Book of Genesis - Ch. 1, Vs. 1-39 (03/28/2004) | NOTE: Incomplete tape

The Meaning of Rebellion and God’s Will

A question for you, the first thing, when do we not do that which the Lord intends for us to do? Greg? David? Well, when do we rebel against God? John? That's what I said. All right, Bob, let me ask you the question, first question.

The first question was, when do we not do that which the Lord intends for us to do? When do we rebel against God? All right, when do we not do that which the Lord intends for us to do, and the answer is never.

You cannot be outside His will, but you can rebel.

All right, think of God has planned everything. It's already done. Permissive will, let me say, don't allow us to do it, even though it's not what He wants.

No, no, no, He doesn't allow anything. There is no permissive will that would be allowing. Everything with God is finished. He's seen the end from the beginning. All right, come to a review this morning, Genesis 1.

Creation Ex Nihilo and the Opening of Genesis 1

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The Hebrew for that is ber-rashith barah, elohim et hashamayim vetz heretz. Beginning created God, the substance of heaven and earth. Man must think in time.

We cannot think outside of time, other than to say the words, but when we're saying the words, we're in time. You cannot escape it, so we put a beginning to everything. When God created, now the people, and we say people for lack of a better term, that were present when He created were spiritual, the Godhead.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We come to the beginning. It's a remote period in unknown antiquity, hid in depths of eternity. God, the name is plural. Any place in the Old Testament that you see the word God, it is plural.

Means mighty, strong, He created. This is bringing something into existence where there was nothing created, not formed from any pre-existent material, but made out of nothing. The substance of the universe.

This is what He created, the substance. And the earth was without form and void. Dennis, what does the words form and void mean as used here? All right, that's exactly what He did, only it's not even elements yet.

And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters. Now to begin with, there is no gap between verses one and two.

I know that's a very popular teaching, but it's not true. God seems at first to have created the elementary principles of all things. I'm just skipping through. If we could look at these elementary principles, it would be a soft, thick, lump, or mass, commonly called a glob.

I don't know how else to explain it. But when the elementary principles were brought together, God was pleased to spend six days in uniting, assorting, arranging these materials. And it is not only the earth, but the whole solar system that He's going to speak into existence.

And the Spirit of God moved, hovered, continued brooding over it, as a fowl does when hatching an egg. And I'm sure most of you are familiar with the chicken. This may be where people get the idea that the world was hatched out of an egg.

And as I said last week, I wouldn't want to be around that chicken. The account of the new creation probably begins at the end of the second verse. And God said, let there be light, and there was light.

Very confusing. When we speak of light, we're thinking of something visible. Many have asked, how could there be light produced on the first day when the sun didn't come into existence the fourth day?

So it must all be a fairy tale. Well, that's not true. The original word here is or. Or means the power behind the light. And it's been used many different ways in the scripture. God has diffused matter, and we come to the word caloric, or latent heat.

Now the next step after the glob is here, is to put structure to it. I believe that at this moment he spoke of the caloric, or latent heat, friction, or the atomic structure to everything. We have never seen anything without the atom being present.

It was in the beginning. It was just a mass. Then God spoke, let there be light, let there be friction, caloric heat, latent heat, however you want to label it. But it was to put the atomic structure to everything.

The most logical step before the next step. Yes. Yes. That's right. It was void. It was without structure. It had nothing that we see today. In other words, when he put the atomic structure to it, the glob became a globe.

The First Days: Light, Firmament, Dry Land, and Vegetation

And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. Now this light is a different word. He divided the light from the darkness. I believe that it was here that he spun the earth, still spinning today.

Because it is by that method that we have darkness and light, spinning the earth, the next step, the rotation on its axis. And God called the light day and the darkness night and the evening and the morning were the first day.

So now he has the entire mass spinning. I hope you're following mentally. And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters. Science has discovered that the earth was, at one time, enveloped in water.

There was a band of water around the earth. The remnants are still there. It is like you would take a tennis ball and suspend it in the center of a basketball. I hope you get that picture. The space between the outer surface of the tennis ball and the inner surface of the basketball would be the firmament, the heaven, the space.

And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above. And God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Now he's got a ball of water and water around it. Space in between, space outside of it, and now he's ready to produce dry ground. And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place.

Let the dry land appear, and it was so. The next logical step would be to bring the dry ground. I hope you're following. We start with a mass. We put the elements in it. We spin it. We put space around it.

And now the dry ground has got to appear, waters, dry land. The earth had before been covered with water. But now the water and dry land are separated. The waters which covered the earth were ordered to retire and to gather into one place.

All the water was connected, therefore all the land was connected, giving rise to the fact that there were no separate continents at this time. All of the dry land was connected. And God called the dry land earth.

And the gathering together of the waters called he seas. And God saw that it was good. These two constitute what is called the tyrannous globe in which the earth and the water existed in the most judicial proportion to each other.

Now you can take the amount or the surface of the water and the surface of the dry land and through calculations you can determine that there had to be that much water to evaporate to sustain life on the dry land.

I didn't think that was necessary. Chapter 11, and God said, now what's the next step? Let the earth bring forth grass. Next logical step. The herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind whose seed is in itself upon the earth and it was so.

In these general expressions all kinds of vegetable production are included. The fruit tree is not to be understood here as the restricted fruit tree is today. Now as God delights in manifesting himself in the little as well as in the great, he has shown his absolute wisdom in every part of the vegetable creation.

Let's take just one part of it. Who can account for or comprehend the structure of a single tree or plant? The roots, the stem, the woody fibers, the bark, the air vessels, the sap vessels, the leaves, the flowers, and the fruit.

There are all so many mysteries, but I defy you to look at any one of them and deny God. All the skill, wisdom, and power of men and angels could not produce a single grain of wheat. A serious and reflecting mind can see the grandeur of God, not only in the immense cedars of Lebanon, which they had immense, but also in the endless varied forests that appear through the microscope in the mold on cheese.

All of everything, God made it. He made the tree. Dennis, if you had cut down a tree to determine its age, how many rings would it have had at that time? Well, how many would it have had? Yeah. We don't know.

Twelve. 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. After its kind, nothing crosses, nothing ever has crossed.

The sentence is often repeated to signify that God made all his creatures to serve for his glory and for the profit of man, but because of sin they were cursed. And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.

It's right here that he instituted the calendar. He gave us the seasons. He gave it the signs, the different times of the year. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and it was so.

Let them be for signs. Let's talk about that for a moment. And it's not the almighty energy of God that upholds them in being. The sun, the moon also serve as signs of the different changes which take place in the atmosphere, which are so essential for the purpose of agriculture and commerce and so on and so forth.

While we're on this subject, I believe that if you plant things in the right season, you'll have a better yield. And if you'll let me, I know from personal experience that this works. When I was growing up, the people would plant their tomatoes and other things in the right season.

One person in particular who was a relative of ours grew the best tomatoes because he planted them in the right season, and he always had a crop. He grew the tomatoes, and that was hearsay on my part because I don't like tomatoes.

But I remember those plants, they had the largest tomatoes I ever saw, which wasn't speaking much. My father-in-law come from Tennessee and Kentucky, and he told me that he would build a rail fence in the light of the moon.

I didn't know what he meant, the light of the moon, and he explained it to me, the light, the dark. But the light of the moon, he said, if I don't build it then, that bottom rail will sink out of sight.

He also told me that to shingle a house, you did it in the dark of the moon to keep the shingles from curling up. Now today we kind of make light of all of that, but it hasn't changed. We've gotten so far away from the farm anymore that we've forgotten a whole lot of things.

He knew every tree. He could look at a fence after a shower and tell me whether it was through raining or not by looking at the fence. These things we've lost. I think it was better when we didn't know the weather forecast and therefore seasons for the determination of times on which the sacred festivals should be held.

And this sense frequently occurs, and it was right that at the very opening of his revelation God should inform man that there were certain festivals which should be annually celebrated to his glory. Some think we should understand the original word as signifying months, for which purpose we know the moon essentially serves.

They were for days, both the hours of the day and night, as well as the different lengths of the days and nights are distinguished by the longer and shorter space of time the sun is above or below the horizon.

They were for years, that is, those grand divisions of time by which all successions in the vast lasp of duration is distinguished. This refers principally to a complete revolution of the earth around the sun, which is accomplished in 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 48 seconds.

For though the revolution is that of the earth, yet it cannot be determined by the heavenly bodies. So far we have spoken the mass into existence, and that was creation. Then he put atomic structure to it, that gave order.

Then he spun it, that gave purpose. Now he has divided the water from the water by a firmament, which means space. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night.

He made the stars also to rule the day. Now understand, none of this, well I can't say none of it, but the difference in the length of the day and night and the seasons, that has not come about yet, because the earth was tipped at the great upheaval that took place at the flood.

It was tipped, and prior to that, everything remained the same. Both these lights may be said to be made. There's a difference between create and made, that will come up a little bit later. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness, and God saw that it was all good, the sun, the moon, the stars, they're all manifestations of God's word.

We can see them, we can enjoy them, but most of us can't understand them. But David, we don't have to understand the thing to enjoy the thing. So we believe it. Nineteen, and the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Now he gets down to bringing life into existence. God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament above.

Now fowl would mean any winged creature. He made the whales, and the sharks, and the crocodile, and everything. It would be forever in mentioning everything. Now I intended to get a little glass of water and have one of you take a drink of it, but just imagine if you will, you have a glass of water and you take a drink like you have so many times, a good course of can of water.

Now after that, I want to tell you that you have just swallowed millions of animal curi that are found in water. The naturalists have discovered that not less than 30 ,000 animals in a drop of water. Can you imagine?

I'm not making this up, that's real. They're so small we can't see them. When he said abundantly, he meant abundantly. God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after its kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it was good.

Now we keep running across the words after its kind. David, what does that prove? That's absolutely right. Twenty-two, and God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the waters in the sea, and let the fowl multiply in the earth.

By virtue of his word, he gave power to his creatures to reap or deuce. Now remember, everything came full grown. By the way, why? Why did everything come full grown? Why didn't they come as a small baby or chick and then develop into what is now called an adult bird?

Why is that, Debbie? That's right. There was no man upon the earth, no one to take care, so they came full grown. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day, and God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creatures after his kind, cattle and creeping things, beasts of the earth after his kind, and it was so.

He made them all after their kind. Twenty-five, God made the beasts of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and God saw that it was good.

Man in the Image of God, Male and Female

Then we come to the twenty-sixth verse. God said, and God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Now, Bob, what was man to have dominion over? Earth. What? Everything. Everything. God created this world. He spoke it into existence. He made the trees, the plants, the water, the fish, the stars, the suns, the moon.

He made everything, and when it was all finished, he made man and put man in his creation. Who is the us here, David? The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost were created in the spirit of all three.

Now, this will get rather personal because we're talking about us. The last stage in his progress of creation being now reached, God said, Let us make man. Words which show the peculiar importance of the work to be done.

The formation of a creature who was to be God's representative, clothed with authority and rule as visible head and monarch of all of the world. That's what man had. 27. So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. Please note, he created them. He created their soul and their spirit. There is not homosexuality in the world. You don't find it in the animals, and you do not find it in man as being born that way, as being made that way.

That's wrong. Adam was made both male and female. In other words, he had it all. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Now let me ask you a question, Dennis. Has the population of this world been the offspring of the first parents, the first couple, Adam and Eve? How many would agree with that? Well, you're wrong. This world, including Eve, has been the offspring of Adam.

I never did that before, did I? Adam is the head of the race. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which upon the face of all of the earth, and every tree in which there is the fruit of the tree yielding seed to you, it shall be for meat.

Again, Dennis, let me ask you, could Adam have eaten meat? Yes. Did he eat meat? What was Adam's diet like? Everything was vegetarian, animals and all. Now that changed later. And to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat.

And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Everything is very, very good. David, that means to me that God was well satisfied with it all.

Each part is separately pronounced good, but the whole is pronounced very good because it is only in the whole that each part finds its perfection. All that God does is very good. Like its author, perfect.

Nothing could be better. And in our treating all things according to his will, there is great reward. Now, we've come to the end of the first chapter, and I'm sure you have questions. No, you're the offspring of Adam and Eve, but the entire world, the world of man, or the people of the world, come from Adam.

And that would include Eve. Do you understand? All right. Next question. Yes. That's right. Most people think that Eve was made by God. She was, but not a stand-alone production. She came out of Adam.

Adam had both male and female in him, I don't understand. It didn't change his looks any when he, I suppose it didn't, when he took Eve out, but that's where she come from. If she had, if God had made Eve as he made man, and then he made Eve a stand-alone project, what would that have done to the world?

Greg? All right. That's one outcome. Give me another one.

All right. All right. All right.

If there could have been an Eve and an Adam, Eve could have sinned, and not Adam. No more questions? Made and created. We'll get into it next time, but created, God created the mass. He spoke it into existence.

It came from no place. To make, he made everything out of that mass. To make something, you have to have something. To create something, you don't have to have anything. God is the only one that can create, because we make everything.

It'll come, well I think, either the next chapter or the next we find, where made and create are used in the same verse. We'll understand it more then.

What? They shouldn't kill the animals. Adam and Eve, they shouldn't kill the animals, because God said to Eve, first of all, I'm a vegetable. That's right. He doesn't need to be tall. He doesn't need to tell me to be a vegetable.

Well, I hadn't thought of that, but that's true. Well, we'll get to the reason why. Yes, but their eyes were not opened until Adam sinned. All right. All right. Greg, dismiss this please. Yes. Yes. Yes, if we didn't have the spirit, which is the image of God, in every human being, you couldn't be saved.

An animal has a body and a life, soul. Soul and life are the same.