Sermon Tone Analysis

Creation

We can all create things of one form or another.

We may not necessarily be proud of what we have created but we can all create.

God has given us that ability.

It’s a beginning.

Everything in this universe has a beginning.

Everything that is except for God.

This earth had a beginning.

"Look at this! Here's a fossil fish that's different.

Notice the thick fins that look a little bit like arms.

All the scientists in the group crowded around.

All agreed that this fish was beginning to develop arms and legs that would eventually evolve into a creature capable of crawling onto land.

"I'm sure this fish became extinct millions of years ago," said one learned scientist.

"Let's call this fossil coelacanth (see-la-kanth) and keep it in a museum as evidence of evolutionary change."

But later in 1938, some fishermen were pulling in their nets off the coast of South Africa.

They found a large fish more than five feet in length and weighing more than 100 pounds.

'"Tis indeed a strange one.

Never caught one like this before.

Fins are padded and stick out from its body like little arms," one fisherman commented.

Someone from a museum saw this unusual fish and decided to keep it.

A scientist heard about it, came to see it, and was aghast.

"That fish is just like the extinct coelacanth.

But this one is swimming!

And we were sure that fossil was extinct millions of years ago," he exclaimed.

He might not have been embarrassed had he believed God's creative account: "The Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is" (Exodus 20:11).

Preview

Moses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote the account of creation in Genesis 1 and 2. Do these chapters contradict each other, or are they consistent?

The first chapter recounts the events of the six days of creation chronologically.

The second chapter begins with the wonderful seventh day.

Then verse 4 introduces a family:

"These are the generations…” This expression goes on to include more details of the creation of Adam and Eve and their garden home.

We're informed of the nature of humanity—of God's divine government and His plan for man.

Only if accepted literally and historically do they harmonize with all the rest of the Bible.

Now the big question.

Are the days of creation literal, or do they represent large time periods?

Note that each day ends with these words, "And the evening and the morning..."

This goes on through each day, you’ll find it in vs 8, 13, 19, 23, and 31.

The Bible measures individual days with the day beginning at sunset:

Evening to evening can only mean a period of twenty-four hours.

If Moses meant "day" when he wrote Leviticus, would he then mean thousands or millions of gears when he wrote Genesis?

The Hebrew word translated "day" is yom.

It has various meanings.

However, a careful study of its usage reveals that every time yom is accompanied by a definite number used as an adjective, a literal day is indicated.

Note that the last three days of creation week, clearly controlled by the creation of the sun on the fourth day, are alike in length and described as evening and morning.

It would be logical, then, that days one, two, and three—also described as evening and morning—would refer to the same period of time.

The wording of the narrative implies shortness of time.

God spoke.

Immediately it was done.

If each creation day consisted of long geological periods, a problem appears after the third day.

Green plants cannot be kept alive in continued darkness.

The pigment chlorophyll would rapidly decompose in the absence of light.

Before many months of the millions of gears of darkness had passed, every green plant would have died.

The account says these green plants appeared on the third day and lived through creation week, furnishing food for animals created on the sixth day.

This indicates that these were literal, solar days.

Also, flowering plants are dependent on insects for pollination to reproduce.

If from day three to day six, millions of years had passed, many plants would have vanished from the earth before the pollinators appeared.

The Sabbath commandment definitely states that we should work for six days and rest on the seventh (Exodus 20:8-11).

The twenty-four-hour Sabbath day commemorates a literal week of creation.

If the first six days were long geological periods, and the seventh was a solar day, as God Himself said in Leviticus 23:32, the Creator would be commanding us to do an illogical thing of observing a twenty-four-hour day as a memorial to periods of millions of gears.

The fourth commandment would be meaningless if each day were stretched into long periods of time.

Some are puzzled by what Moses meant when he wrote Genesis 1:16: "He made the stars also."

Were the heavens really made only 6,000 years ago?

Surely creation week did not involve the heaven that God has dwelt in from eternity, nor the great, vast universe.

This earth, instead of being Christ's first creation, may have been His last one.

The sons of God mentioned in Job 1:6-12 no doubt came from great distances in God's vast universe—from far beyond our sin-polluted solar system.

We, on this speck of a planet, are privileged to study a bit of the glories of the stars.

It is apparent that if we are going to accept the creation story of Genesis as upheld by the Bible, we will have to view creation as God's miraculous act performed in six twenty-four-hour literal days.

The Bible is God's golden chain of truth.

Points To Ponder

1. Who brought this world into existence?

The word here stated is Jesus.

All the members of the Godhead were involved in Creation, but the Son of God, the preexisting Christ, not only made us but bought us back.

He created human beings so they could enjoy a relationship with Him.

2. What was the purpose of creation?

The heavens declare the glory of God.

Can you look into the sky at night and not wonder at it?

3. On each day of the week of creation, something different was created.

Day 1

Light and darkness

Day 2

He divided the firmament.

Firmament in Hebrew simply means expanse.

A space divided the waters above from the waters below, the water above is general considered water vapor of some sort.

The world before the flood was a very different place.

Day 3

Dry land appeared and seas were created, trees and plant life grew on the dry land.

God saw that it was good the Bible says.

Day 4

Times, seasons, day and night were created.

He created the Sun to rule the day and the Moon to rule the night.

Day 5

The seas became teaming with life- from whales to small fish and plankton, and the air was filled with every kind of bird, both great and small.

What a wonderful sight that must have been.

Up till then the earth was quiet, now it was filled with bird song.

Day 6

The land animals appeared.

Beasts of every shape and size.

From creeping things to elephants and giraffes.

God saw that this was good as well, but He wasn’t satisfied.

Day 7