The Progress of Creation: Day Three & Day Four

Take your Bibles and let's open to Genesis chapter 1.

! Verses 9 through 13 to begin with, those passages will comprise day 3 and then we'll kind of look at that and then move on to day 4 and so we'll get day 3 and day 4 all in one day tonight, okay?

You may think, well, can't we go further? Well, no. We're just going to do this. So, let me begin reading in verse 9. Then God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear.

And it was so. God called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters he called seas. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself on the earth.

And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit whose seed is in itself according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good. So, the evening and the morning were the third day. Alright? So, there's day 3. And so, on the third day, the first thing that God does, if we could define it this way, and I've tried to convey the idea that in the first couple of verses we have kind of an outline of what's to come, that really God is involved in creation in two ways.

And the first thing he's going to do is to give the earth that is without form, he's going to give it form. And that's what we have happening here on day 3. A formless kind of blob or whatever, however we might want to describe it, is now going to be shaped, given form, and there's a reason for that, as we're going to see.

And so, what we have here happening is that the land is divided from the sea. And I think, literally, whether it's God's fingers, David said, when I consider the work of your fingers, or someone said, hands, whether you scooped out and heaped up.

But that's basically, I think, what's being described here, or implied here, that depressions are made on this globe, this planet.

Depressions and elevations, those two things, so that the land, ultimately, in the end, land is formed, or appears. It's separated from the waters.

So now the earth takes form, and this is the first thing he does. And so we now have dry land, where plants and animals and man, ultimately, can live.

If God had not done that, there would be no habitat for any living, breathing animal, whether it's animals or ultimately man.

And so this is what God does. He gives form to the formless, and then the plants and all types of vegetation are going to be created on that dry land.

So God had to prepare for that. Now, all this happens before the creation of the Son. Now, I've mentioned this a couple of times in our study of 1 Genesis, and made reference to it in relation to other things, but it's, I think, important for us to consider this again, that God is doing this on day three before He creates the Son.

That's not created until day four, Genesis 1, 14 and 19, and we're going to get to that in just a minute. And that means, then, God's going to create the land from the sea and then ultimately put plant life on it.

Then that means that the days of creation were literal 24-hour days. It's the only way that you could interpret this. Of course, others tried another way.

Those who would say that the days of creation are not literal 24-hour days, but rather geological ages. And some believe this.

And I'm talking about those who are theistic evolutionists would hold to this. And where they're trying to reconcile so-called science with the Word of God.

And so they say, really, these days are not 24-hour days. They're long periods of time, maybe even millions of years. And if you believe that, and they believe that, then they have a couple of pretty big problems here.

And they're very obvious problems, aren't they? For one thing, how could plants and all vegetation grow and thrive for eons of time or unspecified years of time before the sun and the moon were created?

You have to solve that problem. That's a pretty big one to solve. And for another, no modern evolutionist, no matter what stripe he or she may be, would argue that plant life is older than the sun and moon or even the planetary bodies.

None of them would argue that. And yet, that's what the Bible says. And so, if you're a Christian and you want to believe in some form of evolution, if you're going to believe in some kind of evolution, then you have to believe that the days of creation were not 24-hour days.

And if they're not 24-hour days, and they may be thousands, maybe millions of years long, and if that be the case, then you have a real problem with day three being the day when all plant life is created, and day four being the day when the sun is created.

And you have to reconcile those students. You can't do it. And so, with day three, we have the beginning of life on planet Earth. Really, not animal life yet, but life.

And, you know, directly, a direct creation of God. I believe instantaneously. Life is created by God and not slowly evolving over millions of years.

I forgot to tell you, generally I give you notes to look at when we don't have them. I was fortunate to get my notes printed today, something haywire with my computer, and I think I may have even lost the entire file.

But I'm going to work on that when I've got more time. And if I can retrieve it, even if I can't, I'll just take what I have and give you some notes next week, and hopefully we can carry on from there.

But that's why you don't have any notes, okay? Just in case you were wondering. All right. Now, so, we can't really embrace any level or any degree of a creation that involves a slow evolution over millions of years.

If we're going to believe that on day three, plant life is created and day four, the sun was created. Now, there are some scientists that are saying that life on Earth began with a kind of one of these large meteorites crashing down to this planet and carrying with it amino acids.

Have you ever heard this theory? That somehow this meteor hit the Earth, hit the planet, had the building blocks for life embedded in that meteorite.

Now, where it came from, of course, I have no answer for that. And so what happened, you know, it happened when, in a time, eons ago, when the sun was maybe cooler than it is now, and the Earth was a watery ball covered with ice a thousand feet thick.

And so here's the idea. And so here's the idea. This meteor comes crashing down, hits the ice, and it breaks through that ice, that outer layer of ice, and, quote, seeds the water underneath with the building blocks of life.

This is how the theory goes. And I know this is an oversimplification of it, but basically this is what they believe. And so once seeded, then eventually that develops into what they call an organic soup on the planet.

And is that interesting? And so they say, in this way, then, this is how it happened, Earth began in a geological instant.

That's the term that they use. And it maybe leads you to think that they're talking about some instantaneous, you know, not creation, but the coming about of everything.

But when they say instant, they're talking about 10 million years. And so there's the theory. Now, I think you might agree with me, it takes more faith to believe that than it does to believe the Genesis account.

So here on day three, we have God then making the earth inhabitable. And he's not yet created plant life, and now he's going to do that. He's going to do this on day three.

Land is now there, and so he can now create everything that man and animals will need for food when they're created in the days to come.

And so he said here, and I read it a moment ago, he said, let the earth bring forth grass. I wish he'd say that today in my yard, bring forth some grass, so I wouldn't have to water it.

And, of course, if you water it, you have to mow it, and then you say, take this grass away, you know. But he said, bring forth grass. What's this? This is just vegetation, obviously, all types of grasses.

And so God just spoke, and instantaneously they're created here on the planet. And then he said, and bring forth the herb. This is the New King James translation.

Bring forth the herb that yields seed. That is seed-bearing plants. So you have your peas. Yuck.

Peas and beans and other things like that. How many of you like peas? Anybody don't like peas? It's just two of us. Well, Diane, I knew there was something I liked about you.

A lot of people like that. What company you're keeping? I won't ask the tuna fish question. But he didn't create tuna fish anymore.

That's part of the fallen man. But anyway. You make cherries for cherry cheese. What's that? You make cherries for cherry cheese. Yeah. That's exactly right.

It's in here somewhere. And then he said, the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself like apples and pears and bananas and things like that.

And so he's creating all these things here on day three. Now, I think it's important for us to understand that the way this is written is more than implied that these things are created full grown.

That he's not creating the seeds. He didn't say he created the seeds. He created the plants that have the seeds in them. And so we're not talking about just the raw material or the beginnings of these kinds of life.

I mean, we're not going to even make that kind of concession in any kind of evolutionary process. He created full grown plants. The fruit trees and other trees were created full grown.

And I really believe this. If Adam had a chainsaw and he cut a tree down, it would not have rings in it. I really believe that.

If they did. All right. If they did have rings and God created the rings in there. But just as he created Adam a full grown man, he created all of the plant life full grown.

And they had the seed in them. See. And that was the beginning of life. They were mature plants. And they were all ready. I mean, these things were ready for animals and man to eat them as part of the nourishment that God is providing.

Notice how day three is concluded. God said that it was good. You say, well, we see that a number of times in the creation story.

And I've already made mention of it. You know, early on when we kind of took a broad sweep of the days of creation. God says this over and over. It was good. And God knows what is good, doesn't He?

Certainly. And He knows what is good. And He organizes His creation to result in something good. And here's my question. For whom did He create it all?

Now, you could say for Himself, for His enjoyment, for His glory. And I would agree with that. But primarily, He created it for you and me. For man. He created it for man.

And so, have you noticed that God did not call His creation good on day two? You go back to day two and you'll see that that's not there.

Now, it's there day three and on out. In fact, when He's finished, He says it's very good. Meaning it's complete. But God doesn't call it good on day two because it had not yet, by the end of day two, it had not yet become habitable for man.

For whom God has created this planet and intended for us to have dominion over it. To be the kings and queens of His creation. And what happened to that is a story that comes a little later in Genesis.

All right, now day four. Starting with verse 14. 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.

All right, so now, day four. What an exciting day. Can you think about it? All that God created on day four. Now think about it. He creates the sun.

The moon. And the stars. We can lump all that under one word. The universe. Created all of it. All that one day.

You know, what evolution say took billions, I guess, in relation to the universe. Trillions maybe of years to evolve. God spoke it all into existence.

One day. And I don't think it took Him all day to do it. He just spoke and it was. Now, let's consider, though, first of all, just what God created.

He created lights. Plural. He created lights. Not light in general.

Now, why do I say that? Because God created light in general. He created that on day one. And what was that light?

We don't really know. We talked about this last week. We don't know what it was. We know what it wasn't. It wasn't the sun, the moon, and the stars. And so someone might ask, how can you have light without sun, moon, and stars?

Well, God created light on that day. I gave you a possibility, if you might remember, that God created, at the very least, He created the existence of light. And some have speculated, and I think it's a plausible idea, that He created light in the atom.

Atomic light. But at the very bare minimum, He created, He just spoke light be. I mean, in the Hebrew text, that's really what it says, light be.

That's day one. And there was light. And whatever that light was, it was not the sun. Because the Bible says that was created here on day four. But it's not, I don't think, very difficult to speculate what it might have been.

Because Revelation 22.5, speaking of heaven, says, Night will no longer exist. And people will not need lamp light or sunlight.

We'll need the sunlight because the Lord God will give them light. He will be the light. And so, you see, I think it's kind of interesting.

It's not, light is not just a physical thing. It is supernatural. And how fitting that God would begin His creation the way that it will exist one day in eternity.

With a supernatural light. And so, if that light on day one would be just simply a designation for a supernatural, the supernatural light of God.

Or we're talking about something in the atomic structure of all things. That minute material. The light and electrons and photons that existed in there.

We talked about that last week or whatever it was. Light does not have to be just physical. It is supernatural. And so, verse 16, God creates two great lights.

Two great lights in relation to the earth. The greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars also. Just kind of like throwing that in there.

You know, kind of as a, oh yeah. And the stars also. Yeah. And that's why I mentioned that the two great lights that He mentions here are in relation to the earth.

Because there are many greater lights out there in the universe, much larger than our sun. But these two lights are here. And they also made all the stars. That is the rest of the universe.

Now, what about these lights? The greater light, of course, is the sun. You don't need me to tell you that. It might be good to be reminded that the sun is 864,000 miles in diameter.

That's a great light. I don't know about you, but I can't fathom that kind of size. And how about this one? It's 93 million miles away from the earth.

And yet you lay out in your front yard or go out and spend too much time mowing your yard and you think it's just right there. Especially in the last few days. 93 million miles.

And it'll still burn you to death here if you stay out in it too long. But the point is, and even unbelieving scientists would agree, that that distance is the perfect distance to support life on this planet.

And we could name a lot of other things about what would happen to this planet if we were just a fraction of a degree closer to the sun or a fraction of a degree further away from the sun.

We would either burn up or we would all freeze. We would all freeze to death in the rotation around our sun. So it's the perfect orbit around this planet. And our sun is one of an estimated 100 billion stars.

That's what our sun is. It's a star. It's just one of an estimated 100 billion of them. Guess what? Just in our galaxy. Just in our galaxy.

And our galaxy is just one of 100 billion plus galaxies in the universe. We're just one among 100 billion of them.

Or more. Probably more. And that's not counting what they call dwarf galaxies that are way out there too far to observe. And we don't really know the size of our universe.

And most of the numbers that I've just given to you are just speculation. You know, the numbers of them. And then the lesser light, of course, is the moon.

And in comparison, it is quite small. 2,160 miles in diameter. That still seems pretty big, but that's pretty small, certainly, in regard to the earth as well, as well as the sun.

And 238,857 miles away from the earth. That's how far the moon is away from us. That's hard to comprehend, even. And it's very close to us.

And the moon not only provides light, of course, by reflecting the sun's light. It provides light at night. But it also, of course, controls the tides of the ocean and so forth.

And then the stars, of course, include all the planetary bodies in the entire universe. Now, think about this. Because our galaxy, the Milky Way, that's our galaxy, is just a speck, really, a speck in relation to the known universe.

Just a speck. That's our galaxy. And our sun, as large as it is, is just a speck in relation to the other suns in our galaxy.

In fact, we could say that our solar system is really just a speck in relation to all the solar systems in our galaxy. And our sun is just a little speck in relation to all the other suns in our universe.

And our earth is less than a speck. In relation to all the other planetary bodies and planets and even some asteroids in our galaxy.

And yet, now think about this. When God started His work of creation, what did He start with? I'm alluding to something else.

Where did He begin? With earth. Our planet. He didn't create the entire universe and then create our planet to put it in a certain spot.

He started with the earth. Now, is that significant? I think it is. Do you have any idea why He would do it that way? I think it's because it's a matter of priority for God.

Man was going to live here. And He started with this planet. See, we're man. God's not just some advanced, more advanced animal on this planet.

We're God's special cherished creation. And He created this planet for us. And so, before He did all that other that boggles our mind, the wonders of our universe.

And if you've looked at any of the pictures, I recommend you go to the internet and look up the picture from Hubble telescope. Look at some of these galaxies that have been discovered and pictures taken of and, you know, all these things.

And then you consider that just this little bitty planet, God started there. And He created it for us. And maybe we'll know why David said what he said or wrote what he wrote in Psalm 8.3.

He said, when I consider the heavens as the universe. I've always kind of imagined David laying out in his front yard at night looking up at the sky.

I don't know. Or he's out there with his sheep, you know, killing time. And he looks up into the sky. And he said, when I consider, observe your heavens and the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place.

What is man? That you're mindful of him. God was mindful of us when He created this planet. He did it for us. By the way, do you think there are any other planets in the universe capable of supporting human life?

No. I don't really think so. You know, the government, they say, spends $100 million a year, every year, looking for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Think about that. $100 million every year, looking for intelligence. Someone said they ought to spend that much to look for intelligence in Washington.

No. No. It'd be a waste of money there too, I think. But then, kind of bringing this to a close tonight, we need to look further than just the what of creation on day four.

We really need to see what the Bible tells us about the why of this. And if you look at verse 14, it said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens.

To do what? To do what? To divide the day from the night. To let them be for signs and seasons and for days and years.

There's something between those lines. Something in there that goes beyond just seasons.

Why did God create these lights? The sun, the moon, and the stars also. Well, to provide light, obviously. And where would we be without that?

I mean, today, of course, we have electricity and we have light. And I guess we think that if the sun were to be blotted out and go away, we'd be okay. But I guarantee you, we wouldn't. But, at the very least, those things were created so that we would have light here on this earth and we need that.

But also, he created these lights so that he could divide the day from the night. And there would be a cycle of a day.

And it would mark time. Can you imagine what it would be like? How we would tell time or have calendars or anything like that if we didn't have that rotation and the dividing of day and night.

And it's the stars or the sun and the moon and the stars that defined that for us. And that's important, isn't it? Thirdly, he created these lights, he says, for signs and for seasons.

In fact, the word could be translated festivals. And for days and years. So we can mark time and so forth. But what does that mean, though?

For signs. Well, you know, several things, I think. They provide a point of reference for navigators. Right? They will have and will reveal extraordinary events in history.

Remember Joshua? Joshua led Israel in battle against the Amorites. And the sun stood still for a full day. When Hezekiah wanted a confirmation of his healing in 2 Kings 20 and verse 11.

He asked God to let the sun go back 10 degrees on the sundial. And Isaiah cried unto the Lord and God granted that request.

All that would have been meaningless if there had been no sun, of course. I guess he could have asked for some other sign. When Jesus was born, wise men followed a star.

Now, we could argue that that light they called a star might have been just some supernatural thing. Or it might have been some other natural phenomenon, as some would argue.

But the Bible's a star. When Jesus spoke of end times, He said there would be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars.

Luke 21, verse 25. Divine judgment will be preceded by celestial signs, according to the Bible. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord.

That's Joel chapter 2, verse 30. Alright, so the significance of these great lights, more than just practical things for us.

And we do need those. And it's part of God's grace that He would create these things for us so that we'd have light. And so we would have seasons. We'd have the marking of time. And be able to calendar things and so forth.

But they're there and used by God for other reasons as well. Spiritual reasons and confirmations of His plans and purposes and His greatness.

They also mark seasons, of course. And plants will produce at certain times because of these lights. And animals will breed according to a set cycle and so forth.

And so there you have it. We've come to the end of day four. And it's taken us longer to describe it than it took God to create it. Or me to describe it.

And we end once again as day three ended. God saw that it was good. It was good. So there's the end of day four. We'll get to day five.

And I'll probably open up next time with something about light itself. Which is, I think, rather interesting. And just to ponder this question, and maybe it's a question you've heard, or maybe you've come up with on your own, that God created the plants full-grown.

And then on day four, He created the sun. And obviously, it was created full-grown. The moon and the stars. All that was created instantaneously. How long did it take for the light from those stars to get to this earth?

We'll talk about that next time. Thank you.