Sunday School Lesson

1. Genesis 1
In The Beginning God …
September 6, 2015
First Baptist Church
Jackson, Mississippi
USA
What’s the number one thing?
The Glory of God!
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1 Corinthians 10:31 NKJV
31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of
God.
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September Memory Verse
Psalm 86:11 NKJV
11 Teach me Your way, O LORD;
I will walk in Your truth;
Unite my heart to fear Your name.

2. We have 3 challenges placed before us by the Education Department.
1. Memorize the monthly memory verses.
2. Share your faith with one person each month.
3. Ask Sunday School class members to share how they have seen God at
work during the week.
Resources
 Ken Ham
o answersingenesis.org
 John MacArthur
 J. Vernon McGee
Genesis 1:1 HCSB
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
 Genesis 1:1 is the foundational verse of the Bible.
 Genesis 1 is the foundational chapter of the Bible.
 Genesis is the foundational book of the Bible.
 What was God doing before He created the earth?
o God is Eternal.
o God created time.
o God created space.
o God created matter.
o Created all out of nothing—ex nihilo—creation out of nothing.
Exodus 3:14 HCSB
14 God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the
Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”
Creation vs. Evolution
Why I am a Creationist
 Both positions require faith.
o You must have Faith in a starting position.
o Evolutionist start with something.
 Must have faith that there was some matter.
 Must have faith that living came from nonliving.
o Creationist start with God.
 Must have faith that—In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.

3. Creation vs. Evolution
 Nonliving to living?
o No chance.
o No way.
o An impossible mathematical probability.
o Like a tornado going through a junk yard and assembling a 747.
 Information (DNA)
 Fossil Record
o There are no transitional forms.
The creation was created in an aged state.
 What about Dating Mechanisms?
o Carbon dating (fossils)
o Radiometric dating (fossils and rocks)
o For Dating Mechanisms to work assumptions have to be made.
 That the C14 to C12 ratio has remained a constant.
o The magnetic field is 10% weaker than in 1845 when German
mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss started keeping tabs.
 This affects the production rate of C14 in the atmosphere.
 The Flood would have greatly upset the carbon balance.
o The amount of fossil fuels indicates there must have been a vastly
larger quantity of vegetation in existence prior to the Flood than
exist today.
o This means that the biosphere just prior to the Flood might have had
500 times more carbon in living organisms than today.
o This would further dilute the amount of C14 and cause the C14/C12
ratio to be much smaller than today.
o Genesis 7:11B NKJV
11B on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up,
and the windows of heaven were opened.
 The Flood was a cataclysmic and catastrophic event, like
never before and never since.
 Tectonic plates move up, down, and sideways.
 Volcanoes erupted.
 The earth prior to the Flood was much different in land mass
configuration and atmosphere.
What about Theistic Evolution?
 Gap Theory
 Day Age Theory
 Both would have death before the fall of man
 Not biblically sound.

4. Genesis 1:2 HCSB
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the
watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
 Some commentators have interpreted this to mean that the earth was in a
chaotic state. However the presence of the Spirit of God nullifies the
possibility of chaos.
 The mention of the Spirit does affirm the doctrine of the Trinity, since God in
verse 1 refers to God the Father, and God the Son also created everything
as stated in John 1.
Is a Day a Day?
Genesis 1:3-5 HCSB
3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light
was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the
light “day,” and He called the darkness “night.” Evening came and then
morning: the first day.
 Is it a normal day?
o Yom—Young Earth vs. Old Earth
o Uses of words
 In my Father’s day it took him 7 days to drive across the
United States during the day.
 It is important to understand the context within which day is
used.
 Exodus 20:11 HCSB (4th commandment)
11 For the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and
everything in them in six days; then He rested on the seventh
day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and
declared it holy.
 In Joshua 6:1-21 it’s recorded that Joshua and the men of war
marched around Jericho.
 6 days they marched around the city 1 time each day.
 On the 7th day they marched around the city 7 times.
 In Jonah 1 it’s recorded that Jonah was in the fish 3 days.
 Yom is used 2,301 times
 Day + number 410—Ordinary Day
 Evening and morning together w/o day 38—Ordinary Day
 Evening with day 23—Ordinary Day
 Morning with day 23—Ordinary Day
 Night with day 52—Ordinary Day
 Total 546 times and they all meant an Ordinary Day
 Genesis 1 evening, morning, number, day

5. Is a Day a Day?
Did God really say? (Genesis 3:1)
 John MacArthur
o “Evolution with its theory of chaos and its theory of unintelligent
matter existing in random features organizing itself by chance into
highly complex forms and ultimately to the level of human
intelligence and personality is so preposterous and so impossible
and so scientifically inaccurate that no honest person could believe
it.”
 Ken Ham
o “When a scientist’s interpretation of data does not match the clear
meaning of the text in the Bible, we should never reinterpret the
Bible we should examine the validity of the standard of
interpretation.”
Genesis 1:26-31 HCSB
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.
They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth,
and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”
27 So God created man in His own image;
He created him in the image of God;
He created them male and female.
28 God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth,
and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature
that crawls on the earth.” 29 God also said, “Look, I have given you every seed-
bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth and every tree whose fruit
contains seed. This food will be for you, 30 for all the wildlife of the earth, for every
bird of the sky, and for every creature that crawls on the earth—everything
having the breath of life in it. I have given every green plant for food.” And it
was so. 31 God saw all the he had made, and it was very good. Evening came
and then morning: the sixth day.
The Image of God
 Man has physical, mental and spiritual qualities.
 True Personality.
 Self Conscious.
 Makes own decisions.
 Free moral agent.
 Has a moral responsibility.

6. Genesis 2:1-3 HCSB
1 So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed. 2 By the
seventh day God completed His work that He had done, and He rested on the
seventh day from all His work that He had done. 3 God blessed the seventh day
and declared it holy, for on it He rested from His work of creation.
God created the week.
 God rested on the 7th day creating the week.
o Day
o Week
o Month
o Year
God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy.
 God sanctified the Sabbath.
o Completed
 Finished creation
o Rested
 Nothing here about man resting or worshipping the focus is
God and His creation.
o To set a pattern for mankind to work 6 days and rest on the 7th.
o To produce gratitude of wonder for the perfection of creation.
 Exodus 20:8 HCSB
8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy:
o 10 Commandments (4th)
o God made the Sabbath a sign—to produce repentance.
o Man was not to work.
o He was to rest.
o This rest was to focus on God and their need for atonement.
JESUS
 Jesus—everything changed, He obliterated the Sabbath system and the
sacrifice system.
o All 10 commandments are mentioned in the New Testament except
the Sabbath commandment.
o Original Sabbath in Genesis was a day of rest.
o Sabbath of Exodus was a day to understand Man’s need for
repentance.
o Rest and repentance today is through a relationship with Jesus.

7. The Plan of Hope & Salvation
John 3:16 NKJV
16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
John 14:6 NKJV
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through Me.”
Romans 3:23 NKJV
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 6:23a NKJV
23a For the wages of sin is death,
 Death in this life (the first death) is 100%.
 Even Jesus, the only one who doesn’t deserve death, died in this life to
pay the penalty for our sins.
 The death referred to in Romans 6:23a is the second death explained in
Revelation 21:8.
Revelation 21:8 NKJV
8 “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral,
sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with
fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Romans 5:8 NKJV
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
Romans 6:23b NKJV
23b but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Revelation 21:7 NKJV
7 “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be
My son.”
 Romans 10:9-10 explains to us how to accept Jesus as our Savior.

8. Romans 10:9-10 NKJV
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that
God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one
believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
Romans 10:13 NKJV
13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
If you have questions or would like to know more, please, contact First Baptist
Church Jackson at 601-949-1900 or http://firstbaptistjackson.org/contact/