Genesis 1: The Beginning

(upbeat music) Today we started journey that will take us almost four years. It's a journey through the greatest book given to the human race, the Word of God. It's the Bible, and we get to go through it chapter by chapter. We're gonna stop at unexpected places on the journey and be challenged. At some verses we'll be in awe. We will have chapters that will be instructive and in others we'll find joy and peace. And at even in places we're gonna find conviction and wanna change. The best way to get the most from this podcast is read the chapter we're discussing before or after. It's the Word that transforms, and you will find more and see more than I can ever articulate. Welcome to chapter by chapter, and today is Genesis 1. Let's start at the best place, let's start at the beginning. These words start everything, not just the podcast, but existence in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's Genesis 1-1. Some call it the Big Bang, I love to call it the Big God theory. Let there be light and there was light. If that is what God asked for, he got what he asked for. Well, God spoke not only came into existence, but it came into existence in a big way. This God-spoken universe is so huge that some scientists believe that there has to be more life on other planets. Why? Because this universe is way oversized for it just to be about us. That's not a bad argument in my opinion, but let's take it from another standpoint. Let's take it from the artist standpoint. What if the universe was not for the inhabitants, but for the master to show off who he was and what he can do? What if the universe is his canvas to describe how great he is? What if David got it right when he said in Psalm 19, the heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands? Or as the message version says, God's glory is on tour in the skies. That being said, we only live in a subdivision of this magnificent universe. A subdivision of his artwork called the Milky Way Galaxy. One of the main measurements on how we get around in the universe is called the light year. The foot, the inch and the mile, even the kilometer can't help you when you're measuring this part of creation. Our ruler is too small to measure this, his universe. What is a light year? It's how far light travels in one year. Light travels 5.88 trillion miles in a year. And science tells us that our subdivision, the Milky Way is 100,000 light years wide. Think of it this way and be an awe. Just our subdivision has billions of stars in it. Not hundreds, not millions, billions. And scientists say that there are hundreds of billions of other subdivisions in our universe. Remember, the universe is his canvas. If we were to count the billions of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, one per second, just our counting, it would take 2,500 years just for the stars in our galaxy to be counted at one star per second. So a great question to ask is, to whom would you compare God to? Isaiah 40, 25 says, to whom then will you like in me? That I would be as equal, says the Holy One. He said, lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars. The one who leaves forth their host by number. He calls them by name because of the greatness of his might, the strength of his power. Not one of them is missing. All of these facts about his masterpiece compels me, here it comes, to write, size, God. So here's the point. The heavens are telling us that God is huge. And if he is very, very huge, then we must be very, very small. The heavens are also telling us that we are very, very small. So you can't make him part when he is everything and everywhere. It is shameful and even silly to confine him to a day of the week and you live your life the other six days. He was involved with every day of Genesis and wants to be involved with every part of your life. You are going to give God a few hours a week. I want to say, are you out of your mind based on who he is and who you are? You are creation, not the creator. Don't tell God anything, just bow and worship him. Think of this. His name is mentioned 32 times in 31 verses in Genesis 1. He is the center, not us. He is the main character of this story, not me. 32 times God has mentioned in Genesis 1 in 31 verses. Think of that for a moment. It's almost as God is trying to tell us. He spills over the chapter. There weren't enough verses to even contain his name. So when you try to pull him out of school's government, your home and even your life, you're doing something that was never intended and life can't work without him. Say the name God and everyone will have a different idea and even definition. The name God here in Genesis 1 refers to the absolute, unqualified, unlimited, powerful God. This is how we're introduced to him. That name 31 times in those verses, God was trying to let us know something about himself. These words remind us of who God is. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. This is the first great truth which God wanted man to know. He is creator of the heavens and the earth. Here we have no definition of God, no description of creation, and no declaration of a date. It's called an axiomatic statement. What does that mean? It's a statement or proposition that needs no proof because its truth is obvious. Or that is accepted as true with even out proof. Accept this first sentence and there will be little difficulty in accepting miracles and anything else in the Bible chapter by chapter as we take this journey. It's the first axiomatic statement that attacks all of men's philosophies. Listen to it. In the beginning, God denies atheism. In the beginning, God denies polytheism. In the beginning, God created. It denies fatalism and the doctrine of chance. It denies evolution. Heaven and earth, it denies pantheism that makes God in nature the same. See, God is really big. I'm really small. And the big God has taken an interest in my life. As tiny as we are, we are prized by the artist who made all of this. Here it is, Psalm 84. What is man that you take thought of him and the son of man that you care for him? Oh Lord, what is man that you take knowledge of him? Or the son of man that you think of him? P.T. foresight said this. The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom, but its master, its creator. We need to find God. And when you do, you will find new life. Spurgeon said these words, that's not all nature around me praise God. If I were silent, I should be an exception to the universe. That's not the thunder prism as it rolls like drums in the march of the God of armies. Do not the mountains praise him when the woods upon their summits wave in adoration. Does not lightning write his name in letters of fire in the sky and hath not the whole earth of voice. And shall I? Can I be silent? We definitely have something to shout about. God created us and God took notice of us. And God singled you and me out in this large universe. So if God is big and I am small, then this must be some kind of God who knows my name. Thank you for joining chapter by chapter. Every chapter from the greatest book, The Bible, the Word of God, seven minutes a day, seven days a week. We'll see you tomorrow.