Live from Buffalo Creek. That's going to be a good one if he sees that one. Tonight, we want to answer a question. Why is Genesis so important? I know we've spent quite a bit of time in the first two chapters of Genesis. as we have examined the past several weeks how God created. So I want to reinforce that with another part of the puzzle, if you will, why the doctrine of creation is so important and why Genesis is so important. Well, first of all, it is the book of beginnings, the book of origins. In our English Bible, it is the first of 66 books that comprise the Holy Scriptures. Atheists and evolutionists know that if they can get people to doubt and discard the authenticity, the authority, the veracity, the truthfulness of the first book of the Bible, then they can destroy all the foundational truths of Scripture. Because the first 11 chapters of Genesis form a foundational principle for the entire Word of God. If evolutionists can convince people that the first verse of scripture is fallacy, they can begin to dismantle and annul the rest of the Bible. And what's sad is they do it incrementally and they pick and they discredit and then eventually you'll get some theologian who will give an inch of compromise. And this is what's happened over and over and over again. There are Christian schools, Christian colleges today that refuse to teach six literal days of creation and a young earth. because they fear the scientific community. They'll say they're not scholarly. And I really believe we've got to be done with that kind of attitude in all the realms. What's most important is the truth, not how it appears to experts. But what does the word of God say? Now the Genesis account of creation is divided into sections and they're referred to as generations. Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 through chapter 2 verse 4 is God's narrative of the entire creation process. And that passage details the chronological order of the days of creation. God is the only subject where the verb create is used in the Bible. Only God can create. Only God can literally bring something out of nothing without any plans to go by and never have to revise what He created. Oh, I thought that was such a great point that Brandon brought out two weeks ago. It has just laid on me. It's really stuck with me. God doesn't, He didn't have to revise anything. Everything He did, it was good. It was right. This supernatural phenomenon is revealed in the Holy Scriptures by the Creator Himself in the very first chapter of the book that we say that we believe is inspired of God, that every verse from the first one to the last one is absolutely true, inspired, inerrant. Now, three things were specifically created by God. the creation of the basic elements of the cosmos. So you have space, mass, and time. All of that and the heavens are all said to have been created in the beginning. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Space, mass, time. And that means that when all of these basic elements, this is when they originated. How did they come into existence? How did space, how did time, how did mass come into existence? By the spoken word of God. And God said, how miraculous is that? It's interesting. Go to Hebrews chapter 11. Do you know the first mention of faith? This is the Hall of Faith. Notice what it says in verse 3. This shoots down every theistic evolutionist in their tracks. He says, Verse 1, now faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We weren't there at the creation, were we? Nobody was. For by it, by faith, the elders obtained a good report. Verse 3, through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by what? an evolutionary process formed over billions of years by layer upon layer of sedimentary rock and layers? No. This is how simple the Word of God is, how direct, how to the point. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." It's real faith when you believe what God says about His creation that He brought something out of nothing. And He did it. That's how powerful and great He is. the creation of man's consciousness and his soul, nifesh in the Hebrew. That's found in the book of Genesis. It's what separates man from animals. We have an immortal soul. That separates man from all the rest of creation. And then man was created. This is unique. This is only said about man that he was created in the image of God. In verse 27, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. Man is a trichotomous being. In his original state, he was composed of body, soul, and spirit. Something happened to his spirit when he sinned. When Adam sinned, his spirit died, just like God had promised. In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Listen, the most important connection died that day. The most important part of man, a spiritual connection with his Maker, who is a spiritual being, it died that day. And that's why man has to be born again by the Holy Spirit in order to commune with God. Man literally is dead in trespass and sin. He is body and soul, but his spirit is dead. It has to be created anew by the Holy Spirit in the new birth so that man can relate to God, speak to God, commune with God, obey God, live for God. It requires a spiritual nature that man That has to be given by the Holy Spirit in the new birth. From Genesis chapter 2 verse 5 to chapter 5 verse 1, we have a detailed account of the creation and the fall of man. Now Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2 are complementary. They're not contradictory. By that I mean chapter 2 kind of gives you a bigger picture of how God created the crowning glory of His creation, how He created man, and then what happened when man fell and disobeyed in the garden. In Genesis chapter 1, we have an overview of what specifically happened in the six days of creation. In Genesis chapter 2, we have the specifics of man's creation and the responsibilities that were given to him by God. You know something about God? He always reveals Himself and His perfections by His law. I mean, Adam and Eve had a couple of simple laws to live by as they were to dress and keep the garden. Don't eat of that tree. How simple is that command? Don't eat of the tree for the knowledge of good and evil. Now, it's important to note some of the foundational truths and doctrines that are found in the first 11 chapters. When you get a hold of this, you'll understand why evolutionists and atheists want to discredit the book of Genesis. You have the origin of the universe, the origin of man, the origin of marriage and the home. God specifically, I mean, there's no way to read anything else into this other than how God presents it. Marriage was designed to be a heterosexual marriage between a man and a woman. That's it. Genesis chapter 2, verse 23, and Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh." And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Now, do you realize that statement is referred to by the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. How can somebody believe that Jesus is a sinless Savior? Because you can't be saved if you don't believe that Christ didn't have sin. You can't be saved by a sinner. You have to be saved by someone who possesses eternal life. Jesus Christ. You have to have that connection, that trust in Him. Well, how can you be saved by a liar? It's impossible. So you cannot say that what God wrote in Genesis 2 is fallacy, that it's an allegory that is not true when Jesus stated this so matter-of-factly in Matthew 19. And He said in verse 4, And He answered and said unto them, Have ye not read that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female? The creation. Two sexes. Don't get caught in their trap. They want you to say gender, two sexes, male and female, entirely different DNA in a male and a female. All you got to do is, I mean, if you're married, you should have enough sense to know that you and your wife are different. I mean, in a lot of ways. He created them male and female, and there's no transitioning, no gray area, no, this guy can evolve to her, it's an impossibility. Jesus stated this. And He said, And said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, He is quoting Genesis 2, "...and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. They are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Jesus affirmed the truth that was written in Genesis chapter 2. So it was confirmed by the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Was Jesus, was He promoting a fallacious doctrine? Well, if you believe in evolution, you cannot believe that Jesus Christ was the Savior. This is why this is so important to me. Because I think if you do away with the truth of Genesis, you're going to have to do away with a lot of truth in the New Testament. How can you believe in a Savior that lies to you? If evolution is true, creation is false, and that means Jesus was wrong. He was promoting a lie. This is why I've titled this series, Creation and Christianity, because I think they're tied together in a knot that should never be broken. In the book of Genesis, in the first 11 chapters, you have the origin and purpose of clothing. It was never intended as a fashion statement, but for a covering, for the purpose of modesty and of glorifying God. It means that God was establishing a moral basis why we wear clothing. after the fall. In Genesis, you have the origin of laws and their consequences, right and wrong, good or bad. You have the establishment of an absolute standard, an absolute authority enforced by God. This is how people think. They want to rationalize things away. They'll say, how in the world could God condemn the entire human race for a man eating an apple? It's moral rationalism to explain away. Well, when God speaks, with authority, He means exactly what He says. And what you have is a moral authority that is established that is not at all mutable. When God said to Adam, the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die, it is exactly what happened. He died spiritually and began the process of dying physically. God operates by absolute standards. When He says something, He means it. You have the origin of sin in mankind and its consequences. In Genesis, you have the federal headship of Adam established. And it's a truth that the book of Romans sets forth in chapter 5 unmistakably. It is an absolutely essential doctrine to our faith. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, so that death hath passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. We are all guilty in Adam. You have the origin of judgment for sin in the book of Genesis, in the spiritual death of Adam, and then the worldwide flood. How many people completely disregard the record of the flood? Most of the world. I mean, think about it. Scientists have been trying to explain away the effects of the flood through evolutionary process when in reality the flood tells you without a shadow of a doubt God judges sin. The first time the word heart is used in the Bible is in connection with man's depravity. And God saw that the heart of man In Genesis chapter 6, he makes this statement, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The flood is the global catastrophe that unlocks the key to the fossil record. You have the origin of death as a result of sin that brought on decay. As soon as Adam died spiritually, the second law of thermodynamics was set in motion and the entire creation began to run down and decay. The origin of a promised redeemer as the only way to approach God through a perfect vicarious sacrifice is set forth in the first 11 chapters of Genesis and the typology associated with it. The origin of the nations of the world as revealed in the dispersion of people at the Tower of Babel and the multiplicity of languages and cultures that subsequently developed, all found in the book of Genesis. The creation account, the fall of man, the account of the flood, and the way of redemption through a vicarious sacrifice were all teachings and principles that permeated primitive cultures all around the world. They took what they knew wherever they went. So when you reject the historical and literal interpretation of Genesis, and instead accept the idea that Genesis is only symbolic or allegorical, you're contributing to the advancement of evolutionary thought. Preachers, there should never be a preacher get behind a pulpit and say that Genesis is not a literal account of creation. If they do, run. That's not a kind of church, not the kind of pastor that you ought to be sitting under. If Genesis is not factual and accurate, a whole host of foundational truths are eliminated. If man's merely an animal who is evolving from lower life forms, he's not bound by a moral standard. He's not accountable to a creator. There is no moral law, there is no accountability, there is no traditional marriage, no regard for the sanctity of life, no respect for fellow human beings, their families, or their property. What you get is chaos without an absolute standard set by a creator. Atheism breeds rebellion, lawlessness, and racism. Everywhere. Everywhere it permeates. This is one of my favorite parts of this lesson, message. There are at least 165 direct or implied quotations of Genesis in the New Testament. Do you realize that over 100 of the references that are cited are from Genesis chapters 1 through 11? Those are the chapters that evolutionists attack the most. How about this? Every New Testament author quotes something from Genesis 1 through 11. Every author in the New Testament. This means that every inspired writer of the New Testament believed in the inspiration, the authority, the validity of Genesis. The Holy Spirit moved them to quote passages from the first 11 chapters of Genesis. To reject the literal count of Genesis means you'd also have to reject every New Testament passage that relates to it. You would have to adopt the idea that, and I've already touched on this, that the Lord Jesus was either wrong or lying. Now, it's accepted that Moses was the inspired writer of Genesis. You know that Jesus rebuked the Jews for not believing what Moses wrote? John 5, 46 and 47, for had you believed Moses, You would have believed Me, for He wrote of Me. But if you believe not His writings, how shall ye believe My words?" Creation and Christianity. You don't believe Moses? You don't believe Genesis? How are you going to believe the truth about the Savior? How are you going to believe His words? That's what Jesus said. How about this? Jesus regarded the account of the flood of Noah, recorded in Genesis 7, verse 17 through 24, as a historic fact. He said, but as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be, as in the days that were before the flood. He believed in a worldwide flood. They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." He believed in the literal account of the flood and Noah's time. Jesus believed that the account of God's judgment upon Sodom in Genesis 19, was a literal, actual, historical event. He said in Matthew 11, 23 through 24, ìAnd which are exalted unto heaven shall be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee." He regarded the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah as a literal historic event. So, why do I think In creation and Christianity, Genesis is so important. It's the foundational book of the Bible. And I'm going to take my stand upon the Word of God and the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ over the opinions, the philosophies, the scientific reasonings of men. I'm going to take Christ at His Word. And I hope you do. We'll stop there for tonight. The firm foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can he say than to you he hath said, you who unto Jesus for refuge have fled? In every condition, in sickness and health, in poverty's vale, or abounding in wealth, at home of the land, of the sea, as your days may demand, shall your strength ever be. With true fiery triumph, shall lie. My grace, oh, sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee, I only desire thy drops to consume. and I hope to be fine. He entombed to old age, all thy people shall prove, my sovereign eternal, unchangeable love. And when glory e'er shall their hymns bolds abhor, My plans they shall still in my bosom be. I will not, I will not be turned to its foes. That's all, for all hell, should it ever do shame, I'll never, no never, God bless you. Go home and get some rest.