and a greeting to each one that is here in the precious name of Jesus. Turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter one. There's times that after the service we talk about various things among us as brethren. One, not necessarily a request, but some while back the thought was of preaching on creation. And that is one of the reasons why we're turning to this passage this morning. Genesis chapter one. I would like to read the chapter and then come back to the message and the thoughts that I have prepared here. The title that I've given the message this morning is a bit lengthy and it's a firm foundation for the Christian's faith. a firm foundation for the Christian's faith. There is that need in our world today to have foundations that are solid, that aren't made of shifting sand. And there's also that need to have the younger generation that's coming on, children, grandchildren, youth, and others I think we need to periodically be reminded of the fundamentals of our Christian faith. What is it that we base our belief system on? Every person in the world looks at life through a certain lens, a perspective, a certain bias, and how we look at creation and Genesis chapters 1 through 11 has a huge impact on how we're going to live our life. Do we believe the account as it's given here in what we call the Bible? Or are we subtly and inadvertently being drawn to maybe a couple million years? Yeah, maybe that's what it took to bring this all to bear. Well, I think, I hope by the time we're finished here that we're convinced again, the children and all of us together, this is God's word, this is what he said, and we believe it. And that settles the matter. I'm primarily going to just focus on verses one and two, but I think just as a reminder, let's read the entire chapter. 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, 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 the light, and 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 waters from the waters. And God made the firmament and divided 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. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place. and let the dry land appear, and it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters called he seas, and God saw that it was good. And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth, and it was so. and the earth brought forth grass, and herb-yielding seed after his kind, and the 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 firmaments of the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament above 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. and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and 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 and 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 in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. and the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind, and it was so. And God made the beast 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. And 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. And God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he them, male and female created he them. and God blessed them and God said unto them be fruitful and multiply and 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 moveth upon the earth and God said behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat, and it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." You know the story. Those of you and us who've grown up in Christian homes, Sunday schools, and Bible schools, we've been exposed, taught the creation story. And so again, back to the title. Are a firm foundation for the Christian's faith. What does your faith rest on? Well, we know that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the by the Word of God but the aspect of building a life and building a belief system building a bias or a perspective as how to see the rest of the world rests on a good foundation much like the houses that are built and buildings that are built here in this area there is a foundation that needs to go in and that foundation be a good idea if it's a pretty good solid foundation if we want the building to stand But here is that fact. Our faith must rest in the belief that God is the creator of the world. Evolution is not the answer. You know it's kind of, you go to national parks, you go to creation museum and it's, Creation Museum in Answers in Genesis is not a millions of years type situation. Other museums that you visit will take the evolution route and since they don't want God in the picture obviously all these things that have come to pass must have taken millions and millions of years for it to evolve to its current state. Well we reject that out of hand because our belief system what we believe how we believe why we believe is based on what God says of his creation and you notice that several times throughout God looked at what he had made and he said it was good it was good and we still say today it is good So the order that we see in the universe certainly strongly suggests a higher power, just the evidence that we see around us. And we as Christians, no doubt, we don't doubt the fact it was God that made the heavens and the earth. Everything that's in it comes from the mind and the hand and the breath of God. and we want to, again, just reiterate that fact. It's almost like I'm preaching to the choir here this morning. You know that, and okay, Phil, you could've found something better to preach on. This is foundational truth, and I need to rest my, build my case, build my life on the fact that it was God at the beginning, it's God in the present, and this same God will be in the future. There's a thread that runs through here, and I wanna hitch, quote, my wagon to that engine and be a part of that train the train of believers who believe God's Word as it's written and we're on our way to glory. And then as pastors and parents and as teachers, I believe strongly we need to reinforce this and not make apology for the creation story. Foundations, Psalm 11 verse 3 says this, David writing, if the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do? Now that verse is taken out of context as I just quoted it in the sense of if the foundations be destroyed. It's talking about the pillars of society. If innocent men are found guilty through the corruption and the vice of corrupt men who are in power, that is what that verse is referencing. If the foundation be destroyed, the foundations of society, the aspect of being innocent until proven guilty, if that is taken away and stripped away from us and anybody can be found guilty of whatever crime they choose to charge us with, that is the foundations being destroyed. In a spiritual sense, if there is no foundation, what are you going to build your life on? Matthew 7, 25, the end of the greatest sermon that was ever preached. It was the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus comes to the end there, and he says, and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon the house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a what? A rock, and that rock is a foundation. Jesus said that house is going to be hit from all angles, from the side wind, from the above rain, and things are gonna come. But he says that house is gonna stand. Why? The foundation was a secret. And it's the same way in our lives. If your foundation is built on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're in good shape. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord. I think it's in our book somewhere, our song book. 1 Corinthians then chapter 3 verse 11, Paul writing to the church at Corinth says, For other foundation can no man lay than what is already laid, and that is Christ Jesus. So the Bible speaks about foundations, and that's what, in essence, we're speaking on this morning. So let's go back to Genesis chapter one, and the first two verses primarily. There it says, in the beginning God created heaven and earth. Simple, easy to understand language. In the beginning. What beginning? Was that when God started? No. God was present even before that. I already said, I thought this, there's three responses when you try to figure things out. Okay God, God's spirit, they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. God then but made all this that we see, it's like how can he? How did that happen? So I suggest you either go insane Either you become a Christian or you become an atheist as you are faced with the facts that we have here in Genesis. In the beginning God created the heaven and earth. That is the record that we have and it's a foundation on which Christians build their life, their belief system upon. That fact that we by faith believe it was God then who did all of this. what the name God means as Moses used it in this passage. I'm going to do a little bit of teaching here this morning and help unpack the package here. So our English version says, in the beginning, God created. And that word God that the translators use kind of carries the idea of a single entity because When we would say something that someone is doing, I would say LeVon fixes broken engines. The word, the name LeVon indicates one single person. Philip bottles honey, that's just one person. But here in the beginning, God created, we get the idea because of the way that we have looked at things and I think maybe our culture environment it's as if one person did this and the interesting thing is this word God comes from a Hebrew name and God has many names in the Hebrew language Years ago I taught a course at Calvary Bible School called the Names and Attributes of God and we would look at various names that God has revealed himself to mankind in scripture. A gradual unveiling of his nature and character and with each of those unveilings there's another name that is given to describe God. You might say how can that be? Well just look at yourself, just think. I see brother Leroy back there. Brother Leroy is a man. That's one name for him. He's a husband. Okay. And he's a father. Okay. And he's a grandfather. Wow, so he has different names, but it's the same person. He is also a nephew, he's probably an uncle, a grandson. You start to think there's various names or we would say words that describe the same person. And it's much the same with God in the Hebrew language. There's Jehovah Jireh, God will provide. There's other words that the Hebrew uses to describe this infinite being that we quote in English call God. And I like a lot of the information. If you're interested in a more in-depth study, Nathan Stone has a book, a small book, paperback, Names of God, that would be an interesting study in this area. So the Hebrew word that Moses was using here is the name Elohim. Elohim in the Hebrew. And throughout every time it's used here in Genesis, which is in 26 verses out of 31, the English word God correlates with the Hebrew name Elohim. And that That name, Elohim, carries the idea and the connotation of a plurality. It's not just one person, it is more than one. And the actual dictionary, the concordance would say, the meaning of Elohim, it means, quote, God's in the ordinary sense, but specifically used in the plural. especially with the article of the supreme God. That's hard to pick up there, but the idea is given that in the Hebrew, the name Elohim would indicate there was more than one person present. Was it God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit? I've heard that said. I'm not going to elaborate on that. My primary point here is God for us means one person, generally speaking, but the name Elohim opens the door of our understanding there was more than one person at that event we call creation. For instance, in verse 26 here in this chapter it says, Moses is writing and he says, and God said, let us make man in our image. So who is God talking about? If he was just a singular entity, who's the us? and who is the hour which lends credence to that, verifies the fact that Elohim indeed indicates God the Father, God the Son, and it speaks about the Spirit of God moving on the face of the waters. Could it be that the Trinity was involved? Very likely. Now point number two then here is Elohim, as I mentioned, the letter EL. in Hebrew means God. And when there's a name that has EL in it, that name of that person or place has something to do with the actual name of God when Elohim is used. Okay, let's do a lesson here, not an object lesson, but just a lesson. The word Bethel first came about when Jacob was on the run from Esau. Esau had been swindle out of the birthright, he was angry. He said, he saw Jacob, when mom and dad die, I'm gonna kill you. Jacob is on the run. Rebecca makes preparation, said, you go to my brother, Bethuel. And Jacob is running from home. And on the way, he stops for the night, gathers stones for his pillow, imagine that. And there out in the backside of, wherever, night falls, Jacob goes to sleep, he's exhausted, but he has a dream. And in his dream, a ladder from heaven, angels descending and ascending. And it was so vivid a dream. that the next morning God is speaking to him and he is promising Jacob, Jacob, the land that you're on will someday be yours. Your descendants will be like innumerable. And Jacob suddenly realized this is no ordinary place. So he says, this is, and I quote, in Genesis 28, 17, it says, he was afraid and said, this is none other but the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. And he called the name of that place Bethel. Do a little digging, do some research. Beth El. He said it's the house of God. Beth in Hebrew is house. El is God, house God. This is the house of God. This is the very gateway or the doorway to heaven, he says. Bringing out that prefix, that E-L, those two little letters, when they're in a word, designate something. Means God is in the picture here. And so Bethel, house of God. Now go forward to Matthew 2, verse 1. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Bethlehem. The word Bethlehem. to English means nothing but in Hebrew again Beth El house of God Bethlehem house of Lehem is bread Jesus was born kind of sound like Ray Vanderlaan here now and some of this comes from his teaching but it's so fascinating Bethlehem house of bread that's where Jesus was born and later that very person that was born there said I am the bread of life Just two little snippets, maybe a few more yet before I stop here. Think of other names with L in them. Have you ever thought of the prophet Samuel? Samuel. The prophet Samuel. His name would mean heard by God. His mother named him that. What was his mother's plea and prayer? God, I'm barren. I want children. She cried that, a heart-rending cry, and God gave her children. God heard Samuel. You see the connection there? How about Elijah? We say Elijah. It'd be better in the Hebrew side of things to say Eliyah. You know what that word means? God is Yahweh. When you study these names, it just almost sends chills up and down my back, because God in his wisdom, all these things are somehow tied together, intertwined. It's not happenstance. God is a God of order, and his creation reflects it. Now, I want to use several scriptures And it's not exhaustive, but are there other scriptures and other men who would verify and validate the fact that they recognize God as the creator? Let's go on just a little journey. In John 1, John 1.1, one of the most explicit scriptures, passages that I could think of, It says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the word Word is capital W, so that's significant. So we would read that in the beginning was Jesus, if you wanted to do it that way. And Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God. Kind of a loose paraphrase there. So John, thousands of years later, says, in the beginning, that's creation, in the beginning was the word. In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was a part of that Elohim. That plural name of A dual, triple entity, a multiple entity if you will. Elohim suggest that, more than one person. Job 38 verses 4-7, after Job's three friends were done speaking and there was silence there, God starts speaking. Now this is God speaking, but listen to what He has to say. And he's asking Job some questions. Job, hitch up your pants. Job, get your thinking cap on. I've got some questions for you. And he says, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding, who hath laid the measures thereof? If thou knowest, who hath stretched out the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof? Then he says, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Do you get the picture? There were others present when this happened and I don't know, I can't explain it. Other than God is telling Job what happened there and understand the beauty of this. God is kind of peeling back the cover. He said, this is what was happening. You don't read hardly anywhere else in Scripture that I know of. When all the, what does it say? It says when the morning stars, oh yeah, that was the stars God created. Really? Were they created? Yeah, they were created. Is that what it refers to? Possibly. Stars singing. Do you know stars sing? They have put telescopes out there. I've heard it. It's recorded. Every star has a certain frequency. Maybe it was Morris Yoder that taught us that. There is a symphony of praise out there, unhearable to the human ear without amplification. When the morning stars sang together, but the next part, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Well, I'm not. I'm just bringing that up because to me it's like, wow. It wasn't just an isolated act and an isolated person. There was multiple entities involved at the creation. Romans 1 verse 20, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal Godhead, that they are without excuse." So Paul to the Romans is indicating Paul believed it. Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisee. He was a top of the class, magna cum laude. He was the best educated of his field. And this is what he says, the invisible things of him from the creation are clearly seen. Paul later in Acts chapter 17 verse 24 says this, when he was on Mars Hill, he said, God that made the world and all things therein, Paul is acknowledging God made it, and all the things that are in, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Psalm 92 verse 4, for thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work I will triumph in the works of thy hand. And again, in Psalm 102, 25, of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. Just voice after voice affirming it was God who did this. Isaiah 45, 18, for thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth and made it, he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited. Scientists are out there trying to find another Earth. Somewhere out there in that galaxy, billions of galaxies, surely somewhere out there, there's another Earth. I don't know. I seriously doubt it. Here it says, God is speaking to Isaiah. He formed the Earth and he formed it to be inhabited. Now granted, God might have a million other Earths out there, pet projects. I don't know, but I doubt it. But that's just my opinion. And he says, I am the Lord, there's none else. Nehemiah, listen to what Nehemiah says. 9.6, thou, even thou art God alone, thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and all that are therein, the sea and all that is therein, thou preservest them all, and the host of heaven worshipeth thee. And one more, Hebrews 11 verse 3, through faith, We understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. So that things which were, this last part, catch this. If you're sleeping, wake up. The things which are seen were not made with the things which do appear. Run it through your computer and it'll crash. The things that you see were made out of nothing. Basically, it's what he's saying. The things that we see were made out of nothing. That's what it says? If you don't have a high view of God and what he's capable of doing, I don't know what to do. Because this just simply is so awesome that God, well, we'll get to that next part here. God out of nothing made something. God out of nothing made something. Now, in verse two, here in this, in Genesis 1 verse two, it says the earth was without form and void. Again, there's probably various opinions here, but there's something very interesting that I discovered there. The word without form and void. The word form in Hebrew, I'm going to spell it this way in English so that we can pronounce it, t-o-h-o-o, tohu, without, form, tohu. And that comes from an unused root meaning to lie waste, a desolation, a desert, figuratively a worthless thing, in vain, confusion, empty place, without form, nothing, vain, naught, vanity, waste, wilderness. That's how Moses is describing this. The earth was without form. The earth was without tohu. But the next word then, and void, is bohu. T-O-H-O-O and B-O-H-O-O. So we have tohu and bohu without form and void. You'll probably remember that because it's a little unusual. But he uses two words. And void means from an unused root meaning to be empty, vacuity. Vacuum, vacuous, empty, space. An undistinguishable ruin, emptiness and void. The earth was without form and void. And as I think we would understand form and void in English, it doesn't differ that much from the Hebrew, but I like the, I think I'll forevermore remember Tohu and Bohu. because that's what those two words, that's where they come from in the Hebrew. Now there's six things that we notice here in the first two verses, and this I give credit to Matthew Henry. We already heard his being referred to this morning, probably my favorite commentator. When I go anywhere for meetings, several commentaries, and Matthew Henry's always along, deep-minded man. Anyhow, six things, I'll go through them quick and come back, touch on them just a bit more. that he says that are here in this passage in the first two verses. He said, well the first chapter, great variety, number one. Number two, great beauty. Number three, great exactness and accuracy. Number four, great power. Number five, great order. Number six, great mystery. Back to number one, there's great variety. This mind of God, this Elohim that created the heaven and the earth, Look around you. There's flowers of all kinds. There's birds of all kinds. There's animals of all kinds. There is a great variety. The mind of God crafted all of this. Number two, great beauty. He says that the blue sky and the green earth are beautiful to the human eye, and they are, and there's much more. You go to some of the national parks, you see the Grand Canyon, you see the Niagara Falls, you see the total eclipse, you see various things in nature. There's great beauty out there that God has made for mankind. Number three, there's great exactness and accuracy. Whether a person uses a telescope or a microscope, what he observes and discovers in the world of nature are works of art, works of splendor that far exceed anything man can make. You've probably seen a close-up of a microscope on a bug or an insect or just the eye of a fly. It's amazing! When you see it close up and then they turn it the other way and the telescope out to outer space and they continue to find objects that are still flying away from Earth that are way, way out there. It's amazing. the great exactness and accuracy that God put into the world. They knew exactly when this last eclipse was going to be. They know exactly when the next one's going to be. Oh, evolution, yeah, billions of years, boom, boom, it all flew apart, and now it's just so perfectly in sync that we know in 2044 will be another one, or in 2094, whatever it is. No, friends, there is a God, He made the world, He made it perfectly, and He made it in order. and we say, bless God. Number five, great order. There's a mutual understanding, our dependence of beings here on Earth. There's an exact harmony of motions, an amazing connection of causes, and one instance, the moon. What does the moon have to do with the tides? I don't know, but it has a pull. Tides are higher, full moon. New moon, not as high. That correlation of his creation and how there's order there, and how... I'm not a scientist. I just stand in awe. Number six, great mystery. There are phenomena in nature which can't be solved. How can you say that every snowflake is different, but you look at them in the wintertime when it's snowing, And we've been told that there are no two that are exactly alike. How do you explain that? How do you explain no two human beings exactly alike out of the seven plus billion that are living now and the billions before us? But to not believe that it was God who created the world is like, well, like Matthew Henry has gone on to say, he said, atheism is folly. And atheists are the greatest fools in nature. For they see a world that could not make itself, and yet they deny the very God that made it. That, unquote, that's what he said. Ken Ham just recently said that Answers in Genesis came out with a new Bible that includes Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs, and the Gospels, the New Testament. The belief, from their perspective, that it is so important to have Genesis included in this little booklet. I find that to be noteworthy, the importance of Genesis in the believer's life. So in conclusion, the account of creation as the Bible gives it is to be believed and accepted as true. Can we fully comprehend and understand it all? Absolutely not. And that's where faith comes in. The Bible tells us that without faith it's impossible to please Him. And it takes faith. It takes faith on my, there comes a point where I don't, I can only go so far in trying to understand this and then it's, it just kind of gets blurry, kind of get a headache. And so I just, by faith, believe. Why do you believe in something you can't explain? Look around us, isn't the evidence there? Brothers and sisters, building on a firm foundation, young people and children, a firm foundation is needed for the Christian faith. Let's kneel and pray. Father, this morning, we bow, we kneel in your presence. You are God. You're the God of heaven and earth, the sea and all that in it is. We acknowledge and sing along with the chorus of those who testify of this very fact. You alone are God. you're the God of heaven, you're the God of earth, you're the God of the living, and you ask us to believe the record that you have. And Father, as the disciples said, Lord, increase our faith. Increase my faith, Lord, to never doubt, to never come to the point where The aspect of evolution might overwhelm the aspect of faith. As we look at your creation, God, we see the evidence all around us of orderliness, of beauty, of character, of just wonder that has come from your hand. We thank you, God, for nature, but we thank you even more for redemption through Jesus Christ. Bless, Lord, this message, your word. Help us to have a validated and an affirmation of our faith in the account of creation as your word gives it, Lord. And if there are hearts and minds here that may doubt the Genesis account, the creation, Father, I pray that you would help us to believe and to accept it by faith and to leave it there. God, you are good. and you've blessed us. We ask that you would continue to do that, and we want to praise you and honor you for all the good things that flow from your hand, for you alone are worthy. In Jesus' name, amen.