In the Beginning...
Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
- Hasn't Science proven evolution?
But what about the Big Bang?
But what about the "Cavemen"?
Mark 10:6 - But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.
But what about Fossils?
Evidences for Young Earth / Literal Genesis:
- 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
- Recession of the moon
- Salt in the Sea
Psalm 14:1 - The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.
- How do we know God didn't Use evolution?
- Because the text is specifically literal.
- Because death came after Adam.
- Why does a Literal Genesis matter to me?
day = yom
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Pastor Jeff:
00:00-00:03
If you are visiting with us this morning, we are so glad that you are here.
Pastor Jeff:
00:04-00:14
Typically, at Harvest Bible Chapel, we walk through a book of the Bible together, but we're here at a very special time.
Pastor Jeff:
00:14-00:28
This is a 10-week series called Bible 101, and our goal with this series is after 10 weeks, you will be very familiar with how this book is put together and what that means to you.
Pastor Jeff:
00:29-00:36
So today, we're going to be starting in the beginning with creation.
Pastor Jeff:
00:36-00:41
So open your Bibles up to Genesis 1.
Pastor Jeff:
00:43-00:45
I'll give you a hint, it's going to be near the beginning of your Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
00:47-00:49
At least it better be.
Pastor Jeff:
00:49-00:51
Do we have that bookshelf image we can put up?
Pastor Jeff:
00:52-00:57
I'd like to remind you, last week we were talking about God's Word and how it was put together.
Pastor Jeff:
00:58-01:03
and understand that your Bible is like a library in your hand, okay?
Pastor Jeff:
01:03-01:08
And this image sort of depicts what is in that library.
Pastor Jeff:
01:08-01:20
And we're going to be talking about the story as it progresses through, but the first place we need to start is in the book of Genesis.
Pastor Jeff:
01:23-01:29
What better place to start than the very first verse in the Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
01:30-01:31
Are you there?
Pastor Jeff:
01:32-01:34
Genesis 1, verse 1.
Pastor Jeff:
01:36-01:46
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Pastor Jeff:
01:49-01:51
This is really the only verse we're looking at today.
Pastor Jeff:
01:52-01:57
What I want you to see, God doesn't defend creation.
Pastor Jeff:
01:58-01:58
He just doesn't.
Pastor Jeff:
01:59-02:06
God doesn't say, OK, now I'm going to tell you some things, and it's going to be controversial, so prepare yourself.
Pastor Jeff:
02:06-02:10
He just says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Pastor Jeff:
02:12-02:13
Something else, He doesn't do.
Pastor Jeff:
02:13-02:14
He doesn't explain it.
Pastor Jeff:
02:15-02:22
Like, in the beginning, I created the heavens and the earth, and I'm going to give you step by step on how all of that went together.
Pastor Jeff:
02:22-02:23
Do you know what the Bible says about that?
Pastor Jeff:
02:24-02:26
The Bible says He spoke it into existence.
Pastor Jeff:
02:29-02:34
He doesn't defend it, He doesn't explain it, He just proclaims it.
Pastor Jeff:
02:35-02:44
In the beginning, God says, "I created the heavens and the earth." Right now, I'm sure there are some people like, "Oh, a message on creation?
Pastor Jeff:
02:45-03:01
Is creation really that big of a deal?" I mean, you know, you've got these old earth creationists and young earth creationists, you've got Gap Theory, you've got all this argument over creation and science, and is creation really that big of a deal?
Pastor Jeff:
03:03-03:04
You probably can't see this.
Pastor Jeff:
03:06-03:12
You probably couldn't see it if it was in your hands, because these are verses in the Bible just about creation.
Pastor Jeff:
03:13-03:15
And I have...
Pastor Jeff:
03:15-03:16
this isn't even all of them.
Pastor Jeff:
03:17-03:24
I have like five and a quarter pages here, all in 8 -point fonts.
Pastor Jeff:
03:25-03:29
Reason being is when I cut and pasted it in 12-point, it was like 18 pages.
Pastor Jeff:
03:29-03:31
I'm like, I'm not going to kill a tree to make a point.
Pastor Jeff:
03:32-03:34
But this is just some of them.
Pastor Jeff:
03:34-03:39
And it goes from Genesis 1-1 all the way to Revelation 14-7.
Pastor Jeff:
03:39-03:43
And you can take this print out if you want. I'm just going to leave it up here.
Pastor Jeff:
03:43-03:59
over and over and over and over and over and over and over in God's Word, from Old Testament to New Testament, from Moses to the Apostle John, everywhere in between, God says, "You need to know that I created you.
Pastor Jeff:
03:59-04:02
You need to know that I fashioned the heavens and the earth.
Pastor Jeff:
04:02-04:05
You need to know that I made man in my image.
Pastor Jeff:
04:05-04:17
You need to know that you are specially created and not an accident." And it seems that God wants that message clear with the number of times that He states it in His Word.
Pastor Jeff:
04:19-04:21
Like, well, what's the point?
Pastor Jeff:
04:22-04:24
Well, when we talk about creation, there's an obvious point, right?
Pastor Jeff:
04:25-04:26
There's an obvious point.
Pastor Jeff:
04:27-04:29
The point is ownership, right?
Pastor Jeff:
04:30-04:35
Because God created us, He owns us.
Pastor Jeff:
04:35-04:35
That's the point.
Pastor Jeff:
04:36-04:46
And that's why this doctrine is so refuted and disputed, because we are people by nature, because we're sinners by nature.
Pastor Jeff:
04:46-04:48
We're going to talk about that next week.
Pastor Jeff:
04:50-04:58
We have this mindset, "Nobody tells me what to do." I live for myself. Nobody tells me what to do. I'm the boss.
Pastor Jeff:
05:00-05:03
But this doctrine of creation teaches something different, doesn't it?
Pastor Jeff:
05:03-05:05
It says, "No, no, no. You're not the boss.
Pastor Jeff:
05:05-05:08
You are a created being.
Pastor Jeff:
05:09-05:12
And the one who created you is the boss.
Pastor Jeff:
05:13-05:25
That's why Genesis 1-1 has become the most denied verse, and creation has become the most denied doctrine of the Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
05:26-05:34
Because if Satan can cast doubt on the first verse, maybe he can get us to doubt all of it.
Pastor Jeff:
05:35-05:42
You know, this book talks about marriage, it talks about prayer, it talks about salvation, it talks about heaven and hell.
Pastor Jeff:
05:44-05:53
If Genesis 1-1 isn't literally true and we can sort of dance around what it means, maybe we can sort of dance around what all of these other things mean.
Pastor Jeff:
05:54-05:56
Maybe these things aren't literally true either.
Pastor Jeff:
05:59-06:09
The lie that I want us to look at that is often, most often, spoken against the truth of God's Word, we're going to talk about the lie of evolution.
Pastor Jeff:
06:11-06:12
What do you mean by evolution?
Pastor Jeff:
06:12-06:14
When I talk about evolution, I understand this.
Pastor Jeff:
06:15-06:17
Evolution is sort of a generic word, it just means change.
Pastor Jeff:
06:19-06:29
I believe that things change, but you see, in this context when we talk about evolution, The technical word really is macroevolution.
Pastor Jeff:
06:29-06:37
It means that over a period of millions of years, species have changed from one thing into another.
Pastor Jeff:
06:38-07:05
Meaning, when you look at Earth, when the Earth was first accidentally formed, the existence of creatures on the Earth went from amino acids to proteins into cells, and eventually fish and amphibians would eventually turn into reptiles, which eventually turned into birds, which eventually turned into mammals, which eventually turned into us.
Pastor Jeff:
07:05-07:06
That's macroevolution.
Pastor Jeff:
07:07-07:09
Okay, we've all heard that.
Pastor Jeff:
07:09-07:11
We've all been taught that.
Pastor Jeff:
07:13-07:19
Unless you've been living under a rock every minute of your entire life and just crawled out to come to church today.
Pastor Jeff:
07:20-07:22
That's the case you are loved too.
Pastor Jeff:
07:23-07:27
However, it's taught in schools.
Pastor Jeff:
07:27-07:29
I remember I went to Carlin City High School.
Pastor Jeff:
07:29-07:30
I was a Carlin City Gremlin.
Pastor Jeff:
07:31-07:35
And I remember sitting in biology class being taught evolution.
Pastor Jeff:
07:37-07:44
You're here today, Jeff, because of this millions of years of species changing into other species.
Pastor Jeff:
07:45-08:11
It's all over media, TV, movies, everything from Spongebob Squarepants to the X-Men movies, to Jurassic Park, to the Discovery Channel, to Animal Planet. See, that's a bummer because we, at our house, we love Animal Planet. And my wife especially loves Animal Planet, but we always roll our eyes at our house because they can't intro anything without, you know, we're going to talk about crocodiles today.
Pastor Jeff:
08:12-08:17
Mostly unchanged in the last 65 million years of evolution, like, got to throw that in there.
Pastor Jeff:
08:20-08:21
It's in children's books.
Pastor Jeff:
08:23-08:35
We had to have a whole lesson at our house about dinosaurs because my 10 year old says, "No, no, no, they said in school that dinosaurs lived 65 million years ago." Is that what they said?
Pastor Jeff:
08:37-08:43
You know, "Oh look, Pastor Jeff, we're talking about religion and science and do we really want to go there?" Yes, we're going to go there today.
Pastor Jeff:
08:44-08:47
I'm going to tell you why this is so important.
Pastor Jeff:
08:48-08:50
Because there's a message behind evolution.
Pastor Jeff:
08:52-08:53
There's a message behind it.
Pastor Jeff:
08:55-08:59
The message is this, the world can be explained without God.
Pastor Jeff:
08:59-09:00
That's the message.
Pastor Jeff:
09:01-09:02
Look, we don't need God.
Pastor Jeff:
09:03-09:09
This thought of being created, we don't need that because obviously, given enough time, one creature turns into another creature.
Pastor Jeff:
09:13-09:14
No God means no authority.
Pastor Jeff:
09:15-09:17
No God means there's no moral standards.
Pastor Jeff:
09:18-09:18
Does that sound familiar?
Pastor Jeff:
09:19-09:20
Anything goes.
Pastor Jeff:
09:21-09:23
No God means no salvation.
Pastor Jeff:
09:24-09:32
Grab what you can, boys and girls, because you're going to die, and you're going to be put in a box, and you're going to become dust, and that is it.
Pastor Jeff:
09:34-09:35
If there's no God.
Pastor Jeff:
09:37-09:39
That's the message behind evolution.
Pastor Jeff:
09:41-09:48
So we're going to go through some things today regarding creation and evolution, and I'm going to ask for your help.
Pastor Jeff:
09:48-09:49
Will you help me?
Pastor Jeff:
09:50-09:52
You didn't even know what I wanted you to do yet.
Pastor Jeff:
09:53-09:53
Great.
Pastor Jeff:
09:54-09:59
I'm going to say, "Do you have any questions?" And there's going to be a question on the screen, so I'm just going to feed you your lines.
Pastor Jeff:
10:00-10:05
And you have to, out loud, I want you to ask me the question that's being presented on the screen.
Pastor Jeff:
10:06-10:08
Now, you have a choice in how you want to perform this role.
Pastor Jeff:
10:09-10:14
You can be the honest inquirer, like, I have a question if you could answer for me.
Pastor Jeff:
10:14-10:20
Or you can be the confrontational, like, hey, answer me this question.
Pastor Jeff:
10:21-10:22
Okay, you can do it however you want.
Pastor Jeff:
10:23-10:23
All right?
Pastor Jeff:
10:24-10:25
So here's how we do it.
Pastor Jeff:
10:25-10:31
When I say, do you have any questions, you're going to verbally ask the question that's on the screen.
Pastor Jeff:
10:31-10:32
Does everybody know what you're doing?
Pastor Jeff:
10:34-10:34
Okay.
Pastor Jeff:
10:35-10:36
You can stand up if you want.
Pastor Jeff:
10:37-10:37
You can shout.
Pastor Jeff:
10:39-10:40
You can puff your chest.
Pastor Jeff:
10:41-10:42
OK, whatever you want to do.
Pastor Jeff:
10:43-10:44
All right?
Pastor Jeff:
10:47-10:48
So does anybody have any questions?
Pastor Jeff:
10:51-10:52
OK, what's the first question you have?
Audience:
10:54-10:57
Hasn't science proven evolution?
Pastor Jeff:
10:59-11:00
No, it hasn't.
Pastor Jeff:
11:02-11:07
and I want to lovingly encourage you to do your homework.
Pastor Jeff:
11:07-11:10
Look, everything I say - we talked about the Bereans, right?
Pastor Jeff:
11:11-11:11
What did the Bereans do?
Pastor Jeff:
11:13-11:17
They examined the Scriptures to see if the things that the Apostle Paul was saying were true.
Pastor Jeff:
11:18-11:24
And there's a sense in which I want you to do your homework when it comes to creation and evolution.
Pastor Jeff:
11:24-11:27
I have a couple books here called "Refuting Evolution." You can have these.
Pastor Jeff:
11:28-11:30
Somebody just come up and take them after service.
Pastor Jeff:
11:31-11:34
There are mountains of information that you can read.
Pastor Jeff:
11:36-11:38
But I'm going to give you a little bit to get you started.
Pastor Jeff:
11:38-11:38
OK?
Pastor Jeff:
11:39-11:41
You ask me, hasn't science proven evolution?
Pastor Jeff:
11:41-11:43
The answer is no, because of this.
Pastor Jeff:
11:43-11:48
Listen, science is what we can observe, measure, and repeat.
Pastor Jeff:
11:48-11:49
Right?
Pastor Jeff:
11:49-11:52
Science is observe, measure, repeat, like gravity.
Pastor Jeff:
11:52-11:58
If I want to do a scientific test on gravity, I would keep dropping something.
Pastor Jeff:
11:58-12:00
And I would observe what happens to it.
Pastor Jeff:
12:01-12:03
I can measure which direction does it always go.
Pastor Jeff:
12:03-12:04
It always goes down.
Pastor Jeff:
12:05-12:08
And I can repeat it over and over and over.
Pastor Jeff:
12:08-12:11
Let's see if I drop it one more time, which direction will it go?
Pastor Jeff:
12:11-12:12
That's science.
Pastor Jeff:
12:13-12:14
Observe, measure, repeat.
Pastor Jeff:
12:16-12:20
I want you to understand that creation and evolution are both fates.
Pastor Jeff:
12:21-12:21
They are.
Pastor Jeff:
12:22-12:22
They're both fates.
Pastor Jeff:
12:23-12:27
You can't observe, measure, or repeat either creation or evolution.
Pastor Jeff:
12:27-12:28
They're both fates.
Pastor Jeff:
12:28-12:34
But one faith says that we came from nothing, we're cosmic accidents, and we're heading nowhere.
Pastor Jeff:
12:35-12:44
The other faith says that we were specially created for a purpose, and that we're actually heading somewhere.
Pastor Jeff:
12:46-12:48
So hasn't science proven evolution?
Pastor Jeff:
12:48-12:55
No, science by design really can't prove evolution, because we don't observe, measure, or repeat evolution in the present day.
Pastor Jeff:
12:55-12:57
So that might answer that question.
Pastor Jeff:
12:57-12:58
Do you have any other questions?
Pastor Jeff:
12:59-13:00
What's your question?
Audience:
13:02-13:04
What about the Big Bang?
Pastor Jeff:
13:06-13:07
What about the Big Bang?
Pastor Jeff:
13:09-13:11
The Big Bang certainly doesn't fit the Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
13:12-13:15
The Bible says that the Earth was created before the stars.
Pastor Jeff:
13:17-13:18
But the Big Bang doesn't fit science either.
Pastor Jeff:
13:18-13:40
Do you know even secular scientists-- look this up-- even secular scientists are abandoning the Big Bang theory, the scientific theory, not the TV show, because the composition of the universe contradicts the model of the Big Bang. Do you have any other questions? What's your question?
Audience:
13:42-13:46
"But what about the cavemen?"
Pastor Jeff:
13:43-13:49
Yeah, what about the cavemen? What about the cavemen?
Pastor Jeff:
13:51-13:57
Mark 10, verse 6, Jesus said that from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
Pastor Jeff:
13:58-14:06
So understand that the Bible doesn't leave room for these pre-human, sort of half monkey, half man, knuckle dragging.
Pastor Jeff:
14:08-14:09
The Bible doesn't leave room.
Pastor Jeff:
14:09-14:12
Jesus said from the beginning, God made them male and female.
Pastor Jeff:
14:14-14:56
Obviously talking about Adam and Eve, you're like, "Okay, Pastor Jeff, well, I remember reading in my science textbook way back when I was in high school. I wasn't a gremlin like maybe you and your brother and some other people in here were that I'm not going to embarrass you, but I remember you know hearing about the cavemen and they found the evidence for the cavemen. So answer me that. Well here's the answer and again I encourage you to do your research. Every caveman discovered has either been just a man or just a monkey, a mistake or a hoax.
Pastor Jeff:
14:58-15:10
Like what do you mean? How many people remember reading in your biology textbooks, hearing your biology teacher talk about the Nebraska man? How many people remember the Nebraska man? Put your hands up. Remember Nebraska man?
Pastor Jeff:
15:12-15:46
Nebraska man's interesting. They're like, "Oh yeah, they found the bones of the Nebraska man." No, they didn't. Do you know what they found? Do you know they based the whole model, the whole sketch of Nebraska man? Do you know what they found? One tooth. They found one tooth. Now if I, I wouldn't do this because I'm nice, but if my brother were to punch you and knock one of your teeth out, and we just threw it in a field somewhere in California and down the road somebody found a tooth, would they be able to draw a picture of you?
Pastor Jeff:
15:46-15:54
So I'm thinking right away this is a little sketchy, they found a tooth, but Nebraska Man was presented a scientific fact.
Pastor Jeff:
15:55-15:58
This is the missing link, we found the missing link Nebraska Man.
Pastor Jeff:
15:58-16:08
There's a problem though, because they did some more digging, and they found that the tooth actually didn't belong to a man.
Pastor Jeff:
16:09-16:11
didn't belong to a monkey either, it belonged to a pig.
Pastor Jeff:
16:14-16:20
Now here's the thing, how many people remember in high school hearing that the Nebraska man was really false and it was actually a pig?
Pastor Jeff:
16:21-16:24
Anybody taught that in high school? Who was taught that?
Pastor Jeff:
16:25-16:37
Okay, one of you. One of you. Of all the people that raised your hands saying, "I remember Nebraska man," one of you said, "I was taught that it wasn't real, it was a pig." And that's one example of many where it was a mistake.
Pastor Jeff:
16:38-17:10
whoops you see when they find these bones they don't think to themselves what could it possibly be immediately you know for the sake of making a name, well let's just assume that this bone that i found is the missing link because it's not going to be very exciting if I rush to the local paper or run down to the news station and say hey i got great news i found a pig's tooth nobody cares If you go down and say, "I found a tooth that belongs to the missing link." We're still talking about Nebraska man.
Pastor Jeff:
17:13-17:16
Some of them have been just flat out, it's been a hoax.
Pastor Jeff:
17:16-17:17
It's been a hoax.
Pastor Jeff:
17:18-17:24
How many of you remember reading, in high school, raise a show of hands, how many of you remember reading about Piltdown Man?
Pastor Jeff:
17:24-17:25
Remember Piltdown Man?
Pastor Jeff:
17:26-17:27
Come on, fans of Piltdown Man?
Pastor Jeff:
17:27-17:28
Okay, a few of you.
Pastor Jeff:
17:28-17:29
Some of you say no.
Pastor Jeff:
17:29-17:31
Well, here's the thing with Piltdown Man.
Pastor Jeff:
17:31-17:32
I remember hearing about Piltdown Man.
Pastor Jeff:
17:37-17:43
It was a skull that they stained to make it look older than it actually was.
Pastor Jeff:
17:43-17:49
And they found that they, it was actually a monkey skull that they filed the teeth down to make the teeth look more human.
Pastor Jeff:
17:51-17:53
I don't remember hearing that in high school.
Pastor Jeff:
17:55-17:56
So that's a little bit about decay.
Pastor Jeff:
17:56-17:57
Remember, do your homework.
Pastor Jeff:
17:57-18:00
Do you have any other questions regarding science?
Pastor Jeff:
18:01-18:02
All right, fire him.
Pastor Jeff:
18:02-18:03
Go ahead.
Audience:
18:04-18:05
But what about the fossils?
Pastor Jeff:
18:07-18:09
What about the fossils? That's a really good question.
Pastor Jeff:
18:11-18:14
The fossils actually prove the Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
18:16-18:18
We're going to talk about Noah's flood in a couple of weeks.
Pastor Jeff:
18:18-18:21
But I want you to look, you're still in Genesis 1, I want you to look at verse 24.
Pastor Jeff:
18:23-18:30
Verse 24 says, "And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures,'" Look at this next phrase.
Pastor Jeff:
18:31-18:38
"According to their kinds." "According to their kinds." What does that mean?
Pastor Jeff:
18:41-18:44
That means when you put a girl and a boy cat together, what's the offspring?
Pastor Jeff:
18:45-18:46
A cat, right?
Pastor Jeff:
18:46-18:48
Oh, you guys are sharp this morning.
Pastor Jeff:
18:49-18:51
And you put two dogs together, what do you get?
Pastor Jeff:
18:52-18:53
A dog, right.
Pastor Jeff:
18:53-18:55
And you put two birds together, what do you get?
Pastor Jeff:
18:56-18:56
A bird.
Pastor Jeff:
18:56-18:59
"Okay, what happens when you put a dog and a cat together?
Pastor Jeff:
18:59-19:00
What do you get?
Pastor Jeff:
19:00-19:03
A fight?" Can they reproduce?
Pastor Jeff:
19:05-19:06
No, they can't. They can't.
Pastor Jeff:
19:10-19:14
Can a guinea pig reproduce with a penguin?
Pastor Jeff:
19:15-19:15
No.
Pastor Jeff:
19:17-19:19
You see, things reproduce according to their own kind.
Pastor Jeff:
19:20-19:22
That's actually what the Bible says.
Pastor Jeff:
19:24-19:38
But evolution teaches that, for example, reptiles became birds over a period of millions of years, which is absolutely impossible, because the question you have to ask is, where does the new genetic information come from?
Pastor Jeff:
19:39-19:51
Meaning, on a genetic level, where does the information come that would start to form things like beaks, and feathers, and hollow bones, and wings?
Pastor Jeff:
19:51-19:57
All the things that a bird has that a reptile doesn't have, Where does the information come from on a genetic level?
Pastor Jeff:
19:58-19:59
You're like, well, I have an answer for that.
Pastor Jeff:
19:59-20:00
Everybody knows the answer to that.
Pastor Jeff:
20:00-20:01
Mutations, right?
Pastor Jeff:
20:01-20:02
Genetic mutations.
Pastor Jeff:
20:03-20:04
That accounts for the new information.
Pastor Jeff:
20:04-20:05
Well, there's a problem with that.
Pastor Jeff:
20:07-20:12
Mutations always result in a loss of information, never gaining new information.
Pastor Jeff:
20:13-20:14
But there's an even bigger problem.
Pastor Jeff:
20:16-20:40
Of the millions of fossils that we found, if evolution's If that's true, in the fossils we should find billions of fossils that are like half reptile and half bird, right?
Pastor Jeff:
20:40-20:43
They're in the process of the change.
Pastor Jeff:
20:43-20:48
Do you know how many transitional form fossils we've found of the millions of fossils we have?
Pastor Jeff:
20:49-20:50
The answer is none.
Pastor Jeff:
20:50-20:51
We have not found one.
Pastor Jeff:
20:52-20:54
And that is a black eye.
Pastor Jeff:
20:56-20:58
admittedly, self-admittedly, by evolutionists.
Pastor Jeff:
20:58-21:04
They said we should walk out our back door and be tripping over these fossils of transitional forms.
Pastor Jeff:
21:04-21:05
We haven't found any.
Pastor Jeff:
21:06-21:10
Every single fossil that we've found is either one thing or another.
Pastor Jeff:
21:12-21:13
Which is what we observe.
Pastor Jeff:
21:14-21:15
Animals reproduce according to their kinds.
Pastor Jeff:
21:17-21:26
I believe the Bible presents and science supports a view that the earth is actually very young.
Pastor Jeff:
21:29-21:52
You're like, "How does somebody get this idea that the earth is young?" If you are willing to take all of this evolutionary millions of years teaching and thinking that you've heard, if for just a second you can sort of put that away and say, I'm going to read the Bible as if the Bible is the source of authority.
Pastor Jeff:
21:52-21:53
As if.
Pastor Jeff:
21:54-22:12
I'm going to read the Bible as if this is God communicating to me, and I'm just going to read it with the mindset of, "I don't care what anybody else has said, I just want to hear what God has said." And a straightforward, literal belief in Genesis would say that the earth is young.
Pastor Jeff:
22:14-22:21
The genealogies in Genesis would indicate a young earth, for example, like Genesis 5, verses 4-32.
Pastor Jeff:
22:23-22:34
If you trace the genealogies back and calculate the ages of the people as the Bible presents, the earth is actually very young.
Pastor Jeff:
22:35-22:37
Like, okay, well, that's what you're saying.
Pastor Jeff:
22:37-22:40
You're saying that's what the Bible says, Pastor Jeff.
Pastor Jeff:
22:40-22:51
If the Bible seems to present a young earth, is there any evidence from science that the earth is young, that Genesis is literal?
Pastor Jeff:
22:53-22:54
There's mountains of evidence.
Pastor Jeff:
22:54-22:55
I'm just going to share three.
Pastor Jeff:
22:56-22:57
This was the hard part of the message this week.
Pastor Jeff:
22:57-23:04
It wasn't like, "Where can I come up with material?" The hard part was limiting.
Pastor Jeff:
23:06-23:06
Here's three.
Pastor Jeff:
23:07-23:09
Three scientific evidences for a young earth.
Pastor Jeff:
23:09-23:11
The first one, you're jotting things down.
Pastor Jeff:
23:12-23:14
The second law of thermodynamics, do you know what that is?
Pastor Jeff:
23:15-23:19
The second law of thermodynamics is everything is running down.
Pastor Jeff:
23:20-23:22
Everything is moving from order to disorder.
Pastor Jeff:
23:23-23:30
Everything's running down from stillness, or running down, excuse me, to stillness or death.
Pastor Jeff:
23:32-23:35
Actually, the curse, as the Bible describes it.
Pastor Jeff:
23:37-23:40
Everything's moving from order to disorder, running down.
Pastor Jeff:
23:41-23:42
That's why your room never stays clean.
Pastor Jeff:
23:42-23:44
That's why your car never stays clean, right?
Pastor Jeff:
23:46-23:49
That's why we are growing old and wearing out.
Pastor Jeff:
23:51-23:53
We see that on a universal scale.
Pastor Jeff:
23:55-24:00
But understand, folks, that that is the exact opposite track of the evolutionary model.
Pastor Jeff:
24:00-24:19
The evolutionary model says, once upon a time, you know, things were primitive, and there of primordial ooze, this primordial soup, and from that form the amino acids and the proteins and things are getting better and better and better and better and better. But that is completely opposite of what we observe, that things are running down.
Pastor Jeff:
24:21-24:33
Here's an interesting one. Evidence is for young Earth. Do you know that every year the the moon moves inches away from the earth.
Pastor Jeff:
24:33-24:34
Did you know that?
Pastor Jeff:
24:34-24:39
Every year, the moon actually moves inches further away from the earth.
Pastor Jeff:
24:40-24:41
And you're like, you know what, Pastor Jeff?
Pastor Jeff:
24:42-24:42
I thought so.
Pastor Jeff:
24:43-24:46
It looked a little smaller this year than it did last year.
Pastor Jeff:
24:46-24:50
And now that you say that, it did look a few inches off.
Pastor Jeff:
24:52-24:53
But here's the problem.
Pastor Jeff:
24:53-25:07
If the earth and the universe is billions of years old, Even if you traced it back to 1.4 billion years ago, that would have meant the moon would have been touching the Earth.
Pastor Jeff:
25:09-25:21
Young Earth model, if the Earth is 6,000 years old, the moon would have been 750 feet closer to the Earth, which on a cosmic scale is no big deal, as you know.
Pastor Jeff:
25:23-25:27
If the universe is really 4 and 1/2 billion years old, then we have a major problem.
Pastor Jeff:
25:29-25:30
Recession of the moon.
Pastor Jeff:
25:31-25:33
Third one, salt in the sea.
Pastor Jeff:
25:35-25:39
You know the oceans get saltier every year? Again, this is stuff that we can observe, measure, and repeat.
Pastor Jeff:
25:41-25:44
Stuff goes in faster than it comes out.
Pastor Jeff:
25:46-25:56
The scientists who study this say that the ocean isn't salty enough for this phenomenon to have been happening for millions and billions of years.
Pastor Jeff:
25:59-26:03
There are volumes and volumes and volumes of scientific research.
Pastor Jeff:
26:03-26:05
I'm giving you like the overview.
Pastor Jeff:
26:06-26:11
There are volumes of scientific research from people so much smarter than me.
Pastor Jeff:
26:12-26:12
Do your homework.
Pastor Jeff:
26:14-26:19
But understand this, church, people embrace evolution not because there's evidence.
Pastor Jeff:
26:20-26:27
It's not like people were looking at scientific evidence saying, Yeah, obviously, we've been here for millions and billions of years.
Pastor Jeff:
26:28-26:32
Again, it gets back to the idea of, I want a God-free worldview.
Pastor Jeff:
26:34-26:43
That's why Psalm 14.1 says, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' Why would a fool say that?
Pastor Jeff:
26:44-26:49
Not because he weighed out the evidence." He tells us why they said that. Look at the next verse.
Pastor Jeff:
26:49-26:54
"They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, There is none who does good.
Pastor Jeff:
26:54-27:00
The person that says there is no God isn't like, "Well, I don't see any evidence of God." The evidence of God is everywhere!
Pastor Jeff:
27:04-27:10
I don't like the thought of being accountable to someone or somebody telling me that my sin is wrong.
Pastor Jeff:
27:12-27:18
So I would rather embrace a godless worldview as science.
Pastor Jeff:
27:20-27:22
So first question, is science proven evolution?
Pastor Jeff:
27:23-27:25
No, that was a good question, but it really hasn't.
Pastor Jeff:
27:28-27:28
Do you have any other questions?
Pastor Jeff:
27:30-27:32
All right, go ahead, fire them up here.
Audience:
27:33-27:36
How do we know God didn't use evolution?
Pastor Jeff:
27:38-27:40
How do we know God didn't use evolution?
Pastor Jeff:
27:40-27:43
See, this is the great compromise the church has made.
Pastor Jeff:
27:43-27:58
It's like, hey, we believe the Bible, "What? We don't want to look unscientific." So there's scientists saying there's millions of years, but the Bible doesn't seem to present that, so maybe we can sort of reinterpret the Bible.
Pastor Jeff:
27:59-28:02
You know, one of the most popular ways that was done was something called the gap theory.
Pastor Jeff:
28:02-28:04
Have you ever heard of the gap theory?
Pastor Jeff:
28:04-28:18
There are people that have taught and believe that between Genesis 1-1 and Genesis 1-2 was this vast period of time, millions or billions of years, that there's this huge gap between Genesis 1 and 2.
Pastor Jeff:
28:19-28:22
Is that reading the Bible straightforwardly?
Pastor Jeff:
28:23-28:25
No, it sure isn't.
Pastor Jeff:
28:26-28:34
And they also believe that the days in Genesis were not literal days, but they were figurative days.
Pastor Jeff:
28:36-28:38
Well, how do we know that God didn't use evolution?
Pastor Jeff:
28:40-28:41
I'm going to give you two reasons.
Pastor Jeff:
28:48-28:50
The text is specifically literal.
Pastor Jeff:
28:51-28:52
Do you have your Bible open? I hope you do.
Pastor Jeff:
28:55-28:56
But also jot this down.
Pastor Jeff:
28:56-29:01
The word "day" in Hebrew is the word "yom." Y-O-M. Yom.
Pastor Jeff:
29:01-29:04
Sort of our English equivalent of that word.
Pastor Jeff:
29:05-29:10
That word "yom" is used 2,301 times in the Old Testament.
Pastor Jeff:
29:10-29:11
And it's used in the New Testament.
Pastor Jeff:
29:11-29:16
When the word "yom" is used with a numerical qualifier, what's that?
Pastor Jeff:
29:16-29:19
First, second, third, fourth.
Pastor Jeff:
29:19-29:24
When it's used with a numerical qualifier, that's 410 times in the Old Testament.
Pastor Jeff:
29:24-29:28
It always refers to a 24-hour day, every time.
Pastor Jeff:
29:30-29:37
When it's used with the expression "evening" and "morning," that's 23 times more in the rest of the Old Testament.
Pastor Jeff:
29:39-29:41
It's always a 24-hour day.
Pastor Jeff:
29:42-29:49
Sometimes the phrase "evening and morning" is used without the word "yom." That's 38 times more in the Old Testament.
Pastor Jeff:
29:50-29:52
Always refers to a 24-hour day.
Pastor Jeff:
29:55-29:59
Some people want to interpret yom as an indefinite period of time.
Pastor Jeff:
30:00-30:02
Like, because we use it that way, right?
Pastor Jeff:
30:02-30:04
Like, you know, back in our day.
Pastor Jeff:
30:05-30:06
You know, I don't mean back in our 24-hour period.
Pastor Jeff:
30:06-30:10
I just meant the chapter of life from a generation ago or whatever.
Pastor Jeff:
30:12-30:14
Well, there's a major problem with that.
Pastor Jeff:
30:15-30:24
Because if you go to Exodus 20:11, God was given the Ten Commandments and He patterned man's seven-day week after his seven-day week.
Pastor Jeff:
30:25-30:34
See, we don't work for six periods of millions of years, or six indeterminate periods, even though your job might feel like that sometimes.
Pastor Jeff:
30:36-30:39
and rest for an indeterminate period, possibly millions of years.
Pastor Jeff:
30:40-30:40
What do we do?
Pastor Jeff:
30:41-30:44
Six 24-hour days, a seventh 24-hour day.
Pastor Jeff:
30:44-30:45
That's how my calendar works.
Pastor Jeff:
30:46-30:47
That's how your calendar works.
Pastor Jeff:
30:48-30:49
Where do we get that?
Pastor Jeff:
30:49-30:51
Because God established that with the creation week.
Pastor Jeff:
30:54-30:57
And again, Mark 10, verse 6, Jesus.
Pastor Jeff:
30:58-31:02
Jesus spoke of Genesis creation as literal.
Pastor Jeff:
31:03-31:06
Jesus talked about God creating the male and female.
Pastor Jeff:
31:06-31:07
He talked about marriage.
Pastor Jeff:
31:07-31:11
He talked about all of the things we see in Genesis 1, 2, and 3.
Pastor Jeff:
31:11-31:15
He talked about all of them as being literal events.
Pastor Jeff:
31:16-31:28
To understand that the text is extremely specific, if you look at your Bible, we said numerical qualifier and the phrase "evening and morning." Both of those conditions mean 24-hour day.
Pastor Jeff:
31:29-31:35
If you ask a Hebrew language scholar, We go through the text.
Pastor Jeff:
31:36-31:41
Verse 5, "God called the light day and the darkness he called night, and there was evening and there was morning the first day.
Pastor Jeff:
31:43-31:49
God called the expanse heaven." Verse 8, "And there was evening and there was morning the second day." Did you see that?
Pastor Jeff:
31:49-31:50
Evening, morning, numerical qualifier.
Pastor Jeff:
31:50-32:05
Verse 13, "And there was evening and there was morning the third day." Verse 19, "And there was evening and there was morning the fourth day." Verse 23, "And there was evening and there was morning the fifth day.
Pastor Jeff:
32:05-32:09
Verse 31, and there was evening and there was morning the sixth day.
Pastor Jeff:
32:11-32:19
If God didn't mean that it was a 24-hour day, why would He use such over-the-top specific language?
Pastor Jeff:
32:21-32:29
It's almost like God was going the extra mile to communicate something very specifically.
Pastor Jeff:
32:30-32:32
So the text is specifically literal.
Pastor Jeff:
32:32-32:40
You can get a Hebrew language scholar that is not a Christian, has no reputation, doesn't care at all about God, creation, anything else.
Pastor Jeff:
32:40-32:50
I've read accounts from Hebrew language scholars, they're like, "Well, if you just read it for what it says, yeah, it's a 24-hour day." The text is specifically literal.
Pastor Jeff:
32:52-32:59
God didn't use evolution because death didn't come until after Adam sinned.
Pastor Jeff:
33:01-33:02
Here's what I mean by that.
Pastor Jeff:
33:03-33:18
The evolutionary model, the molecules to man thing, says that there were millions of years of things born, growing, and dying, and dying, and dying.
Pastor Jeff:
33:18-33:23
And through those millions of years, yeah, things were slowly evolving.
Pastor Jeff:
33:26-33:28
That was millions of years of things dying, right?
Pastor Jeff:
33:30-33:40
There's a problem with that biblically, you're trying to marry evolution and creation, because the Bible says that death didn't come into the world until after Adam sinned.
Pastor Jeff:
33:43-33:52
So death either came before man, leading up to the evolution of man, or death came after man as a consequence for sin.
Pastor Jeff:
33:53-33:55
So understand that it can't be both.
Pastor Jeff:
33:55-33:57
It's why I think creation and evolution are both true.
Pastor Jeff:
33:58-33:59
When did death start?
Pastor Jeff:
34:01-34:08
If you're saying death led up to the evolution of Adam, then you're denying what the Bible says about death.
Pastor Jeff:
34:10-34:12
So how do we know God didn't use evolution?
Pastor Jeff:
34:13-34:19
Again, I appreciate the passion in which you presented the question.
Pastor Jeff:
34:20-34:21
But the text is literal.
Pastor Jeff:
34:22-34:23
Death came after Adam.
Pastor Jeff:
34:24-34:26
I have time for one more question.
Pastor Jeff:
34:26-34:28
Do you have any more questions?
Pastor Jeff:
34:30-34:31
OK, go ahead, ask it.
Audience:
34:33-34:36
Why does the literal Genesis matter to me?
Pastor Jeff:
34:37-34:38
That's a really good question.
Pastor Jeff:
34:38-34:39
I'm going to close with this one.
Pastor Jeff:
34:41-34:43
Why does the literal Genesis matter to me?
Pastor Jeff:
34:45-34:52
There's a sense in which your eternity hinges on Genesis being literally true.
Pastor Jeff:
34:52-34:53
Now, understand what I'm saying.
Pastor Jeff:
34:55-34:59
I'm not saying that belief in creation or not is a salvation issue. I'm not saying that.
Pastor Jeff:
34:59-35:07
What I am saying is salvation does hinge on Genesis being literally true whether you believe it or not.
Pastor Jeff:
35:08-35:15
Because your theology hinges on Genesis being literally true.
Pastor Jeff:
35:16-35:22
Understand that. I'm not saying you disagree with me and you're going to hell. I'm not saying that.
Pastor Jeff:
35:24-35:36
What I am saying is the message of Genesis, the message of Genesis has to be literally true if salvation is literally true.
Pastor Jeff:
35:39-35:39
Why?
Pastor Jeff:
35:41-35:49
Here's why, because your Bible, your same Bible that has Genesis 1, 1, also has Romans 5.15.
Pastor Jeff:
35:50-35:51
We get that on the screen.
Pastor Jeff:
35:53-36:00
We're going to read this in a second, but I want you to know that Jesus in the Bible was called the second Adam.
Pastor Jeff:
36:01-36:02
Why?
Pastor Jeff:
36:03-36:07
Because the first Adam was sort of a representative of us all.
Pastor Jeff:
36:09-36:13
And he rebelled against God and he brought sin and death into the world.
Pastor Jeff:
36:14-36:16
Jesus Christ is called the second Adam.
Pastor Jeff:
36:18-36:22
He also represented man, but he perfectly obeyed God.
Pastor Jeff:
36:25-36:27
He brought forgiveness and life.
Pastor Jeff:
36:28-36:34
That's why Romans 5.15 says, "But the free gift is not like the trespass.
Pastor Jeff:
36:34-36:41
For if many died through one man's trespass," that's the first Adam, again we're taking one verse out of a whole section, you can go back and read that.
Pastor Jeff:
36:42-37:14
"For if many died through one man's trespass, and much more, have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many." So if the first Adam we're going to be talking about him next week - with the Genesis account, the creation account being literal, if the first Adam wasn't literal and didn't bring literal sin and death into the world, How can we make sense of what the second Adam did?
Pastor Jeff:
37:16-37:23
If you think that the first Adam was just some sort of a metaphor, "Yeah, I don't think he really lived." Then where did death come from?
Pastor Jeff:
37:24-37:28
And how do you make sense of the cross when Jesus says, "I'm paying the penalty"?
Pastor Jeff:
37:30-37:34
Did Jesus die to pay the penalty for some fairy tale?
Pastor Jeff:
37:35-37:57
Or, because the Bible is true from the very first verse, because the creation account is literally true, because the first Adam was literal, and he literally brought sin and death into the world, then the second Adam, Jesus, also literal, literally brought forgiveness and eternal life to those who would receive Him.
Pastor Jeff:
38:00-38:05
So you see, we can't just say, It doesn't really matter what I think about this.
Pastor Jeff:
38:07-38:09
It does matter what you think about this.
Pastor Jeff:
38:11-38:44
Because God says, "You need healed, you need saved, you need forgiven, you need life restored because of what this first man did." And if you want to dismiss him as a fairy tale, it doesn't make much sense that we come here and sing for 25 minutes about what the second Adam did to provide our salvation.
Pastor Jeff:
38:45-38:46
Do you see the disconnect?
Pastor Jeff:
38:48-38:50
So why does a literal Genesis matter to me?
Pastor Jeff:
38:53-38:55
Because this is the foundation for everything that follows.
Pastor Jeff:
38:56-39:03
His belief in God, who He is, everything He's done, starts here.
Pastor Jeff:
39:05-39:11
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Pastor Jeff:
39:12-39:13
Let's pray.
Pastor Jeff:
39:15-39:21
Father in heaven, I'm sure there was a lot of new information for people here today.
Pastor Jeff:
39:22-39:37
Father, I know there are people in this room right now that might be maybe not sure how to process this, but Father, I pray I pray for the power of your Word and the power of your Holy Spirit to be unleashed in their lives.
Pastor Jeff:
39:40-39:48
Father, we by no means should ever regard the opinions or the thoughts of man over your thoughts.
Pastor Jeff:
39:50-39:52
Father, you made it very clear.
Pastor Jeff:
39:54-40:00
You have made it so clear that we are not some cosmic accident.
Pastor Jeff:
40:03-40:09
We're not the result of some explosion that happened billions of years ago.
Pastor Jeff:
40:09-40:15
And we're at the end of a line of a process of millions of years of chemical reactions.
Pastor Jeff:
40:18-40:22
Your Word tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Pastor Jeff:
40:24-40:29
Your Word tells us that you know us because you formed us, you created us.
Pastor Jeff:
40:32-40:37
Father let your truth drown out the lies.
Pastor Jeff:
40:39-40:42
I pray Father for every single one of us that we would be students.
Pastor Jeff:
40:44-40:54
We wouldn't leave here just saying, "Well, I just agree with all that." I leave here saying, "Well, I just disagree with all that." And we don't take the time to really study it ourselves.
Pastor Jeff:
40:54-40:58
Father, I pray that You would give us diligence to research these things.
Pastor Jeff:
41:00-41:02
And we know, Father, that You'll provide answers.
Pastor Jeff:
41:04-41:08
Thank You so much, Father, that You didn't leave us wondering.
Pastor Jeff:
41:10-41:13
You didn't leave us at the mercy of bouncing between opinions.
Pastor Jeff:
41:14-41:16
You've given us Your sure word.
Pastor Jeff:
41:19-41:24
Your sure word tells us, Father, that the first Adam brought sin and death into the world.
Pastor Jeff:
41:26-41:28
We see that around us. We see that within us.
Pastor Jeff:
41:30-41:32
It's your second Adam, Jesus Christ.
Pastor Jeff:
41:34-41:35
He brought forgiveness and life.
Pastor Jeff:
41:37-41:41
He brought back the things that the first Adam forfeited through disobedience.
Pastor Jeff:
41:43-41:44
Jesus brought it back for his obedience.
Pastor Jeff:
41:47-41:51
Father, give us a biblical worldview.
Pastor Jeff:
41:51-41:57
Help us to see life and existence from Your perspective.
Pastor Jeff:
41:59-42:02
Lay this foundation as we continue through this series, Father.
Pastor Jeff:
42:03-42:06
In the beginning, You created the heavens and the earth.
Pastor Jeff:
42:08-42:09
We praise You, Jesus.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Respond to the following statements:
Why does it matter what I believe about creation?
Does it matter if Genesis is literal or figurative?
Hasn't science proven evolution is true?
How do we know God didn't use evolution?
Why should I believe what the Bible says about the origin of the earth / man?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.