WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:04.140 Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church Sermon Podcast. 00:04.880 --> 00:06.160 We're so glad you're here, 00:06.300 --> 00:08.260 and we hope this message inspires you, 00:08.480 --> 00:09.299 builds your faith, 00:09.300 --> 00:12.020 and moves you toward a deep relationship with God. 00:12.560 --> 00:15.160 Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible 00:15.160 --> 00:17.840 and learn how you can apply it straight to your life. 00:18.240 --> 00:20.380 So welcome and enjoy the message. 00:21.220 --> 00:22.460 If you have your Bible, 00:22.600 --> 00:26.180 please open it to the very first book of the Bible, the book of 00:26.180 --> 00:33.800 Genesis chapter 1, in a message I'm calling, It's All Good. It's All Good. Last week we started a 00:33.800 --> 00:42.060 new series in Genesis and we looked at the very first sentence in the Bible, Genesis 1-1. In the 00:42.060 --> 00:48.420 beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now, there's not really 00:48.420 --> 00:54.520 an elaborate introduction of God there, is there? It just says, in the beginning, God. 00:55.340 --> 01:00.320 Have you ever heard someone introduce a keynote speaker at some event, and it seems like the 01:00.320 --> 01:05.660 introduction lasts longer than the speech? They go on and on about this degree and 01:05.660 --> 01:10.200 that degree, this accomplishment and that accomplishment. But I've also noticed that 01:10.200 --> 01:15.600 it seems like the less well-known a person is, the longer that introduction speech is. 01:16.340 --> 01:21.980 But when someone's actually known, it's very brief. So that when the president is introduced, 01:22.180 --> 01:26.540 it's just, ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States. 01:27.400 --> 01:30.380 That's how God's introduced in Genesis chapter 1. 01:30.920 --> 01:33.200 In the beginning, God. 01:33.680 --> 01:39.200 Now, if you can believe that, that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, 01:39.320 --> 01:43.700 I believe that the rest of Scripture is pretty easy to believe at that point. 01:44.240 --> 01:46.380 So let's pick up in verse 01:46.380 --> 01:53.040 number two. It says, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the 01:53.040 --> 01:59.840 deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. We see here that the earth 01:59.840 --> 02:06.120 started out dark and empty, and the Spirit of God was hovering over it. Now, some have emphasized 02:06.120 --> 02:12.700 the desolate nature of that, that it's a wasteland, but I think a better way to think about it is that 02:12.700 --> 02:21.140 God first created a big blank canvas that later He would paint His world upon. Now, as we dive 02:21.140 --> 02:25.040 into the text, we're going to see the progressive sequence of action 02:25.040 --> 02:28.940 that God took as he created the world. 02:28.940 --> 02:33.120 In verse 2, he creates space, time, and matter. 02:33.860 --> 02:35.900 But it's without form, meaning it's unfinished. 02:36.280 --> 02:37.340 It's uninhabitable. 02:37.800 --> 02:41.880 So the first few days, God prepares the earth for life. 02:42.220 --> 02:46.800 And then in the remaining days, God populates the earth for life. And then in the remaining days, God populates the earth with 02:46.800 --> 02:52.800 life. Now, before we jump into the actual text, we need to explore, I think, for a moment, 02:53.260 --> 02:59.720 what is meant by the word day when the Bible speaks about the six days of creation. Because 02:59.720 --> 03:08.900 the way you interpret the word day, yom in Hebrew, has a significant impact on how old you believe the earth to be. 03:09.260 --> 03:14.740 So bear with me as we drill down into the weeds just a little bit more than we typically do. 03:15.040 --> 03:16.900 There's two camps out there. 03:16.900 --> 03:23.280 There are young earth creationists who believe the earth is roughly 6,000 to 10,000 years old. 03:23.540 --> 03:26.760 And there are old earth creationists who believe 03:26.760 --> 03:33.880 the earth is perhaps billions of years old. The young earth position interprets days one through 03:33.880 --> 03:42.300 six as basically 24-hour days. The old earth position seeks to reconcile the biblical account 03:42.300 --> 03:46.200 with what modern-day scientists tell us about the age of the 03:46.200 --> 03:52.620 earth. And so they get there in a couple different ways. Some believe in what's called the gap theory, 03:52.700 --> 04:00.720 which suggests that there's a gap of billions of years between verse 1 and verse 2. Others believe 04:00.720 --> 04:07.720 that the word day is a literary term or that it's referring not to a specific 24-hour day, 04:07.720 --> 04:15.380 but instead it's referring to an indefinite period of time, which could be millions or even billions of years. 04:15.560 --> 04:21.040 Now, it's true that yom in Hebrew, day in English, is used in various ways in Hebrew. 04:21.240 --> 04:22.660 And it's actually the same in English. 04:23.060 --> 04:29.620 Sometimes I'll tell my kids, you know, back in the day, we didn't have smartphones. Now kids panic when you say, 04:29.680 --> 04:36.420 like, how did you live? You know, we did pretty fine, actually. Now, when I say that back in the 04:36.420 --> 04:47.240 day, I'm not referencing a 24-hour period of time as a particular day. I'm referencing an era of time. So linguistically, the word means 04:47.240 --> 04:56.020 different things based on context. So what's the context of Genesis 1? To me, the plain reading of 04:56.020 --> 05:03.840 the text indicates a 24-hour kind of a day. Now, was it exactly 24 hours? I don't really know, 05:03.940 --> 05:08.240 because as we'll see in a moment, the first several days, there wasn't even a sun. 05:08.780 --> 05:11.980 So I'm not sure if it was exactly 24 hours or not. 05:12.240 --> 05:20.480 But the text gives us two reasons to believe that it was probably a basic 24-hour day as we know it. 05:20.560 --> 05:24.060 We find the first reason at the end of verse number five. 05:24.140 --> 05:25.160 It says, so the evening and the morning find the first reason at the end of verse number five. It says, so the evening 05:25.160 --> 05:31.320 and the morning were the first day. Now that language, evening and morning, it's repeated 05:31.320 --> 05:39.920 over and over for all six days of creation. That seems to indicate to me a 24-hour period of time. 05:40.280 --> 05:46.120 Now we'll also see that each day is numbered, one through seven, equaling a week. 05:46.380 --> 05:53.540 In fact, one of the Ten Commandments that God gives us seems to be built upon this idea that God created the world in seven days. 05:53.840 --> 05:55.580 Exodus chapter 20, verse number 11. 05:56.300 --> 06:04.640 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. 06:06.280 --> 06:12.700 Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. So I personally believe that God created the world in six literal 06:12.700 --> 06:19.720 days or as close to literal days as we can get without having a son. So that would put me and 06:19.720 --> 06:27.740 puts me in the young earth camp. But folks, the age of the earth is not something that we need to be 06:27.740 --> 06:34.460 fighting about as Christians. Now, theistic evolution, on the other hand, perhaps is something 06:34.460 --> 06:40.920 that's a little bit of a different story. There are segments of, there is a segment rather, 06:41.080 --> 06:46.840 of the old earth position who believe in what's called theistic evolution, 06:46.840 --> 06:53.960 which says that God used evolution over millions of years in these day age periods of time 06:53.960 --> 07:00.380 to create the world. Listen, that raises some significant problems for us biblically. 07:00.720 --> 07:10.240 If mankind evolved over millions of years, that seems to indicate that Adam and Eve were mythical figures. 07:10.680 --> 07:12.120 But the New Testament is very clear. 07:12.600 --> 07:14.900 Adam was a historical person. 07:15.280 --> 07:19.460 Romans says, for by one man, sin entered into the world. 07:20.020 --> 07:25.440 Now, theistic evolution also raises a significant theological problem. 07:30.560 --> 07:31.779 Millions of years of evolution requires millions of years of death. 07:31.780 --> 07:38.059 Of death. 07:38.060 --> 07:40.879 But Scripture is very clear that death was not part of God's original created order. 07:40.880 --> 07:43.779 Death is actually a result of sin. 07:43.780 --> 07:44.839 I mean, over and over again in chapter 1, we're going to see it. 07:44.840 --> 07:49.459 It says, and it was good, 07:49.460 --> 07:58.060 and it was good, and it was good. And then verse 31, the end of the chapter, he says, indeed, it was very good. So theistic evolutionists are trying to tell us that God's original creation that was 07:58.060 --> 08:07.520 very good was also full of death. I don't think so. No, I think the most natural reading of the text is instantaneous 08:07.520 --> 08:15.320 creation. God said, let there be light, and there was light. So I strongly reject theistic evolution. 08:15.500 --> 08:22.680 Now, I know a lot of people will say, well, but pastor, the earth seems to be so old. It looks old. 08:22.680 --> 08:27.240 I believe that's based on faulty premises that don't properly consider 08:27.240 --> 08:34.420 the flood. A catastrophic worldwide flood would have drastically altered geology as we know it. 08:34.620 --> 08:40.620 But I also believe the earth looks old to some because they don't take into account that God 08:40.620 --> 08:48.780 made the universe mature or complete. He made it whole, meaning that when God created the sun, moon, and stars, 08:48.780 --> 08:53.040 I believe he also created the beam of light from them to us. 08:53.080 --> 08:56.080 Because we're going to see in the text, they were created for us to provide light. 08:56.540 --> 09:01.560 So when astronomers say that, you know, certain stars are millions of light years away, 09:01.660 --> 09:04.000 I don't actually see any problem with that. 09:04.400 --> 09:05.700 Also, Adam and Eve, 09:06.220 --> 09:11.840 they were not created as embryos. They weren't created as infants. They were created as mature 09:11.840 --> 09:18.240 adults, plants and trees. They weren't seeds. We're going to see from the text, they were created 09:18.240 --> 09:29.100 mature. They already had seeds in them. Animals were created the same way. Creation was created mature and whole. So that brings me 09:29.100 --> 09:37.280 to the question, which comes first, the chicken or the egg? The chicken. According to Genesis 1, 09:37.360 --> 09:42.660 the chicken came first. Now, with all of that said, let's get out of the weeds for a moment 09:42.660 --> 09:47.280 for the rest of the message, and let's just see what God has to say to us. 09:47.340 --> 09:48.019 All right. 09:48.020 --> 09:50.500 Day number one, verse number three, we read. 09:51.220 --> 09:53.680 Then God said, let there be light. 09:54.080 --> 09:55.299 And there was light. 09:55.300 --> 09:57.520 And God saw the light, that it was good. 09:57.720 --> 09:59.380 And God divided the light from the darkness. 09:59.380 --> 10:01.100 God called the light day. 10:01.460 --> 10:02.720 In the darkness, he called night. 10:03.000 --> 10:05.160 So the evening and the morning were the 10:05.160 --> 10:13.680 first day. Now here's what we see. God is the creator of light. God spoke light into existence. 10:13.800 --> 10:19.420 Now this phrase that says God said, it's going to be repeated over and over again throughout the 10:19.420 --> 10:29.500 chapter. It emphasizes the almighty power of God, that when God says something, when God speaks, he does so with universe changing authority. 10:30.520 --> 10:32.680 God said, let there be light. 10:33.300 --> 10:34.759 There was light. 10:34.760 --> 10:39.360 Now, light has been studied by scientists for over 2000 years and physicists. 10:39.600 --> 10:43.220 They've advanced a great deal in their understanding of life. 10:43.220 --> 10:48.120 And they've come to a point where they learn that light is both a wave and a particle. 10:48.900 --> 10:54.740 But after thousands of years, they still really don't have any idea how it could be a wave and a particle simultaneously. 10:55.440 --> 10:59.320 And yet God, even the complexity of light that we don't fully understand, 10:59.580 --> 11:02.600 God spoke it into existence with a simple word. 11:02.600 --> 11:06.180 Two words in Hebrew, four words in English, 11:06.380 --> 11:11.940 let there be light. And there was light over and over again throughout the chapter. We're 11:11.940 --> 11:17.220 going to see that God demonstrates his supreme authority over our universe, over the laws of 11:17.220 --> 11:21.720 nature as we know it, because he created them. And he does so with his spoken word. 11:22.460 --> 11:27.000 That reminds me of Jesus, who was on the sea of Galilee with his disciples 11:27.000 --> 11:32.100 in the boat and a great storm came and the waves are tossing them back and forth so much that the 11:32.100 --> 11:40.660 disciples feared losing their lives. And so Jesus stood up and he said, be still, peace. And the 11:40.660 --> 11:46.620 winds and the waves, they obeyed his voice and they calmed. That's the power of God. 11:46.780 --> 11:52.780 That's the power of the voice of Jesus. Now, notice that the text doesn't say, 11:53.500 --> 12:01.000 let there be a sun. It says, let there be light. This shows, I think, that light has its source, 12:01.320 --> 12:07.900 not in the sun, but in God himself. I mean, why didn't God first create the sun? I think 12:07.900 --> 12:12.380 that's probably how I would have done it. That makes sense to me, but that's not how he did it. 12:12.800 --> 12:18.560 He creates light without a sun, I think, to demonstrate that light is not dependent upon 12:18.560 --> 12:33.760 the sun, that the sun that's been worshiped for millennia throughout many, many different cultures is actually dependent upon God in order to shine. Now, God, He also separated the light from the darkness. I think 12:33.760 --> 12:40.120 that He probably kept darkness around in evening time to serve as a reminder of His light, 12:40.700 --> 12:46.460 to remind us of what the world was like before He gave us light so that each morning that we awake, 12:46.840 --> 12:51.300 we're reminded anew about the creative genius of God. 12:52.100 --> 12:54.620 Now, did you know that according to the book of Revelation, 12:54.620 --> 12:57.120 which is the last book of our Bible, 12:57.720 --> 13:00.740 that in heaven there won't be a sun? 13:01.360 --> 13:02.839 Did you know that? 13:02.840 --> 13:07.780 For God will be our light, the scripture sage. Now the Bible calls 13:07.780 --> 13:13.600 Jesus the true light. And did you know that in heaven, not only will there not be a sun, 13:14.060 --> 13:19.140 there'll be no night. It will always be day, which by the way, means that we're all going to get 13:19.140 --> 13:26.780 there on the same day. Amen? Isn't that an awesome truth? We're all going to get there the day, great day of the Lord. 13:26.900 --> 13:31.720 Day number two, verse number six. You got to stay with me because we're moving fast, all right? 13:32.080 --> 13:38.160 It says, then God said, let there be a firmament, that's an expansive space in the sky, 13:38.540 --> 13:43.920 in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. Thus, God made the 13:43.920 --> 13:47.120 firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament 13:47.120 --> 13:49.820 from the waters which are above the firmament. 13:50.060 --> 13:51.239 And it was so. 13:51.240 --> 13:53.920 And God called the firmament heaven or sky. 13:54.360 --> 13:58.060 So the evening and the morning were the second day. 13:58.160 --> 13:59.779 Here's what we see. 13:59.780 --> 14:08.200 That God is the creator of the water cycle. You see, every known life form in existence 14:08.200 --> 14:16.240 requires water in order to live, in order to exist. Now, while we don't actually see God 14:16.240 --> 14:21.800 creating the water cycle on day two, he certainly creates the foundation for it. God creates this 14:21.800 --> 14:25.940 vast, expansive sky that separates the waters from earth from the waters 14:25.940 --> 14:33.160 in the sky, the clouds, which we know are important aspects of the water cycle. Now, some believe that 14:33.160 --> 14:40.380 the earth or the water above the earth, Riley, or the water above, let's say, was this large, 14:40.880 --> 14:48.180 formed this large vapor canopy that surrounded our globe. And that later God used that vapor 14:48.180 --> 14:53.080 canopy to flood the earth at the time of the flood, that he used this canopy of water to do 14:53.080 --> 14:58.580 that. That's certainly possible. We really don't know exactly what that canopy was like. 14:59.500 --> 15:06.920 Number three, verse number nine. Then God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered 15:06.920 --> 15:14.300 together in one place, seems like one ocean, and let the land appear. And it was so. And God called 15:14.300 --> 15:19.660 the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters he called seas. And God saw that it was 15:19.660 --> 15:45.160 good. Then God said, And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day. 15:45.280 --> 15:46.779 Here's what we see. 15:46.780 --> 15:51.220 God is the creator of the continents and the oceans. 15:52.120 --> 15:57.680 Now the text seems to perhaps imply that God created originally one large land mass, 15:57.680 --> 16:04.700 one large continent, which geologists have long said existed at one time or another. 16:04.800 --> 16:07.200 It's called Pangea. And when you look on 16:07.200 --> 16:15.380 a map, you can sort of see how various continents could potentially in time past could have perhaps 16:15.380 --> 16:20.460 fit together like a puzzle. So I think that's possible. Many Christians will point to the flood 16:20.460 --> 16:26.620 account to explain the breaking up of the continents of how that took place. 16:27.040 --> 16:31.700 He'll point to Genesis chapter 7, which we'll be at in a couple months from now, 16:31.700 --> 16:36.600 where the flood account, God says that the fountains of the great deep were broken up 16:36.600 --> 16:47.480 and the heavens were opened above. So water rained down from above, but also it emerged from below to flood the earth. So many 16:47.480 --> 16:52.960 have speculated that when that happened, the tectonic plates shifted in such a way that perhaps 16:52.960 --> 16:59.500 the continents were separated. Now, we don't know for sure if that's what happened. It's possible. 17:00.080 --> 17:08.040 Now, there was a second prominent act of creation on day number three, and that was the creation of vegetation. 17:08.960 --> 17:13.980 God created the grass and the herbs and the trees all according to their kind. 17:13.980 --> 17:20.520 Now, that language, according to their kind, is going to be repeated for the creation of animals as well. 17:20.600 --> 17:22.980 So we're going to talk about that in just a moment. 17:23.780 --> 17:26.920 Day number four, verse number 14. 17:27.700 --> 17:33.080 Then God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night, 17:33.300 --> 17:37.620 and let them be for signs and seasons for the days and the years. In other words, let them be for us, 17:37.840 --> 17:42.980 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth. 17:43.340 --> 17:45.360 And it was so. Then God made 17:45.360 --> 17:49.740 two great lights, the greater light to rule over the day, that's the sun, and the lesser light to 17:49.740 --> 17:56.500 rule over the night, that's the moon. He also made the stars. God set them in the firmament of the 17:56.500 --> 18:01.480 heavens to give light on the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide 18:01.480 --> 18:07.700 the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good, so the evening and 18:07.700 --> 18:15.560 the morning were the fourth day. Here's what we see. God is the creator of the sun, the moon, 18:15.680 --> 18:27.340 and the stars. Now, countless civilizations throughout history have worshiped the sun, the moon, and the stars. But we see here that all of 18:27.340 --> 18:33.620 them owe their existence to Almighty God. Now, there is a phrase in verse number 17 that I want 18:33.620 --> 18:37.240 to point out to you. You can look, if you've got a copy of God's Word, you can look for that 18:37.240 --> 18:50.860 yourself. It says in verse number 17, excuse me, that God set them. God placed them. And boy, did he. I mean, if we were any closer to the sun, 18:50.940 --> 18:55.980 we'd burn up. We're any further away from the sun, we would freeze to death. The sun is perfectly 18:55.980 --> 19:06.680 located, perfectly set, perfectly placed for life to exist on earth. The moon is perfectly placed for to have a perfect gravitational pull 19:06.680 --> 19:13.160 upon the earth. Now, if you've never seen pictures from the James Webb telescope, 19:14.020 --> 19:19.600 you are missing out. You need to look that up online. You're going to get an opportunity because 19:19.600 --> 19:28.460 of our wonderful technology that we have to get a closer glimpse of the stars and the galaxies God created, 19:28.460 --> 19:36.880 and it will blow your mind. You'll just start worshiping our great Lord. Psalm 19, verse 1, 19:36.940 --> 19:48.380 rather, it says, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day number five. You staying with me? Verse number 20. 19:48.380 --> 20:08.260 He says, So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded according to their kind, 20:08.640 --> 20:11.360 and every weaned bird according to its kind. 20:11.620 --> 20:13.800 And God saw that it was good. 20:14.280 --> 20:15.960 And God blessed them, saying, 20:16.140 --> 20:19.480 Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters and the seas 20:19.480 --> 20:21.620 and let the birds multiply on the earth. 20:21.980 --> 20:25.420 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 20:25.420 --> 20:32.680 We see here that God is the creator of all life in the ocean and all life in the sky. 20:33.460 --> 20:38.580 Day number five, God begins creating animal life, 20:39.040 --> 20:42.700 specifically the birds of the sky and the creatures of the ocean, 20:42.860 --> 20:48.600 all according to their kind. Now, one of my favorite 20:48.600 --> 20:55.740 things to do is to go snorkeling in the ocean. I think I got that love of snorkeling from my dad. 20:56.040 --> 21:01.180 If you ever get a chance to go, don't go in California, right? The water's too cold. 21:01.880 --> 21:05.540 It's just a little bit different. Now, California, you'll have fun snorkeling, 21:05.860 --> 21:09.740 but other parts of the world, you will be blown away. 21:10.080 --> 21:12.980 As you go, you'll just be looking at this creature and that creature 21:12.980 --> 21:15.020 and this fish and that fish. 21:15.020 --> 21:20.020 There are millions of different life forms in the ocean, 21:20.020 --> 21:22.500 and you'll be amazed by God's creation. 21:22.620 --> 21:25.180 It will scream out the existence of God. 21:25.800 --> 21:30.100 Now, interestingly, we see in the text that we read just a moment ago 21:30.100 --> 21:36.260 that God blesses the sea creatures and he blesses the birds, 21:36.440 --> 21:41.660 just like he will bless the land animals on day number six. 21:41.660 --> 21:47.400 I think indicating that animal life is of more value than plant life, which he didn't bless on day number six. I think indicating that animal life is of more value than plant life, 21:47.760 --> 21:53.640 which he didn't bless on day number three. Day number six, verse number 24. 21:54.600 --> 21:59.720 Then God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind, 22:00.280 --> 22:06.560 cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind. And it was so. And God 22:06.560 --> 22:09.880 made the beast of the earth according to its kind, the cattle according to its kind, everything that 22:09.880 --> 22:15.940 creeps on the earth according to its kind. See the pattern there? And God saw that it was good. Now, 22:16.020 --> 22:20.360 for the sake of time, we're going to stop right there. I'd planned to read through the end of the 22:20.360 --> 22:32.220 chapter. We don't have enough time today because next week, Lord willing, we're going to take a close look at the end of chapter one at God's masterpiece of creation, which is you and I 22:32.220 --> 22:39.540 as humans, mankind. So here's what we learn. God's the creator of land animals and human beings. 22:40.100 --> 22:46.300 That's what God does on day six. Now, next week, like I said, we're going to focus on the human beings part. 22:46.760 --> 22:50.780 So here's what I want to do instead for the remainder of our time here. 22:51.800 --> 22:58.740 I want to focus on this repeating phrase, according to their own kind. 22:59.240 --> 23:01.140 We saw it with the plants. 23:01.320 --> 23:02.740 We saw it with the sea creatures. 23:02.880 --> 23:03.940 We saw it with the birds. 23:04.000 --> 23:05.200 And now we see it with the plants, we saw it with the sea creatures, we saw it with the birds, and now we see it with 23:05.200 --> 23:12.840 the land animals. This phrase, according to their own kind, is a God-given boundary or parameter 23:12.840 --> 23:21.600 of reproduction. And I do believe that it removes evolution from a viable option for Christians. Now, 23:21.600 --> 23:27.800 now, kind does not mean species. Species is a modern term. It came 23:27.800 --> 23:37.380 around millennia later. It's a contemporary term. Kind is more general than species. Now, 23:37.720 --> 23:45.420 we need to make this clear about evolution. This passage does not refute microevolution. 23:47.840 --> 23:54.959 It refutes macroevolution. 23:54.960 --> 23:59.019 Microevolution is the idea that a bird with a short beak can reproduce a bird with a long beak, 23:59.020 --> 24:00.239 or a person who's short can reproduce someone who's tall. 24:00.240 --> 24:01.479 That's microevolution. 24:01.480 --> 24:06.639 Everyone believes that. 24:06.640 --> 24:13.540 No one denies that. Macroevolution, on the other hand, is when one kind of animal changes and transforms into a completely different kind of animal over time. 24:14.440 --> 24:21.040 We see here in the passage that God created each kind of plant and each kind of animal 24:21.040 --> 24:29.180 with a certain specific genetic code that serves as a boundary of reproduction. 24:29.400 --> 24:34.640 So that while some may adapt over time, none of them change kinds. 24:34.820 --> 24:38.540 A mouse doesn't become a bird, a lion doesn't become a cow, and so forth. 24:38.540 --> 24:45.700 And did you know that there isn't any scientific evidence of God's boundaries of according to their kind ever being violated. 24:46.820 --> 24:48.340 That boundary still exists. 24:48.680 --> 24:49.920 It has not been disproven. 24:50.680 --> 24:54.240 Darwin said that his theory of evolution, if it was right, 24:54.240 --> 25:01.040 that scientists would eventually discover and uncover transitional forms within the fossil records. 25:01.140 --> 25:03.700 But those transitional forms have not been found. 25:04.280 --> 25:10.760 And scientists have looked very hard. So the evidence is pointed to in our students' textbooks, the evidence that 25:10.760 --> 25:19.240 evolutionists point to is actually microevolution, not macroevolution. So it's an intellectual 25:19.240 --> 25:29.000 sleight of hand. It's disingenuous. Folks, it is very clear from creation that we have a creator. We have a maker, 25:29.400 --> 25:37.140 and we know his name. His name is Jesus. The heavens declare his glory. The tiniest of cells, 25:37.280 --> 25:43.100 they show his handiwork. I mean, a single cell is more complex than an entire city by design. 25:43.880 --> 25:45.880 It's far more complex than the iPhone 25:45.880 --> 25:47.800 that you might have in your pocket today. 25:48.460 --> 25:49.820 Think about DNA, for example. 25:49.940 --> 25:51.700 DNA provides detailed programming 25:51.700 --> 25:54.600 for thousands of processes, 25:55.060 --> 25:57.420 a vast assembly line that go to work 25:57.420 --> 25:58.740 on each and every cell. 25:58.820 --> 26:02.060 And if one of those steps in the assembly line fails, 26:02.180 --> 26:04.839 the cell dies. 26:04.840 --> 26:07.140 We think this has randomly happened. The 26:07.140 --> 26:17.020 world, our very existence, life itself screams out the existence of God. Nothing does not produce 26:17.020 --> 26:28.060 everything. Unintelligence doesn't produce intelligence. Chaos doesn't produce order. Random mutations don't produce irreducibly 26:28.060 --> 26:38.600 complex organism. That defies logic to believe that. Now, as we wrap up, I want to read the last 26:38.600 --> 26:48.780 verse of our chapter, verse number 31. It says, then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. 26:49.160 --> 26:57.000 So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Over and over again, after every creative act, 26:57.060 --> 27:03.820 God said, and it was good, and it was good, and it was good. Every aspect of creation is good, 27:03.820 --> 27:06.100 from the light God created created to the land and the 27:06.100 --> 27:12.360 seas to the creatures that live. All of it is good. And then he's created everything. And what 27:12.360 --> 27:26.760 does he say? The summation of his creation. And it was very good. Now, this word good means morally right, but it also implies beauty. 27:27.160 --> 27:29.059 Did you know that? 27:29.060 --> 27:32.700 See, God is a beautiful God. 27:33.600 --> 27:37.360 And therefore, God created a beautiful world. 27:37.860 --> 27:43.920 Now, it's interesting that in atheistic circles who deny the existence of God, 27:44.040 --> 27:46.760 typically their art reflects their ideology. 27:47.240 --> 27:51.480 So that oftentimes it's sterile and cold or without color. 27:51.660 --> 27:53.880 It's not what you would call beautiful. 27:54.040 --> 27:56.700 But God's art is beautiful. 27:57.260 --> 27:58.139 Why? 27:58.140 --> 27:59.240 Because he's beautiful. 27:59.860 --> 28:05.820 And it comes out of his nature, his creative order, and God is good. 28:06.680 --> 28:10.420 So my question is, what in the world happened to all of us? 28:11.560 --> 28:16.720 Because I don't know about you, but the world does not seem good, morally right, to me. 28:16.860 --> 28:18.220 And it's because it's not. 28:19.040 --> 28:19.899 It's not. 28:19.900 --> 28:37.780 We're going to see in a few weeks out of Genesis chapter 3 that God's masterpiece of his creation, you and I, in his very image, Adam and Eve, our great, great, great, great, I don't know how many greats, grandparents, they rebelled against God. 28:37.880 --> 28:41.420 They rebelled against the one who made them and owns them. 28:42.480 --> 28:45.360 Now, God warned them ahead of time, if you rebel and you sin against me, 28:45.520 --> 28:51.360 you will surely die. And that's exactly what happened. They sinned and the entire creation 28:51.360 --> 28:57.340 has now been put into a death spiral ever since. Everything that's alive, whether that's vegetation 28:57.340 --> 29:14.360 and thorns sprouting up among the vegetation, or whether that's animal life or certainly human beings. But the story of the Bible is that God looked on his dying world that deserved death, 29:14.580 --> 29:17.840 and he did not want it to continue in death forever. 29:18.460 --> 29:30.140 And so he stepped into time, and he sent his son Jesus to pay for our penalty, to fix this broken world, to save 29:30.140 --> 29:36.480 and rescue us from our sins, to pay for our sin and to pay for our death, because in the day that 29:36.480 --> 29:49.280 you sin, you shall surely die. We deserve to die. So Jesus died for us in our place on the cross so that the life that is God's, so that the light that is God's 29:50.080 --> 29:58.160 spiritually is given to us freely and we can now enjoy him forever and ever. 29:59.660 --> 30:08.360 You know, the Psalms poetically speak about how God placed the moon and the stars in their place with, 30:08.700 --> 30:14.480 in the sky with his fingers. In other words, it didn't take a whole lot of effort because God is 30:14.480 --> 30:20.840 almighty. He's powerful. But did you know that the scriptures also teach about how God saves us from 30:20.840 --> 30:28.660 our sins with his mighty right hand? See, the greatest acts of God that we will worship him forever for, 30:28.940 --> 30:33.920 according to Revelation 4 and 5, are his act of creation and his act of redemption. 30:35.260 --> 30:39.740 Believe it or not, redemption is the greater act. 30:40.920 --> 30:41.519 Redemption. 30:41.520 --> 30:42.999 Redemption. 30:43.000 --> 30:49.880 It called for the mighty right hand of God because it cost him severely. 30:50.940 --> 30:58.480 It cost him the life of his precious eternal son who died a gruesome death, the death we deserve 30:58.480 --> 31:06.240 to die. Let's thank God that God was not focused on what it would cost. 31:07.400 --> 31:10.900 He was focused on what it was worth. 31:12.060 --> 31:19.320 Did you know the fact that Jesus died for you means that you were worth dying for? 31:20.600 --> 31:25.820 Did you know that God loves you more than anyone's ever loved you? Because he made you. 31:26.620 --> 31:33.580 He crafted you into his image so that you're to reflect the nature of God, all of his goodness, 31:33.780 --> 31:37.740 all of his greatness. But guess what? We're not reflecting properly. We've been broken. 31:37.740 --> 31:41.140 The image of God has been marred so that we're now dying. 31:43.260 --> 31:47.360 But God looks at us in our state of sin and failure, 31:47.660 --> 31:48.940 and he still loves us. 31:50.040 --> 31:53.640 Because he made us and he crafted us with his perfect hand. 31:54.240 --> 31:58.580 He molded us and knit us while we were still in our mother's womb. 31:59.340 --> 32:02.640 All the detailed processes of our DNA and all that, 32:03.000 --> 32:04.460 he wrote the code for it. 32:06.900 --> 32:14.980 He designed it all. He knows the number of hairs that are on your head. He knows all of your sin, and yet he still loves you. 32:16.880 --> 32:25.840 It cost God his son, but it was worth it to him. Now, the Bible says that in order to have his life, 32:26.840 --> 32:28.240 in order to have his light, 32:29.900 --> 32:33.940 we must receive his gift. 32:35.440 --> 32:37.340 The gift of life is son Jesus. 32:37.480 --> 32:39.680 The only way that you receive that gift 32:39.680 --> 32:45.600 is by faith in Jesus as your Savior and as your Lord. 32:47.520 --> 32:48.599 The Bible says, 32:48.600 --> 32:52.820 Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 32:53.960 --> 32:55.820 Let's bow together in an attitude of prayer, 32:55.920 --> 32:56.980 both here and at Olive Drive. 32:57.020 --> 32:59.980 This is a holy moment in the life of our church, 32:59.980 --> 33:02.740 but it's not a formal moment. 33:03.760 --> 33:05.440 I want to make sure you guys understand that. Yes, it's a holy moment, but it's not a formal moment. I want to make sure you guys understand that. 33:06.140 --> 33:08.760 Yes, it's a holy moment, but it's not formal. 33:08.880 --> 33:13.440 In just a moment, we're prayerfully have been expecting movement in our service. 33:15.100 --> 33:18.760 People to get up and move as God is moving on their life. 33:19.800 --> 33:26.160 And so in a moment after I pray, we're going to stand to our feet and we're going to sing a song. 33:26.720 --> 33:29.780 We're going to worship God as creator and redeemer. 33:31.120 --> 33:33.280 But we're also going to invite you to move. 33:34.620 --> 33:48.600 If God's touching your life, if Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 33:48.700 --> 33:53.480 Perhaps the Spirit of God is hovering over your life right now and you sense it. 33:54.440 --> 33:55.460 You can sense it. 33:56.900 --> 34:09.320 If you sense that, I'm telling you right now, it's the Spirit of God that's wanting to touch you at a deep place of your being that no words from me, no one else 34:09.320 --> 34:16.740 could touch you there in your soul, in your spirit to breathe life back into you. If that's the case, 34:17.160 --> 34:25.200 you must respond to that. If you don't respond, if you reject it, you will not experience God's life. 34:25.360 --> 34:26.360 That's very clear. 34:27.340 --> 34:31.100 But God has given you the opportunity to pursue your purpose, 34:31.800 --> 34:36.660 to come back to why you were made, and that was for him. 34:37.000 --> 34:40.040 So I want to invite you to get to know God in a personal way. 34:40.040 --> 34:43.280 Maybe you felt like there's been a distance between you and God. 34:43.360 --> 34:46.100 You've known he's existed, but you haven't really known him personally. 34:47.440 --> 34:50.300 That could be because you don't know him personally. 34:50.480 --> 34:54.140 Because the Bible says that our sin separates us from God. 34:54.260 --> 35:12.660 And so the only way the gap in the bridge can be filled is through Jesus. Pascal said that there is a God-shaped void within every human heart, an empty spot, 35:12.760 --> 35:20.660 a place that we try to fill with all kinds of different things, but it's only shaped like God. 35:22.720 --> 35:29.160 Sin caused that hole, and God wants to fill it again, but it only is filled 35:29.160 --> 35:34.800 through faith in his son Jesus to believe that he died on the cross for your sins and rose the 35:34.800 --> 35:42.700 third day. And if you give your life to him, he'll give you life. I want to invite you after I pray 35:42.700 --> 35:46.880 and we stand and sing, there's going to be pastors and leaders and prayer partners 35:46.880 --> 35:50.060 scattered all across the front of both of our worship services. 35:51.180 --> 35:54.700 I just want to invite you to step out from wherever you're at 35:54.700 --> 35:58.680 and walk down one of these aisles, one of these staircases, 35:58.980 --> 36:01.160 and say, I want to give my life to Jesus. 36:01.720 --> 36:03.819 It's time. 36:03.820 --> 36:07.720 It's time that I live for something more than myself. 36:08.980 --> 36:13.140 These folks will know exactly how to help you. They're not going to embarrass you by answering 36:13.140 --> 36:19.700 a question you can't answer. They're here to help you. Maybe you want to be baptized and go public 36:19.700 --> 36:26.080 with your faith. You don't want to be ashamed of your faith. It's a personal matter, but it's not private. 36:26.400 --> 36:30.700 God wants you to be proud of him. And so maybe you want to be baptized. Let us know. We'd love 36:30.700 --> 36:35.120 to talk with you about it. Or maybe you say, you know what? I want to become a family member. 36:36.040 --> 36:50.960 I want to become a family member here at Valley Baptist. Then let us know. Come. We'd love for you to join our faith family. It could be, though, that God is stirring 36:50.960 --> 36:56.480 your heart in such a way that you know you don't need to talk with a pastor. You just need to go 36:56.480 --> 37:03.640 straight to the Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. These steps are going to be open at both of our 37:03.640 --> 37:10.280 worship campuses. And maybe you just want to come and move like i said this is not a formal time this is a time 37:10.280 --> 37:14.020 where god's moving and when god's moving there should be movement in the room 37:14.020 --> 37:22.000 maybe you just want to come and pray pour out your heart to the lord something's weighing on you 37:22.000 --> 37:25.920 some burden that god has placed for another person in your life 37:25.920 --> 37:31.180 and you just want to move and pray and ask God for his intervention. 37:32.440 --> 37:35.320 However God moves, let's respond. 37:35.560 --> 37:36.059 Let's pray. 37:36.060 --> 37:40.720 Father, we're amazed by your creation. 37:41.680 --> 37:51.600 We're amazed by the incredible design. Lord, as I've spent a number of weeks 37:51.600 --> 37:57.860 studying Genesis chapter one, I admit to you, Lord, there's, I still have a lot of questions 37:57.860 --> 38:01.160 how this worked and how that worked. 38:03.120 --> 38:05.460 Lord, I know there's things I had to cut out of the message 38:05.460 --> 38:06.580 for the sake of time, Lord, 38:06.740 --> 38:09.280 but I'm trusting you and I'm asking you 38:09.280 --> 38:13.760 that you would make the main thing clear to us 38:13.760 --> 38:17.160 that we have been made 38:17.160 --> 38:21.560 and therefore we were made with purpose. 38:22.780 --> 38:23.840 Help us, Lord. 38:24.020 --> 38:27.300 Everyone listening, come to that crucial truth 38:27.300 --> 38:30.860 that changes all of reality as we know it. 38:32.300 --> 38:34.540 Please, Lord, by your spirit, 38:34.660 --> 38:36.500 will you do a great work in our midst 38:36.500 --> 38:39.980 and stir our hearts. 38:41.220 --> 38:43.920 We love you and we pray this in Jesus' name. 38:44.740 --> 39:05.100 Amen. Thanks for listening today. We hope you enjoyed this message. we love you and we pray this in Jesus name Amen We're calling you to take the next step in faith through salvation, service, or giving. 39:05.740 --> 39:09.479 Don't wait. 39:09.480 --> 39:15.039 Reach out to us by texting PODCAST to 88988. 39:15.040 --> 39:20.799 That's PODCAST to 88988 or connect with us on one of our social media platforms. 39:20.800 --> 39:24.679 You can also visit our website, valleybaptist.org, to find even more great resources. 39:24.680 --> 39:30.959 No matter where you are in your journey, know that we love you. 39:30.960 --> 39:40.960 We're praying for you, and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.