Our scripture reading this evening is from the book of Genesis, the book of Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1, and we shall read from verse 6, the second day of creation. And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and 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 onto 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 firmament 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 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, 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 the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and the 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. So God created man in His own image, In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. May God add his blessing to that reading of his word. Well, I'd just like this evening to continue in this short two-part study, really, of this first chapter in Genesis. We examined really only the first day last week, and we spoke about how even the first words of scripture, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, are so vehemently attacked by the forces of unbelief. The atheists of today will shout down even that first sentence, in the beginning God created, they will not have it. And we spoke too about How the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And that was how the earth would have stayed. There was nothing in it that was able to create life. No merit in and of itself. The Spirit of God had to move. And that is a picture of conversion. There is no merit in us. There is nothing good in us. There is nothing in us that would desire God at all that would come to His salvation. unless the Spirit of God moves in our hearts. And then in verse 3, we saw how God said, let there be light, and there was light, and then there was immediately that division between the light and the darkness. And we liken that, well, it is an illustration of the church and the world. There must be separation between the church and the world. The church is always different. The light is separate from the darkness and then in verse 5 at the end we read and the evening and the morning were the first day and I just like to start this evening really by saying that we when we read this chapter we get so caught up in looking at the works of creation within the days themselves that we actually forget most of the time to remember that the day itself is a creation. A day in and of itself is a creation. The evening and the morning were the first day. What a wonderful creation it is. We are set in a world that is bound by time and time is divided into days, evenings and mornings, the first day. And really when we look at this chapter, there is much in it to instruct us how to live each day. When we look at God's example, how God works from day to day, well there is so much to teach us about how we ought to carry ourselves daily in our daily lives. We see in this account that in each of the six days something is achieved. A work is begun, a work is completed. In the first day, the light is divided from the darkness. In the second day, the firmament called heaven is created that separates the waters from the waters. On the third day, the land appears and the sea is gathered together and so forth. There is a work that is very clearly achieved, achievement in every day. There is purpose. God sets out a purpose for each day and carries it out in that day. We read in verse 3, God said, let there be light. He has purposed that there be light and there was light. The day will not end unless there be light. Verse 6, in the second day, let there be a firmament. God lays out his purpose and the day will not end until that purpose is fulfilled. And so the very first lesson that we have to learn from this, well, it's a question. Are our days full of purpose? Do we set out to achieve something every day, a work that is begun, a work that is completed? Are we diligent in our workplaces? Are we focused on achieving things? Or are we like the world, that delights in having lazy days, not really achieving very much, saying that they will get things done on certain days, but leaving it to another day, leaving things half done. We as Christians are called to follow the example of the Lord, I believe, through these verses. He purposes to do something and the day will not end until that purpose is complete. We must not either be those who promise people that we will do things, and then we do not do them. Oh, we'll get certain things done by this time, but we have not achieved what we set out to achieve. Are we unreliable? Are we unfocused? Do we leave our duties unfinished? That is not the example that the Lord here sets. The world loves to waste time. to waste their days in triviality, in slothfulness. But we have an obligation to plan our days and to approach our days with purpose, because the day is a creation. It is a day that the Lord has made. It is a gift to us. And that is how we approach it. We honor each day that God gives. And when we look at these six days, well, there's progress made every day. God is continually improving on the work of creation. There is steady progress. There is a great plan, but God, each and every day, continually improves on that work. And again, very simply, is that how we approach each and every day? Continual improvement in our daily lives. Improvement in our spiritual lives. Are we constantly striving to be better people? To be those who are kinder, more generous, more sympathetic? Are we those who are striving to be better husbands, better wives, better parents, better children? Are we striving every day to improve ourselves, to improve our Christian lives? This is the pattern that God has set before us. Continual improvement. There are many who don't. They say, well, I'm good enough. I'm a Christian. I'm saved. I've got faults. Yes, but I'm not that bad. But they don't strive to ever improve themselves at all. They just think people have to tolerate them as they are. This is the way I am. I'm not going to change for anyone. There's no striving for continual improvement. for continual progress, that work of sanctification. We are meant to be lights in this world, and so we must continually look to personally advance. And not just individuals, but churches can be like this too. There are some churches, once they reach a certain stage, then they just stop. They say, well, we've got as many people as we want, We're quite comfortable. We're in a nice group. We're not really going to bother with evangelism anymore. We're not really going to bother with Sunday schools. We're very comfortable where we are. But that's not the pattern. That's not the right attitude. We have to continually improve, look to continually strengthen, to reach out to increasingly more people. We should never be in a comfort zone. We should be ready to work, to spend, and be spent until, well, that eternal Sabbath, until that eternal rest when we shall go to be with the Lord in heaven. That will be our rest, but until that time we must work and we must strive to grow, to grow the church, to advance in our own lives. And these are very important lessons for us. But let's move down to verse 9 in this chapter. 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. This is the third day, by the way. 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 then we read in verse 11, 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. Well this, on the third day, is our first sign of life. This is life in its most basic form. It's inanimate life, plant life. But we see here in these verses particularly, verses 11 and 12, that which distinguishes life, that which characterizes life, and that is the ability to yield seed, to yield fruit, to reproduce. That is that distinctive characteristic of life. And of course, it's the same with human beings, with man. Indeed, they have that mandate from God to go forth and to multiply. They have that God-given gift of procreation. And that is the distinctive sign of life. All organisms who possess life will have this capacity to yield seed. to yield fruit. All life has the ability to produce after their own kind. And well, we can apply this spiritually. What is the sign of spiritual life? Well, the sign of spiritual life is that you will produce fruit. You will be fruitful in your life. Every child of God everyone who is called, everyone who yields their life, everyone who repents, surrenders to Christ, well, they will produce fruit, fruit of the Spirit. We know of that in Galatians. We read of the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, these fruits will be made manifest in every believer. That character change, that inward change, that is the sure sign of spiritual life, that fruit. And I do stress that inward change. I have known people who have outwardly repented and have done all the right things. They've stopped going to clubs. They've stopped watching unworthy TV programs. They've stopped the habits maybe that they used to do erstwhile in previous times. But inwardly there was no fruit. There was no character change. There was no fruit of the spirit. And so there was no real sign of spiritual life. There was no fruit of that kind. And that is so essential. that sign of life, spiritual life, fruit of the Spirit, but also fruit through his labours. We cannot rule that out. His works, a Christian's works, will bear fruit. And a Christian, well, he will desire to lead others to Christ. He will desire to sow seed in that respect. He will desire to share the Gospel, to urge others, to exhort others to seek Christ, so that they will begin to see their need of Him, so that they will begin to seek after Him, and long for Him, and desire to know Him, so that they will become Christians too. And so, this is the analogy that we have here. Every Christian will have that great desire to share the Gospel, to produce fruit after His own kind. He has been saved Now He desires that others be saved as He is saved, fruit after His own kind. These are all the illustrations that we have and we must apply them to our own lives. Are we like this? Are we truly saved? Do we have the fruit of the Spirit, that love, that joy, that peace, long-suffering and so forth? Are we willing to sow seed so that fruit may be born in our labors? in our evangelistic labours. Well, obviously, it is only God who can truly save a soul, but it pleases Him to use us as those who truly sow seed and bear much fruit. And a true Christian in that sense will indeed reap a rich harvest. And well, time is very quickly moving on. Let's move down to verse 14. And God said, let there be lights in the firmament 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 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 and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars Also, well this, of course, is talking about the sun and the moon, the fourth day of creation. Now it is often made mention of that there was light before the sun, and of course there was. God himself was the light source. He is eternal light. He does not need the sun to produce light. He is light in and of himself. but He has made these two lights. And really the thing to notice here in these verses is the purpose of these lights and the way they are described in their roles as it were. Verse 16, 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. There is that principle of ruling And in verse 18, it's there again, 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. God has put these two great lights in place to rule, and indeed they do rule over us. The sun and the moon, man is powerless to prevent the sun from rising. He is powerless to prevent the sun from setting. powerless to prevent the onset of the twilight of the night of the kingdom of the moon as it were he has no power over these things so in that sense they do indeed rule over us but when we read these words we remember that there is one who is greater than these one who has created these things one whose power infinitely dwarfs the sun and the moon We remember that He has set these rulers over us. He has set them and He can remove them whenever He sees fit. God is above all. It is almost to magnify the greatness of God. We see these two great forces of nature, unimaginable to us in their power, and yet we know that there is one greater, one who is over each one of them and who is almighty. even these mighty rulers of nature. And we apply these, of course, to earthly rulers, to earthly governments, where we see so many terrible things in this world, in this day and age. We see governments, dictatorships in other countries, full of corruption, and all the people, the inhabitants of those countries, are powerless, it seems, to do anything against them. We see even in our country, the governments just passing through laws, passing through things that are totally anti-Christian, things that the people don't really want. And man appears to be so powerless because of those rulers who are above us. But well, for every Christian, when we read these words, we remember that there is one above them. He has set those rulers in place. Yes, He has allowed it. But God is above them. God is ruling in heaven. God will overrule one day. And nothing that those rulers can do can ever thwart His glorious will. And so we take comfort in these things, just as man is powerless against the sun and the moon. Well, we appear to be powerless against these rulers. but we trust in God and he is above all and over all and so these things are comforting for us when we read them do not fear men do not worship men fear God he is sovereign he reigns and these things are so wonderful and well there's so much else I would like to say but really I ought to Just bring it to a conclusion in this part, else it will go on for way too long. Let's just move right down to verse 26 and the introduction of man. Verse 26, the sixth day, 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 in the image of God created he him male and female created he them well man is brought into the scene and he is made in God's own image. He is set apart from the rest of God's creation. Just as God is set apart from us, God is holy. We are set apart from the rest of his creation. Man in his innocent state, well, he is morally upright. He has a clean conscience at this stage. He has the power of reason, far greater than any of the animals. He has a far superior intellect, you know, out of all of God's creation. Man is the only one who can truly appreciate the wonder of God's creation. Man is the only one who can truly understand that God has created this world. No plant can understand this, of course. No animal can grasp the wonder of creation. It is only man's privilege. It is only because of his faculties. He is that man of reason. He is able to create, even in his own right, made in God's own image, who is the supreme creator. Man, of course, is born with a soul, born with a soul that houses our personality, that houses our characters, our affections, Our emotions, our conscience is housed in the soul. And these things, well, they are so monumental. The preciousness of a soul. A soul is so precious. A soul, we read in the New Testament certainly, is more valuable than the whole of creation put together. What does it profit a man if he gained the whole world? and lose his own soul. It is the highest faculty, the highest of creation, the highest order of creation. And yet we see in this day and age utter ignorance of the soul, utter neglect of the soul. We have never lived in a time that extols everything else in creation. Everything else is exalted above the soul. Man is even more concerned with protecting the earth, the environment. Man is even more concerned with protecting his body. Never have we lived in times where we can have perfect teeth, perfect hair, perfect skin. And yet the soul is totally neglected. There is nothing on offer. for the soul. And yet this is the highest thing in creation. And well, I cannot speak a great length on this, but let us just close with these thoughts. The world, while it was created in a magnificent way, with the wonderful plant life, with the wonderful variety of fish and birds, the seas, the mountains, But really the world was just a shell. It was just scenery, unless man be put into it. It was meant to be a home for man. It had no meaning if man was not put in. But man, with all his faculties, with all his talents, with all his abilities, man would have been just a shell, really just an animal, if he did not have a soul. if he did not have that faculty breathed into him by God. And yet the soul with all its tremendous faculties that we cannot even truly comprehend, the soul, well the soul is just a shell. The soul is as good as dead if we don't know God. So everything begins and ends with God. God has created this world God has created man, God has created the soul, but none of it has any meaning if we do not return to God. Look to Him, yield to Him. The soul's greatest privilege, greatest duty is to commune with God. It is not simply to enjoy each other as humans here below, to enjoy this earth. It is so that we would look upward and commune with Him and know Him, and love Him, and that is the greatest faculty of the soul. Well, how are our souls this evening? Are our souls exercising that great privilege to know the Lord, to love Him, and to claim His salvation in Christ, Christ the lover of our soul? Oh, may these things truly bless us. As I've said, I could only really skim through so much of these, but I hope it will encourage you to read these verses more carefully and try and extract for yourselves the deeper meaning, the profound meaning, the lessons that God longs for us to see within these words. Well, let's come before the Lord in prayer. Let's close in prayer.