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[0:00] nearly half believe that God learns, listen to that carefully, nearly half that God learns and therefore can adapt to different circumstances.

[0:23] That's half of people who say, I'm an evangelical. Well, I've already read that one.

[0:34] 70% strongly agree that Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.

[0:49] That's hard. Well, I'll just keep going. I need to... And remember, when I look at that 70%, though, I put my own note down.

[1:03] Remember, 97% called themselves Trinitarian, and then I say that Jesus is created. That's kind of a... I don't know how I get over that bump, right?

[1:15] That's got to be a... There's got to be... What do you... A confusion. That's a disconnect.

[1:26] Dissonance. Cognitive dissonance, I think that's what we might call that. 38%... 38%... See Jesus as a great teacher, but he was not God.

[1:38] Again, the Trinity. 60% say, The Holy Spirit is a force, but is not a personal being.

[1:50] Again, the Trinity, right? There is one true God in three persons. So, somehow I'm confused.

[2:01] If I don't think that Jesus is God, and I don't think the Holy Spirit is a person and God, somewhere, I can't be Trinitarian then. I can't say that God exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

[2:17] But I do. 27% think that the Holy Spirit can tell me to do something which is forbidden in the Bible. Now, I laugh at that, but then I consider, have you ever met anyone who said, I know what the Bible says about marrying an unsaved person, however?

[2:43] Have you ever heard anyone say, however? However, in my case, 57% believe that everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.

[3:05] 57%. That tells me that I am born sinless, right? Hmm. 65% that everyone, well, is born innocent.

[3:25] 37% agree that religious belief is a matter of personal opinion. It's not about objective truth. There were some biblical teachings accepted by the majority, such as hell is real, Jesus will return in judgment, sex outside of traditional marriage is sin, abortion is sin, and only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God's gift of eternal salvation.

[4:02] Yet, remember, all religions, right? So, those who call themselves evangelical as a group are clearly confused, are they not?

[4:17] So, it behooves us, it behooves us, to hold to the word of God. So, I just thought I'd share that uplifting message with you this morning before we begin.

[4:34] But it is important for me to realize that, number one, God's in control, and number two, the Lord knows those who are His, God doesn't, God is not as confused as some of us seem to think, right?

[4:56] And, number three, it behooves me to remember that not everyone who on the surface says something really means it.

[5:13] So, I might, boy, I hate using this word anymore. I remember. I hate using this word anymore, but I might identify as a Christian, and, in reality, I might not be one.

[5:33] So, in my conversation with people, I need to remember to converse, give and take, so that the message of the gospel really goes out.

[5:53] Okay. If you would, please, turn back to Genesis, chapter one. I'm going to go back to, just as a launch, we're beginning with verse nine.

[6:06] By the way, you're responsible for your own corrections. There are misprints in there. That's what you get for cheap copy editing. But, our actual beginning will be with verse nine.

[6:24] However, I want to go back to verse two for just a moment. Genesis, chapter one, verse two. Would somebody refresh me on that, please?

[6:35] Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the water. The spirit of God was hovering.

[6:49] Okay. If you want to have a formless on you, you have to have a microphone. Okay. So, I need to reread the verse, right? Yes. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was moving, or hovering, over the surface of the waters.

[7:12] Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 11, please. It uses the same word. Deuteronomy 32, verse 11.

[7:31] I didn't want to read all of them, but I understand. If you would, please, and would someone be willing to run it about?

[7:43] Thank you. Like an eagle that stirs up her nest and hovers over her young, he, that is God, spreads his wings and caught them, talking about Israel, right?

[8:05] So, that as the eagle hovers over her nest, that's the same word as the spirit of God brooding or protecting creation.

[8:17] So, with that, we launch into verse 9. Read for yourselves. I won't ask it to be read audibly.

[8:30] But read for yourselves, please, chapter 1, verses 9 through 23. These are days 3 through 5. 11.

[8:52] 12. 11. Thank you.

[9:24] Thank you.

[9:54] Those three recur in every statement. Now, I'm going back to Steve's point first, and that is, and God said.

[10:07] There is one person who can speak it, and it will come into existence. I'm not that person, by the way.

[10:22] If you speak it, if you name it, it will happen. No. But there is one for whom that would be true.

[10:37] Who is it? God. God does speak it. So, and God said. The other one is, evening and morning were the next day.

[10:49] I'll just, evening and morning. And the other one was, after God had made it, he said, it's good.

[10:59] It's good. Those are the recurring things. What did he create on the fourth day? I'm sorry, on the third day. Vegetation and the separation of the dry land from the water.

[11:21] And the dry land, he called it, earth. And the water, he called, because they were, as he gathered them together.

[11:31] So, that's day three, right? The vegetation was created on day three.

[11:42] What did he make on the fourth day? What we, the heavens as far as, not the heavens that make up our atmosphere, but the up, the far reaches of the.

[12:04] Now, this is very interesting to me. Because, and he made the stars also.

[12:19] You were out, was it clear? Down there in the dark. When they were camping, they were at Red River Gorge. Now, if you were down in the bottoms, it would be harder to see.

[12:33] But when you're out in the forest, it's dark. And when you don't have ambient light, and you look up in the night, if it's clear, you can actually see the Milky Way.

[12:50] You can see, all of those are stars. There are untold numbers of stars.

[13:04] And God put every one where it belongs. In fact, when Job, and we speak to folks who are educated here in this.

[13:19] So, what was Job's big question to God? Why?

[13:32] Why? I've never asked that question, have I? Did Job ever, did God ever answer Job?

[13:45] He responded to him. Did he answer the question, why? No. How did God answer Job's question?

[13:58] Where were you when I created this? Where were you, Job, when I decided when those deer would fawn?

[14:13] Where were you when I said, this is where the snow's going to be? Where were you when I stretched out, he uses a metaphor here, a beautiful metaphor, when I laid my square against the emptiness and I put all the stars in place?

[14:32] See, I need to recognize the second point of theology. The first point, there is a God, and the second one, I'm not him.

[14:50] I'm not God's equal. He has, in fact, God is most often spoken of in Scripture.

[15:02] The most often used adjective for God is what? Holy. Holy.

[15:14] What does that mean? We kind of got into this last week with the, he's completely apart. He's completely other than me.

[15:27] That doesn't mean he doesn't act in creation, but he's not confined by his creation. He is not held within it. He is not restricted by it.

[15:39] He respects reality. He does respect time and space because he created it, but he's not restricted by it. You remember the sign he gave?

[15:52] Was it Hezekiah that asked for the sign? That's a pretty big sign. I know John knows it because I saw him move with it.

[16:03] What was the sign, John? The earth rotated backwards several degrees, or a couple of degrees at least, several steps on the temple, right?

[16:18] Now, give that a thought a moment. Right? And nobody got thrown forward. We're traveling a thousand plus miles per hour, as it were, in rotational speed.

[16:34] We don't notice it, but that's a pretty big deal. Suddenly, he moves it back. It's no deal for God, but for me, I don't understand it.

[16:50] Okay. So, Rose. I just have a question. I just have a question. When he drew, it says, and also the stars.

[17:01] Everywhere in the Bible, it refers to angels and stars, and the heavens did not exist. So, are the stars there referring to the angels that he created?

[17:15] Before I answer, you brought to me a C.S. Lewis. It's a quote from one of C.S. Lewis.

[17:30] I think it's Voyage of the Dawn Treader. And he kind of equates that star with the person, and he said, you know what stars are made of, but you don't know what they are.

[17:48] Now, I just throw that out because it reminded me of that. I do not believe that this is the time he creates angels. No. Because he says in Job again, God says, where were you, Job, when I created, and all the sons of God sang for joy?

[18:13] So, I think the angels are created before this. We're just not told when. Yeah. Yeah. They were created between verse 1 and 2.

[18:25] You got verse 1, and in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Then verse 2 is that verse that doesn't follow very correctly in there. There's a lot of time space between verse 1 and 2.

[18:38] A lot of time is developed there, and that's when a Lucifer, when God had the creation of all the angels and Lucifer, and he set a kingdom up to give Lucifer a control of the earth at the time, but Lucifer messed it up somehow.

[18:53] He didn't know what God wanted him to do, and so Lucifer was kicked out of his kingmanship, a spiritual kingmanship. He took a friendly angel with him.

[19:04] That all happened in that time, and that involved with the stars in some way, because they referred to as stars. That happened before this creation we're talking about now occurred.

[19:15] The hosts of heaven, some may be angelic beings, and they may be stars. We're not, I can't definitively put that one down all the time.

[19:32] I take it within its context where it's delivered. As far as the time gap in there, that's theorized to put in there, but it's not definitively revealed in God's Word.

[19:51] At least, not to me it isn't. Anyone else? So, back to your original question, Rose, about are the stars the angels.

[20:06] I don't know. At this point, I tend to think they're the celestial bodies. I don't think all, because, well, we're not told about all the angels and their functions.

[20:23] Some of them do move. Some of them move. We're not told. Yes.

[20:37] Verse 14.

[20:53] Verse 14. Verse 14. Verse 14. Yeah.

[21:21] Yeah. In this verse. Right. And it, and the creation of the heavens and the galaxies and the, what, the signs, let them be for signs.

[21:53] The constellations. There's my word. I was fishing around. See, once in a while I have to just talk until I come around to something to say.

[22:07] The constellations were given to orient men. In fact, I didn't intend to do this, but for some reason I'm going to.

[22:23] Daniel, when Daniel is taken from Israel and brought to Babylon, I know we're jumping way ahead in our story, aren't we?

[22:35] Daniel's taken to Babylon. He's not the only one, but he's among many. One of the things that the Babylonians. One of the things that the Babylonians were doing was collecting literature from all over their empire.

[22:52] And one of the literatures they collect are the Hebrew scriptures. That I personally believe, and as we approach Christmas tide, I think of this.

[23:12] I personally believe that that's why those wise men said, we saw the sign of the king of Israel.

[23:26] That's why they went to Jerusalem and said, where's the one that's born king of the Jews? We have seen his star. Because in that Hebrew scripture they would say a star rises out of Jacob, right?

[23:40] They're going to see that. And when they saw that sign, they knew where to go. We're going to Israel and find out where the king is.

[23:52] So, that's way ahead, but it does kind of, you reminded me of that. They're for signs, though, regular signs of seasons.

[24:03] If you go out now, the Polaris is always going to be there, but all the others are going to what?

[24:16] They're going to rotate around there during the year. So, they, at least as far as we are concerned in the earth, they're stationary.

[24:28] At least from our perspective. They're stationary. Anything else before we go on? Hang on.

[24:42] David's coming. David's coming. Okay.

[25:21] Time, space, years, years, and space, which is space. Okay.

[25:35] Time itself has been described as the movement of matter through space.

[25:47] So, the idea of time certainly is created here. Okay, what about the fifth day? Okay, hang on.

[26:02] David, please. It's got the light, the light, the light, the dark, the light, the dark, the light.

[26:30] Now, it doesn't mention the sun and the moon until verse 16. So, do things come and brought monologically out of order here?

[26:45] Sometimes it talks about things later that happen sooner. Or, how could there be light when there's no sun and moon? And there's light in...

[26:57] Is there going to be sun in the new creation? Who's going to be the light? Okay, Jesus is going to be the light. Now, I just said that to say, can there be?

[27:11] Okay. There is... There is a proposition that has credibility to it in my mind.

[27:23] And that is, God may have created the sun and the stars, but He didn't put them into order until later.

[27:37] That is, it said later that He puts them in order. And He made one to rule the day and one...

[27:47] And the lesser to rule the night. That holds some credibility. There are others who believe that He created the light and separated it from dark.

[28:00] And He had a fixed light source for day and night, but it wasn't necessarily the sun. We're not really told that much. Yeah, because that goes all the way back to verse 3.

[28:13] Right. Right. Right. It was light. In 2, He said it was dark. Right. Now, which brings you to David.

[28:27] David? In the first verse, He created the heavens and the earth.

[28:41] And the heavens are space? In... Yes. Space. In... In...

[28:54] In verse 6, He creates a firmament in the midst of the waters and lets it divide the waters from the waters.

[29:05] Is that the atmosphere? I believe so. Okay. And that atmosphere is heaven? I'm sorry? That atmosphere is heaven?

[29:19] It's called the heavens because it's above. But it's not heaven as in the dwelling place of God or the heaven... The first verse is capitalized.

[29:32] Singular. Yeah, they... That's the editor... That's the editor's opinion there. That... That is not necessarily capitalized in the original manuscript.

[29:46] Okay. Now, there's other theologians that feel there's three heavens. Three heavens. Heaven where God resides. Heaven is the universe. And our atmosphere is a heaven. There's three heavens.

[29:57] Start over, Joe. There's a lot of theologians that feel there's three heavens. The Bible refers to three different heavens. One is our atmosphere. One is the greater universe.

[30:10] And the third is where God resides. Three heavens. That's... The Bible refers to those two different types of heavens.

[30:26] Where is God's glory in all of this? The Shekinah glory? Can you just turn that on and shut it off? I mean, Moses, when he went up to him, he couldn't look upon him because he was so great.

[30:37] God does not always reveal the Shekinah glory. But it seems to me, as we...

[30:51] I don't know if I have the reference to it, but Paul talks to Timothy, and he says... He says... In speaking about God's eternity...

[31:06] 1 Timothy 6.16. Now, to keep me from always talking, would someone grab the microphone and read that for us, please?

[31:28] 1 Timothy 6.16. Who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion.

[31:49] Amen. He's speaking of whom? God. Now, the Shekinah glory was not always revealed.

[32:06] They saw him descend to the mountain at Sinai. Israel did after they left Egypt. They saw that. They did see God as a pillar of fire by day, or a pillar of cloud by day, rather, and a pillar of fire by night.

[32:28] They saw that. They saw him descend upon the tabernacle when they dedicated that. When Solomon dedicated the temple, they saw the glory of God fill the temple.

[32:45] They did not always see that. But I forget who it was. I forget her name. She named her son Ichabod when the first son was born when the Philistines took the ark.

[33:08] What does Ichabod mean? This is why you don't call your son Ichabod, by the way. The glory has departed.

[33:19] So he made that, sometimes he made that Shekinah glory visible, but that's not always necessarily visible to men.

[33:33] In fact, as you pointed out with Moses, and I know we're jumping around in the word right now, but that's okay. It's all together.

[33:45] This is a beautiful picture, by the way. When Moses asked God if he could see his glory, God said, no.

[33:57] Why? Because you cannot tolerate. You, as a created being, cannot tolerate seeing my full glory.

[34:12] But I'll tell you what I'll do. And here's the beautiful picture of Jesus Christ and what he's done for me. He said, Moses, I'm going to put you in the cleft of the rock.

[34:25] And I'll cause my glory to pass before you. But I'll shield you.

[34:36] And I'll let you see a little bit. The hinder part of my glory. The small part. I'll let you see a little. But I won't destroy you with it.

[34:49] Is that not what Christ has done for me? I cannot approach God. Those who will stand before God in judgment are already judged.

[35:08] Aren't we? If I do not bury myself behind that protection of the Lord Jesus Christ so that his righteousness is now mine, then I will stand in judgment.

[35:28] And the books will be opened. And then I will actually be judged according to my deeds. But I think most people who say, well, I'm basically good, I think most of them think that the balance is going to be weighed, am I better than average?

[35:50] But that's not what's on this side of the balance. It's the righteousness of God. That's why Paul says, look, I've obeyed the law better than anybody.

[36:12] I have thought that I was doing God a favor I'm of the right tribe.

[36:24] I'm of the chosen people. But all of my good stuff is as what? Filthy racks.

[36:37] It's all a dunghill compared to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's only in that righteousness that I'm safe.

[36:50] It's only in, as Moses, in that cleft of the rock with the hand of God over me that I'm safe from the holy God. So, that's a beautiful expression of what Christ has done for me.

[37:09] Did you have... John has... In the beginning, it says he created light and darkness.

[37:23] It was created for us, not for him. Okay? Because... And I remembered it. In Psalm 139, verse 12, it says, Even the darkness is not dark to you.

[37:39] And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to you. So, the light wasn't created, you know, to show us God.

[37:50] He sees through it all. Right. I don't know if I said that right, but that's... Well, the light is not created to... for God to be able to see.

[38:00] Nathan. We were talking about glory before. You know, the Bible indicates... I think the Bible talks about the... the glory of the field, the flower of the field.

[38:15] And the Bible also indicates that man... Sorry, I'm trying to get away from the speaker to prevent it from feeding back. You can turn it down a little bit, but... That man is the glory of God.

[38:25] And so, glory is one of those... It's one of those words that's difficult to kind of define. But it seems to me that glory is a reflection of God.

[38:38] We reflect Him in a certain way. We were made in His image. God's creation reflects Him. Even the sun, right, reflects God. The light of the sun is a reflection of God as light. And so...

[38:50] But then there's also the Shekinah glory like we talked about. And sometimes God manifests Himself in a way that we can see. The Israelites, the glory filled the temple.

[39:00] It was like a smoke. Also, I think even the cloud, the pillar of... or the fire by night and the cloud by day also was kind of the glory of God. It was representing God and His presence.

[39:13] Anyway, so I just thought I'd add that as well. Thank you. Well, we're going to need to stop here, but...

[39:27] it is important to remember that in all this creation, I want to reiterate one more time, if I may, from Colossians chapter 1.

[39:39] You'll find it in verses 16 and 17. All of the things that God created were created for one reason. For His glory.

[39:56] And... He did not need to create. God is not needy. Otherwise, He would be eternally needy. He is not improved in any way.

[40:12] Otherwise, He was deficient eternally. He cannot become less God. That's impossible for Him. Nor can He, by the way, He cannot deny that He is God.

[40:28] That's why there is a judgment coming. Because He cannot deny Himself. He knows He's God.

[40:38] He knows He's the only God. And so He cannot deny Himself and be true. So He does not lower Himself.

[40:50] Well, we'll get into that. We'll get into that. We'll just mull on that a little bit. Have a great morning.

[41:02]  God bless us.