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And of course with Genesis chapter one being read there, it's a story of creation. It's a story of the Lord creating all things. And under our statement of faith, we're gonna have the title of the creation, so that's the title of the sermon this morning as well, the creation, but under that we're gonna have, we believe in the literal Genesis account of creation, that God created all in six days, about 6,200 years ago. Man was created in the image of God and after his likeness. All life was made directly by God and God's established law is that they should bring forth only after their kind, not by an evolutionary process of lower to higher life forms. So that's our statement of faith. I did share with some of the men in church and we all thought that's okay. That sounds all right. It's a bit of a word salad I understand. You're trying to capture the main things about creation, what we believe in. Truly we're a church that literally believes the Bible. If I could not believe chapter number one of the Bible, how can I believe anything else? I mean, the very first chapter of the Bible, oh, that's just to be taken figurative. That's not literal. God did not really create things within six days and what else are you gonna reject from the Bible? And so this topic of creation, it's a very important, it's a very fundamental truth, okay? Jesus Christ many times, he refers to the book of Genesis when he comes and teaches us from within the New Testament and again, the book of Genesis means the book of beginnings. It's beginnings of really every major doctrine of the Bible and within this statement of faith, we had mentioned that everything is to bring forth after their kind, meaning that of course, a dog's gonna produce a dog. Meaning that if you plant an apple seed, it's going to bring forth an apple tree, okay? You're not gonna have some mix. You're not gonna plant the apple tree and then you're gonna have bananas grow from that tree or you're not gonna have two dogs that are gonna produce a parrot or something like that, which of course is the idea of evolution that there were lower life forms that jellyfish eventually brought forth human beings and of course, we reject that idea of evolution. So we're there in Genesis chapter one and let's start there from the very beginning, verse number one, Genesis chapter one, verse number one, it says, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. I mean, that's it. I mean, that should be settled, right? I mean, if you're just confused, I don't know what the Bible teaches about creation, I don't know what the Bible, well, God created the heaven and the earth, right at the beginning, okay? Are you gonna believe verse number one or are you not? And if you can't accept verse number one, obviously you're not going to receive anything else in the Bible, but God is very clear to teach us that he is the creator, he is the supreme being, he is the one that brought forth life, he is the one that's given us this earth to live, he is the one that's created us and you know, if there is a creator, then we are his created beings. You know, we are inferior in comparison to God, inferior. Like we can't decide amongst ourselves who God should be, what he should be like, like we should not just create an imagination in our own minds of who God is, we should receive our Lord God in light of the word that he's given us, in light of the Bible. It's the only way to know God. You know, just last week I was traveling down to the city for blessing at Baptist Church, I was sitting next to a young man that attends C3 here on the Sunshine Coast and he says, you know, I've recently become a Christian, I've been going to church recently, but I just can't accept, you know, the God of the Bible, where he's angry and he's judgmental and I can't even accept the idea of hell, that God will send unbelievers to hell and I'm like, well, I don't know what God you really believe in, but it's not the God of the Bible. And I try to be encouragement to him, try to give him the gospel, even though he believed in a workspace gospel, I gave him the gospel, he's like, oh yeah, I believe what you said. You know, but he's truly not saved. I mean, he's outright rejecting the God of the Bible and so he's so unsaved, he said, you know, I believe in the Muslims. Do they just follow the light that they have? You know, I just can't accept that, you know, if Muslims reject Jesus, they're gonna go to hell. So obviously he has a problem with the Bible. He likes an idea of God, he likes the idea of a creator because he was a former atheist, but he could not just simply accept, you know, even Genesis chapter one, okay? You know, he thinks, well, maybe other gods, other, you know, other ways. And in fact, he outright rejected heaven. And yet there in verse number one, it says, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. You know, his idea of heaven is, well, we can have heaven on earth. And the reason he directs hell is because, you know, people have hell on earth. So really, salvation is just about improving your life on this earth and he doesn't care where he goes after he dies, you know? So obviously rejecting, even verse number one in Genesis. And no brethren, you can see from the very beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. All right, let's keep going to verse number two. 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. And God said, let there be light and 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, look at this, were the first day. What is the first day? What is the very first day of creation when God creates light? When he separates light from darkness. You can see the Bible's very specific. This is not just a random day. This is not just one day of a thousand years or a million years. This is the very first day where we literally had an evening and we had a morning. We had this separation of light and darkness and God calls this the first day. Meaning that if this is the first day, verse number five, what we saw there, verses number at least three to five, there were no other days before that, right? And you say, well, of course, Pastor Kevin, that's easy to believe. Of course, that's the first day. We're Christians, we believe the Bible. But would it surprise if I told you there are Baptists that don't believe this is the first day? There are some people that believe, I've never been in a church like this, but there are churches, independent, fundamental Baptist churches that believe, well, between verse number one and verse number two, there was this gap period. Maybe thousands, maybe millions of years. Maybe that's where all the dinosaurs fit and all the prehistoric animals, so-called. And maybe there was this sort of rebellion. Maybe Satan's kingdom was established on the earth at that point and then he fell at that point. And then we eventually, God creates everything brand new. And so this is not really the first day. Look, as we were reading that, did you just, as you were reading the very first beginning words of the Bible, did you end up thinking, oh, there must be a gap of millions of years between verse number one and verse number two. But you know, there are people that teach this, okay? And I'll be honest with you, for a period of time, I almost believe this as well, okay? Why, why is that? Because you read it in the Bible past. Is that what happened? No, because you listen to the wrong people, okay? You think people are honest. You think preachers love you and just want to speak the truth. And then by their fair speech and by their reasoning and by their logic, they convince you. There must be a gap there that took place. And yet the Bible tells us this is the first day. There was no gap before that. In other words, if there was a gap of millions of years, this cannot be the first day. No, it's the first day. There is no gap of billions of years where dinosaurs roamed the earth or where Satan's kingdom fell or there was some pre-Adamic race of human beings, okay? There was nothing like that you hear in the Bible, okay? Now, if you're confused by that, maybe you've heard that and you kind of believe that, if I can just keep your finger there and turn with me to Exodus. Turn with me to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20 and verse number 11, please. Exodus chapter 20 and verse number 11. And of course, Exodus chapter 20 is very famous for the 10 commandments. And when God gave the Lord to keep the Sabbath in the 10 commandments, he says these words here in verse number 11, Exodus chapter 20, verse number 11. Now this can't be any clearer. For in six days, how many days? Six days, amen? For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth. So we saw that in verse number one. Okay, what else? The sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it. So very clear. All of creation, all of heaven, all of earth was created when? Within six days and the seventh day he rested. All right? So there is nothing here where God created something millions of years, the heaven and the earth, and then God created the earth, and then sometime later, God had to recreate everything all over again because of some rebellion on the earth. That's just, that's ridiculous teaching. And you know, as soon as you start hearing a pastor preach this, I just encourage you, it's dangerous ground. Like if the pastor can't get verse one and verse two in the Bible correct, how can you trust them? They're gonna get anything else correct, honestly. All right? And you know, you know, the pastors, and I don't know if this is just a, just something I've picked up, you know. Obviously I'm generalizing here a little bit, but the preachers or the pastors that I've heard teach this stuff are also either unmarried or divorced multiple times and remarried multiple times. And I've always said, if a pastor cannot even keep the qualifications of a pastor, if he can't even read that in the scriptures and keep to that and step down if he has to step down, or you know, I'll realize, look, I can't meet the qualifications, therefore I'll just be a church member and submit myself unto another man that can meet the qualifications. If he can't even do that, why would you listen to him about anything else? How's he gonna teach you about marriage? How's he gonna teach you about the fundamental things of family if he can himself cannot either get married or himself cannot either keep marriage and gets remarried over and over and over again, how can you trust him in anything that he teaches in the Bible? And if you can't get verse number one and verse number two correct, I must say new brethren, if you're confused, you're confused. I mean, there are deceived and there are deceivers, okay? You know, if the preacher can't get verse number one and verse number two correct, then I strongly encourage you get away from that preacher. There's a lot of great preachers you can listen to, okay? And I'm not even one of those great preachers. There are many great preachers better than me that you can listen to, okay? But if they're getting verses one and two wrong, please stay away, stay away. They're not gonna help you in your understanding of the Bible. All right, go back to Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter one and verse number six, please. Genesis chapter one, verse number six. And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmaments and divided the waters which were under the firmaments from the waters which were above the firmaments and it was so. So God divides the waters we saw there was waters on the earth and now there's gonna be waters above, okay? And of course, in our atmosphere, we have plenty of water, okay? If all the water in our atmosphere, I can't remember what it was, how much it was, if it all fell on the earth, it would cover all the earth by one inch. Just the water that's in the atmosphere, okay? So you can see that God divided these waters and in this division, he's created the atmosphere, he's created the sky as we know it, okay? And it says there in verse number eight, and God called the firmaments heaven and the evening and the morning were the second day. So God calls our atmosphere heaven. But you go, hold on, in verse number one, it said that God created the heaven and the earth. So if he's already created the heaven and the earth, why is he creating a heaven again? Because in the Bible, there are multiple heavens. There are multiple heavens in the Bible, all right? Keep your finger there and turn with me to 2 Corinthians, turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse number two. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse number two, please. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse number two. I'll give you a moment to turn there. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse number two. These are the words of Paul, he says, I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth. Such and one caught up to the third heaven, the third heaven. So that makes sense. If God's already created heaven, he's created another second heaven, now there's a third heaven. So what do we learn there? There's at least three heavens that we can learn from this. Now say, that's all there is, there's three heavens. We can at least say, well, yep, why this? And that makes sense. If God has created another heaven in Genesis one, it makes sense because there's three heavens according to this, the third heaven. You say, what is this third heaven? Verse number three, and I knew such a man whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth, how that he was caught up into paradise. So he's caught up into what? The third heaven? And then Paul says, well, he's caught up into paradise. You see, the third heaven is paradise. He says, and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. So you see, that paradise is the third heaven, okay? And of course, you may recall when Jesus Christ spoke to the thief on the cross, the one that said, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Jesus Christ said, verily I say unto thee, today thou shalt be with me in paradise, the third heaven. That's where God's throne is, okay? So we learned quite a few interesting things there, okay? There are three heavens. The first heaven, of course, are the waters that divide the waters to the earth. That's our atmosphere, that's our sky. We see the third heaven, of course, is paradise. It's the place where God lives right now, okay? What we normally just refer to as heaven. You know, if we say to someone at the door, are you 100% sure you're going to heaven? We're not saying that you're 100% sure you're gonna get on a plane and go in the sky. We're saying are you sure that you'll be with the Lord God in that paradise? And of course, there would be another heaven, which we'll look at this as we keep going in Genesis. So if you can go back to Genesis, please, Genesis chapter one, and let's go to verse number nine. Genesis chapter one, verse number nine. And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters called his seas, and God saw that it was good. And God said, now this is really important, let the earth bring forth grass, and herb yield in seed, and I want you to know this next phrase, and the fruit tree yield in fruit after his kind. Every fruit tree is gonna bring forth fruit after its kind, okay? Whose seed is in itself upon the earth, and it was so. Of course, the seed within the fruit, okay? When the fruit dies and it gets in the ground, it's going to plant another tree, and guess what it's going to bring forth? The same thing after its own kind, okay? The orange seed is gonna bring forth the orange tree, okay? That is a principle, and this is such an important principle in the Bible, okay? You might feel like God has been redundant by saying this as many times as he says in this chapter, okay, but it's such an important doctrine. It's such an important teaching in chapter number one. I really want you to just absorb this and understand this truth, that everything brings forth after its own kind, okay? Apes will not bring forth humans, okay? Humans bring forth humans, okay? Apples bring forth apple trees, and apple trees bring forth more apples, et cetera. Everything brings forth after its own kind. Verse number 12, and the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind. So the herbs, not just the fruits, I guess the herbs are your veggies and what we normally refer to as herbs, of course, and the tree yielding fruits, whose seed was in itself after his kind, and God saw that it was good. God says this is good that everything's bring forth after its own kind. So is a jellyfish gonna bring forth a frog? Is that frog gonna bring forth a rat? Is that rat gonna bring forth a low ape, some ground-dwelling ape? Is that ground-dwelling ape gonna bring forth a human being? You know, evolution in light of the Bible is stupid. It is so stupid and is not observable. No one has ever seen any creature bring forth any other creature, you know? Any human beings bring forth human beings, okay? And let me say something. Angels cannot bring forth human beings either. There's another crazy teaching out there, and this is outside of the scope of this passage, but the reason this is so important is because there are some churches, again, independent fundamental Baptist churches, that'll say, well, the angels in heaven, they married women on earth in Genesis chapter six and brought forth giants. And it's like, well, if that's true, that is contrary to Genesis chapter one, where everything brings forth after its own kind. I mean, God has to say again and again and again and again, all right? I mean, it's kind of like they've taken the idea of evolution, you know, and then meld it with the Bible and say, well, maybe angels can bring forth human beings. No, okay, everything's been brought forth after its own kind, okay? Let's keep going. Verse number, did I read 13? I'm not sure. It says in the evening and the morning were the third day. So you can see on the third day, God created dry land. He created the trees and plants, et cetera, okay? Let's keep going there, verse number 14. And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven. So again, heaven's been referred to here and these lights are gonna be placed in that 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. So what are these lights? Well, you know, verse number 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, all right? So of course, the greater light to rule the day is the sun and the lesser light to rule the night, of course, is the moon, okay? Now there's another teaching that's out there called flat earth, okay? And people that believe in a flat, and if you believe in the flat earth, I don't hate you, I love you, all right? Honestly, I do. It doesn't bother me. Honestly, it doesn't bother me if you believe this, you know, but again, chapter number one destroys the flat earth model, destroys it. I'll show you soon why, okay? So the thought here is, well, God just created the heaven, of course, the atmosphere, and maybe God put the sun and the moon in the same atmosphere where the birds fly, the same atmosphere that we go on planes, et cetera, and so the sun and the moon are not in some second heaven, is not in some outer space. What we call second heaven will be the outer space. So out there, it's in this first heaven, is the idea, is the teaching, okay? Because they've got a very different view on, you know, the world, on creation. But here's the thing, you know, and you know what, when people share things with me, I often try to go back and think about it, you know, think about, well, you know, I do try to challenge my own beliefs if there's something lacking. I also like to go back to the Bible and just see, does this fit? Does it fit with this idea that, you know, this sun and moon are in our own atmosphere and they're not really sun and moons the way that we've learned in school, learned in our science textbooks, et cetera. But when I went back to look at the flat earth model, one thing that I found consistent is they do not place, in their model, they do not place the stars in this atmosphere, okay? In fact, if you try to figure out, if you, and I did several searches, different search engines, all kinds of different search engines, trying to figure out just for this sermon, where do the flat earth believers put the stars? And they don't know where it goes. They really don't have an idea. They realize that to say it's in our atmosphere is ridiculous, otherwise we'll still see it even in the daytime, we'll still see stars. That's the idea, okay? And so I went to just say, and I don't know how authoritative this website is, okay? But I went to the Flat Earth Society, which is like a Wikipedia for flat earthers. And under stars, it says, the stars are luminous elements which move above the surface of the earth in a layer above the sun, moon, and planets. So again, I don't know if this is authoritative, but this is Wikipedia, their version of Wikipedia, where they can look up flat earth and thoughts around that. And under that, they say, well, the stars are another layer, not in the same layer as the sun, the moon, and planets. And this is why the flat earth model falls apart immediately in Genesis chapter one. Because what do we see again there in verse number 18? Let's read it again. Sorry, verse number 16. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, the sun, of course, the lesser light to rule the night, the moon. He made the stars also, and God set them, what, what did he just set? What we just read about, right? The sun, the moon, the stars. He set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. And so if we're going to believe Genesis chapter one, the sun, the moon, and the stars must be in the same firmament. This is why the flat earth model falls apart. Again, you go to Genesis chapter one, the fundamental truths of the Bible, and then you understand the rest of the Bible in light of Genesis, especially Genesis chapter one, that model falls apart, okay? But of course, in the geocentric model that is accepted today, that makes perfect sense. That we have a heaven where the birds fly, there is another heaven where the sun, moon, and stars are what we call space out of space, and of course there's the third heaven where God lives. Okay, that would be consistent with Genesis chapter one. Let's keep going there, verse number 18, and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness, and God saw that it was good, and the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Genesis chapter, let's keep going there, verse number 20, sorry. And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. So God creates the sea creatures, He creates the birds here. Verse number 21, and God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, look at this, after their kind. So whales are gonna bring forth whales. Okay, the birds are gonna bring forth birds after their unkind. And every winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let fowl multiply in the earth, and the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Okay, verse number 24, and God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind. I really want you to cement this in your mind. Why does God have to say this over and over again? You know, sometimes God says something in close proximity, a second time, a third time. You know, sometimes we read in the Psalms, we just read in the Scriptures, sometimes there are things that are repeated again, and I always say to this church, if God repeats it, just stop, say, God, why are you repeating this? Because it's important, right? If I'm gonna pass a message to my children, and it's a very important one, you know, I'm gonna say it more than once. And I might even say it a slightly different way, so they just fully understand what is being said. You know, when something is of a high importance, something that you must pay attention to, God is going to tell you again and again and again, okay? Everything brings forth after its own kind. This cannot be dismissed. Verse number 25, and God made the beast of the earth after his kind. Sorry, let's go back to verse number 24, because I don't think I've finished it. And God said, let the earth bring forth every living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and 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 creeped upon the earth after his kind, and God saw that it was good. Remember, this is good. This is good doctrine. This is good teaching after his kind. Everything brings forth after their own kind, okay? So, what else did we learn there? And Brother Callum, you preached, was it last Sunday? Okay, one thing that he said in his sermon was, only believers, only saved Christians can bring forth saved Christians. Everything brings forth after its own kind, okay? Judas Iscariot, who was an unbeliever, did not believe on Jesus Christ, could not get people saved, because he's not bringing forth after his kind, okay? Brethren, the only people that can get unbelievers saved on the Sunshine Coast is you. There's not many of you. There's not many of us, in comparison to how many lost people are going to hell, okay, here on the Sunshine Coast, in Melbourne, in Sydney. There's not many of us. Who's gonna get them saved? It's gotta be someone that is saved. It's gotta be you. It's gotta be me. We're the only ones, brethren, that can see other people get saved, okay? This truth applies in all areas, okay? Angels cannot bring forth giants, okay? Unsaved people cannot bring forth saved people. So, you better make sure if you're ever in a church, you check that a pastor is saved, okay? Because you're bringing your family, you're bringing your children, you're hoping people come to church and get saved. But if you leave it in the hands of an unsaved pastor, that person's never gonna get saved, okay? Look, it's gotta be you. If you know you're saved, if you've trusted Christ, then you can bring forth after your kind. You can bring forth saved people. Let's keep going there, verse number 26. 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. So you can see God creates man very differently to all the other animals. And over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, God said he made man in his image, in his likeness. That was something that was in our statement of faith. We're not just some animal. You know, yes, there might be some similarities. We have limbs, we have eyes, we breathe, we have lungs. In many, many ways, our design is similar to the animals that God created because it's the same creator, that's why. Not because we evolved from animals, but because God created, he knows what is good. Everything that he's created is good, okay? So if lungs are good for a cow, then lungs are good for human beings, right? God knows his creation. God knows what works best for each kind. And so we're not animals. We've been given dominion over the earth. We've been given dominion over these animals. Verse number 27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. Okay, male, do I need to teach that now? Yeah, we do, right? In 2022, we need to hear this again. God created what? Male and female, okay? He did not create fluid genders. God did not create, I don't know, they're saying there's like 50 something genders now? Okay, I don't know, all right? I identify, it's ridiculous what's going on. Biology tells us there's two, two sexes, there's two genders, male and female, man and woman. That's what God created. And I love how God just says it. You kind of think, well, why do you have to tell? Of course, God, male and female, of course he created. No, it's not of course now. It's not common sense anymore in this world, okay? You know, it's strange that we've got to go back to the Bible and people have to come to church to hear that there's a man and woman. That's how God created things to be, nothing in between. Let's drop down to verse number 31. And God saw everything that he made and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day, the sixth day. That's it, creation is done. We saw earlier in Exodus that God created everything within six days. Let's just quickly look at chapter two, verse number one, Genesis chapter two and verse number one. It says here, thus the heavens, plural, you see this plural now? Before God created the heaven and the earth, the heavens. And we know in light of the rest of the Bible, there's three heavens. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. So we learned that within each heaven, there is a host. There is something that, it's not just empty space, okay? So of course, the atmosphere, the birds, all right? The clouds, all right? In outer space, there's the sun, moon, the stars. And of course, in the third heaven, that's where the Lord is, the angels, the heavenly hosts and believers that go to be the Lord in heaven. Of course, everything has hosts in them. Verse number two. Again, that confirms that the angels were created, of course, within the six days as well, okay? Because a host of them were there. Verse number two. And on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had made. All right, so that's straightforward. If you know your Bible's well enough, you'll be in church long enough. You know, this is simple doctrine, but I'm just trying to reinforce things that, you know, if you just stick to Genesis one, you're not gonna be misled even in other strange doctrines, strange ideas that, you know, are found even in churches. Okay? So just be mindful. Now, please turn to me to Genesis chapter five. Genesis chapter five. Genesis chapter five. And in the statement of faith that we had here, I'll just read it again. It says, we believe in the literal Genesis account of creation. Yes, I believe that. I hope you believe that too. That God created all in six days about 6,200 years ago. Say, why 6,200? Say, you know, I've gone to church. So you just say 6,000. Why are you saying 6,200? Let me just say a couple of things, okay? The reason a lot of Christians just like to say 6,000 is because they've got this thought, and I'm not sure even really where it comes from, but of course we know that Christ is coming back. Okay? He's gonna establish his kingdom and we know that it's a millennial reign. It's a thousand years. Bible makes that very clear. And so people like the thought of God's gonna be done within six, like at the end of 6,000 years, then Christ is gonna come back and have his thousand years. So they like this idea of 7,000 years because God created everything in seven days. And like, you know, that passage where, you know, to the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years to a day. And so they like this idea and they try to, and this is why, you know, when it came to, you know, the year 2000 rolling over, there was always people saying, oh, Christ is coming back. Cause you know, a thousand years and his reign, et cetera. You know, don't play those games. Don't muck around. Like if you really want to figure out how old the world is from creation, it just requires a little bit of study. You know, and I'm gonna share some of that with you today. And I'll give you, I'll give you the, I'm not gonna give you everything, but I'm gonna give you some ideas of how you can, you know, go back in your own time, study this out and you'll find that creation, you know, where we are today from creation is easily over 6,000 years, easily. Okay, not 7,000 years, but around the 6,200 years. And I'll show you why. So let's start there in Genesis five, Genesis five, verse number three, Genesis five, verse number three. So how do we learn about the age of the earth from the Bible? You know, God is very specific about certain dates that he gives us. And Genesis chapter five, we have this genealogy. It says Adam lived and 130 years and begat a son in his own likeness after his image and called his name Seth. So we learn how old was Adam. So we know Adam was created on day number six, right? Very beginning. And then he lived for 130 years. And then he had gave birth to, well, you know, Seth came forth from Eve. And then verse number six, it says, Seth lived and 105 years and begat Enos. So 105 years, we're gonna add that to the equation. Then we get to Enos. Then verse number nine, and Enos lived 90 years. So you start adding up all these numbers. Enos lived 90 years and begat Canaan. Drop down to verse number 28. We won't go through all of this, of course. You can do this in your own time, you know. But verse number 28 says, and Lamech lived and 180 and two years and begat a son, verse number 29, and he called his name Noah. Okay, so we can see this genealogy that leads us all the way to Lamech, which is Noah's father. And what we, if you just calculate all those numbers, you start putting it all together, you start going through all the people, all the generations there, you come to 1056 years. Okay, 1056 years. Now, one thing you need to understand as we start putting these numbers together, you must understand there is a, what's the word I'm looking for? What was that, sorry? It's not an overlap, but maybe a discrepancy, an error. There's always an element of error. Let me explain to you why. You know, I was 22 when I got married. So you say, okay, 22 years. Well, yeah, I wasn't exactly, I didn't just turn 22 on that day. I was 22, I don't know what I was, 22 and eight months, potentially. Okay, so let's say, you know, but I was 22. Okay, so let's say Adam lived 130 years. Okay, so he got 130, but maybe it was 130 years and 11 months, but it'd still be 130 years. He wouldn't be 131 yet, okay? And then let's say the next one was Seth lived 105 years. Let's say it was 105 years and 11 months. So you can start to see there's gonna be other years that, you know, if you were to really figure it, it's not like they gave birth exactly when they turned that, like on their birthday day, there's a sign every single time. So there's always a little bit of, you know, that you need to understand just a little error. But look, those errors are not going to lead you to thousands of extra years. They're not going to lead you to millions or even billions of years, okay? You just must understand, you know, if we just went by the Bible, obviously the error would be very small, you know? I think by the end of it, it's gonna be a few decades, you know, a few decades here and there. So 1056 years from Adam to the birth of Noah. Now please turn with me to Genesis chapter seven, Genesis chapter seven, verse 11. The next thing that we learn here is the flood. So how old was Noah when the flood came? Well, it says here in Genesis chapter seven, verse 11, in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, in the 17th day of the month, the same day were all the founts of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. So how old was Noah when the flood came? 600 years, okay? He did not necessarily turn 600 on that day. It could have been 600 years and five months, okay? That's what kind of helped me understand. So anyway, we had the 1056 years from previous, you add 600 years, that then tells us from Adam to the flood is 1656 years. All right, please turn with me to Genesis chapter 11. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 11. Of course, we know that Noah had sons. In Genesis chapter 11, verse number 10, it says, these are the generations of Shem. We know that Shem was one of the sons of Noah. Shem was 100 years old and begat Ephaxad two years after the flood, okay? Two years after the flood. So you can start working things out here. It says here in verse number 12, and Ephaxad lived five and 30 years and begat Salah, verse number 24, and Nahor lived nine and 20 years and begat Terah. So again, you can start adding this up, but what you start to see here is that when you add, what you just saw there was another 222 years to the 1656 years already, now we're up to 1,878 years from Adam to Terah, okay? I hope this is kind of interesting. You know, I hope you're not missing the point. I'm not gonna go through every single detail here, okay? But I want you to understand how you, from the Bible, can figure out how old the earth is. Well, come with me to, or let's drop down to verse number 32. Verse number 32, we saw that Nahor begat Terah, and of course, Terah is the father of Abraham, okay? Verse number 32, it says, in the days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. So we're gonna add 205 years to the 1,878 years, but we're trying to figure out when was Noah, not Noah, when was Abraham born? Well, let's keep going to verse number 26. Actually, Genesis chapter 12, please. Genesis chapter 12 and verse number four. Genesis chapter 12 and verse number four. It says, so Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him, and Abram was 75 years old when he departed out of Haran. If you know the story, Terah brought Abram to Haran, okay? We know how long Terah lived, the 205 years, okay, when he died, but then Abraham, when he left, was 75 years. So we've gotta subtract 75 years from the 205 years, okay? And then add that to the 1,878 years that we saw earlier, and you come to 2,008 years from Adam to the birth of Abraham, or Abram, okay, 2,008 years. All right, come with me to Genesis chapter 21. Genesis chapter 21, verse number five, and of course, we follow the story of Abraham in the Bible. Genesis chapter 21, verse number five, it says, and Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born unto him. So there you can, you know, okay, now I've gotta add 100 years to that, all right? Go to Genesis chapter 25, Genesis chapter 25, verse 26, Genesis 25, 26, Genesis 25, 26. It says, and after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold of Esau's heel, and his name was Jacob. So you know that Isaac gave birth to Esau and Jacob, and Isaac was free school, or 60, years old when she bared them. So you go, okay, 100 years, Abraham gave birth to Isaac, Isaac was 60 years when he gave birth to Jacob, so you add 160 years to the 2,008 years that we saw earlier, we're up to 2,168 years from Adam to Jacob. Hope that makes sense, all right? If you're confused about anything, you wanna check with me after the service, please ask me after the service. Come with me to Genesis chapter 47. Come with me to Genesis 47. So we're up to the birth of Jacob. So why are we stopping at Jacob? Because of course, Jacob's name will be changed to Israel, and then we follow the story of the children of Israel, which eventually go into Egypt, we know about everything that takes place there, then later, of course, Moses would have to take them out of Egypt. But we learn here in Genesis 47, verse number nine. So if you remember the story, because of Joseph, remember Joseph was one of Jacob's sons, he went into Egypt, he was sent into Egypt in slavery, and then eventually his whole family came into Egypt because of the famine, all those things that was going on during that time, and of course, that was when they started to live in Egypt. Jacob, Israel, and the children of Israel started to live in Egypt. Well, when we get to Genesis 47, verse number nine, it says, and Jacob said unto Pharaoh, the days of the years of my pilgrimage are an 130 years, few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of my life of my fathers and the days of their pilgrimage. So we see that Jacob or Israel is 130 years at this point when he goes into Egypt the first time. He speaks to Pharaoh. Pharaoh wants to meet Joseph's dad, because Joseph was a hero in Egypt, and he says, look, I'm 130 years old, so we can add 130 years, which then brings us to 2,298 years from Adam to the migration of Jacob and the children of Israel into Egypt. All right, now you go to Exodus, Exodus chapter 12 and verse number 40. Exodus chapter 12 and verse number 40. So how long was Israel in Egypt? At the beginning they were treated well, and then we know later on they were put to labor, to hard labor, and Moses had to deliver the people out of Egypt, okay? Well, that time period we read about is in Exodus chapter 12, Exodus chapter 12 and verse number 40, Exodus chapter 12 and verse number 40, which says, now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was 430 years. And 30 years. So we can add 430 years to the equation. So 229, oh sorry, 2,298 years plus the 430 years brings us to 2,728 years from Adam to the Exodus out of Egypt, all right? If you know your Bible history, you know what I'm saying is accurate. We're going through this historical journey, right? When the children of Israel came out of Egypt. So 2,728 years from Adam to the Exodus out of Egypt. You say, well, what do we do now? Well, we can take a pretty large leap now because the Bible gives us some good information. Please turn with me to 1 Kings, turn with me to 1 Kings, 1 Kings chapter six, 1 Kings chapter six and verse number one because we can go from the Exodus of Egypt all the way to Solomon, King Solomon, okay? We can skip out a huge part of history because of what the Bible tells us here. In 1 Kings chapter six, verse number one, 1 Kings chapter six and verse number one, the Bible says, and it came to pass, look at this, in the 480th year after the children of Israel would come out of the land of Egypt, so you can, that's the Exodus, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel in the month Ziph, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord. All right, so we can add 480 years to 2,728 years. That will take us from Adam to the building of the first temple, which we see here was in the fourth year of Solomon's reign. So what you would need to do then is add 480 years to the equation, then subtract four years because of the reign of Solomon being four years, okay? Subtract that from the equation and that brings us to 3,204 years from Adam to the beginning of Solomon's reign. Say, why do we wanna know about the beginning of Solomon's reign? Because the Bible gives us the years these kings reigned and then the next king, they give us the years that they reigned and then we can keep following this journey, right? It's that following, how long did the kings reign and we can start adding this to the equation. You're there in 1 Kings, come with me to chapter 11, 1 Kings chapter 11. Now we wanna figure out how long did Solomon reign? Well, 1 Kings chapter 11, verse 42, 1 Kings 11, 42 says, and the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was 40 years. So we're gonna add 40 years to that equation and of course, you know the story after Solomon, the kingdom split into two, the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The easiest way to follow this is to follow the Southern Kingdom of Judah, okay? Where his son, King Rehoboam ruled. And so if we go to 1 Kings 14, come with me to 1 Kings 14 and verse number 21, 1 Kings 14 and verse number 21, 1 Kings 14, 21, it says, and Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Judah, that's the Southern Kingdom. Rehoboam was 41 years old when it began to reign and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, okay? So you can start with 40 years, Solomon, another 17 years, his son. And of course, as you keep going through the Bible, now I'm not gonna go through all this, but you can go through 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles and you'll be able to follow all king after king after king after king that reigned in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. So come with me to 2 Kings, come with me to 2 Kings, chapter 24, 2 Kings chapter 24 and verse number eight, 2 Kings chapter 24, verse number eight. Now, toward the end of the kingship of Judah, they became quite wicked, okay? And of course, God would bring Babylon to judge the wicked nation of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. And the very first exile, exile, the very first captivity, you know, took place here. Let's look at 2 Kings 24, verse eight, under King Jehoiachin. But it says Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he began to reign and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. So very short reign, why? It says here, and his mother's name was Nahushta, the daughter of Elhanan of Jerusalem. You say, why did he only reign three months? Because he was taken into captivity in that first wave into Babylon. Now, if you know your Bible, there were at least, there were two, there were at least three waves of captivity, of captive Jews that were taken into Babylon, okay? Why is that all important? Because if you know your Bible's well enough, you know how long the tomb of Judah were in captivity. How long were they in captivity? 70 years, so we can start adding all this stuff to the equation. So again, there are different conversations people have. What point did the 70 years begin, all right? And I'm not here to have that conversation this morning, you can have your opinions, but again, because which wave does it count from exactly? Was it when Jerusalem was completely overrun, and then all the people were taken into captivity? Is that when the 70 years, I don't really know, Reverend, I honestly, there's some things that are just not knowable. I think they're not knowable, at least on this side of eternity. But again, the point is, you know, if we're going to start at different points, we're only looking at a few years, a few decades, you're not going to be adding hundreds and thousands of years to the equation, okay? It's always different opinions, always few years, few decades of difference, so it really doesn't matter. But let's start here with Jehoiachin, okay? Let's do it here, because this is the first time they were taken into captivity. And again, there are different opinions on that, and that's fine, I'm not too bothered about that. But, so if we consider that, Reverend, where did I get to turn to? Second Kings, okay. So if we consider that, and we look at all the reigns of the kings, leading up to that first wave of Babylonian captivity, we have the original 3,204 years, and we've got to add 424 years from Solomon's reign to the time that our first wave went into captivity into Babylon, which brings us to 3,628 years from Adam to the very beginning of the Babylonian captivity. Again, you know that they were in captivity for 70 years, so now you've got to add the 70 years. And what else do we understand from the captivity of Babylon? We had Daniel, Daniel was a prominent prophet during that time, and God gave him a prophecy, the 70 week prophecy, all right? Which again, I'm not gonna go into great detail, but the prophecy was that from the time the Jews were allowed to go back and construct, okay, rebuild the city, rebuild Jerusalem, to the time of Messiah being cut off, were 69 weeks. There's still one week left in the future. 69 weeks of seven years each, okay? So then you've got to do the calculation, 69 weeks times seven, 69 times seven is 483. So we had 3,628, you've got to add the 70 years of captivity, and then you've got to add the 483 years of Daniel's prophecy to the time that Messiah would be cut off. Again, different conversations, we've had it brother, was Messiah cut off immediately after that, 69 weeks? Or was there still some time period? You know, did that lead up to his birth exactly? Did it lead up to a different time of his ministry? Did it lead up to his crucifixion? Again, I'm not too bothered about that conversation. Again, any difference would be a few decades. It's not going to change the equation all that much, okay? And so if you just calculate it from what I've shared there, it brings us to four, and I believe it led up to Christ's crucifixion, so just going by that, we get to 4,181 years, 4,181 years from Adam to the death of Christ, to the crucifixion. So now we're getting closer, right, to our time, okay? Because we know, of course, when we think of the Gregorian calendar, it's divided BC and AD, so then if we know Christ was crucified 4,181 years, or somewhat around that mark, okay, after creation, then how old was Jesus when he was crucified? Well, if you know, he was about 33 years, because the Bible says that Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his ministry. We know when we look at his ministry in the Bible, there were three Passovers, so his ministry was three years long, so he was about 33 years old when he was crucified, so then what we can do, thinking about that timeframe, we can then go from the crucifixion to the birth of Christ, so now we would subtract 33 years to get to the birth of Christ, and if you subtract 33 from that equation, you get to 4,148 years from Adam to the birth of Christ. That's 4,148 years from Adam to the birth of Christ. Okay, now we need help from our Gregorian calendar. Now we need some further help from secular historical books. Okay, because when was Christ born? When was Christ born? You say, December 25th, Christmas, I don't know. There's one chance in 365 days, as Callum says, that that was the case, I don't know. Probably very unlikely, though, okay? I wouldn't bet on that, let's put it that way. I wouldn't bet at all, actually. But one thing that we can learn from history, and it seems, you know, sometimes history books are not all on the same page, it's not always consistent. One thing that you find quite consistent, of course, is the death of Herod the Great, okay? It is said that Herod died at 6, sorry, at 4 BC. 4 BC, why is that important? Because we know that when Christ was born, King Herod tried to kill Jesus, remember that? And he said to kill the children that were two years and under. So this then gives us a timeframe that Jesus would have been close to two years old if he's going by those years, okay? And then, you know the story that Joseph and Mary, they flee into Egypt to protect their son, okay? Then shortly after, you know, King Herod dies and they come back and they live in Nazareth, okay? Shortly after. So if Herod died at 4 BC, Jesus would have been about two years old, okay? So that brings us to believe then that Christ was born 6 BC, 6 BC, okay? So if all of this is correct so far, and again, there is element of error here, okay? We have 4,148 years from creation to 6 BC, the birth of Christ, okay? And we live from 6 BC to 2022. And if you get those numbers, it brings us to 2,027 years, okay? In this year, 2,022, 2,027 years from the birth of Christ. So then that's it. Then you just add it all together. You go the 4,148 years from Adam to the birth of Christ, plus 2,027 years, which brings us to 2022 AD comes to 6,175 years, about 6,200 years old from creation. That's why it's in our statement of faith, okay? And look, we can be quite specific here. Look, and the numbers we're using here are quite conservative numbers, all right? If there is an element of error, it's only going to make more years. So it could be that it's over 6,200 years old. Just depends where your opinion lies on certain aspects of Israel's history, okay? And you know, if you've taken those notes or you wanna go back and listen to the sermon, you can do your own study in your own time, put the numbers together. If you think I'm wrong, let me know. Don't tell me I'm wrong by one year or two years. I don't care about that, honestly, okay? But if I'm wrong by hundreds of thousands of billions and millions of years, then talk to me because I'm telling you, you're at fault there, okay? There's nothing you're doing wrong if you're going to millions of years. So again, from the Bible, I know it's a bit, a lot to take in on a Sunday morning, but of course, if you take the Bible literally, you believe the Bible, we're Bible believers, don't we? We love the Bible. It's the Word of God. If God's given us this detail, why wouldn't we spend time to look at it? You know, we can safely rest. Yes, it's been about 6,200 years since creation, all right? And of course, that sounds so small in comparison to billions and billions of years, but 6,200 years is a long time. Many of us aren't even gonna see 100 years, you know? 6,200 years is a long, long time. All right, please turn with me to one more passage. Colossians chapter one, Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one, verse number 16. Colossians chapter one, verse number 16. The title for this sermon was The Creation. And you are part of that creation. You are part of that creation. And you know, I don't want this just to be theory, but I want to leave you with a thought here in Colossians chapter one, verse 16. If you're part of God's creation, you know, your grandfather is Adam because he brought forth after his kind. We know that Adam, of course, sinned, which is why you have a sin nature as well. Hey, you need to be brought forth after another kind to be saved. You must be born of the spirits. You must be born again, all right? We have a fleshly birth, we have a spiritual birth. How do we experience that spiritual birth? Okay, you must be born of the spirit. You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, it's that soul that goes to heaven. Praise God for that, okay? But you are a creation of God. You are a creation of God. You know, you're not just some accident that came out of a jellyfish that decided to come out of the water or anything like that, okay? You are a true creation of God. And in Colossians chapter one, Colossians chapter one, isn't DNA amazing though? So when God created Adam and Eve, all the DNA, all the information, all the genes required to bring you and me into this life was already there from the very beginning. Because all was created in six days. It's not like, you know, on your birthday, God created you all brand new from a totally different gene set or something like that. It all comes back to all the way to Noah, of course, Adam and Eve. In other words, I love that thought because then God already knew us, even when he created Adam and Eve at the very beginning. We're already all there programmed in that language, okay? We've been Adam and Eve. It's amazing when you think about it in that sense. But Colossians chapter one, verse number 16, speaking of Jesus, it says, for by him were all things created. You know, Jesus Christ is our creator. That are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible. And not just those things. Whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, even authority has been created by Jesus. I know you and I, we don't always like our government, but God's created that, okay? The powers that be. God's created the powers that be. It says all things were created by him, look at this, and for him. Brethren, why were you created? For him, for Jesus. You belong to Jesus, okay? He is your creator, okay? The purpose of life, the meaning of life, is that we were created for Jesus. Are you living for Jesus this morning? And if you're in church, praise God. Step number one, to start your week for Jesus, to be in the house of God. Praise God for that, okay? But you do not belong to yourself, especially if you're saved, okay? Not only did God create you, but then he purchased you again, okay? By the blood of Jesus Christ, he purchased you. You belong to him. He created you to serve him, okay? It says in verse number 17, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. It says, and he is the head of the body, the church. Reverend, who's the head of New Life Baptist Church? Jesus, our creator. He created New Life Baptist Church. You know, us together this morning. He made that happen, okay? We belong to Jesus. We belong to the head. It says, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things, in all things, he might have the preeminence. Preeminence means he comes first. Not just in church. Of course he does come first in church, but in all things, in your house, in your family, in your workplace, in your friendships. Those of you that are on holiday here on Queensland, on your holidays, Jesus has the preeminence in all things. Reverend, we've been created to serve Jesus. We've been created to put Jesus Christ first in our life, okay, and I hope you think about that. I hope you think about what is my purpose. Say I don't have a purpose. I don't feel like I have any direction in life. Well, it's very clear. You've been created to serve Christ, and only you can get other people saved. Only you can bring forth after your own kind, okay? If you don't do it, who's going to do it? Who's gonna do it? The Jehovah's are gonna do it. They're gonna bring forth after their kind. The Mormons are gonna do it. They're gonna bring forth after their kind. I just ask you, brethren, are you willing to bring forth after your own kind? Are you willing to bring forth people into the kingdom of Jesus Christ, okay? Because he's your creator. He's given you a job. He's given you a mission. He's given you life. He's given you enjoyments. He's given you salvation. How can we not serve our creator? All right, brethren, let's pray.