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Guest (Male): The next few verses shoot down evolution too if you just read them, but nobody wants to do that. They've got their theories they've got to protect and hold on to. I don't understand that. When I get to a part in the Bible that I was taught one thing and I start studying it on my own and I see that one thing I was taught is incorrect, I'm not mad at who taught me that. I'm just going, "I guess they didn't see this or didn't realize it," and I learn. I have to drop what I thought and take what the Bible says instead.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply His word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible. Continuing in Genesis chapter 1, verse 3, we learn how God separated the light from the darkness. Here’s Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: Notice the Bible doesn't try to explain to you God. It just starts with the assumption that everyone knows that God exists. Well, of course, today everybody thinks God is a goldfish or a hummingbird. Or God is the Earth, our mother, and the sun. People are crazy.

But God created the heaven and the Earth. There is no gap, I personally believe, between verse 1 and 2. Many people believe there's a gap of millions, maybe billions of years. A lot of so-called Christian evolutionists like to go with the gap theory because it gives them room to not look so dumb among their friends. Because people say, "If you believe that the Earth was created in six days, there's something wrong with your mind. You're crazy."

Well, there is something wrong with my mind, but I believe it anyway. I believe it's true, it's God's word. I joke with you when I say it, but I mean it. I call it like being part of the Christian Mafia. God has done so much in my life and taught me so much. It's like being part of the Christian Mafia; I know too much to try and get out.

I couldn't do it. God wouldn't let me go. I'm His. You know what's true, you know what's right. I can't answer everybody's question, but I know God has done this and He's worked in my heart. I've seen Him work in you. I've been around some of you now for 20-something years, and I've seen you change and grow up in spite of me trying to help you. That's God.

So listen, let's go on to verse 3. And God said—wait a minute now. And God said. These are the first recorded words of God in the Bible. God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. You wouldn't think He'd have to separate those, but He does. Interesting.

And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. Could God have made it all in one 24-hour period? I think so. I think He could have probably made it in one two-minute period. He could have done anything He wanted. He's starting up the systems so that we understand the systems, basically. And the morning and the evening were the first day.

You're going to find all through the six days, God works in the day. And from the night, from the evening to the morning, there is nothing new created. Each day He starts again. Get it? He's giving us a pattern, and that's the pattern we're used to right now. Verse 3 begins—and I mentioned this in verse 2, but I'm going to say it again—verse 3 begins with a conjunction.

That's a big word for those of you that didn't have elementary school. A conjunction hooks up words and phrases and clauses. Remember? "And." In the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth. "And" the Earth was without form and void. It means that we're being given the information chronologically. This is exactly what God said and did in order.

Each action with the "and," with the conjunction, hooks it together. Hooks up words and phrases and clauses, right? Conjunction. So "and," each action follows the action described the verse before it. The creative word of God, the effect of that, and then God saw that it was good. You'll see it almost every time in each verse here. God spoke and said. He just spoke, and out of nothing, "Let there be light."

And guess what? There was light. Could have knocked me over with a feather, right? God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God said it was good. It was a good thing. Now here's what I like about this. This is what throws everybody off. He's not going to create the sun and the moon and the stars until the fourth day. On the first day, He creates light.

So when I think light, I think the sun, right? And then the reflection of the sun off the moon, right? But no, God created light itself on the first day. And it was good, it was good light. And He hadn't created the sun yet; He just created light. And then He separated the light from the darkness. Okay, now you've got to admit, I wish I could have seen the movie.

I would love to see that. Maybe God will show it to us. He probably has high-def or something. It would be just cool to see because none of us were there. But there was an eyewitness. Who was it? God. Good for you. Yeah, God. Because evolutionists say, "How do you know? How do you know Moses wrote—he wasn't there. There were no eyewitnesses." Yes, there were. God was.

Right there in the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth. The Earth was without form and void, darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw that light and said it's good. And He divided it from the darkness. And He called the light day and the darkness night.

And you know what? From that point on, the light will represent good and the dark will represent evil from that moment forward. And the evening and the morning were the first day. All right, we have to tackle this problem because we're going to see it in almost every verse coming up. God called the light day and the darkness night, establishing what? The cycle.

The day and the night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. The literal language: and the evening and the morning, day one. The Hebrew word for day is "Yom." Y-O-M, like Yom Kippur, the high holy day where the high priest goes into the Holy of Holies and sprinkles the blood of the lamb on the mercy seat. Remember? Yom Kippur. Yom. Yom is the word; it means day. It literally can say day or daylight.

Now there are arguments here. You know why? Because there's more than two people on the planet. There are two arguments at this point. One is that Yom means exactly what it says: day. I am on that side of the argument. I believe that's exactly what it means. Let's be honest. If God wanted to communicate billions of years, would He have chosen the simple word "day"?

Or would He have said and there was a whole, whole, whole lot of time? Wouldn't He have said it? If He really wanted to communicate that, don't you think God could do this? Yes. You say, "I still don't believe it." I'm not asking you to believe it; I'm just telling you what the word means. So the argument: two sides basically. One is that Yom means exactly what it means: day.

But some choose to accept what I guess I could call a geological age system. It's called the day age theory. I mentioned it the last time we got together in verse 2, giving them the ability, the freedom to roam the cabin, as I like to say, to make the days of creation more compatible with the evolutionary theory. So if you get a break between 1 and 2, you can sneak in millions of years.

You can sneak in billions or trillions, I suppose, right? And scientists—I'm old, and so when I was headed for college, they were teaching that the world could be a couple million years old. But you couldn't get all that stuff into the can. And the further they've—it didn't work and it didn't work, so they had to keep saying, "Okay, it was probably five million, might have been ten million." Now they're up to what? Hundreds of billions, right?

Why? Because they still can't get all their stuff in the amount of time that what the world is showing them. It just can't be done. So that's what the argument is. Does the word that means day, does it mean day? Or does that day mean millions or billions of years? It gives them the ability to make the days of creation more compatible with their theories.

I'm not looking for theories. I don't form theories; I'm not that smart. What I look for is what does the Bible say? And if you're going to be honest with yourselves—I have to be honest with me—it says "day." And the trouble is, it backs it up by explaining you what a 24-hour day might look like: and the evening and the morning, day one. Now you can't mistake that for a thousand years unless you want to.

You can't mistake it for a billion or 200 million unless you choose to, because and the evening and the morning were day one. It's kind of God may have foreseen all this coming. He's pretty smart. He's God. But the Bible—now even though I know there are so-called—it's an oxymoron, but that's okay, they call themselves Christian evolutionists. So they take the Bible as God's word, except everywhere they can't make it fit evolution.

Okay, now that's not honest. If you wrote your thoughts on paper and really wanted to communicate your life to your grandchildren or to whoever would really want your life or mine—nobody. But I mean, if you did, would you really be throwing stuff in there to really throw them off like that? "Wait, he said he lived to be 80, but I think there's a 1,000-year thing he did here. Wait a minute."

I don't think you would do that if you wanted to write it down so that your children could understand it. You'd write it as plainly as you could. For instance, you'd use the word for day that means day. And if you think somebody might misunderstand it, then you say and the evening and the morning were day one. Okay, you want the other argument?

The sun and the moon and the stars and planets hadn't been created yet. So some Christians go, "That gives you a little bit of room. That gives you some breathing room. Maybe the evening and the mornings, because there was no sun for night and day at that point, particular point until a few days later, so maybe those first few days were thousands of years long." Well, you got me there. I mean, what can I say?

I can tell you what the Bible says. The Bible itself refutes the argument. The evening and morning were the first day. The day age theory accepts the fact—and we talked about it before, but I have to say it again here—the day age theory accepts the fact that there was death for millions, billions of years before mankind came upon the scene because of all the fossils and all the this and all that.

They say it was billions of years and there was death. And they had to—and of course, the next few verses shoot down evolution too if you just read them, but nobody wants to do that. They've got their theories they've got to protect and hold on to. I don't understand that. When I get to a part in the Bible that I was taught one thing and I start studying it on my own and I see that one thing I was taught is incorrect, I'm not mad at who taught me that.

I'm just going, "I guess they didn't see this or didn't realize it," and I learn. I have to drop what I thought and take what the Bible says instead. Because I had someone recently say to me, "Well, God doesn't love everybody." And I go, "You know, I'm so silly. I open to where Jesus says 'everybody come.' I said, 'See the trouble is He says everybody come and whosoever will.'" You're saying He doesn't love everybody; He says He does.

I'm going to take His word over yours. Not arguing with you, you keep thinking what you think, but I'm taking God. I will take God's word over any of you. Love you, mean it, but I'm going to take the word of God. Unless I'm not sure I'm understanding, and then I'm going to go, "Okay, the verdict's not in. I need to study it some more." Because there are times when you read it, you're not sure what it says. True? You don't have to raise your hand. True.

And then you say, "Okay, I've got to see, I've got to see." You see, so the fact that the day age theory accepts the fact, even if you're a Christian and you say I believe in that gap theory, well that accepts the fact that there was death for millions of years, maybe billions of years before mankind even came upon the scene. You had little amoeba, little critters that were dying and they were trying to evolve, and some of them didn't make it and they died off.

And it still doesn't explain to me how they got started again, but that's evolutionists for you. The Bible says not so. Romans 5:12: "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death because of sin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." There was no death until Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. No death before that.

Romans 6:23: death is the wages of sin. That's the price you pay for sin. Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." No death until sin. So for those billions of years and you've got all those dead creatures and critters and things they tried to turn into a bird, but that one didn't work and it fell over dead, and the next one became a bird with only one wing, and that was freaky, right? And then soon you got a bird, and they call it a bat.

I'm making fun of it because the Bible clearly says God thinks He did it. Not only does He think He did it, He's telling us, "This is how I did it." So did it really—watch when we come to the fish. Was it really millions of years and you had the little one and it squiggled and it squicked and then poof, then it was a flounder, and they never take sides, right?

I had to, someone had to, and so I did. And then the flounder turned into the shark and then finally the whale, it evolved. God says He made them, whales. He just made them. Who's right? I think God is. Now you've got the first day's done. Nothing new is created in the nighttime, just in the day. God will say later on—Jesus tells us—work while it's day because the night comes when no one works.

So if you're going to serve God, everybody, serve Him now. Serve Him now while it's day today for you, because time's coming when I'll be too old or I'll just go home, fall over and go home. Serve while it's called today. So listen to we'll go to verse 6. And God said, "Let there be a firmament"—this is kind of don't get freaked out. Firmament, the language could also be an expansion; I'll give you the word in a moment.

And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." That's kind of cool. And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. So now you've got a layer of water on top and a layer of water on bottom and you've got the firmament in the middle.

And God called the firmament—what?—heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. He could have done all this in two minutes, in less than two minutes. He could have spoken and it would have been there and gone. All six days, everything. But He's giving us a pattern. He's showing us the cycle, the day and the night cycle. He's teaching us as He goes.

He's showing us how He works. He's teaching us how we can do the same idea, not create like that, but you get the point. God spoke. And you notice that verse starts with what? A conjunction, that's "and." Each action follows the action described the verse before it. The creative word of God, the effect of that, and then God sees that it's good. It just one after another, chronologically.

So that was day one, and now we just read about day two. That's the literal language: and the evening and the morning were day two. "Let there be firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters." Firmament: the Hebrew word is "Raqia." It means expanse. You could also translate it as spread out thinness.

The word we use today for expanse is space. And what did God call it, the firmament? Heaven. So now you've got a layer of water above and you've got a layer of water beneath and space, the final frontier, in the middle. Right? Isn't that what He's saying right here? Looks like it. And the evening and morning were day two. Heaven is used in three ways in God's word.

Heaven refers to Earth's atmosphere. You know where the birdies fly and the clouds kind of hang out and airplanes sometimes fly too? The first heaven is where the birdies are. And then the next heaven is what? Outside Earth's atmosphere, space. And the third heaven is where? Outside of the space-time continuum, in eternity, where God's throne is. He indwells or inhabits eternity; it's outside space-time.

So don't worry or don't be afraid when He calls the firmament heaven. It's really space. Look at verse 9. I'll hurry now. And God said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." So the water would move on out of the way, the land would appear. And God called the dry land Earth.

And the gathering together of the waters He called seas. And God saw that it was good. We've got no problems yet so far. We're working on day three, aren't we? And God saw that it was good. He spoke and the water just moved on out of the way. Now you've got your dry land. And God said—and He speaks again—God said, "Let the Earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself upon Earth."

And so it was, or it was so. And the Earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his kind. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were day three. We got the third day and everything's pretty much put together almost. I like it. He spoke, "Let the waters move, shift around under the heaven," not the canopy.

So let the waters under the heaven gather to one place, let the dry land appear. He called the dry land Earth and the waters He called sea. And then all the green vegetation and the fruit trees and the trees of all kinds sprang up. Notice, notice these aren't seedlings. They're full big grown trees with fruit on them. They were not seeds, but they had the seeds in them.

So once He created them of all kinds, they're now going to recreate and spread out and become a garden and a grove and something that somebody's going to have to trim. Work for people. In the evening and the morning, day three. Might not be quite how you really pictured it, is it? Because science is trying to figure out how did it start as a little weed and how did it know to become an onion?

It probably took billions of years for it to know nobody really likes onions on too much, so one of them just became a jalapeño. You know, that took care of it right there. Sorry, it's just how my mind works, I apologize. I've got to get some of this out. You can take that out if you like.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is the radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM. You can download today's message in its entirety at NorthCountryChapel.com/studies. That's NorthCountryChapel.com/studies.

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