Let There Be Light (Genesis 1:1-23) [2026-3-8]

And as you find your seat, let me invite you to open your

Bibles to the book of Genesis. We are starting a new series

this morning in the book of Genesis.

I, I usually try to alternate between the Old Testament, New

Testament and we did Numbers and then we went James and then now

we're back in the Old Testament in the book of Genesis.

Somebody asked me this morning, how long do you plan to be in

Genesis? And I said, my, my hope is 2

years or less, but I will be in it for as long as the Lord wants

us to be in it. But this morning we'll be in

Genesis chapter 1 verses 1 to 23.

Genesis 1:1–23

I won't read the text upfront because as I go through it, I'll

read it. So if you will open with me.

In a word of prayers, we ask God to please speak to us through

His Word. Father, we are thankful for your

word and opportunity to to gather as a church and as we

start this new journey in the book of Genesis.

God, I pray that you would give us everything that we need over

the next year, two years or 10 years, however it long it may

be. God, you see where we still need

sanctification. You see it perfectly where we

are blind and, and, and have blind spots and, and are unaware

of the, the, the areas of our life that need to be refined.

We know that you see perfectly. And so Lord, we pray that you

would please give us what is needed to have sanctification in

those areas. Would you use this book?

Would you use the text this morning, Lord, to sanctify us,

to make us more like Christ? God?

Would you give us a greater vision of you, Lord, as even as

we consider your creation, we consider the stars and the

heavens and mountains and trees and rivers and rocks?

Give us, please give us an awe of you, God, that that

transcends what we are capable of in and of ourselves.

I pray this now in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Over the past 15 years that I've

been here in Seattle, 2 of the topics that I have been asked to

teach on the most are Creation and Eschatology, Genesis and

Revelation, the first book of the Bible and the last book of

the Bible. I have actually wanted to preach

on Genesis for several years. It's it's a phenomenal book, but

I haven't, it's been, I haven't done it in 15 years.

I never have in my whole life for two reasons, 2/2 of many

reasons. Number one, it is quite long

based on word count. It's actually the second longest

book in the Bible based on word count behind Jeremiah.

And #2 there has been more written on the topic of

evolution than I ever care to read about.

But being that we are a new church, if you're busy with us

this morning, we're called Grace and Truth Baptist Church.

We formerly were called Chinese Southern Baptist Church.

We just started this new church January 1st.

Being that we are a new church, this is our genesis.

I thought it would be befitting to finally teach on this book.

I, I, I won't be going through all of it.

There are sections here, there's genealogies and, and, and, you

know, other sections that I probably won't spend a whole lot

of time on, but we'll hopefully attempt to be led by the Spirit

as far as far as what God wants us to focus on.

Let me say upfront, especially in the first few chapters of

this book, I may leave you wanting.

I may leave you wanting. I have no desire to get into the

dozens and dozens and dozens of theories of how to interpret the

first few chapters. I think that's better left to

seminary class. But I will do my very best to

give you some of the main proponents.

I'll give you what I hope that the Spirit has led me, that this

is what you, the church body, need to hear.

And if you would like to dive deeper, let me encourage you to

take a seminary course. There are online courses you can

take. You don't have to be a seminary

student. Anybody can sign up for them.

You can take a biblical class on the book of Genesis if you would

like to dive more into that. One thing I want to remind us of

is that we must remember that the Bible is not primarily

concerned with how things began with Adam, but how things were

finished with the second atom. We often get so hung up on how

things began, but that's not what this book is about.

This book is about how things were finished with the second

atom. I want to remind us of that as

we go through this, but I want to give you your time's worth

here. So well, let's dive in.

We got a lot to get to Genesis 11.

I'm going to be doing expedition application together because it

just, it seemed to fit well that way.

So let's look at this section by section.

Genesis 11 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the

earth. We can just pause right there.

What a glorious verse. One of my favorite things to

watch is documentaries. I love watching to see how a new

company, how a company began. Do you know what?

Like how did Amazon begin? How did Coca-Cola begin?

Or maybe seen a documentary on a movie star or an athlete.

Like how did their career begin? How did they get their start in

acting? How did they get their start?

And music or you know, movies, whatever sports here we are

told, how did this world begin? Right?

We, we, we look at this world and we think, how did we get

here? Where did all this come from?

How did we get all of this beauty?

We see right here we're told where it all began.

And I want to begin the sermon by breaking down verse 1 into 4

parts, four parts. Let's let's start with the first

part in the beginning. In the beginning, the name of

this book, Genesis is actually a Greek term.

It's not a Hebrew term. It's a Greek term.

It's it which it's translated birth or genealogy.

It's a term that reflects beginnings.

It it, it's meant to tell us what is the beginning of

something. And I think one of the main

questions that people have surrounding this topic is this

when was the beginning? The Bible says in the beginning,

when was the beginning? You wish, you know, they would

say in the year, you know, like, but we don't get that.

So when was there are two main theories that are out there.

You've heard of them as old Earth and young earth.

I'm sure you've heard this before, young Earth.

Some people will attempt to trace the timeline in the Bible

through the genealogies though the there be people have

actually sat there and traced all the genealogies and they

come up with around maybe 6000 to 7000 years old, right.

This earth is around 6007 thousand years old.

Some will assume, some scholars will assume that genealogies are

missing, that we're missing generations in those

genealogies. They'll come up with around 10

to 15,000 years old. So young earth can be anywhere

from 6 to 7000 or 10 to 15,000. That's young earth.

The other theory is old Earth. Now old Earth is not derived

from the Bible. Anybody who has an old earth

view does not derive this from the Bible.

It's derived from science. Scientists place the earth at

around 4 1/2 billion years old, give or take.

Now which do I personally hold to?

I actually hold to a young earth.

I believe that the earth is only around 10 to 15,000 years old.

I understand I'm probably the minority and this science driven

culture, but I actually believe the earth is only around 10 to

15,000 years old. Some people will say how can you

possibly have that view with all the scientific data?

How could you, our pastor have this view with all the science

that is out there? My answer is usually twofold.

A Science has been wrong many times.

I don't have any. I mean, we used to think that

the Earth was the center of the universe.

Science has been wrong many times.

I don't have any problem believing that science is wrong.

BI also don't have any problem believing that perhaps maybe the

Earth is 4 1/2 billion years old.

Maybe God made it that way. Maybe when he made it, it was

old. Remember when Jesus turned the

water into wine, it was old wine.

Maybe he made it old. Now that's for me.

Which theory should you hold to? Right?

Like what should you hold to? I can't tell you that there are

well respected conservative evangelical scholars who hold to

old Earth, and I don't think it's radical.

So, you know, if you're here and you're like, what?

You know, Pastor Matt, can I be a member of this church and hold

to an old earth view? Yes.

I don't believe it's radical if you hold to an old earth.

Is there a way to reconcile old Earth with the Bible?

In other words, if you hold to it all, if you genuinely believe

the earth is 4 and a billion years old, can you reconcile

that with the Bible? Yes, Yes you can.

It is. You say how?

Here's one way. Here's one way.

Maybe not the only way, but one way.

It is possible to believe that God created all matter and all

energy in verses one to two. That in verses one to two God

made all matter and all energy and verses 1 to 2.

And then the six days of creation is simply the ordering

and structuring of things. So God could make all matter and

energy and then have just let it sit there for 4 1/2 billion

years. Remember a day in the Lord's

like 10,000 And then he decided to actually structure it to make

things that would allow for the earth to be billions of years

old and for the six days to be literal.

So you could reconcile it that way.

Now, I don't reconcile it that way, but you could reconcile it

that way. Now, before I close this

discussion on the age of the Earth, there are two truths that

we need to keep in mind. Make sure you hear these two

truths. A The age of this Earth is a low

second tier issue. Let's talk about first tier

issues, second tier issues, and 3rd tier issues.

And even on those tiers, there's a spectrum of each tier.

The age of this Earth is a second tier issue and it's a low

second tier issue. This is not something we should

divide over. This is not something that we

should break fellowship over. And B second truth, I want to

encourage you all, don't get so hung up on the age of the earth

that you miss the awe of God's creation of it.

Second part, first was in the beginning.

Second part, I want to break up God.

Just that word, God. In the beginning God.

Often the most emphasized word in verse one is beginning.

We want to know when the beginning was, but let's be

clear that the most important word in verse one is God.

This word is important for two reasons.

A. It assumes God's a sayity.

There's a sayity. Now I understand you may not

know what that phrase means. A sayity is the doctrine that

teaches many things, but one of which is this.

God has self existence. God is uncaused.

God's a sayity means that he has always existed.

He is the only thing that is the only one who has has always

existed. He is uncaused in the beginning.

God. Now just stop and ponder that

for a moment. There was a time when there was

nothing except God. There was a time that all that

existed was the Trinity, and that's it.

God has always been there. He has always existed.

That's the first reason that this matters.

Second reason, it testifies that God did all of this.

The universe didn't create itself.

The universe is not eternal. Scientists, when they often, you

know, many scientists may be atheist or maybe agnostic.

And then when they try to figure out where, where, where did

stuff come from, right? Things don't come from nothing.

So where did it, where did matter come from?

Where did energy come from? Where did it start?

The only conclusion you can get is you make the universe

eternal. The universe has always existed.

That's not true. The universe has not always

existed. God has always existed.

Energy has not always existed. God did all of this.

Regardless of whether you believe in an old earth or a

young earth, you must believe in an infinitely old God and we

must believe that God did all of this.

Those things are second. But what what is not a second

tier issue is, is that you believe that God created this

and that he has always existed. 3rd part I want to break down.

In the beginning God created. I want, I want to focus on that

word created in the beginning God created.

The Big Bang theory will not work with the Bible.

The Big Bang theory will not work with the Bible.

The Bible clearly tells us that God was active in this creation.

It's not as though God made trillions of atoms and then over

billions of years we just arrived at this universe that

God made all the atoms that exist and then we just somehow

got here. I remember one of my professors

in college saying that would be as crazy as taking one of

Shakespeare's plays, cutting up every single letter in the play,

putting it in a giant container, throwing it up in the air, and

then when it fell back down, thinking it would form back into

the original play. You could throw it up in the air

for four and a half billion years and you would never arrive

back at that original play. We all know this to be true.

And let's be clear, the universe is far more complex than a

Shakespearean play. The human body alone is far more

complex than a Shakespearean play.

We didn't arrive here over 4 1/2 billion years by just chance.

God did this. God created this.

Now if God did the creating, what did he create with, right?

If I create a ceramic bowl, if you, if if you see a ceramic

bowl in my house and somebody says, where'd you get that bowl?

And I said, I made it right. You don't assume I just said

exist. You assume I use some clay,

don't you? You assume I use some kind of

material to make this bowl. What did God create with?

This is where we get the doctrine called ex nahilo.

Ex nahilo, it's a Latin term, means out of nothing.

God created out of nothing. He did not need clay to make

this world. He did not need energy to make

this world. He created out of nothing.

Brothers and sisters, let that doctrine of ex nihilo be a great

comfort to you. Let it be a great comfort when a

trial seems impossible, when the womb has been called barren,

when the cancer diagnosis is terminal, when the marriage has

felt hopeless, when the addict has been labeled unredeemable,

when the dream is considered unreachable.

Do not lose sight of this reality.

God made this out of nothing. He can take your nothing and

make something out of it. That's what He does. 4th part in

the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The heavens and the earth. The Bible is clear that God made

everything. The only thing that wasn't made

is the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy

Spirit. The three of them have existed

for all of eternity, but everything else has been

created. Heavens and earth are hand

deities to refer to this whole universe as we know it, John

writes. All things were made through Him

and without Him was not anything made that was made.

John 14. Now before we move on to verse

2, this this verse one does raise two last questions that I

want to raise now. One scientific and one

philosophical, one scientific, one philosophical, scientific

question. There's a question that

everybody wants to ask. Did God use evolution in his

creating process? When God made this world, did he

use evolution in his creating process?

There was an article published a few weeks ago.

Some of you may have seen, I'm not sure, there was an article

published a few weeks ago entitled This Creationism is Not

as Common as You Think. That was the name of the

article. Creationism is not as common as

you think. Pew Religious Landscape survey

asked this question. Here's the question.

Which statement about the development of human life on

earth comes closest to your view?

And they give you 3 statements. Number one, humans have evolved

over time due to processes such as natural selection.

God or a higher power has no role in this process.

That's the kind of a pure evolution view.

Statement 2 Humans have evolved over time due to processes that

were guided or allowed by God or a higher power.

This is kind of a intelligent design view, sort of.

And then three humans have existed in their present form

since the beginning of time. This is called the creationist

view. Of the 37,000 respondents that

took this 37,000, 33% took view. 133% had a pure evolution view.

Many of these were evangelicals. 48% took view 2, the intelligent

design. Only 17% took view 3, the

creationist view. I am not going to wade in the

Muddy Waters of evolution, but here's what I'm going to say.

Church family, I want to warn you, although there are some

parts of evolution that are true, we see, you know, birds

adapting to their environment and so forth and so on.

Although there are some parts that are true, most of it is

godless. Most of evolution is godless.

It's void of God. Be careful.

That's the scientific question. Here's the philosophical

question. Why did God create the heavens

and the earth? Never stop and wonder that.

Yeah, I mean, the philosophical question is why is there

something rather than nothing? Why does something exist rather

than nothing? Let's be first clear why God

didn't create the universe? It wasn't because he was needy.

It wasn't because he was lonely. It wasn't because he was bored.

He wasn't up there in the heavens.

And he said, you know what? It's been trillions and

trillions of years. Why don't we make something?

He wasn't needy. He wasn't lonely.

He wasn't bored. Paul says he is not served by

human hands as though he needed anything.

So why did he? Why did God make this universe?

We're only given one answer in Scripture, Isaiah 43.

Six to seven. Bring my sons from afar, and my

daughters from the ends of the earth.

Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my

glory, Everything on this planet, everything in the

heavens, down to the most distant star that exists from

the black Ant, all the way to the peak of Mount Everest.

All of it was created to bring glory to God.

All of it. Verse 2 told you we got a lot to

get to. I'll move faster, don't worry.

Verse 2 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. Now what does this first

statement mean? The earth was without form and

void. What does that mean?

There's no consensus on to what exactly these two terms mean,

but based on my research, I think the best answer is this.

This is my best answer I could get from reading way more about

this than I ever wanted to. God initially made a planet.

He initially made a planet, but not the planet as we know it.

So what it says the earth was without form and void.

He made the earth, but it's not the planet that we as we know

it. It basically was a desert

wasteland. It was an uninhabitable desert

wasteland. As much as Elon Musk thinks that

we're going to live on Mars, I'm sorry, Mars, along with all

other planets are uninhabitable. So, and I think they always will

be. So there is a planet that exists

without form and void it. Is it like our Earth exists?

Like the other planets exist? They're uninhabitable.

Darkness was over the face of the deep.

What's interesting here is that darkness is given an identity.

Did you notice that? I mean, up at this point we

don't even know what is. You know, imagine if you had no

concept of what darkness was and somebody said darkness, you're

like, well, what is that? Darkness is given an identity

here. Here's another philosophical

question. Did God create darkness?

It's interesting question, isn't it?

Scholars and philosophers debate over this, but the Lord says in

Isaiah 45, seven I form light and I create darkness.

Since God is light, we have to assume that in some sense God

does in fact create darkness. Why?

Darkness would not exist if God didn't create it.

If if God is light, there's only light.

So for darkness to exist in some philosophical sense, God has to

create it. The Spirit of God was hovering

over the face of the waters. What is that?

The Spirit of God here? Does this refer to the Holy

Spirit? If you have the NRSV

translation, it says the wind from God was hovering over the

Why does it say wind from God? The reason is because the Hebrew

word for spirit here ruah. It can be translated capital

spirit or lowercase spirit, or wind or breath.

They all use the same Hebrew word.

But I think we should understand this as capital spirit, meaning.

I think this is, yes, I think this is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the

waters. Now I want you to notice this.

Darkness was over the face of the waters.

There was darkness over the face of the waters, but what else?

So was the Spirit of God. Did you catch that?

Darkness was over the face of the waters, but so was the

Spirit of God. Even in complete darkness the

Spirit of God was there. Remember what the psalmist said?

Psalm 1391112 If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, and

the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to

you. The night is bright as the day

for darkness is as light with you, brothers and sisters, even

in your darkest hour, the Spirit of God is with you.

That's verse one and two. Now we get to day one, day one,

verses 3 to 5. This is day one, verses 3 to 5.

And God said, let there be light, and there was light.

And God saw the light was good. God separated the light from the

darkness. God called the light day, and

the darkness he called night. And there was evening.

There was morning. The first day.

God said, let there be light. These are the first recorded

words of God. Now surely the among the Trinity

they had spoken to each other, but for our vantage point, these

are the first recorded words of our God.

Let there be light. It's a adjust of command, which

is a way of saying when you translate adjust of command, you

say let there. It's almost like a it's a

command, but it's like an Invitational command.

God says let there be light. Isn't it interesting that the

first command that God gives is that there should be light?

Everything about that John tells us that God is light.

It's as if God is telling us something about himself with

what he commands. First He wants us to know, like

this is who I am, let there be light.

And I want you to notice what happened when God said let there

be light. What happened there was light.

If I were stuck in the darkness and I needed light, I could say

all night long let there be light and there would never be

light. But when God says let there be

light, there is light. I like what Charles Hodges

writes. If the special work of

regeneration and the narrow sense of the word be the effect

of Almighty power, then it cannot be resisted any more than

an act of creation. The effect follows immediately

on the will of God, as when He said, let there be light, and

light was. In other words, we see the

effectual calling of God here. When God says let there be

light, light Harkins to his bed, it does not refuse him.

And the same is true for you and me.

Prior to salvation, we were blind.

All of us were blind. We were in complete darkness.

And as Paul writes in Second Corinthians 4/6, for God, who

said let light shine out of darkness, has shown into our

hearts to give light the knowledge of the glory of God in

the face of Jesus Christ. When we were saved, God spoke to

our souls and he said let there be light.

That's what salvation is. He speaks to the darkness of

your soul and he says, let there be light and there is light.

And you see for the first time God looked at the light and what

did he say? He said it's good, God solved

the light was good. This is the first of seven times

in this chapter that God will declare what He creates to be

good. Let there be a reminder.

People often you look at this world, they say what a crummy

world it is not a crummy world. It is a good world.

We made it crummy. Notice God determines what is

good. If God calls it good, it is

good. And he said the light was good.

Did you notice He didn't call the darkness good?

He didn't say the darkness was good.

He said the light was good. You see, the world loves

darkness. We love the light.

We are people of the light. God separated the light from the

darkness five times. In this chapter we see God

naming his creation. He calls the light day.

He calls the darkness night. He calls the expanse heaven.

He calls the dry land earth. He calls the water seas.

In chapter 1, we see God naming His creation, but after chapter

1, God will entrust naming to man.

Two lingering questions that people will ask about this.

Number one, how can God create light when he hasn't made the

sun or the other stars yet? How can he create light?

God doesn't need the sun or the stars to have light.

He is light. He is the source of all light.

God is not dependent on the sun. The sun is dependent on God.

And #2 second question, is it possible that day here is

metaphorical and not literal when it says day one and then

all these days, it's possible that those are metaphorical days

and not literal days. This is how some people will

attempt to reconcile old Earth with Genesis 1.

Some people will say that each day was like a billion years or

so, you know, and so that that they day was meant like an age

and therefore that's how they reconcile old Earth here.

To be sure, day can take a metaphorical interpretation.

Let's be clear about that. When people say in that day,

well, that day in that sentence can mean like a long time.

You say in that day, that could be like 100 years or 1000 years.

But given that the narrator, I don't think that it will work

to, to, to make this metaphor. I, I, I just personally don't.

And here's why. Because the narrator says there

was evening and there was morning.

There was evening and morning the first day.

I think we are to understand day here as we know it as one day.

That's just my interpretation. It's OK if you take a different

one. I think we should take these as

literal 6 days, Day 2 versus 6 day.

And God said, let there be expanse in the midst of the

waters. Let it separate the waters from

the waters. And God made the expanse and

separate the waters that were under the expanse from the

waters that were above the expanse.

And it was so God called the expanse heaven.

And there was evening and there was morning the second day.

Now, before day 2, it appears that there was no separation

between the waters on the face of the earth and the sky above,

right? There was no separation between

the waters on the face of the earth and the waters in the sky

above. So God created an expanse, or

you could translate this canopy. He created a, a canopy, if you

will, and there would be waters below this canopy and there'd be

waters above this canopy. All right, God called this

expanse, this canopy heaven. We call it the sky, right?

We look up the sky. That's the expanse.

So we have waters on the surface of the Earth through like, you

know, seas and oceans and rivers and lakes, streams.

And we have waters above the surface of the Earth, in the

atmosphere, through clouds. God makes oceans and seas below,

and he makes cirrus and stratus and cumulus clouds above.

What we see from day 2 is that God is a God of order.

He's a God of order. Yes, sometimes we have tidal

waves, sometimes we have monsoons, but for the most part

the oceans are not rising into the sky, and for the most part

the clouds rain with a sustainable amount of water.

There is an order to this. God has ordered things.

Well, one of the things I love, if you've ever seen the movie

Interstellar, I was one of my favorite movies.

I love it because they go to these other planets and like

they go to the first planet they go to.

It's just covered in water. And you look at that, you're

like, why is that not our planet?

What like why? Why is our planet not like that?

Why? Why do we have such order in our

planet? Because God has designed it that

way. God is sustaining it that way.

Look at day three, verses 9 to 13.

And God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered

together in one place, and let the dry land appear.

And it was so 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, and which is 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 and

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. Now, before day three, it

appears that there was no separation between water and

land. So on day two, he separates the

water from below and the water above.

But then on the water on the surface of the earth, there was

no separation of water and land on the earth.

That's at least how I read it. Perhaps waters covered all the

land on the earth, But God says let the waters be gathered

together in one place. That's pretty cool.

If you, if you ever like put water on, you're like

countertop. You can't just take your hand

and like just gather, you know, like in like you stay right

here, right? It just, it just spreads.

But God has the ability to just say you're going to go here,

you're going to go here and you're going to go here.

And so God forms the Pacific Ocean, He forms the Atlantic and

the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean, the Arctic Ocean.

He forms the Nile River, he forms the Amazon River, he forms

the Mississippi River, he forms the the Philippine Sea and the

Coral Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

Again we see God is a God of order and his creation.

Yes, from time to time we do get floods, but for the most part,

the oceans and the rivers and the seas, they stay in their

place. Why?

Why do they stay in their place? I love how God describes this in

the book of Job. God says to Job, who shut in the

sea with doors when it burst out from the womb.

When I make clouds it's garment, and thick darkness it's

swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it, and set bars and

doors, and said thus far you shall come, and no farther, and

here shall your proud waves be stayed.

You see one of the things that climatologist don't understand

is that God is controlling this, not man.

God is in control not man. God called the dry land earth

and he called the waters that were gathered together seas and

for the second time God called it good.

Now, even though it was good, God always wants to make things

better. God is an artist.

He's at. I would argue he's the most

creative being in the universe. He loves and enjoys beauty.

And so when he looked at the land, he said this needs some

decoration. He decided to decorate the land,

he said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed

and fruit trees bearing fruit. Notice according to its own

kind. Did you see that?

Now we don't have time to get into that, but I'm actually

going to argue that when he says according to its own kind, that

actually argues against evolution.

Each according to its own kind. Scientists estimate that there

are roughly 400,000 different types of plant species on Earth.

400,000 different types of plant species.

God made redwoods and oaks and pine trees.

He made roses and cherry blossoms and orchids.

He made orange trees and lemon trees and apple trees.

He made tea leaves and coffee beans.

He decorated this world with all kinds of vegetation.

You know what's interesting is that God made food before he

made anything to consume the food.

Not only did God give us food, He gave us an abundance of it.

He gave us an abundance of variety.

God could have just given us mana.

That's all. We, you know, we eat mana the

rest of our lives. We have nothing but mana.

Aren't you thankful that God made all kinds of vegetation?

It's as if God wanted us to see in His creation His goodness.

Every time we drink coffee, we taste the goodness of God.

Every time we eat a mango, we taste the goodness of God.

God saw all that he made, and he said it is good day 4 verses 14

to 19. 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 the 2 great lights,

the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to

rule the night. And the stars, 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 4th day.

So it appears that God takes the general concept of light.

So you know, the idea of like God made light, He's already

made light, but now God takes the general concept of light and

it gives it a particular form, a particular form.

And a particular form comes in two great lights.

The greater light, what we know is the sun to rule the day.

The lesser light, what we know as the moon and the other stars,

which we yes, we all know the moon doesn't shine, It just

reflects the moon and the stars to rule the night.

Their purpose is twofold. A to separate the day from the

night and B to keep time. Look what God said.

Let them be for signs and for seasons, for days and for years.

Now this raises 2 interesting philosophical and theological

questions A why did God want day and night and B did God create

time here? And if so, why did he create

time? Let's take this one at a time.

Hey, why did God want day and night?

Everything about that? Like, like what I know, I mean,

I'm not a big fan of the night. I know our, our culture.

Y'all love the night. Y'all stay up late.

Y'all, you hate the day. Like the sun comes up.

You're like, oh man, more sleep. God, God could have given us two

sons. We have one son that we rotate

around, but God could have given us two sons, one on each side

and, and, and, and, you know, it would just always be, it would

always be day. Why did you give us night?

It? Why did it?

I mean, even if it was day, it would still be cloudy in

Seattle. But why did he want us to have

night? It seems to me that God wanted

us to have rest built into our existence.

God could have made us so that we never need sleep.

I know some of you, like y'all love sleep.

Many of you love sleep. I, I I hate sleep.

I, I if I could choose to not sleep, I would choose not to

sleep. I I I'd rather not sleep.

I do it out of necessity. Why did God want us to have

sleep? I think to feel our weakness.

I think to feel our limitations. And so my guess is that God made

night for this purpose because he knew he was going to build

sleep in and he knew he would build night in for this purpose.

That's my guess. B.

Did God create time here? And if so, why did God create

time? God said that one of the

purposes of the sun and the moon is to be for signs and for

seasons and for days and for years.

So did he, yes. I think we can argue that God

created time here. Time is just is it's just a

concept, right? I think God did create time

here. But why?

Why did God create time? I mean, I don't, I don't know if

we'll have time in heaven, right?

There's no sun in the heaven. There's no earth rotation.

So I mean, I'm sure we'll have a progression, right?

We'll have a earlier and a later, but will we have a

concept of time in heaven? I don't know why did God give us

time. I think there are many reasons

to this, but I'll give you 1, the Psalmist writes.

Teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of

wisdom. I think time is a framework that

God uses that we would know our finiteness when we embrace this

reality that I am finite, I am not eternal, I will not live

forever. It is then that we get a heart

of wisdom once again. God saw the sun, He saw the

moon, He saw the stars, and he considered time and he said all

of it is good. Day five, last day.

We're going to look at this morning.

Look at verses 20 to 23 and God said, let the water swarm with

swarms of living creatures, 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 water swarm according to their kinds, and every winged

bird according to its kind. God saw that it was good and God

bless them saying be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters

and the seas and let birds multiply on the earth.

And there was evening and there was morning the 5th day.

On the 5th day God made creatures of the Seas and

creatures of the air. To date, we have discovered

around 242,000 different marine species. 242,000 Many scientists

think that this may only be 10% of what's actually out there.

Because the oceans are massive. That is only.

So. Not only did God want incredible

variety with vegetation, he wanted the same variety in the

oceans. There are some weird creatures

in the oceans. My my wife loves going to

aquariums and seeing all these different species.

She like really nerds out on it. I don't know if you guys know

that Lauren is a huge science nerd.

She she loves it And I'm like, that's weird.

That's a weird looking creature. I'm sorry, I don't know how you

like, but here's what I will say.

If you ever watch blue planet where they go into the ocean,

all you have to do is is watch that for like an hour and

you'll. There is limitless creativity in

our God. The the the oceans, the colors

and the variety. It testifies to God's

creativity. God made everything from the

blue whale to the coral reef. In addition, God created the the

birds to fill the sky. Isn't it interesting that God

wanted animals all over? He wants animals in the waters.

He wants animals on the land. He wants animals in the sky.

There are about 11,000 different types of birds, which includes

the woodpecker in my neighborhood.

That's driving me nuts. Now what's interesting is that

God gave them a blessing. He gave them a blessing in the

form of a command. God bless them saying be

fruitful and multiply. I want to draw your attention to

that phrase. God bless them.

Animals and humans do not reproduce because of science or

Mother Nature. We reproduce because God has

blessed us to reproduce. That's why we're able to

reproduce. God has blessed us to be able to

do this. God commands all marine life,

fill the waters and the seas. He commands the birds to

multiply on earth. There is a woodpecker in my

neighborhood that has perched itself on top of my neighbor's

metal vent that's on top of their house.

All morning long he hits this metal vent driving me nuts.

My wife and I were going for a walk the other day.

I thought he was looking for food in the wrong place.

I was like, brother, you're looking for food in the wrong

place, you're not getting through that.

So I researched it. Turns out he wasn't isn't

looking for food, he's looking for a mate.

It's a mating call. He's being obedient to the

command God gave him. After God saw all the creatures

in the skies and all the creatures in the seas, God once

again said it was good. So as we close, we have a

planet. We got a planet.

We have oceans and rivers and seas.

We have clouds, we have land, we have all kinds of vegetation, we

have a sun and a moon and stars. We have all kinds of marine

life. We have all kinds of birds in

the sky. But God is not finished yet.

He waits until the 6th and final day of creation to reveal His

image. God has not yet revealed His

image on the 6th and final day He will, which we'll get to next

week. Let's bring.