Starting a new Bible study in the book of Genesis, and a great place to start, right?
And we're in verse number one of chapter one.
The Bible reads,
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
A very iconic and famous verse, but there's so much good doctrine that can be established
in the very beginning of the Bible, specifically the first chapter and even the very first
verse.
We see some very important things in this very first verse.
One is that God himself exists outside of time.
Notice the Bible says,
In the beginning God, so God has already existed, and he is the one who creates everything.
Creates the heaven and the earth, and one other thing that people talk about is just
things existing in and of themselves, the space-time continuum, okay?
Space-time continuum has basically three elements.
It's a trinity.
It has time, space, and matter, and all three are created here simultaneously in this opening
verse because we have the beginning.
The beginning is what?
The beginning of time.
If you don't have a beginning, you don't really have time.
Time is measured in some relevance, and that relevance is the beginning.
There would be an end, right?
Also, we have matter.
We have heaven and earth, but in order for matter to exist somewhere, there has to be
space for it.
The space-time continuum is essentially three elements, time, space, and matter, which all
three are created by God.
What's important about this is the fact that God exists outside of that space-time continuum.
He's outside of the heaven, he's outside of the earth, and he's outside of time.
God also permeates his creation, but he is outside of his creation.
He's not limited by any of the elements of his creation.
He is the creator.
He is above his creation.
At the very beginning, we're just establishing all this great doctrine, and we see that God
himself is the creator.
As we read through our Bibles, we end up getting even more information about this really great
verse of who is doing the creating, who is doing the forming.
Go to 2 Peter 3, and I want to talk about God being before time and how time is irrelevant
to God, which is kind of an interesting concept.
It's something that goes beyond our understanding because we're not God, number one.
Number two is the fact that we are in time, so everything to us, it only makes sense in
time.
However, even though we have a very finite understanding, infinity or being outside of
time still has some level of making sense, because if there was no beginning, then you
would say, well, what's five minutes before that, and five minutes before that, and five
minutes before that?
It seems like this infinite loop.
But according to the Bible, time itself has a beginning, and time itself has an end.
That makes a lot more sense, and we can somewhat wrap our minds around this, even though eternity
itself, I think, is too difficult of a concept for us to grasp.
However, the Bible does teach us this concept, and we should just understand it from the
perspective that the Bible gives us.
2 Peter 3, look at verse number 8.
But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day.
So notice, time is pretty much irrelevant to God.
God exists outside of time, so a thousand years to God is like one day.
Or particularly, one day could be like a thousand years to Him, because He's outside of time.
To us, a day is a day.
To us, a thousand years is a thousand years.
We can't really escape time itself.
We can't make it speed up.
We can't make it slow down.
Now obviously, we could stop paying attention, which makes time seem to go by fast.
Or we could pay a lot of attention, which makes time seem like it goes down really slow.
But we can't change time.
A second's a second, a day's a day, a year's a year to us.
We're not going to be able to impact that.
Yet to God Himself, it's irrelevant to Him.
A thousand years could be like nothing to Him, and one day could be a thousand years
to Him, in the sense that He has so much more understanding of time itself.
Go to Job, and go to chapter 38.
Go to Job, chapter 38.
But the Bible makes it clear that God Himself is not limited by time.
That's an important doctrine, because whenever we're studying the Bible, sometimes people
want to limit God to time.
Now what would be a way that people try to limit God to time?
Well they say, no one could go to heaven and the Old Testament, because Jesus hadn't died
on the cross yet.
But wait a minute, God's outside of time.
That doesn't matter that He hasn't technically done that to our timeline or to our time scale,
because God is outside of time itself.
And so lots of times people try to box God in with time or space or matter, but He cannot
be boxed into His own creation.
He is outside of His creation.
Job 38, look at verse number 4.
So God is talking about when He created the world, He created the foundations of the earth.
You know, whatever the bedrock is, or whatever is the underlying foundation that holds the
earth up.
And He's talking to Job, and He's just asking, like, do you know where that was, or what
were you doing back then, you know?
And obviously God's just asking all these rhetorical questions to just emphasize that
He is God, and that man is nothing in comparison to God.
He says in verse 5, who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest, or who hast stretched
the line upon it?
He's saying, like, how did you measure?
Did you measure the earth?
No, God measured the earth.
God measured it and created everything exactly how He wanted it.
And it even talks about laying the cornerstone thereof.
I believe that verse is a double meaning, at least.
It could have even more.
But one meaning is, I believe the earth literally has a cornerstone, okay?
Now what is a cornerstone?
A cornerstone is the first block that is put in a building, okay?
So if you're going to build a building, you have all the plans laid out, you've measured
everything, you're ready to start building, well, where do you start?
You start at the cornerstone, you know, like a puzzle.
Sometimes you lay out all the puzzle pieces, and people will start with what?
The edge or the corner of the puzzle.
That's the beginning, starting point.
The cornerstone in a building construction project is that first piece of the building
that is laid, okay?
So the earth would have had some type of a cornerstone in the sense of its first building
block or wherever its beginning of its formation had started.
But then the second is the spiritual picture.
What's the spiritual picture?
Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone, okay?
And what?
He's that first building block to that spiritual house that's built up, mentioned in Ephesians
chapter number two.
And you know what?
In the same way, Jesus Christ is the first stone laid, and then we get to follow after,
and then we're built up that spiritual habitation of God.
But in the same way that he built the earth physically is the same way that he's going
to build the spiritual habitation of Christians who believe in Jesus Christ.
Now go if you would to Revelation chapter 13, Revelation chapter 13.
Another important aspect of the creator, though, as we study our Bibles, and I'm just going
to give you all the answers, but is that when the Bible says God created the heaven and
the earth, there's specifics to who that is.
And the specifics to who that is is Jesus Christ.
And another aspect of this is Jesus Christ himself is also outside of time.
Jesus Christ himself is not limited by time or is constrained by time.
He's outside of time.
And we're going to look at a lot of verses that prove this, but look at Revelation 13,
verse number eight.
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, talking of the antichrist, whose names
are not written in the book of life, of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
So notice Jesus Christ is described here as the lamb slain from the foundation of the
world.
So Jesus Christ was already the lamb slain before the heaven and the earth were created.
Why?
Because he's outside of time.
God is outside of time.
Okay.
Go if you would to chapter one, Revelation chapter one, look at verse 17.
We're kind of going backwards a little bit here, but let's look at a lot of verses.
Revelation chapter one, verse 17.
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.
And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, fear not.
I am the first and the last.
So notice how Jesus Christ describes himself.
I'm the first and the last.
Look at verse eight.
I am the alpha, or I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the ending.
Notice Jesus Christ, he says, I am the beginning.
Why?
Because in the beginning, God.
So you know what?
Jesus Christ is saying, hey, guess what?
In the beginning, Jesus Christ.
In the beginning was the Lord Jesus Christ, okay?
And he says, I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is,
and which was, and which is to come, the almighty.
So Jesus Christ was there at Genesis 1, 1 in the beginning, God.
That's not just the father.
That's the son and the Holy Ghost.
Let's prove this even more.
Look at verse 11.
Saying, I am alpha and omega, the first and the last, and wilt thou see us write in a
book and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia, Ephesus and the Smyrna and the
Pergamos and the Thyatira and the Sardis and then the Philadelphia and the Lacedea.
So every church should know that Jesus Christ is the alpha and the omega, the first and
the last.
It's overemphasized.
And I think that's good because we need to understand this doctrine.
Now go to Colossians chapter 1, Colossians chapter 1.
Now verses that come to people's mind would be John chapter number 1, in the beginning
was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
That's a great verse.
And you know, some people say, oh, well, that was just words or that was just, you know,
God's abstract words or something like that.
No, the word was Jesus Christ, okay?
And let me prove to you from other places in scripture, the word is just another name
for Jesus Christ, okay?
Because Jesus Christ is both the literal word of God and he is the son of God.
He is a person, okay?
And the Bible tells us that he was God in the beginning and he was with God.
That can only be understand through the Trinity.
And again, Genesis is a great book because it explains all of these doctrines, you know,
a little bit more vague, obviously, but it has them all there in the beginning.
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, look at chapter number 1 and verse number 13.
So who is it that the Bible is talking about?
It's talking about the son.
So everything that we're about to read has to be attributed to the son, okay?
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
Who?
Who's the who?
The son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
Now verse 15, you say, well, is that talking about Genesis?
No.
Verse number 15, and we study this out, that is when Jesus Christ was risen from the dead.
He already existed, okay?
But he's that firstborn in the sense he's that cornerstone that I already talked about.
He's that chief cornerstone that was laid and he's that first of that building block
of the new man, of the regenerated man.
He says in verse number 16, for by him, now who's the him?
The son.
For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were
created by him and for him.
So notice who is the creator?
It is the son, it is Jesus Christ, and all things are created for him and by him.
Now you say, well, that sounds selfish, but wait a minute, Jesus Christ didn't create
anything of his own will, he was doing what the father had commanded him to do.
So notice the father commands the son to build everything, to create everything, he's the
word of God.
Everything was created by the word of God, okay?
But all those things were then for the son to inherit.
They were for the son to have the preeminence and it's going to tell us that in Colossians
chapter number one.
Look what it says in verse 17, and he is before all things and by him all things consist.
So notice, before time, Jesus, before space, Jesus, before matter, Jesus, before heaven,
Jesus, before earth, Jesus, he's the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
He is before all things and by him all things consist.
Without Jesus Christ, nothing would exist.
Joe Biden wouldn't exist, Kamala Harris wouldn't exist, Flat Earthers wouldn't exist, nothing
would exist.
Everything exists, whether it's visible or even invisible, love, math, science, just
every thought.
Everything exists because of Jesus Christ, because of the word of God, okay?
This is some deep doctrine and it's too wonderful for us.
We can't even understand all of this.
Verse 18, he is the head of the body, of the body of the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence, for it pleased
the father that in him should all fullness dwell.
So again, Jesus Christ not only created everything and he's before everything, he gets the preeminence
in that regard, he also gets the preeminence and the fact that he's the first to rise again
from the dead.
That's why nobody in the Old Testament rose again yet because Jesus Christ gets the preeminence,
he gets to be the first in every single category, period.
He gets all of the preeminence, all the glory, everything is about the son and what he does
for us.
Go ahead to Hebrews chapter number one, Hebrews chapter one, and again, you can't take that
passage and just say, oh, it's just the word.
Look, that whole passage is about the son.
It was talking about his dear son and I can continue to prove this over and over again
that in the beginning, God is the father, the son, and the Holy Ghost.
Hebrews chapter seven, look at verse number one, I don't know if I said that right.
Hebrews seven, look at verse number one, we'll read this and then we'll go back to
verse one.
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning
from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part
of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness, and after that also king
of Salem, which is king of peace, without father, without mother, without descent, having
neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the son of God, abideth
a priest continually.
Now, this is a great passage because it tells us a lot about Jesus Christ himself.
And I've heard modalists, they love verse three, but only the first two words, everything
else they ignore in this passage.
They say, oh, without father, that means that Jesus Christ doesn't have a father because
he is the father.
That is a horrible way to interpret this verse.
And that is not what it's teaching.
It is teaching that Melchizedek did not have an earthly physical descendancy from a father,
also from a mother.
But Jesus Christ did literally descend from Mary.
But it's just basically saying this Melchizedek guy, he came out of nowhere.
He didn't have a mom and dad.
It's just like he showed up all of a sudden.
Notice what it says, without descent.
He just showed up.
This guy's like, where'd you come from?
He's just there.
He's like, who's your dad?
Who's your mom?
No one.
That's what it's saying.
Nothing.
He's like Adam, in a sense, where he just didn't have an earthly physical mom or dad
in any sense.
And then it says, without descent, having neither.
Notice this, beginning of days nor end of life.
You know what that person sounds like?
They're outside of time.
If you didn't have a beginning and you didn't have an ending, there's only one person you
can be, God.
And then notice what it says, he's like.
But made like unto the Son of God.
So what are the attributes of the Son of God?
No beginning of days nor end of life.
So you know when the Son of God existed?
Always.
He's the great I Am.
He's always existed.
And so when Jesus Christ entered into his creation through the Virgin Mary, that was
not the origin or the beginning of the Son of God.
That was the manifestation of the Son of God.
That was him becoming obvious to us, us being able to see him.
The Word was made flesh so that we could behold the Son of God.
That is not when the Son of God came into existence.
The Son of God is from everlasting, as Micah chapter 5 verse 2 tells us very plainly.
Now go to Hebrews chapter 1, let me show you a few more verses.
Go to Hebrews chapter number 1, and you say, why are we spending so much time on this doctrine?
Because Genesis is a foundational book.
And we want to be a fundamental Baptist church, and we want to believe the fundamentals today.
And you know what?
If you pay attention to the fundamentals, you won't be led astray by lots of heresy,
lots of false doctrine.
So much good teaching here.
Hebrews chapter 1, look at verse number 2.
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all
things, by whom also he made the worlds.
So who's the he as the pronoun?
The he here is God.
Because notice in verse 1, God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake, and time
pass on the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.
So who did God make the worlds by?
The Son.
Notice the Son is the one whom he made all the worlds.
And Colossians chapter number 1 already told us that all things were made by him and for
him.
It's all for him, it's all by him.
And notice he had appointed him heir of all things.
Doesn't that fit perfectly with what he read in Colossians?
If you're the heir of all things, you know what that means?
It was made for you.
It's for you to inherit, it's for your benefit.
Look at verse number 8.
But unto the Son he saith thy throne, O God is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom.
Now some people would say, oh, the Bible never calls Jesus God.
The Father's calling him God.
If there was one person that was going to confirm that you're God, who would be the
most trustworthy witness?
How about God the Father?
If I had to pick someone that's going to tell me that I'm God, I'm obviously not, but I'm
just saying if someone's going to recognize who I am, wouldn't it be God the Father to
be that trustworthy witness?
And look, God the Father, when he looks at the Son, he calls him God.
So when the Bible says, in the beginning, God, hey, that's the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost, okay?
He says in verse number 9, thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore
God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
And thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens
are the works of, notice this, thine hands.
So notice when Jesus Christ created the world, notice how God the Father describes that happening,
he says it was through the hands of Jesus Christ, of the Son.
How in the world can you believe in modalism?
It's just foolishness.
Oh, it's just words.
The Bible says it was his hands that laid these things.
It was the Son that did it, okay?
The Trinity could not be clearer in the Bible when you just slow down and study it.
Look at verse 11.
They shall perish, but thou are meanest, and they all shall wax old, as that the garment
and his vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same,
and thy years shall not fail.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.
He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the earth, before the world, and you know
what, he was the Son of God before the foundation of the world, and you know what, he was God
before the foundation.
You know what, that destroys so many false religions.
I mean, the Mormons don't even believe Jesus Christ was God.
He like, became a God.
There was never a point where Jesus became God.
He is God.
And you know what, who created everything?
It was Jesus.
It was Jesus that created everything at the commandment of God the Father.
God the Father spoke all these words, and Jesus Christ did them literally, okay?
Now go to 1 John chapter 4, and I know I'm showing you a lot of other verses at the very
beginning, but this is such an important doctrine and such an important place to start, and
I love verse 1.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
So much that we could study.
I mean, we could preach a whole sermon on verse 1, honestly, but we're going to get
to other verses, I promise you, okay?
Look at 1 John chapter 4, and look at verse number 14.
And we have seen him do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
So notice, God sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
God sent his Son to create the world.
God the Father sent his Son into the world.
And notice who he sent into the world, his Son.
He didn't send words into the world to become his Son.
He sent his Son into the world, and the Son is the Savior of mankind.
God is our Savior.
Now let's go back to Genesis after establishing that doctrine.
What have we learned so far?
Well, we've learned so far that God created everything, and specifically, that was done
by God the Father commanding his Son, and his Son literally creating everything.
And the Bible says he even laid the foundation with his hands, you know, with thine hands
he created.
And both the Father and the Son are outside of time.
There wasn't a time when they don't exist.
That's why God just says, I am.
That's why Jesus Christ is also, I am.
That's why they're the ancient of days, you know.
God the Father is referred to in Daniel as ancient of days, and then guess what the Son
is referred to as?
The ancient of days, okay?
And then it's God talking to God, and you see them with each other, and they both have
glory.
John chapter 17, I didn't take you there for a moment, but we're going to go there in a
minute.
We're going to see that the Father and the Son have always been together, and they work
together in perfect unity, and their creation is magnificent.
It says in verse 2, 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.
God said, let there be light.
There was light, and God saw the light, 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.
So we get a couple things.
We have day number one.
What happens in day number one?
God creates the heaven and the earth, okay, and the Bible says that the earth was without
form and void.
We have to understand about the Bible, especially in the English language, we have a lot of
words that have dual meaning, okay?
A lot of words in the Bible can mean multiple things, okay?
Not even just two.
They could even mean multiple things, like the word God.
God could refer to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
It could refer to the Father.
It could refer to the Son.
It could refer to the Holy Ghost.
So there's lots of things that God could mean, and there's lots of things that the word heaven
could mean, and there's lots of things the word earth could mean, okay?
And so we have to understand all these words through the context in which they're written,
and the Bible says, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
So we have the earth here, and the Bible says that 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.
So you know, my best estimation is that the earth, it's just all water, which makes sense
it doesn't have any form or any void because there's nothing, there's no boundary, you
know?
It's just all water on the surface, okay?
I'm not saying that in the center it's not other things.
I'm just saying if we're looking at it from the outside in, we're just looking at it from,
you know, out in space or something, it's just basically covered in water, okay?
There's just water, and the Bible says that God's Spirit was literally hovering upon those
waters in the beginning of the creation.
Now it says in verse three, and God said, let there be light, and there was light.
Now I hear a lot of atheists, and they're really foolish, obviously, but atheists would
point to this verse and say, oh, there's contradictions in the Bible because God is creating light
in day one, and he's creating the sun, you know, on a different day.
He's creating it on day four, okay?
But I'm sorry, not day four, I'm saying that wrong.
He's creating it on day, what does he create the lights?
He creates it, yeah, day four, I was right, okay.
Day four, he's creating the sun, moon, and the stars, but they'd say, well, how does
that work?
Well, here's the thing.
Light can exist without the sun.
You realize that the sun is just a light source?
It's not light itself.
Did you know that the light is not illuminating this room even 1% right now?
I mean, I don't know if there's like some moon coming off and coming.
It's not illuminating this room at all, okay, virtually.
I mean, basically, the light from the sun, it's a light source, but if the sun never
existed we would still have light.
Light is something that's not about the sun.
The sun is just a particular light source that beams and radians, you know, come off
of and we can see things through the light of the sun, but light itself is just, you
know, an immaterial product that we can see things through, okay?
Give me a jar of light.
I don't know.
You know, and there's all kinds of different spectrums.
You have UV light and you have all kinds of different spectrums and I'm not going to go
into a science lesson this evening, nor would I be the most intelligent person to speak
on that, but we understand that light is something different than the sun, okay?
So God just created light itself on day number one and, in fact, the Bible tells us later
when we get all the way to the Revelation there will be a time when we don't even need
the sun because Jesus Christ himself will light up the world, but we have a division
between light and darkness and he has the evening and the morning were the first day,
so according to the Bible a day is actually a little bit different than how we look at
it.
A day basically starts as we, and I'm just putting general numbers up here, but let's
just say 6 p.m. is about when the sun goes down.
That's when the day would start, okay?
The day would start at about 6 p.m. and give or take.
I'm not saying that that's an exact number and then the, when we use the word day, again
day is another word that can mean a lot of different things.
The first 24 hour period would start at 6 p.m. and then it would be light at about 6
a.m.
That would be the other 12 hour period and that would be a full day, so the day actually
starts at night and in our minds, okay, and then it would end at the setting of the sun
whenever the sun would go down, so basically the sun, you know, going down is the beginning
of a day and the sun coming up is the middle of the day and then the sun going down is
the end of a day and that's an important thing to understand because when you get to books
like Matthew, Mark and Luke and you're trying to figure out like the timing of like the
Passover or other things, you have to realize that sometimes days start differently than
how we think of them.
When do we start a day?
We start a day at 12 in the middle of the night.
Why?
That doesn't really honestly make that much sense.
This actually makes a little bit more sense.
You know, obviously some people might think the day would start at 6 a.m. and then go
to the next cycle, but it actually starts with evening.
Now why would God do that?
Well, I think there's a lot of reasons why God would do something like this because if
it pictures, you know, salvation, you know, when you think about ourselves, we're first
in what?
In darkness and then we get saved, we come into what?
We come into glorious light and then we're saved and so, you know, even the world itself
is in darkness, but then comes Jesus which is that light and so we kind of have this
picture of dark before the light and I believe that's why God had it start out dark and then
go into light.
When you start out light and then go into dark, that's like picturing like losing your
salvation or, you know, something that's really bad.
How can that even be remedied?
Rather, the first day it starts dark, but then it ends light.
So it starts sorrowful, then it ends glorious and even our lives is a much bigger whole
than our physical life.
Our physical life is kind of the dark, but then our resurrected life is going to be all
light.
and it's going to be a lot better than what it is now and so we kind of have those two
different pictures.
We have a 24-hour period, the evening and the morning.
Another thing we have is when God says, let there be light, you know, we have the word
of God here.
We have it being spoken and we have, you know, all aspects of God being mentioned.
We have chapter one, I'm sorry, verse one, God, then verse two, the spirit of God and
then verse three, we have the word of God because it says in God said.
So we already have an allusion to the Trinity here with God, the spirit and his word.
Okay, we have the word of God being spoken.
We have a lot of great things that are being set up on this first day and we also see one
other thing that God's a God of division.
Notice he immediately starts out dividing things on day one and you know what?
There is no gap.
Sorry, I didn't, I didn't mention there wasn't a gap because there wasn't one dimension.
All right.
If you believe in the gap theory, you know, you can go check yourself at the door.
I mean, how can you say there's a gap when you start out in the beginning and then he
says the first day, where was the gap?
Okay.
Then they, this is what they have to do.
They have to alter the definition of every one of these words to mean something has nothing
to do with the word itself.
So all day just means like ages.
It's like, what?
It was like an evening and then a morning and it killed the day and there's like, I
just generally like ages.
You know, these are like the Southern Baptist convention, believe it or not about the sixties
to like 2000, they became so liberal.
They would say like Genesis is just like a metaphor.
It didn't really happen.
It wasn't just like, it was just like, they got really hippie and liberal with the Bible
and barely Baptist to say the least.
But we believe the Bible is literal history.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth in a literal approximate 24 hour
period of time.
We had about a 12 hour nighttime, a 12 hour daytime, and God literally created all these
things.
Okay.
Then we usher into the second day, verse six, it says, and God said, let there be a firmament
in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters.
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.
Now again, now we're going to start making some real clear divisions on some of these
words because he says he creates a firmament between the waters.
So basically we just have like water here and then somehow God inserts firmament.
Now what's firmament?
Okay.
Firmament is just like space.
Okay.
Firmament is just like space.
So basically God creates the atmosphere and in the atmosphere you have a separation.
And in that atmosphere, you have particular gases.
You have gases that are coming off of the earth.
Okay.
And then above that atmosphere or in the upper portions of the atmosphere, you have what
clouds, right?
And clouds are what water.
So you have a division of water, you know, on the earth, you have the atmosphere being
created here on day two.
And this is going to be important because you have kind of the first three days of creation
setting up for the next three days of creation.
What's going to happen in each one of those.
Now in our atmosphere, you have 78% nitrogen, approximately 21% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04%
carbon dioxide.
And so that's going to be important.
Why do we have those elements?
Why do those things exist in our atmosphere?
Well, how about the things that are going to exist in that environment?
Isn't that going to make a lot of sense?
Now what's another word for firmament?
Sky.
Okay.
And one thing it means is he says he called it heaven.
You're like, well, I thought in verse one, he said he created heaven.
That's because heaven can mean multiple things.
Okay.
Heaven in verse number one is like, we're God's dwelling.
You know, this is like what we call the, what we call the third heaven.
Okay.
And then here we have what we call maybe like the first heaven, which would be the sky.
Okay.
And then the second heaven would be outer space.
So like I said, what's a firm, it's like space, right?
So we're going to have the first space, the second space, and then heaven.
I'm not even going to attempt to draw that.
Okay.
So you can just imagine that in your own imagination sometime, but we have this firm it being created
and let me prove this to you go to Deuteronomy chapter number 10 for a moment, go to Deuteronomy
chapter number 10 for a moment.
And I want to show you a couple of verses here, Deuteronomy chapter number 10.
So when the Bible uses the word heaven, you know, it can mean different things.
And you know, if you don't realize that the Bible can have different definitions for words,
you are going to never interpret the Bible correctly.
Okay.
Because it uses multiple words like, like wine to mean multiple things or repent to
mean multiple things or the word fruit to mean multiple things or even salvation itself
or being saved that can have different ways that it's understood or different contexts.
The word God, all these different words can mean different things.
We have to let the Bible interpret them.
And let me prove to you that heaven can be used in multiple ways.
Deuteronomy chapter 10, look at verse 14, the old, the heaven and the heaven of heavens
is the Lord's thy God, the earth also with all that is there in now, based on these few
verses, we could understand a couple of things very quickly.
Number one, there is a heaven of heavens.
Therefore there has to be at least three and I believe there's three.
Okay.
But I'm saying there has to be three.
Why?
Because there's a heaven of notice have bins that would mean there's two at least why?
Because you have the first heaven, which would be our atmosphere, our sky, as we know it.
Then you have the outer space, which is what we call it, the outer firmament or the second
heaven, which would be just the empty place.
And then you have a heaven of the heavens.
Okay.
Go to a second Chronicles chapter two.
Let me show you this phrase one more time and then I'm gonna show you another verse.
Second Chronicles chapter number two and look at verse number six and they get this Bible
study.
So we're trying to study the Bible here and get better understanding of these words and
these foundations.
Second Chronicles chapter two, look at verse number six, but who is able to build him in
house seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him who am I then that I should
build him in house save only to burn sacrifice before him.
So again, we see that phrase of the heaven of heavens, meaning what?
That there's a heaven of at least these heavens.
Okay.
And I'm presenting the idea that there's three because the apostle Paul says in second Corinthians
that he was caught up to the third heaven and he's experiencing paradise or where God
it dwells.
Okay.
So that would lead me to believe that God classifies the heavens as the first, second
and third.
Okay.
We have our atmosphere.
We have the outer space.
Then we have the heaven of heavens and notice that that heaven, the third heaven, the Bible
says that it can't even contain him because remember what I already told you that the
space time continuum that God created, he's not limited by that.
He's outside of that.
God dwells outside of time and space because notice all the space that's even been created,
it can't even hold him.
And then understanding that is why you see Solomon and David, you know, when they're
building the house of the Lord, they're thinking like, how am I going to build a house for
you to draw?
Like, you know, you can't even, you can't even be encompassed by your own creation.
You're so you're outside of it.
You know, our God is a big God.
You know?
All right.
That's a weird song.
I was going with two different songs.
They'd kind of next go to Job chapter 26, Job 26.
When we, when we understand who God is, it's, it's, it's beyond our understanding is beyond
our comprehension at the same time though, it makes perfect sense because if there's
a creation, you know, the creator would be outside of that.
The creator would be beyond that.
The creator would be above that.
He's not going to be limited by his own creation.
Now again, I've taken you a couple of places in Job.
Let me remind you of this.
When I went to the first place in Job, that was God speaking.
The second time we're going to Job, Job speaking, okay?
I'm not going into a lie who to tell you anything for doctrine, all right?
Beware of the guy that sounds like a lie who Job chapter 26, look at verse number seven.
He stretches out the North over the empty place and hang at the earth upon nothing.
Wow.
So it's saying the empty place, what would we call that?
Outer space.
And you know, this drawing's white, but it's really black, right?
I mean, you look in the outer space, it's just dark and it's just, the earth is just
there.
It's just hanging on like literally nothing and you know, it's just an empty place.
It's just out there and isn't that just to show you more honor and glory to God that
he can just create the earth and it's just there and it's just like, how is it, how,
what's this holding it up?
Just suspending it, God and his creation and his infinite wisdom and everything that
he has.
Now let's go back to Genesis for a moment and I want to, I want to lay down one more
quick doctrine before we kind of finish this chapter, but we see the Trinity already being
laid out and we see the first two days of creation and we see the heaven of heavens
and I love that everything's being created by the spoken word, right?
He says, and God said, and everything is just happening and it makes us think of, you
know, John chapter one, I alluded to this, but I want to go back to it and look what
it says in Genesis chapter number one, verse nine, and God said, right?
Verse six, and God said, and verse three, and God said, so in verse three, six and nine,
it's just like, and God said, and God said, and God said, and there's just all these Trinity's
laid out in the Bible, the space time continuum, you have God, the spirit and his word.
You have all these interesting things.
You have three heavens, right?
And there's a lot of threes in the Bible themselves, but go to John chapter number one, and let's
talk about the Trinity again, because we're going to hit that with a couple other verses,
but a lot of people stop at the Trinity or they, they try to say that the Trinity doesn't
make any sense to them, but number one, even if the Trinity didn't make sense to me, if
that's what the Bible teaches, then I should just believe it, okay?
Number one.
Number two, you know, I'm not looking to worship a God that I can understand.
After I've just showed you all this, I'm not really looking at a God that I'm going to
fully wrap my head around or understand everything about, okay?
But at the same time, that God has revealed himself through his word, and it actually
makes perfect sense to illustrate all of his attributes.
You couldn't have all the attributes of God without the Trinity, and the Trinity actually
helps us understand everything in the Bible.
It helps us understand our own lives.
You know, we are fathers and sons, and we have children, and we have all these same
elements, and we're made in his image, and we're going to get to that point, but look
at verse number one.
In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
So notice, Jesus Christ was there in the beginning with God.
Verse three, all things are made by him, and without him was not anything made that was
made.
He was his life, and the light was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not.
So notice, Jesus Christ shone.
He was that light, and he was there with God.
Nothing was made without him.
We have that perfect unity.
Go if you would to 1 John, chapter number five, go to 1 John, chapter five, and I talked
about this.
In the first day, we have that creation story, which is like salvation.
We have the darkness, and then we come into the light.
Jesus Christ is that light, and the darkness doesn't comprehend it.
Why do people not get saved?
They don't comprehend the gospel, because they don't understand the gospel.
If they did, they would believe the light.
They would come to the light, but because they reject it, because they don't believe
in it.
Verse number seven, really famous verse, notice this, for there are three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
We have the Trinity right here in the Bible, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.
The Bible says that there are three in heaven.
To say that there's not three in heaven is just denying clear scripture.
You can go to heaven, and you will see three, and all three bear the exact same record.
That's the point of this verse.
The point of this verse is this.
There is one record that three witness bearers will give you, and those three witness bearers
specifically are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
The Bible says that these three are one.
What does the word one mean in our Bible?
It means unified or in agreement.
Look at the next verse.
It says in there are three that bear witness in the earth, the Spirit, and the One, and
the Blood, and these three agree in one.
A complimentary verse here says there's the Spirit, the One, and the Blood.
The blood's not the Spirit.
The Spirit here is not the water, but these three agree.
If I ask God the Father for the record, it's the same record that the Son would give me
or that the Spirit would give me.
It's the King James Bible.
It's the same record.
They all bear witness to the same record, but there is three, and they're unified.
They are one.
Go to John chapter 17 for a moment.
Go to John chapter number 17, and Jesus Christ is that light.
What does the Father point to?
Jesus Christ.
What does the Spirit point to?
Jesus Christ.
What does Jesus Christ point to?
Whosoever believeth on me.
Whosoever believeth in me.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, whosoever believeth on me shall have everlasting life.
John 6, 47.
He's telling people to believe in Him.
God the Father is pointing to Jesus.
The Holy Ghost wrote the Bible.
He's telling you to believe in Jesus.
They're all pointing to that light.
Why?
Because there's only one record, and that record is pointing to Jesus Christ.
John chapter 17, look at verse 1.
These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour
has come.
Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee, as Thou has given Him power over all
flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou has given Him.
This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent.
I have glorified Thee on the earth.
I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.
And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with
Thee, before the world was.
So notice, before the world was, there was God the Father with His own self, with glory,
and then Jesus was with the God the Father with His own self, and had the same glory.
Why?
Because He had the Father and the Son.
Okay?
They're all there.
And the Bible tells us that they're one, but let's see what the Bible says when it talks
about being one.
Look at verse 11.
And now I am no more in the world.
These are in the world, and I come to Thee, Holy Father, He through Thine own name, those
whom Thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.
Now, modalists would love to point to the fact that it says these three are one and
say, oh, it's saying they're the same person.
Okay?
Well, let's use that same logic here.
We're all God now.
Right?
Isn't that what He's saying?
He's saying that we may be one as we are.
Is that really what the Bible's teaching?
No.
It's saying that we want to be unified, and we want to have an agreement with God.
We want to be on the same page as God and have the same record and the same testimony
and pointing to the same light, and we can have that same unity, not that we merge together
like Hinduism and become one.
Oh, one, um, one.
That's not the Bible.
Look at verse 21.
That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may
be one in us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me.
Oh, no, there's a distinction between the Father and the Son, you know, in the sense
that one's in the other and the other's one, but they're only one person.
Wait a minute.
Just like the Father was in the Son and the Son's in the Father is how we're supposed
to be in God too.
Does that make me God now again?
No.
It's saying the same way that God the Father is in the Son is the same way He wants to
dwell in us, and we should dwell with Him and dwell in Him.
Okay?
I'm dwelling in unity and agreement.
If I'm dwelling in a unity and agreement with someone, that means that there's no what?
Division.
There's no separation.
There's no anguish.
If you and your wife are dwelling in one, you know what that means?
There's unity.
There's harmony.
There's peace.
Okay?
Look at what it says in verse 22.
And the glory which Thou gave us me I have given them, that they may be one even as we
are one.
Verse 23, I am them and Thou in me that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world
may know that Thou has sent me and has loved them as Thou hast loved me.
Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they
may behold my glory which Thou has given me, for Thou lovest me before the foundation of
the world.
So notice, God the Father loved Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world.
And He wants us to be one with Him just like He's one with the Father.
So if you say that Jesus is one with the Father in the sense that they're the same person,
then you have to say that we're the same person too.
Or you could say Jesus Christ was in unity with God the Father and He wants us to be
in unity.
How about this?
All for one and one for all.
The three musketeers, right?
What does that mean?
All for one.
What does that mean?
It means everybody would be rallied in support of one person.
We all care about one individual.
Then what is one for all?
It means that every single individual cares about everyone too.
So you have that perfect unity where they're all together for one, and you know what?
That one is for everybody too.
Not only that, you could say they're all for one purpose, for one mission, for one goal.
They have that unity.
They have that agreement.
And you know what?
God the Father wants us to be one.
And you say, how do you become one?
Well, you come to church on Wednesday night and you learn the doctrines of the Word of
God and you become one with God by learning His Word and by studying His Word.
And you know what?
The point of church is unity.
It's for us all to gather together and be in agreement on the doctrine.
It makes no sense if we all have a different Bible and we all have a different gospel and
we all have different doctrines.
That's going to cause division in the church.
No, we want to have unity where we all come with the same Bible and the same gospel and
the same Holy Ghost and we're all teaching and believing the same doctrines.
That's how you have unity and purpose and vision and life, and we're all trying to be
in unity with God.
Now here's the thing, also Jesus Christ is loved before the foundation of the world if
Jesus Christ does not exist at the foundation of the world.
Here's my question.
Who does God love?
How can the Bible say that God is love if there is no object of love?
You have to have something to love to be loved, okay, unless you're going to be like Tyler
Baker and just love yourself.
You know what?
That's not the God of the Bible.
He's not a lover of his own self.
The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father and they love each other and they
honor and glorify each other.
And so we see all of God's attributes can actually exist without his creation.
Without God's creation, he's still a father, he's still a son, he's still the Holy Ghost.
He's still holy, he's still righteous, he's still loving, he's still merciful.
Every attribute of God exists without his creation.
He doesn't need us.
But you know what?
He chose to have us additionally.
You know, that should motivate us to love him back.
He chose not only to love the Son but to love us and for Jesus to love us.
Go back and we'll finish our creation story here in a minute.
I only have a few other places I want to go through.
I want to just kind of draw for you a little bit of this scene that we have here in Genesis
chapter 1.
But so much good doctrine.
And again, I could spend all day, you know, on these verses if we wanted to.
But it's good to get kind of from this foundation of doctrine and just a big picture.
Verse number 9, the Bible says, And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered
together in 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 the
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 even in the morning were the third day.
So the third day, we have the earth appearing.
Now again, notice it says that the dry land appeared.
It doesn't mean it was created, it just means it appeared, right?
It was probably there.
It was just covered in water.
And then somehow the water's either subsiding or God's elevating the earth.
I don't know, but he's making, you know, the dry land appear.
And so we have some of the earth being formed here, or at least not formed, but coming out.
And you can actually see on day number three, and then on that green earth, we have what?
Trees and grass.
And notice that they are to bear fruit through the seed that's in themselves, okay?
And so we see everything brings forth after its own kind.
And we have, you know, basically something that people can inhabit.
What is God doing?
He's basically creating the foundation and the environment for things to enter into.
And I think it's interesting because we have, you know, day number one, we have the heaven
and the earth.
Day two, we have the sky, okay?
Day number three, we have sky and basically have like water divisions, okay?
We have sky and, I don't know, and we have the waters.
And then we have the earth and seas, okay, on day number three.
Now, what's going to happen here, and just for sake of time, I'm just going to kind of
tell you, what happens on day four?
You have the sun, moon, and stars, which goes where?
In the outer space, right?
Then you have the fowl and the fish on day number five.
And then day number six, you have the beasts and mankind.
So basically, you have day one, and then he's thinking ahead.
So, you know, this also tells me God's a planner.
Because what sense would it make if you made a whole bunch of fish and birds and there
was no water for them to go into?
Or what if he made, you know, a bunch of us, right?
But it's just water.
That's going to be kind of a failure at first, right?
That's evolution.
Just constant death and this trial run and all this stuff.
God is God of order, and he's thinking about his creation, and he's creating everything
in perfect order, perfect timing, and he's putting these pieces in play.
So then day number four, we have the sun and the sky.
I'm sorry.
We have the sun, stars, and moon.
Look at verse number 14.
Let's read a little bit of this.
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 even in the morning were the fourth day.
Now, on day four, he creates the sun, moon, and stars, okay?
Now, I'll say this.
When interpreting the Bible, everything should be interpreted from an earthbound observer
perspective, okay?
And when it says he made two lights, don't take that overly literally, okay?
And I'm going to prove that you can't take these things overly literally, okay?
But the moon is not a light, okay?
The moon just reflects the light of the sun.
So from an earthbound perspective, it's a light.
We look up, and it's a light, and in fact, it does light up the earth a little bit, you
know?
If it's a full moon, you can see a lot more than if the moon was, you know, just a sliver
or, you know, you couldn't even see it.
And the sun obviously illuminates, so we have two lights in a sense, yet that doesn't mean
that the moon itself is a light source.
Some people are like, oh, the moon is a light source, you know, or there's reptilian aliens
that live inside of it or something, you know?
These people are freaks, okay?
Stay away from them.
Another thing that's cool is that God, everything that we know about time is found in Genesis,
okay?
We have the years, we have days, we have months, and you know where we get our week?
From God's creation week.
You know, that's where all of our, how does that make sense, that every single one of
our times, I mean, couldn't we just pick any random number?
Our weeks are now three days, right?
Our weeks are now eight days, right?
And in fact, Romans at one point, I can't remember what Caesar it is, but I think he
tried, you know Caesar Augustus, I think?
You can fact check me on this, but I think he created a ten week, a ten day week, and
then they had to do weird things for the months, and then they got like August, you know, and
all this stuff, but God is the one who creates everything, and notice he created all these
elements, the sun and the moon, for the times and the seasons and for us to measure things
like that, and that's how we measure them, you know?
We have lunar calendars, and we have other things that can be measured, and so God uses
these things on purpose.
Another thing, though, we can understand is that the earth is a sphere, okay?
You say, how do you know that?
How do you know that the earth is a sphere?
Well, we can study that from lots of different places, but we have a firmament, okay, and
we have two lights, and when he says he put them in the firmament, does that mean that
God literally put the sun in the firmament and the moon in the firmament?
Because this is like your flat earth model, okay?
They literally believe that the sun and the moon are like in the sky or whatever, just
like rotating around on us, but that's not what he did, okay?
But it's in the firmament from an earthbound perspective, okay?
From an earthbound perspective, if I look up, where am I going to see the sun?
In the sky.
Where am I going to see the moon?
In the sky.
That doesn't mean that they're literally in the sky, okay?
And these people, they like to get overly carnal in their interpretations of the Bible,
and they miss the forest for the trees, but go to Joshua chapter 10 for a moment.
Let me prove this to you.
It's not two lights in the sense that the moon is emanating its own light source, okay?
It's an emanating light source.
It's just reflecting the light of the sun, okay?
And when we have the lights as far as the sun and the moon, okay, they're in the firmament
from an earthbound perspective, but they're not in the earth's atmosphere.
If the sun was in the earth's atmosphere, we'd all die instantly, okay?
The earth itself would melt instantly, okay?
And it's ridiculous for anybody to believe any of that.
But I can prove to you that the earth is a sphere from the Bible itself, okay?
Let's look at another verse, and let's just prove that the earth is not, you know, a flat
disk that is just ridiculous, okay?
And I could preach all day on that too.
Joshua chapter 10, look at verse number 12.
Then Joshua, then spake Joshua to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered up the
Ammonites before the children of Israel, and he said on the side of Israel, Son, stand
thou still upon Gibeah, and thou moon in the valley of Azulon.
And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon
their enemies.
Is it not, is not this written in the book of Jasher?
So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day,
and there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened on the
voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.
Now flat earthers like this, actually, because they'll say, oh, you know, because they kind
of believe in like a geocentric model, and they think like, well, you know, the Bible
or this is saying that the sun stood still, so that means the sun's moving.
It's not that the earth is rotating around the sun, but it's that the sun's spinning
around the earth, and that it stood still, okay?
But again, everything in the Bible has to be interpreted from an earthbound perspective,
okay?
If the sun in the sky is standing still, you know what's actually happening?
The earth has stopped spinning, okay?
Because as the earth is just spinning, okay, around and looking at the sun, it's going
to change its position in the sky to you, okay?
But that's because you're rotating, not because it's rotating, all right?
Now here's the thing.
If you were to stand still, then the sun would stand still in the sky to you, okay?
But the sun wasn't moving, all right, any more than it already is.
Now the moon, it would also stay stationary.
If you stand still, both of these items will stay stationary, wherever they're at.
But this is what's very interesting.
He said that he wanted the moon to stay in the valley of Agilon, okay?
That cannot be this type of a model.
Let me explain why, okay?
Because this is your stupid flat earth model, all right?
And you know, it's still going to be like a disk.
I don't know, I drew the ice cream cone one time because that's sometimes their model.
But here's your little stupid flat earth.
They believe that the sun and the moon are just like circling around like a baby, what's
that thing called?
What is it?
Mobile, yeah, a baby mobile just spinning around or something like that, which again,
if that were true, from every corner you could see the sun.
So then they try to like cone it, so it's like got like this cone over it so the light's
only hitting in a certain spot.
Well then that ruins all of time zones because time zones are pretty much divided perfectly
in half.
And so they can't figure out how to draw this.
But if the moon was above the earth like this, there would be a particular distance, okay?
And who knows what that distance is according to flat earthers, it doesn't matter.
Even if it was 10 feet, which I know it's more than 10 feet, okay, even if it's 10 feet,
that creates a problem for this verse for you guys, for these flat earthers.
And you say, why?
Because it said that the moon was going to be in the valley of Agilent.
Now first of all, can we interpret the Bible overly carnally?
Was the moon literally like laying down in the valley?
Is that what that's saying?
No.
It's talking about from an earthbound perspective, you're looking or whatever and it would be
there, okay?
But if the moon is above the earth, okay, it can never touch the horizon line no matter
where you're standing on the earth.
There's always going to be a distance.
Now you can make that distance smaller, but there will always be a gap.
So here's the thing.
If this is your horizon line of the earth and you're an earthbound perspective, you're
looking and here's your valley of Agilent, okay?
It can never cross the horizon line.
There would always be a distance above the horizon line that the moon could never go
below.
So you know what?
It could never be in the valley of Agilent.
It could never get down there.
It's impossible.
It could be above it.
It could be near it, but it could never, even if it would just fade away until you couldn't
see it, but it would never go below this line which is above the horizon line, okay?
Yet if the earth is a sphere like it is and you have the sun and the moon on opposite
sides, okay, then whenever you're standing here and you're an earthbound observer, you
can see the sun in the sky like they did with Joshua and they're fighting and you say,
well, where is the moon?
Now the moon, you wouldn't be actually able to see it, but if you could see through the
earth to out the other side, you could see the moon and it would be what?
In the valley of Agilent and then as the sun would go over here as you're spinning, guess
what happened to the moon?
It would come up out, it would be in the valley and it would come up out of the valley and
come across.
Why?
Because the earth is spinning.
And the earth is a sphere and flat earthers are stupid.
There I said it.
And they love the point of these verses and then try to say, oh, the earth is a flat disc
or whatever.
No.
And again, why did I take you there?
Go back to Genesis chapter one, because you can't take these verses, oh, it's two lights
to this weird overly carnal example.
The moon actually reflects the light of the sun, okay?
And we see that the moon and the sun, they're from an earthbound perspective going around
the earth, but what's causing that is us actually spinning, okay?
Now look at verse number 17, or verse number, sorry, let's look at verse number 20.
And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the living creature that hath life and fowl
that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
And God created great wells in 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 and the seas,
and let fowl multiply in the earth in the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
So on the fifth day we have whales and we have fish that are created, and God gives
them a commandment, be fruitful and multiply.
And you know what, that's God's commandment to his living creatures is to be fruitful
and to multiply.
And when I was thinking about this, I was thinking about the fact that some animals,
they really multiply, because when they have kids, they don't have one.
They may have two, three, four, five, ten, even more litters, or they might lay a ton
of eggs.
They may lay all kinds of eggs.
I mean, they're really multiplying.
And to multiply, you gotta go more than just doubling, more than just the amount that you
have.
It's gotta be increasing.
If you have two people, multiply to four, multiply to six, multiply to eight.
God wants his creation to multiply.
He doesn't want it to stay at the same level.
He wants it to increase and exponentially, because he created the earth to be inhabited,
not just by the whales and by the fish.
Let's keep reading.
He says in verse number 24, and God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature
after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, 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.
Now, this one's interesting.
God's been setting everything up, right?
Day number one was a setup for the sun, moon, and stars.
Day two was a setup for the fowl, and for the whales, and all the other fish.
Day number three is for the beast, and then lastly, what?
Man.
And then man is in what?
God's image, and then man has dominion over what?
Everything he created.
So notice, it was all set up for what?
Us.
And really, when you look at the world, the world is so magnificent.
All the creation, all the things that have been created, it's all about us.
You know, it's not about your dog.
It's not about your cat.
It's not about the giraffes.
It's not about protecting the environment.
It's not about any of the...
Look, those things are supposed to be subdued by us.
It's all about us.
Everything is about man here, okay?
It's not about his other creation.
His other creation was for us, and then we ourselves are for him.
And so everything's pointing back to Jesus Christ, but you have to understand, underneath
Jesus Christ, it's us.
And then under us, it's everything else, and everything else doesn't have the same value
as we do.
We are his crowning achievement.
We are his greatest creation in that sense, because we are made in his image.
He chose us to look like him.
I don't look like a porcupine.
I don't look like a panda bear.
You know, it says we were made after his image.
Don't get overly literal on this one either, Peter Ruckman, okay?
Peter Ruckman said that we're all going to be physical representations of Jesus Christ.
We're all going to look exactly like him.
And I'm like, then where does he get the glory?
I'd be like, Jesus?
And he's like, oh, it's Dylan.
Dang it.
Jesus been?
Come on.
You know, these guys are tricking me out here.
No, there's only one Jesus Christ, okay, when we get to heaven.
But we're after his image in the sense that we're mankind, okay?
Jesus Christ isn't a panda bear.
He isn't, you know, a porcupine.
He isn't a caterpillar, no.
He looks like us in the sense he's a man, okay?
And we're after his image in the fact that we're a man, okay?
And notice it says let us.
That sounds plural, doesn't it?
Why?
Because it's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Now look, if you have a father, okay, you have his son, and they look exactly alike.
Jesus Christ expects image of his person, okay, and then you have the Holy Ghost who's
also male, okay, and they say let us make man in our image.
What do you think they're going to make?
A man.
It makes perfect sense, okay?
If he took my great-grandfather, my grandfather, my dad, and they all looked at me and they
said, oh man, he looks like us, what are you trying to say?
Or he took my grandfather, my dad, and me, and we all looked at my son, and they're like,
he looks like us.
He's in our image.
What is it saying?
It's saying that he's like a man, okay?
Now again, I've heard even false doctrine in this.
They say, oh, God created a trinity to represent his trinity, and that trinity is male and
female and then God, okay, and so the perfect image of God is a man and a woman and God
in the mix there again.
That's not accurate.
That's blasphemous, in fact.
Look at verse 27.
So God created man in his own image, and the image of God created he him, male and female
created he them, okay?
So God made a distinction.
Man is made in God's image.
Woman is made in man's image, okay?
Keep your finger here and go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
I'm almost finished this evening.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 11.
Let me prove to you another doctrine.
The Bible establishes that God is a man, okay, and that we are made after his image.
Jesus Christ is known as the man Christ Jesus, okay?
And it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, look at verse number 7.
For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of
God, but the woman is the glory of the man.
So notice, the Bible just plainly states, you know, man is made in the image of God
and woman is made in the image of man, okay?
Doesn't mean that they're not equal in the sight of God because there's neither male
nor female in Christ Jesus, okay, but at the same time, God is a man.
We don't want to blaspheme God by giving the attributes of a woman because he's not
a woman.
He's not like a woman.
A woman is the weaker vessel, okay?
A woman is lesser in some ways, okay, from a physiological perspective, but that would
make sense because isn't man lesser than God?
So in the same way, the woman has a lesser portion in life than a man, but from an equality
perspective, there is none.
There's no distinction between male and female, and so while we have to understand the distinction
between male and female, which our world doesn't anymore, we have also realized that they're
both equal.
They have great value and they have different functions, okay, and that's okay.
It's okay to have a different function in this world, okay?
That doesn't make you less important.
It doesn't make your job any less important.
What we need to do is embrace the position that God has given us.
He gave us a foundation.
Hey, take control of the earth.
Go back to Genesis chapter number one.
Let's see the first commandment given to mankind mentioned in the Bible, okay?
Now, this is not the first time that God spoke to mankind, but it is the first commandment
articulated in the Bible to mankind, and so that's going to have a lot of importance.
Look at what it says 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 dominion over the fish of the
sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
So God says he wanted us, man and woman, to be fruitful and to multiply.
Now, I preached whole sermons on this.
What does that mean?
Physically and spiritually.
And you know what?
Look at our bulletin.
Have you ever looked at our bulletin?
Do you know what the first page is, multiplication spiritually?
Churchwide soul winning time, regional soul winning time, soul winning numbers, and you
know what the left side of our bulletin is?
Please play for our expecting ladies.
It's physical multiplication.
It sounds like we're doing pretty good at emphasizing what God told us to do is multiplication.
And obviously the most important multiplication is spiritual, okay?
But physical multiplication is still God's commandment, and it's still an important task,
and you know what?
We can continue to grow while fags can never grow, so there you go.
Just think about that one, all right?
Now let's finish this, verse 29, and God said, Behold, I have given you every herb-bearing
seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every green tree in the which is the fruit
of a tree yielding seed.
To you it shall be for meat.
And every beast of the earth, and every fowl of the air, and every thing 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.
So everything that God created was very good.
And a couple of things we understand is that mankind ate the fruit of the trees, and all
the animals, they ate plants.
So in the beginning, there was no death, you know, in that sense of life being shed.
Now obviously plants die in a sense, okay, but not in the same sense as the animals.
Because you know what?
There's life in the blood.
And you know what?
Grass doesn't have blood.
You know what?
Trees doesn't have blood.
And so there's no death.
You know, whenever I rip an apple off of the tree, it's not like quietly screaming like
ah, ah, ah, you know, it's not screaming or crying or whatever.
It doesn't know what's going on, okay?
There's nothing going on there.
But obviously God is going to restore us to a point where we'll go back to something similar.
Now that's a little sad for me because I love steak, all right?
But hey, we live in the New Testament, which is the better testament, and guess what?
We get to have steak and bacon.
So you know, praise the Lord for that.
You always think, oh, I wish I was in the Old Testament.
Well, there goes bacon.
Hey, I got bacon, I got steak, and I got Baptist, you know?
It's great.
It's the better testament.
You know what?
I love the beginning of the book of the Bible, and there's so much more that we could probably
expand it on.
But think about it.
Everything that God made was very good.
And that's an encouraging verse, especially today.
Because right now everything doesn't seem very good.
Sometimes it can feel like the opposite.
But you know, if you just shut down your phone and you stop caring about what the news says,
and you just look outside, sometimes you get reminded about how it's really good.
You got that sun, not today as much, but you know, you got, I mean, the things that God
created are awesome.
You know, and this whole world is awesome when you look at it.
We're so small in comparison to what He made, yet He made it all for us.
It was all for us, and His son died on the cross for us.
The greatest sacrifice ever.
And how it was very good?
It's going to be very good again.
And you know, we're just going through the rough part.
We're going through the darkness.
You know what?
Eventually we'll get into the light, and it'll be all good.
And we should stop worrying about now, and we should start focusing on the future when
we get to that very good state.
All right?
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Father, so much for your creation.
Thank you for your word that you gave us.
Thank you for all the sacrifice you gave us through your son.
Thank you for sharing your love with us that you had with your son, and that we can also
be sons of God as well.
And I pray that we would just understand the importance of eternity, and that we could
wrap our minds around as many wonderful things that you'd have us understand in the Bible,
and that we would believe all the foundational doctrines that you've taught us, and that
we could be better Christians.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.