Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast.
Today John Metter, lead pastor of Cross City Church, brings a message in the Origins series
that helps answer the five most important questions in life.
How you live today depends on how you answer these questions.
Here's John Metter with the teaching on the five questions.
You might listen to this morning and take them to Genesis chapter 1 verse 1, the book of
beginning, the book of foundations, the book of origins, Genesis chapter 1 verse 1.
A number of years ago I was pastoring in the city of Edmond, Oklahoma and a tornado came
through town.
Now Oklahoma is called tornado alley so it's not what's surprised that that happened.
We knew that could happen at any time, the spring usually.
At this time the tornado actually came through our city.
It actually began to do damage and the damage was so widespread at night we couldn't really
tell what was going on.
The next morning we got up and we were driving through some of the streets that used to have
houses next to them and later on we learned that over 150 homes were destroyed completely.
Miraculously there were no deaths, several injuries but not severe.
But 150 homes destroyed completely.
Now imagine driving through a neighborhood and having to have debris cleared from the
street to drive through and seeing home location after location with no walls, no roof, no
interior left, just concrete foundations.
As a matter of fact I was stunned by the fact that none of the foundations of those 150
homes was destroyed or damaged at all.
Just the homes built on those foundations were gone.
Over the years nearly every family came back and built the exact same home on the exact
same foundation because they could because the foundations didn't get destroyed.
The truth is in our lives as well foundations are amazingly important for life and everything
can be destroyed but if the foundations are secure you can rebuild again.
That's really why God gave us amazing foundations.
The further we move away from the foundations God gave us the worse life gets and the closer
we stick with the original foundations God gives us the better things are.
We find that about these foundations in the book of Genesis.
Would you stand with me together as I read the first five verses of Genesis chapter one
the title of the message today is day one.
Day one.
Last week we looked at day zero we looked at what was said before day one and today
we'll read that again as well as verses three four and five.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was formless and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the Spirit
of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
Then God said let there be light and there was light.
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 one day.
Father in Jesus name today we pray for illumination on this text understanding about what's being
said and how it applies to us today.
Thank you.
We're building the foundation strong enough to support us and to give us truth.
We ask this in Jesus name.
Amen.
Please be seated.
Well if you don't have foundations you really don't have anything.
Foundations are essential to your life.
But I have to tell you today that people are asking questions that the foundations answer
for them and yet they're not looking to the foundation for the answers.
Foundation reveals everything you would ever want to know in the book of Genesis.
Genesis 1 through 12 answer all the important questions in life and some of the questions
that we'll be asking and answering as we walk through this series are these questions.
The first one is who is God and what is truth.
It's a compound question but if you believe that God is who he says he is then you've
already answered the question about what is truth.
So who is God and what is truth.
Who was I created to be?
The world is confused about who we were created to be.
Culture gives us all kinds of answers or even says you can be whoever you want to be or
whatever you want to be.
But the Bible gives answers to the question who was I created to be.
Who are my people?
Who is it that I am to turn to when I need support?
Do I pursue healthy relationships?
It's another question.
And what are healthy relationships?
How are they supposed to work?
Those are answered in the book of Genesis.
And finally what is my purpose?
Why am I on the planet?
Why has God given me life?
If you find the answers to those questions in the Bible, in scriptures from God then
you have a strong foundation on which to build.
If you try to find them anywhere else your foundations are crumbling.
So we have this text and we have this creation account and last week we began to explain
what the Bible says about creation.
At the same time we ask the question what does science say?
Science tells us that evolution is how the species came to be at its present state.
But even Darwin, the originator of the evolution of the species, stated that a creator would
have to have created the first life forms and simple life molecular structures for any
evolution to ever take place.
We talked about the Big Bang theory that science embraced for so many years but is no longer
in favor of many scientists because they've begun to reject that.
Recently recent discoveries about the universe from stronger telescopes and more research
show that the universe is far bigger than the Big Bang theory could ever account for.
And we're finding new galaxies and new stars that are further out than anything that can
be accounted for scientifically.
Cosmologists, those that study the cosmos, have no definitive answer for how did any
of this come into being.
Last week we made the statement that we know that there is an intelligent designer of the
universe for a number of reasons.
First of all the witness of creation.
When you look at creation, when you look at what all is out there, when you get on a telescope
and look at all of the constellations that are out there and the amazing symmetry of
the whole universe you have to come to a conclusion that this was not by accident.
This was not a random thing that took place.
So creation itself speaks loudly about the existence of an intelligent designer.
Secondly we look at the scripture as a witness.
That everywhere you go in the Bible the scripture writes about creation as it does in Genesis
1 with particularly different individuals writing back to the evidence they see in the
creation account.
And then thirdly we look at the creation account itself.
Genesis 1 all the way through the end of the chapter give us a profound witness to how
the creation came into being and it really answers the question who is God.
Because every time you read about God you find out something more about him.
Last week we just looked at the first two verses of Genesis chapter 1 and the first
two verses of the Bible tell us that God is eternal.
In the beginning God.
He always has been.
He always will be.
He was in existence in the beginning.
The Bible tells us he is one God even though God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy
Spirit are three of the persons of the Godhead.
God is one.
The word Elohim is used and in the Hebrew that means a plural one which is far into
our mind but describes the character of God.
Thirdly we learn he is omnipotent.
That means he is all powerful.
In the beginning God created.
The only way anybody can create anything is if they have power.
For someone to create the heavens and the earth they must be omnipotent.
So here we are in Genesis chapter 1 looking at verse 2 and following today.
We are going to find out several firsts that take place in this passage.
First of all the first form.
The first form.
Look at verse 2.
The earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit
of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
I love to ask questions and this question I ask of scripture is this one.
What did the earth look like after God began?
After the Bible says that God created the heavens and the earth but then showed us a
step by step process where all the other components of creation were placed into being.
What did it look like before all those other components?
Before there was day and night?
Before there was the sun and the stars?
Before there was land and math?
What did it look like at first?
The science has no explanation for how those first molecules came into being but if we
read the Bible we find that God created water first before all the other elements of creation,
before any other kind of matter God hovered the scripture says over the waters.
That's the first matter you hear of in the scripture.
I don't know if you are like me but I don't remember much about my high school chemistry
class and I don't remember much about my high school science class but apparently they teach
you about H2O.
H2O is what we call our water.
It's really amazing that if you take those molecules and separate them they are both very
explosive but together they do not explode.
In fact they adhere to one another.
H2O is so unique in so many ways.
Water because it is H2O is explained as having polarity.
So what that means is molecules are pulled together in water and it adheres to one another.
It bonds with other H2O molecules which means it has cohesion.
It also has viscosity which means that it flows.
So when water is poured it stays together and flows out.
It sustains aquatic life because it boils and freezes at only extreme temperatures meaning
that you can find all kinds of life inside of water apart from those two places freezing
or boiling.
Water can also be found in liquid, steam or ice.
Water is found over 70% of the earth.
In fact the earth is almost largely made of water just a little bit of land in comparison
with that.
In fact you are 75% water as a human being.
Did you know that?
You are made up of water.
Astronomers who look for other life forms look for water on the planet first that they
are looking at because they know that water has to exist in order to provide life ability
for any other kind of life.
Ken Ham in his writings describes this first form as a watery blob.
I prefer to call it a watery sphere that God set into motion one day.
And I think I know what it looks like.
I was looking through some scientific videos the other day and came across a watery sphere
and I believe this video captures this sphere in a way that I think will be helpful for
us.
Again this is my speculation and my own research but here is what we see.
It is a watery sphere in microgravity rotating.
It is floating much like astronauts float in microgravity in space.
But as it rotates you will notice that the air bubbles inside of that water are coheating
together holding together in motion and as it rotates it creates a core.
The natural forming of a core with a pole on the top and on the bottom and when they
inject additional matter say tea leaves into this rotating blob of water it causes the
matter to move to the outer sides of this sphere which is very much like the plates
of the earth moving to where they are today.
Now from my own perspective that is what Genesis chapter 1 verse 2 describes.
This kind of rotating mass that we call water and in dark form without light Genesis 1 and
2 describes that.
Now when I go to the New Testament I find a very similar description of the beginning
of heavens and earth as being water.
Second Peter chapter 3 verse 5 when they maintain this that is the doubters it escapes their
notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed
out of water and by water.
Now that is an interesting thing.
Nobody has ever taught me that before but there it is in the Bible.
And as we read through it we see some amazing things in this very first form that God gave
us.
I also want you to know something else as we look at what God is doing in Genesis chapter
1 you will have to notice that God has gone before us to place us on the planet and place
everything on the planet that we will need for our existence.
We can't live without water.
We can't live without all the other things that God provides on the planet.
And as you read Genesis 1 you will see that He creates light and He will create food.
He will create the work that man must have.
He creates the relationships that we have to have.
He's gone before us.
Now when I look at all that God has done in Genesis chapter 1 I come to the conclusion
that creation isn't about the earth.
It's about the creator.
It's about those that He will place on the earth who reflect His very character in His
image.
Now there's some application here that I want you to pause and think about.
Just like the earth was not an accident.
Just like it wasn't random.
Just like it was spoken to existence by the purpose and the power of God.
You're no accident and you're not on this planet in a random way.
You're here for a reason with a purpose because we have a God who is omnipotent because we
have a God who has purpose.
He has meaning in life and He's placed you here not by accident in any way.
Don't think that you're just a survivor.
You're not.
God has placed you here because He has plans for your life and those plans are going to
be amazing and your life matters because God is a God of purpose.
Now you just hold that, you deposit that in your mind for just a few moments.
The first form was the form that God spoke into existence.
Then we've got what's obvious, the first word.
The first word.
You know this is the first recorded word of God in the Bible.
Here's what it says in verse 3.
Then God said, let there be.
Now I think that's significant.
Anytime you read about something that's first mentioned in a certain place in scripture,
it is significant.
Here's a word that was spoken by God.
Here's a word that became a pattern for how God created everything else.
You'll notice as you read Genesis 1 over and over it says, and God said, and God said,
and God said, and God said, and it was.
That's a powerful word by an omnipotent God to speak and everything comes into existence.
But catch this, when God speaks, creative elements listen.
They all come into the proper relationship to be formed to be what he calls them to be.
In fact, his word is so powerful that all of creation comes into being and that's how
God designed it.
The Psalmist spoke of that in Psalm 33 verse 9 and summarized it by saying, for he spoke
and it was done.
He commanded and it stood fast.
I think this is a powerful thing, but we also know that God upholds the world by his hand
and his word as well.
I believe this firmly.
If God ever removes his hand and his word from our world, it will crash and burn.
There is nothing about our world that is random, but if God and the God of order removes his
power that keeps it in order, that keeps us in the right relationship with everything
else around us, it will crash and burn, it will be absolute catastrophe.
But the Bible cautions us that we don't need to worry about that and we don't need to worry
about the future because God upholds all things by the word of his power.
Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 describing Jesus as he is the radiance of his glory, the exact
representation of his nature.
He upholds all things by the word of his power.
Now all things, in the Greek means the same thing as all things in the English and in
the Spanish and in the Chinese and every other language you can have on the planet.
Every version of the Bible says he opposed, say it with me, all things by the word of
his power.
God opposes all things.
His word is all powerful.
The first word just simply reflects how powerful God is and God will be forever and ever.
But not only does he uphold all things, he can also suspend all things at his word.
Think about some of the miracles of the Bible where God suspended his laws of nature at
his word.
When Jesus walked on water, when he made the sun stand still for the space of about half
a day so the enemies could be defeated.
Where he turned the water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana.
Where he parted the seas so the Israelites could walk right through it.
Where he raised Lazarus, dead Lazarus to rise from the dead.
He gave what I call the divine word.
He spoke and everything that was a law of nature was suspended for the purpose of God.
But you read on in the Bible, you'll find more and more instances of this.
How did the animals get into the ark except God spoke to them and told them to go to the
boat that had never been built before but was built for these animals and they went?
Why did the lions keep their mouth closed when Daniel was in the lion's den so that
he might live?
Or how did the whale know to go find Jonah and then swallow him and then take him and
deposit him on the shores of Nineveh?
I call it a divine uber is what it was.
God called the whale and it went there, then and for that purpose and I don't know if Jonah
left a tip but God must have.
God spoke to winds, he spoke to waves, he speaks to trees and they all obey.
In fact the amazing thing is there's only one kind of thing on earth that doesn't obey
the word of God and you know who it is?
It's us.
The ones he created to have our own will.
To do things the way we want and still to this day we are the only ones with a record,
a bad record of doing what God's word says.
Now the first word in the presence of Genesis chapter one verse two tells me a very important
principle the word goes before the work.
Before God does a work he gives a word.
Now that's not only true with God and creation but it's true of the prophets.
God gave Elijah a word, Elijah spoke it and it came to pass.
That's also true when God gives you a word.
When he speaks to your life you can expect that what he speaks to you about will happen
at some point down the road.
Jesus said he's coming again.
We expect Jesus to come again but we don't know when.
We don't know exactly all the elements of that but we trust it because of the principle
of the first word that when God speaks we need to listen.
But that also helps us answer the question what is truth?
The question of what is truth is answered by what has God said?
When we get to Genesis chapter three we'll see the first temptation and we'll see that
Satan originally tempted Eve by saying has God really said?
And of course she was led astray as was Adam and that ushered mankind's sin in.
So God's word is powerful.
God spoke at the first facts of life take place.
He speaks, it is.
It's a universal principle.
It's a powerful spiritual principle.
Let this guide your life just like it guided the original elements of creation.
The sheer power of God's word allows me to build my life on what God told me to build
my life on regardless of how I feel, how much I doubt, what my circumstances are or the
cultural objections around me.
I can always rely on God's word.
Do you remember the story that Jesus told about the man who built his house upon the
sand and then the man who built his house upon the rock?
Jesus said in Matthew chapter seven verse 24, therefore everyone who hears these words
of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house upon the rock.
Of course the fool did not obey what he heard.
Since Jesus is the one that made this statement and he's the same one that spoke and all
the creation came into existence I think we do well to pay attention to the words of Jesus
Christ.
Science, as you know, looks for experiments to prove theories.
Well if my life is an experiment it proves the power of God's word because as I look
back on my life all the times I've walked with God, obeyed God, they've been great times
and all the times I've disobeyed God and not done what he said they've been bad times.
If your life is an experiment you want to make sure that you're obeying the word of
God which is a divine word and in every way can be trusted.
Creation says trust his word, rely on what it says, read it and discover what can happen.
The first word.
Then there's the first light.
The first light.
Look at verse three, God said let there be light and there was light.
So if you can imagine in your mind's eye speaking into the void of this watery sphere he said
let there be light and there was light.
Then try to imagine for a moment what is this light.
Now later on we know that God does not create the sun just yet and the solar system and
the stars he places them in their spots later on.
It's not the shekinah glory of God which we read about other places of the Old Testament
because it was dark in this place where God created the original elements.
It was dark and yet God was there so it's not the shekinah glory.
But in conclusion we really don't know what the light was.
It was simply an electromagnetic response of light and the waves that recreate that
at his command.
Just like water, light has an unusual phenomena about it.
Any light form is made up of electromagnetic waves.
It's not matter.
It has no mass, no weight.
It's not pulled by gravitational forces.
It can enter any kind of space and we only see the light that's reflected off of something
else and we see it in those refractionary ways.
But what happened was that God spoke and there was simply light.
Now here's what you need to carry away from this.
Not the light needs to get your attention but the fact that God is the source of light.
The fact that he brings light.
He's the one that makes it happen.
He provides whatever kind of light is needed when the Israelites were walking through the
wilderness in the dark of night.
He provided a pillar of fire for them just to get them from one spot to another to obey
what he told them to do.
He demonstrated the shekinah glory in the tabernacle later on in the temple to show
his presence.
Whatever light is needed God provides but what's impressive is not the light.
What's impressive is the God who brings the light.
A bunch of civilizations used to worship the sun and worship the stars.
People today still chart their lives off of astrology but why not worship the God that
put the stars up there?
Why not worship the God who put the sun there?
He's the source of light.
Now look at what God's doing here.
The earth at this point is the center of all this focus and all of this attention and he
hasn't put us in a solar system for us to serve it.
He places the solar system around us for it to serve us.
His focus, his creative powerful emphasis is the creation of the earth upon which he
places his people, that's you and I, made in his image and because we know that we worship
and serve him, not the earth, not the sun, not the trees, not any of the natural phenomena
that God speaks into existence, we worship him, the source of light, not the light itself.
You better be more fascinated by God than the light he gave you, more fascinated by
God than the trees that blow in the wind, more fascinated by God than the seas or all
of the fish in the seas.
Be fascinated by God.
He's the one who brings it all into existence.
But also this verse says that God saw that the light was good.
Now I want to take for just a moment and talk about that word good.
Later on in the New Testament Jesus said there is no one good but God and here is God declaring
that at the very least the earth was created without sin, without corruption, without disease,
without issue, without war, without strife, without evil at all.
It was good in the eyes of God.
Now God said this at every stage of creation, didn't he?
God saw that it was good.
At the end of it all he said God saw it was very good after he created the man and the
woman.
God saw that it was very good.
That word good reflects God's character, his goodness, his order, his symmetry, his balance,
his purpose.
Now think about that for a moment.
The reason I believe this is such an important phrase and the reason I believe in the existence
of a young earth not an old earth in the sense of how long it took to create is because the
older theory that accompanies imagined evolution describes millions of years of suffering and
disease and fighting and struggles and killing, none of which could be called good by any
stretch of the imagination.
I believe God created the heavens and the earth in seven literal days as we'll look
at in just a moment and everything he created was good.
It wasn't the survival of the fittest that God created which implied a war that brings
present life out of a struggle, but it was created to be good, harmonious as only God
could.
Sin and death and evil and wickedness and temptation given into all happens after man
makes the decision to leave God's word.
That's why judgment happens to us because we're the ones that originate evil, not God
who did not create evil.
And really if you want an explanation for how catastrophic our world is today, don't
blame God for the wickedness on the planet, blame us and blame the sin of mankind.
Don't shake your fist at God and say, you made this world so unjust, so unfair.
No, you look at who really is to blame and it's not God who created all things good.
God saw that it was good.
But when you look at original creation, you too can say it was good.
And then finally there's the first day, the first day.
Verse five says, God called the light day and the darkness he called night and there
was evening and there was morning and literally in the New American Standard, one day, not
the first day, but one day.
Some creationists believe that this day was not a literal 24 hour period.
Which would be old earth evolutionist or old earth theorist.
They believe that God created but that he did it over thousands or maybe millions of
years where each day could have represented a million years.
They try to accommodate evolution and the theories of science, which by the way are
becoming increasingly outdated.
They try to accommodate that in their translations.
Sometimes you'll hear someone that believes in the old earth theory, that it took millions
and millions and millions of years for God to do this instead of seven literal days.
They'll say, but what about second Peter chapter three, verse eight?
Let me put it on the screen for you.
Peter's talking about judgment.
And he says, but do not let this one fact escape your notice beloved that with the Lord
one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.
Now context is king.
I don't know if you've heard that, but you should have heard that many times from this
pulpit.
And the context is judgment, not creation.
So what God is saying, basically it seems like judgment will never come.
Now those of you that are shaking your fist at God and saying, when would you make the
unjust things just?
That'll be then.
It seems like it's taken a long time for God to settle all accounts, but one day he will
do that even though it seems like a thousand years.
But creation says seven literal days.
But I think it's important for us to give acknowledgement to the scripture itself, the
first day, one day.
And that's what it says here in the scripture.
Now many scholars in the Hebrew will also agree with that, of course, that the Hebrew
word for first day means one day, just as we translate that.
So this is the first day of creation that we're looking at.
Also it defines how long one day is.
Evening and morning, one day.
I don't know how the Bible can get any more precise than it is.
It's simple.
A child can understand that evening and morning, one day, the day always is, always has been,
always will be, 24 hours in length.
And not coincidentally, it's the time it takes for the earth to rotate once on its axis by
design, by creative fiat, where God simply declares it.
That's how long a day is.
And I know some of you out there saying, well, it seems like some of my days are so long.
But they're actually only 24 hours.
And that's how every day has been since creation.
In Exodus chapter 20 verse 11 it says, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and
the earth and the sea and all that's in them and rested on the seventh day.
Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
You say, pastor, why are you spending all this time on this seven day thing?
And here's why.
How you view the creationist account of the world is not a test of fellowship.
I've got other believers that I know and love who believe differently than I do on this.
But it does reveal how you interpret your Bible.
You see, the Bible must take precedence over any scientific theory.
If theories of science or circumstance or a culture determine how you interpret your
Bible, God's word is secondary to you, not primary.
If I let culture tell me what a man is, what a woman is, or how long the earth has been
in existence or how it came into being, then the Bible is secondary instead of primary.
But if I approach the Bible and say I will take the Bible and filter through it all the
theories that man comes up with, all the theories that science comes up with, all the feelings
I have, all the desires I may have, then God's word is primary.
And I learn what's right and I learn what's wrong.
And I have a foundation that I can stand on.
God did not give you this book for you to doubt your whole life.
He gave you this book for you to build your life on.
And that's what this book is for.
So let scripture set your view of God, the world, and your life.
You don't have to figure it all out.
He already has.
And so what you do is you allow Him to show you what He has for you.
Let the divine word amaze you.
Let it capture you.
Let it lead you.
Greater than that, let it point you to the flawless God, to His Son Jesus Christ who
created this earth and who created the future heavens for all of us who put our faith and
trust in Him.
And let it cause you to be even more confident that your salvation is secure by placing your
trust in that God, that Jesus, who made sure that you could have a right way with Him by
trusting Him by faith.
My friend Genesis points to Jesus.
It points to the end and everything in between.
And you have it all in the Word of God.
If you'll have it, if you'll have it.
Just a few moments, I'll close this in prayer.
We have our decision stations that are up.
People manning those.
Today it may be that you need to make a decision to trust by faith the God who created the
heavens and the earth.
You're wandering aimlessly through life and you're not really sure what to believe or
not really sure what truth is or what decisions you need to make to be on the right path.
Then we can help you see how the Bible gives you direction and guidance.
We can help you see how Jesus Christ can forgive sin and give us eternal life.
Make the priority to place your life in the hands of this God who created the heavens
and the earth.
Our decision stations will be lit up in a moment.
And as soon as the service is over, I'll be in the guest reception room.
I'd love to visit with you if you're a guest today.
I'd love to welcome you to our services and talk to you about things beyond here, what
it means to be a part of our church.
Would you stand with me?
Father, in Jesus' name today I'm very, very grateful for a Bible that gives us all that
we need for life.
Father, I'm thankful that the world is held together by your Word just as you said it
would for all these centuries.
And Lord, we have no reason to doubt, no reason to look elsewhere for the answers that we
need in life.
Father, today help us to have a renewed confidence in what you say and what you've written and
what we have.
Father, today I pray that every person will come to the place of knowing personally you,
the God of creation through your Son Jesus.
We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.