Father, we thank you that you are a God not just of holiness and righteousness and awesomeness, but you are a God of compassion and love, and that you have chosen to demonstrate your love for your people in multiple ways. First, in the way that you created the world, also in the fact that you sent your Son to redeem the world. We ask you, Father, that you would guide us and direct us so that we would come to understand that which you would have us to know from this passage of Scripture this morning. Consider our frailty, Father, but reveal your glory. your saints benefit into the glory of your Son, Christ Jesus. Amen. Okay, I'm going to begin with not rereading the text as I normally do. I totally lost all track of time last week, and I'm not going to let that happen again today. And we're going to eat. We've got fellowship dinner set back here, so I promise you we'll end before the top of the hour. So if anybody's watching their watch, I'll let you hold me to it if I go longer or somebody holler and say, okay, it's time to eat. Having said that, let's begin by reading verses six through eight and taking a look at what it has to say. God said, and God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse and it was so. And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning the second day. Now you may remember we actually last week addressed this passage and I made some comments there. In addition to what we talked about last week, I want to make these comments. Day two is the one day of creation that God did not make the statement, it was good. On every other day of creation in the narrative here, we get from the mouth of God this declaration that something that he did on that day of creation was good. He commented on it. We should not conclude from this that it was not good, of course, because we are told later in the account, speaking of all that he did in creation, that it was all good. God doesn't do anything that's not good, you see. So we know that. That's a presupposition. Rather, we should take note of this, only that we make special note of the times where he does make the comment. In other words, what I'm saying is, just the fact that he didn't say that this was good doesn't mean it wasn't good. It means that later when he says something is good, and actually prior to, what did he say when he created light? It was good on the first day. That should be a clue to us as to the intended meaning God has for us as we read. In other words, the significance in the absence of the phrase here is that it should cause us to place more emphasis on it when it does appear. Everything God created was good. However, there are some aspects of His creation that He would have us to place more emphasis or importance on than others. And this is one of those aspects. He would have us place less importance in order that we would place more importance on another thing. Okay? Everything that God does is good. But not everything that he does is equal with everything else that he does. So what we can take away from this is although everything God does in creation is important, not everything is equal in importance or significance. This is a preset that we would do well to remember. I'm pausing because I want you to remember that. There are levels. You hear people say things like, all sins are equal in the eyes of God. Anybody besides me heard that? I couldn't tell you how many times I've heard that. Okay? Does the Bible actually say that? No. It's a misunderstanding of what the Bible says. All sin, any sin, is sufficient to cause a disfellowship with God. Okay? One sin will send a soul to hell if it's not atoned for. One sin, any sin, doesn't matter. But that is not to say that all sins are equally evil in the sight of God. It's not to say that at all. Everything God created was good, however there are some aspects of creation that he would have us place more importance on than others. This is a precept that we would do well to remember as we interpret and attempt to apply the scriptures to our lives, and this is something we have to do all the time. Hopefully everybody is studying their Bible on their own to some degree. If you're not, then I would strongly encourage you to do it. I don't know about you, some people, this is totally off track here, but how many of you find that you, like diets, you decide you're going to go on a diet and you do it, and you're really, really, really, really strict about it, and you do very, very, very well, and then one day you fall off the wagon and you do something You eat something that you shouldn't have eaten, and then you crash and burn. From that point forward, it's like nothing at all. A lot of people are that way when it comes to reading their Bible. They'll get real serious about reading their Bible for a short period of time, and then they'll break that whatever pattern it is, and it's like, okay, we'll just throw up our hands and walk away and say, we're not going to do it. It might be a month or a year. or two years or five years before we ever go back to having another pattern. If you're in that boat, let me encourage you to break that habit. Pick up the Bible. Don't expect that every year of your life is going to be like every other year of your life in the past. Two things. One is, a lot of times people I think get Almost, there's times I want to tell people just lay the Bible down, don't read it. Don't read it. You know, like your pastor's crazy. He's telling people not to read their Bible. You have to understand, if reading anything can become legalistic for us. So if you've got such a high expectation that by golly, if I'm not reading my Bible for an hour and a half every day, if I'm not up at four o'clock in the morning or whatever it happens to be that you think you need to do, if you're not doing that, that somehow or another, you're at disfavor with God, and that really becomes a stumbling block. What you need to do is put your Bible away and get on your knees until you come to the realization it isn't your dedication to God that makes you right with God. It's God's atoning work of his Son, and your faith in that, and that only. Amen. It isn't how good of a Christian you are, And please don't misunderstand me and misquote me. I am not saying that Christians shouldn't put a strong emphasis and attention in their lives to living holy lives and to studying their Bible and to doing all the things that are spiritual disciplines. I am not saying that. What I'm saying is that we are legalists by nature. That is your fallen nature, and we will take even good things like the study of God's word and make something evil out of it. Did not the Pharisees do that? Absolutely. What'd Jesus tell them? You read these scriptures thinking that there's life in them, and there is, but you missed the very one that the scriptures are speaking of. And we can do the same thing. I didn't mean to get off on that, but because, and you might say, well, how ironic, because what am I trying to do as I'm preaching through Genesis? I'm trying to teach you how to study the book. That's what I'm here to do. Okay? I heard a little saying, if you give a person a fish, you know, you'll feed him for a day, but if you teach him to fish, you'll feed him for life. Well, I'm not here to give you a fish. I'm going to give you a fish, okay? Hopefully. But my intent is, and Pastor Jody's same thing, as we're preaching or teaching through the Bible, I am more interested in what you learned as far as how to study the Bible than I am what you actually learned. And I'm interested in both. But it's really, really important. So what is it we take away from this? Although everything that God does in creation is important, not everything is equally important or significant. This is a precept that we would do well to remember as we interpret and attempt to apply the scriptures to our lives. So what are we to make of this passage? As we mentioned last week, this is the day God created an expanse that separated the waters that were below from the waters that were above, creating the sky or atmosphere in which the clouds abide. We actually looked last week at Proverbs, I can't remember, I think it's Proverbs 8, where it actually quotes this, or it's obvious that this is the passage in reference, and the writer of the Proverbs said that he created sky. So, really, it's pretty straightforward in that Although there might be some ambiguity in the words that are used here, the meaning is pretty straightforward, especially when we look at the context or the verses that follow. We are not told exactly how he did it. We're not told that. What we are told is what the result was. Now, verses 9 and 10, God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called seas, and God saw that it was what? It was good. And God said, excuse me, and so on day three, God caused division to appear between the waters under the heavens and the earth. He did it by commandment to the waters. Notice what he did. He commanded the waters. So elsewhere we see passages like Job 38 in verse eight and following. This is God actually speaking to Job here to give you the context. Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? When I made clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it, and set bars in doors, and said, Thus far you shall come, and no farther And here shall your proud waves stay." Or Proverbs 8, 27, which we looked at last week. When he established the heavens, I was there. This is wisdom speaking for being personified. When he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundation of the earth." Again, he's speaking to the waters. He is telling the waters to go so far and no farther. Psalms 104, verses 5 through 9. He set the earth on its foundation so that it would never be moved. You covered it with the deep as with a garment. The waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke, they fled. At the sound of your thunder, they took flight. The mountains rose. The valley sank down to the place that you appointed for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass. so that they may not again cover the earth." In Jeremiah 5, 22. Do you not fear me, declares the Lord? Do you not tremble before me? I place the sand as a boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass. Though the waves toss, they cannot prevail. Though they roar, they cannot pass over it. How many of you have heard the environmentalists' alarm cries that global warming is going to melt all the ice caps and the Atlantic Ocean is going to be right at lookout mountain? Have you heard that? Yeah, you have. Do you need to worry about that as a Christian? No, you don't. Why? Because God sets the boundaries and they're not able, the seas that is, are not able to pass it. We were told that the separation of the land from the sea is good. Okay, now I want to look at this significance of why God tells us repeatedly in this account that a thing is good. It may not be a good time to do this, but I think there's no time better, probably, than this. There's different times we could look at it. Without getting lost in the weeds, so to speak, let's consider the things that God, the Spirit, recorded for us as being good concerning a particular aspect of His creation as follows, okay? There's six points I want to show you here. There's six times that he actually refers, makes this comment. We want to look at them. We looked at it briefly last week, but I want to hit it again. The first time is in verse three and four, where it's in relationship to his creation of light. In day one, when God created light, he said it was good. Second, God forming the dry land by commanding the waters to be gathered together in verses 9 and 10. Also note that the waters in verse 9 were described as being under the heavens, thus adding understanding to the previous text. Okay, so if there's any Doubting your mind is the meaning of verse 2 or 3 where he separates the land. It's not 2 or 3. I forget the verse now. But this should bring clarity to it because here he's actually referring to that water that's under the heavens. We know what it is. It's the sea. so the waters above it would be the sky. Number three, the bringing forth of plant life, specifically plants and trees bearing both seeds and fruit. You'll notice in the text, it makes a distinction. It doesn't actually tell us all, enumerate every type of plant life. There's single cell plant life. It's not being addressed here. Why? Because what is being addressed it are the plants, both plants and trees that bear seed. In the case of trees, those that bear fruit. Is there a reason for that? I think so. Not all plant life is mentioned here, rather plants bearing seeds and trees bearing fruit with seed within the fruit. The significance of this distinction may be in what we are later told that these forms of plant life were what was given to man for food. We haven't read that part yet, but we're going to. On day four, he creates the lights in the expanse of the heaven. It should be noted the heavenly bodies were referred as lights, giving us a clue as to what it is about them that God considered to be good. namely light. We were given further information that expands our understanding of their importance, that is, that they were what they were for, namely signs and season and for days and years, verse 14. But their property or reflecting, producing, the property that allows this function is that they are luminaries either producing or reflecting light. It is because of this that in verse 18, God declares the creation to be good. Okay? Hang with me. I know this can be a little bit tedious, but two more points. Verses 20 and 21 declare the creation of animals that dwell in the water and in the skies to be good on day five. And then verses 24 and 25 say that day six, God made the land animals and prior to them creating man, he declared them to be good. After this declaration, we are told that God created mankind. We are to understand this to mean Adam and Eve, his wife, from chapter 2, and we are told that God blessed them as he had done the other animals, And he created, but he went on further to give them dominion over every other creature. So we do not see God doing the declaring of the creature of the man to be good. In other words, please forgive me, I'm stumbling on my words here. What we don't see God doing after he creates man is declaring him to be good. Now, what are we to make of that? Should we come to the conclusion that since God didn't specifically mention the creation of man as being good, that this indicates that man is less important than any other aspect of his creation? I see Anthony shaking his head. No. That's right. We shouldn't. Why? I think not. Rather, I think that it's a clue as to why God wanted us to know why he considered the other things he pointed out to be good. If God was creating a world that was specifically designed to meet the needs of mankind, it would explain why he didn't note the creation of mankind to be good. Are you following me? In other words, what I'm saying is, when he declares a thing to be good, why is he saying that particular thing good? Everything he does is good, right? There's nothing that God does that's not good, okay? All the time. So why did he point out these things? Well, if the main point in the creation of the world, or a main point, a focal point, if you will, of importance, was to create a world wherein creatures that were made in his likeness could dwell and prosper and flourish, then as he is creating the different aspects of the world, of creation, that are going to be instrumental of highest importance to the flourishing of mankind, would he not point it out as something that's good? Again, I go back to the very first day of creation when he said he created light, okay? And what was it that he said about the light? It was good. Now, we're going to look at day four. In fact, I'm looking at my clock and I'm running out of time, so I'm going to wind it up. But if we look at day four, what do we see happening on day four? It says that God created the stars, the heavenly bodies. Day one, he creates light. day four, he creates the things that we think of as being like. Now, there are several different viewpoints on how to explain that. That is a problem. That's an issue. That's something that we have to address, and how do you explain it? I've given my attempt to rectify that. I personally do not see any reason why the God of the universe that can call a whole world into being from nothing would have any problem with speaking light into existence supernaturally. I don't see where that's a problem. And I gave you an example before, where in the new heavens and the new earth, who's going to be the light? What is going to be the light? It's going to be the land. It's going to be God. Okay? It doesn't say that there won't be suns and moons and stars, but they won't be necessary. Well, is it not possible that God spoke light into existence on day one? And on day four, he spoke and created the luminaries that would not only give light, but would also be a means by which man could track time? If you think about it, if we didn't have any luminaries whatsoever How would we distinguish time? It'd be difficult, wouldn't it? It's the heavens that allow us to do that. Is that important to the existence of mankind? Absolutely. It's vitally important that we be able to do that. It gives us a sense of what time is. And without it, it would be very difficult. I've heard accounts of people who are locked in solitary confinement where they're not allowed to see anything. They're in darkness just for days and weeks and months on end. And it's not good on the human psyche. We weren't made and created to live that way. There's something about the cycle of the sun and the moon that actually benefits mankind. And God calls attention to it twice. In day one, he says specifically of the light that it is good. And then in day four, when he creates the luminaries, he says it's good too. And that's my takeaway from that verse, is that it is good what God has done. And I think that all of the references to what is good, with the exception of the very one where he said that everything that he did, he looked at, and it was very good. But it's in regards to this is why he didn't say when he created man, you'd think, well, why didn't he call man good? Why? Because the point was to give you and I. Am I the only one that ever wonders why would such a massively huge God, a God that can speak the universe into existence, why does he pay any attention to me? Am I the only one? It does. In fact, there's actually a theological argument against the existence of God because of the greatness of the universe. I'm going, how could he possibly, basically the saying goes, how could in a universe this large in the world, why would God pay any attention to man? I mean, he's nothing. He's just a speck in the cosmos, and that's all. And yet the scriptures are telling to you and me that as God was creating everything, he did it with man in view. He did it for the benefit of man. Now, the rest of Scripture, that is not to say that the principal reason behind God's creation is the glorification of Himself. That's true. Okay? But how does He glorify Himself? The Scriptures tell us that God puts on display the glory of His grace. The glory of His grace. If God did not, of his own free will, autonomous free will, I would say, make a choice to place his love upon you, we would have no reason to expect it. But scriptures are very clear that he has done that. And even in the creation of the world, he demonstrates that for us if we'll open our eyes and look at what is being said. Let's pray. Father, I thank you.