well we're starting uh today a brand new series in the book of genesis and i know that pastor vanney had spent some time in this i don't want to duplicate that but there should be some duplication i suppose if you're preaching the text correctly um we're going to look at chapter one this morning and we'll read the entirety of the chapter genesis chapter one and the creation account so let's give our attention this morning to the word of the lord in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the spirit of god was hovering over the face of the waters and god said let there be light and there was light and god saw that the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness and God called the light day and the darkness he called night and there was evening and there was morning the first day and God said let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters and God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse and it was so and god called the expanse heaven and there was evening and there was morning the second day and god said let the waters under the heavens be gathered into one place and let the dry land appear and it was so and god called the dry land earth and the waters that were gathered together he called seas and god saw that it was good and god said let the earth sprout vegetation plants yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit in which their seed each according to its kind on the earth and it was so the earth brought forth vegetation plants yielding seed according to their own kinds and trees bearing fruit in which their in which is their seed each according to its kind and god saw that it was good and there was evening and there was morning the third day and god said let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning the fourth day. And God said, let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves with which the waters swarm according to their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good and god blessed them saying be fruitful multiply and fill the waters and the seas and let birds multiply on the earth and there was evening and there was morning the fifth day and god said let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds and it was so and god made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds and every thing that creeps on the ground according to its kind and god saw that it was good then god said let us make man in our own image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on earth so god created man in his own image in the image of god he created him male and female he created them and god blessed them god said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and whoever over every living thing that moves on the earth and god said behold i have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth and every tree with seed and its fruit you shall have them for food to every beast of the earth and to every bird of heavens and everything that creeps on the earth everything that has the breath of life i have given every green plant for food and it was so god saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good and there was evening and there was morning the sixth day may the lord bless the hearing of his word well i was very excited to do a series on genesis but i didn't want to preach genesis 1 i was hoping to launch into a study of genesis and avoid what scared me isn't that sad isn't it sad that the very first chapter of the bible is full of controversy that there has been more confusion there has been more debate more fighting over genesis 1 i think than anything else and I think well why obviously the devil has found this to be a playing ground he likes this to be his playground why is that so for some reason he has really messed with Genesis 1 and so I said I'm not going to come to this text this morning and I refuse to impose my modern questions and problems upon it i i refuse to do that this morning you know questions like how old is the earth and how does science uh work with all of the biblical account how does all of that match up and then of course the great controversy surrounding the creation days all of those questions for me at least seem to obscure what should be very beautiful for us something very beautiful all of the glory and the power of what is revealed here seems to be lost when we spend our time saying well what i'm not saying is this about genesis and what i'm not saying is this something's already lost it's already lost how much arguing how much anger has resulted from all of this and has it really been beneficial to the life of the church for all of our disagreements over uh genesis what do we have the sad truth is we don't appreciate this and look at this the way we should because this dark cloud of controversy seems to loom over chapter one and in all this confusion i believe we've missed the true wonder of what the biblical writers are constantly telling us about creation the wonder the awe of all of this every time the biblical writers they never fell into a trap every time the biblical writers dealt with creation you find them breaking out right on into praise you find them excited you find them overwhelmed it's really a beautiful thing when we look at what scripture shows us the writers what they're telling us about god's creation you are worthy oh lord to receive glory and honor and power because by your will everything exists and was created that's in revelation if we don't get there we've missed it we've missed what creation and genesis 1 is telling us and so i want to look at this on its own terms in other words what is the message of genesis 1 what is the message why does god tell us this and why is this so important for christians the faith of the believer why is this so important for you i'm asking you then put aside all the controversy and just listen to it this morning just listen to it we live in a world that is seemingly full of chaos. I don't know what's going to come tomorrow. What natural disaster is going to wipe out masses of people? You know, Congress just asked NASA the other day about the growing asteroid threat. They said, what are you guys going to do about it? You know what NASA's response was? If it's coming in three weeks, pray. That's helpful. Suicide bombings, terrorism in the past few weeks, like we again have been hit with. Felt like 9-11 all over again. Things so uncertain, isn't it? So uncertain. And then our liberties. Our liberties feel like they're just being stripped away from us, you know? Legislation you don't even know that is sitting on tables right now, that if it gets passed, we are going to face real hardship as Christians. things so far outside of the creation design i feel like i'm losing a battle you feel like you're losing a great battle i'm concerned for my kids you know i'm concerned about what they are going to face what is church going to be like in the future or is there really going to be any more commitment to god's word where is this all going to go sometimes i feel like as the psalmist describe it the water has come right up over my head that's what they say you say well what does that have to do with creation and i say everything i want you to think for a minute about the creation account when it was handed to israel years ago what did they hear what was it like for israel to receive the creation account for the first time the nation had been in bondage to wicked Pharaoh for years who claimed to be God. Wore it right on his forehead in the symbol of the snake. Think about the garden. And all around them, the people were bowing to the sun and the moon and the rivers as the source of their strength. And the power and the glory of these nations and their gods, Israel seemed to be no match. Israel's God seemed to be defeated. Imagine when they went into Nebuchadnezzar and they would look back, the land of Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, and they would look back over the creation account and think about it. Here they were hauled off to Babylon and they had seemed so insignificant. The Lord had seemed to be defeated. The temple had been toppled over. Jerusalem had been destroyed. And now what? You imagine living in that? You imagine being hauled off to China? No, North Korea. Can you imagine being hauled off to North Korea? All of us. Babylonians had a creation story, you know. These things floated around for years. These creation stories were everywhere. They believed that their god, Marduk, they called him the Lord, by the way. At the beginning, they said, he has a great battle. He was in a great battle with the ocean goddess. And the Lord Marduk spread out his net and with a wind and arrow he defeated her he took her carcass he split her in two and with half of it he made heaven and with half of it he made the earth and the lands marduk said i shall create mankind they shall bear the god's burdens marduk was established forever as lord of heaven and earth in the account his word was supreme above and below and i quote these were the gods that were presented to israel as creating heaven and earth and they were afflicting israel these people were afflicting god's people all claiming that these were the gods that made all things and kind of appreciate the struggle where is the lord and all of this tragedy where is where is power where's deliverance you could lose heart can't you i mean we really can lose heart today with all that's happening when it doesn't seem to fit at all and this has been a theme from this pulpit when it doesn't seem to fit what i believe about the goodness of god that he is all powerful and that he is the king supreme reigning over all that he's protecting us when i don't see that and I don't seem to experience that, I can land in a lot of confusion. And we do lose heart. Don't we struggle that things are getting worse and worse? And how wicked this is for us and our children? And it's in this kind of struggle I believe you should read the creation story. It's in this kind of struggle on earth that we should read the creation story as his people. This is how Israel read it. Every time the biblical writers read the creation story, you know what it did? It lifted them out of depression. And we've lost something because we don't use it that way. In effect, it was transitioning and transforming them right into praise. And I hope to show you that here. That their God, Israel, had created all of this. And they don't have to be fearful of what's happening on the earth. The earth belongs to Him. The earth and the world belongs to Him. He made it. He fashioned all of this. And he spoke it into existence with his powerful word. That's Genesis 1. So much care to create. So much care to preserve. And so as we open up Genesis 1, keep this struggle in mind and let's consider this. This is what God intended for you when you look back at creation and lifting your eyes out of the smog that you're in and looking up. see what god is telling you look at verse one first words in the bible in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth doesn't come to us trying to prove and make a case for his existence to puny man anyone who wants to debate the existence of god what is the lord's answer it's psalm 14 the fool says in his heart there's no god that's his answer to someone who wants to intellectually debate his existence all of these superpowers are nothing god the powerful one who always was who always is who always will be had no beginning no end one day created think of how israel heard it this was the lord high and seated on his throne and at the beginning of time with time god created and what did he do one day he spoke he just spoke in perfect tranquility self-sufficient all-powerful had no needs of himself one day he uttered his voice and if you were to go through genesis 1 you know how many times you have these words it's 10 10 words of creation 10 words God had spoken to Israel on Sinai and I believe Israel was to look back and to think these very words when Israel received the law remember they trembled and no one wanted to hear the voice of God and Israel was to think this powerful god 10 times spoke in genesis 1 and boom it happened psalm 33 let the earth fear the lord let the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him for he spoke and it was done he commanded and it stood fast speaking of the powerful creation it wasn't a problem for him when he made all of this and and we'll get into a little bit of the glories of it he didn't have to to lift the finger he spoke this wasn't a problem notice how right from the beginning attention is given to the word and we considered that last week this powerful voice of the lord you know it's all over the scripture psalm 29 the voice of jehovah voice of the lord is over the waters the God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. Here we are. God spoke. This is not a science book. Not intended to be a science book. It's intended to encourage you. It's intended to lift you out of your conflict. for god's people and to see how all-powerful your king is to deliver you who merely with a word spoke this into existence what is the problem genesis 1 presents it's not a problem for god but it is a problem for us and that's what genesis 1 wants you to think about it's a big problem in verse 2 the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep god created the darkness god had created the waters but notice how he he revealed this to you notice how he's taking this that had already been made and this is where he starts there's no form to it there's chaos if you will and it's a problem not for him but for us because there's no way in this state that there could be life nothing in this environment it was dark chaos if you will and the thought again to the average israelite this was this was horrid the sea and the darkness was the place of the abyss the sea was dangerous and scary to people boys and girls imagine being on the ocean at night in the complete blackness no lights and you're just in the turbulent waves scary They were terrified by the darkness in the sea. And so what you have presented in Genesis 1 is something that is the ultimate dread for us. And can you imagine this aloneness? Not for God, for us. The Scriptures portray it this way. Snares are all around you. Darkness so that you cannot see. an abundance of waters covers you remember when God plagued Egypt with darkness interesting that he plagued them with darkness do you know why what he did at that point he reversed creation on them which is really what happened in Noah's day too he reversed creation the waters came back together but but in Genesis in Exodus when the darkness fell it was interesting God told Moses stretch out your hand toward heaven that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt darkness which may even be felt it's dreadful dreadful and the scriptures want you to think about this in this kind of way all of our greatest fears of darkness and emptiness and chaos and aloneness, none of that was a problem for Him. He dwells in light. He is light. And so think of how Israel read this. All of a sudden, the glorious Spirit shows up here in chapter 2, hovering over these waters. And He's pictured as riding on the waters, riding in His glory over this darkness, over these waters. And the Psalms describe this over and over of the lord darkness is under his feet a canopy of waters surrounds him like a mighty powerful eagle he rides over the waters the holy spirit and i think at this point israel must have been moved to praise god this is our god and so what you have in the days of creation is god bringing all of this darkness and the waters and the chaos into order. In the first three days, what's being described to you? Well, the imagery here is that God with His powerful Word is commanding the darkness back. He's forcing it back. And think of darkness that could be felt. God has complete command over this darkness. And then He commands, 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. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. So evening and the morning were the first day. God severed it and commanded light to shine out of the darkness. Light here, notice here, this symbol of life and blessing. Light has always been in the Scriptures. What you should stand in all over is this in the first day, that he drove back our greatest fear with one word. He drove it back with one word. Making life and light appear. And then on the second day, what does he deal with? The waters. The chaos and the raging waters that are so powerful to us. The Egyptians had many gods of the waters, you realize. And then with this word of his might, He speaks and He creates a firmament to divide the waters. Another driving back. And they're gathered into one place. You have the heavens and the firmament and all of this mentioned here. I was reading something about the solar system. You know, when we look up into the sky on a clear night, you see perhaps 10,000 points of light. A few of these are the planets of our solar system that shine by reflected light. Thousands belong to this special grouping of stars known as the Milky Way to which our sun belongs. Other thousands are entire galaxies which shine as one point because they are so distant. We say 10,000 points, as this author says, because that's what we can see with our unaided eyes. But these 10,000 are only the tiniest fraction of the existing stars. A typical galaxy contains billions of individual stars. Our galaxy alone contains 200 billion stars, and this is only our galaxy. There are thousands of others visible to the naked eye and billions more within the range of this telescope on Palomar Mountain. The distance from one edge of an average galaxy to the other edge is approximately 6,000 trillion miles. An average distance from one galaxy to another is 20 trillion. How big is this God? And he knows every single thought that's going through your head right now. See how the Bible portrays this? See how sad it is it ends up in controversy? You should be saying, wow, look at this God. Job, this is where Job landed. Who shut the sea with its doors when it burst out from the womb. When I made the clouds its garment in thick darkness, its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it, talking about the oceans, and set bars and doors, and said, thus far you shall come. No farther. And here are those proud waves. They stayed. I love to call them proud waves. You know that the earth is tilted at an angle of 23 degrees, And because of that, we can have seasons? If it were not exactly at that degree, the oceans would pile up. And do you realize if we were just a little bit closer to the moon, you know, if the moon were just a little closer, the tides of the oceans would cover continents? Who's upholding all of this? And yet it all remains where it is. Global warming can't even affect that. I don't believe in that, by the way. Psalm 104, you who laid the foundations of the earth so that it should not be moved forever. You covered it with the deep as with the garment. The waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke, they fled. At the voice of your thunder, they hastened away. Notice how I want you to think of the waters. They went up over the mountains. They went down into the valleys to the place which you founded for them. You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, that they may not return to cover the earth. Psalm 104. So notice in these three days, God now, in the second set of three days, God fills this earth. First he formed and then he filled. And you see his sovereignty and his power by him naming the creatures. He's naming. But notice what he does on day four. He creates the lights. Verse 16, then 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. You know what the Egyptian story was about the sun? The Egyptian creation story went like this, is that the chaos goose and the chaos gander produced an egg and they called it Ra, the sun. What an exciting creation account, huh? Ra has been worshipped for how many years by the Aztecs and all of these people? The sun. You know what every pagan religion has done with the sun? The moon and the stars? I mean, how much obsession are there with these things? We worship them. And no matter the groups, this has led to the most powerful idolatry over people. Do you know what Israel was exposed to when they were in bondage in Egypt? You know what they saw the Egyptians do? This is what they did. Ra, Amun Ra, the sun god. This is what they would say. Every morning they would rise and they would sing to him. There's none like you, Ra. Every morning they saw the sun rise and this is what they said. The life-giving power of Ra has risen upon us today. Engraved in Egypt are these words. I am the great God who came into being of myself, who has no opponent among the gods. See what creation's doing? God declares to Israel, you see these lights up there? I created those. I put them up there. They're my creatures. They're my handiwork. And isn't it fascinating he didn't even name them? You see what he's reacting to in the creation account. He didn't give them a name because everyone's given them a name to worship them. It was God who on day five created the birds and the heavens, all these things that people worship. The waters were filled with fishes and creatures. It was He. He did that. And on day six, along with the beasts, came man in his own image. He blessed them, commanding them to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it. They were to exercise dominion over all things, living on the earth. They were to be his rulers on the earth, representing the great king and worshiping him. Now, at this point, we should probably walk away from the creation account and say, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, each day of creation tells us it's all his. he owns this he made this he created this and over and over and over what does god want you to know about his creation it was good he delighted him he said it over and over and each day it was good to him he was pleased with it why is god telling us that he wants you to know that he delighted in his work he wants you to know that he cared for his work he wants you to know that this work meant a lot to him i want you to know that and god gives a sevenfold benediction on creation beautiful and then he rests we're going to get there next week and i believe israel was to always remember this and so are we god delighted in this god was declaring that he cared for us in this and the sad reality now as we stand back from this is this israel and us we should be looking at this creation and we should be looking at what we've done and say look at what mankind did to God's creation sin has attacked this goodness the beauty of what God did the one created in his image think about it think of the perversity of this notice how many times God said to man you shall exercise dominion you shall exercise dominion the one that was created to reflect his goodness and be a worshiping creature in the earth instead starts worshiping the things he should be exercising dominion over. This is what Romans 1 is saying. They exchanged the glory and they started worshiping creeping things. This is the craziness of our day. Environmentalists and what they do, the craziness. And here is Israel in mass conflict. Who's praising the Lord? Look at these nations. Look at everything going on around us. Look at the sadness and the perversity. We're trying to raise our families in this. And we're existing here. And everything is so bad. Man threw it all away. And what does this now mean? Creation is even hostile to us. We see that all the time. In the mess that we've made, it just gets worse and worse. A little baby is made up of microscopic cells, scopic cells so small that if you were to write the letter G, the size of that letter would contain 30,000 to 40,000 of these cells. And each cell has 200 trillion little tiny molecules of atoms. It's like a little micro-universe. And there are over 100 trillion of these. Every minute, 3 billion cells die in your body. and are replaced with three billion more. Everything working together right now and firing perfectly so that you can sit and listen to his word. And what have we done? We kill. We slaughter. Man is bent on destruction and misery. And you know what? As believers, we feel the pain of this because this morning the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. I see it. You see it. and i believe in all of this the lord intended creation to be a comforting message to his people why do i say that one of the most comforting messages to his people god loved it god said it was good and you think this just god is going to let it stay like this you think he's going to let death win you think this just god is gonna let puny humans destroy the glory of his creation jesus said something one day that was shocking and highly offensive to the jews they were mad at him for healing on the sabbath and he says this my father has been working until now and i have been working the horrible problem of sin wrecked everything the creation was subject to bondage the crown of his creation man the only creature made in his image now fallen dead and trespasses and sins his mind his affections his desires evil continually violence characterizing society that's what genesis is going to show you right after the fall adam and eve their firstborn son kills how could rest and enjoyment of god and sabbath be made possible again how could people understand that sabbath is a blessing and that they can worship and enjoy god how can that be recovered jesus says i've come to work you know what we're doing were working until now what kind of working the powerful word at the beginning that spoke who was it all created through boys and girls scriptures tell us all things were made through jesus and that very word became incarnate and john's picking up on this in john 1 and saying in the beginning was the word the word was with god the word was god and the word dwelled among us and what did that word do the spirit would come at pentecost and god by his powerful word would do what create again you realize moses takes this very we'll close with this here in a second moses takes the very same language of creation and he applies it to israel he wanted them to look back at creation and see god was not done and this is what he says in Deuteronomy 32. Notice all of the language of creation is employed by Moses here as he speaks of their deliverance. He found them in a desert land and in a wasteland, a howling wilderness. He encircled him. He instructed him. He kept him as the apple of his eye, as an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young. Think of the Spirit. Spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings so the lord alone led them and there was no foreign god with them with him jesus said this over and over i have come to do what to seek and to save that which was lost and that is why what is held out for us at the end of revelation connecting these two books is that he will dwell with us once and forever and guess what it's going to be like in the new heavens and the new earth the tree of life is going to be there there will be no more sin there will be no more sorrow there will be no more tears you see i can't see that yet i believe god desires for you as his afflicted people who are experiencing the raging seas and experiencing the foaming waters notice how the bible employs that all over psalm 46 god is our refuge and strength the very present help and need. Therefore, though the earth be moved, though the mountains be carried, though the rivers swell, when you're feeling that, what does the Lord want you to know? Look at creation. Look back at creation. By a mere word of my mouth, says the Lord, I formed all this. Look what I drove back at creation. I drove back the waters. By a mere word i assigned to see their limits by the same word i'm going to create again a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness shall dwell until then guess what he's doing for you he leads me beside the still waters he restores my soul he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil for you are with me your rod and your staff they comfort me he sent his son to dwell with us we're not alone i hope you look at creation differently i hope you put aside the controversies of it all get out of the smog of your life and look up every now and then stop worrying about bad economies and all of these things that are so distressing, right, on the earth. And remember who really is in control. Jesus, after looking at their distress on the earth, he was taken up into the throne, wasn't he? And where was he? John says, all the earth was in turbulence. And as he had looked at the earth in turbulence in Revelation, in chapter 4, all of a sudden a voice says, John, come up here. And he says, I looked up and I saw up there a throne and it was fixed. And around the throne was a sea of glass like crystal. Everything was calm and they were all praising God in heaven. And I believe John was to give that message to the church to say, remember that's going on. Remember that's going on in the turbulence of this world. He founded it upon the seas. The earth is the Lord's in all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. He founded it upon the seas. He established it upon the waters. And God has told you today, I've chosen to dwell with you all the way till I make this all right. That kind of perspective in the turbulent sea of this world leads us to do one thing. It ends us in one place. And then you know you've heard creation right. Where does it lead you to do? it leads you praise let's do that in prayer let's pray praise the lord praise the lord from the heavens praise him in the heights praise him all his angels praise him all his hosts praise him sun and moon praise him all you stars of light praise him you heavens of heavens and you waters above the heavens let them praise the name of the lord for he commanded and they were created he also established them forever and ever he made a decree which shall not pass away praise the lord from the earth you great sea creatures and all the depths fire and hail snow and clouds stormy wind fulfilling his word mountains and all hills fruitful trees and all cedars beasts and all cattle creeping things and flying fowl kings of the earth and all peoples princes and all judges of the earth both young men and maidens old men and children let them praise the name of the lord for his name alone is exalted his glory is above earth and heaven and he has exalted the horn of his people the praise of all his saints oh the children of israel a people near to him praise the lord amen