God's Word to God's World (Genesis 1, Jeff Kliewer)

Morning. First of all, I want to encourage you after the service is over, Jeff said his message is no more than an hour and a half long. He told me I have to be quick so he can take. Stay after service as we are going to celebrate the powerful ministry that the Stockland family has had here and that we are excited that they are going to have at the Rock Church.

We are, we are flat out going to miss you guys, but at the same time we rejoice. You guys are answering the call. As God gives you the call, you are obedient to go. And so glory goes to God and to the promotion of His kingdom.

Stay after the service this afternoon as we have a time of food fellowship and rumor has it we can even roast the Stockland family. So come prepared. Also later today and then next Sunday, if you are interested, you have the chance to talk to Ray Garcia, to our budget committee, to understand the budget that is going to be presented a week from tomorrow for affirmation, our budget for the following year.

So you can see the details of the budget and talk to him. Ray said I will answer any question you might have for me, right? Okay. The congregational meeting then is a week, is a week from tomorrow, March 11th.

We strongly encourage you to come at that meeting. We will be affirming our new church officers, our deacons, our elders, our board chairman. So we strongly encourage you. We have some membership to present to you and the budget.

If you're a member, please come here. If you're not a member and you're interested in our church, good opportunity to see some of the things about our church. That'll be at seven o 'clock on the 11th.

Tomorrow morning, gentlemen, set your alarms nice and early. We have our monthly fellowship breakfast at six o 'clock here in the church. We have an amazing time because it's iron sharpening iron. It's men talking about the things of God and how it impacts our life.

So join us, set your alarm clock, get here at six o 'clock. Also gentlemen and ladies, the, the April retreats, please go online and sign up for them. I know that if there, if there appears to be a real desire to go, but financially this isn't the time, talk to Pastor Jeff, to myself, John Detoli.

There can be opportunities made that we can get you. We want you there and in fellowship with us. So go online, sign up for the retreats, come back tonight at six o 'clock for our time of prayer. Last week we, it was awesome.

It was absolutely awesome. We couldn't fit in the classroom. We had to come out here into the sanctuary. These are, these are exciting times. Next Sunday after service, on the 10th, there will be an initial kickoff meeting for people who are desiring, willing, feeling called to help in the VBS this summer.

So if you have a desire to be part of that ministry, to support Tim and the ministry that's going on there next Sunday after service. Continue to be in prayer as our new officers are being presented and affirmed that God works through them.

Prayer for the Service and Communion

Let's turn to prayer. Lord, we come to You. We call on You. We surrender our lives to You. You are a strong tower. You are the source of our life, our deliverance, and our hope. Through the strength of Your Holy Spirit, we even cry out, Abba Father.

This morning, Lord, we focus on the truth that You are the creator of all. By Your righteous holy hand, You hold Your children in Your right hand. The truth of Scripture is foundational. We pray, Lord, that You teach us, guide us always to turn to You.

Be with those in our midst who are in need. And we praise God for some of the healing that we have heard, that You have done the miraculous hand on some of our people. We say thank You. Be with Pastor Jeff now.

Prepare the words that You would have him speak and open our hearts to.

Hear. And we pray in Jesus' name. Drew. Good morning. And today is also the first Sunday.

Of the month. So we celebrate the Lord's table today. And as we come to the table, we realize what a joy it is to be here, just experiencing the things we have now as we celebrate communion. What do we have now?

We have the communion with each other. We have the oneness of the body of Christ. We have the unique indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which we all share of those who believe. We also have the hope of looking forward to His coming again.

And we celebrate that also at the communion table. But the communion table is also a time of solemn reflection. We remember what the Lord Jesus has done. And I know I had a chance because I was preparing communion, this message right now, to solemnly think about what was going on.

What was my life like? And I thought about the sins that I had committed. I thought about the judgment that I deserved. I thought about the helplessness and the hopelessness that I had without Jesus. But then, realizing that Jesus, as the substitutionary sacrifice, paid everything for me.

I had no hope and I had no power to remove the sins in my life. But Jesus, through His obedience, going to the cross, dying for my sins, His shed blood, paying the penalty that I deserved. I had a lot to think about this week.

And we need that reminder. We need to sit and think about the things that the Lord has done. We celebrate this communion table once a month. Other churches do it at different times. And why do we do it once a month?

Why do we keep doing it? It's because we forget. We need to be reminded of the things that God has done. We need to be reminded of the things that we have in Jesus Christ. Apostle Peter put it this way.

He said, in 2 Peter 1, verses 12 and 13, he said, Therefore, I shall always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them and have been established in the truth which is present with you.

And I consider it right. As long as I am in this earthly dwelling, meaning His body still in the earth, He wanted to stir us up by way of reminder. And it is true. A lot of things we don't necessarily receive as new things a lot, things we don't know.

But we need to remember the things that have already been revealed to us through the scripture and through the revelation of the Spirit in our lives. We need to think upon these things. But because we have a tendency to forget and our minds have a tendency to drift.

Now, I can see a lot of eyes looking at me. Very good concentration. Great. I don't see anybody nodding off yet. But we have to be honest with ourselves that in this day and age we live in, we are distracted all the time.

And it's hard for us to concentrate. So as I was thinking about this communion time, what came to mind is the sculpture of the great thinker. You remember Rodin's sculpture where the sculpture is like this and he's sitting on a rock and he's bent forward and he's just sitting there thinking and thinking.

And it's very solitude. It's very solitary. And it's very permanent. You just think, how long is he going to be there? But we don't spend time and thought more than a few seconds, it seems, these days.

But I found out something about that statue that's very interesting. A lot of times we will see it today, copies of it, in front of great philosophy halls at universities. And the idea is, well, you know, this university supports great intellectual, you know, activity and, you know, the heights of philosophy.

And we're going to read. Well, that wasn't the original reason that Rodin, the sculptor, made that statue. Originally, he was commissioned to build two bronze doors that were going to be the opening to a museum that was going to be built.

Those bronze doors were supposed to be called the gates of hell. Maybe a museum I wouldn't have wanted to go to. But the bronze doors were supposed to be, he casted the doors. At the top of the door was the thinker, a much smaller version than we know.

Below on the doors were souls that were tormented in hell. And that thinker at the top of the doors was sitting there, thinking about the horrors of hell and the people that go there. We don't like to think thoughts like that.

We don't take time to think about thoughts like that very often. But back in those days, people had time and they did think about things. I want this morning to think, for us to think, about what God has delivered us from.

What he's done through the sacrifice of his son, the Lord Jesus, for what we could never do. He paid the ultimate price by giving his life on the cross for our sins. Let's think right now. Let's meditate, pray if you'd like.

But let's take some time to do that now before the Lord, before we take part in the cup and the bread. Father, as we come before you this morning, we do remember what Jesus has done. We also think in joy of the fellowship we have with you now that's going to continue through all eternity.

But Lord, when we think of the sins that we've committed against you and the horrors of hell that waited us in judgment that we deserve, Lord, you poured out that judgment on your son. And Father, as we come before you this morning, Father, we have hearts of gratitude, hearts of thankfulness, hearts of solemnness.

And Lord, we just can't say enough about a God who would be willing to give his own son on our behalf, Lord. We thank you and we praise your name for your eternal plan that brought many sons to glory by what your son did in obedience, Father.

We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. I'll call the men forward to pass out the alms this morning. As they're coming, I just want to say a word about what Paul warned us of in 1 Corinthians 11. He said that there are some of us who are weak and are sick, and some of us actually sleep, and that means actually pass away, to go physically deaf.

Why was that? Because they were taking the communion table lightly. They were taking it in a frivolous manner. They were continuing to walk in sin and ignore the fact that they had been bought by the blood of Jesus.

And instead of walking in his ways, they were walking in their own ways. So if you're here this morning and you know you've been disobedient to the Lord, consider what you should do this morning. If you don't have a relationship with the Lord right now, consider what you need to do with the Lord.

This table does not offer you forgiveness. Jesus Christ offers you forgiveness. If you confess him as Lord and believe in your hearts that he's been raised from the dead, you will receive forgiveness.

But this table is for those who believe, those who are walking with Jesus, a great table of remembrance in the wonderful act that Jesus has done. So with that in mind, we'll have the gentleman pass out the bread.

In the book of Hebrews, of the scripture, it is written of him that a body was prepared for him to do thy will, O Lord. And this is what Jesus did. He took on human flesh. That body was broken for us.

Let's do this, taking this bread in remembrance of what he went through for us. And likewise, at that last supper when he was celebrating with his disciples,.

He wanted to pass out a cup to them. Let's do that now. We had a few short minutes now.

To reflect on the wondrous work of our Lord Jesus Christ and his love for us. I pray that we would do so the rest of this day, reflecting on his goodness. At that time when he was with his disciples in the upper room, he said, this is the cup, the new covenant in my blood.

Do this.

As often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Amen. Will you stand with me as we.

Continue to our worship with singing.

Worship Through Singing and Scripture Memory

Born for our salvation. Jesus is a light that overwhelms the darkness. There is a kingdom that forever reigns. There is freedom from the chains that bind us. Jesus who speaks to those who stand in the beside me.

Like a lion, he blazed my healing in his hand. There's a name I call in times of trouble. There is a song that humphrets in the night. There is a voice that calms the storm that rages. He is Jesus, who speaks to those who stand in the fire beside me.

He roars like a lion. He blazed my healing in his hand. Messiah, my savior. You're my rock. Redeem others through the sea. Every side is a. We are called to trust in him. He is our solid rock,.

Our hope, our comfort, our foundation. As we read through the Psalms, Psalm 62 says, my soul will wait because you are the rock of my salvation.

My heart grows faint within when the darkness overwhelmed. My fears are pressing in. I will trust in you, oh Lord. In the silence I will stand upon. You're my solid foundation, my steadfast hope that won't be shaken.

My soul will wait. My soul will wait for you. You're my stronghold and my shield in the midst of every threat. Yes, I know the outcome's sure. Satan's evil plans will fail. In your power I'm secure. You're my solid rock and my salvation, my steadfast hope that won't be shaken.

My soul will wait. My soul will wait for you. My comfort when I feel forsaken. My refuge and my sure foundation. My soul will wait. My soul will wait for you. This is love I reserved through your sacrifice.

No shame or doubt. The sting of death is gone. You're my solid, my salvation, my steadfast hope that won't be shaken. My soul will wait. My soul will wait for you. You're my comfort when I feel forsaken.

My refuge and my sure foundation. My soul will wait. My soul will wait for you. I wanted to share a verse with you.

That has, when I learned it when I was real young, a youth pastor said, this is a great verse to memorize, and it's a great verse for you to take as your life verse. I didn't know the ramifications that it would take, but as you listen to this verse, it is my prayer for you, and it is a prayer for me.

As Roman 12, 1 and 2 says, therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,.

In view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and prove what God's.

Will is. His good, pleasing, gift of grace is Jesus, my redeemer, wisdom of my steadfastness. I, holy Jesus, holy, bound to him, yet not I. It is dark, but I am not forsaken. By my side, the Savior, he will stay.

I labor on in weakness and rejoice. He is mighty, his power is displayed. To this I hold, my shepherd will defend. Deepest valley, he will fight. I have been won, and I shall overcome. Yet not I, but through Christ, forget your shore.

It has been paid for. Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon, and he was raised to overthrow the grave. To this I hold, my sin has been defeated, Christ in me. Every breath, I long to follow Jesus, for he has said that he will bring me home.

Day by day, I know he will renew me. I stand with joy before you. To this I say, grace is complete. My lips shall repeat, yet not I, but through Christ. You would set your people free. We pray for those who don't.

Yet know Christ. Hearing this word, they would believe. We pray for us who do know the Son of God, that we would put greater trust in Christ, that you would relieve us of the fears and anxieties of this world, and we would trust in the God who speaks, the one who made the heavens and the earth.

God, we look to you. Help us to understand that you sustain all things by the word of your power, that we may trust you, Lord. Speak, your servants are listening, in Jesus' name. Amen. With one big lie, all meaning and hope dies.

Viktor Frankl was a famous psychoanalyst who said that apart from the sustenance of life like food and water and the basic necessities like that, the greatest need of man is for meaning, for meaning, for a sense of purpose.

We all need meaning in life, a reason to live. But the biggest lie ever told is that God did not create the world, but that the world simply evolved from eternal matter, and by impotent chance, given enough time, the world evolved to be as we have it now.

Psychoanalysts and teachers and librarians and media conspire to convince the world that this is settled science. They think it is settled science, and yet the results of this worldview utterly strip meaning from the lives of those who hold it.

A man from West Virginia recently called into a talk show, and I overheard listening on the radio. He said that he had, he has 15 children. Sounds like one of the parents from this church. Many families with large, with a large number of kids.

But this guy has 15. He said that by the time each of them finished middle school, they had each received a diagnosis of some kind of mental disorder, whether ADHD or some kind of anxiety disorder. Every single one of them was diagnosed, and he was coming to the realization that some of the psychoanalysts who were saying these things were themselves contributing to making them sick.

John Hopkins University reports that an estimated 26 of all Americans ages 18 and older, that's about one out of four adults, suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. Now, hear me.

There are certain disorders and problems that require help. The answer for something like anorexia or some difficulties that people go through, it's not the answer to say, simply pray and deal with this on your own and trust God.

There are times you need to go to a counselor to receive help because God has given the body of Christ and those with maturity in faith to disciple one another and to help one another. When you see a brother down, pick him up.

But listen, the vast majority of what is diagnosed in this world's culture as mental disorder is caused by this world's culture in the rejection of God. God made the world by His power and He upholds everything and sustains everything by His providence.

The world does not debate whether God made the world and whether Genesis 1 is true. That debate happened back in the 1920s in the Scopes Monkey Trial. And although it was definitively shown that in fact the Bible is true, yet the way the media portrayed that trial eventually won the hearts and minds of the American people and really of the entire Western society.

Such that people no longer debate whether evolution is true, they simply assume that it is. And Genesis 1 is regarded as nothing but religious tradition, the peculiarity of Christians and Jews who happen to believe it.

It is not taken seriously. While the world seeks to eliminate everything found in Genesis 1 through chapter 11, we as Christians understand that it is the very words of God that give order to the universe, that keep people mentally fit, made in the image of God with a sense of meaning as image bearers, aware that there's coming a judgment where each of us will stand before the judgment seat of God.

And there is a world to come that is more important and greater and eternal, whereas this world is fleeting. It makes sense to be riddled with anxiety if you believe and have been taught since you were a child that the world is about to be consumed by the fires of global warming.

If you've been taught that the oil in the earth is fossil fuel from dinosaurs existing millions of years ago and is about to run out and the world will grind to a halt and no longer be able to warm their houses in the winter or provide food.

And so young people grow up no longer desiring to get married and have children. They grow up afraid that this world is about to come to an apocalyptic end since it's out of control and there is no God to govern it.

And so they seek to flatten everything out. The distinctions of the world as God has designed it have become the target of the enemy. The world seeks to eliminate every ordered difference in the world.

In Genesis 1, rather than believing that God spoke all that exists into being, the world says there is no God. In Genesis 2, when God makes them male and female, the world now says there is no gender.

And in Genesis 3, when sin enters the world, the world says there is no sin. There is no law from a divine lawgiver. And so there is only mistakes and bad choices, but no such thing as sin. On and on it goes that everything that God creates from government to nations, mercy and judgment, all of the things outlined in Genesis 1 to 11, which give the world its very order and foundation, is under attack by an anti-religion.

And the starting point of this war for truth is in Genesis chapter 1. We are going to study, turn there if you will, we are going to study Genesis chapters 1 to 11. And believe it or not, it will only take 11 weeks.

It will be a short study in Genesis to reaffirm the foundations, the very things that are under attack in this culture. After that, I'm preparing to go to a New Testament book and pick up from there. But I want us to take 11 weeks to lay this foundation.

And then Genesis 12 to 50 will be exposited on Wednesday afternoons. And you guys can keep up with that online once we move on to the New Testament. We're going to begin now in Genesis chapter 1, the very beginning.

As the world came into existence by the Word of God, so God's Word continues to establish the order of the world, even against this rise of anti-religion. We begin in the first verse. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Truer words were never spoken. More profound words were never spoken in such an economy of words. Seven Hebrew words which describe everything that is. Charles Darwin, of course, was the famous evolutionary philosopher whose theories have since, many of them, been utterly disproven by science.

But after Darwin died, another evolutionary biologist named Herbert Spencer took the role as one of the foremost in the field. Herbert Spencer was the first to create a taxonomy that describes everything that exists in five words.

Science is the investigation of reality. Science just means knowledge. It's to know things. Just as conscience would be with science, with knowledge, the word science refers to knowledge. And Herbert Spencer, the evolutionary biologist, said that all things that exist can be described under five categories.

Time, force, activity, space, and matter. Time, force, activity, space, and matter. It describes everything that is, that science seeks to investigate. And of course, the evolutionary biologist says that the Bible is an irrelevant and useless book.

They wouldn't be so aggressive as that, but that's the underlying philosophy to what they said. Look again at Genesis 1 -1. In the beginning, time, God, force, created activity, the heavens, space, and the earth, matter.

God accounts for everything that exists in one summary sentence, seven Hebrew words. God is the ultimate force, omnipotent force, who speaks the world into existence. And here in Genesis 1 -1, we have the beginning of everything that exists.

And without God, there is nothing that exists. Amazingly, as we study through the book of Genesis, it's like opening a wound. The word means beginning. Matthew Henry pointed out that the gospel of Matthew starts the same way that Genesis does, with the word Genesis in the beginning, and it's there for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Matthew Henry will say, "'Blessed be God for that book which shows us our remedy, as this book opens our wound.'". Matthew is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Matthew in the New Testament will give us the remedy to the problem of sin.

But the book of Genesis must first open the wound, show the God of all the universe creating what is, and then in chapter three, display to us the fall of man. And so, from the very beginning, the wound is laid open in order that all things would point to the one through whom the world was made and through whom the world will be redeemed.

Matthew 1 -1 is about Jesus Christ, and so is Genesis 1 -1. Here, the wound will be laid open in the book of Genesis and in the entire 39 books of the Old Testament, the law, like a mirror showing us how sinful we are, in order that we would then trust in the Messiah, that light of the gospel shining forth in the New Testament.

But B .B. Warfield said that in the Old Testament, we have all the furniture of the gospel. It's just that the room is dimly lit. The message of Jesus Christ is present and hidden like furniture in a dark room in the Old Testament.

Look at that first word for God, Elohim. It says, in the beginning, God. The word Elohim is a plural form. But the grammar of Genesis 1 -1 unmistakably presents this plural formed word as one person. Speaking of the Father, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

How is it that God can be spoken of as a singularity and as a plurality at the same time? In the furniture of the Old Testament, in the dimly lit room of Genesis 1 -1, we can only guess. But in the New Testament, as the progressive revelation of God's word came to bear, we understand that God has always existed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Three in one. And so the very word Elohim is in the plural in order to hint at the fact that God exists as a three in one. In fact, as you read in the Hebrew, these seven words, Bereshit, Barah, Elohim, Et, in the beginning, God created.

The very next word after God, before heavens and the earth, it actually reads this way. It reads right to left from my view because Hebrew reads opposite of English. The very next word, Et, is untranslatable.

The other words of the text account for our English rendering. And every English translation handles it the same, unless they pluralize heavens. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

But listen, that middle word Et, Aleph, Tav, two letters, is untranslatable into English. And it's interesting that it appears so much through the Old Testament. Strong's, when giving a definition, says it's untranslatable.

How is it that the letter Aleph, Tav, put together and sitting in the middle of this verse exists as it does? And for what purpose? As the Greek, Septuagint, translates the Hebrew, Alpha and Omega correspond to Aleph, Tav, first and last.

And I say to you, church, that even though it's untranslatable and only the dark furniture in a dim room, here again is an indication that the Alpha and Omega, Jesus Christ described that way in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, Jesus was present in Genesis 1 .1.

The Aleph, Tav, the Alpha, Omega, the beginning and the end referred to Him in the first verse of our Bible. As Elohim is in the plural and yet singular, here we have the Father, now the Son, and look in verse two, you have the third member of the Trinity already introduced.

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. The third member of the Trinity takes what is lifeless and unformed, like a dead man in his sin, the lifeless, formless void of the early earth creation.

Water and earth mixed together in a muddy, unformed state. And the Spirit of the living God will be instrumental in organizing and bringing life from what was dead. In the same way, the Spirit of the living God must bring life to us.

And that is through God's creative work when He says, let there be light. Here in the text, Genesis 2, and God said, verse 3, Genesis chapter 1, verse 3, let there be light, and there was light. Corresponding to that in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, God who said, let there be light, referring to Genesis 1, 1, has made His light to shine in our hearts, to enlighten us to who Jesus Christ is.

It says, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.

So, we're going to quickly go through these days. Just take it one day at a time. You'll notice that I'm moving very quickly today. I'm not going to take just one verse and stay there for the entire sermon.

There's value in doing that, because every word of God has depths of riches for us to plumb. But sometimes it's better to take larger sections in order to pick up on themes that develop throughout a chapter.

And that's what we're going to do today. I want you to notice that what appears in Genesis 1, verses 3 to 5, will repeat throughout the days of creation. And there are four phrases that repeat themselves again and again.

Can you see what they are? The first, in verse 3, and God said. This will appear 10 times, so it is the most important, the big idea of Genesis 1, and God said. That's the first. The second appears many times as well, and there was, or and so it was.

There again in verse 3, and there was light. God said, and there was. He's speaking things into existence, and so His Word becomes the central theme. The same God who spoke things into existence speaks His Word in Scripture that we would know how He has ordered the world and how we are to order our lives.

And God said, and there was. And the third phrase that will repeat itself again and again in chapter 1 is an appraisal of what He just made on that day. So notice in verse 4, and God saw that the light was good.

God saw that it was good. God saw that it was good. You'll see this again and again in the chapter. And then finally, He numbers the days, and there was evening, and there was morning the first day, or again the second day.

These four expressions repeat themselves all through Genesis 1. I want you to see why that becomes important. Let's look at the second day, and as I read, try to notice which one of the expressions is missing.

And 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. Let's go through our list. First, and God said. There's the big point. It's there. Then the assessment, and I mean, then the statement of what it was.

And it was so. Verse 7 at the end. But notice that the third expression is missing. Here is the only day in the creative process where God does not say, and it was good. I searched the commentaries, and I have not found a reason for that.

Which means I just get to conjecture what I think it is, right? Now listen, what God tells us in His Word, we know with certainty. As we pull together theological concepts, we can conjecture and try to understand, but it doesn't carry the same weight as a direct statement in Scripture.

I think I have a conjecture. I think there's a good reason why this is the only day where God does not deliberately state, and it was good. What happens on the second day? The world is formless and void.

It's like a muddy ambiguity. Water and dirt all mixed together. And He takes water from the earth and lifts it up over the earth, creating an expanse in between. Water's on the earth, expanse air in between the heavens.

And then somewhere above is this heavy, immense layer of water suspended in the sky. Well, that's just what the text tells us. We know that much for sure. But here's my thought as to why He doesn't call it good.

Because that water was suspended over the earth in God's sovereign, meticulous providence for the destruction of the world in the flood. And there is a certain sobriety to God in dealing with judgment.

Everything else in Genesis 1 is with reference to the goodness of God's creation as He fits it for man, that He would provide for man. And man would be His vice-regent, His viceroy, to rule in His place, having dominion over the earth.

And yet here on the second day, He created a flood of judgment hanging over their heads. According to Genesis 1 31, everything that He made was very good. And so even this suspended layer of water over the earth is good, but He does not identify it as such.

Because listen, God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He is solemn in His expression of judgment. And this, though it would be used for God's judgment in the flooding of the earth, is something that we deal with and tread on very carefully.

And I think that's why it's just, it's only a hint at this point. But have you ever wondered what is the point of the second day of creation? To separate this water, which is different than as the world exists today.

We'll learn about this in Genesis 7 and 8, that there would come a day when God would destroy the world with a flood. And then He would promise never to do so again. And this gracious arrangement, this economy that we are under, we will learn about.

Continuing on to the next day. Day three, verse nine and following. And God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. There is always a distinction between things in the created order.

Holiness means separate from. Wisdom is being able to tell the difference between things, even if they look similar. In Genesis 1, you're going to see this theme that God is separating and creating distinction, that there would be order and understanding in the universe.

Verse 10, God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together, He called seas. He's now ordering the earth, creating this distinction. And God saw that it was good, especially good for man, as a place for man to dwell.

We're not fish. We need land. Verse 11, and 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.