Genesis 1 – Genesis 2:3

--- We're starting in Genesis chapter 1, again. This is our fourth time for those of you who are really old like me and have been here. I remember the first time I think I taught through Genesis, I was probably, we had, we were over in the other building with probably about 6 or 8 people with chairs in a circle, and yeah. But here we are back in Genesis chapter 1, which is of course the Book of Beginnings. So, we better pray. Father, as we get into this book study starting tonight, we pray for your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. Because Lord we know that is your desire and we know also that the truth is what sets us free and we want to be set free. We want Lord to think and act and respond with a biblical mindset and the Book of Genesis is so critical to this. And we pray that you administer to each heart what it is, what is most needful. We lay this at your feet, Father, and ask you to guide us through this study, through Jesus our Lord, amen. Amen. Well, as I said, Genesis is the Book of Beginnings, and it begins in verse 1 by saying, “In the beginning, (if you look with me in your Bible) God created the heavens and the earth.” (ESV) And we could, we could sit for a long time and just talk about that initial statement. Because, that single summary statement which says, “God created the heavens and the earth” is at the heart of so much of what is going on today in our world between a Christian and a secular sort of a mindset. But this statement, this single statement in the Bible boldly declares that all that is seen in the universe exists because of God. He is the source, He is the first beginning, He is in fact the creator. And for the skeptic who says, “so I'm supposed to believe this because the Bible just says so?” God would respond by saying, “just open your eyes, just look around you.” And that is really the key. Do you guys remember what it says in the Psalm? Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 Let me put this on the screen, Psalm 19:1, great passage. It says,

You have two important key words in that single verse and one is “declare” and the other is “proclaim.” And it says that the very creation itself speaks of God. It speaks about Him, it speaks about the one who created all things. And so, God is challenging the people of the world, open your eyes and look, right? The apostle Paul roughly says the same thing, but he gets into even more detail in Romans chapter 1 up on the screen that says,

For [God’s] invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, (he says all these) have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. In other words, Paul is saying, he's saying just what the psalmist said, that you can look at creation and you can say, “all right, there's something special going on here.” And what is it that exactly that we're seeing, we're seeing something that we've been created to see, and that is design. We can see design, we know design when we see it. We've been talked out, many people have been talked out of seeing design in the creation that we look around in the earth, in our own physical bodies, in the, all the things that are in the sky, in the universe, we've been talked out of it, many of us. But in just normal everyday circumstances, we know design when we see it. We know when something has been made. It's not hard in a science classroom for a secular teacher to convince the whole class that their bodies were not designed. And he'll do it and he'll do it pretty masterfully too. Many of those kids will walk out of that class believing that their physical body was not, had no designer, it was simply the result of random operations over millions and millions of years, and the forces of evolution, they can be convinced of that. Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 And yet they go to, you go to a store and a girl sees a dress hanging on a mannequin, and if somebody tried to convince her that dress just appeared or it was simply developed over millions of years, she would say, “what do you, what are you even saying? That's ridiculous, there's obviously a designer behind this thing.” You look at a watch or a computer and you know that somebody didn't find that under a rock after millions and millions of years. You know it, how do you know it? Because you were created to understand and recognize design. God created you that way, to understand design when you see it. And yet we've been talked out of believing that some of the most amazing things in the universe just randomly came into being. And of course, you just have to have millions of years, that's all you really need. And in millions of years, millions and millions of years, anything can happen. And it's just, it's craziness and yet that is, that is in fact the situation, that's what's going on. It's funny, the psalmist in Psalm 1:39, up on the screen, he made the statement about his own physical body. He said,

The psalmist is looking at himself, he's looking at his body, how it works, how it heals itself. I get a cut and when that cut and the blood flow is exposed to the air, it creates a natural band aid. And then slowly over time that scab goes away, and then eventually as the skin begins to regrow around it, the scab falls off, and then I don't even see that I ever had a wound in the first place. And the Psalmist looked at these things and said, “this is amazing, I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” And yet we've been convinced, no, that you weren't actually made at all, you just came into being over time with slow incremental processes. Here's what's crazy about this, modern science is debunking evolution every day. The more we learn about things like microbiology, if you really look into microbiology, you know what they're finding? They're finding that the inner workings of a cell are actually mechanisms that process information. They process information. And the other thing that microbiology is discovering is that if one piece of these various elements that make up a human cell were missing; the cell wouldn't function at all. Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 And so, but evolutionists want you to believe that this grew over millions of years and microbiology is telling us, no, it can't live without all of its features in place. It's called “irreducible complexity” and it's our own scientific sorts of discoveries are debunking evolution all the time, it really is amazing. I was reading an article in, I guess it was Answers in Genesis on their website, and they were talking about how soft tissue has been discovered. Did you know this? Soft tissue has been discovered from a T-Rex dinosaur? Soft tissue, and they're telling you that T-Rex existed 65 million years ago. Well, some of them even say as much as 128 million years ago, but 65 is more of a conservative sort of an estimate. And scientists are absolutely befuddled and I should say evolutionists are absolutely befuddled how to explain this. They can't explain how soft tissue could still exist 65 million years later because they know that the proteins that make up the soft tissue in bone marrow and that sort of thing cannot survive over that period of time, they know that. They know that it can’t and yet here it is. So, we keep finding new things, we keep discovering new things. The problem is that some people look at these discoveries, well first of all, they start by looking at creation and they say, “well, no, there's no God, there's no designer, it looks designed, but it's not.” And I've actually even heard a secular scientist say that, “it looks designed, but we have to keep reminding ourselves it's not.” Now that's just a simple denial, and that's exactly what we're told is going on when Paul wrote about this in Romans chapter 1, check this out, verse 18 and 19, he says,

… the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness (look at this) suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. In all that he created, God has shown these things to us in all that he created, and yet, what are we doing? We're suppressing the truth, “no, there is no God, Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 there is no creator, these things just came about.” So, it's cool because God is continuing to give answers and those answers are becoming troubling for those who want to continue to reject the truth. And one of the, one of the most troubling questions that has always faced evolutionists is, where did matter come from? They tell you that, at one point in millions of years ago, there was a big bang and it exploded into the universe that we know today. And we come back and we say, “what exploded?” Well matter exploded. And we say, “where did matter come from?” And they say, “well, we don't know” and that's all they can do, that's all they can say. I mean, they've postulated some very fanciful sorts of guesses, but they cannot tell you where matter came from. They can't tell you, they don't know, they have no idea. But the Bible gives us the answer right here in Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, when it says, “God created the heavens and the earth.” Wait a minute, you say, “well that, what does that tell me that where matter come from?” Yeah, it does, because you see the word “created” in the Hebrew, it is the Hebrew word “bara ( ברא“(, and it means created from nothing. So where did matter come from? It came from the hand of God, He created it out of nothing. And what that tells, of course, that reminds us, that's not something we can do. That word “bara ( ברא “(would never be associated with you and me and our ability to create, because when we create something, we're using the raw materials and the resources that are there around us, right? God, when He created, originally, created from nothing, that's what bara ( ברא (means, and that's where matter came from, right? And what that's called in understanding that Hebrew word, bara ( ברא(, that's called an explanation, that's called an answer to the question, “where did matter come from?” Now, of course, to the atheist/evolutionist, that's no explanation at all because it is unacceptable to him or her because they have begun from the premise that there is no God. And so, they are starting off with a bias and their bias is, there is no God. So, as they look at everything they see they bring it through the filter or the lens of that initial bias, right? “There is no God, there's no God, God doesn't exist now.” If you're going to say, if you say that though to an evolutionist, if you say, “well, you're starting off with a bias that God doesn't exist,” they're going to come Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 back to you, and they're going to say, “well, you're starting off with a bias that God does exist.” Don't fight that, accept it because you know what you are. You are starting off from a bias that God does exist and that the Bible is true. Don't get into an argument with anybody about whether you're biased or they're biased or whatever, we all start from a bias of understanding, that's not the question. The question is, which conclusion matches up to reality? Which conclusion gives the best answer to the questions that we face related to the various things that surround creation, such as “where did matter come from?” The evolutionist, his bias or his position, his conclusions say, “I don't know, I don't know where matter came from.” I say, well, my, my conclusions are from the Bible and it says matter was created by God. Now, that may not be acceptable to you, but at least I've got an answer, right? So, it's just one of those things you have to kind of remember. Now, as we move into the following verses here, they begin to describe creation for us and I'm sure that you won't be surprised when I tell you that these verses have been wildly interpreted. And if I were to go through the study of Genesis, even just in this first chapter, and go through all of the wild postulations that people have made over the years about what this means and what that means, we would be here till ever, and we wouldn't be able to move on. So, I just want to tell you here that I'm not going to really be talking to you about all these fanciful ideas that people come up with. We're going to stick to the text in our study of Genesis, particularly as it relates to the creation story. We're going to take a literal interpretation to these things because, as we get into the days of creation, of course, one of the things people love to postulate about is whether a day really means a day. And does a day, could a day be a real 24-hour day like we know a day or is it an unlimited, infinite amount of days that could be involved here? And that's why … and so forth. And I'll tell you one reason right now that one of the, one of the reasons, well, actually I'll give you two. Two reasons why the literal interpretation of Genesis and the creation story is troublesome to people is because first of all, people are just simply uncomfortable with a supernatural God who does supernatural things, that's all there is to it. And they may even say that they believe in God, but they still struggle with the idea of Him being supernatural, meaning that He transcends the natural, and Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 that's really all that supernatural means, “transcending the natural.” Because we are, we live in a very natural world and we understand natural processes and natural things, and we understand nature and we look to nature and natural processes to understand things. Much of science is based on natural processes that we can observe. Well, every so often, God, does supernatural things. In other words, He transcends the natural and He accomplishes what would not be possible through natural means. But there, you'd be surprised how many people are very uncomfortable with that idea, they don't like it at all. And so, they struggle with a literal interpretation of the creation story because it doesn't seem to fit their more natural mindset and that's one of the reasons. But the other reason that people struggle with taking a natural view of the creation story is because they're trying to marry it with evolution. In other words, they're trying to make the two fit. And so that's why they came up with the idea that when God's word says, “and there was the first day” they're saying, “well, that's not really a day, that's really actually millions of years.” And they'll come up with all kinds of gymnastics to try to prove that, bending over backwards and trying to get you to believe that a day doesn't really mean a day. And the reason they're doing it is so it fits in with the model that they've been convinced of by secular scientists that the universe has existed for millions and millions and perhaps even hundreds of millions of years. And so, they've got to come up with a way, well, this is a way, they come up with it and they'll say, “well, that's where the dinosaurs came from and the dinosaurs were around millions and millions of years before the first human ever existed.” I can understand if a secular atheistic scientist comes to that conclusion, I got a problem with a believer doing it. And the reason I have a problem with it is because they have to believe that death was around before sin. The Bible says that when mankind sinned, when Adam and Eve sinned, death was introduced into God's creation at that time. It is then impossible for death to have existed previous to mankind if you're going to believe the Bible. But there's a lot of people who say, “oh, I believe the Bible, I believe the Bible, but, I also believe in millions of years and I believe that the dinosaurs and other animals, the animal kingdom was around for millions and millions of years before man came on the scene.” Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 So, in other words, you believe death was around before man was there? “Yes, I do.” And so, what you're saying to me is, God factored death into his creation, that's what you have to conclude. In other words, when God says at the end of each day, “it is good, it is good, it is good.” What He saw was the creation of death, destruction, decay, and He called it good and that goes against everything that the Bible teaches. In fact, the Bible teaches that death is an enemy. We've looked at this before and it says the last enemy to be destroyed is death. So, you got problems when you try to bend and shape the Bible and marry it with evolutionary science, you've got all kinds of problems. And then it's like, well, where does it stop taking things in more of a metaphorical sort of a position? There are Christians who believe that the first 11 chapters of Genesis are symbolic, they're not literal at all. All the way through the great flood and then when you come to Abraham, then you start dealing with real, true historical events. But up, before that point, it's nothing but metaphor, it's nothing but symbolism, it's figures of speech that help us to understand the greater picture. Well, I mean, I can, I suppose I can respect somebody who comes to that conclusion, but I'm telling you that you have created a landmine of problems and you've got a lot, you've got way more than the first 11 chapters of Genesis to deal with. You've got statements made by the apostle Paul about death, “death came by one man, and life came by another.” Paul makes very specific statements about the origin of things like death and if you believe this evolutionary position of creation ,it's just, I'm just telling you that there's a lot of scripture that you're going to kind of go, “ouch, that doesn't fit with my theology.” I'm going to have to throw that one out, and that one out, and that one out, and pretty soon you got a cut and paste Bible. And you've created the Bible in the image you want it to be in rather than taking the Bible and saying, this is what's going to shape my understanding. So, as we get into verse 2, and it goes on, it gives us kind of a description of matter before God brought order and form to it. It says in verse 2, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” And this kind of describes this inhospitable chaos that would that lacked order as it originally came into being because God had not yet spoken order into the initial stages of creation. Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 And so, we begin to see that work of speaking order into this chaos as it goes. And it says in verse 3, “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” Now I want you to notice, it doesn't say that God said, “let there be a sun in the sky,” that's not going to come until the fourth day. He just says, “let there be light and there was light” we're told. And so, I also want to pause for just a moment here and tell you that in the first 3 verses of Genesis chapter 1, did you notice that we see the full nature of God in 3 persons? Did you catch that in here? Because it says, “in the beginning God created, the spirit of God was hovering, and the word of God is now seen going forth as God says, “let there be light.” And Jesus is the word of God made flesh and so we see all the persons of the triune Godhead evident in the first 3 verses of Genesis chapter 1. Verse 4 says, “And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” Now again, we're not going to get around to the creation of the sun and the moon until we get to the fourth day and so, this creates a problem for a lot of people. They're like, “okay, there's no sun and yet God created light and day and darkness or night, if you will, on the very first day of creation.” And people scratch their heads and they're like, “how can that be?” Well, first of all, you're dealing with a supernatural God, but second of all, people understand, light and darkness are not dependent on the sun. And if you read through your Bible, you're going to know that. It wasn't that long ago, we just studied through the book of Revelation. We ended the book of Revelation and it tells us when the new earth is created, there will be no sun, it doesn't mean it's going to be plunged into darkness, it just means that God provides the light. So, we know that light can exist without the sun, we also know that darkness can exist when the sun is shining and we have examples of this in the Bible. Do you remember when God was bringing his plagues upon the nation of Egypt and he plunged most of Egypt into a darkness that the Bible says, “could be felt”. (Exodus 10:21) And yet at the same time, the area of Goshen, the region of Goshen where the Jews lived, had plenty of sunshine and yet the rest of Egypt was plunged into darkness. Well, how can that be? You serve a supernatural God who can do anything He wants to do. And you guys I'm sure, remember that when Jesus Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 hung on the cross, we're told in the scripture, in fact, let me put this one on the screen for you. It's from Luke chapter 23, it says,

It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s (and here's Luke's explanation of what happened for three hours, he says, the) light failed. And that's all he's got, because he has no other legitimate explanation for why it was dark, other than he says, “the light failed,” the light failed. What was happening of course was God the father was shrouding the suffering of God the Son, as He bore our sin on the cross. But the fact of the matter is God can do anything he wants to do and He did from 6 to 9 AM, the light simply failed and darkness covered the land. So, you see, light and darkness can be seen in the scripture independent of the sun or the sun being on the other side of the earth, all right. So, there you go, that was the first day. Moving on, and God said, “ 6 Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. …” And that's not the abode of God, we're talking about the sky, okay? The Bible often refers to the sky as heaven. “ 8 …And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.” Now, when you read through that, I don't know if that sounds to you like God separated water and He put some of the water above the sky and He put some of the water below the sky, and if that's what you heard, then that's exactly correct. That's exactly what God did and many creation scientists believe that the water above the sky created a vapor blanket or a vapor canopy around the earth for during the early times. And that would have incredible implications for the earth. Essentially a vapor barrier around the earth would create a global greenhouse effect that would cause a consistent temperature. Like people move down to like Mexico or Arizona so they can have a consistent sort of a temperature all year long, although it's really not, it's beastly hot still in the summer and it's just livable in the winter. Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 They're trying their best, to try to find some kind of a equitable solution to these incredible temperature variations that we have between summer and winter. Well, if there was a vapor barrier around the earth, that means the original earth would've been this lush green paradise with a consistent median temperature all year long. Now that's one of the implications of having a vapor barrier around the earth, which seems to be what we're seeing described in these verses. But one of the other huge implications of this vapor barrier is that it would filter out all of the harmful UV rays and the other harmful rays that come from the sun, which we know cause mutations, skin cancer, and the like, and fade things out and cause… And it would drastically increase lifespans of people on the earth. What do we see in the early stages of the Book of Genesis? We see people living to almost 1,000 years old and I believe personally that it was this vapor barrier that God tied into and let go to deluge the earth. Scientists will even say today, there's no way it could possibly rain enough to flood the whole earth like it talks about in the Book of Genesis. Well, what if there was a vapor canopy around the earth, above the sky, that God just said, let her rip. And frankly, the Book of Genesis also talks about the water that was under the earth bursting forth. It says, the water from the great deep burst forth. (Genesis 7:11) So, you have water bursting forth from underground, you have this vapor barrier that is let go of and deluges the earth, and what happens after the vapor barrier is gone, we slowly see lifespans decreasing. That's exactly what we see in the Bible. It didn't happen overnight, but slowly over time as the harmful rays of the sun began to impact the earth and human beings more and more we see these sorts of things decreasing. So, verse 9 is day 3 of creation, which was a busy day. It says, “And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. …”” So, at first, the earth is just one big, massive ball of …, oh, and I said, ball, didn't I? You bet you I did, yeah. None of this flat earth junk folks, okay, we're not going there. That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life and yes, it's a ball. And so, originally, we see that the earth was a ball of water and God said, “let the water” 9 “…be gathered together in one place, let the dry land appear. And Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, …” Or that word can also be translated in the Hebrew “land”, it can just mean land although it is mostly translated earth. “ 10 …and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.” And that's important to again see that things were good in God's sight. Verse 11, “And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.”” You're going to see that repeated. “11 And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.” And, of course, what's fascinating about this account is we're told that the plants with seed in them were created on the third day. And what that means is, God didn't create the seeds first and plant them and wait for them to come up. He created the mature plants with seed in them, right? And so, obviously they would've had the appearance of age right from the very beginning, from the moment they were created. Did you ever stop to think about that? That plants and trees would've had the appearance of age because they were created mature. And so, if you, if somebody were to look at one of those trees, they'd say, “oh, trees probably 20 years old.” No, it's actually 5 minutes old, because it was created mature when it was brought into existence, right. We move on to the fourth day, “ 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,” Have we used the sun and the moon and the stars to do that, have we? Yeah, of course we have, from the very beginning, man has used the heavens and the stars and so forth to chart times and seasons and so on and so forth. And that's what God said, and He says, “ 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,” I want you to take note of what it says there in verse 17, “And God set them..." We'll come back to that in just a moment. “ 17 …to give light on the earth, Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.” So, God set the sun in the heavens, He said it there. What do even secular scientists tell you about the position of the sun in relation to the earth? What did they tell you, what did you learn in school? You learned that it was perfect, if it was any closer, we'd burn up, if it was any farther away, we'd freeze. It was perfect. Now the evolutionist says, “that was dumb luck, that was just dumb luck that, that it was just the perfect distance from the earth, just flat out dumb luck.” The Bible says, God set it there because He knew exactly what would be necessary to maintain life on earth. So, the fourth day was the creation of the sun, moon, and stars. Verse 20, “And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, (and every fisherman said, amen) and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.” So, birds and sea creatures are the focus of the fifth day. And by the way, the Bible answers that question right here, that age old question that man has been scratching his head over for I don't know how long, which came first, the chicken or the egg? You did know the chickens were birds, right? Yeah, well, it's the chicken folks, He, it's just like the, it's just like the trees. He created the trees, mature with the ability to bear seed to propagate, and He did the same thing with the animal kingdom, created them mature with the ability to propagate or procreate. And so yeah, the chicken came first with the ability to lay an egg. Now we don't know how long the chicken was around before it laid an egg. That's the only thing we don't know and it doesn't matter at all. But anyway, there you go. So, if anyone asked you the question, just tell them. Well, I know the answer to that because the Bible tell gives it to me. Now we're going to see that the sixth day was the busiest day of all and I say busy from my stupid perspective. Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 For God, it was no busier than probably any of the others, but you know what I mean. In verse 24 says, “And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—(now we’re looking at) livestock and creeping things (it doesn't say creepy things, although some of them are creepy, but they're creeping, they creep on the ground) and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” Now, you'll remember that I called your attention earlier to that statement, “according to their kinds” and you'll see that, you saw that has been repeated now all the way through the creation of the animal kingdom. Well, God not only made all the fishes, fish and birds, and living creatures according to their kinds, but He also created a barrier in those kinds, and that's what's fascinating. God said, “this is the kind,” it's a kind and He put a barrier in that kind. And what that means is, a dog can't breed with a cat, you can't get a dat, right. An elephant can't breed with a lion, a horse can't breed with a cow, it won't work. Why? Because God said in creation, “let them be according to their kind.” Now, here's the interesting thing, evolutionary science wants you to believe that this kind can become this kind if you just give it millions of years, the problem is they can't prove it. They can't prove that there are any transitional things between one kind to another kind. So, what they do is they point to what we call micro evolution. What is micro evolution? Microevolution is the adaptation of species to transitional changes within their species, which usually happens because they're adapting to their environment. For example, they can prove that there's certain kind of finches that over periods of years, their beaks will become longer or shorter because they're adapting to their environment. And so, they'll say, “see, there's a proof of evolution.” Well, that's called microevolution, you know why? Because it never changes species, the finch, whether it has a long beak or a short beak, is still a finch. It doesn't become a dog with a short or long beak, you see what I'm saying? So, microevolution refers to adaptation of species within their species. Macroevolution, which they're trying to convince you really does happen, but the fossil record doesn't show it. They have not uncovered any fossil records that show the change of species from one species to another, and that is macro evolution; the changing of species. Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 And it's not going to be seen, they're not going to find it and the reason is, God said, when He created these various species, He said, “let them be according to their kind.” And that's where it, that's where it stays and that's where it's going to stay. Now we come to God's master creation, and I want you to know that I only use that term because of what we find in verse 26. It says, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. …” And it's that phrase right there, “after our likeness” that causes me to say, this is God's master creation, because He says that about no other thing that He creates. This is it, this is the only one. And there are 2 things that I want to emphasize out of verse 26 here so far. And the first one is that, again, during creation, no other living thing is prefaced in the scripture by saying that it is created in His likeness. And this is the starting point, you guys, this is the starting point for all of us as human beings to find answers about who we are, what we are, this is the starting point. When somebody asks the question, “who am I?” We start right here, you are a human being created in the image of God. That's who you are, you are not a random mistake. You are a purposeful creation, right? And not only that, but all of the implications that come from this idea of the fact that we are created in the image of God. The first is that we are not the same as the animal kingdom. Evolutionists are constantly trying to tell us that, we're just like all of the other mammals on the face of the earth, “humans are mammals, whales are mammals, horses are mammals, we're just mammals, we're all mammals, the only difference is we wear clothes.” The fact of the matter is, we have capacities and capabilities that the animal kingdom simply doesn't have. And if you just open your eyes and look at that, you'll see it. And I know that people like to call their dog a family member and think that they're like humans. They're not, they're an animal and those are capabilities and capacities that animals simply don't have. The second implication is that we're even distinct from the angels. Now, angels are pretty cool creatures, I got to tell you. I've never met one personally, I've read about them a lot in the Bible. But did you know that never once in the Bible does it say that angels were created in the image of God? Not once. We know they were created, but they weren't created in the image of God like you were. Isn't that crazy? You've got something on angels, that's kind of a Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 mindblower. But the last implication of this idea that we are created in the image of God is one of the most important because it is why we talk about the sanctity of life, because we were created in the image of God. It is a simple way of saying that all life, all human life is valuable and it is the underpinnings of why we oppose things like abortion on demand. It's why we oppose things like euthanasia, assisted suicide. It's why we oppose any other, indiscriminate taking of life because we are created in the image of God. That makes you special and that makes you set apart from all of the other creation, you are set apart. The second thing that after our likeness brings to our attention is, did you notice these clear, plural references that God is using in that verse, in verse 26? He says, “let us make man in our image, (in) after our likeness.” What's the deal, what's going on here, who's God talking to? “Oh, that's easy, He's talking to the angels.” No, there's nowhere in the Bible that it says that we are created in the image of angels. That's what would have to be true if we, if He's talking to the angels and He's saying, “let us make men in our image.” In other words, he's including the angels, then we would be created in the image of angels. That is nowhere said in the Bible, right? We've already said that even angels aren't created in the image of God. So how do we understand this plurality of usage of grammar as we see this going on? “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Well, what we see here are the 3 persons of the Godhead, the one God and 3 persons who are conversing about creation. And is it any wonder that they should talk among themselves? And you know this, again, this just blows people away. I had somebody writing me a question just this week, “is it okay to pray to the Holy Spirit?” And I get this all the time? “Should I pray to God the Father, or should I pray to the Son, should I pray to the Spirit?” It's a very common question. I say, I tell them the same thing. I say, “well, when you start your prayer with, dear God, you've addressed all 3.” That's, right there in one because there's only one God, there's only one God you guys. Now I understand that He's revealed himself in the plurality of persons; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And the other thing I know about that is that's beyond your noggin to understand. You and I cannot comprehend how God can be 1 and 3, we can't, it Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 is simply revealed in the word. Why do we believe it? Because we understand it? Heavens no, because God said it, that's why we believe it. So, it's no surprise that God is talking. He's conversing and here, you know what else this tells us, is that before all other life was created, God wasn't alone. He has always from all eternity enjoyed the fellowship of the persons of His own nature. There has always been a sweet fellowship, a sweet coinonia of connectedness. So, it's pretty cool, even though it makes our mind do back flips. But back to the creation of mankind. God says, we're still in verse 26, “... And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” And this is one of those other things in the Bible that secular man just really gets angry about when we talk about this. This whole biblical idea that man has been given dominion. Because you see, radical secularists believed that the tree that it's in your front yard has just as much right to exist as you do, truly. And that is a, and I'm talking about a radical belief, but there are people who hold to that belief that your dog, it is just as serious to kill a dog as it is a human being because again, they see all life under the same lens. They don't see you as created in the image of God, they don't see you as special, and they certainly don't want to admit that mankind has been given dominion, that's the last thing they want to admit. And so, this one just really creates issues. But of course, their problems all boiled down to their struggle with God Himself. So, this idea is repeated in verse 27, where it says, “ So God created man (look at this) in his own image, ...” So that conversation going on, “our,” right, that has to be the nature of God conversing because we were created in His image, all right? And He says, “27 … he created him; male and female he created them.” And of course, I don't need to tell you that this is another sticking point with modern mankind, that God created humans male and female. And, we go around, you're liable to, lose your job if you say this in the workplace, “by the way, God created people, male and female, you're fired.” “How dare you, how dare you insult people by saying that it's limited to just male and female.” We've lost our minds as a people, we've literally lost our minds. Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 And so, people ask me from time to time, “what's behind all that, what's behind all this gender of confusion and people wanting to say, well, I'm in control of my gender, I can be whatever gender I want to be, I can create my own gender if I want to, or I can surgically alter myself to be a different gender.” Or, all the things that go along with the gender whacked outness that we're seeing in our culture today. What's behind all that? I can tell you in one word, “defiance.” It is simply man defying God, that's it, that's all he's doing. He's just being a little child, he's saying, “no, I'm not going to do what you say, I'm going to do it my way.” It's a childish attitude, I'm serious, it's a childish attitude that says, “I'm going to do this, my…, you're not going to tell me what I can and cannot be.” “I will not limit my definition to some supposed God out there who says it's got to be just this way, I will create my own reality and what I say goes.” That's defiance, that's just simple defiance. It's like a child stomping his feet and saying, “no, I'm not going to do that” and that's all it is, that's all it is. Verse 28 says, “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And so, you see that God blessed mankind. It's interesting isn't it? It says, “And God blessed them.” God blessed mankind, He blessed them, He spoke a blessing over them. Do you know that even people who reject God are under this blessing? Jesus just simply said it a different way. Let me show you this from Matthew chapter 5, where he told us,

[God] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and (He) sends rain on the just and on the unjust. In other words, all people are living under God's blessing, He blessed them. He chose to bless us even when we thumb our nose at him and in our defiance say, “it's not going to be your way, it's going to be my way”, God still blesses us. Pretty amazing God we serve. Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 Verse 29 says, “And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, (look at this) it was very good..." Guys, no mention of death, that would not be good, simple as that. No sin, no death, God didn't create those things. “ 31 …And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” Now the creation account actually ends with the first 3 verses of chapter 2, so we're going to read those really quickly, okay. It says, “ 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” And here we have, the creation actually of the Sabbath or the day of rest, that God gave to man. And so, we see this in the very first couple of chapters of Genesis. And why was, why did God create a day of rest? Well, it wasn't for Him, He wasn't tired. He didn't get done with 6 days and go, “whew, that was hard, I need a day off, I'm going to go sit out at the beach and hang out.” No, God wasn't tired at all. Why did He create a day of rest? What did Jesus tell you? The Sabbath was made for man, right? (Mark 2:27) Eventually the Jews began to think that man, they were made for the Sabbath, they started to literally obey the Sabbath. And when Jesus would do things like heal people on the Sabbath, they'd get all their undies in a bundle and they're like, “what in the world, these guys breaking the law of God” and Jesus is like, “you never understood that the Sabbath was made for you, it was made to be a blessing.” Now what's interesting about that is that God has factored the need in you for rest, 1 day out of 7. Here's my question to you, do you take that seriously? Do you rest one day 1 of 7 because God built it into you? You need that, we ignore God's word to our own undoing. And even though we don't, feel the legal obligations of Sabbath keeping like the Jews did because that wasn't passed along to the church because Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath regulations. And by faith, we keep the Sabbath every day of the week because we are resting in a different kind of rest. We're resting in the Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 finished work of Jesus on the cross, and that's what the Sabbath pointed to in the first place, resting in Christ. And so, by faith, we keep the law, we keep the Sabbath, but there's still a physical element here that we need to understand and acknowledge, and that is that you need 1 day out of 7 to rest. Now, I've gotten to the age where I started, just in fact, the last 2 months, I think about the last 2 months, I started taking 2 days. I've been taking just 1 day a week since forever. I mean, and I just started taking 2 because I'm getting older and I need 2 days. So, I take my Mondays and I take my Thursdays off, and because I need more rest time than I did when I was a younger man. But still it, there's a need in you to rest, so are you resting? Do you take a day where you just chill and stop doing your regular work? Doesn't mean you have to sit around the house and, it doesn't mean that at all. It's resting from your regular labors and sometimes there are other things you do that might be restful. Like I hear from a lot of women who like to work in the garden, they find it just incredibly restful. And that's, and that may be work to somebody else who works in a nursery, or a garden center, but for someone else whose job is something else, being in the garden is a day of rest, so be it, so be it. The issue is resting. It's not in the legalistic elements of exactly what you do when you do it, and how much you do it, like the Jews started coming up with. The bottom line is, it's never good to ignore God's word, and so I encourage you not to do that when it comes to the issues of the Sabbath. Take a day and it doesn't matter what day it is, take a day. Amen. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Father, we do thank you for the revelation of truth that you've given us in Your Word. Your Word is amazing, it just lines up so beautifully with what we see in reality. Lord when we look at creation, when we look at the earth, our bodies, the distance between the earth and the sun, the distance between the earth and the moon, we see all of the evidence of design. And where there is design, Lord, we know there must be a designer and we know that you are that designer and we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And we can commit our lives to this all-knowing, all powerful creator God, who not only created us, but entered humanity, that you might save us from our sin by sending your Son in the image of man to bear the penalty of our sin on the cross, and we are so thankful. Life Bible Ministry • lifebibleministry.com • ©2025 You did what we couldn't do, you not only bore our sin, but then you conquered death through your resurrection. And that's what awaits us all, who have put our faith in Jesus Christ. And we thank you so much, Lord, for the hope that we have in Him. Continue to speak to us through Your Word, we pray. For we ask it in the name of Jesus, our Savior, and all God's people said together, amen. God bless you. Have a good rest of your evening. ---