This morning we're back in Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1, if you'll turn there and join me in the scripture. Last week we said, you know, it really doesn't matter how you look at any of God's creation, whether through a telescope, a microscope, or even with our naked eye, the only adequate explanation is God. Because God's imprint is all over His creation. any other explanation is totally inadequate. And we began last week to look at God's magnificent creation that He accomplished in the six days of creation as revealed here in the scripture and we, we saw the first thirteen verses, we saw the first three days, day number one God created the heaven and the earth and the light in verses 1 through 5. Day number 2, God created a firmament to divide the waters in verses 6 through 8. And day number 3, God created plant life in verses 9 through 13. And we have said and how these verses and even the verses that we're dealing with today, okay, understand that the truth that I shared last week regarding the problems that all evolutionists have, they apply both to plant life and animal life. And that's this. These verses totally refute the harmful doctrine of evolution because there's a distinct difference between a biblical worldview and a secular worldview. We know that evolution states that life began in the sea, but the Bible declares it happened on dry land. And we saw the three major problems. One problem evolutionists have is the problem of the origin of life. They may talk spontaneous generation as being a possibility, but they themselves agree that it's impossible for spontaneous generation to actually take place. It's been scientifically disproved. Nevertheless, they cling to that because they don't like the other option. The other option is you've got to believe in a creator. and a creation. And they don't want to have a creator to answer to. I got news for them. They're going to answer to Him whether they believe in Him or not. And it only leaves one possible conclusion that life arose as a creative act of God And they will not accept that philosophically because they don't want to believe in God. So they choose to believe. They choose to believe in that which they know is scientifically impossible. And that is spontaneous generation arising to evolution. So evolution is really a philosophy. It's not science. And not science in any way. And it's just a philosophy that one chooses to believe in. Now, we also said the second problem that the evolutionists have is they have the problem of the law of biogenesis. And we're going to see more of that today as we looked at that the Lord made plant life after his kind or after their kind. And we're going to see the same thing with regard to all of life. We're talking animal life and even the life of man. God made them after their kind. There are no transitional forms in the fossil record. It's not just a problem of missing link or two. The whole chain is missing. They want you to think that there's just a missing link or two, and they'll be able to hook that link together. Most of the drawings or caricatures of evolution that you see, that's all they are. An artist's depiction of something, whether it be a drawing or whether it be something else. But understand there are no transitional forms in the fossil record. And then the third problem we said evolutionists have is the problem of the second law of thermodynamics. And that is a scientific problem. They have a scientific problem. And that is everything is winding down. And things aren't moving from disorganization to organization, but rather from organization to disorganization. This universe, from the smallest microscopic life form to the greatest things that can be observed in the universe, all needed and show forth a designer, a creator, and an organizer, and His name is Jehovah God. Now, this morning we pick up in verse number 14. Verse number 14, and we're going to pick up with day number 4, and here we see that God created the sun, moon, and stars. God's already created light. He created light, and then He created the sun, moon, and stars. It's important. God did that so man would knew that light came from him. Okay. Now, look at this. Verse 14. 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. Each step along the way, we see that phrase, God saw that it was good. God is perfect in what He does, and God was perfect in His creation. I like that phrase, he made the stars also. What a power packed phrase that is. The word translated stars here speaks of more than what comes to mind, our mind when we think of stars. It includes all heavenly bodies other than the sun and the moon. That's the meaning of the word stars in scripture. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 41. Listen to what he says. He says, There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, the heavenly bodies. For one star differeth from another star in glory. I want you to think of how the tremendous variety of heavenly bodies revealed by modern astronomy confirms that very statement that Paul said. I mean, you think about it, there are planets, there are comets, asteroids, meteors, white dwarfs, red giants, variable stars, star clusters, binary stars, dark nebula, interstellar dust, radio stars, quasars, neutron stars, black holes, etc., etc. There's all of these. No two stars out of the innumerable host of heaven are exactly alike. Each was created with its own structure, and let me add this, and purpose. God has a purpose. Amen? And you may not understand what that purpose is, and I may not understand what that purpose is, but God has a purpose for everything that He does. And I believe one of the purposes is for Him to show what a mighty God that He is. Now, although there are various theories, Okay? These scientists love to throw around that theory word quite a bit, and then they want you to think that they really know, but they don't know. A theory is not something you know. A theory is something you propose might have happened. Although there are various theories to explain how the various types of stars and galaxies may have evolved from one into another, there is no observational evidence of such imagined evolution. God's Word tells us that these heavenly bodies were to function in a three-fold manner. There in verse number 14, first of all, they function as signs. He says there, God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night. Let them be for signs, there's one, and for seasons, and for days and years, okay? They function as signs. Signs for what? Well, look at Psalm 19. Just hold your place there in Genesis, we're gonna be back. Look at Psalm 19. One of the signs is to declare and to remind man of his Creator. When you look up, you ought to be mindful. There's a God who made this. There's a God who sustains this. In fact, the psalmist David wrote in Psalm 19, and these words are true, that he said, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech. and night unto night showeth knowledge. In other words, every day and every night, God's glory is on display and it's speaking to man. And he says, verse number three, there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. I mean, it doesn't matter what kind of language you want to use, when you look up there, you know there's something bigger than us, and there's someone bigger than us. And he says in verse number four, their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world, and so that goes along with nobody's got an excuse. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun. which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. Isn't it a wonderful thing, the son that the Lord gave to us? I know we think it's a little bit hotter than we'd like it right now, but Joe, there's a reason for that. I believe that we are under, and this world is under, really a judgment hand of God right now. And that's part of the reason why we see things the way they are. But you just think about the sun and how much we depend upon the sun. But really, we depend upon God. It's who we depend upon. And if the sun was any closer, we'd burn up. If it was any further away, we'd freeze to death. The Lord put it exactly where it needed to be. Amen? And the sun was made after the earth. It's made after the earth. And God set it where it needed to be. And those who can look up and not see that there is a magnificent God who created it all, they're simply just not dealing with reality. Because they don't want there to be a God that they have to answer to. 2 Peter 3, 5 says, For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old. Now, willingly or ignorant. Dumb on purpose. That's what that means. Dumb on purpose. Romans 1, verse 20, For the invisible things of him, of God, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse." Listen, even the heathen, who have never heard the creation account from Scripture, even they can see that all this didn't happen by accident. That's why when you go to places where the Bible has never been, they are worshiping a God. Their idea of God is not what it should be because of sin. But nevertheless, they believe in a greater being than themselves because they see it. And yet, in our day and time, the real smart people, they're not really smart. They think they're educated far beyond those folks, think they know better, but listen, what they've done is they've been educated far beyond their intelligence. They just have been. Even the heathen who've never heard the creation account from scripture can see that all this didn't happen by accident. And Paul actually uses that argument. I'm not going to turn there, but if you look at Paul's account of his visit to Athens and Mars Hill and Acts 17 verses 16 and following, he was preaching to an idolatrous crowd there that believed in God's plural. and they wanted to make sure they didn't leave any gods out, but they believed in God. And he argues that even those who haven't heard of God from the scripture, they know of God. So, they function as signs, number one, to remind man of his creator, number two, to remind man of God's transcendence. What in the world is transcendence? The fact that God excels or surpasses beyond the range or grasp of our ability to fully understand His greatness. He transcends. The greatest that you can think about God, He's even bigger than that. I read where President Teddy Roosevelt said it was easy as the most powerful man in the world to get the big head. Sometimes. He sometimes would walk out of the Oval Office, if he was in a meeting there in the Oval Office, he'd walk out of the meeting and stand on the terrace and look up at the night sky. And of course his advisors, well, I guess the meeting's moving outside, so they'd move outside with him and look up in the sky like he would. and usually for about five or ten minutes, and then would say, okay gentlemen, I think we're small enough now to continue the meeting. He believed that the universe showed a great God. Ever how big you imagine God is, I can assure you that He is much bigger than that. Listen to the scriptures, and I've given the references there for you, but I'm just going to read them. Isaiah 55, verse number 8 and 9, says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. Listen, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Think about that thought. Man, I mean, just The heavens go further than what we can even see. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts. That's transcendence, is what that is. Isaiah 40, verse 28. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary, there is no searching of His understanding. People say, well, I just don't know why God did that. Well, you may not know, but God knows, and God knows better than you do. He just does. God knows what He's doing in all things. Psalm 147 verse 4 and 5 says, He telleth the number of the stars, He calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power, His understanding is infinite. Scientists don't even know how many stars there are. God does. In fact, He's got each one named. I mean, doesn't that blow your mind? Yeah? It really ought to. He's great and of great power. And His understanding is infinite. Psalm 8. Verse number one says, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens. And now verse three and verse four, the psalmist says, when I consider thy heavens. the works of thy fingers, the moon, and the stars which thou hast ordained? What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him? I'm going to have you turn to one, this last one, I'm going to turn you, turn to Romans chapter number 11, Romans chapter number 11, in verses 33 through 36 here, Romans 11 verse number 33, it says, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Notice how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, that's of God, Of Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. They function as signs. I thank God for the stars. I hate that we live in such lighted places that it's hard to go out and see the stars anymore. We lived out in the country. And we could go out there and we could hear a whippoorwill or two. And we could look up and we could see stars. And sometimes I miss those days. I don't know when's the last time I heard a whippoorwill. And all the, I think they've been driven out by all the construction and all. But nevertheless, back to the scripture here in Genesis 1 verse number 14. He not only said that they are for signs, but he said they function as a calendar, and that is for seasons, for days, and years. Our days are based upon the revolution around the sun. Our years, I mean the revolution of the earth. and with the sun standing still and our years of it going around, the earth going around the sun. My granny, on my mom's side, was one of my favorite people. She believed in planting according to the almanac. And she would tell my dad when to plant what in his garden. He listened to her. And my dad would have some of the most prolific gardens that you could ever have. Where did the almanac people get the information from? God's heavenly bodies. That's where they get it from. They function as a calendar. They function as lights. So for seasons, for days and years, and then verse 15, to let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven. Think about it, on day one, we saw God created light before the sun was created. But here he ordained the sun to give light on earth, okay? And the light from the sun, and you need to listen closely to this, okay? Where a lot of folks have a problem, this is what I'm about to talk about, okay? The light from the sun, moon, and stars was shining upon the earth as soon as they were created, since their very purpose was to give light on the earth. Listen, when you think about the stars, they are light years away, which is a long, long way away. Listen, my God is great enough to make those waves, the light waves, connect them as He's creating the light. As He's creating the light bearers many light years away, He creates that light in between. He is the light. Amen. Listen, it's no more difficult for God to form the light waves than the light bearers, which would be established to serve as future generations of those waves. Now, I used to have a problem with that very thought. No one could give me an answer on that. But when you think about the greatness of God, God's great enough to make the universe that we see. He's great enough to overcome that, that we think is a problem. It's not a problem with God. There never was a problem with God. Day four of creation, listen, was a huge undertaking in our eyes. But God did it with just a few words in one day. Think about that. That's how great a God he is. That's how big a God he is. Day number five. Let's look at verse 20 through 23. And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly a 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. God saw that it was good God blessed them. You ought to circle that and I'm fixing to give you the definition of what's going on right there. God blessed them saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and the seas and let the fowl multiply and the earth and the evening and the morning were the fifth day. That word blessed is a creative word of power enabling them to do what he told them to do. Okay? It's a creative word of power. God bless him. God told him to be fruitful and multiply, but he enabled that by blessing him. Okay? He enabled them to do what he told them to do. What an incredible variety God has made. What diversity. and how very creative our Creator is. Listen, the biochemical reproduction system of animals, fish and fowl, was originally programmed to assure the fixity of the kinds. The DNA is programmed to allow for variation within the kind, but not beyond the kind. Okay? We'll talk more about the DNA here in just a minute. Let's move to day 6 for just a minute. Day 6, God created land creatures and He created mankind as well. Verse number 24, God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind cattle and creeping thing, and beasts of the earth after his kind. And it was so. 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. In other words, one thing didn't come from another. They came from God creating them, and they reproduced after the kind that they were. It's what they did. and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, letting him 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, and the image of God created he him, male and female, created he them. And there's that word again in verse 28, And God blessed them. And God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And subdue it, and have demean over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Let's think about this. All land animals and mankind were created on the same day. And this includes the dinosaurs. And I'm just going to hit this. I'm going to come back and deal with it more later. And people, what happened to the dinosaurs? Where are the dinosaurs at? Well, the word comes from the Greek for terrible lizard. You know, before 1850, that word dinosaur was nothing. There was no dinosaur. Before the 1850s, when the word dinosaurs was first coined, they were called dragons. And every major ancient culture has a record of them. Mankind's footprints have been found in dinosaur footprints and in the same layers of earth. They walked together. What happened to them? Well, you have to wait till we get to the flood. Okay? We have to wait till we get to the flood. We'll explain all of that. But understand that death came by man's sin. God said so. They had to live at the same time, man. Because there was no death before that. Understand, the death came by man's sin. So if dinosaurs lived and died before man was created and fell into sin, that doesn't fit with scripture. Romans 5.12 is very clear. As by one man, sin entered the world and death by sin. Sin entered the world and death entered the world. How did it enter the world? By sin. So death passed upon all men for that all have sin. Well we've looked at life. We saw plant life on day three. That's unconscious life. But you know plant life has DNA. That's where the after their kind comes from. They have a specific DNA. Animals Day five and six, whether you're talking about the animals in the sea or the animals on land, those are conscious life, but they're made after their own kind. That's also DNA. You think DNA has something to do with just, well, it just happened? You don't understand DNA. You haven't studied what DNA is. It is, that is complicated stuff there. It's not something that just falls together. Mankind was made on day six. And that's self-conscious life. And mankind was the crown of God's creation. But DNA in all of life there. Plant, animal, and mankind. Only mankind could eat of the food of the garden and look heavenward and thank his creator. No other of God's creation could do that. We were the crown of God's creation. We'll look further at this when we take a look at it next week. I'm going to mention a few things here though. Man is the crown of God's creation. When God created man, he did it as the capstone of all that he had made. He created him in his image, after his very likeness. Now of course that doesn't mean that we're little gods. It doesn't mean that at all. What it does mean is that he created us as personal beings. And as personal beings we are created for relationship. Created for relationship. We think and talk to ourselves. At least I talk to myself. I'll admit it. Okay. You don't want to stand outside my door and listen because you'll think that somebody's in the office with me, and I'm just sitting in there talking to myself. Smart people call that being able to reason. That's what I'm doing. I'm reasoning, okay? I guess they're self-conscious to admit that they talk to themselves, but that means we have a relationship with ourselves, don't we? And we reason. We interact with creation itself. If you're an outdoorsman or a farmer, you realize that you have a relationship with the land. Of course, we have relationships with each other. Aren't you glad that God made us to be able to have relationships one with another? And God created us to have a relationship with Him. Not only are we made in God's image, we're made with God's provision. God provided for man's every physical need in creation. It goes back to that word blessed. What God tells you to do, you have the ability to do it. He gave us dominion over all the animals and told us to be fruitful, multiply, replenish. The word replenish means fill the earth. of the over 300 times it's used in the Old Testament, it is most always translated Phil. So it would not be valid to build a doctrine around that word. The point is, God gave all of his creation, he gave all the creation to man, he gave us his image, and he gave us his provision. Man is the crown of his creation. All of creation led up to the point where he created man and all of it paved the way. It was all preparation for the crown of his creation. I'll share more about this, Lord willing, next week. I want to spend more time on the creation of man and woman than I have with the rest of it here. No matter what you believe about how everything came to be, You believe it by faith. If you believe evolution, you believe it by faith, because it certainly is not proof. It's not proven at all. Hebrews 11 verse 3 says, Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. I know it blows your mind. There was nothing God spoken, and boom, it was there. It was just God before. We talked about that already. I can't explain it, but I believe it. I believe it because God said it. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen, everything that you see, the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. There was nothing and then there was everything. Okay? Over a period of six days. You either take God at His word, since you weren't there, or you take the word of men who weren't there, who are grasping for anything else other than God that they have to answer to. They don't want a God that they have to answer to. That's the bottom line of what we see. You know, evolution is a late phase thing. It just came in the 1800s with Charles Darwin and his wickedness, his wicked ideas. And he couldn't explain. There was a lot he could not explain about what he came up with. And he inasmuch admitted that there were things that he could not explain. Well, the reason why is because he had it all wrong. Here are the basics of God's Word that are important to each one of us. I'm talking about not just everybody that's here, I'm talking about everybody in the world. God created it all. It didn't just happen. Number two, God created mankind for a relationship with Him. Now mankind blew it by sin. Mankind blew it. Adam sinned and broke that relationship, plunging all of mankind into sin, death, and the result, if God hadn't done anything, we'd all wind up in hell. But God sent His Son into this world to die for mankind's sin, so that mankind's relationship with Him could be restored. That's what this is all about. Genesis chapter 1 is all about God wanting relationship with man. We're going to see chapter 2 and 3. When we get to chapter 3, man blew it. But God has made a way to restore that with those who will look to His provision. Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus Himself said, No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. So, Brother Jerry, you can't say that in this day and time in which we live. Well, I just did. And I'll continue to say it, because that's what the truth is. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none under the name, under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. If people are going to be saved, they're going to be saved because of believing the gospel of Jesus Christ, or they're not going to be saved. They'll wind up in the devil's hell. I don't care how sweet the little old lady might be next door to you, if she don't know Jesus, she's going to wind up in hell. It doesn't matter who the person is. They need Jesus in their life. God's magnificent creation points us to Him. and he points us to his son, Jesus Christ. If you don't know Christ, come to know him today. Let's pray. Father, we thank you today for creation account that you've given to us, the history of one of the philosophical questions that mankind has. Where did I come from? Well, Lord, you gave us that. Here in Genesis chapter one, we can know where we came from. We can know why we're here, and we can know where we're going. Those are the philosophical questions. Lord, You've given us the ability to understand these things from Scripture, but it takes faith. We have to believe Your Word. Sadly, Adam and Eve didn't believe Your Word when You said, Don't eat of the tree in the midst of the garden, for the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." They didn't believe that because they partook and plunged us into this mess that we're in. Thank you for Jesus who reconciles us from what Adam did, the first Adam did. We thank you for that second Adam, Jesus Christ, that came to be the provision for our sins. Lord, if this one here today doesn't know you, help them to see the great need to do to come to you. And Lord, help us to be mindful of the people that are around us, that we need to be sharing our faith with others, because they will not get to heaven. It doesn't matter how nice they are. It doesn't matter how moral they are. It doesn't matter who they are. If they're an individual person, They need Jesus in their life. And if they don't have Jesus, they won't make heaven. Have your way in this invitation, we pray. Amen. Let's stand.