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Bro. Otis Fisher
And in starting, I'd like for you to turn to the 5th verse of the 1st chapter of Genesis, please. Something that was brought to my attention this week that I had overlooked. I overlook a lot of things.
In the 5th verse, as soon as we have everyone's attention. Thank you, Georgia. Just lay them there. In this 5th verse, when God called the light day and the darkness he called night. Did you ever notice those two words are capitalized?
Night and day. And they're not other places. Why do you suppose that is? What? To show how important they are? Who's talking? Okay. Go ahead. Just when I got tuned in, she said, that's all. Greg, that's what happened here.
This is the first time they were named. So it's a proper name. The man's a capital. All right. Come over now to the 6th verse. And God said. And I hope we realize God's not in heaven speaking verbally.
This is presented to us so we will understand a little bit. And it is as though he spoke, which he does not have to do. He simply wills things to be. God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Now, we saw earlier where this creation, of course, first the substance, then the form was given to it. And at that time, the atomic structure was put in. Where is it? It says darkness was upon the face of the deep.
Darkness was upon the face of the deep. The word deep is referring to deep water, more or less. So the firmament, to divide the waters that were already here from the waters. Firmament means space. It means sky.
And it was at this point that the atmospheric space come into existence. And the dividing of the waters. Now, you'll have to listen close. This meant that there was water that surrounded the atmospheric substance.
Then there was waters that was left for the earth. And I've always visualized it like this, Virge. If you would cut a basketball in half, just open it up. And you take a tennis ball and suspend it in dead center.
The space between the outside of the tennis ball and the inside skin of the basketball is the firmament. And the canopy of water is the skin of the basketball. So we have a canopy of water that's surrounding what will be the earth.
Right now, it is water. The water was just an enormous ball and there was space or sky. And then there is the earth or the water right now in the center. Everyone understand? This canopy is going to be very, very important.
The condition of the planet at this time. The 7th verse, and God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so.
Simply tells us that it was accomplished. Above the firmament, this was the canopy of water vapor that acted to make the earth like a greenhouse. There are no direct rays of the sun now going to reach the earth.
It provided a uniform temperature. Temperature all over the earth is going to be the same temperature. It inhibited mass air movements. Now later we will see that there was a little bit of movement simply because of the difference between the sea and the dry ground.
But it was very slight. This greenhouse effect or a hot house, whichever you want to call it, caused a mist to rise. We're told later that he watered everything by dew that come up from the ground. It also filtered out the ultraviolet rays of the sun.
And by doing that, life was extended. Now until sin come, there was no death. We'll see that later. But this extending of life helps account for the longevity of a lot of the early people. And it could account for the enormous size of some of the animals because of the filtering of the ultraviolet.
And God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. Now let's go back just for a moment. The very first thing that occurs is that he brought into existence the substance out of which everything else is to be made.
Everything. The substance was without form. It had no parameters to it. And it was void, meaning it was empty. Yet it was something. Something which man has never seen. And I don't know that it was visible at that time.
But then he says, let there be light. The word is or, meaning energy. And that's where he put form to it. And no longer was it void. Now the atomic structure on every element is present. Now he can build something from it.
Very logical step. The next step was to separate the waters. And we're getting closer and closer to a finished earth. Now we have the sky where the birds fly and the airplanes fly. The sun and moon that's coming later will be outside of this canopy.
And God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place. And let the dry land appear. And it was so.
Evening and morning were the second day. Now if the waters were all gathered together in one place, which is what he says, then the dry land must have all been in one place. Just as the scientists have always told us.
Water, later called sea, you could have sailed in all of them without ever having to cross any land because they were all in one place. God called the dry land earth. And there we have a capital E. And the gathering together of the waters called he the seas, capital S.
And God saw that it was good. And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind. We're staying away from evolution. Whose seed is in itself upon the earth.
And it was so. Now if you think with me for just a moment, why did the greenery have to be here before the animal life was here? But another big factor. Oxygen. So you see how logical all this coming together?
And the earth brought forth grass and 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. Everything so far has been after their kind.
There is no crossing of species. And we mentioned last week about how you would tell the age of a tree. And of course you count the rings. Rather interesting when you think about the tree being put here.
He did not put a seed here and expect it to grow. Although he could have, but he didn't. He followed a pattern. And that pattern is going to hold throughout all of the creation. He put everything here in its finished state.
A tree was a tree. Full grown adult tree. Grass the same way. Animals are going to be the same way. Rocks the same way. It is my belief that God put everything here in a mature state. This includes the earth also.
And if you think about that, then God made everything to appear to man to be old. It does not mean that it is that old as they think. But then that's all they can do is go at it scientifically. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
God said, let there be light in the firmament. Now, where is this firmament, Clarence? And divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons from days for years. The Hebrews made a slight translation error.
And instead of being inside the firmament, these are outside the firmament. The Hebrew lettering is so identical that it must have gotten changed someplace. The best I can determine. The stars and everything are outside of this canopy of water.
But it says to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs, for seasons, for days, for years. So here's our calendar. Some other things also. Let them be for signs and seasons. Have any of you had any experience with growing anything according to the signs, according to the moon?
The first days of this country, that's all they had to go by. They didn't have television to tell them what the weather was going to be like. And I think we have lost some tremendous amount of valuable information.
At the advent of the radio and later the television, before that, all farmers did their work according to the sign of the moon. Now, there's been a lot written about that, that that's of the devil. I don't believe it.
He gave it to us right here. He didn't explain the signs or the moons. He just said they're for that. Now, we know this is not of the devil because God tells us right here that they are for seasons and for signs.
Let me dive first just a little bit and talk about my father-in-law. A wonderful man, come from, was he originally from Kentucky? Later, Tennessee. How many of you have been to either one of those states?
Okay, you're familiar then. He understood all of this. He could tell you the time of the day by just looking at the position of the sun, and he wouldn't miss it over ten minutes. He grew up that way. He knew if it was going to rain, if it was going to snow, if it was going to storm.
He knew everything about every tree that ever grew in Tennessee and Kentucky. He could describe the bloom to you. He could look at a piece of bark and tell you from what tree it had come and about how old the tree was.
All of those men used double-bitted ax. Do you know what I mean by double-bitted ax? Brandon, do you? Okay. I've seen him use that ax. In fact, Jesse, believe it or not, I saw him kill a fly with it once, literally.
He could put it in exactly the same spot as many times as he wanted. But that's enough about him. I feel honored to have spent some time with him. I say all of this to show that perhaps we were better off if we hadn't had all this modern machinery.
In one way. But I doubt if any of us want to give any of it up. But it's coming to the point, Kay, that all the future generations are going to need is just one good finger to push a button. Fifteen. Let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.
And it was so. Now that was the stars and the planets. And God made two great lights. The greater to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night. And he made the stars also. I ask visible demonstration to be made.
And I know you can't read all of that. But this is the sun over here. What I want you to understand is the relative size. Can you see the earth over here? Greg, can you see that? Well, that's where it is.
Now, on this scale, this little dot would have to be, what, 100 foot from here? That would be the back of the parking lot at least from that wall. Just on this scale. Now, the sun is 896 ,473 miles in diameter.
Do you remember your math? What's diameter, Virg? Well, you're almost right. The distance across it. I should have asked Brandon. You should have. Yeah. That's my fault. All right. The sun is 896 ,473 miles in diameter.
Fred, that's a bunch of miles. The earth is 7 ,954 miles in diameter. Great difference. Our sun is 97 ,118 ,538 miles from the earth. Now, that's a great expanse between the sun and the earth, wouldn't you say?
Well, I did all of this to say this. There are suns in the universe, like our sun, that are so large, they would not pass between our sun and our earth of 97 ,118 ,538 miles in diameter. God does things on a big scale.
God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and to rule over the day and rule over the night and to divide the light from the darkness, and it was so. Now, the firmament here is speaking of the firmament outside of the canopy, which we would call outer space.
And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly. Now, remember, he's already divided the water from the dirt, and we now have dry earth and we have seas.
Now, okay, he's going to put life into the water, into the ocean, into the seas. And he said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of the heaven.
We have here a little bit of good, coarse can of water. Verge, send your son up here, will you? Come right around and stand up here. You can see that wasn't too complicated, was it? When he says abundantly, what's he mean?
What's the word abundant mean? Great quantity. A great quantity of a great quantity. But in our good, filtered, coarse can of water, in every drop, and Bill, I should have asked you ahead of time, but in a pint of water, how many drops are there?
All right, 10 million in what did I say? A quart of water. That's a bunch of water, isn't it? Now, Brandon, I'm building up to this. In every drop of this water that you just drank, every drop, there are at least 30 ,000 animal culi, commonly known as animals, because they have life, and you just drank it.
When he said abundantly, that's exactly what he meant. Abundantly. So in what did you say, 2 billion? 10 ,000? Well, that's still a bunch. So 10 ,000 times 30 ,000, if you can figure it out, that's a bunch of life.
They're actually alive, classified as animals. God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly. In the Hebrew, it actually says brought forth.
By bringing forth abundantly, they've come forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it was good, and God blessed them, and said, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day, and God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, creeping things, beasts of the earth after his kind, and it was so.
And God made the beasts of the earth after his kind, cattle after their kind. Bill, what's the difference in beasts and cattle? That's a good division of it. The beasts were primarily wild or for work, or labor.
The cattle were for reproduction or milk, and each one after their kind, and it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth after his kind, the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and God saw that it was good.
Joy, why does he keep telling us God saw it was good? All right, and he's trying to impress upon us that he does only that which is good. And God said, Let us. Clarence, who is the us? Man. What? Let us make man.
Now what he's saying, let us make mankind in our image after our likeness, and let them, mankind, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, and over all of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So, Verge, in what position did he first put man? That's right. He is to see after everything. It is under his responsibility, control. This is a first clear indication of the trinity of God. Now, we do have indication in the first verse, where it says, well, in the first one, where he says, Elohim, Elohim is plural, meaning trinity.
And in the second verse, what does he say? Okay. And the Spirit of God moved. So we have reference to all three at the beginning. And when he says, let us, he's talking about the trinity, the us, our.
The very name of God, Elohim, is a plural form of El, E-L. The word for Adam is Audam, A-A-W-D-A-W-M. Now, this word has to do with the image of God. We're not talking about the physical. When it speaks of let us make mankind in our image, what is he referring to?
Why do you say that? Judy, why is it not physical when he's talking about his image? Are they not physical? God is spiritual and must be worshiped in spirit. And when he's speaking here about making man in our image, the image refers to the spirit, not to the physical.
Because he is not man. We know that because the scripture tells us that when Jesus came to Earth, he took on the form of man, meaning that he did not have the form of man. Man is a living being capable of embodying God's communicable attributes.
In his rational life, he was like God in that he could reason, he had intellect, he had will, he had emotion. In a moral sense, he was like God because he was good, sinless, and the image and likeness of God.
This was man. We'll get to the actual making of him a little bit later. Yes, absolutely. Only the spiritual can see God. In John 424, if you want to make a note, God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.
When he said, let us make, that's in the active voice. So God created. Only he did not create, he made. Man in his own image, in the image of God, made he him. Male and female made he them. Talking about the mankind or the human race.
Although Adam was a little different than we men are today. And God blessed them and God said unto them, be fruitful, meaning to increase, multiply, and replenish. Now the word replenish, let's look at that.
To replenish, Bill, means what? Absolutely. This is God's conservation program from the very beginning. When you cut a tree, put one back. Plant one. Don't just use things up or throw them away. Be conservative.
Replenish the earth and subdue it. This defines man's unique relation to the creation. Man was God's representative in ruling over his creation. The command to rule separated him from the rest of the living creatures and defined his relationship as being above the rest of the creation.
The creation was given to man to keep and to maintain. And God said, behold. We see this term quite often. Behold. Fred, what's that mean? Pay close attention. What I'm going to say is very important.
Jesus used the term verily, verily. Same connotation. 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 is the fruit of the tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat or food.
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 or food, and it was so. Now what does this tell us?
Was it only man? That's right. All vegetarian. So the lion's not going to eat you up. Everything in the beginning was vegetarian. But we'll see later why we should not be today. And God saw everything that he had made.
And behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Another thing for you to think about this week, there was no fear between man and beast. That comes later. No fear whatsoever.
Fear was unknown, just as death is going to be unknown. All right, you have a general definition of God. I think that's the best I have ever read. It was written by Dr. Clark, who lived from 1762 to 1846, and he quotes Matthew Henry quite a bit.
Matthew Henry lived 100 years before Clark. So we're getting way back in the writing history. Are there any questions from anyone? That's as far as we're going to go today. Are you an instructor named Brian?
There was no hole blown in it. Something did happen to it. The remnants of it are still visible in outer space. And Brian or Brandon, where did you get the thought on it being pink? I can't hear. Somebody's going to have to repeat it.
He saw it on videotape. Oh. Well, it's strange that you should bring that up. I've never heard that from anybody other than one person before, a very authentic person, by the way. And I'm still studying on it, but perhaps you're right, that things did have a pink glow.
They have found that that shade of sunglasses is the easiest on your eye. Anything else? Good. Let's stand and we'll be dismissed. Jesse, would you dismiss us, please?