In the sermon 'Day One of Creation' by David Green, the speaker delves into Genesis 1:1-5, exploring the creation narrative's theological depth and its implications on modern understandings of God and creation. The sermon emphasizes the Hebrew word 'Elohim,' noting its plural form and how it hints at the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—right from the beginning of the Bible. Green also addresses various interpretations of the creation story, particularly critiquing the gap theory and the day-age theory, which attempt to reconcile the Biblical account with evolutionary timelines. He argues that these theories often try to fit secular ideas into the Biblical narrative, which he believes is straightforward and literal. The sermon stresses the importance of context in interpreting scripture and encourages faith in God's Word over human theories. By citing various scriptures, including passages from Psalms, 1 Kings, John, Colossians, and Hebrews, Green reinforces the consistency and reliability of the Bible in explaining creation. He concludes by advocating for a faith-based understanding of creation, rooted in the belief that God created the universe out of nothing in six literal days as described in Genesis.

All right, so if you have your Bibles this evening, let's go to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. This is our second sermon in this series. Last one was just an introduction and So what we'll do is we'll kind of go through the lesson this evening and then at the end if there's any questions we'll cover those as well. So let me close out some of these other apps I've got going on on this thing.

So maybe it'll run a little better. Genesis chapter one, today we're going to read verses 1 through 5, and this will be our text. We're going to cover day one of creation. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Then God said, Let there be light. There was light. God saw that the light was good and God separated the light from darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning one day.

So This is the way that the Bible opens up. In the beginning, God. How fitting that as you open up your Bibles, you start reading, the first named individual of your Bible is God. In our English Bibles, we read this and it is plain that he's talking about God, but there's something deeper here that we might miss. And so I want to go ahead and bring this out.

It's very important, but in your Bible there are multiple names for God. And in this passage, as Moses wrote, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he used the word, the Hebrew word, Elohim. Elohim is a word for God, a name for God, but it is plural in form. And so, Elohim is the word that's used here, but it's also important to know that in the Hebrew, this word Elohim is a general term for deity, and it's a name that's used here for the true God, but in other places, it's used for false gods. And so, this is important to notice.

So, for instance, in Psalm 96, Psalm 96. Verse 5, For great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised, he is more fearsome than all gods." Now here we find the psalmist says great is Yahweh. Yahweh is God's covenant name. We'll get to this more as we get into Genesis chapter 2, but he says he is more fearsome than all gods. That's plural.

He's talking about false gods, but the word here is Elohim. Okay? Also in 1 Kings chapter 11, 1 Kings chapter 11, Oh, let me go in the right direction here. 1 Kings 11 and verse 33. Kind of break into the The middle of the sentence here it says because they have forsaken me and have worshiped Asteroth the goddess of the Sidonians Chimush the god of Moab and Milcom the god of the sons of Amon.

They have not walked in my ways to do what is right in my sight and to keep my statutes, my judgments, as his father David did." Now in this passage, he's saying that under the kingdom under Solomon, they had gone after gods and goddesses, and each time you see that word goddess or god, lower case, this is also the word Elohim. These are false gods. Sometimes the word Sometimes the word Elohim is translated as angels. Psalm 8 in verse 5. Yet you have made him a little lower than the angels and you crown him with glory and majesty." So that word angels is Elohim and in fact you'll see a little a little footnote there indicating that that's Elohim there.

Now in Psalm 82, Psalm 82 in verse 6, In verse 6, the psalmist here as he's writing says, I said you are gods and all of you are sons of the Most High. So there's that word, gods, and he's speaking of men. Let's be a man here. And so each one of these places, and as you go through your Old Testament, you can use a concordance or a lexicon, you can use Bible software to find these places, you can find where the word Elohim is used, Or if you know Hebrew, you can read through your Hebrew Bible, you can find that. How do you know who's who?

What's what? Context. Context is what determines what the writer meant, what the Holy Spirit means in these passages. And so as we read Genesis chapter 1, and he says, in the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep.

The spirit of Elohim was hovering over the surface of the waters then Elohim said let there be light and there was light. How do we know who he's talking about? Well we know beloved that he's talking about the true God, the God of the Bible, God Yahweh, the true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God that we serve. We know he's talking about the triune God. Why?

How do we know that? Well, because the false gods, the angels, men, none of them None of them can do what our God did here, you see. And so we rejoice at that. But further, this is used, Elohim is used here to describe, to tell us about God right off the bat, right away, to show us something about God. Because it's a plural word, a plural name, that's why sometimes it's translated as God, but here it's translated as God.

We learn something right away about God, and that is that the God of the Bible is one God, yet he is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Thus we have in this very first verse the first hint of the Trinity. Indeed, indeed not only do we have it in the Hebrew, but also as we read in our English, as he says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. So we see here, we see here the Spirit of God hovering over the surface of the waters.

As we read further on into the scriptures and into the New Testament, we read of Jesus being the creator, such as in passages of John chapter 1 and other other passages but we also well let's just go over there and John chapter 1 being one example John chapter 1 And so when the cultist comes knocking on your door and says something about Jesus being created later, say no, no. John chapter 1 and verse 1, it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God and the word was God he was in the beginning with God all things were all things came into being through him and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being in him was life and life was the light of man he is the the Creator In Colossians chapter 1, In verse 16, For in Him, talking about Christ, all things were created both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. And so we have the Trinity, our triune God, right here in the very first verse in this first chapter.

In fact, the phrase in the beginning takes the reader back to where human minds tend to go. And this is important for us as we go through life and as people come to us with questions or sometimes skeptics come to us with doubts and fears and all of those sorts of things. Where did the universe come from? Where is the human race? Where did it begin?

How did life begin? Where did man come from? The answer is found right here in Genesis. This passage teaches us that God created something, the heavens and the earth out of nothing. Only God can do that and It's taught throughout the Scriptures.

Over in Exodus chapter 20, Exodus chapter 20, verse 11, Verse 11 says, for in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Over in Romans chapter 4, Romans chapter 4 verse 17 Romans chapter 4 verse 17 as it is written the father of many nations have I made you in the presence of him whom he believed, even God who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. So he made everything in six literal days and rested the seventh and he did it all out of nothing. He made the heavens and the earth. That's what we would call the universe.

And the reason why it's worded this way is because in the Hebrew there's not a word for universe and so it just says the heavens and the earth, everything from the sky to the vast space, the earth, everything that's in it. As we get back to our text there in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 2, the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. There's been a lot of debate with Genesis 1 1 and 1 2. Some people teach a gap in between these verses. They say that the word was could mean because and that there might have been something major that happened in here caused it to be ruined from what it was.

But, While it's true that according to what I've read that the Hebrew word could mean became, so where it says then the earth was formless, that that could mean the earth became formless and void, that it could be translated that way. But context would indicate that that's not what's going on here. It's only speculation to say that this is what's being taught. In fact, nobody understood that this is what's being taught until somewhere along the time of the secularist teaching millions and billions of years and that's when guys started trying to fit worldly ideas into the Bible. In 98% of its usage, the word here that's translated was, is translated was, it's very rarely translated became.

The earth was formless and void. So in order to say that the earth became formless and void, they've got to bring up things outside of the Bible and try to squeeze it in here that the Bible doesn't teach now some of them will go over to Isaiah chapter 45 and say well here's kind of Some other information about the the things that happened in the gap. And so if we go to Isaiah chapter 45 in verse 18, It says, For thus says Yahweh, who created the heavens, He is the God who formed the earth and made it. He established it and did not created a formless place but formed it to be inhabited and so they go here and they say aha here's the proof for the gap they say that that it must have not been originally created void and without form, but became without form. They say, look, he established that he did not created a formless place, but formed it to be inhabited, and they say this means that something must have happened to make it this way but they take this verse out of context in this passage he's speaking about Israel and his grace in restoring them, what I believe to be the millennium.

If you read the entire passage here, Isaiah draws an analogy with God's purpose in creation. He did not create the world to be empty. No, no. He created it to be formed and filled. And he did not choose Israel to destroy them either.

Isaiah chapter 45 and verse 18 is about God's purpose in creating, not about the original state of the creation. Keep in mind, I've known some very good and godly men who have helped to the gap theory. But also keep in mind that some good and godly men can be wrong, including the one that's standing up here in the pulpit. And so we've just got to take the Bible the way it's written. And in simply taking it straight forward, We find that God created the earth at the beginning.

It was initially formless, empty, and dark. God's Spirit was there above the waters. You might think You might think of a potter in clay. That's all. It was a great work that was being done.

God is describing to us in His word what's happening here, but there's no gap. There's no billions of years or whatever that we need to try to stuff in here between Genesis 1 1 and Genesis 1 2. When he says darkness was over the surface of the deep, there's nothing evil going on here. In fact, in Isaiah chapter 45 and verse 7, The one forming light and creating darkness, producing peace and creating calamity, I am Yahweh who does all these. God created both darkness and light.

There's nothing bad about darkness. I like the dark. It makes it easier to sleep. I'm thankful for it. Just because it's dark doesn't mean it's evil.

And then so this isn't something bad that's going on here. And so, you know, the word, the surface of the deep, I mean, this later, this word deep later refers to oceans, but this was before the earth had form, so we must assume that the oceans had no form either. The Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Nothing is insignificant when it comes to Scripture, and this phrase is no different. Even when we read it, we don't understand it at first.

It's there for reason. This movement, when he says the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters, this movement was not idle and purposeless. I believe that as the Holy Spirit was there, there was something going on. Some commentators make this out to be like a like a hen, the mother hen over her chicks. This was a purposeful thing.

It may not be the best way to describe this verse, but maybe think of it this way. This was God, Yahweh, Elohim, as He was energizing the earth, the universe, the Spirit of God moving in a way. Peter mentions something similar in 2nd Peter chapter 1, 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 21. He says, for no prophecy was ever made by the will of man, but men being moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. I don't understand everything about it, but I do know this.

The end result was the work of God. This is the Word of God that you have in your lap. God's Word was written by men being moved by the Holy Spirit. And this world that we have, it came as a result of God. There's no gap here.

This is God doing some great work as he made created the heavens and the earth. There are other problems with the gap theory and I'll mention them very briefly before we move on But in Romans chapter 5 Romans chapter 5 and verse 12 Therefore, just as though one man, just as through one man sin entered into the world, death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned." The reason this is important is because when you encounter someone who is an evolutionist, whether it's your neighbor, your professor at school, a co-worker, whoever it might be, You might be tempted to try to bring evolution into the Bible, try to make it fit. But I'm here to tell you it doesn't work that way. With the gap theory or any other kind of methodology that you try to make it fit together, you just can't. And One of the reasons is the Bible very clearly teaches that there was no death on the earth until after Adam's sin.

And yet, the fossil record is full of death and suffering. Indeed, if there was millions of years before Adam, then Romans chapter 5 and verse 12 and other passages Just do not add up. They don't work. It's not they're not compatible We have to take God God's Word or man's Word, but we can't mix the two together. Genesis chapter 1, if we skip on down towards the end of the chapter, Genesis chapter 1 in verse 28, This will be a little bit easier to cover here in the LSB, but this was a very confusing verse with the King James.

And I'll explain this. In Genesis 1 and verse 28 it says, God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that creeps on the earth. The King James used the word replenish, replenish rather than fill. And a lot of people took that to mean something like refill, something like to fill again.

And so they thought that that was a good proof verse for the gap theory, that there had been a population on the earth and I've read I've read men who wrote about this they thought that there was a great deluge Satan's flood and all sorts of things were thrown in there, fairy tales really, thrown in there between Genesis 1 1 and 1 2, that something happened to a pre-Adamic race, and somehow now Adam needed to refill the earth. But that's not what the King James translators were writing. That's not what the Bible says. Replenish did not mean to refill. And certainly The LSB has a good word choice there with Phil The The The the it was never meant to say Phil again.

And so there are definite problems with the gap theory and these are just a couple of them I won't spend a lot of time there on that but but as we move on it is good to take God at his word in the plain meaning there as we go on. Verse 3, Genesis 1 and verse 3, then God said let there be light, and there was light. This verse is the first record of God speaking in the Bible. Only God can speak something into existence where once there was nothing. He spoke and there was light where there was only darkness before.

And he did this. This is another problem with trying to squeeze evolution into the Bible, but he did this before the sun was ever created. I know there are people who doubt that this could have happened, but these folks don't know the God that we serve. Only our God can speak and cause light to appear all without a sun, a flashlight, or a light bulb. And there you have it.

There was God said, let there be light, and there was light. God saw, verse four, God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from darkness. From darkness. Now don't think of this as being God making something and then having to inspect it, discern whether his work was good, and so then he says, well, I approve of this. It is good.

No, no. He created it. He created the light, and it was perfect. He knew it would be good before he ever did it. So he said, let there be light.

There was light and God saw the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness. God, the creator of heavens and earth, is not like a human inventor Who may do something wrong and they fail at it and then have to try again. No, no, I Mean the great Thomas Edison as good as he was He didn't get the light bulb right the first time. In fact he said one time he said I have not failed I've just found 10, 000 ways that won't work. But Thomas Edison was a man.

He was persistent and thank God for that I loved light bulbs but but God God makes no mistakes he is not a failure he has no experiments he does it right the first time. Now by the way, every once in a while you'll run into a skeptic who will say, run into a Skeptic will say well if God's so good. Why is why are there mutations? Why is there? You know people who are born when I say with Down syndrome or you know you see you see people with problems in the world, you see things that are happening in the world, and you say, well, they'll say, well, if God was so good, why is there so much bad in the world?

Well, keep in mind we're on the other side of the fall, and so there's things happening in this world. God's very good creation has been ruined by the fall. We'll get to that later as we go through Genesis But but when you when you see a baby born with some some sort of a defect and you know maybe born without arms or something like that. I don't think that there's something wrong with God. Just to understand we live in a fallen world.

And so, it is terrible that there is death, suffering, and disease in all of those things. We can still rejoice insofar as even on this side of the fall, we see evidences of God's very good creation. God separated the light from the darkness. This doesn't mean that they were mingled together at one time, but rather he caused a division in the times that they functioned. Job chapter 38 verse 19.

As Yahweh answers Job, he says, where is the way to where the light dwells? Darkness where is its place? You may take it to its territory, that you may discern the path to its home." So God has set the times and the places for the division of how these things work. Back into our text in Genesis 1 and 5. And by the way, everything works in such a way that it's predictable.

You know, you can go on the Weather Channel app and it'll tell you what time sunrise is. You can go out to the beach and at that exact moment the Sun will appear over the horizon. It's amazing how orderly this world is and it can only be that way because God has created it that way. There's no way that this world came into existence by random processes and chance and luck. Otherwise it'd be chaos.

Genesis 1 and 5 it says, and God called the light day, in the darkness He called night, and there was evening, and there was morning, one day. Here God calls the time period of light day, the darkness he called night. God carefully defines what he means by these two words. This is the first time that he uses this word. In Hebrew it's the word Yom.

Here it's used as the time of light. Later in this verse it means a literal 24-hour period. Now it can be used for longer periods but but in again it context rules. There are some who hold to a theory called the day-age theory. And again, they're trying to fit evolution into the scriptures.

There's a basic rule of interpretation when you're reading the Bible. It says something like this. It says, When the plain sense of the scriptures make plain sense, seek no other sense. In Genesis 1.5 and again in verse 8, verse 13, verse 19, verse 23, and verse 31, we find very similar terminology. There was evening, there was morning, one day.

There was evening, there was morning, a second day. So on and so forth. The only type of day that has an evening and a morning in it is a 24-hour day. We reckon our days as morning and evening, but the Bible reckons the day as evening and morning because darkness came before light. The Jews actually followed this pattern and their their days started at 6 p.m.

On their calendars. That's how they reckon their 24-hour days. In fact, we read it a while ago in Exodus chapter 20, but let's go back there for just a moment. In Exodus chapter 20 and Beginning of verse 10 as he gave the ten commandments there Begin of verse 10 Well, let's start with verse 9. He says verse 8 remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days You shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yahweh your God In it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female slave, your cattle or your sojourner who is within your gates.

For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." The Jews would have understood this to be literal days that God Yahweh worked and then rested. Literal days, not long millions of years or billions of years. The Bible is its best interpreter and context means everything. In fact, Jesus understood that even the creation he say in Matthew chapter 19?

Verse 4, he answered and said, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female so if there were millions or billions of years there from the start of Genesis 1 1 going all the way down to when Adam and Eve were created, he wouldn't have said that this was from the beginning. This actually punches a big hole in not only the day-age theory but the gap theory too. Let's not try to fit man's ideas into God's Word. In fact as we kind of bring this to a close in this first, in this lesson on the first day, Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11, and verse 3, the Hebrews chapter 11, verse 3, the writer of Hebrews says this, By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible." So it's by faith that we believe these things. Now someone might say, well it's faith versus science, but no it's not really.

It's faith versus faith. It's a matter of faith in God or faith in man. Faith in God's Word or faith in man's Word. Man has written quite a bit about the supposed beginnings of the world and evolution and all that sort of thing, but they weren't there. In fact, man's word keeps changing.

Word keeps changing. I dare say that when you look at the textbooks from when I was young, compare them to the textbooks of today, you'll find a lot of changes. You take the textbooks from my grandfather's time to now, there's been even more changes than that, and you just go on and on, and lots of theories and all that sort of thing. Not so with God's Word, it's the same. Why?

Because God was there. God was there. I'll believe the Bible. How about you? So with that, we'll close and just ask if anybody has any questions from anything that we've looked at in this evening.

Got a question? Do you have a question? No? Do you have a question? Do you have a question?

Alright, well I appreciate your attention this evening. Let's close with prayer.