Welcome to Sacramento Central Seventh-day Adventist church. We are coming to you, like we do every week, from usually sunny Sacramento, California and we are ready to sing some songs and I hope you are - whether you're listening in on the radio, watching live on our website at 'saccentral.org or on the various television networks - however you are joining us a very big happy welcome and pull out your hymnals and join with us. We're ready to start with 'praise him! Praise him!' - #249 - We're going to sing all three stanzas this morning and, of course, like every week, our requests are picked by our extended family around the world so this is from barbara right here in California, jacinth in england, maisie and karl in France, Benjamin in Georgia, dave in Indiana, justin in indonesia, shirley in jamaica, gershom in kenya, ali in malawi, kelvyn, myriam, janice and aurelie in mauritius, leo and dorothy in Michigan, howard and diane in Mississippi, tina in Montana, jared and dr. Camille in New Jersey, joyann and kaity in New York, don and cindy in Pennsylvania, maria in saint lucia, natt in tanzania, gloria in tennessee, jayelle and jamille in trinidad and tobago, and John in Utah. Let's sing this morning 'praise him! Praise him!' - #249 - All three stanzas.
I hope that you will continue praising our blessed redeemer through the rest of today and the week - forever. He truly is a wonderful merciful redeemer and we have so much to praise him for, don't we? If you have a favorite song that you'd like to sing with us on an upcoming program, it is so simple. Go to our website at 'saccentral.org' and click on the 'contact us' link and you can send us your favorite hymn requests and we will sing that for you as soon as possible. We're continuing our way through the hymnal, learning The Songs that are unfamiliar to most of us. This one isn't so unfamiliar - it's actually a very pretty song that I think a lot of people know, but we're going to sing it as we're working our way through and it's #33 - 'sing a new song to the Lord' - this is from denise in jamaica and kester in trinidad and tobago.
We're going to sing the first, second and fourth stanzas - #33. Father in Heaven, thank you so much for loving us, for giving us health and strength - the ability to be here in your house to worship you today. There's so many of our Sabbath school family that aren't here - most of them are around the planet somewhere. And it's exciting to think that one day soon we're all going to get together in heaven and sing a new song to the Lord - one that we don't even know yet but I know you're going to teach us. Father, may we all be ready for that day.
Thank you so much for blessing us with the Sabbath and may we never take it for granted - the freedoms that we have right here in Sacramento. Be with our speaker as he brings us the lesson study and thank you so much for our new pastor here at Sacramento central. In Jesus' Name, amen. I'm excited to introduce to you our newest member of our pastoral staff here at Sacramento central church, pastor chris buttery and his family - go ahead and come on up. They just moved all the way from Pennsylvania and they drove across the country over thanksgiving - the end of November - they got into Sacramento the beginning of December - actually like the 5th of December I think it was and they're here.
And so pastor chris is our family life and outreach pastor so I know you'll be seeing a lot of him around and we're very glad to have him and his wife jennifer and their three children here with us at Sacramento central. So today pastor chris is going to bring us our lesson study. Welcome pastor chris. Thank you. Good morning to everybody here.
Good to see you this morning and those that are joining us online and on radio I understand or wherever they might be. Welcome everyone. Good to see you this morning. As a matter of fact, we had arrived here December - was it December - December 5? Yes, and the next day, for our anniversary gift, we unloaded the truck and settled into our new house - fourteen years with my lovely wife and you got to meet her and what a joy she is and the kids as well. I want to mention today's special gift offer, it is 'the day God rested' and it's written by d.
c. Manrick and it is offer #799 and to receive 'the day God rested' you can just call 1-866-study-more. We're into our third lesson in the study of 'origins'. Are you enjoying the study of origins? Phenomenal stuff, isn't it? Phenomenal stuff and we're going to get right into it here this morning. Lesson - we're at lesson #3 and the title of this lesson is 'the creation completed' - 'the creation completed'.
Some of you may have heard of the first century b.c. Roman architect and engineer vitruvius - and vitruvius produced a famous treaty - I'm going to read it because it's in that language. The architectura in which it laid out a succinct formula for the virtues that every good building should possess and here's what it is - three of them - famous trio - these three essentials: firmitas, utilitas, and venustas - I'm not sure I got those right either - I gave it my best shot. These were the trio essentials - strength, function and beauty - strength, function and beauty. Strength meant that whatever was built needed to, of course, stand firm and as far as function, it meant that whatever was built needed to be built with its function in mind.
And then, of course, beauty or delight and probably don't need to say too much about that wonderful thing. More than two thousand years later the vitruvian triad still sounds about right - you would agree with me, right? Yeah. Where did we get our love for building from? Now, perhaps if you're a little bit like me - I don't love building things, I'm all thumbs. What I tend to build doesn't look quite like it was supposed to fit that particular way. My wife will tell you that when we - the furniture in our house, as a matter of fact, is stuff that you have to put together - you go to a furniture shop - we just went and got it in boxes and put it together.
And I'm sitting there and I have to sit there with the instructions because I cannot figure out how to put the thing together just by looking at it. How many of you are like that with me here this morning? I hope I'm not the only one. Yeah, please show me your hands - oh yeah - thank you. Fabulous. I want encouragement this morning.
Man, I tell you what - so I'm there with the instructions and I've got to get it just the way - I'm following step by step and I think my wife can look at it and just tell me how it goes. She's just like that. But we love creating and designing and drawing and building and creating and we wonder where we got that from. Like father like son, right? Yeah. Our Heavenly Father - our Heavenly Father has shown himself to be the architect extrordinaire - he loves to create things and as we look at the creation of the world around us and the magnificence of the universe that we see through spectacular telescopes, we're impressed by his creative ability - no doubt there is a creator.
To doubt there is a creator is the equivalent of saying that - I don't know - the pyramids of Egypt just kind of erected and appeared on the scene without there being any intelligence behind it. I was looking at a picture of the golden gate bridge - not too far from here - something I haven't seen yet. To say that the golden gate bridge just suddenly appeared would be somewhat ludicrous - or the great wall of china - that it had no brains behind it and materialized out of thin air. There are some things that we cannot deny and remain sensible and reasonable all at the same time. Our planet has countless evidences that are - that intelligence has been at work.
You are familiar, no doubt, with the bombardier beetle - I was reading about this the other day - the bombardier beetle. Now, apparently, it looks harmless and I think some of its predators think that it's pretty harmless and would be a delightful meal. It appears to be tasty until the predator approaches licking its lips. The beetle, like something out of a James bond movie, fires a high-pressure jet of scalding noxious liquid into its attacker's face. This is serious stuff.
The mechanisms that allow the bombardier beetle to fire the repelling stream are apparently complex and amazing. Let me just read some of these things here for you. 'When danger approaches the beetle secrets hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone into a storage chamber inside the body and by muscular tension it then moves the chemicals together into another compartment and that compartment is called the 'explosion chamber'. At the moment of need the beetle's body injects a triggering chemical into that chamber causing a boiling hot toxic liquid to spew out of the beetle's rear end into the face of its attacker.' Now three separate chemicals - two compartments - must exist simultaneously for the whole system to function and for the system to actually work. According to the theory of evolution, all of these complex mechanisms evolved over vast eons of time.
But this claim raises some serious questions with regard to logic. How can such an interdependent system of complex inter-related chemicals and chambers and muscles have evolved gradually over a period of time? And if that little bug needed the chemical weapon to survive because evolutionary theory promotes - purports the survival of the fittest - if they needed those things to survive, how did it manage to stay alive for millions of years while the complex mechanisms were still evolving? And if it did not need to survive because the strongest survive - the weakest die out - how did it and why did it evolve? Darwinian evolution purports that everything we see today came from nothing until a bolt of lightning passed through - as he said - 'a warm little pond' - it does make you wonder where the water came from and where the lightning came from - 'jolted inanimate cells to life' and these cells somehow produced acquiring more complexity in the process until they branched off into various forms over billions of years developing the million or so species that inhabit our planet today. I tend to agree with julie andrews who sang in 'the sound of music' - I won't sing it for you - 'nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could.' Nothing ever could. The Bible reveals that there is an intelligence, of course, behind this creation and it's a loving creator that originally made this world with firmitas, utilitas, and venustas - strength, function, and beauty. We look at - we'll look at more evidences - we'll look at our Scripture - our memory text, Genesis 2:2 I believe it is - yes, Genesis 2:2 and we can look at that in our Bibles here this morning and it says, "and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.
" So last week we - when we were studying the creation account we looked at the first three days of creation. Today we're going to be taking a look at the fourth, the fifth and the sixth days. Now, admittedly, we're not going to pour ourselves into the sixth day too much - there's a completely separate lesson on the origin of man and the creation of man and we'll talk a little bit about the Sabbath, but there's a whole lesson just on the Sabbath itself too so we won't be looking at those things too deeply. We're going to - we're going to actually take a look at a Bible text here in just a moment - it's Genesis chapter 1 verses 14 through 19. Someone has that and if you could just raise your hand if you have that.
We're going to read that in just a moment. In the meantime, some of you may be familiar with a little story about sir Isaac newton and his solar system model that was fitted with belts and pulleys. Now he had some friends - or he had a friend that didn't believe in the origin of the world as expressed and shared in the creation account in Genesis. And this particular friend visited sir Isaac newton and when he visited him he was so impressed by this model of the solar system and just completely floored by its intricacy - and it had poles that were holding the planets that were kind of revolving around the sun and an amazing kind of little piece of artwork there and he was very impressed by it and he said, 'Isaac, who made - who developed - who made this little solar system contraption?' And sir Isaac newton - as the story goes - just simply said that - playing along with his friend's belief that nothing came from nothing - or that something came from nothing - all by itself - 'no one created it. It just kind of appeared here.
' And, of course, the friend couldn't believe that and wouldn't believe that and finally it dawned on his friend that the model, of course, could never have come together by accident as the solar system and the world and the galaxies and the universe that we live in today. According to the world book at nasa there are more than 100 billion galaxies in our universe which have been photographed, of course, using high-powered telescopes. The most distant galaxies are from 10 billion to 13 billion - get this - light years away. Very far. The smallest have fewer than a billion stars while the larger galaxies may have more than a trillion and each star may have numerous planets and thousands of asteroids or other astrobodies orbiting them.
Our own solar system including - I wrote down nine planets - is it eight now because pluto's no longer deemed a planet, right? So eight planets - 54 natural satellites, a thousand comets, thousands of asteroids and meteoroids in precise balance around - orbit around us - or at least around the sun I should say. And this all sits on the edge of our galaxy - the milky way. The galaxy is approximately ,000 light years in diameter and is estimated to contain up to four - four hundred billion stars in the milky way. That's quite impressive. Our own sun is just one star in that system and our planet is the only known planet in this region to hold life.
In order to sustain life, the planet must be precisely situated in the solar system to remain in the - what scientists call the 'habitable zone' around the sun. If the sun - if the earth were to orbit around the sun five degrees closer to the sun you know what would happen - rivers and lakes and creeks would dry up and become parched and we'd be scorched and just wouldn't be - it wouldn't be good. If the planet were 20 percent farther away from the sun, of course, the water would freeze up, wouldn't it? And so would we. Some of us are freezing here this morning in northern California. The moon, which is a quarter size of planet earth, is the perfect size and distance from the earth to maintain a magnetic balance.
The moon is - in orbit - is precise, of course, completing a 24-hour circuit. In the process, the magnetic attraction controls the rising and falling of tides and oceans and lakes. To suggest that all of this came about by chance requires an incredible amount of faith - an incredible amount of faith. So we're at Genesis - that was a long preamble to Genesis, wasn't it? Genesis chapter 1, verses 14 through 19 - thanks so much. "Then God said, 'let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth'; and it was so.
Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
" Okay, so on the fourth day God created a greater light and lesser light and these are lights. He said in verse 14, 'let there be lights.' Now, apparently, in the original language - and I'm not a master or expert in the original language by any means, but this word 'light' is different from the word 'light' used on the first day of creation when God said 'let there be light.' It's a different type of light. This light means a source of light or a light holder or luminaries. So on the fourth day God created luminaries or holders of light and these lights were to divide the day from the night. These lights were to divide the day from the night - to regulate and continue from that time forward, the difference between light and darkness.
The text says in verse 14, which is very interesting and many have obscured these texts, unfortunately - this text, unfortunately, with regard to these lights being for signs, for seasons, for days, for years - for signs. They've been - first of all, biblically speaking, you've got signs in the stars that have revealed or stars in the sky that have revealed God's pleasure. You remember when Joshua was battling the amalekites in Joshua 10, verses 12 and 13 and he prayed that the stun - the stun - the sun would be stunned and would stand still - it would stand still and it did. And, of course, you have the account in 2 Kings chapter 20, verse 11 where hezekiah asks Isaiah for a sign that he would, you know, live - be healed and move on with his life and, of course, Isaiah - the shadow on the dial would proceed backwards. Some interesting things would take place - would take place there.
So these have been - certainly God has used these to reveal his pleasure with individuals - his displeasure also. You remember when Jesus was on the cross - there was darkness, basically in the afternoon and the middle of the day and there shouldn't have been. It was dark. And, of course, the stars - these heavenly bodies have been also used in connection with prophecy. You recall in Matthew 24 - and, of course, we can read that in Revelation chapter 6 as well - where before Jesus would come there would be stars falling from the heavens.
And we know that took place - there was a terrific meteor shower that took place in 1833 Marking the beginning - or at least declaring that we were now living in the time of the end and living in that time closer and closer to when Jesus would come and so these things certainly have been used for signs. There's no doubt about that; however, they're not designed - the stars or the sun or the moon - they've never been designed to determine a person's destiny - that is being used, of course, today. The Bible opposes the work of astrology. Jeremiah warns the Hebrews not to be afraid of the signs of the heaven that the heathen tremble before in Jeremiah chapter 10 and verse 2. Isaiah - or at least Isaiah - is it Isaiah or Isaiah? I get all mixed up - in australia it's Isaiah - here it's Isaiah - I can't - I'm going to call him Isaiah.
That's proof that you can change, see? You can - you can change - we can become more like Jesus, see? Isaiah - Isaiah writes against star gazers warning that it's foolish to rely on their counsel and you can read about that - and I didn't write the text down but there you go. But Isaiah does talk about that. So we have these warnings about not using the signs - or the stars and whatnot for - to predict our future destinies. Deadly stuff when you get involved in that and I think - I think it wouldn't be - I think probably most of us sitting in the room probably know our star - our star sign and the animal, right? I'm a taurus - but I don't know what that means. You found out when you were younger, you know, that you were this animal, - and this was your sign.
I don't know what any of that means and I don't really care. God holds my future in his hand and I've - because I've committed my life to him and if you've committed your life to him he holds your destiny in his hands as well. You can trust him. You can hope in him and have courage in him today. Now, it also says that the stars, the sun and the moon were for seasons.
Apparently they were used to regulate the annual festivals of ancient Israel and, of course, they have more definite influence upon agriculture and navigation and, of course, animal life - breeding times and when birds migrate - animals even migrate. They're also used for days and years and, of course this has to do with the earth's rotation to the sun - lunar - solar calendars have been created using these heavenly bodies. Some with not so much success and others with good success. Yes. Verse 15 of Genesis 1 says, "let them be for lights.
Let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so." Now, this is not to suggest that light was introduced here, we know it was introduced on what day of creation? The first day of creation. That was already done, but perhaps this is simply suggesting that this was a permanent arrangement that God made for the distribution of light here on planet earth during the day and during the nighttime. So the question that's often begged was 'what is the light that was created on the first day?' I mean, if it wasn't the sun - a lot of squabbling has taken place with regard to - debate - with regard to what this light was. Perhaps it was simply and merely God's presence - not that he created it, but that he redirected it in this direction and shone upon us. Of course, you read in Revelation 21, verse 23 that no sun or moon is needed on the earth made new because God - in the city - yeah - at least - and God - because God is the light thereof.
And so it wouldn't be too far-fetched to suggest it was the light of God's presence, but it's a good rule and the lesson brings this out to give a question - not to give a question more significance than the Bible gives it and accept that our understanding of some of these things is limited. I mean, if we understood everything then we would be God. But God must be God and so there are some things we can't figure out or understand. He made the stars also - that's verse 16, right? Did he create the stars in the first, you know, during this first week or were they there before? It's likely that Moses is mentioning them in passing. If they were created during the creation week then it assumes that the universe was empty prior to creation and we know that wasn't so.
The earth was already here without form and void. It seems like there were things going on prior to the creation week of our world and the bodies around this particular world. But we can't be too dogmatic. Remember, Moses is impressing us here with God's creative ability. He's not seeking to answer all of our questions and so we can settle and move on with that.
We've got another verse here. We're going to look at Monday's lesson - we're going to run over the creation of air, water, and animals - Genesis 1 verses 20 to 23 - who has that here? You do? Okay, we're going to come to you in just a second here. I should point out, as we move on to the fifth day of creation, that God closed the fourth day of creation by saying it was what? Good. It was good. He says it was good again.
The sun, the moon, the stars - these things were very good - were good. I think we - it's safe to suggest that we suffer, of course, more so than the heavenly bodies under the curse and plight of sin. Our world is not the way it used to be and I think that the heavenly bodies basically have been untouched perhaps - unmarred by sin and so that's why the Bible writers say and suggest to us to look into the heavenly sky and there see the creative power and glory and majesty of God. It's very likely that these things have not been affected much by sin. They reveal God's power.
Astronomers and navigators - they are sure that these things are in orbit and how it all plays out - they're not going to budge - they're not going to move - they stake their life on the obedience of these heavenly bodies to the rules that have been established for them by God. It's quite a fascinating thing and I wish I could spend more time talking about that. They trust the obedience of these heavenly bodies to the laws that they have been given. Okay, we're moving on to the fifth day. Genesis chapter 1, verses 20 to 23.
Thank you very much. "Then God said, 'let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have life, and the fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.' And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, 'be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Fabulous.
Thank you very much. So verse 20 bears out that they were - that the waters - the sky - brought forth abundantly - literally that is 'let the waters swarm with swarms - let the waters swarm with swarms or to multiply abundantly. Not only fish, but all water creatures - from the greatest to the least including some of the- I would imagine - the water reptiles. It says there, in verse 20, it says in verse 20 'the moving creature that has life.' Now this phrase, from what I understand, draws a distinction between animal life and the life of vegetation. It's the first time this phrase is kind of introduced together and it seems that God is intending to clarify that there is a distinction - a clear distinction between vegetation and animal life.
Of course vegetation is life and it is alive - if we could say that - but, of course, animal life is different. This type of animal - life that animals have - of course they have organs that allow them to make decisions and to run and to move and to search for food and all of those types of things - even experiencing to a great or less degree joy and sorrow and those emotions. Animal life is different from plant life and God declares the distinction here in verse 20 of Genesis 1. And then, of course, it says that he created the fowl - better translated birds - domesticated as well as wild birds. And then verse 21 talks about them being created after their kind.
Just like the plants that were created on the third day, this statement clearly suggests that the distinct kinds of animals we see were established at creation and not through a process of development that took eons and eons of time. And by the way, it's not just talking about kinds - the fixity of species, but the large variety that we see in creation around us - the rich variety of kinds - great diversity. The lesson brings out that animals are endowed with the ability to produce all types of different kinds of individuals. Breeds have come from the common pigeon and there are 27 known breeds of goldfish. So you have the basic common pair or kind and they produce all types of individual kinds from that kind - without trying to be redundant here.
And God saw that it was what, friends? It was good. It was good. Nature, as one commentary put it, nature received an ornament on the fifth day. Not only vegetation and - that was created earlier, but here you have animals and the variety of bird and sea - aquatic life - and we're just intrigued by these things. I mean, you know, if you visited some type of marine world where there are orcas that you could pat and, you know, you can just the top there and dolphins - I mean, these things intrigue us - we like looking at them and we study them and it's phenomenal and there are plenty of birds to keep our attention.
When I took jen and the kids to australia it was the first time we'd been - and probably the last time we'll go as a family - whew - we - jen enjoyed the large variety of australian birds. You're from another country. You probably have your specific exotic birds. Going to australia there are a lot of exotic birds and they're beautiful and they just fly freely. You've got the rainbow lorikeet.
I mean, they're just everywhere. It's like walking into a bird sanctuary. I'm talking about in the city. The rainbow lorikeets are everywhere - just color and beauty and it reveals, of course, God is interested in being creative and he loves variety - wonderful things that we can see. The lesson brings out the - some interesting things about birds and their feathers and their wings.
I'm looking on Monday's lessons - he says, 'the birds are truly amazing creatures and are wonderfully designed. Feathers are lightweight but strong, stiff yet flexible. The parts of a flight feather are held together by complex sets of tiny barbs that provide strong but lightweight bracing. A bird's lung is so designed that it can obtain oxygen as it inhales and also as it exhales. This provides the high level of oxygen required for powered flight.
This result is accomplished by the presence of air sacs in some of the bones and these sacs function to satisfy - or rather to sustain - the flow of oxygen and at the same time to lighten the body of the bird making flight easier to maintain and control.' Birds are amazingly constructed. When you look at just the complexity of a bird and its wing structure - I mean, we're not talking here about an eye or an ear or - we're talking about just the wings of a bird. It's phenomenal that these - truly reveals that the hand of the creator did these things. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing. We're going to go to our next text now, it's Genesis 1:24 and - Genesis 1:24 and 25.
Who has that? Okay. Fantastic. Right over here. We're going to read that in just a moment. Of course, with all this in mind, when we talk about the birds and how they're made and the detail that God put into the bird, which is simply amazing, you can't help but remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:29 to 31 - maybe I should just read that while we're getting ready to read the other text.
Matthew 10:29 to 31. Let me read that for you. Jesus said, "are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered." - Some hairs are a little easier to count than others, I guess - some heads. - "Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than" - the what, friends? - "Many sparrows.
" I mean, consider the complexity of birds and then consider that God created them and that he cares for them and they have food and they have their housing that they make and yet he cares far more for you and for me. That's a phenomenal thing. I mean, God loves creation but he loves you and me, I would suspect, much more. So we're at Genesis 1:24 and 25. Thank you so much.
"Then God said, 'let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind'; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good." Fantastic. Thank you very much. By the way, I should mention, in verse 22 - talking about the birds and the fish - it's the first time that God blessed something - that's recorded in Scripture.
God blessed them - talking about the birds and the - the birds and the aquatic animals. And, of course, that blessing was in conjunction with being fruitful and multiplying. Just food for thought. Anyway, yes, we come now to the sixth day of creation and God makes the living creatures. By the way, on this day it's also a double act of creation - like the third day - God creates the land animals and he also creates - yeah, man - mankind.
And these particular animals he creates on the sixth day are divided into three classes. You have the cattle, which we could suggest are the larger domesticated quadrupeds and sometimes the larger animals as well. You've got the creeping things, number 2, which are smaller animals like worms and insects and some reptiles, and then, of course, the beasts of the earth - commonly we refer to those as the wild animals - those that roam freely - roam freely. And, of course too, these animals were made after - verse 25 - they were also made after their own kind. These inspired words refute, again, the theory of evolution that declares higher life forms came from forms - from lower ones.
There is no single ancestor - no single ancestor at all in the land of animals. We're moving along a little quickly and, by the way, we're going to look at a whole lesson on man coming up so we're going to move on and not talk or touch too much - or talk about the creation of man and woman on the sixth day. But we're going to go to another Bible text - Genesis 2:1 through - we've got it right here. Just give us a moment here - we're going to turn in our Bibles to Genesis chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. By the way, God ends the - God declares after he created the animals and man - he declares after he created the animals 'it's good' and then man 'very good.
' He closes with this benediction. God saw that it was good. So we're hoping to read here Genesis 2, verses 1 through 3, which basically brings us to the - to creation that is completed. Everything is said and done when we get here to the seventh day - a created - a completed creation. And when we think about a completed creation, you've got to just respect the idea that God just doesn't start something and just leaves it.
God likes to finish things. How many of you are like that? I cannot stand leaving a project undone. I won't even tell you about yesterday and the projects I wanted to get done and because of traffic and because of delay and because I'm not familiar with the regulations here in California, it just did not all occur and I don't like leaving things undone - God doesn't like leaving things undone. He completed the creation and we read that in Genesis chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. Thank you very much.
Genesis 2, verses 1 through 3, "thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made." Fantastic. Thank you again. Wonderful.
Why is - why are these verses - or why is the idea of a completed creation so important to our understanding of the importance of the Sabbath? Why is it so important that we understand that creation was completed? If we compare it with certain teachings today that suggest that the creation was not completed - the Sabbath, then, would be obsolete, would it not? Okay, so it's very important that we understand that the - that creation was actually completed. They were finished in verse 1 - the Bible says God left nothing undone. It was very good he said. And then in verse 2 he says that he rested on it - not because he was weary - the Bible says that God never gets weary, but he merely ceased from what he was previously doing and we understand that he was doing that to set an example for us and encourage us. And we can talk a little bit about that.
Then on the third day he not only rested on the seventh day but he also blessed it and he also sanctified that day - obviously a far more special day than the previous days - the previous six days. The seventh day - God rested on it, he blessed it and he sanctified it and, obviously, primarily to encourage us to build our relationship with God - to hold back - as someone suggested - to hold back on giving all that God - all the day to God would be disobedience against God and robbery of God as the original proprietor of man's powers and time. The Sabbath deserves our honor and our esteem he says and closes 'God counts it as sin' if we neglect to render this. So the Sabbath is a highly important day, a holy day, a glorious day - according to Jesus the purpose of the Sabbath - and we can understand this when we read Mark chapter 2, verses 27 and 28 - the purpose of the Sabbath - God says the Sabbath was made for who? Man. God gave us the Sabbath that we might rest and be blessed and we might not lose sight of God and get caught up in materialism and get caught up in overwork and understand our place in the universe.
That's why God gave us the Sabbath - it's a blessed day. It's a great day. It's a joyous day, no doubt about that. Alright, we're going to go to Genesis chapter 1, verse 31 and we're going to just spend a few moments here talking about the literal day as we try to wrap up here our lesson. Genesis chapter 1, verse 31 - who had that? We just - right - we have it right here? Genesis chapter 1, verse 31.
We're going to talk a little bit about the day - five times - five times in Genesis chapter 1 God uses the phrase - or the Bible writer uses the phrase 'evening and morning were the first day.' 'Evening and morning were the second day' and so on. And so we'll take a look at this with regard to - with regard to our understanding of the creation account. Okay, please go right ahead. Genesis chapter 1, and verse 31. "And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." Okay. So what are the components of a creation day? An evening and a morning - that's exactly right. And, of course, these verses and these words are stressing to us and more than implying a 24-hour period. Now many have been the explanations of the phrase 'evening and morning were the first day' and the second day and so on. Some have thought that each creative act lasted one night or the day began in the morning.
Some others - and still others believe that each day comprises a long period of time. Some have suggested a thousand years because of their reading - their incorrect reading of 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 8. Some just say an indefinite period of time in an attempt to harmonize the Bible's teaching of fiat creation with popular scientific theory and the two - these two ideas have come together under the title 'theistic evolution'. Now theistic evolution, of course, is a contradiction of terms like - 'wise fool'. You cannot be a wise fool or foolish wise, or whatever.
Consider theistic evolution seeks to put - considering theistic evolution seeks to put God in the picture, let's take a quick look at the theological implications of this particular theory. #1 - To suggest that God maybe created the matter and then left it to evolutionary processes to where - to the point we are today - #1 - it undermines the Bible. That teaching completely undermines the Scriptures - calls into question the entire account of origins - the Bible account of origins. All that follows in the Bible can only be rightly understood with the correct understanding of Genesis. And perhaps in some strange way the theistic evolutionist feels that they have been delivered from believing the Bible story of creation, but the rest of Scripture - especially the new testament books - frequently quote and allude to the book of Genesis.
I'm going to throw out some verses for you - Ecclesiastes :29 - "God made man upright." Corinthians 15:45; 11, verse 8; and 1 Timothy 2, verse 13 talk about adam being formed and then eve. Corinthians 4:6 - Paul says "God commanded the light to shine out of darkness." Jude 14 - "Enoch the seventh from adam." Luke 3:38, Jesus' ancestry goes all the way back to seth. And then, of course, James 3:9, "men made - men were made like God." Revelation 12:9 and 22, verse 3 talk about the serpent being satan and there being no more curse. Matthew 19:4, "God made male and female." Matthew 24:38, "the days of Noah and lot will be like" - at least the end of time - the days before Jesus comes will be like the days of Noah and of lot. Contrary to popular opinion that the Genesis account of beginnings is simply figurative, Jesus himself considers them trustworthy and authoritative.
If we doubt the creation account then we must doubt the words of Jesus and Paul and other Bible writers who saw these words as authoritative. So it undermines the authority of Scripture to suggest that God made matter and then let it - and allowed it to succumb to evolutionary processes - I'm talking about macro evolutionary processes where major adaptations and mutations occur - is to - it's influence is opposed to Christian conduct. Jesus taught that the meek shall inherit the earth and that if someone slaps you on one side of the face you were to turn the other cheek. But evolutionary doctrine is diametrically opposed to that particular idea. In harmony with evolution's idea of survival of the fittest, german philosopher friedrich nietzsche directed that 'man shall be trained for war and women for the recreation of the warrior.
' All else is folly. That's what he said. According to nietzsche, the germans were the master race and the supermen and best fitted to serve and dominate the world. Adolph hitler was a devoted follower of nietzsche whose ideas were easily exploited by the nazis in their Ruthless rise to power. The two philosophies - nietzsche and Christ - can never harmonize.
Jesus' do unto others golden rule and evolution's survival of the fittest - that might makes right - cannot be harmonized. That's #2. #3 - This teaching of day being eons of time attributes to natural causes our creator's work - attributes to natural causes our creator's work. Satan has always attempted to undermine God's ability and God's power and it's a very - theistic evolution is a very subtle, devious teaching that simply places God as overseer of creation not the creator of creation and what we see today. Another reason - its brutal method is unworthy of God's love - that is, the evolutionary process is - this method is unworthy of God's love.
Another reason we cannot believe that - the days were more than -hour periods - is that God said that it's finished. It was a finished creation. Creation was not merely begun at the time spoken - at the opening of the Genesis account the inspired record states that it was finished and on the seventh day was set apart as a special day to commemorate the completion of God's creation. The Bible writers talk about the work of creation being finished - past tense - that is our world, you understand. And, of course, each day is a period of light and darkness.
We talked a little bit about that - when the Lord declared that he made the world in six days and that he rested on the seventh - he makes it plain that he meant a 24-hour day. A 24-hour day for he says, 'the evening and the morning were the first day' and he says it five times. No other language could have been used to express God's thoughts more clearly when we talk about the seventh day week and how did that originate? The day originated for the time it takes for the earth to rotate on its axis - that's how we get our 24-hour day. We get our month because that's how long it takes the moon to go around the earth - is that right? Yeah, moon to go around the earth. And then, of course, the 365 and a quarter day year - that's how long it takes for the earth to go in a complete rotation around the sun.
But where do we get the week from? Where do we get the week from? There is nothing in the sky that tells us we should have a seven-day week. You have to go back to the story of Genesis to understand where we got a seven-day week from. It's the only place we can know where the seven-day week originated. Now everyone - there being times in history where this is - they've tried to come up with ten-day and eight-day and five-day weeks but everyone has always gone back to the seven-day week because that's how God made it and we function best by working six days and resting on - not just any day but on the seventh day. On the seventh day.
I'd like to talk more about that but I need to move on. And so the Sabbath - also, the Sabbath command implies a -hour day, does it not? God says 'work six days like I did.' Now if he worked six days that equaled thousands of years each, then that would be an unrealistic proposition for you and me. Now some of us overwork a little bit but that would be stretching it just a tad. So to - so the creation week also declares and verifies that each day was a 24-hour period. Today I remain convinced that the Bible truth of creation is the very, very, very foundation of all revealed truth.
In his provocative essay written in January 1997 issue of 'first things', neil postman who is chair of department of culture and communications at New York university highlights how we have lost our understanding of our origins. He says "the post-twentieth century information glut that has buried us is killing us because we have no loom to weave into our fabric. We have lost the stories that could help us save us from our deluge. How did this come about? Well it's not been a good pair of centuries for Gods. Charles darwin, we might say, began the great asSault that we were not the children of God - with a capital g - but of monkeys.
Karl marx tore to shreds the God of nationalism showing with theory and countless examples how the working class are deluded identifying with their capitalist tormentors. Sigmund freud, working quietly in his consulting room in vienna, bid to welcome the world's most ferocious God-buster. For good measure, freud destroyed the story of childhood innocence, tried to prove that Moses was not a jew, and argued that our belief in deities was a childish and nuerotic illusion. 'God is dead' nietzsche said, before he went insane, but in the end science does not provide the answer most of us require. Its story about origins and of our end is to say the least unsatisfactory.
" We've lost our story - but the creation story reveals our story. If you are, today, not sure about your origin and are doubting that you came from the hand of a benevolent creator, consider today the creation work around you. And if you are enjoying and reveling in the knowledge that you are a child of God and you came from his hand, may your faith be affirmed as you look around you - the world around you - at God's wonderful creation and what he's doing in your life as he works out his perfect plan for you. We have a wonderful God. Again, I want to remind us today of our special offer: 'the day God rested' by D.C. Manrick. It's offer #799. You can call 1-866-study-more. Thank you so much for being with us today and may God bless you.