Part 1, The Creation

If you’ll be finding in your copy of God’s word this morning, the book of Genesis, chapter 1, we are beginning a new series this morning entitled Great Stories, Eternal Truths. Great Stories, Eternal Truths. We’re going to be looking at these great stories of the Bible—the stories that teach us the truths of God’s word. The the stories that so oftent times we think about, well, we need to teach these stories to the children. And that is true.

And many of you learned these stories in Sunday school and vacation Bible school. Some of you didn’t though. And some of you learned these stories in Sunday school and vacation Bible school and you have forgotten about them. So, this will be a reminder. But we’re going to be looking at these great stories and learning their eternal truths.

When you get to Genesis chapter 1 and verse one, if you’re able, would you stand with me as we honor God and the reading of his word.

And now hear the word of the Lord.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

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 the first day.

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 firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

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 he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, [and] the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed [is] in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And the evening and the morning were the third day.

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

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.

And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good.

And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the 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 every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

May the Lord add his blessing to the reading, the preaching, and now your hearing to understand his holy word. May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ forever be praised. And all of God’s people say, “Amen.”

Amen. You may be seated.

One of the things that I love about being involved in the theater with so many of our kids and adults—adults, I enjoy being in the theater with you, too—is that we get immersed in a story. And whether that story is about when I’m playing Mr. Wormwood or Reverend Shaw in Foot Loose or or some kind of silly thing, whatever the story is, that story has layers and layers of meaning.

And those of you who come to the theater and you watch us and you buy the tickets, thank you so much. But but yes, we couldn’t do it without you. But you have no idea what it’s like unless you’ve been in one. You get immersed in the story so much more while you’re on the stage than when you’re sitting in the audience because there are so many layers to the story.

The great Bible stories are the epitome of that. There are layers upon layers upon layers of meaning in this story. There are depths upon depths of truth in this story. Now, every story has a beginning, but only one story begins everything.

Let me say that again. Every story has a beginning. It was a dark and stormy night as you start reading the novel, right? Or in a galaxy far, far away in Star Wars, whatever it is. All the stories have a beginning, but only one story is the beginning.

This story this morning starts with absolute nothingness. There is no light. There is no sound. There is no time. There’s no space. Space does that blows our mind. But even physicists and scientists today agree that there was a time when there was not only were was there no light, no sound, no energy—there was not even any time or space.

There’s literally nothing until the voice of God broke the silence and said, “Let there be light.”

You say, “Preacher, you’re an educated man. You believe all that?” Absolutely, folks. Look, it’s God’s word. I believe it and I’m going to stand on it. Amen.

So, in the age that we live and people debate the universe, and people deate debate where the universe came from—and folks, it’s not just secular versus religious. There there’s there are huge debates in the scientific world, and they’re they’re reshaping and refraraming the whole debate right now because they’re discovering things now that they had never even thought of.

I’ll tell you this. When I was in high school, 30 years ago—when I was in high school, 30 years ago in advanced placement be biology—I was taught things from a textbook that were taught as absolute irrefutable fact. I was taught that. And today those things I was taught as fact are now disproven. So it’s changing every day.

It’s changing every day. But for we Christians. All right. So look at watch this. So 30 years ago, 30 years ago, that science textbook that I had in AP Biology is different from the science textbook that they have in AP Biology. I don’t even think they have a textbook. I think it’s a PDF file now. But whatever that book is changed because it’s it’s saying that this is true 30 years ago and and up to the present day. Well, that’s not true anymore because we figured out something. But this book is the same.

We Christians must return to the foundation and not be ashamed of it. And not be ashamed of it that God is the creator of all things.

The Bible doesn’t open with an argument for God’s existence. The Bible does not open by trying to prove God’s existence. It just assumes that you know it because surely everybody knows that God is real. And he says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Folks, this is more than just the start of a story. It’s the start of reality itself. If you remove the first chapters of the Bible—if you remove chapters 1 and two from Genesis—then everything else collapses. Everything else falls apart. If you take out the first two chapters, you undermine the foundation upon which everything else is built. And if you undermine the foundation, the house falls.

And if you don’t know the story, then you can’t learn, believe, and live its truths.

That’s why for the next 16 weeks, we’re going to be looking at the great stories and the eternal truths. We began this morning, number one, with retelling the story—Genesis 1 and two that we read. We read most of chapter one. He gives us the clearest, most authoritative record of creation.

Let’s walk quickly through those days. Day one, God creates light and darkness. I don’t know if you noticed this or not, but God creates light before he creates the sun. God created the light before the sun, the moon, and the stars because he is the source of light. What did Jesus say? “I am the light of the world.”

In Revelation, we read there’ll be no need of the sun by day or the moon by night because the sun s o n himself will give us the light. He is the source of light. No mediocre star is needed. He defines the day.

Day two, the separation of the waters. He divides the waters above. Where are the waters above? In the clouds—from the waters below, the oceans and the lakes.

Day three, land and vegetation. Dry ground appears, and God commands the earth to bring forth plants after their kind. The seed of a plant produces the offspring of that plant.

Day four, the sun, the moon, and the stars. He gives us the heavenly bodies, are set to govern the day and and night and not to create life, but to serve God’s purpose in timing life. This is amazing to me, and I don’t have time, but I’m going to do it anyway.

I was a man of science long before I was a man of the cloth. And these things fascinate me and these things stir my being. I wish that they stirred yours as well—to understand that in science, God is speaking. In in the creation, in the cosmos, God is speaking. God created this one little part of our one little universe and he put us there and he timed it and he structured it and he designed it. When you look at its design, it is marvelous.

God places the earth, this planet on which we live, at this exact distance from the sun. A little bit closer—we’d burn up. A little bit farther away—we would freeze. And God sets it in its rotation around the sun so that we would have days and nights.

And then God—watch what God did. All the other planets are different, and and and our planet is different, and our planet is special. So God reaches out. Can you imagine the hand of God? And God reaches and he holds on to the earth. And look at me. You looking at me? And God does this—and he turns it a little bit so that it spins at a tilt, at an angle, so that on that planet on which he’s going to place his beloved, there are seasons: fall, winter, spring, and summer.

Day four—God did all that.

Day five, God creates the sea creatures and the birds. The waters and skies are filled with living creatures, each according to their kind.

Then day six, God creates the animals and humanity. God creates all the land animals. And then his masterpiece—man and woman—he creates in his image, in his image with dominion over all creation and the blessing to be fruitful and multiply.

Then on day seven, God rested—not because he was tired—but to set the pattern for human life: work, worship, and rest.

Retelling the story. Number two—we retell the story, but we need to remember the truths.

God created everything on purpose. What I was telling the boys and girls earlier this morning about God designing them on purpose is true about every single little thing. Every single little thing.

It is just amazing when you look at God’s creation how designed and how a masterpiece that it is. It’s not an accident. It’s not a cosmic, chaotic mistake. God spoke and it came to be. And folks, that means that your life isn’t random either. You are the result of divine intention.

Humanity is uniquely made in God’s image. In youth disciplehip, we we remind ourselves of this—the youth—and and we talked about this. And should I tell them, boys and girls? Let’s talk about what’s the word that we use, that phrase in Latin that means we’re created—IMO day. You remembered it—in the image of God.

And is little Fufu and Fifi, our little cat and dog, are they created in the image of God? No, they’re not. And nothing else in all of creation is made in God’s image. Now look, you may love your pet, but that pet’s not created in God’s image.

Only people are. People bear the image of God. No other part of his creation bears his likeness. And God has created things—the created order, he says, is very good.

God’s original design was perfect. Sin is what broke it. Amen. God didn’t mess up creation. God made creation perfectly. Sin broke it. That’s why the gospel is not just about saving souls, but about restoring all things in Christ.

Colossians chapter 1—Colossians 1 verse 20—says that Christ came to reconcile all things unto himself. Not just men, women, boys, and girls, but all of creation has been broken. And Jesus has come to reconcile it all.

And so the Bible presents a literal historical creation. And it matters. The creation story matters.

Genesis 1 and 2 matter, folks, because if Genesis 1 and 2 aren’t real, then the gospel is not needed. If Genesis 1 and two are not real, then the gospel is not needed.

Romans 5:12 makes it clear that the reason that Jesus came—the son of God, the incarnation, God very God, man very man—the reason he had to die on the cross for our sins—Romans 5:12, write this down, go back and look it up—Romans 5:12 describes to us that the reason he had to do it is because sin came to all men through Adam.

And if Adam wasn’t real, then the sin we bear is not real. It’s just us being nature—just being kill or be killed, eat or be eaten. Huh? The law of the jungle, the survival of the fittest.

If the sin of Adam was not real, then the gospel is not necessary. But because Genesis 1 and 2 are real, and because Adam did bring sin into the world, then the gospel is necessary. Jesus did die on the cross for our sins and rise again. Amen.

Remembering the truths. Number three—responding with faith.

How do we respond to the creation account? Number one, we worship the creator. We worship him. Revelation 4:1 says, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things.”

Psalm 24 says, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. For he founded it upon the seas and he established upon the waters. Then it says, who may ascend the hill of our Lord? Only he who has clean hands and a pure heart. That’s the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then it says, “Lift up your heads, oh ye gates, and be ye lifted up, oh ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory will come in.” Who is the King of glory? It is Jesus coming again in clouds, power, might, majesty, wonder, and worship. Worship him. Worship him. That’s how we respond to creation.

Number two, we trust in his word.

How do we respond to the creation story? We trust in his word.

Theories change. Theories change.

Young men and ladies, what you’re being taught today, a generation from now, will be laughed at. Let’s just be honest. A generation from now, what you’re being taught will be laughed at.

If if I went in to a college um lecture course and I said that in the atom the electron, the proton, and the neutron are the smallest indivisible particles that could ever exist—if I said that in a college lecture in 1995, everybody there from undergraduate to PhD would nod their head in agreement. If I said it today, they would laugh me out of the room because we’ve discovered quarks and nuons and these particles that are even—and so some of you are saying, “Preacher, I thought the proton electron—that was the smallest.” No, it’s it’s different now.

It’s different now. It changes.

Doesn’t change.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

How do we respond to the story? With faith. We worship the creator. We we trust his word. We live as one who bears the image of God.

I could scratch myself out right here and have a spell if I had time. I may still do it anyway. Can I tell you the main number one problem in our society and culture today? Why it is so debased? Do you know why our culture is so debased and immoral, vulgar? Why our culture is so slime today? Do you know why?

Because we don’t live like things that bear the image of God, and we don’t treat other people like they bear the image of God. Instead, we act like the rest of creation that does not bear the image of God.

If you teach a generation that they’re no more than highly evolved slugs, don’t be surprised they start acting like highly evolved slugs.

But we bear the image of God.

We should live like we bear the image of God. And we should treat other people like they bear the image of God.

How do we respond to the creation story? We worship him. We believe his word. We live like one who bears the image of God. And lastly, we rest in his provision—physically and spiritually.

Folks, Genesis 1 and 2 isn’t just the start of the Bible. It’s the start of everything.

I’ll say it again. Genesis 1 and 2 is not just the start of the Bible. It’s the start of everything. And if you believe that in the beginning, God, you can believe everything else.

If you believe there was nothing and God made from it everything, then there’s no other miracle in this book that you have to disbelieve. If you believe that in the beginning, God took nothing and made everything, there’s no promise in this book that you can’t stand on.

You can believe everything else if you can believe the beginning.

The same God who spoke light into darkness can speak life into your soul. The same God who shaped Adam from dust can reshape your heart and give you a new heart and a new life.

The great story of creation tells the eternal truth that God is the maker, sustainer, and redeemer—worthy of your trust, worthy of your worship, worthy of your life.

If your life is full of darkness, let him speak light into it today. Let there be light.

If your soul is dead, let it be born again today. As God breathed life into Adam, he can breathe life into your dead soul.

You can be saved today.