Tonight we're going to talk about the first chapter of Genesis and we're basically just going to go through it and kind of do a study of the first chapter of Genesis. Many, many people have gotten away from that, not only in the graduate level studies in universities, you know, they're very much Darwinian in their presuppositions of the origin of the earth and the origin of mankind. But also now we have the same evolutionary thought and theory being taught in the junior high and grade school levels. And at one time the creation was taught in schools. Now it's considered to be Well, it's against the law in many places to teach the theory of creation as they call it. It's not a theory by the way. Creation is a fact. And so there's a humanistic philosophy out there that says that we are evolving and things are getting better and better. It doesn't quite mix with the second law of thermodynamics. It says that the earth is getting older and older and wearing out like an old rug. I know I'm getting older and older and wearing out. I can look in the mirror and see my wrinkles. I used to didn't have to wear glasses. My wife starts putting oil on my bald head saying maybe this will help you with your hair situation. And she's really telling me I don't like old Baldy anymore. And when you see me walking down the street and I kind of have a little limp. I didn't always limp like that. You know, when your knees hurt and you're getting arthritis. You know, people say the things are getting better. It just blows my mind a little bit. Okay, Mark, why don't we just read through this and then we'll come back and we're going to make some comments about it. It's not a real long chapter. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void. And darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw in the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day and the darkness he called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters. Let it divide the water from the waters. And God made the firmament and divide the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so. And God called the firmament heaven in the evening and the morning of the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and in gathering together the waters called these seas, and God saw that it was good. God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, and herb-yielding seed, and tree-yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed was in itself upon the earth, and it was so. The earth brought forth grass and herb-yielding seed after his kind, and tree-yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his kind, and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be the signs of the seasons for days and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth. To rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness, and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, the fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters and the seas, and let the fowls multiply on the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth a living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing and beasts of the earth after his kind and so. And God made the beasts of the earth after his kind and cattle after their kind and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and God saw that it was good. God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, and the image of God created him. Male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. God said, Behold, I have given you every herb, bearing seed which is upon the face of the earth and every tree, and which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat. To every beast of the earth and every fowl of the air and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat, and it is so. And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good in the evening and the morning of the sixth day. Well, there's an awful lot in that first chapter of Genesis, I'll tell you. We could be here for a long time. We're not going to spend all night here, because one, I'm too tired, and two, I know you're tired. We just got back from singing at a nursing home tonight, and this little lady decided to go around in the wheelchair and have a little speed contest right in the middle of the concert. Ran into my guitar and knocked it over on the floor. It was quite an interesting evening but anyway. In the beginning God. In the beginning God. Many people when they start talking about the origins of the earth, the origins of the man, they'll say in the beginning bang. They call it the Big Bang Theory. Or they'll call it spontaneous generation. Or they'll call it, you know, they've got this new term out there. What these new liberals are trying to do is trying to marry evolution with what they call, oh, they've got all kinds of fancy terms for it. But, you know, intelligent design. intelligent design but at the same time the intelligent design theorists deny the 6 day literal 24 hour period time frame for creation but he says in the beginning God in the beginning God created God created He took something and made it out of nothing And he created the heaven and the earth. Now I want you to read Psalm 8 verse 3 for me. Psalm 8 verse 3. We're going to be looking up some passages tonight and referring to some other passages in scripture. Psalm 8 verse, well, stay with me now. Psalm 8 verse 3. when I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers the moon and the stars as thou hast ordained what is man that thou art mindful of him the next verse says but here he says that he has ordained these things the stars with his fingers with his fingers ok I'm going to read in Isaiah The 44th chapter, and you don't have to turn there but I'll read this. It says, Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer, he that formed thee from the womb. I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth above the earth by myself. God didn't have an apprentice alongside him showing him how to create the world. He did it all of himself. He goes on and he says, and the earth was without form and void. Darkness was upon the face of the deep. The Spirit, notice there, is a capitalized Spirit of God. It's not little S, it's big S. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. That's speaking there of the Holy Spirit. We have here the evidence of the Trinity. Because we have the Father and here we have the Spirit. And we're going to see that later on, it says that in the 26th verse there, God said, let us make man in our image. Who's the us? Well, it isn't just God the Father. And it isn't just the Holy Spirit, but it's Jesus Christ. So it's all three people in the Trinity, let us make man. He says, God said, let there be light and there was light. Well, that tells me that before he said, let there be light, there was no light. It was all darkness. It was all darkness. There was no light. The universe was absent of any light. And God saw the light. It was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. Now isn't that interesting? I've talked to scientists and I've talked to people that say that one of the miraculous things with certain laser technology is you can bend light. You can actually bend the light. Well God here did more than bend the light. It says that he separated or divided the light from the darkness. Can you imagine that? How in the world? That's pretty powerful isn't it? And God called the light day and the darkness he called night. You know, one thing about God, He's always pretty black and white, isn't He? No gray, no shades of gray. There used to be a song we'd sing called Shades of Gray. God is... He's absolute. He believes in absolutes. He's not namsy-pamsy. and it says here and God said let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters well we see that in many passages in scripture about the firmament God made the firmament and he divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament and it was so God called the firmament heaven and the evening and the morning was the second day. Notice every time he says the evening and the morning. And that's a 24 hour period. That's the evening and the morning is a 24 hour period. And God called the firmament heaven and the evening and the morning was the second day. And God said, let the waters of heaven be gathered together unto a place and let the dry land appear. God said that. God said, let the dry land appear. What an amazing power. That's more powerful than Star Trek. And Scotty saying, beam me up Scotty. What was the other guy's name on that Star Trek thing? Spock. Spock. The guy with the pointed ears, right? Well, here we see God saying, Let the dry land appear. And God called the dry land Earth. This old Earth that we're on. This planet Earth. Not Neptune or Uranus or Jupiter or Saturn. Pluto The Earth Earth Notice that that is capitalized there Call the dry land Earth And the gathering together of the waters called he Seas That's capitalized too And God saw that it was good God did not hate his what he created He didn't hate what he created he saw that it was good and God said let the earth bring forth grass well and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind is seated in itself upon the earth and it was so and the earth brought forth grass now notice every time he says in here After his kind. That's very important. After his kind. After his kind. What that means is species bringing forth like species. In direct contradistinction to what the evolutionary people teach is that you can have one species turn into a different species. You can have a monkey turning into a man. Okay? the ape man turning into human. And many times throughout this whole portion in Genesis it says after his kind, after his kind, after his kind. And it says in the 14th verse, God said let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for and let them be for the lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. That was pretty practical. We had darkness and now you have two lights, one to rule the day and one to rule the night, the sun and the moon. God made two great lights and he says I love the way he says, and he made the stars also. Big deal. He also made the stars. That's a magnificent feat. He made the stars also. Hundreds of thousands of millions of stars he made. Then it says God sent them in the firmament. Can you imagine? God just sent these hundreds of thousands of stars right up there in the firmament. and he says to rule over the day and over the night to divide the light from the darkness and God saw that it was good in the evening the morning of the fourth day and God said let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have life and he talks about all the creatures that he created now people read this and a lot of people think it's a fairy tale They don't believe it any more than they believe the story of Jonah and the whale, or the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or Daniel and the Lion's Den, or the virgin birth, or Jonah and the whale, or the crossing of the Red Sea, the parting of the Red Sea. They don't believe this either. They say it's all just, you know, it's a cute little story, but they don't believe it. He says now, he says, let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind. Okay? After his kind, after his kind, after his kind, after his kind. And he says, Let us make man in our image. Now, a lot of people promote that God has created man in his image today. God created our original parents in his image. But ever since our original parents sinned, their image has been tainted. Much more than tainted. They are born and conceived in sin. they are born and conceived spiritually dead and God is not spiritually dead God is spiritually alive and God created man in his own image and the image of God created he him male and female created he them there is a long story we could talk about people talk today about that people can change their sex, their gender. God made a distinctive difference in the sexes. He created male and He created female. He did not create she-male. He did not create any she-males. Or He did not create any fe-he's. He created male and female. And he told them to be fruitful and multiply. Homosexuals cannot be fruitful and multiply. They cannot procreate. It's an impossibility. Okay? And... Now... We're going to look at a few passages of scripture here. I think we'll find interesting. I'm going to have you look them up, Mark. Look in Romans 1.23. Read that for me. Romans 1.23. It says he created all of these beasts and creeping things. But what does he say in Romans 21-23? He changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like the corruptible man and the birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. These people decided they were going to start. going after these created things and then God was against that we look in the Psalms we see many times in the Psalms talk about the creation in the 8th chapter the 6th verse says thou madest him speaking of his Adam and Eve, thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet, speaking of Christ there. And it says that all sheep and oxen and bees to the field and fowl to the air and the fish to the sea and whosoever passeth through the paths of the sea. He's created all of these things. He's created all of them. Go back to Psalms Mark and look in the 33rd chapter of Psalms and the 9th verse. 33rd chapter of Psalms? 33rd chapter of Psalms. 33rd chapter and the 9th verse. For he spake and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast. That's what happened when he created the world. He spake and it was done. He can't command it and it stood fast. What he said it was. Now let's look in the 74th Psalm. and the 16th verse. The day is thine, the night also is thine, thou hast prepared the light and the sun. David here, well actually I think this was a Masculine of Asap Psalm, but he said He gives the glory to God who created it. When he says the day is thine, the night also is thine. Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. He goes on in the next verse. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth. Thou hast made summer and winter. Now we go on over to the 136th Psalm. 136th Psalm. You can't read through the Psalms and be an evolutionist. You can't read through the Psalms and hold the Psalms and be an evolutionist. That's for sure. Now read the 5th verse of the 136th Psalm. 5th verse. Yeah. to him that by wisdom made the heavens for his mercy and the earth for heaven yeah he says to him who alone doeth great wonders to him that stretcheth out the earth above the waters to him that made great lights verse 7 the sun to rule by day the moon and the stars to rule by night ok and notice in this psalm he brings together All of those things I talked about earlier, or many of the things, about Smite in Egypt, the first born, and he talks about in the 13th verse how he delivered him out of the Red Sea, the 14th how he made Israel to pass through the Red Sea, Pharaoh and his host, and so on. The psalmist certainly knew that there was a correlation between believing in creation and believing in all these other things that God had done. They were all tied together. So, now let's see here. Let's go and look at the 104th Psalm. 104th Psalm and read the 26th verse there. 26th verse, right. There go the ships, there is that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein. Yeah. He says in the 25th verse, he says, So is this great and wide sea, when are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts, Oh Lord, how manifold are thy works and wisdom, hast thou made them all. 24th verse says, the earth is full of thy riches. And he goes on and says, in the 19th verse, he says, he appointed the moon for seasons, and the sun knoweth his going down, thou makest darkness in his night, Wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth, the lions roar after their prey and seek their meat from God. The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together and lay down in their beds. And so, here's a proclamation that God is very active in all these things. Very active in all these things. Back to the 136th Psalm again. If you look in that, he says, read the 7th and 9th verse. The 7th through the 9th verse. The Hen made great lies for his mercy endures forever. to rule by day for his mercy endureth forever. A million stars to rule by night for his mercy endureth forever. Back in the eighth psalm, I'm going to read you. He says here, Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. who has set thy glory above the heavens when I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained you know this is something that we don't hear much about anymore in our society they don't want to talk about creation they want to talk about evolution they want to talk about carbon dating they want to talk about you know something being created millions and millions and millions of years ago I remember that one guy from Australia, I forget his name now, he used to always say, well were you there? Were you there when all this happened? So it's good for us to go back to creation and see what the good Lord did in all of his works. All of his works. Honor and glorify him. extol him for what he's done by the work of his hands. Man didn't create himself. Sometimes man would like to think he created himself. But if we go back to the 19th psalm, we see there in the 19th psalm, go back there Mark to the 19th psalm and read the first verse for me. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament show His handiwork. That's right. The firmament shows His handiwork. It all is evident that God is alive and well today and He knows everything about everything because He created all of us. There's nothing he doesn't know about. He's sovereign over his own creation because he created it. And we need to give him the honor and glory in his creation. Father, we thank you for this first chapter of Genesis and what it tells us and what it shows us about your nature, your attributes, your power and your glory. Help us to always affirm the mighty power in creation and never deny it. and we pray that you would bring down these who are promoting evolution and Darwinian lies and that the earth is millions and millions of years old and that species change from one species to another and all of this that is absolutely prefabricated lies. Help us to hold on to the unadulterated truth that you did it all. And may your name be glorified in it. Amen.