(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now we're here in Genesis chapter 1 again and I'm not going to spend a hundred weeks through the book of Genesis, like two sermons per every chapter, but the first several chapters was just a lot of information and I couldn't cover it all last week. So the name of the sermon is Beginning Concepts of the Bible and last week I talked just basically about the age of the earth and evolution. Obviously, that's a focal point when you're looking at Genesis chapter 1. There's also a lot of other information. So we're just going to go verse by verse and catch some points along the way. And so the Bible says here in verse 1, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And so you see here in Genesis 1, 1, you have heaven singular and that's going to end up being divided into heavens. There's going to be a division there made. From the very beginning, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 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. As we said last week, at the very beginning, the earth was without form and void. And obviously that's hard for us to comprehend or imagine in today's world, but it doesn't mean anything was destroyed. It just means that God created without form and He hadn't formed it yet. He hadn't put things here yet. It's just at the very beginning there. And it's said in verse 2, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. So in verse number 2, you're seeing what I believe is the Holy Spirit of God mentioned in verse number 2. And you know, we know as Bible-believing Christians that the Bible says in the beginning was the Word. We know Jesus Christ was here at the beginning. Obviously everybody would agree God the Father was here at the beginning and then you see the Spirit of God there in verse number 2. So you're already seeing the Trinity popping up. It says in verse number 3, and God said, let there be light and there was light. So before the sun was created, there was light. And so we can have light without the sun. Okay, we had days before the sun was created. Okay, now go to Revelation chapter 22. Revelation 22. And you know, one day it's actually going to be like this again where we do not have a son, but you know, we don't have any need of it because the Lord God is our light, the Bible says. And so one day we'll be back to that point. We're in the last chapter here in Revelation 22, where it says in verse 5, And there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. So it says, neither light of the sun. He said, why? Well, the Lord God is going to give us light. And there was light before there was the sun, so the sun is not a necessity. Now obviously we have the sun here today, but before the very beginning, there was light before the sun was created on day four. Genesis 1-3, God said, let there be light and there was light. But it's the fourth day when the sun is actually created. Then one day it's going to be like that again. Now, I don't know if this is true or not. I think it's an interesting theory. You know, I would probably bet, I think it probably is, but I'm not for sure that some people believe that the second death, the lake of fire where hell is relocated, will actually be relocated to the sun. And I think that's a good theory. I don't know if that's true or not because it could be some alternative location that's just a different one that's created. And you know, but it's an interesting theory. I remember one of the like-minded pastors I heard a great set and I thought it was an interesting theory. And it brought me back to this rock song I had heard like a long time ago. There's this band called Sound Garden, who at least in the U.S. is very famous. You know the song Black Hole Sun, that famous song? And so that song is about hell. It's referring to Black Hole Sun. So maybe that's a theory that's been around for a while. Very blasphemous song. I used to love it before, but they just use it with his name in vain. It's a terrible song. But you know, I think it's an interesting theory. But regardless of whether that's true or not, at the very end, the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, we're seeing that there is light without the sun. For the Lord God giveth them light. Okay, go back to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis 1. Genesis 1. Genesis chapter 1. And the first point we have, and we're going to hit some points, but also just, you know, kind of explain this verse along the way. We see here in Genesis chapter 1 that God is a God of division. God is a God of division. It says here in Genesis 1 verse 4, and God saw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. Okay, now obviously when we're talking about light and darkness, this is literal light and this is literal darkness. But I want you to understand there's obviously spiritual applications where, you know, darkness is bad throughout the Bible, and light is good, right? The light of God's work, you draw close to God, and it talks about wicked people stumbling in darkness, and they don't know what they stumble at. And so light is something that's always good in the Bible, and darkness is something that's bad. What you're seeing here is in Genesis 1-4, it says God divided the light from the darkness. Now obviously this is literal, because he's dividing the light from the darkness, but there's also symbolism God's trying to teach us, and right at the beginning of the Bible, we're seeing that God is a God of division. There's a division between the light and the darkness. And see, when it comes to our Christian lives, God wants us to be separated from the darkness. God wants us to be separated from the worldliness and the sin. God wants us to be separated from people that have no interest in serving God, right? This is one of the big things about having a local New Testament church, because you can find people that have similar views and similar beliefs. Obviously we're not robots, we don't all believe the exact same thing, but by and large, we can talk about topics and we're almost always in agreement, right? But isn't it amazing how you have conversations in the world with people and it's just arguments, disagreements, and it's just like, man, it seems so clear to us, but that's because we're going off what the Bible says, right? And see, right here in Genesis 1, we're seeing God saw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. People have this idea that God is just trying to bring everybody together, but that's simply not the case. God is a God of division, okay? Now turn to John chapter 3. John 3. John chapter 3. And look at the contrary, then you've got the devil and the Antichrist who's going to try to bring world peace to everyone, right? Bring everybody together, right? Everyone's like, world peace, if we could just have world peace. There's all these new religions that are popping up and they're basically the same religion where let's just bring everybody together and have everybody hold hands and be forgiving and long suffering and just, hey, it doesn't matter what you believe because we all go to the same place, we're all worshiping the same God. That's their philosophy. That's not what the Bible teaches though. God is a God of division and when you believe the things that we believe, that divides. I mean, just at the point where you say Jesus is the only way to heaven, well, that divides you from at least two-thirds of the world that doesn't claim to be Christian and of course, if you get in and down with the nitty gritty on what salvation is, that divides a lot more and you get down to our beliefs and what the Bible actually teaches, the narrow way that leads them to life, that really divides people, doesn't it? And so our sort of church, you know what, a lot of people just aren't going to like it. Part of it is because a lot of people aren't saved but also because this kind of preaching is going to divide people because this kind of preaching is going to divide those that want to serve God and those that don't want to serve God, okay? It says in John 3 verse 19, and this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds weren't evil. This is why people like darkness rather than light. This is why people don't like this type of preaching. They don't like preaching that calls out their sins because they love their sin. They love darkness. They would rather do wrong and feel okay about it and not have somebody get up and preach against it. That's what the Bible says in John 3 verse 19. I mean, the Bible says men love darkness rather than light. You know, why would they like that? Because their deeds are evil, right? And you know what, isn't it amazing how if you go out to the world, you got people that drink alcohol and let's say, for example, you know, one friend who is drinking alcohol, all the other friends will try to get them to drink. Why? Because they want to justify their own actions and they start feeling guilty and they'll get mad at the person not drinking simply because they want to drink and they feel justified when everybody else is doing the same thing. They want to bring everybody down to the same level. You say, why is that? Because their deeds are evil. Verse 20, for everyone that doeth evil, he did the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. You say, brother Stuckton, why is it that I like this church and yet so few Christians like it? Because you want your deeds to be made manifest or you know what's right or what's wrong. And if you're doing something wrong, you want to fix it. That's the truth. That's why you like this church. You like the preaching because it helps you make changes in your life. And I'm not trying to give you a, I'm kind of patting you on the back for being here. I'm not trying to because I'll preach against sins and things like that. But that's the reason why people like this church. I know I love everything about our church. I love the fellowship. You know, I love everything that we have. But you know, honestly, for our type of church, not just this one, but Verity Baptist in Sacramento, Faithful World, steadfast Baptist, you name the church. They have a lot of great things and a lot of great programs at those churches, but it's really the preaching is what brings people in. People don't attend our type of church because of the music ministry, right? Of course, you want to make it as good as possible. And you know, as time goes by, we're going to have more instruments and I'm sure, but that's never going to be the reason why people attend this church. It's going to be based on the preaching. It's going to be based on the fact that people are learning the word of God. And it's going to be based on the fact that our church is going out there and doing something for God. Right? It's not just the preaching, but it's the fact that we're one of the few churches that is actually accomplishing something by going out and winning souls from the Lord. And there are a lot of people out there that are saved and they want to accomplish something in life. They just don't know what to do. I remember being a saved person and before anybody really taught me how to go soul winning, I tried to talk to people. I messed up quite a bit. You know, I was all over the place when I was talking to people and everything like that. You know, I'm sure if I heard my gospel presentation back then, it was kind of embarrassing or whatever, but I wanted to tell people how to get to heaven. I wanted to try my best. And what the Bible says, the Word of God, it's not going to return wood. So even if someone's not the best at explaining, if you're preaching the gospel, I still think you can get people saved without the best routine. But obviously, you want to get a good routine. That's being part of the church and someone teaching you and things like that. But the reason why people like this type of church is because they want their deeds to be made manifest. Is it right or is it wrong? But those that are in darkness and dwelling in darkness, they just want to hide in the darkness, right? Go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4. 2nd Corinthians chapter 4. Yeah, I get reminded of this, you know, all the time in my house with, you know, these little bugs and stuff like that because they love to dwell in darkness. You know, I don't know why. I couldn't sleep last night and then our daughter, she's, you know, she's teething right now so she hasn't been sleeping much. So I've been up since like 2.30 in the morning or something like that. But it's like, you know, I didn't tell my wife. You know, she probably doesn't want to hear this. But you know, when I went to the kitchen, you turn on the light, then there's a mouse that scurries, you know. It's just like, once the light comes on, this little disgusting rodent wants to go hide, right? And it's just like, you know, that's literally the way that people are. People want to hide from light because they want to be in darkness and just want to feel this way. Why is it that all the sinful places that are out there are places of darkness? I mean, places of drinking. People do drug deals at night in places that are away from earth. They don't do it in, you know, broad daylight, right? People commit murder at nighttime by and large. People commit adultery at nighttime. Sin takes place at night by and large. That's reality, right? And so, go to 2 Corinthians 4. And it says here in verse 3, But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of that which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on to them. And see, the Bible says unsaved people, they really have no light. The light of the gospel must shine on to them. And so, if people are unsaved and they're in darkness, and you preach the gospel and they don't believe it, it could actually cause them to get angry because they, you know, are in darkness and they were satisfied until you're telling them that the way they have is wrong. And see, the Bible shows that, you know what, there's light and there's darkness. Once you get saved, the light of the gospel shines on you. However, the Bible talks about if you're on the right path, the light shines brighter day by day as you get closer to Christ. And so, there's many saved people that they have the light of the gospel of Christ, but they're still dwelling in darkness in their lives. Okay, now go back to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis 1. Genesis chapter 1. Now, you could obviously go a little bit too far with the symbolism here for light and darkness because there are some racist religions out there that take this to an extreme and they'll say things like, white is right and then black is evil, right? And some examples in terms of religion are like Mormons. Mormons are racists and the ones that are not just don't realize that they're supposed to be racist. Because if you look at the history of Mormonism, blacks came by the, you know, beings that existed and pre-existed in life that chose not to side with God. There's basically those that sided with the devil and then those that sided with Christ which got the white skin and then those that decided not to take a side and they were cursed with black skin in their pre-existing life, right? It's, I don't know what pre-existing life is. I guess it's kind of like Hinduism or something like that. Another guy who was racist was Peter Ruckman. And, you know, people knew that about Peter Ruckman. And, you know, I read one book by Peter Ruckman. It was called Black is Beautiful, okay? And in the book, I don't remember everything that it was about but he goes on and on about how he uses verses like this, white is always good in the Bible, light is always good and darkness is bad. He's like, and then he just is completely racist. He's talking about black people and how they're, you know, worse than white people. But obviously there's a lot of symbolism. You can go too far with it though when it talks about light and darkness because there's nothing about skin color that's mentioned anywhere in the Bible that would apply to white being right and white being good and black being good. It's not the skin color, right? And it's not just Americans that have this racism, right? And I know that the old mythology, whatever, here in the Philippines where it's like, I'm undercooked and a black person's overcooked and you're cooked just right, right? I know that story. I was told about that. I've read it before. I think it's entertaining. I think it's funny. But obviously racism is bad, you know. Bob says there's no respect for the person you got, right? Genesis 1 verse 5, And God called the light day and the darkness he called night, and the evening and the morning were the first day. Verse 6, And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And you say, Well, what's the firmament referring to? Well, look at verse 20. Verse 20, And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that they fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And some people think, Well, maybe the firmament's referring to dirt, but fowls are flying in the open firmament of heaven, so it's basically the open air that they're flying in. Okay, so we're talking about the firmament. Verse 7, Genesis 1 verse 7, And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so. And so we're seeing that there's waters that are above the firmament and waters that are under the firmament. So obviously, you know, we can't see the flood take place, and I've heard various theories for what caused the flood, whether it was just a miraculous event, whether it was a scientific event. I'm not an expert at that, you know, I'm never going to know, but when it comes to the actual water, there's actually water in the across the ground, so much of the flood probably came from underneath the earth. Now, I do believe it was raining from above as well. It's hard to tell what the percentage would be, but there was water coming from above, and you know, presumably from below, if there's something that caused that water to burst forth or whatever, but you can see how there'd be a lot of water very quickly, because there's water that is above the firmament and water that is under the firmament, the Bible says. It says here in verse 8, And God called the firmament heaven in the evening and the morning, or the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together under one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and they gathered together in the waters called the seas, and God saw that it was good. And so the Bible designates the dry land is a reference to earth, and then the gathering together of the waters called the seas. Sometimes you'll have verses in the Bible that will say something like, you know, praise the gospel to the end of the earth or something like that. And there's a couple different ways to take it, because some people that are flat earth, they try to take it to say there's a literal stepping off the earth point, because they say the earth is flat. But here's the thing, when you get to the end of the earth, you've got the water right there. And so the dry land is the earth, and then the seas, there's the water. So you get to the end of the earth, and you have the water. I've always taken phrases like that just to be symbolic anyway. They would say, spread the gospel to the end of the world or end of the earth. I never would have taken that to mean literally, oh, whoops, you know, you walked off. But anyways, the dry land is referred to as earth in the Bible. And verse number 11, so point number two, point number two, point number one, God's got a division. Point two, we see health tips from God in Genesis chapter 1, dietary health tips in Genesis chapter 1, Genesis 1 verse 11. And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth, and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and the herb yielding seed after its kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after its kind, and God saw that it was good. So God looked at what he had made, and he said it was good. Okay. And so when you're thinking of vegetables being created, you're thinking of fruits being created, you're thinking of things that were created for the purpose of eating, the Bible says they're good, right? Obviously what God made would be good. Now obviously too much of any one thing would not be good for you, but the things that God actually made are actually going to be good for you. Anyway, that just makes sense, doesn't it? I mean if God created it as a purpose for eating, it's going to be healthy, it's going to be good for you. Now obviously, depending on what you need in your diet, maybe a certain food might not be the best thing for you as opposed to another food, but I want you to realize that if God has made something, then it's going to be good for you. Okay. And so when it comes to foods that we eat, the more naturally it was created by God, the healthier. Okay. Now I'm not an expert at all in this sort of stuff, but you know a lot of animals are grass-fed animals, and that's how they're naturally created, and so what would be the healthiest thing? Well for them to eat grass, because that's how they were created by God, and it would be healthier for us to eat those animals if they're eating their proper diet, because I'm not an expert at this at all, but I've heard people talk about that there's certain nutrients that we can't necessarily digest right to the source, but if you eat an animal that is using that, then it kind of carries down to some degree. Okay. But basically anything that's more natural is going to be good. So I don't have an example here. You know, I should have brought up two bags of potato chips that we could eat afterwards after I talk about health or whatever. Well, let's say you have, you know Doritos and Lays potato chips. Okay, two different types of chips. Now, of course, neither one of those is going to be healthy. Okay, obviously too much fat, too much sugar, obviously that's bad. Okay, but when you're comparing those two things, one of those is definitely healthier than the other, and the way you can tell that is just turning it over and looking at the ingredients, and when you look at a bag of Lays potato chips, there's three ingredients, potatoes, salt, and oil. Just three ingredients. When you look at a bag of Doritos, you can't even pronounce the ingredients. Now, I'm not saying I never eat Doritos. I'm not saying you're staying on a perfect diet, but because the fact Lays potato chips have less ingredients and then in Doritos you have some weird things that you've never heard of, it indicates that there's more chemicals involved in artificial sort of food. It's not going to be as natural. It's not going to be as healthy. Anything that's more naturally made is going to be better. So one way to tell is if you just look at the back of something, you look at the ingredients, and if it's got a million ingredients and you don't even know how to pronounce over half those things, it's like something strange, you know, color purple, whatever, it's like what in the world is this, right? Then that's not good for you, okay? And so anything that is more natural is going to be healthier. And so he says about, you know, the things created in verses 11 and 12, he said it was good. So I'm of the opinion that anything made by God is going to be healthy and good. So I believe fruits are healthy for you. Every fruit that was created for good is healthy for you. Every vegetable that was created for food to eat is healthy for you. I believe that meat is also something that's good for you. Now in Genesis 1, we don't really see the meat, we'll talk about that in a second. However, that is something that God gave us like after the flood in Genesis chapter nine. And so as long as they're eating their proper diet, it's going to be healthy for us. Eggs are something God gave us for something that we could eat. So look, anything that God made is good. I'm of the opinion that diets should be very balanced because we see everything in the Bible. We see them eating meat. We see fruits and vegetables mentioned as a good thing. You know, honey is mentioned as a good thing, even though it's sugar, right? Milk, whole milk is like all fat. It's got a lot of saturated fat too, but it's a healthy thing. You know, land flown with milk and honey. And so, you know, I'm not in this opinion of these extreme diets where you go all fat or like all vegan. You know, I don't think that actually properly fits the Bible, right? There's a balance. Now, here's the thing where people go wrong. They say, well, carbohydrates are wrong or carbohydrates are bad or whatever. And then they try to compare like eating crackers versus eating like a healthy source of bread. Obviously eating crackers is not going to be your best source versus eating oatmeal or something like that. But there are healthy sources of bread that are out there. But the bottom line is basically whatever is more naturally made by God is going to be healthier, okay? Genesis 1 verse 13. And the evening and the morning were the third day. And so, we're through the first three days. Verse 14. And God said, Let there be lights in the permanent of the heaven that 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 permanent of the heaven that give light upon the earth. And it was so. Verse 16. 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. So, He talks about the stars here in verse 16. The greater light is referring to the sun because it's ruling the day. The lesser light is referring to the moon because it's ruling the night. And the way the moon works is it reflects the light of the sun. And this is actually a picture of marriage here in verse 16 where the greater light is basically the husband and the lesser light is the wife, okay? Now, go to Genesis 37. Let me cross-reference this. Genesis 37. Genesis 37. Now, when it's saying that, you know, the sun is the greater light and the moon is the lesser light, that's not saying that the sun is like better than the moon. Obviously, I believe we need both the moon and the sun for survivability, God has made things, but there's a difference between them. But the moon basically reflects the light of the sun. That's a great picture of marriage because, you know, obviously, you know, the husband is more so front and center and everything, and, you know, the wife is basically reflecting the light of her husband. You see that with the marriages in the Bible. But notice Genesis 37 verse 9 where we see this picture. And he dreamed yet another dream and told it to his brethren and said, Behold, I have dreamed and dreamed more, and behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. Okay, now if you're looking at the stream of eleven stars, you say, what is that? Well, that's the eleven brothers of Joseph, right? There's obviously twelve brothers. So the eleven stars is referring to the eleven brothers. Okay, now this is obviously symbolic. So you've got the sun and the moon. One of them is the husband, one's the wife. The sun is mentioned first, you know, I think it's obvious that's referring to the husband and the moon is referring to the wife. And he told it to his father and his brethren and his father rebuked him and said on him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren and thee come to bow down herself to thee to the earth? So, you know, his father gives the same order here in Genesis 37 verse 10 where he says, I and thy mother and thy brethren, so the sun and the moon and the stars. That's what the dream represents. Okay, go back to Genesis chapter one, Genesis one, Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter one. And it says in Genesis 1 verse 17, and God sent them to 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 darkness and God saw that it was good and an evening in the morning of the fourth day. Now, point number three we have though, is God's command to be fruitful and multiply. God's command to be fruitful and multiply. It says in Genesis one verse 20, and God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath light and fowl that they fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. He said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature. So what he's saying is, you know, I want a lot of creatures, right? He's saying, you know, basically reproduce. There would be a lot of animals, right? Verse 21, and God created great whales and every living creature of the movement which the water brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winging 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 and the evening and the morning were the fifth day. So what we're seeing is even with the animals, he says, be fruitful and multiply. He wants a lot of animals, right? We live in this day to day where everybody's trying to tell you the world is overpopulated and all the resources are going to be taken away. That doesn't really jive with what the Bible says because in Genesis chapter 1, even when it starts with the animals, he says for them to be fruitful and multiply. It's a good thing. That's what the Bible says. Okay, then in Genesis 1 verse 28, it says and God blessed them and God said unto them referring to humans, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish in the sea and over the fowl in the air and over every living thing that moved upon the earth. So he says to man, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and replenish the earth would be indicating not just to fill but just continually have a process of refilling the earth and filling the earth. And you know what? There's about 8 billion people on this planet and that sounds like it's a ton of people and yet there's so much open area that nothing's been done to, right? I mean, I did live in Metro Manila and Metro Manila's crowded, okay? I lived on a condo that was like 20 floors or whatever in the air or whatever and yeah, you know, it's pretty packed in certain parts of the world but there's a lot of parts where there's nothing. There's parts in the US where you can drive a hundred miles without a gas station because it's in the middle of nowhere and you want to eventually that could turn into a booming city because there's all this open area, right? There are resources that God created. We're not going to run out of the resources as long as we use things the way that God actually made them, okay? The Bible said that we are to subdue the animals and have dominion over the fish in the sea and over the fowl, the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the earth for every living thing that we live on the earth. Of course nowadays, there's various cultures and religions and societies that will not let you hunt the animals because they say, well, you know what? It's endangered species or whatever and then that's actually a source of food and then they won't even let you have it and then they say, wow, we don't have enough food to survive. A great example is in India, right? I mean, how many cows could they eat and they're not eating them, right? And it's like God gave you food right there but they refuse to eat them because they're treating them like a God-like creature and it's just like, right? And then I remember I read this book on India when I was in college. I was maybe 20 years old and I remember I put up this post on Facebook. I didn't even think it was that intense and this Catholic girl that knew me hated my guts. I'm sure she still hates my guts, right? Because of what I posted. But you know, I also talked about the book which is really interesting. A large problem is even just the cows that they're not eating in India. A large part is they're allowing the rats and the mice to eat up all their good food and they treat the rats and the mice like they're deities as well. So the rats and the mice are eating all their plants and instead of having dominion over them, we've got these religions like, you know, Jainism and all these religions and they don't want to eat the meat. They want to protect the animals and everything. And then they're like, there's no food. No, you actually have plenty of food. You're just not doing things the way the Bible says. That's the problem. The Bible says we are supposed to subdue and have dominion. And so when it says be fruitful and multiply, God would have people to have a lot of children if that would be in his world, right? And you obviously never know how many children you're gonna have. Obviously that's, you know, the Bible says God opens and closes the womb. But God told us to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. One thing to consider is this. He already told the animals to be fruitful and multiply, right? And we are to subdue and have dominion over the animals. Well, if there's too few of people, we can't have dominion over the animals, right? I mean, there's just a ton of animals and very few people. There's no way that people could have dominion over the animals. Okay, and so both things should be in their proper place of the animals being fruitful and multiplying. And then humans should as well, and the Bible says we subdue and have dominion because we're not animals, right? We're human beings. And look, the life of a human is far more valuable than the life of an animal. And look, I'm not for killing animals, you know, for fun or for no reason, you know, other than like a bug or whatever like that. But, you know, when it comes to animals, they're like, I'm not for harming animals, but you know what, if an animal dies, it's much different than a human being. Now, when I was a kid, you know, I had a dog that I loved and everything, and I had one sister, and I really loved my dog and everything. But then when I actually had my son born, you know, it's like when Zephaniah was born, it's like, well, this is completely different than having a pet dog, right? It's like, obviously, once you have a child, you realize, you know, how the bond is like so much stronger, and I don't for the life of me understand people that just treat humans as if they're animals, right? And you'll have people that are gonna be attacked by animals, and nothing actually happens to that animal, right? They think, well, you know what, you can't do anything to it, it's an animal. It's like when I was a kid, I was forgetting, I think it's on this side where I have a smarty because I got bit by a dog here, and I got three stitches, or was it here? I don't know if you remember this one. This one? This one, okay. I got bit by a dog, like, right here, and I got three stitches when I was six years old. But see, this dog attacked me, and vividly speaking, when an animal attacks a human, they're actually supposed to be put to death. That's what the Bible says. And it's like if they attack once, it's possible they're gonna attack again. And I thought I was very lucky because I was right underneath the eye but who knows what would have happened if it was like a centimeter higher. I could, you know, just be blind or have, you know, eye damage or whatever. And it's just like, you know, this world should treat humans far above how they would treat an animal because man was made in the image of God, okay? Not animals, okay? And so this idea that the world is over proud is actually a false idea because never in the Bible does it say, well, you know what, stop once you reach a certain amount of people. It just says be fruitful and multiplied, okay? Point number four, we also see the Trinity mentioned here in Genesis chapter one. That's what it says in Genesis one, verse 24. Genesis one, verse 24. And it says, and God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and pigment thing, and beast of the earth after his kind, and him himself. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that grieved upon the earth after his kind, and God saw that it was good. Verse 26, and God said, let us, us, plural, let us make man in our image after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, and the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. So in verse 26, it says, let us make man in our image. Verse 27, so God created man in his own image. So in verse 26, it's plural, and verse 27, it's singular, right? Now, it's clear that this is referring to God both in verse 26 and 27, and the plurality in verse 26 is clearly referring to the Trinity, because it says, let us make man in our image. And I've heard people say, well, maybe this is referring to the angels, but the angels are not made in the image of God. There's no indication of that, right? And so it says, and God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. In verse 27, so God created man in his own image. So it goes from plural to singular. Okay, now go to Genesis chapter three. Genesis three. Genesis chapter three. Genesis chapter three, verse 22. Genesis three, verse 22. And the Lord God said, behold, the man is become as one of us to know good and evil, and now lest he put forth his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever. So man has become as one of us, and that's once again referring to the Trinity. It's referring to the plurality that's mentioned there in verse number 22. Genesis three, verse 22. There's actually a lot of references to the Trinity that are mentioned in the first several chapters. We're going to be looking at them over the next several weeks. I'm just showing you two big ones in Genesis one and Genesis chapter three. But going back to Genesis chapter one, when you're comparing verses 26 and 27, if you just take that literally with a simple explanation, you see it goes from plural in verse 26 to singular, okay? And God created man in his own image, and so the indication is whatever is being referred to in 26 is going to be the same. So you have the us, plural, and then you have the own singular because man is made in the image of God. But it says male and female created he and them because obviously we're all created by God, okay? And so that's actually point number five where it says men are made in the image of God for goodbye. And it says God created man in his own image and the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. And so man is made in the image of God, but both men and women are created by God. And so last night, I finished reading the Bhagavad Gita. I finally finished it. Very, very boring book. And the version I read because there's a lot of translations of the Bhagavad Gita. This is one of the Indian scriptures or Hindu scriptures, but I read the Bhagavad Gita as it is which is the Hari Krishna version because their leader Hari Krishna who came to the U.S. Swami Prabhupada I think is his name. He translates and he has this version in English and it's sort of controversial because in Hari Krishna, they believe that Krishna is actually the image of God. And they believe that he is God not just an avatar of God, but he is the supreme personality of Godhead. Now it's kind of different though than Hinduism because Hinduism doesn't believe that there's an image to God. There is no image. They say God is formless that he has no image. Hari Krishna doesn't believe that though. They believe the image is Krishna. They believe that's what he looks like. But what the Bible says though is man is created in the image of God. So God is not formless. The Bible says man is actually made in the image of God. And so what they teach in Hinduism is that while God is invisible and it's this essence or this presence, it's this force type of thing, but there's no actual form to God. That's not what the Bible teaches because it says man is created in the image of God. Okay. Genesis chapter 1 verse 28. Genesis 1 verse 28. And in point number 6, we see that we roll over the animals. Genesis 1 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 in the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. And so the Bible says that man should have dominion over the fish in the sea and over the flying birds and everything that moves on the earth. And the reality is that man does have dominion over all animals. There's no question about this because humans are much smarter than animals, right? It's always funny that they try to make animals on the same level as like humans and talk about like how smart animals are and I've seen interesting things in documentaries like the octopus is a pretty smart animal. I saw some things where it showed that it was pretty clever. But humans are above any animal and there's no comparison and humans do have dominion. And so whenever we see humans that are in a location, what happens is it drives the animals away. And animals are actually afraid of humans. Let's go to Genesis chapter 9. I'll show this to you. Genesis 9. Animals have a good reason to be afraid of humans because we can kill animals. We have the ability to destroy animals. Genesis 9 verse 2. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth. Every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air upon all that moves upon the earth and upon all the fish in the sea into your hand are they delivered. Why are they afraid? Every moving thing that lived shall be neat for you even as the green herb have I given you all things. And so before this time here, it says he gave us the green herb. People were eating basically vegetarian type diets. And then here he said now all the animals are afraid of humans. And why is that? Because we're going to kill them and eat them. And we have the ability to do that. And it says every single animal. Right. That includes the dinosaurs. Right. I mean, when I was a kid, you know, West Jurassic Park. I think when I was a young kid when that came out and when I when I was a kid, Jurassic Park was considered like the best movie. Everybody loved that movie. I loved it because, you know, every kid loves dinosaurs. Right. And but they make it out to be like that humans should be really afraid of dinosaurs. But that's not reality. That's not what took place. Dinosaurs were afraid of humans. And there's a reason why dinosaurs were killed off. You say why? Because humans have the ability to kill like any animal. They create weapons that are able to destroy them. They're able to outsmart them. Right now, obviously, if you were to fight certain animals one on one inside the cage, you're not going to survive. OK, but given the ability to, you know, do whatever, hide or whatever, get a weapon, you know, humans have the ability to kill animals. OK, this is what we see in the Bible. It says the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast here. And look, animals are inherently afraid of human beings. Right. You see, you see animals that run away from humans because they're afraid. I told the story before how I came basically, you know, close to a bear in the woods and it was afraid of me. I was afraid of it. It was afraid of me. Right. Because animals are afraid of humans because that was put into them by God after the flood. So I believe a change took place in the flood where before that they weren't afraid. It's not like when they got to the ark with Noah, they're scared to death and say, I'd rather take my chances out in the flood. Right. They willingly got on the ark. But then after the ark, it's like, all right, we'll give you a 20 second head start. Just go and we're going to let you down. Right. And so animals are actually afraid of humans. So there's really no reason for humans to be overly obsessed with animals. Not saying it's wrong to like animals. It's not saying it's wrong to have a pet. But if I don't say we're able to eat them, we have dominion over them. They're nowhere near the level of being a human. Okay, now go to Genesis Chapter one, Genesis one, Genesis one. The last thing we see here, Genesis chapter one, is that in Genesis one, before the fall, everybody was a vegetarian. Okay, Genesis one, verse 29. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing to see which is on the face upon the face of all the earth and every tree in which of the fruit of the tree you will see, to you it shall be for meat, and to every beast of the earth, and every fowl of the earth, and everything that creep upon the earth, wherein there is light, I have given every green herb from meat. Now, when it says meat, it just means the food that you're eating. But the green herb, the plants, the vegetables, the fruits, that's what was given to us for our substance. And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, that he told it was very good, and the evening and the morning were the sixth day. So what we see is that at the very beginning, men were vegetarians, okay? Now, people try to take a scripture like this and try to say, well, this is why we should be all vegetarians today. But there have been obvious changes that have taken place. I mean, we're talking about a world in Genesis 1 before the fall where man was supposed to live forever. Right? It's not the same world. And even when they did sin, they were living to be 900 years old, then 800 years old, and 600 years old. We don't know exactly what caused the flood, but it's very possible that, you know what, the eating fruits and vegetables gave extra minerals and stuff that, you know, they don't today. Or our bodies could have been quite different where we didn't need certain things. And it's impossible to really look back at this before the fall of man and try to compare your modern day and say, well, we should be all vegetarians. Because there are people that are Christians that are trying to take us back to the garden of meat. Right? But the reality is, we're not going back to those days. Not right now at least. Okay? And so, we're not just supposed to only eat vegetables. And look, if that's all you eat, fruits and vegetables, you're going to be very lacking in certain things in your diet. Okay? Now, I personally love fruits and vegetables. I'm just as happy eating fruits and vegetables as opposed to meats and other things. But, you know, a balanced diet is actually good for you. And there's nothing in the Bible that would say, hey, it's a sin to eat meat. And there are people today that would say, why do you want to eat meat? Only fish if you're going to eat meat. But that's not what the Bible teaches. Okay? Now, in the Old Testament, there were certain animals that were unclean animals. For example, pigs is one that people often talk about because you can eat pork, bacon, tocino, you know, various types of meat that we eat. And you know what? I do believe that although it's not wrong to eat that today, I do believe that it's probably not as healthy. There's a reason why they don't clean animals for something. We said don't eat this. And animals that were unclean, by and large, are not as healthy as what would be the clean animals. But it's not simple to eat any of them, God says. There's nothing wrong with it, right? But in the very beginning, in Genesis chapter 1, I do believe that they were vegetarians because he says I've given every green herb for meat. Now, what's interesting is when they get to the ark later on, the food that's brought in the ark, the Bible says, the same food that the animals eat is what the humans are eating. Now, I'm not going to say that they didn't eat any meat at all during that time period, but I will say this, the fear came upon animals after the flood. So I would say this, that you know what? Before the fall of man in Genesis chapter 3, the indication is it wasn't going to be hard to basically provide your food for yourself. And so it's almost kind of like being in a buffet where you just walk outside, you got strawberries, you got apples, you got everything you want. And then after the flood, all the plants are gone. So now the necessity for eating meat is there that wasn't before. But at the very beginning in Genesis 1, we do see that they were eating plants. Okay, let's go to more prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting to see you.