are
missing, that we're missing generations in those
genealogies. They'll come up with around 10
to 15,000 years old. So young earth can be anywhere
from 6 to 7000 or 10 to 15,000. That's young earth.
The other theory is old Earth. Now old Earth is not derived
from the Bible. Anybody who has an old earth
view does not derive this from the Bible.
It's derived from science. Scientists place the earth at
around 4 1/2 billion years old, give or take.
Now which do I personally hold to?
I actually hold to a young earth.
I believe that the earth is only around 10 to 15,000 years old.
I understand I'm probably the minority and this science driven
culture, but I actually believe the earth is only around 10 to
15,000 years old. Some people will say how can you
possibly have that view with all the scientific data?
How could you, our pastor have this view with all the science
that is out there? My answer is usually twofold.
A Science has been wrong many times.
I don't have any. I mean, we used to think that
the Earth was the center of the universe.
Science has been wrong many times.
I don't have any problem believing that science is wrong.
BI also don't have any problem believing that perhaps maybe the
Earth is 4 1/2 billion years old.
Maybe God made it that way. Maybe when he made it, it was
old. Remember when Jesus turned the
water into wine, it was old wine.
Maybe he made it old. Now that's for me.
Which theory should you hold to? Right?
Like what should you hold to? I can't tell you that there are
well respected conservative evangelical scholars who hold to
old Earth, and I don't think it's radical.
So, you know, if you're here and you're like, what?
You know, Pastor Matt, can I be a member of this church and hold
to an old earth view? Yes.
I don't believe it's radical if you hold to an old earth.
Is there a way to reconcile old Earth with the Bible?
In other words, if you hold to it all, if you genuinely believe
the earth is 4 and a billion years old, can you reconcile
that with the Bible? Yes, Yes you can.
It is. You say how?
Here's one way. Here's one way.
Maybe not the only way, but one way.
It is possible to believe that God created all matter and all
energy in verses one to two. That in verses one to two God
made all matter and all energy and verses 1 to 2.
And then the six days of creation is simply the ordering
and structuring of things. So God could make all matter and
energy and then have just let it sit there for 4 1/2 billion
years. Remember a day in the Lord's
like 10,000 And then he decided to actually structure it to make
things that would allow for the earth to be billions of years
old and for the six days to be literal.
So you could reconcile it that way.
Now, I don't reconcile it that way, but you could reconcile it
that way. Now, before I close this
discussion on the age of the Earth, there are two truths that
we need to keep in mind. Make sure you hear these two
truths. A The age of this Earth is a low
second tier issue. Let's talk about first tier
issues, second tier issues, and 3rd tier issues.
And even on those tiers, there's a spectrum of each tier.
The age of this Earth is a second tier issue and it's a low
second tier issue. This is not something we should
divide over. This is not something that we
should break fellowship over. And B second truth, I want to
encourage you all, don't get so hung up on the age of the earth
that you miss the awe of God's creation of it.
Second part, first was in the beginning.
Second part, I want to break up God.
Just that word, God. In the beginning God.
Often the most emphasized word in verse one is beginning.
We want to know when the beginning was, but let's be
clear that the most important word in verse one is God.
This word is important for two reasons.
A. It assumes God's a sayity.
There's a sayity. Now I understand you may not
know what that phrase means. A sayity is the doctrine that
teaches many things, but one of which is this.
God has self existence. God is uncaused.
God's a sayity means that he has always existed.
He is the only thing that is the only one who has has always
existed. He is uncaused in the beginning.
God. Now just stop and ponder that
for a moment. There was a time when there was
nothing except God. There was a time that all that
existed was the Trinity, and that's it.
God has always been there. He has always existed.
That's the first reason that this matters.
Second reason, it testifies that God did all of this.
The universe didn't create itself.
The universe is not eternal. Scientists, when they often, you
know, many scientists may be atheist or maybe agnostic.
And then when they try to figure out where, where, where did
stuff come from, right? Things don't come from nothing.
So where did it, where did matter come from?
Where did energy come from? Where did it start?
The only conclusion you can get is you make the universe
eternal. The universe has always existed.
That's not true. The universe has not always
existed. God has always existed.
Energy has not always existed. God did all of this.
Regardless of whether you believe in an old earth or a
young earth, you must believe in an infinitely old God and we
must believe that God did all of this.
Those things are second. But what what is not a second
tier issue is, is that you believe that God created this
and that he has always existed. 3rd part I want to break down.
In the beginning God created. I want, I want to focus on that
word created in the beginning God created.
The Big Bang theory will not work with the Bible.
The Bible clearly tells us that God was active in this creation.
It's not as though God made trillions of atoms and then over
billions of years we just arrived at this universe that
God made all the atoms that exist and then we just somehow
got here. I remember one of my professors
in college saying that would be as crazy as taking one of
Shakespeare's plays, cutting up every single letter in the play,
putting it in a giant container, throwing it up in the air, and
then when it fell back down, thinking it would form back into
the original play. You could throw it up in the air
for four and a half billion years and you would never arrive
back at that original play. We all know this to be true.
And let's be clear, the universe is far more complex than a
Shakespearean play. The human body alone is far more
complex than a Shakespearean play.
We didn't arrive here over 4 1/2 billion years by just chance.
God did this. God created this.
Now if God did the creating, what did he create with, right?
If I create a ceramic bowl, if you, if if you see a ceramic
bowl in my house and somebody says, where'd you get that bowl?
And I said, I made it right. You don't assume I just said
exist. You assume I use some clay,
don't you? You assume I use some kind of
material to make this bowl. What did God create with?
This is where we get the doctrine called ex nahilo.
Ex nahilo, it's a Latin term, means out of nothing.
God created out of nothing. He did not need clay to make
this world. He did not need energy to make
this world. He created out of nothing.
Brothers and sisters, let that doctrine of ex nihilo be a great
comfort to you. Let it be a great comfort when a
trial seems impossible, when the womb has been called barren,
when the cancer diagnosis is terminal, when the marriage has
felt hopeless, when the addict has been labeled unredeemable,
when the dream is considered unreachable.
Do not lose sight of this reality.
God made this out of nothing. He can take your nothing and
make something out of it. That's what He does. 4th part in
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The heavens and the earth. The Bible is clear that God made
everything. The only thing that wasn't made
is the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy
Spirit. The three of them have existed
for all of eternity, but everything else has been
created. Heavens and earth are hand
deities to refer to this whole universe as we know it, John
writes. All things were made through Him
and without Him was not anything made that was made.
John 14. Now before we move on to verse
2, this this verse one does raise two last questions that I
want to raise now. One scientific and one
philosophical, one scientific, one philosophical, scientific
question. There's a question that
everybody wants to ask. Did God use evolution in his
creating process? When God made this world, did he
use evolution in his creating process?
There was an article published a few weeks ago.
Some of you may have seen, I'm not sure, there was an article
published a few weeks ago entitled This Creationism is Not
as Common as You Think. That was the name of the
article. Creationism is not as common as
you think. Pew Religious Landscape survey
asked this question. Here's the question.
Which statement about the development of human life on
earth comes closest to your view?
And they give you 3 statements. Number one, humans have evolved
over time due to processes such as natural selection.
God or a higher power has no role in this process.
That's the kind of a pure evolution view.
Statement 2 Humans have evolved over time due to processes that
were guided or allowed by God or a higher power.
This is kind of a intelligent design view, sort of.
And then three humans have existed in their present form
since the beginning of time. This is called the creationist
view. Of the 37,000 respondents that
took this 37,000, 33% took view. 133% had a pure evolution view.
Many of these were evangelicals. 48% took view 2, the intelligent
design. Only 17% took view 3, the
creationist view. I am not going to wade in the
Muddy Waters of evolution, but here's what I'm going to say.
Church family, I want to warn you, although there are some
parts of evolution that are true, we see, you know, birds
adapting to their environment and so forth and so on.
Although there are some parts that are true, most of it is
godless. Most of evolution is godless.
It's void of God. Be careful.
That's the scientific question. Here's the philosophical
question. Why did God create the heavens
and the earth? Never stop and wonder that.
Yeah, I mean, the philosophical question is why is there
something rather than nothing? Why does something exist rather
than nothing? Let's be first clear why God
didn't create the universe? It wasn't because he was needy.
It wasn't because he was lonely. It wasn't because he was bored.
He wasn't up there in the heavens.
And he said, you know what? It's been trillions and
trillions of years. Why don't we make something?
He wasn't needy. He wasn't lonely.
He wasn't bored. Paul says he is not served by
human hands as though he needed anything.
So why did he? Why did God make this universe?
We're only given one answer in Scripture, Isaiah 43.
Six to seven. Bring my sons from afar, and my
daughters from the ends of the earth.
Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my
glory, Everything on this planet, everything in the
heavens, down to the most distant star that exists from
the black Ant, all the way to the peak of Mount Everest.
All of it was created to bring glory to God.
All of it. Verse 2 told you we got a lot to
get to. I'll move faster, don't worry.
Verse 2 The earth was without form and void and darkness was
over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering
over the face of the waters. Now what does this first
statement mean? The earth was without form and
void. What does that mean?
There's no consensus on to what exactly these two terms mean,
but based on my research, I think the best answer is this.
This is my best answer I could get from reading way more about
this than I ever wanted to. God initially made a planet.
He initially made a planet, but not the planet as we know it.
So what it says the earth was without form and void.
He made the earth, but it's not the planet that we as we know
it. It basically was a desert
wasteland. It was an uninhabitable desert
wasteland. As much as Elon Musk thinks that
we're going to live on Mars, I'm sorry, Mars, along with all
other planets are uninhabitable. So, and I think they always will
be. So there is a planet that exists
without form and void it. Is it like our Earth exists?
Like the other planets exist? They're uninhabitable.
Darkness was over the face of the deep.
What's interesting here is that darkness is given an identity.
Did you notice that? I mean, up at this point we
don't even know what is. You know, imagine if you had no
concept of what darkness was and somebody said darkness, you're
like, well, what is that? Darkness is given an identity
here. Here's another philosophical
question. Did God create darkness?
It's interesting question, isn't it?
Scholars and philosophers debate over this, but the Lord says in
Isaiah 45, seven I form light and I create darkness.
Since God is light, we have to assume that in some sense God
does in fact create darkness. Why?
Darkness would not exist if God didn't create it.
If if God is light, there's only light.
So for darkness to exist in some philosophical sense, God has to
create it. The Spirit of God was hovering
over the face of the waters. What is that?
The Spirit of God here? Does this refer to the Holy
Spirit? If you have the NRSV
translation, it says the wind from God was hovering over the
Why does it say wind from God? The reason is because the Hebrew
word for spirit here ruah. It can be translated capital
spirit or lowercase spirit, or wind or breath.
They all use the same Hebrew word.
But I think we should understand this as capital spirit, meaning.
I think this is, yes, I think this is the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the
waters. Now I want you to notice this.
Darkness was over the face of the waters.
There was darkness over the face of the waters, but what else?
So was the Spirit of God. Did you catch that?
Darkness was over the face of the waters, but so was the
Spirit of God. Even in complete darkness the
Spirit of God was there. Remember what the psalmist said?
Psalm 1391112 If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, and
the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to
you. The night is bright as the day
for darkness is as light with you, brothers and sisters, even
in your darkest hour, the Spirit of God is with you.
That's verse one and two. Now we get to day one, day one,
verses 3 to 5. This is day one, verses 3 to 5.
And God said, let there be light, and there was light.
And God saw the light was good. God separated the light from the
darkness. God called the light day, and
the darkness he called night. And there was evening.
There was morning. The first day.
God said, let there be light. These are the first recorded
words of God. Now surely the among the Trinity
they had spoken to each other, but for our vantage point, these
are the first recorded words of our God.
Let there be light. It's a adjust of command, which
is a way of saying when you translate adjust of command, you
say let there. It's almost like a it's a
command, but it's like an Invitational command.
God says let there be light. Isn't it interesting that the
first command that God gives is that there should be light?
Everything about that John tells us that God is light.
It's as if God is telling us something about himself with
what he commands. First He wants us to know, like
this is who I am, let there be light.
And I want you to notice what happened when God said let there
be light. What happened there was light.
If I were stuck in the darkness and I needed light, I could say
all night long let there be light and there would never be
light. But when God says let there be
light, there is light. I like what Charles Hodges
writes. If the special work of
regeneration and the narrow sense of the word be the effect
of Almighty power, then it cannot be resisted any more than
an act of creation. The effect follows immediately
on the will of God, as when He said, let there be light, and
light was. In other words, we see the
effectual calling of God here. When God says let there be
light, light Harkins to his bed, it does not refuse him.
And the same is true for you and me.
Prior to salvation, we were blind.
All of us were blind. We were in complete darkness.
And as Paul writes in Second Corinthians 4/6, for God, who
said let light shine out of darkness, has shown into our
hearts to give light the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. When we were saved, God spoke to
our souls and he said let there be light.
That's what salvation is. He speaks to the darkness of
your soul and he says, let there be light and there is light.
And you see for the first time God looked at the light and what
did he say? He said it's good, God solved
the light was good. This is the first of seven times
in this chapter that God will declare what He creates to be
good. Let there be a reminder.
People often you look at this world, they say what a crummy
world it is not a crummy world. It is a good world.
We made it crummy. Notice God determines what is
good. If God calls it good, it is
good. And he said the light was good.
Did you notice He didn't call the darkness good?
He didn't say the darkness was good.
He said the light was good. You see, the world loves
darkness. We love the light.
We are people of the light. God separated the light from the
darkness five times. In this chapter we see God
naming his creation. He calls the light day.
He calls the darkness night. He calls the expanse heaven.
He calls the dry land earth. He calls the water seas.
In chapter 1, we see God naming His creation, but after chapter
1, God will entrust naming to man.
Two lingering questions that people will ask about this.
Number one, how can God create light when he hasn't made the
sun or the other stars yet? How can he create light?
God doesn't need the sun or the stars to have light.
He is light. He is the source of all light.
God is not dependent on the sun. The sun is dependent on God.
And #2 second question, is it possible that day here is
metaphorical and not literal when it says day one and then
all these days, it's possible that those are metaphorical days
and not literal days. This is how some people will
attempt to reconcile old Earth with Genesis 1.
Some people will say that each day was like a billion years or
so, you know, and so that that they day was meant like an age
and therefore that's how they reconcile old Earth here.
To be sure, day can take a metaphorical interpretation.
Let's be clear about that. When people say in that day,
well, that day in that sentence can mean like a long time.
You say in that day, that could be like 100 years or 1000 years.
But given that the narrator, I don't think that it will work
to, to, to make this metaphor. I, I, I just personally don't.
And here's why. Because the narrator says there
was evening and there was morning.
There was evening and morning the first day.
I think we are to understand day here as we know it as one day.
That's just my interpretation. It's OK if you take a different
one. I think we should take these as
literal 6 days, Day 2 versus 6 day.
And God said, let there be expanse in the midst of the
waters. Let it separate the waters from
the waters. And God made the expanse and
separate the waters that were under the expanse from the
waters that were above the expanse.
And it was so God called the expanse heaven.
And there was evening and there was morning the second day.
Now, before day 2, it appears that there was no separation
between the waters on the face of the earth and the sky above,
right? There was no separation between
the waters on the face of the earth and the waters in the sky
above. So God created an expanse, or
you could translate this canopy. He created a, a canopy, if you
will, and there would be waters below this canopy and there'd be
waters above this canopy. All right, God called this
expanse, this canopy heaven. We call it the sky, right?
We look up the sky. That's the expanse.
So we have waters on the surface of the Earth through like, you
know, seas and oceans and rivers and lakes, streams.
And we have waters above the surface of the Earth, in the
atmosphere, through clouds. God makes oceans and seas below,
and he makes cirrus and stratus and cumulus clouds above.
What we see from day 2 is that God is a God of order.
He's a God of order. Yes, sometimes we have tidal
waves, sometimes we have monsoons, but for the most part
the oceans are not rising into the sky, and for the most part
the clouds rain with a sustainable amount of water.
There is an order to this. God has ordered things.
Well, one of the things I love, if you've ever seen the movie
Interstellar, I was one of my favorite movies.
I love it because they go to these other planets and like
they go to the first planet they go to.
It's just covered in water. And you look at that, you're
like, why is that not our planet?
What like why? Why is our planet not like that?
Why? Why do we have such order in our
planet? Because God has designed it that
way. God is sustaining it that way.
Look at day three, verses 9 to 13.
And God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered
together in one place, and let the dry land appear.
And it was so God called the dry land earth, and the waters that
were gathered together he called seas.
And God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth
sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit, trees
bearing fruit, and which is their seed, each according to
its kind on the earth. And it was.
So the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed
according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit and
which is their seed, each according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there
was morning the third day. Now, before day three, it
appears that there was no separation between water and
land. So on day two, he separates the
water from below and the water above.
But then on the water on the surface of the earth, there was
no separation of water and land on the earth.
That's at least how I read it. Perhaps waters covered all the
land on the earth, But God says let the waters be gathered
together in one place. That's pretty cool.
If you, if you ever like put water on, you're like
countertop. You can't just take your hand
and like just gather, you know, like in like you stay right
here, right? It just, it just spreads.
But God has the ability to just say you're going to go here,
you're going to go here and you're going to go here.
And so God forms the Pacific Ocean, He forms the Atlantic and
the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean, the Arctic Ocean.
He forms the Nile River, he forms the Amazon River, he forms
the Mississippi River, he forms the the Philippine Sea and the
Coral Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
Again we see God is a God of order and his creation.
Yes, from time to time we do get floods, but for the most part,
the oceans and the rivers and the seas, they stay in their
place. Why?
Why do they stay in their place? I love how God describes this in
the book of Job. God says to Job, who shut in the
sea with doors when it burst out from the womb.
When I make clouds it's garment, and thick darkness it's
swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it, and set bars and
doors, and said thus far you shall come, and no farther, and
here shall your proud waves be stayed.
You see one of the things that climatologist don't understand
is that God is controlling this, not man.
God is in control not man. God called the dry land earth
and he called the waters that were gathered together seas and
for the second time God called it good.
Now, even though it was good, God always wants to make things
better. God is an artist.
He's at. I would argue he's the most
creative being in the universe. He loves and enjoys beauty.
And so when he looked at the land, he said this needs some
decoration. He decided to decorate the land,
he said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed
and fruit trees bearing fruit. Notice according to its own
kind. Did you see that?
Now we don't have time to get into that, but I'm actually
going to argue that when he says according to its own kind, that
actually argues against evolution.
Each according to its own kind. Scientists estimate that there
are roughly 400,000 different types of plant species on Earth.
400,000 different types of plant species.
God made redwoods and oaks and pine trees.
He made roses and cherry blossoms and orchids.
He made orange trees and lemon trees and apple trees.
He made tea leaves and coffee beans.
He decorated this world with all kinds of vegetation.
You know what's interesting is that God made food before he
made anything to consume the food.
Not only did God give us food, He gave us an abundance of it.
He gave us an abundance of variety.
God could have just given us mana.
That's all. We, you know, we eat mana the
rest of our lives. We have nothing but mana.
Aren't you thankful that God made all kinds of vegetation?
It's as if God wanted us to see in His creation His goodness.
Every time we drink coffee, we taste the goodness of God.
Every time we eat a mango, we taste the goodness of God.
God saw all that he made, and he said it is good day 4 verses 14
to 19. And 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 lights in the expanse of the
heavens to give light upon the earth.
And it was so. And God made the 2 great lights,
the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to
rule the night. And the stars, God set them in
the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule
over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from
the darkness. And God saw that it was good,
and there was evening and there was morning, the 4th day.
So it appears that God takes the general concept of light.
So you know, the idea of like God made light, He's already
made light, but now God takes the general concept of light and
it gives it a particular form, a particular form.
And a particular form comes in two great lights.
The greater light, what we know is the sun to rule the day.
The lesser light, what we know as the moon and the other stars,
which we yes, we all know the moon doesn't shine, It just
reflects the moon and the stars to rule the night.
Their purpose is twofold. A to separate the day from the
night and B to keep time. Look what God said.
Let them be for signs and for seasons, for days and for years.
Now this raises 2 interesting philosophical and theological
questions A why did God want day and night and B did God create
time here? And if so, why did he create
time? Let's take this one at a time.
Hey, why did God want day and night?
Everything about that? Like, like what I know, I mean,
I'm not a big fan of the night. I know our, our culture.
Y'all love the night. Y'all stay up late.
Y'all, you hate the day. Like the sun comes up.
You're like, oh man, more sleep. God, God could have given us two
sons. We have one son that we rotate
around, but God could have given us two sons, one on each side
and, and, and, and, you know, it would just always be, it would
always be day. Why did you give us night?
It? Why did it?
I mean, even if it was day, it would still be cloudy in
Seattle. But why did he want us to have
night? It seems to me that God wanted
us to have rest built into our existence.
God could have made us so that we never need sleep.
I know some of you, like y'all love sleep.
Many of you love sleep. I, I I hate sleep.
I, I if I could choose to not sleep, I would choose not to
sleep. I I I'd rather not sleep.
I do it out of necessity. Why did God want us to have
sleep? I think to feel our weakness.
I think to feel our limitations. And so my guess is that God made
night for this purpose because he knew he was going to build
sleep in and he knew he would build night in for this purpose.
That's my guess. B.
Did God create time here? And if so, why did God create
time? God said that one of the
purposes of the sun and the moon is to be for signs and for
seasons and for days and for years.
So did he, yes. I think we can argue that God
created time here. Time is just is it's just a
concept, right? I think God did create time
here. But why?
Why did God create time? I mean, I don't, I don't know if
we'll have time in heaven, right?
There's no sun in the heaven. There's no earth rotation.
So I mean, I'm sure we'll have a progression, right?
We'll have a earlier and a later, but will we have a
concept of time in heaven? I don't know why did God give us
time. I think there are many reasons
to this, but I'll give you 1, the Psalmist writes.
Teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of
wisdom. I think time is a framework that
God uses that we would know our finiteness when we embrace this
reality that I am finite, I am not eternal, I will not live
forever. It is then that we get a heart
of wisdom once again. God saw the sun, He saw the
moon, He saw the stars, and he considered time and he said all
of it is good. Day five, last day.
We're going to look at this morning.
Look at verses 20 to 23 and God said, let the water swarm with
swarms of living creatures, let birds fly above the earth across
the expanse of the heavens. So God created the great sea
creatures and every living creature that moves with which
the water swarm according to their kinds, and every winged
bird according to its kind. God saw that it was good and God
bless them saying be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters
and the seas and let birds multiply on the earth.
And there was evening and there was morning the 5th day.
On the 5th day God made creatures of the Seas and
creatures of the air. To date, we have discovered
around 242,000 different marine species. 242,000 Many scientists
think that this may only be 10% of what's actually out there.
Because the oceans are massive. That is only.
So. Not only did God want incredible
variety with vegetation, he wanted the same variety in the
oceans. There are some weird creatures
in the oceans. My my wife loves going to
aquariums and seeing all these different species.
She like really nerds out on it. I don't know if you guys know
that Lauren is a huge science nerd.
She she loves it And I'm like, that's weird.
That's a weird looking creature. I'm sorry, I don't know how you
like, but here's what I will say.
If you ever watch blue planet where they go into the ocean,
all you have to do is is watch that for like an hour and
you'll. There is limitless creativity in
our God. The the the oceans, the colors
and the variety. It testifies to God's
creativity. God made everything from the
blue whale to the coral reef. In addition, God created the the
birds to fill the sky. Isn't it interesting that God
wanted animals all over? He wants animals in the waters.
He wants animals on the land. He wants animals in the sky.
There are about 11,000 different types of birds, which includes
the woodpecker in my neighborhood.
That's driving me nuts. Now what's interesting is that
God gave them a blessing. He gave them a blessing in the
form of a command. God bless them saying be
fruitful and multiply. I want to draw your attention to
that phrase. God bless them.
Animals and humans do not reproduce because of science or
Mother Nature. We reproduce because God has
blessed us to reproduce. That's why we're able to
reproduce. God has blessed us to be able to
do this. God commands all marine life,
fill the waters and the seas. He commands the birds to
multiply on earth. There is a woodpecker in my
neighborhood that has perched itself on top of my neighbor's
metal vent that's on top of their house.
All morning long he hits this metal vent driving me nuts.
My wife and I were going for a walk the other day.
I thought he was looking for food in the wrong place.
I was like, brother, you're looking for food in the wrong
place, you're not getting through that.
So I researched it. Turns out he wasn't isn't
looking for food, he's looking for a mate.
It's a mating call. He's being obedient to the
command God gave him. After God saw all the creatures
in the skies and all the creatures in the seas, God once
again said it was good. So as we close, we have a
planet. We got a planet.
We have oceans and rivers and seas.
We have clouds, we have land, we have all kinds of vegetation, we
have a sun and a moon and stars. We have all kinds of marine
life. We have all kinds of birds in
the sky. But God is not finished yet.
He waits until the 6th and final day of creation to reveal His
image. God has not yet revealed His
image on the 6th and final day He will, which we'll get to next
week. Let's bring.