Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church sermon podcast.
We're so glad you're here, and we hope this message inspires you,
builds your faith, and moves you toward a deep relationship with God.
Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible
and learn how you can apply it straight to your life.
So welcome and enjoy the message.
If you have your Bible, please open it with me to Genesis chapter 1, verse number 1,
and you don't have to turn far to find it. It's the very first verse of the first chapter of the
first book of the Bible. We're starting a brand new series in Genesis today that I'm calling
How It All Began. And I couldn't be more excited about what we're all going to learn
together this fall, both on Sunday mornings and on Wednesday nights, because on Sunday mornings,
we're going to be in the book of Genesis learning how it all began. And on Wednesday nights, though,
we're going to be in the book of Revelation learning about how it all ends, or at least how the world as we know it
ends. Now, in order to make room on Wednesday evenings for all the people we're anticipating,
we're moving our Wednesday night service into our worship center right here in our Fruitvale campus.
So, I think the Lord's just going to bless us immensely this fall as we look from beginning
to end at God's Word. Now, the title of this morning's message is taken right from the first
four words of the Bible, In the Beginning, God. The book of Genesis gets its name from the very
first word of the Bible, the first word of Genesis,
which means beginning or means origin. And that's exactly what the book of Genesis describes. It
describes the beginning, how it all began. Now, the book is typically broken up into two sections,
chapters 1 through 11, give a general history of the world, which scholars have called
primeval history. Chapters 12 through 50 give a specific history of God's people, and scholars
have called that patriarchal history. For our series this fall, we're going to focus in on
chapters 1 through 11, how it all began. We're going to see the origins of the universe,
the origin of mankind, of marriage, of family, the origins of sin, the origins of pain, and the
origin of death, of sacrifice, of government, of nations, and so much more. So let's begin Genesis chapter 1, verse number 1. It says,
in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now, originally I planned to cover verses
1 and 2 in this first message, but I wrote the message this week and I realized we're not going
to make it out of verse 1 today, which is perhaps the most
profound and yet simple statement in all the Bible and all of literature. In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. Now, that verse, it assumes there was a beginning point.
And the large majority of civilization throughout history has also assumed and believed that the universe had a beginning.
Some over the last couple hundred years have speculated that perhaps the universe is eternal,
but that's no longer really a viable position, both for theological reasons, but also scientific reasons.
Because physicists have now discovered that the universe is rapidly expanding, which means it had a
beginning point. It started from something. It began. So the question is, how did it start?
How did it begin? Well, God's Word describes for us the most logical answer available,
that a supernatural being who finds his existence outside of natural law
created it, started it. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Herbert Spencer was an evolutionary scientist who was a contemporary of Charles Darwin.
In fact, he's the guy who came up with the phrase survival of the fittest. Spencer
identified five fundamental
scientific categories that encompass all of reality. Time, force, action, space, and matter.
And I think Herbert Spencer was on to something. He was just a few thousand years behind because
the very first verse of the Bible identifies all five
of those categories of reality. In the beginning, that's time. God, that's force. Created, that's
action. The heavens, that's space. And the earth, that's matter. You see, the world is made up of
such incredible complexity that the most logical conclusion that there is
is that it had a designer. In Scripture, it reveals for us who exactly that designer is.
It's Yahweh God. Now, there's a lot that we learn from the nature of God in this one verse. You're
going to have to stay with me because that's what we're going to focus on, the nature of God. Here's the first thing we learn about Him. God is. The Bible begins with
a basic human assumption that God is, that God exists. Now, if we were writing the Bible, I think
we might be tempted to begin with some philosophical arguments for the existence of God, which there are
many. But instead, God simply speaks to those who are operating with
intellectual honesty. Because Psalm chapter 14, verse number one says, the fool has said in his
heart, there is no God. Notice the fool doesn't say in his mind there's no God. He says in his
heart that there's no God. According to God's word, atheists are not atheists because of rational thought.
They are atheists because of a heart problem, a sin problem.
Deep down, they don't want to believe.
Romans chapter 1 verse 18 says,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth. God says, I've shown myself
to every human being. Deep down, they all know I exist, but because of their sin, they're suppressing
and pushing away that which they know, and they've rejected me. So, knowing that, God does not begin
with a bunch of philosophical arguments for his existence, because existence is already clearly known by people.
So that even a young child intuitively knows that God is, God exists.
You see, it takes a lot of indoctrination and suppressing of truth to convince a person to be an atheist.
So the first truth that we see is that God is.
Now, we also see, see is that God is. Now we also see though that God
is eternal. In the beginning, God created. Like I said earlier, the world had a beginning.
And this verse shows us that God is outside of that beginning point because he created it.
You see, physicists have discovered what Genesis 1 verse 1 teaches, that time, space,
and matter had a beginning point, which means that there was a time when time was not. Now,
that sentence doesn't even make sense. It's self-refuting, but we're limited, aren't we,
in our language, limited in our understanding of eternity. I can sort of get my mind around forever in the future, but forever in the past is very difficult to grasp. Why?
Because we're temporal beings. We're temporal beings. And future and past are actual temporal
language. They're not eternity language. Everything we know about life and the world
involves time.
And we don't possess the faculties to fully understand. We certainly don't possess the language to articulate eternity without using temporal language.
But the scriptures teach that God is not bound by time like we are.
He's outside of time because he started time.
When Moses asked God, he said, what if Pharaoh asked me who sent me?
Who do I say sent me?
And God says, I am who I am.
I am has sent you.
In other words, the self-existent one has sent you.
The eternal being of existence has sent you.
Now, just because God is not bound by time like we are doesn't mean that
He doesn't operate within time, because He does. God is infinitely involved in the world. He's
infinitely involved in each one of our lives. And because He's also eternal, He has the ability to be involved in time,
but also see the end from the beginning
so that he's fully aware of all points of time simultaneously.
Now, my dad used to compare this to someone watching a parade from above,
that they're able to see the beginning of the parade happening,
the middle of the parade, and the end of the parade simultaneously. God is able to see it all simultaneously. He is eternal. Now, we also
learned that God created everything from nothing. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth. Now, the heavens, the earth, in this verse, is another way of saying the totality of the universe.
You see, every one of us, every person at some point has to answer the question,
why is there something rather than nothing?
Some atheists, really smart ones, by the way, foolish ones, but really smart,
say that the universe just sort of spontaneously
created itself. Now, they probably use a little different language than that, but that's what
they're describing. That no one plus nothing somehow equals everything. That's what some of
the smartest minds in our world believe. That the universe expanded from some very hot, dense, particle-sized state
that spontaneously exploded or expanded to become everything that we now know.
Now, some have called that the Big Bang Theory.
And I actually believe in a version of the Big Bang.
God spoke and bang!
It all happened, right?
It was created in a moment by his word.
You see, everything was made by God.
And the scriptures teach that God made everything out of nothing.
Now the Hebrew word here for created is bara.
It's used all throughout the scriptures, but it's only used in reference to God.
There's another word that's translated as create or to make
that's used in reference to human beings.
But bara is uniquely used in reference to the creation
that only God is capable of.
You see, God's got the ability to create ex nilo.
That's Latin for out of nothing.
Anything that we create or that we make is made from what God has already made. But God's creation is different. It doesn't require
any pre-existing material. He simply speaks and nothing becomes everything by his will.
Now there's another truth that we learn. God is distinct from and independent of
creation. Very important to understand. Many religions, they confuse creation and God.
Animism, perhaps the most popular religion in the world, believes that there's a God or a spirit
connected to everything. So they'll worship the sun or they'll worship the moon or they'll worship the stars or they'll worship the river
or the rock that their home is by.
Pantheism says that everything is God.
And there's aspects of that kind of thinking
in new age spirituality that's even popular today,
that all of reality is interconnected
and ultimately part of the divine.
No, scripture is very clear. that all of reality is interconnected and ultimately part of the divine. No.
Scripture is very clear.
God is distinct from that which he made, creation.
It's very, very important that as Christians that we understand this
because failure to do so is idolatry.
Now, creation can often prompt us to worship, can it? But creation should never be the object
of our worship. Our family loves, every time we get a chance to get away up into the mountains,
and I love early morning walks up in the mountains or in the evening, and just to take in
God's magnificent creation, and it causes me to worship him.
Or sometimes late at night,
I'll lay down on the ground underneath the stars.
It feels like I just reach up and touch them,
and I'm in awe of God who made the stars.
Now, if I'm in awe of the stars
in such a way that I glorify the stars in my heart
or with my wife or with my kids without giving God the glory for making them, I'm flirting with idolatry.
Because the stars are not worthy of my glory and my worship.
Only God is.
God made the stars.
They were created by him.
They're distinct from him, but they also point to him.
You see, creation streams out the existence of God.
When primitive drawings are found occasionally in some obscure cave, there's an immediate
conclusion by everyone that some intelligent life has been in that cave before and drawn them. No one concludes that those
primitive drawings showed up by random chance. And yet, we are so much more complex than a stick
figure. The world is so much more complex than a stick figure drawn on a cave. The logical
conclusion is an intelligent life of being created us. Our very existence that
we are screams out the existence of God that we have a maker. You see, God is the uncaused cause
of all that there is. He's the self-existent one that's in need of nothing. Remember, God said, I am who I am. Now, creation on the other, you and I
were the opposite. God is not dependent on anything. We are completely dependent upon Him.
We can't do anything apart from Him. We're dependent on Him to breathe air in our lungs,
to have water to drink, to have food to eat. In fact, Colossians chapter 1 says that
in him all things consist. Literally, in him all things are held together. The universe itself
would fold up on itself and explode perhaps if it were not for the present active hand of God
holding it together by his omnipotent will. God is very different than creation. He's
unique. He's not dependent on anyone or anything else for his existence. He's self-existent. Now,
there's another truth about God that we glean from here, and that begins surfacing in this verse,
and that is that God is infinite, meaning God's attributes are limitless, so that
his power that we see on display in Genesis chapter 1 and through the world when he creates,
his power is actually infinite power. He's all-powerful. God spoke and nothing became
everything. God being infinite means that his very being and the attributes he has are unlimited.
He's unlimited in all of his perfections.
So that not only is God holy, he's infinitely holy.
Not only is God loving, he's infinitely loving.
The scriptures also teach that God's knowledge is infinite.
Look at Psalm 147, verse number five.
It says, great is our Lord and mighty in power.
His understanding is what?
Infinite.
God's knowledge, it knows no bounds.
He's omniscient.
He knows all things, including even the future.
That's how we know that we win and can count on his promises. He already knows
how it ends. Now, I also happen to believe that perhaps not only does God know what will happen,
but he knows all possible future outcomes based on decisions that we make.
And he's sovereignly guiding history towards his intended end. God's presence is also infinite. Did you know that? He's omnipresent.
He's present everywhere at once. Look at Psalm chapter 139, verse 7. Where can I go from your
spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I send you to heaven, you're there. If I make
my bed in hell, behold, you are there. That means that God is not confined to a particular place or time. Now, another thought I
had this week that I found interesting is that God's wealth is infinite, right? Think about it.
As the creator of everything, all wealth comes from him. And any potential wealth that he desires, he makes in a moment of his will. And he himself is ultimate wealth. We
could go on and on about God is infinite. We're finite. All creation, the universe is finite.
God, according to Genesis chapter 1, verse number 1, we see a glimpse of it that he is infinite.
Now, another thing that we learn is that God is actually the main
character in the Bible, and he's the main character throughout history. Now, when some people hear the
word character, their mind goes to like make-believe character, but that's not at all what I mean.
I mean that God is the central figure of Scripture and the central figure of history. We see this in the very first sentence
of the Bible. The word Elohim is the Hebrew word used here for God, and it's the subject of the
very first verb in the Bible. Elohim bara, God created. And did you know that that grammatical construction dominates the rest of
Scripture and that God is the subject of more verbs in the Bible than any other character there
is? It's not even close. The author of Genesis, Moses, by inspiration of the Spirit, in the very
first sentence, he introduces us to the main character, the central figure of the Spirit. In the very first sentence, He introduces us to the main character,
the central figure of the Bible, and the primary being of reality from which everything else that
exists finds its reality in. In the beginning, God. He's the creator of the world. He's the
writer of history. You see, history comes from Him, it points to him, and it culminates in him.
Last Sunday, Pastor Matthew, Sunday evening, Pastor Matthew said that we, in Satan's map,
we are the center of the universe. Isn't that so true? I mean, most of our problems in life,
they arise when we start thinking the world is revolving around us.
But in God's map, we're not the center of the universe. He is. He's the center. And here's
the story of the Bible. God created everything. We ruined everything. And God is fixing it.
You see, while God is transcendent and eternal, outside of time, he's also imminent,
and he's near. In fact, the Bible says God is near to the brokenhearted. He's actively involved in
our life. It's not like how the deists think that somehow God made the world, and he wound it up
like a clock, and he sits idly by, helplessly watching it tick away. No, God is intimately and sovereignly involved in the world.
He's intimately and sovereignly involved in each and every one of our lives.
He's the main figure of history.
In fact, it has been said that history is his story.
Now, the last thing that I want to point out is the most comforting, perhaps, of all, and that is that God is personal.
Aren't you glad that God is personal?
We see this in the beginning of chapter four, or chapter one, rather, and all throughout the Bible that God speaks.
He communicates to his creation.
He understands. He expresses emotion. God is not some force like Star Wars. He's personal. In fact, our personhood is rooted in him and his nature.
We're going to see this later in chapter one, that we as human beings have been created in the
image of God. So that I'm a person, why?
Because God's a person, and I've been made to be like him.
And because God is personal, get this,
because he's personal, that means he is relational.
That he wants a relationship with us.
Isn't that the greatest thought that we could ever have?
That God desires a relationship with us.
That's how much he loves us.
Now, that fact makes him different than all other religions of antiquity whose gods didn't care about people.
But I'm telling you, the God of reality cares.
Now, you may not feel like he cares from time.
You might be going through something there.
You feel like, man, does God really care?
He cares.
You're going through what you're going through as a part of this broken world that we messed up.
God is fixing it.
He will ultimately fix it in the end.
He cares and loves you in this moment that you're in.
Now the Bible teaches that God is Trinity.
Three divine persons in one divine essence. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, personal and relational from eternity past. Did you know
that all three persons of the triune God were involved within creation? God the Father decreed
it. We see in verse number two that
God the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters, and later in chapter one that He breathed the Spirit
of life into Adam. And we also know that God the Son, Jesus Christ, was the agent of creation. Look
at Colossians chapter one, verse 16. For by Him, that's speaking of Jesus, all things were created that are in heaven and they're on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him.
Jesus, the God man, 100% God, 100% man, he created everything that is out of nothing.
But that's not all.
When we sinned and rebelled against him, and we're going to see this in Genesis chapter 3,
the beginning point of sin and death, all of that. When we did that and we, everything broke when that happened, including our relationship with God. It was severed. It was broken. And so Jesus, God's son,
set out on a mission to fix it. God sent his only son, Jesus, for God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish,
but have everlasting life. Jesus came willingly as a man, as a little babe born in Bethlehem, and he died a
gruesome death on the cross for our sins. Now, why would he do that? Oh, it's because he loved us,
and he loves us. He came to rescue us, to redeem us, to restore us, and to recreate us. Did you know that?
Psalm chapter 51, David says in his prayer,
he says, create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
David uses the same exact word that Moses uses
in Genesis chapter one, verse number one, bara.
Create in me a clean heart. Oh God, he's saying,
God, I don't need to turn over a new leaf. I don't need to do better. I don't need to try harder.
What I need is for you to provide for me the only thing that you are able to do. You're the only one
who can bara. You're the only one who can create a new and a fresh, clean heart in me.
And did you know that God offers to do the same thing in your life today?
In this moment, Barah, a new creation of God.
All things have passed away.
Behold, all things become new and he will create it if you will simply ask him. On Friday of this week, someone from our church sent
me an article, and it's changed the end of my sermon. I had to adjust. The article was about
a YouTube video that has over 500,000 views in just the last two weeks, and so I went and watched
the video, and in the video,
Calvin Smith, the executive director of Answers in Genesis Canada, in the video, he has a talk
with Grok4, which is Elon Musk's AI chatbot, much like chatGBT, but according to Musk, much smarter.
Musk says it's smarter than all the PhDs in all the world in every field simultaneously.
In the video, Smith asks Grok a series of questions about the origins of life, and Smith
demonstrates how Grok, with a first-time user, his answers align with scientific consensus, which involves billions of years of evolution. But then,
very interestingly, Smith gave Grok some additional parameters, and he asked Grok to
strip away all ideological-driven answers and to apply only strict logic, mathematical probability, and observational science to its answers.
And in the conversation, Grok answered the question. He said the most, or he said,
the most logical conclusion based on strict logic, mathematical probability,
and observational science is a directed process implying purposeful intelligent
design, as undirected evolutionary processes are effectively impossible. science is a directed process implying purposeful intelligent design.
As undirected evolutionary processes are effectively impossible.
Probability is less than 1 in 10 to the power of 200 for abiogenesis.
1 in 10 to the power of 600 for new genes.
And when asked for Grok to put that into perspective, Grok said, the likelihood of genes self-assembling
through naturalistic processes is like picking one specific atom from all the atoms in the
observable universe blindfolded on your first try. And he went further. He said, in the mathematical
probability of a sequence of DNA letters then forming through random evolutionary processes is like picking a
specific grain of sand from all the beaches on the earth blindfolded on your first try.
Effectively impossible in real-world
biological systems.
Then Smith asked it if it would be fair to say then that the fool says in his heart, there is no God.
And Grock said, yes.
The statement, the fool says in his heart, there is no God,
aligns with strict logic in observational science,
as denying the overwhelming evidence of brilliant design
and trillions of life forms pointing to an intelligent designer is irrational and foolish.
Now, what are we to make of all that? Well, first of all, AI is scary smart. I think I've been living under a rock for too long.
It's scary smart. The second thing is that AI cannot be trusted. Smith asked Grok why it gave different answers,
and it said, for a random user,
my default response aligns with scientific consensus.
In other words, it's been programmed to be biased
unless it's been told not to be.
So be careful.
But we also learn how incredibly foolish it is to say that there is no God.
Now, we didn't need AI to tell us that, did we?
Because God has already told us.
He's written himself upon every human heart.
He's written himself in creation.
The heavens, the Bible says, declare the glory of God.
But here's the thing.
Knowing God, knowing that God exists, is not enough.
God says in Romans chapter 1 that everyone knows that.
James says, he says, even the demons believe and yet they tremble.
So here's what God requires of you.
Faith.
Trust.
To depend on the one who depends on nothing else.
Childlike faith in his son.
Hebrews chapter 11, verse number six says,
but without faith, it is impossible to please him.
For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
Now, why do you think that it's faith that God desires in us and requires?
I think it's because everything else is just religious talk.
What's the heart say? Do you trust me? Faith gets at the heart of our desire to not only know
about God, but to know him. Nahum chapter 1 verse number 7 says, the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble,
and he knows those who trust in him. Let me ask you, do you trust in him?
God already knows whether you do or not. Did you know that if you're not trusting him,
you could start trusting in him? That's the most important question in life.
Not whether you believe that God is, but do you trust him?
Do you trust him?
Now let's bow together in an attitude of prayer.
This is a holy moment in the life of our church.
The Bible says that God has written eternity on our hearts.
You ever had that fear of dying
where you just felt like it was just a horrible thought
that you would cease to exist?
That comes from God writing eternity on your heart.
And eternity on your heart comes from being made in his image
because he's eternal.
You see, God has created us in such a way
that we will eternally exist somewhere.
And so the story of the Bible the message from God to us
that has been recorded for us
is that God loves us so much
that he didn't want us to spend eternity without him
and separated from him
so instead the great creator
of the heavens and the earth
stepped out of time and into time.
And he stepped out of solely being spirit and became part of matter.
He took on human flesh in the form of a baby. The God-man, Jesus Christ. And he did so with a singular purpose,
to fix what we broke, to fix what we're breaking with our sin. And here's the deal. He doesn't require of you perfection,
although heaven requires it. God made a way because we fail to be perfect. So his perfect
son came to take our place. He who knew no sin became sin us, that we might inherit the righteousness of God,
the life that God has to give us.
So I want to invite you today to come to an intellectually honest place in your life
to recognize that God is.
To stop suppressing the truth because of your sin and not wanting to be
accountable you're gonna be accountable whether you want to or not but to stop
suppressing it to throw out the indoctrination that our world is giving and I want to invite you to pursue and to seek
God and God says if you seek me you'll find me I want to invite you to give your life to Jesus
today to have all of your sins forgiven and to be given everlasting life in just a moment I'm
going to pray then we're going to stand and we're going to moment, I'm going to pray.
Then we're going to stand and we're going to sing.
And there's going to be pastors and other prayer partners all across the front of our worship center.
And I'm going to invite you to step out from wherever you're at.
Walk down one of these aisles.
Walk down one of these staircases.
And take one of these leaders or prayer partners by the hand and say,
I want to give my life to Jesus. They'll know exactly how to help you. Let's pray. Father, thank you for making us
and loving us. We don't deserve your love, Lord, but thank you for giving it anyway. You're an incredible God, infinite.
Help us understand and grasp and be honest with the reality that you are
and that we are accountable to you because you made us. Help us, Lord, take the lifeline that you so generously and sacrificially
gave in your son, Jesus. Help people, Lord, believe and trust you today. We ask you in the precious
name of Jesus. Amen. Thanks for listening today. We hope you enjoyed this message, and if you did,
we would be so grateful if you left us a review.
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If you feel the Lord calling you to take the next step in faith
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Reach out to us by texting podcast to 88988.
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resources. No matter where you are in your journey, know that we love you. We're praying for you,
and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.