As you're being seated, Genesis chapter 1 verse 1, no doubt, sits here for us as the most simplest text on the creation of everything. And by everything, I mean everything. The text tells us that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. This is the origins of the universe. Had only Charles Darwin been pleased to stick with Scripture, he would not have misled the masses of the nations. If only man would stick to the truth and the sufficiency of the Word of God, we will be pleased to discover everything we need to know about the origins of everything. In the beginning, hammered on this now for, if we include the three introduction sessions and then the first preaching of the text from Genesis through, as we will now be, in the plowing mode. We've set the plow down in the text because we want to know what's here. We want to bring to the surface everything that God would expose to us and tell us about His creation, about the way in which He moves and the way in which he interacts and relates to humanity. So we are in Genesis now for the unforeseeable future. We want to know this God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth. So there is obviously some outline work, there's some academic work that's at play here. And we don't want to avoid it, but I want to make sure that I communicate sufficiently to you that our work here is not primarily academic. Our work here is spiritual and moral. As a matter of fact, as Charles Spurgeon in readings that I've been reading of his this week concerning the book of Genesis, it's where he specifically says and very simply puts it, our business here is moral and spiritual. Now our minds are going to think about a lot of tangible material things. Because we are designed by God to know our Creator. And in knowing our Creator, we want to know everything He's done. And that includes creation. So we're going to have two outlines of the creation story in chapter 1. By the time we're done with chapter 2, we will see three outlines of creation. And each of them are going to move from general to not as general to very specific. The most general of the creation story is Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. It tells us everything we need to know about everything in the universe. That there was a moment in which time began. The text says in the beginning So to the people who believe the Word of God to be the Word of God, and revealed and given to man, God has given to Moses the precision of words to help us understand when time began. And it began in the beginning. That's the general. So keep in mind here, we're working with very big picture here. In the beginning. That's what I expressed with you spoke with you last week that we actually can see through the kindness of God, through the preservation of the ancestral lines from Adam all the way to Moses and then into the Kings where we will know exactly and precisely when the nation of Israel through the preservation of God both in the exodus out of Egypt but also in the sending of God's people to Egypt to begin with and the span of time between that in which they arrive and the time in which God redeems them and brings them out. We know when those things happen and then we can begin to track backwards in a very logical progression through the kindness of God through a mathematical academic means, we can even know when the flood happened. And then from that, because again of the kindness of God, with the preservation of the ancestral recordings of the men, the patriarchs, whom lived from Adam to Noah, we can begin to track these things back to a relatively young Earth. So if we're literal Bible-believing people, and I'm supposing that, assuming you know that I am, and that you've come to a church that is, and so we are, that we can see, we can make the summation from the Word of God that the Earth, the creation of not only the Earth, but the universe itself is extremely young. especially in relationship to how many in the humanistic mindset want to place the ages, the age of the earth, the age of our sun, the age of our galaxy, the age of our universe into the billions and the billions and the billions of years. Well, again, my point, my purpose and my duty here is not academic. My duty before God as your pastor is, as Spurgeon articulated, moral and spiritual. And so I'm grateful for the ancient, the historic work of the previous preachers long before me to remind me the work here is moral and spiritual. So with that said, let me at least lay out for you the coming outline of the tangible, of the academic. And then we'll get to the moral and the spiritual, all right? You can see in the text, when you move out of verse number one, you have everything that we need to know. There was a beginning, and we also can know from this that God is the one who did the beginning, he did the initiating of time, all things of matter, atom, atomic matter, everything that exists, God created it, and everything in the heavens and the earth that exist, God created it. So this is the language of the universe. In the beginning, God created everything. And again, what does everything mean? Everything. You're good academically. You're good to go. Now go. Go into the world and argue any case you want with anyone who wants to say otherwise. We'll address them. We will address academic matters. But again, we'll need to know that the way we engage in the academic discussions, the only way we can succeed in this is to keep in mind that we are moral agents of a moral God and we are a spiritual people of a God who is spirit. So a God who is not created, so the uncreated created everything in the universe. So you move from verse 1 into verse 2 and we'll deal more with some of the specifics of verse 2 and then into the the greaterness of verses 3 through the end of chapter 1 and into the early parts of chapter 2 as those days come about. But see See here, the intentionality and the outline of what is before us. You have the general, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And then he backs up. He doesn't back up time, and he doesn't reveal a whole lot for us in the actual details of how he does this. But keep in mind, we have the New Testament that helps us know how he did it. Before we even get to verse number three, Verse number three will tell us how he did it. He spoke it and it came into existence. So there begins your mind wrestling, doesn't it? How is that possible? Well, don't get too far ahead of me and don't get too frustrated in the process. What we'll end up with in verse number two is that we'll see that there is an unfinished at least a mention of an unfinished creation, not of just the heavens and the earth, but of this origin, it looks quite different than it does when we get to day one, to day two, to day three, and really, then it all really starts to take shape, no pun intended, on day four, when God creates the sun. Oh boy, the mind is really going to wrestle through this, isn't it? So we have a seven point outline and we'll work our way through this. Boys and girls, I hope that your attention will be fixed upon the power of God when we talk about in verses three through five that God said, and never miss the significance of how Moses records this for us, That then in verse three, you'll see it and we'll look, we'll note this and we'll make special emphasis of this as we walk through the outline in the coming weeks. So in the beginning, God created heavens and the earth, verse one, and then verse two, the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. That will be a significant point. I'm just giving you the outline here and I'm too easily distracted. as I get through the outline to get to hurry up and get to the points. But notice at least in the language of verse number two that this formless or void or this dark surface of the deep in which God is created has water. One, the text tells us it does. So that means that in the beginning doesn't mean water existed. before God created, but in the beginning God created, water was part of that. So we're seeing that that's actually part of the creation. And we'll note the significance of the Spirit of God moving or hovering or lingering over the surface of the waters. But your preacher cannot stop here because he will get too distracted. You're going to have to keep coming back for us to really dig through all of the elements of the creation. So we'll have a seven-point outline coming up, not today, but I'm just giving you the general picture here. Day one, when light is created. Then we'll have day two. And by the way, that concept alone is staggering to all of us who are limited to a temporal world existence. is how do you have light without a sun? How do you have dark and light? You've already thought long on that. You've already thought how perplexing this is. We will address this this morning in the respect of the fact that we are in a moral conversation. We're in a spiritual conversation which requires us to have an understanding of light. Then we'll look at the second day of creation. Then we'll look at the third day of creation. And then it really gets exciting. The creation of the sun, the moon, the stars. Then the fifth day, for all you meat-loving, meat-eating lovers. Oh no, no, I'm so excited I'm ahead of myself. For all you fish-loving eaters. For all you bird watching lovers, there's the creation of the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. It's then on day five, no I'm so far, that is day five. Day six is the creation of, I love some of the, I just love the language of creation. There's the cattle of the field and the beast of the field and everything that creepeth along the earth. There's a lot of things that creep, aren't there? And some of them are really creepy. That will have to come later in chapter two and chapter three. Why they appear so creepy to us? Because there will be problems inside of this creation of God. And that will come as well on the sixth day when God creates humanity. So, and then you have a seventh day that is no work being done. And I think a very perplexing idea, the day in which God rested. Now, again, you and I, when we hear words like this, and we think about these things, typically, we're thinking a day of rest is because we've spent six previous days working hard. And, and many of you have, you've spent six days, you've been obeying the Word of God, you've been working hard, you've been laboring long, and whether it comes in four 10-hour days, that's six days worth of work, isn't it? Or you're working six long days, or whether you have five intermittent kinds of days and a longer weekend than others, but you have nonetheless an expectation to all of humanity that man works. Because we are created by the God who worked. And He worked for six days. Now the difference between what God did on the seventh day and what we typically think about what what he did on the seventh day. Keep this in mind. He did not take a nap. He did not sleep till 11 on that on that day off. He could have because he worked really hard. But this is the kind of resting that you do when you're done doing something and you take pleasure in what's just happened. You look at this and you think, oh, this is, this is not just good. This will be the language of day six. This is very good. Look at this. So we want to think, how does that, how does that get lived out this many thousands of years post creation? And how does all that God's doing in these early days of creation in these early days that make up the creation, these six literal days. So we'll get into the academic nitty gritty of this. I've already spoken to you about this in our introduction and then from last week that you're at a church with a pastor that believes these are literal days. And that should not be too much for us to wrestle with, even in light of the fact that the sun is not created until day four. So how do you mean this preacher, that there are six literal days of creation when the sun wasn't even created until day four? Well, it's not too hard for us, and we will think upon this. Again, in the academic piece of this, know this, that what happens, as I mentioned this last week, only I made reference to it poorly. I think I called the big changing of theological position here. I blamed it on the Renaissance when it should more properly be blamed upon the Enlightenment era. So this era where, one, it's not bad to be asking questions. You should ask questions. You should probe and you should think about and pose even questions that question history or question what is settled. But at the end of the day, you don't walk away from what has been settled by the Word of God with some kind of a strange conclusion that doesn't match what all of world history has agreed to be the concluded end of what God did here. And so by the 18th century, or by that point of the 18th century, all of Christendom, all of those who believed the power of the Word of God, believed it to be settled work, that creation was a six literal day event. Without even being stumped by the fact that the sun was created on day four. Because the Bible said it, that settled it, is how this phrase goes, isn't it? God said it, that settled it, I believe it. I'm not so sure that that's the exact way that phrase goes, but that's how we're gonna say it today. God said it, And there it is. It settles it for me and so therefore I believe that this is what it is. So out of the Enlightenment era you end up with strange and peculiar theories about how to explain this in the natural world. I will remind us of how Spurgeon helped me this week. This is about moral and spiritual matters, primarily. It will address the physical, the tangible, the material world, but this text is primarily for us toward the moral and the spiritual. But man, in his humanistic position, has built all kinds of theories into how this is possible. And primarily, they're trying to figure up in their mind, how do we answer these ideas that some of these out of the Enlightenment era that come out of the 18th century who begin to say, well, these really aren't literal days. And perhaps even in your schooling, you've heard of things like the gap theory. Well, again, my point here today is not to introduce you to academic ideas, but there's no reason to shy away from how academia has tried to derail the power of the word of God. And the gap theory is one of them. It's an attempt by, I will argue, at least on the front end of this, those who have embraced it over the decades, over the centuries, that it's an attempt by man to reconcile the argument of how old the universe has to be in order for us to be seeing stars as far away as they are. There has to be some kind of an explanation for this. And so man says, well, the Bible is really just an allegory for us. And so it doesn't really tell us exactly how this has happened. So they built this idea of a gap theory. And the gap theory is that, for one, the gap between day three and day four, that we really don't know how many millions and billions of years. Now, boys and girls, understand that your preacher is not suggesting that this is the reality. This is a theory that some, I will make the arguable, I want to give the benefit of the doubt here, they're trying to read the word and get to a satisfactory conclusion that matches more their humanistic mind rather than their spiritual idea of who God is. So they build this idea because there's not a son created until day four. Is it possible? So they pose the question, is it possible? that the age of the earth is older than we once thought it was because we don't have a sun until day four. So you can see the humanistic mind, the mind that is physical and not spiritual begins to say, ah, that makes a lot of sense. I think I believe that. I was first introduced to this at a Baptist university from the science class, not being taught as one of the options, but at the science professors teaching, this is how this happens. And so it's like, well, I don't know about you, but my preacher never said that. So understand, boys and girls especially, there are going to be some who are going to want to come along and they're going to want to suggest to you that as well-meaning as your pastor is or as well-meaning as your parents are, you know, they really don't know as much as I do. So let me help you out here. And they want to start putting doubt upon the power of the word of God. And eventually they'll be so successful that academia will completely reject everything about creation in Genesis and then will begin to write commentary sets that make the argument that the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis are really only allegorical and they're not physical, they're not literal, they're not real. Well, this pulpit rejects that. This pulpit believes they are literal days And the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis are actual historic events. Another argument will come along the way in the theories that there is this idea which is related to the gap theory and it's called the length of day theory. And again, it's related to the first and that is before the sun's created that the length of the language of day could mean millions of years. It could mean, because we don't have a precision of how long, how long was darkness over the surface of the earth? How long was it formless and void? How long did the Spirit of God just hover and move over the surface of the waters? That will be the theory here, is the length of that kind of a time, that length of a day. We'll go ahead and reject that. Again, it's someone who's wanting to reconcile what the Bible says with what they already believe. And so they want to force an idea upon the language of scripture to fit their idea. There's also the canopy theory, and that would be again related primarily to day one and day two, that there is this, the existence of the earth has this appearance from the language of scripture of being quite different than how we might think it is. And let's go ahead and make the argument it has to be. There's not even a sun by day two. It has to be somewhat different than how we would imagine it to be right now, this very moment. But the idea of a canopy theory is that there is this creation that they're going to go ahead and give God the credit of creating, but then He's somewhat just stepping back and letting what He created form itself into order. Now again, many Many apologists, good thinking and long time thinking before me, come along and make these kinds of arguments that this is just complete nonsense. Never do you go to a junkyard and come to the conclusion that this came from a bucket of bolts and screws and weld joints. They just happened. I worked at a car junkyard my senior year of high school. One of the funnest jobs I ever had, by the way. Can you imagine the boss giving a 17-year-old at the time, a 17-year-old that turned 18 in my senior year, and my instructions were, when I'd get done with school, I'd go to the junkyard, and guess what? He would give me the welding torch. And he'd say, we need to go cut all the bumpers off all the cars. OK, I would love to do that. I didn't have enough brain as a 17-year-old to ever ask the question, are there gasoline? Is there gasoline in the tanks of these cars that are here? He says, most of them are empty. Well, that's taking quite a chance and one I was willing to take. So I went and cut every, that first semester of my senior year, cut every bumper off of every car in that lot. My second semester, I was instructed to load the dump truck up with all those bumpers and drive them to Denver. Can you believe my parents would let me do such a dumb job as that? Well, I live to tell about it, and my mother's in the room. I don't know that she did. Did you know I had to do that job? I don't know that I told you. Well, anyway, this idea that there's this chaos, out of chaos it just randomly came into existence. No, by the time you get to chaos it's because there's been breakdown. You have, and we'll address this, what is this language of formless and void and darkness over the surface of the deep? What is that? That's part of the creation, it's part of the intention, it's part of the design. that the designer, the creator, the Almighty, that Elohim, Yahweh Himself is creating, He's forming, He's shaping, and then He begins with His, the language of it is in this speaking form, and we have the New Testament that helps us to see that the word Jesus Himself was the one doing the speaking, the creating. So you just go ahead and throw out the idea that out of chaos became order. Now, from the time of creation, well, let me put this in the proper position here. From the moment of the fall, where sin has entered into the creation of the glorious God's creation, we end up with now the entropy. We have this perpetual decaying, this perpetual breakdown. So you don't go from broken to perfection. You go from perfection with sin interjected into collapse and confusion. So we just throw the canopy theory, the length of day theory, the gap theory, all of them are from the position of unspiritually minded people trying to think they're spiritual, but forcing the ideas of the universe into their humanistic ideology, thus being idolaters themselves, creating a God for themselves, a God that makes sense to them, a God that they can explain. Well, what we have here is a God that no man can explain, and it'll be by the grace of God, it'll be the mercy of God, that He will tell us, He will reveal to us exactly who He is. Now, because there are these ideas, and I've already introduced to you that out of the 18th century, the introduction of this idea that the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis, because of the style of writing that is used, it's clear it's allegorical. Because it's written more poetically. It's written in this particular genre of language. And nobody in Christian, nobody in the theological world denies that there is a poetical language. There's a rhythmic language here at place. in place of really for most of the Bible is written from, you have your narratives, you have your poetic verse, you have your historic narratives, you have your prophetic text. Well, the scholar of the world does not disagree. Matter of fact, they were not, the idea that the Enlightenment exposed that the Bible, the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis were written in a more rhythmic tone or rhythmic cadence The only reason that the secular humanists knew that is because the theological scholar has already been saying that argument. So this was not a new introduction to the church that the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis have a rhythmic cadence to them. Now what it doesn't have is an allegorical illustration of it. There is a difference in music, isn't there? I mean, you can sing a song. We sing them every Sunday here. They have a rhythmic cadence to them. There is something about the way in which you're saying it, you're singing it. The purpose of it is that you memorize it, that you're familiar with it. And it's truthful. It's concrete. Poetic doesn't mean that it's obscure language that nobody really knows what that means. Like, for example, the word day. Does it really mean day? Or does it mean a length of days? Can't you say, back in the day? Meaning, for those of you who are older, meaning most every day prior to now. Back in the day, you did this and you could do that. Back in the day, I could reach the ground. That was back in the day. You know, I can do it today, but I've got to get on the ground to touch the ground. But that's one way of saying this is a poetic verse, but that's not the way this is written. This is written with the rhythmic cadence type of poetry. And it will be very helpful for us, and we'll see this. Matter of fact, most of your English translation Bibles, you'll even begin to see that the offset of the text itself may even expose to you, well, this piece has a very intentional, this is a historic cadence language that's being said, or this is God speaking here, So the very format, the typeset, the format of the text will tip us off on a lot of things. This is rhythmic cadence for the purpose of being familiar with. So all of you parents who are homeschooling your children, there are certain skills you use to help teach things to your children. And some of those are songs. Rhythmic, cadenced songs to help them trigger in their mind. This is how you learn your alphabet. It's how you learn certain poems. It's how you memorize certain parts of the Bible. It's what we do with our catechisms. We pose them in a style, a question and an answer, with scripture texts that give support for it. It doesn't mean that what we're saying isn't true. It means we're framing these things in such a manner that we become as familiar as possible. And let's remember, what we're not doing here with the Bible is learning science. This will be the benefit, this will be a secondary benefit, but what we're doing here is learning who God is. That is our primary purpose. And so the writing, the writing tools that Moses incorporates here is for the purpose that the people who hear this, and where are these people when they hear these teachings from Moses? They're on their way out of Egypt to the promised land. So we're talking generations down the road. They've been in captivity and they've been slaves for 400 plus years. Meaning, their ancestors who entered Egypt are no longer living at all. There is a kindness of God that he would raise up a deliverer who would come teaching them everything they need to know about the God of their fathers. And by the way, here's what we know from the inspiration of the power of God. We know that this is how God did this. God told Moses. He instructed Moses. And so Moses gave the people the language that we have. It's intended to be poetic, Rhythmic for the purpose of learning. It is essentially here, you could make this argument, this is an old hymn. And by old, I'm meaning the most ancient of hymns that one could ever sing. And that would be the proclamation, the splendor, the glory of the Almighty God. It is profound. It is serious. It is mysterious. We know that Moses' intent here is that we would know and we would become familiar with the God of this creation. And in becoming familiar with the God of this creation, we'll become familiar with how he created. And we'll see very specifically, very meaningfully here. Do you understand, dear saints, do you understand how important this is? This isn't that we've just come to do an academic exercise this morning. We haven't just come to Put out a bunch of rhetoric to get a bunch of amens from a bunch of Baptists, which is an easy thing to do when we're talking about creation. Do you understand the seriousness of this? Everything hinges on what we believe Genesis 1, verse 1 says. Everything. In conclusion, go with me to the book of Isaiah. And by me saying in conclusion, I realize I've just excited you. Don't get too excited. But indeed, let's think about this God. Let's think about this God who said, let there be light. Let's think about this God who created the heavens and the earth. This is Isaiah chapter 40, and this is verse 4. Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low. Let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrains a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together. What does this say? For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. I want to remind you, this is serious stuff to think about the creation of everything. The heavens and the earth. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. A voice says, verse 6, call out. And then He answered, well what shall I call out? All flesh is grass. And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers and the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flower fades. And the Word of God, the Word of our God stands forever. How long does it stand? Forever. And what did the Lord do? He spoke into existence the heavens and the earth. And the Word of the Lord stands forever. Get yourselves up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news. Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news. Lift it up and do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, in other words, say to the nations, Here is your God. Behold, the Lord God will come with might. and His arm ruling with Him. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense is before Him. Like a shepherd, He will tend His flock, and in His arm, He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom, and He will gently lead the nursing ewes. Verse 12. Who is measured? the waters of the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens by the span, and calculated the dust of the earth by a measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance, and the hills in a pair of scales. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord? Or as His Counselor has informed Him." Verse 14, Did He consult and who gave Him understanding and who taught Him the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and informed Him of the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales. Behold, He lifts up the lands like fine dust Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, nor its beast enough to burn offering. All of the nations are as nothing before Him. They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless. Verse 18, To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with him, or as the idol a craftsman cast it, and a goldsmith plates it with gold, and a silversmith fashions chains of silver. He who is too impoverished for such an offering selects a tree that does not rot. He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman to prepare an idol that will not totter. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth, it is He who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted. Scarcely have they been sown. Scarcely has their stalk taken root in the earth. But he merely blows on them and they wither. And the storm carries them away like stubble. To whom then will you liken me? That I would be his equal, says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars. the one who lends forth or leads forth his host by number. He calls them all by name because of the greatness of his might and the strength of his power. Not one of them is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, My way is hidden from the Lord and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God. Why do you say such astounding things? Why do you come in question? I'm not reading the text here. I'm posing the furthering of the question. Why do you put into question what God has revealed to you? You've come today and perhaps your life is a total wreck. And yet you want to tell God how God did this? You've come today and you have many questions about this mighty God and you want to stand before this righteous one and say, no, you got it wrong. Let me show you who did all of this. This is what happens to man when he thinks about God without God instructing his heart. This is what happens to man. He begins to think up ideas and dream up conclusions that are far-fetched from God. And look how many have believed them! Perhaps even you. Why do you say, O Jacob, in verse 27, and assert, O Israel, my way, meaning God's way, is hidden from the Lord? And the justice that is due me escapes notice of my God. Why do you think, why do you say nothing is seen by God? Do you remember what He did on the very first moment of creation? He created light. And what comes when you create light? God sees everything. There is nothing hidden from this God. And in this temporal, tangible world that you and I live in, no wonder those who hate God love the dark. Because they have convinced themselves God can't see in the dark. What a foolish conclusion you could come to. But God have mercy on our pagan, idyllic thinking that we think we could redesign who this God is to fit our own fancy. which really just emboldens us to sin against this Almighty God who said, let there be light. Do you not know, verse 28, have you not heard, the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired? I know it's going to come to the question, I thought He rested. No, He rested. and He took great pleasure in what He created. But He is not weary or tired. His understanding, it's one of my favorite words in all the Bible, His understanding is, this is how the New American Standard uses this word, inscrutable, unsearchable. God cannot be penetrated by human reasoning. It's going to require God to tell us who He is for us to know who He is. Verse 29, He gives strength to the weary. Perhaps you're weary today. To him who lacks might, He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. And they will mount up with wings like eagles. And they will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary. Come to me, Jesus said, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come and see. Behold, Isaiah says, your God. Here He is. He's not how you've fashioned Him. He is who He has revealed through His messenger, Moses. There is your God. What kind of wrestling in this temporal world are you in? Are you making your own moral judgments? Are you making your own moral standards? It's time to repent of that and turn to God. It's time for you to come home to Christ. Because of Genesis 1, verse 1, here's some things I want to encourage you in. Because of Genesis 1, 1, you can believe that God created. This is what Genesis 1 will be the greatest encouragement to you today would be. He created the heavens and the earth. You can believe that God, because He created in the beginning, you can know with confidence that God is outside of His creation, meaning He is uncreated. It is impossible for a being in this creation to create this creation. You must stop letting the pagan idolaters convince you who God is and let God tell you who He is. He is outside of His creation. Be encouraged in that and let that terrible thought come near to crush you. The good news is, as we read from the Prophet Hosea earlier this morning, that in that condition, God will heal you. That God will bandage you. He will fit you and He will prepare you for health. This we're not talking about of a sickness in this temporal world, because remember again, our duty here is not academic. Our duty here is moral and spiritual. We just happen to live in the world He created. Genesis 1.1 can help you understand this as well. I cannot be a materialist because of Genesis 1.1. Meaning, matter has always existed. You follow the conclusions of many in the scientific world that are humanistic and pagan in nature, and their argument is that matter is eternal. It cannot possibly be. If you just read Genesis 1-1, it refutes the idea that material matter has always existed. And it's existed beyond time. You can't not be a materialist. The Bible says God created the matter. God created the heavens and the earth. Take confidence and courage in this. Genesis 1.1, God alone created. If you just read portions of Isaiah, I could read to you out of Job this morning, where God takes Job to the woodshed. Just a minute, Job. Where were you when I stretched out the stars? Where were you when I told the water, you can go no further than here? Where were you, Job? Genesis 1-1 will strengthen your belief that God alone created. Genesis 1-1 will help convince you that humanism is a total lie. In other words, that man is the creator of his own destiny. Man is the creator. Man has this ongoing, perpetual, reincarnated, foolish ideology. Humanism is a total lie when you read Genesis 1.1. And because the Bible is the Word of God, it is literal, it is the Word, it's not some allegorical telling of some fancy little story that really never happened. Because if that's what you're believing, you've bought the humanism's lie. You are God. You've bought the lie from Satan to Eve and Adam in the garden. Because of Genesis 1-1, the Word of God says that God created. He created order. Now this is pretty significant because this will be our starting point for verse number two in the coming weeks. There is this language of verse two where it is formless and void, or dark. It does not mean chaotic. It does not mean unstable. It means it was dark. Think of this. Before Jesus came, the light of the world came to you. What was your life like? It may have appeared chaotic. It might have seemed in total unrecognizable to what you would see it today as. But obviously, what God did by bringing light to you is he showed you you need God. It's the only thing that was missing. What God did with his words is he created light, and that light came into the world. And then we'll see the language of how he separated the light from the darkness. So let's be sure of this. When God said, light shall shine out of darkness, in 2 Corinthians chapter four, verse six, He's not meaning that light and darkness coexist. He's not saying that good and evil exist together. The Word of God says He separated them. And then for you to build any kind of an idea that there is fuzziness in the phrase of light and darkness is because you don't understand, because you're trying to think about spiritual things off of a physical sun that was created by God. In day one, God created light and he separated it. He did not leave any light in the darkness and he did not let any darkness into the light. It'll cause us to think deep about the glorious things of God, but you know, the Apostle Paul further says this. He says, for we have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not of ourselves. So when you read Genesis, see the emphasis is about God, it's not you. When you think about the center of the universe, the origins of the universe, you are not the universe's primary interest. The universe's primary interest is to glorify its creator. And you are one of those whom He created. And your purpose is to give Him glory. The apostle concludes by saying, we are afflicted in every way, but we're not crushed. We're perplexed, but we're not despairing. We're persecuted, but we're not forsaken. We're struck down, but we are not destroyed. Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake. so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our own mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you. But having the same spirit of faith according to what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke. We also believe, therefore we also speak. Knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you for all things are for your sakes so that the grace which is spreading the more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. This is the beautiful light that comes to your own dark soul. This is spiritual. This is moral. The light shall shine out of darkness. You once were dark, but now you are the light of the Lord. May the people of God rejoice. Genesis chapter 1 may strengthen, may embolden, may recover you. It may restore you. Perhaps you've been here before and you've abandoned the ideas of who God is and you've abandoned the authority of the Word of God. By the grace of God, a life preserver has been thrown to you and you've been rescued. This is the language of Paul to the church of Colossae. You've been rescued from the domain of darkness. You've been transferred to the kingdom of the beloved Son, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God. No longer are you owned by the darkness. This is indeed moral and spiritual today. Genesis 1-1, your mind will hardly stop thinking about creation in the universe. But do not let it pass over the fact that Christ is the light of the world. That Christ Himself, the uncreated, almighty, triune God has rescued you from the domain of darkness. Glory be to the living God.