Sunday Sermon: God Created the Heavens and the Earth (Genesis 1:3-31)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe.

The Creation Account in Genesis 1 and the Six-Day Structure

Genesis 1. Now last week we went all the way through the whole first chapter, covered chapter 1 into chapter 2 verse 3. We're going to try to cover that territory today but I'm not going to open with that reading since we did that last week.

I'll just read verses 1 through 5 today. So let's begin with our passage and then pray. Genesis 1 .1 through 5. And again I'm reading from the English Standard Version. Hear the word of the Lord. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.

And God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning the first day. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for what we've been reading here in the book of Genesis and I pray that You continue to guide us and teach us according to Your Word. A passage we've heard many times. Many even who have not attended Sunday school can know how God created all things, how the Bible tells us that God created everything around us.

Even making us in Your own image as we read about later on here in chapter 1. But I pray as we continue in this, as we explore once again this account of creation, that we see Your wonder. That we are amazed at what it is that You have done.

We not take these things for granted, but it even makes us better worshipers of God. We see that You not only created the substance of the things that are around us, but You are in that creation, You have ordained that creation, even time itself is in Your hand.

And there is nothing that is happening that is outside of Your control or what You had decreed from the very beginning, even as we considered last week. So as we come into the sixth day creation, we see the wonder and the majesty of God.

Even the Son of God who was with the Father in the very beginning, through whom all things were made. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray, Amen. When the first Apollo mission that made its way around, orbited the moon, it was Apollo 8 that was the first one to do that.

And when they came around that side of the moon and saw the earth rise for the very first time, this had never been beheld by human eyes before, earth rise. Like we've seen sunrise, we've seen sunset, you've even seen the moon rise.

But no one has ever seen earth rise before, until that Apollo mission. And when the orbiter came around that side and saw the earth rising over the horizon of the moon, the astronauts read and it was heard in Houston over the air, Genesis 1 .1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

What a view that must have been. Very few men in all of human history have ever had the chance to witness that. There are only 12 men who have ever even set foot on the moon. Elon Musk is trying to get back there.

So we don't know if that's going to happen yet or not. When I was doing my series in Ecclesiastes and Becky joined me in a few of those messages that I did on my podcast, I was talking about there as the philosopher says in Ecclesiastes, vanity, all is vanity.

All is meaningless. Unless we see things and understand things through the eyes of God, unless we do all things to the glory of God, there's no meaning or purpose in anything. Solomon recognized that.

And as Becky and I were going through that together in Ecclesiastes chapter one, I had asked her, do you know why we've never been back to the moon since what was it, 1971 or 72 was the last mission. You know why we haven't been back since then?

And she said, why is that? I said, because there's nothing there. There's no point. It was cool to see, but it costs so much money and we don't gain anything from going out there that we've not made another trip back to the moon.

Everything that God has given to us is right here on planet earth. And when we see here, even the creation mandate, the dominion mandate that's given later on in Genesis one, it says to be fruitful and multiply and fill the what the earth, not the moon.

There's no way for us to even be fruitful and multiply and fill the moon. It isn't going to be possible. We're never going to do it. We're never going to colonize the moon, but nonetheless, that was quite the experience and to be able to see the earth from a new vantage point that mankind had never seen before, but we can always see all of creation the way that God made it.

Every time we come back to Genesis and this, that we read in Genesis one is even more amazing than being able to orbit the moon and see the earth rise. Last week we looked at primarily verses one and two.

This week we're going to go through the six day creation, all six days versus one and two. I said provides for us an outline of our study here in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. You know, I was just thinking this week how little is actually said about God in Genesis one.

This is all, this is giving us the creation order, how the things in which we live in, how we and everything that we live in was made. That's what we're being told here in Genesis one really doesn't tell us a lot about God except the understanding that we've been made in his image and that can surely testify to something about God, but it's later testimonies that we have in scripture, especially when we get to Exodus and God proclaims himself before Moses, even calling himself I am.

Then we get into an even bigger picture, an even bigger understanding of who God is. We don't see that so much in the very beginning of all things. God is showing us where we came from and the reason why he made things for his glory.

So in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and here's our outline in verse two. Verse two, the earth was without form and void. And so what do we have in the first three days of creation?

We have the creation of the forms and then in the second three days of creation, days four, five and six, God fills those forms. He fills the void. So the earth was without form and void. Darkness was over the face of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And the other thing that we considered last week was how creation itself is a Trinitarian work and how your salvation is Trinitarian. At your baptism, God was there, father, son, and Holy Spirit, just as all three persons were seen at Christ's baptism.

So he is there in your baptism as well. And God is with us even now, as Jesus said at the end of Matthew 28, lo, I am with you always to the very end of the age. The very one who created all things and spoke them into existence is the creator who is with us now.

And as Paul says in second Corinthians, that he who said, let there be light is the one who shined the light of the gospel into our hearts. So by the power of the word, God brought all things into existence.

By the power of his word, he brought us to salvation to himself through the speaking of his gospel. So that was what we considered last week, Genesis one, one, and two. Let's pick up in verse three, as we go through the six day creation, we'll even consider day seven with regards to the day that God rested.

So in verse three, God said, let there be light. This is the very first thing that is created on the very first day. God speaks and you know, you just have to wonder what this was like. I hope we get to see it, you know, when we get to heaven, because we'll be looking at things from a different vantage point from heaven than what we can see now.

So since time is not the construct in which we will be existing, when we get to glory, then maybe I get to look back through time and see the way that God created all things. So apparently the earth is there and there's water that's covering the earth, but you wouldn't be able to see anything because it's dark.

There's no light. And yet God says, let there be light. And there it is. There it all is. Oh, I can see, look at all of this now. And God saw that the light was good. I don't know how much study you've ever done into light and the way that it travels and the particles of light and things like that.

I was telling my kids once recently that how many seconds it takes from the, for the light to get from the sun to the earth. And I said, the sun could have exploded several seconds ago and we wouldn't know about it until a few seconds later.

They were baffled by that. Really? Really? Yeah. Anyway. So light particles itself, it's not instantaneous. Even as I'm looking at you and you're looking at me, there's an amount of time between the distance that, that light gets to me and reflects back to you and hits your eyes and, and registers to your brain that you're looking at something or that you're hearing me speak.

All of this stuff takes time for all of that to travel. How marvelous and majestic God is that he's not bound by those things and he sees all things from the beginning to the end. But here we have the creation of light.

Those particles that scatter out kind of wondered, did they originate from a particular point or did God just say there it is and all light was kind of where it was supposed to be. God saw that the light was good and he separated the light from the darkness and God called the light day and the darkness he called night and there was evening and there was morning the first day.

Notice here, we don't even have the sun, moon and stars yet, but we still have light and we even have the absence of light, which is darkness. There's a plate where the place where the light doesn't go and God has separated those two things, the light from the darkness calling the light day and the darkness he called night.

So God is the one that defines the day, sun, moon and stars don't define the day. This is one of those arguments that the old earth creationists have tried to use to say that God created all, this is all just very poetic and God created all things over millions and millions of years.

There's no way for this to make sense if it was literal because how do you have a day without sun, moon and stars? Well, the easy answer to that question is God's the one who defined it. You don't need sun, moon and stars for there to be a day.

God has said this is a day. And then as we read later on with the creation of the sun, moon and stars, God made those for our benefit that we can mark the days and the times and the seasons. But God already knows the length of the day he created it and he's the one that designated that's a day.

Even has a difference between light and dark. Calls the light day and the darkness he calls night. You know, later on when we get to revelation 22 five, this is the very end of the Bible and really revelation 22 five is the end of everything that John gets to see.

The rest of the stuff from a verse six to the end of the chapter is Jesus telling John, now that you've seen this, now this, okay, but, but John doesn't see anything else after verse five in revelation 22.

You know what the last thing is that John sees? The very last thing that he talks about in his revelation that is shown to him about the glory that we will exist in forever with God. The last thing he sees is light with no sun and he says there's no need there for any more sun because Jesus is the light and there will be no night there.

That's the last thing John sees. The last revelation recorded at the end of the Bible. What's the first revelation recorded in the Bible? Let there be light. We begin and end the Bible the same way where God has created the light.

He has defined the light and there's no sun or moon or stars. We'll dwell in that light forever with God when we get to his glorious kingdom. God says, this is the first day. Here's the first form that he has created a day with light and darkness, though there's not yet sun, moon, and stars.

We get to that on day four, but notice the way that we end the first day. There was evening and there was morning. Again, without sun, moon, and stars, there's no sunrise to designate the morning. There's no moon to designate the evening, but God says this is evening and there's morning the first day.

As we go on and we continue to count the days, you have first day, second day, third day. It always says there's evening and there's morning. Why? Why not there was morning and there was evening? Anybody know the answer to that?

Why is it the other way around? Why does God say there was evening and there was morning the whatever day?

From what I've read and studied, this is the way the Jewish calendar works. They base this on the road to Genesis.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yes. Except I would correct you. It's actually sunset to sunset. Not sunset to sunrise, but sunset to sunset. Yeah. But I get where you're at. Yeah. That's just the way, that's the way God defined it in Genesis.

So that's the way the Hebrew calendar has always been considered. Just like, I mean, you got to end one day and begin another day somewhere. Where is it for us that we end one day and we begin the other day?

Midnight. Midnight. Right. So at midnight at 12 o 'clock AM tonight, it will no longer be Sunday. It'll be Monday. So where does that transition happen? And it's different for different cultures. But God has defined it in Genesis this way.

And so it has been with the Hebrew people that at sundown, that's the end of the day. So at sundown, that's actually the beginning of the new day. Now, now, so we might think of it as, well, if sundown is the end of the day, but really technically it's almost like you're being pessimistic, right?

Glass is half full or half empty. So is sundown the end of a day or is it the beginning of a new day? Yes. That's the answer to the question. So at sundown is really the beginning of the next day, hence why it is said there was evening and there was morning the first day at evening is the start of that, of that day.

So hence being evening and there was morning. Now Moses says in Exodus, and we hear this in the 10 commandments that God created all things in six days and rested on the seventh. So this isn't the only place in the Bible where we have a literal sixth day creation that stated this comes up again elsewhere in scripture, testifying to the fact that God made all things in six days.

So yeah, I'm sorry, go ahead. We sleep the wrong hours. Are you saying we should sleep during the daylight? That's right. You just get to the age when you sleep whenever you can. So then in verse six, then we get to the next form.

The Second Day: Sky, Waters, and the Meaning of Firmament

God creating the next form. God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse.

And it was so, and God called the expanse heaven and there was evening and there was morning the second day. Okay. Some of you in your Bibles and your translations don't have the word expanse. What word do you have?

Firmament. Right. And what translation you're reading? New King James. Right. So in the, in the King James, the new King James, it says firmament. And that word literally means something firm. You hear it there at the very beginning of the word firmament.

Now, we don't actually know what this really meant. There's a lot of different theories and there's different places that I could turn you to to look up this kind of thing. I know that ICR, the Institute for creation research, they did an article I read a couple of weeks ago, answers in Genesis has some articles on this as well.

What is exactly being created here? Well, we know it's the sky, but there's this separation between waters. So what does that mean? Waters below become the waters of the seas. What about these waters above?

What does that in reference to? Some will say that it's the clouds. Some will say that it's the atmosphere. I think that the atmosphere is probably the most likely explanation. But the reality is that we don't know.

And Moses was not testifying to something firm that is above us. And that's been the mistranslation with this word in Hebrew and why it comes out to so many different things. One translation saying firmament, the other saying expanse.

Moses was trying to explain what's above with the words that he had. The best way that he knew how. The best way that we could understand what it is that is being testified to. There may not have really been a good word for it.

Maybe if Moses had the word atmosphere, he would have used the word atmosphere. But we still don't quite understand what is meant by waters above and waters below. What is commonly said as a criticism of the six-day creation is that Moses believed, and even the Hebrews later, Hebrew cosmology believed, that we were under a dome.

And so the earth was actually flat. And there was this dome that was above. And so that dome had waters above it. And then we had waters down here below. And so therefore that dome was referred to as the firmament because it was something firm.

Now again, that's not the way that we would understand it because that word in Hebrew can be translated so many different ways. It doesn't necessarily have to be in reference to something firm. There's other places in Scripture that testify to the fact that the earth is suspended out in space.

In Job, it says that God hangs the earth on nothing. So it's inconsistent then to say that Moses had this understanding of it being some, you know, like you've probably seen the illustrations of a flat earth and a dome over it.

That's not the way that Moses viewed this. Job, by the way, the writing of Job, possibly precedes the writing of Genesis. It could be that Job is the oldest book of the Bible. It was written during the time of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So if Job was written first, because Job would have been a man that lived during the time of the patriarchs, then that statement about the earth being suspended on nothing precedes any kind of understanding that Moses would have had of the earth being a dome if that's the way that he understood it.

I'm saying that he didn't understand it that way, but the critics will say that he did. That's what they try to say about the creation story. So again, whatever this is that's happening here with the creation of the sky, kind of mysterious to us.

We don't really know. We know that the result though was the earth was covered with water and there was a sky above it. That's what we know. So God calls the expanse heaven and there was evening and there was morning the second day.

Now in my English translation or the English standard version of the Bible in verse eight, God called the expanse heaven, H is a capital letter. So I don't know if the understanding of the translators there was that God created heaven as in that dwelling in which he lives.

I would have to ask an ESV translator if that's what they thought that was referring to. But everything that we're reading about here, this is physical creation. We really don't read about the creation of angels and then even the fall of those angels that would become demons and things like that.

We don't read about that in Genesis. The spiritual realm is not in view here except that God is spirit and he is the one who is creating all things that we see out of nothing. But we don't have like creation of angels and things like that is not detailed for us here.

Yes ma 'am. Just says sky. Yeah. Like it's, it's the, um, uh, footnote. Yeah. So yeah. Anyway, all that to say the reference to heaven is not the reference to the place where God dwells. It's the reference to the sky.

So then that becomes the second day. This is the second form that is made. We have light and darkness, which are, which is a form. And we have the sky and seas, which is a form. So then day three, beginning in verse nine, God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into 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. Now we're all sitting here in our comfortable pews in this air conditioned room, reading about God, creating things.

You've probably been to the ocean before and you have some view or some concept of the seas. And so we, you know, we're just kind of reading this account and we're taking it in very casually. Have you ever come upon the ocean and it just takes your breath away?

How big it is. My family and I used to vacation in Flagler beach, Florida. We had a friend who owned a house there. He since sold the house and so we haven't been back since. But but whenever we would come from, uh, what, what was the town that was just to the west of Flagler on the other side of the bridge?

Do you remember the name of it? I can't remember. It was where we. What? Say it again. Bonnell. Yeah, that's what it was. Yeah. Right. So we would go through Bonnell and that's where Publix was. We'd gather our groceries and stuff like that.

And then you have to, you know, you're probably, you've probably seen this before where a beach or a coast is kind of an island and there's a channel that will run in between the mainland and the beach where you're headed.

So there was this channel between Bonnell and Flagler Flagler and this arching bridge that goes over that channel. So you're driving up that bridge and you crest the bridge. And as soon as you get up there to the top, you're just looking less than a mile in front of you is the ocean.

And it's just everywhere. You know, you're looking at just horizon the song that we sing from sea to shining sea. You know, that's what it looks like. Just shining sea all across in front of you there.

Just a flat horizon of ocean. And it's astonishing. And even though I lived in flat Kansas, it still doesn't prepare me for just how big the ocean is. And there's something about it that it's kind of scary.

I've been on the ocean before. I've been far enough out that you lose the land that you can't see the land anymore. I've been in a rowboat doing that. So this wasn't a boat that was, that was like, you just turn the engine around and just head back to shore and use your compass or whatever.

I was rowing. I was with my brother. We got out far enough beyond the waves. It started raining on the shore. And when we turned the boat around, we couldn't see it anymore. I mean, nothing. And the only way we knew, there was no sun because it was raining.

So we couldn't navigate back to the, to the shore, even using the sky. So the only way we knew to go is let's just follow the waters because we know that's going back to shore. So we just paddle along.

And eventually the shore showed back up again. And then there's my dad on the shore going like this. Like we see you dad. Yes. That was not helping us a hundred feet ago, but, but anyway, so, so then we just wrote a wave in and it was fine, but, but that's, that's scary.

That's astonishing to think about being out there in the middle of nothing. And if your boat capsizes or whatever, I mean, that's just it. What are you going to do? The ocean is huge. It is enormous. And yet God created it.

And it says in the book of Job that God even told the sea, you can go this far and you can't go farther. God is the one who has set the limits of even the land and the sea. And Job 14 tells us that God set our limits that we cannot pass.

He has determined and designated every single day that we will live. And you can't live one day more or one day less than God has already determined for you. He set our limits. He set the limits on the sea.

He set the limits on man that we might know God and glorify him and praise him who is above all of these things. God creates these seas. That's what he calls them. The dry land he calls earth. The waters are gathered together and called seas and God saw that it was good.

In verse 11, God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit in 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, which is in which is its seed according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning the third day. So it's not just the creation of the land and seas on day three. We even have the creation of the plants. What hasn't been created yet?

Sun by which those plants need to live. But the plants will be fine because it only takes one day. So God creates these plants. They need the process of photosynthesis in order to live. So God gives them the sun, moon and stars on the next day.

Look at verse 14. OK, so before jumping to that, here's our forms. We have our three forms. We have light and darkness on day one. We have the sky and the earth below still covered with water on day two.

And then we have the land and the seas on day three, but not just the land and the seas. Even the plants and all of the vegetation are spread out there on the land. And I would imagine vegetation in the earth or in the seas to a certain degree as well.

Right. You know, the different coral and seaweed and other kinds of plants that grow there. So maybe that being there also. So there's the creation of those things. There's our three forms in those three days.

But now God fills the forms. So he's filling the void on the next three days. Verse 14. 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 two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night and the stars.

And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth to rule over the day and over the night and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

So we have the creation of the sun, moon and stars on day four, filling that form that God had made on day one. And now we have the lights that rule the day and the night. Sorry, I'm trying to bring this up at the same time and I'm getting kind of, I was going to read to you here from Job 38.

So beginning in verse 12, have you ever in your life commanded the morning and caused the dawn to know its place? This is God speaking to Job and telling him, like, what do you know? What can you do that you would tell me how I have to do things?

Verse 13, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it. It is changed like clay under the seal and they stand forth like a garment from the wicked. Their light is withheld and the uplifted arm is broken.

Have you ever entered into the springs of the sea or walked into the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you understood the expanse of the earth?

Tell me if you know all of this. Where is the way to the dwelling of light and darkness? Where is its place? That you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home. You know, for you were born then and the number of your days is great.

Divine sarcasm on the part of God. Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or have you seen the storehouses of the hail which I have reserved for the time of distress, for the day of war and battle?

Where is the way that the light is divided or the east wind scattered on the earth? Skipping down to verse 34, can you lift up your voice to the clouds so that an abundance of water will cover you? Can you send forth lightnings that they may go and say to you, here we are.

Who has put wisdom in the innermost being or given understanding to the mind? Who can count the clouds by wisdom or tip the water jars of the heavens when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods stick together?

So God asking these questions of Job, as if to say, give me an answer. If you think you know these things, Job 40, will the fault finder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer it. And Job answered the Lord and said, behold, I am insignificant.

What can I reply to you? I lay my hand on my mouth once I have spoken and I will not answer even twice and I will add nothing more. Oh, but God doesn't let him sit with that. He continues on, continuing to show Job the mightiness and the greatness of God.

Who are you that you know these things, that you control these things, that you dictate these things? And this is the might and the majesty that we see in the creation account, that God has designated all of this.

I think it was John Piper that I heard say one time, you may be aware of six or seven things that are going on around you. You know, the air is on, you know, you still have clothes on, you know, you're breathing air.

Although that happens so regularly, you're not thinking about that most of the time, right? Until, as with the allergies are doing with this right now, you can't breathe anymore. And then, then, you know, now there's something about my breathing today, but otherwise just these regular processes, if you ate breakfast this morning, your body's digesting it.

You're not controlling that. Praise God. God has that, has designed the body, just be doing that for you. Very few things that you're aware of are happening around you right now. God is controlling 10 zillion things that are happening around you.

You're not even aware of different molecules, atoms, the movement of air, the movement of the earth, that your synapses firing in your brain, all these manner of things. How dare we, how dare we try to stake this claim on, I have free will.

You can't even will yourself to take your next breath. It is only by the blessing of God that we get to sit here and, and we even get to marvel at the things that we're reading about in the scriptures and the way that God created and designed all things.

This is by his glorious grace that we even get to see God and know him. And of course, as I said to you last week, we know him through Jesus Christ. Our fellowship with God is through Christ our savior.

So we have this creation of these things in the heavens. Now some will argue, although we don't have an account of the creation of the spiritual beings, we know that they are created because God is infinite and they are not the, the angels.

They are holy ones as they are called in scripture. They are above and beyond us, but they're still finite beings. They can be created and guess what? They can even be destroyed. And we're going to see that at the end of all things.

In fact, as Paul says in first Corinthians six, you remember when we went through this in first Corinthians six, when was this? Back in like November, somewhere in there. So a year ago where Paul says, do you not know that you will even judge angels?

And so we will sit on heavenly thrones and judge those beings that had rebelled against God and were cast out of heaven and revelation records will be thrown into the fiery pit along with Satan and all those who went the way of Satan and they will be cast forever in that place of fire and brimstone.