Okay, turn with me now to the book of Genesis. We're going to look at chapter 1, verses 9 through 13. Let me just go ahead and read these verses. 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-bearing 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, an 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 was the third day. Now in these five verses here in Genesis chapter 1, God gives us the account of everything that He did on the third day of creation. You remember the earth was without form and void. Now it says in verse 1 that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. You see that up there in verse 1? But down here where He talks about this gathering together of the waters and the dry land appearing down here in these verses. He is not creating down here. These things were already created up in verse 1. The heaven and the earth was created. What took place between that time and this is without question to me Whatever it was that Satan did when he was cast out into the earth. I have no idea what the earth looked like. I don't have any idea what Satan did to it when he came here. But whatever it was, it left darkness, darkness on the earth. And emptiness was all about. And there was waters. It says here, waters. And it covered all visible land. There was no land. There was nothing. When God spoke the light into being, that was His first act of creation. He commanded the light to shine out of darkness, and it did. And when that light shined, nothing could be seen. A man yet not walked on the earth, but by this light, if you were able and you were there and you could look, you'd see nothing but water. There was this vast, vast ocean of water. And I believe that this water represents the person and character of God in whom are all things. I believe that because the only place the Spirit of God moved was on the waters. Where you find the Spirit of God, you found God. You found God. John the Baptist, when he looked for the Lord, the Lord told him to look, and upon whom he saw the dove ascending, the Spirit of God ascending and descending in the form of a dove, he said, that's going to be my son. That's going to be my son. You find the Spirit of God and you've found God. The Spirit is God. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of these waters. He moved on the waters. And God commanded a light to shine out of the darkness. And then God spoke and decreed an environment. He spoke, John, and put something between the darkness and the waters. Between the emptiness and the waters. Between the light that He created and the waters. He set an environment, and we talked about that in one of our lessons. And this environment represents to me the sovereign grace of God that enables the benefits of the light and the benefits of the water to be given unto men. It enables those things to come to you. If we had no environment, we'd have no color, we'd have no heat, we couldn't stand the light, the light would blind you or burn you to a cinder. That environment softens that light. It makes those gifts of God enjoyable to us. We are able to rejoice in them. I see that environment as a picture of God's sovereign grace. And then something amazing takes place on the third day. I sat and looked at this for the longest time because he commanded Adam to name all things, didn't he? He just brought the animals to him and he said, you name them. Whatever you call them, that's what they're going to be called. Zebras or whatever, giraffes, whatever Adam called them, that's what they're going to be. That's what they are. But a few things God reserved for Himself to put titles on. He said, and God called the light day and the darkness night. God named them. God specified what these things were. And God specified what this dry land and what these waters were to be called. He called the dry land, earth. Earth. And He called those waters that He gathered into one place, He called them seas. Seas. Everything that God did on this third day, And God gave commandment, and it says, these waters were gathered into one place. Now, that caught my eye. I sat and looked at that for the longest time, because that's something I'd never seen before. And I wrote Don a little letter when I seen it, just a little phrase of a thing. I sent it off to him, and he sent me another thing back, and he said, I'd like to hear some more details. I just kind of dropped him a hint of where I was going with this thing tonight. And I'm sure that he'd never looked at those things before, but he gathered those waters into one place. Well, in order to understand these things, you have to view these things in the light of Christ and in the light of the purpose of God in redemption, because that's what creation is about. Creation is not about something that God sets in motion and then men deal with in time and then He reacts to how men deal with it and so on and so on. That's how religion deals. That's how this world deals with things. Problems arise and they deal with the problems. And then catastrophes arise and you deal with the catastrophes. Not so with God. God determines all things from the beginning. And there are no surprises with Him. And these things that come about, they come about because God has determined for these things to come about. Even the evil intentions of men, God determines. He said over there in Acts that the kings of the earth and the people and the Gentiles and they all got together for to do what God's hand had before determined to be done. God's hand and God's counsel. So all these things are in the counsel of God. And then we know that all these Old Testament prophecies speak of Him. You know, confused and sitting there on the Emmaus Road, walking along, talking to Christ, but they didn't know who he was. He was a stranger to them. And he just walked along and asked them what was going on, and they began to tell him all that had taken place. And they said, and we supposed... Boy, that's where you get in trouble. Right there. When you go to supposing. Don't suppose anything. Read the book. And the Lord told them, they said, we supposed that he was going to be the Christ. We thought surely this man was the Christ. He'd done these miracles. He did all these things. We was dead sure certain he was the Christ. And he said, oh fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written. That's where you go. You don't suppose. You don't suppose. You pick up this book and you open up the covers and you go to the passages and you go to the verses and you go to those places that tell about it. Old fools. He said, you're a fool. Now I'm telling you. I'm a fool. You're a fool. If something begins to eat on us or hang in our craw and we go home and you just sit down by yourself and you just try to reason it out, you're a fool. Don't do that. Go home, open this book, and ask God to give you some understanding about whatever it is that's eating you up. Don't go to the next guy and ask him how he feels, because he's just as earthly as you are, and just as ignorant as you are. And he'll have an opinion. Somebody said opinions are like noses. Everybody has one, and so as many people as you go to, you're going to get that many opinions, and then you're really going to be confused. But if something is really eating at you, open up this book. That's what the Lord is telling him, old fool, slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have written of him. Of him. And that's where we really get in trouble right there. This book is a hymn book. It talks about Christ. And I don't care. We're studying creation, but I'm going to preach Christ to you out of creation. We're studying about dry land appearing up out of the great sea, but I'm going to preach Christ to you out of it. I'm not going to hesitate to do it. I'm not going to apologize for doing it. And our Lord took them, and He began, it said, in the books of Moses. That's where we're at tonight, in the first book of Moses, the book of Genesis. And He went through the Scriptures with them, through the books of Moses, and through the Psalms, and through all the prophets. And He told them those things concerning Himself. He took those things and showed them their relationship to Him. And it said, then, then opened He their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. And if you to understand creation, you're going to have to understand it in the light of the purpose of God in redemption and through His Son. So I don't even hesitate to tell you that whatever is going on here in these verses, in verse 9 through 13, it concerns Christ, where I see it or where I don't. And so I don't hesitate to point out some things to you here. But this is the third day. What's significant about the third day? What's significant about the number three? It's the day of resurrection, isn't it? The day of resurrection. Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale. And on that third day, John, that whale came over and cast him out on the beach. And there he stood, resurrected from the deep, standing right on the shore where God sent him to go. Christ was three days and three nights in that barrel chamber. And on the third day, he gets up and the stone rolls back and he walks out. Lazarus, three days in the tomb. God called him out. So this third day is a day of resurrection. So that's one of the first things I want you to see here is that this earth, whatever it was, was already created. It was created up in verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It was already created. But something happened. And whatever it was that happened, God consumed it. He consumed it within Himself. He just swallowed it up. Swallowed it up. There was nothing there. God turned on the light. There was nothing there. Nothing there. Just waters. Waters you could see. Think about it. Impassable. Impassable. You know, my wife and my daughters went down to Corpus Christi here a week or so ago and they sat down there and my grandson had never seen the ocean. And he walked up there and looked out and he said, you can't see across it. Well, he was just standing in a little bay. He wasn't even out on the gulf yet. But it amazed him that you couldn't see across it. Well, these waters of creation, you could have got in a ship and sailed for a month and still not seen across it. There was no end to it. This was a vast sea, just a vast sea, never ending. Couldn't plumb the depths of it. And it pictures the person of God, is what it does, who swallowed up whatever it was He created and whatever purpose He had in that creation. He swallowed it all up within these waters. Whatever Satan did to it, God swallowed it up. And then it says He gathered those waters, listen to how this is written, into one place. Where is the one place? where you could see God gathered into one place. Where is that place? The Lord Jesus Christ. It says, In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In Him. What's he picturing here? He's picturing that resurrection of his purpose, that resurrection of his Son that had been reduced to just a reflection on top of the water where the Spirit of God moved. Now there's going to be a resurrection of that person. And on this third day, he gathers those waters aside and he separates them. And all around, and he said, what happens next? What did he say happens next? It says, "...and the dry land appeared." He didn't create it. It was already created. But it appeared. It emerged. It emerged right out of the person of God. And this dry land, if you look at it, it's standing in the water and out of the water. You can't tell where the land is. When you go down there at the bottom of the ocean, is that the bottom of the mountain? Or the beginning of the sea? What is that down there? How do you describe that? How do you describe that? You see what I'm saying? You can't find the beginning of one and the end of the other. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who was both God and man. All in one. Emerging. Just coming right out. Coming right out. Manifesting Himself right out. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And in Him was all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Come right up out. All those waters gathered in one spot. Land appears. Never before. God resurrects it. Brings it up out of the depths. Picture of Christ. He resurrects that purpose of God in Christ. And He does so. He continues doing what He did from the beginning. He continues to do. He lays that foundation. This is a resurrection. All these things gathered to abide in one place in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He brings it from the Red Depths. That's another thing I want you to notice. Out of these vast waters, God raises this land. He gathers those waters aside. He takes those waters aside. And emerging right up out of the depths, you know, the earth I've heard of islands in the sea that float. They're made up of moss, and there are certain plants that grow and root in the water. You've seen maybe, you're gardeners, you've probably seen, know more about them than I do. But after a while, they gather together, and big chunks of them, the big hurricanes and things come through and blow them loose, and they float around for a while out there. The land he's talking about don't float. The land He's talking about that He pulled up out of these seas has its roots in the depth of the sea. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Standing on this earth right before men and yet saying that He abides in the Father. Isn't that what He told us? He said, no man has seen God at any time. Save the Son. Save He who is in the bosom, who is in the bosom of the Father. And he says it twice in the book of John. He declares that this same One who is standing before you, His presence is yet with God in the bosom of the Father. Standing here in the person of a man, and yet He is sitting in the bosom of the Father. That's God. And this dry land that came up out of that sea, it didn't disconnect with the sea. It just took on this dry land. It took on this terra firma, they call it, the solid place, the firm place. And He raises it up out of the sea. And it has its connections in the very depths of God. And there's no way that I know of to communicate Man and God in one person. I've read every writer there is to read about it, and they're not telling you anything different than what I said tonight. It's just a declaration of what it is. And we just stand back and look at it, and just stand in amazement of it and worship God, and know that it's so. Know that it's so. God speaks. How does this thing appear? God speaks. Nothing happens. This is what I want you to see too. In this whole thing of creation, no matter what it is that is going on, nothing happens until God speaks. Nothing happens. Now see, today what preachers do, their whole ministry is geared to getting a man to speak. They are trying to get Him to say something. They are trying to get Him to do something. They preach to provoke a reaction. They preach to provoke something out of Him. Get Him to say something. Get Him to do something. Get Him to feel something. Nothing is going to happen until God speaks. But boy, when He speaks, oh my, my things begin to happen. And these waters, here they are, swallowed up. I don't know if these, the waters, if you'd like to, you can go through the Scriptures and you can find just thousands and thousands and thousands of references in the Scriptures to these things that I'm telling you about tonight. I thought I had some, yeah, here they are. I've got some jotted down here if you want to, if you're taking notes, you can look over in Psalm chapter 42. Let me just go ahead and read some of these to you. This is David talking. And in Psalm 42, verse 7, he said, Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. He's talking to God and liking God unto a great sea. A great sea. Listen to this in Psalm 36, verse 6. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains. Thy judgments are a great deep. O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast. But my favorite is over here in Psalm 107. Look over there with me for just a minute. Psalm 107. And that's what we're doing tonight. This is what we're doing. We're going down to the waters. We're going down to the seas. Listen to this. Psalm 107, verse 23, ìThey that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.î Now thatís what weíre talking about tonight. Weíre looking at this great sea of waters. And God has created an environment between them and the nothingness, and them and the great void, and them and the chaos. And He has spoken light. He has commanded His light to shine out of the darkness and all can be seen. Everything is above board. And these waters, you will find in here the waters like the waters of Noah were judgmental waters. Sometimes He likens that water unto the flood of Noah. And you can read about that over in 2 Peter. where he talks about that. And Peter uses that phrase, that this land stood in the water and out of the water, didn't it? And that's what he's referring to. He's talking about this thing being raised and typifying the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you can view these waters as a picture of God's all-consuming person, then you can begin to enter into the glory of this resurrection that begins to unfold. He gathers all these waters into one place. He gathers His judgment. Something took place in judgment when Satan came to this earth. There was some reason why everything God created up here in verse 1 was swallowed up by these waters. There was some judgment that had taken place. There was holiness. We talk about holiness. He tells Job, he said, the stars and the moon are not clear in my sight. How much more filthy and abominable is man that drinks iniquity like water? He said the stars and the sky, when sin was cast out into the earth, it may have just been the presence of Satan here that caused those judgmental waters to swallow things up. Because he's going to preserve this thing, and when he manifests his glory, he's going to manifest it in its pureness. When He sends the Son, He's going to be the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His. He's not just going to give you a little shadow. These things are going to be pure, and His glory is going to be pure. And to me, that's what judgment is all about. That's what that day of judgment is going to be about. He's going to clear His name of everything. He's going to manifest His glory. It says in Philippians 2, where he says, Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus our Lord. At the end of that thing he says, He hath given him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee is going to bow, and things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, And every last one of them are going to confess Him to be Lord to the glory of God. And that's what that judgment is all about. It's a clearing of God's name by the person and work of His Son. Every sinner that He justifies and takes into glory, our Lord is going to give account for them. For their righteousness, for their justification, for everything that He did for them. Because it was all done in substitute, all done in representative. Now, if you can view those things, you can begin to enter in just a little bit about what this resurrection is all about. Now, as I told you before, he named these things. He called the dry land earth. And what that means, I just looked up the word. I'm not a linguist. I'm not a Greek scholar or a Hebrew and Chaldean scholar. I just looked the word up in my Strong's Concordance and I take it. That's why I got it. That's what it is, like a dictionary, only it deals with these ancient languages. And what it tells me is that this word earth means firm place. That's what it means. Firm place. It's not like the waters. Peter wanted to walk on the waters, didn't he? But he couldn't. He couldn't. He needed a firm place. He needed a firm place to walk. And that's what this earth was all about. Now, if I view God in this everlasting sea, in this impassable sea, and if I understand anything at all about the character of God, I know that man cannot exist in God as absolute God. You can't go there. You couldn't just go dive in that sea. He couldn't just make a man and let him float around in the sea. He couldn't exist in God as absolute God. He said, no man can look on me and live. No man can see my face and live. God has to provide him a place. And out of the depths of God Himself, He raised a body on this day, a body. And in that body, all life would sink its roots, get its nourishment, get its food. Everything that lives is going to live on this firm place in that body. Now that's just how important that body is. Paul told those philosophers there on Mars Hill, he said, in him we live and move and have our being. In him. And he said, and God through him has appointed a day in which he'll judge this world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. Here is the place. Do I want to even begin to imagine the redemptive purpose of God? Then let me see this land rising up out of those judgmental waters at His command. At His command. And why did He raise them up? For man to dwell on and to rule over. We'll get into that here in just a few more studies where He sent man there and He gave him rule over all the earth. Here they are. Here's the animals. Here's the trees. Here's the garden. Here's everything. Here's everything. Raised that thing up. Raised it up and made a place where man and God can abide together on this earth. And actually, if you want to know the truth about it, the word Adam means red earth. That's what it means. Red earth. So for the preservation of man, God raises from beneath that sea out of God Himself. Just view that sea as God. Out of God Himself. He gathers those waters of God, those judgments and justice and mercy and peace and everything that makes God, God. He gathered it into one place in the Lord Jesus Christ and raised Him out of that sea. And here is where man is going to be preserved. on this terra firma, on this firm place. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. On Him. All on Him. And then He calls all these waters that He gathered. He said the waters that He gathered into one place He called seas. Seas. I'm trying to think what that word did mean. To me, the first thing I thought about when I seen it is because this is where you see. This is where it's going to be seen. This is God. The only way you can see God is in Christ. In Christ. And He calls these waters. He calls them seas. Seas. And oh, I do remember what it is now. The word actually means roared. It means to roar. It means to roar. Well, what in the world has that got to do with anything? Well, if you think about it, something drastic has happened here. Judgment has fallen. God's wrath has been exercised. His holiness has been exercised. Justice has been maintained. Order has been maintained in His creation. Satan come in and did something. I don't know what he did, but whatever it was he did, God swallowed the whole mess up in order to preserve it in Himself. He absorbed it. He absorbed it into Himself. And if you want to, you could look at that as a type of all things that took place from the beginning of the world all the way up to the time when Christ died on the cross. What about all them sins? Where'd all them sins go? Huh? They went into that tabernacle and they offered up sacrifices and they left there rejoicing. Some of them did. Some of them, by faith, walked with God. Any did. Some of them preached righteousness. Noah did. God preserved some of them. What happened to their sins? Where did their sins go? God absorbed them. That's what He did. He absorbed them into this Person of Christ. And then when the day comes, He raised Him from the dead, and He declared His name, and He declared to all who see it, He declared and cleared His name in Christ Jesus. I'm hunting for Scripture. looking to see what I did. Well, I know where it is. I'm just going to turn over there and get rid of these notes. Turn with me over to Job, the book of Job, just right before the psalm, Job chapter 38. Now, I want you to get in your mind a vision. Here, up out of these waters of God, He raises this terra firma, the firm place. He raises the red earth up. That from which He is going to make all things that are living and which all living things will sink down roots and get their nourishment and get their life and their preservation from that earth. All these things. But yet all around here is a sea and this word sea means roar. Roar. And actually, the dictionary said this, it roars as waves that break against the rock. Now think about that. Have you ever been anywhere where the ocean is and rocks are? I mean, it's fairly loud down here when the waves get up, when they just come crashing in on the sand. But boy, when you go where rocks are, and that water comes in and just Pow! Into that rock and goes up. There's a roar. You can't hardly talk to one another for the roar of that sea. And that's what that word roar means, that word sea. Well, listen to this. He raises up this body, this firm place upon which He's going to build all things. Here's the foundation. This is the head cornerstone. This is what's taking place. This has to do with the resurrection. He's going to resurrect His purpose out of His own person. And He's going to resurrect that picture of Christ that He determined to have from the very beginning. He's going to pull it up out of His person, make it to be seen, populate it, manifest His glory on it. And yet all around it is a sea that roars and threatens All these fierce things. Paul said, he persuaded men knowing something about the terror of the Lord. The terror of the Lord roars in the sea, and it threatens judgment, and it threatens justice, and it threatens righteousness and holiness, and it constantly threatens it. Nobody is going to slide. I will by no means clear the guilty. The waves come in and roar. And they break against the rock. But now listen here, listen here what the Lord... Job got a little out of line. Job went a little too far. And God begins to straighten him up. And this is one of the first things He tells Job. I'm just going to read the whole thing to you. Up here in verse 1. It said, Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where was thou when I laid the foundation of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measure thereof, if thou knowest? Who has stretched out the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fashioned? Who has laid the cornerstone thereof? When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy, or who shut up the sea with doors that it break forth as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud a garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling cloth for it, and break up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." What's he talking about? He's talking about that land. When he set forth a decree and dry land appeared and came forth out of that sea, those proud waves came to where it was and no further. No further. And all those judgmental waters and all that holiness and righteousness and all those things that roar in the sea, they crash against the rock. But they don't affect the rock. They come to Him and come no further. Come no further. Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further. And then one more thing. When God raised this dry land and caused it to appear, He's talking here about a revelation. The only way you're going to see this revelation is to see who God is. You're going to see who God is. And you're going to see all of God demonstrated in this revelation, in this man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He don't just come up two feet above the water. This land doesn't just come up and float, but its foundations go deep into the sea. Its roots go deep into the sea. They're connected. They're vitally connected to one another. And this land, when He raises it up out of the water, He didn't just raise it a few feet, did He? But boy, you see them Himalayas over there? They reach up all the way into heaven itself. When He brought up Christ from the dead, it said He raised us up with Him and seated us in heavenly places. Ain't that what it says? Whatever it was that God raised out of those depths, that firm place, He raised it so high that it connected into glory itself. And what He deemed to preserve on that land in Christ, He raised it up and seated it at His own right hand with Him. And Paul said, by grace ye are saved. Saved how? In the purpose of God that raised Him up and put Him there. Now that's what I believe this third day of creation is all about. It's about a resurrection. A resurrection. And I believe that dry land. I believe that talking about Christ. And we'll go on to look at all these trees. You can read about the trees and the herbs. And you won't find one thing that he mentions in the rest of these verses down to verse number 13. He talks about grass. What does he say about man? All flesh is grass. But it's God's grass if it grows on His land, ain't it? Huh? Sure it is. And those are different kinds of pastures. He leadeth us beside the still waters out to the green pastures. And then you talk about those herbs. He told them, he said, the mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds. But he said, when it develops and comes into full growth, it's the greatest of all herbs. And the birds of the air, the fowl of the air come down to lodge in its branches. And the trees, how many verses could you quote about the trees? Either make the tree good, Or make it evil, one or the other. He said, Now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree that bringeth forth not good fruit is hewn down, cast into the fire. All these things. He talks about God. He talks about this redemptive glory. He talks about the objects of that glory. He talks about the means of that glory. And all through these things of creation here in Genesis chapter 1, you can't let your mind go too far. You're not going to overdo it. You're not going to overdo it. Don't be a bit afraid to look at those things and take them as far as your mind can take them. Because those things picture Christ and His redemptive glory. And you're not near about going to fathom all that glory. You just ain't going to do it.