WEBVTT - Skip Heitzig - Oct 15 - 7:30 am 0:00:01.190 --> 0:00:04.370 This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us today. 0:00:04.870 --> 0:00:07.690 Here at Connect with Skip, we're passionate about helping you 0:00:07.790 --> 0:00:10.660 understand God's Word and apply it to your everyday life 0:00:10.700 --> 0:00:14.280 through clear, practical Bible teaching. That's why we invite you 0:00:14.300 --> 0:00:17.820 to sign up for Pastor Skip's free weekly devotional. You'll 0:00:17.860 --> 0:00:23.120 receive biblical encouragement, ministry updates, and exclusive ministry content, all 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:26.500 delivered right to your inbox. Signing up is quick, easy, 0:00:26.739 --> 0:00:34.320 and completely free. Visit connectwithskip.com today That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:37.479 dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:41.440 Now, the Bible is worth reading slowly, which is what 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:44.570 we usually do in our devotional time, even in our 0:00:44.610 --> 0:00:48.269 normal midweek Bible study or our Sunday morning approach. We 0:00:48.310 --> 0:00:51.530 go slower, and I've been known to go very slow 0:00:52.470 --> 0:00:56.270 in my teaching. I've done a whole sermon on not 0:00:56.310 --> 0:00:58.880 just a sentence, not just a phrase, but just a 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:01.900 single word in One time I even did one on 0:01:01.940 --> 0:01:06.630 a comma between two words. And there's value in going slow. 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:10.080 But there's also value in an approach like this where 0:01:10.100 --> 0:01:11.940 you speed it up and you. 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:14.279 Cover vast portions of scripture. 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:17.060 It gives to us the big picture. And sometimes we 0:01:17.100 --> 0:01:19.700 can miss the forest for the trees. We need to 0:01:19.780 --> 0:01:22.880 see how the plan all fits together. And this unique 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:26.000 approach will do just that. So we're going to cover 0:01:26.030 --> 0:01:27.930 a lot of ground. We're going to move quickly. We're 0:01:27.950 --> 0:01:30.090 not going to be able to read every verse. We're 0:01:30.110 --> 0:01:32.730 going to be looking at the landmarks, just like a 0:01:32.770 --> 0:01:35.910 pilot pilot. We'll often say to those who are aboard 0:01:35.970 --> 0:01:37.990 his or her flight, if you look to your right, 0:01:38.010 --> 0:01:39.950 you'll see the Grand Canyon. Later on, if you look 0:01:39.970 --> 0:01:42.430 to your left, you'll see the St. Louis Arch over 0:01:42.450 --> 0:01:45.660 the Mississippi. We're going to show you the major landmarks 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:50.060 in the scripture and show how it all fits together. Now, 0:01:50.220 --> 0:01:54.860 on a horizontal level, there are two sources of knowledge here. 0:01:56.060 --> 0:01:59.490 Reason and experience. That's how most people get their knowledge, 0:01:59.590 --> 0:02:04.010 reason and experience. We experience things and therefore we draw 0:02:04.070 --> 0:02:08.950 conclusions or we reason things out based on others' observations 0:02:09.530 --> 0:02:14.149 or others' experiences. Those are the two basic sources of knowledge, 0:02:14.250 --> 0:02:20.240 reason and experience. However, Those two sources are limited sources. 0:02:20.940 --> 0:02:23.800 There's a lot of things that are left unanswered, like 0:02:23.860 --> 0:02:24.760 where did I come from? 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:26.840 Where am I going? What is the purpose and meaning 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:28.280 of life? How did I get here? 0:02:29.570 --> 0:02:34.170 Therefore, you need a third source, not just a horizontal source, 0:02:34.690 --> 0:02:38.850 reason and experience, but a vertical source, and that is revelation. 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:43.579 Someone from outside the time and space continuum needs to 0:02:43.620 --> 0:02:47.380 communicate to you and tell you what's up. You'll never 0:02:47.540 --> 0:02:51.940 answer those questions without it. And so we have revelation, 0:02:52.350 --> 0:02:56.990 God's revelation. And revelation can even be divided into two groups. 0:02:57.430 --> 0:03:01.870 There is a natural revelation, there is special revelation, or 0:03:01.950 --> 0:03:07.100 if you prefer general revelation as opposed to special revelation. 0:03:07.620 --> 0:03:12.140 What is general revelation? Things like creation, the universe, as 0:03:12.180 --> 0:03:15.680 you go out and you observe the stars, the sky, 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:20.690 the moon, the sun, the intricacies of biology. The Bible 0:03:20.730 --> 0:03:24.230 says the heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament 0:03:24.290 --> 0:03:29.869 shows his handiwork. But then there's special revelation, and that 0:03:30.030 --> 0:03:32.389 is the Bible. And that is what we're studying in 0:03:32.770 --> 0:03:36.900 this chapter. year study called the Bible from 30,000 feet. 0:03:37.660 --> 0:03:43.560 Now in this book, this Bible, there are 66 separate books, 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:50.010 some long, some very long, some very, very short. 66 0:03:50.010 --> 0:03:51.910 entries altogether. 0:03:52.850 --> 0:03:54.370 Or 31,173 verses. 0:03:54.390 --> 0:03:59.360 Sounds like a big book, it is. If you were 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.600 to read it from cover to cover out loud, Like 0:04:02.660 --> 0:04:04.040 if you were to stand in your room and just 0:04:04.060 --> 0:04:06.920 start reading it aloud, it would take you about 70 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:10.900 hours straight to read from Genesis to Revelation. If you 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:12.860 were to break that up, though, you could cover it 0:04:12.980 --> 0:04:16.890 in 12 minutes a day in a single year. So 0:04:16.930 --> 0:04:19.450 it's worth doing. It's worth reading through the Bible. And 0:04:19.470 --> 0:04:20.430 we're going to be doing that. 0:04:20.529 --> 0:04:22.250 As I said, not every verse, but we're going to 0:04:22.290 --> 0:04:25.510 look at the highlights. Now, the Bible does something. 0:04:25.670 --> 0:04:31.050 It sweeps throughout history and it goes from eternity past 0:04:31.070 --> 0:04:37.360 to to the future, the eternal state. It covers all 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.159 the way back from primeval early history all the way 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.670 to ultimate prophecy in the book of Revelation. But all 0:04:44.690 --> 0:04:46.870 of the Bible, if you wanted to sum it up, 0:04:46.930 --> 0:04:50.350 you could say this, all of the scripture, all 66 books, 0:04:50.970 --> 0:04:57.620 all of special revelation points to one person and two events. 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:00.919 One person and two events. Now you have the Bible 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.800 in a nutshell. That's the irreducible minimum. You can't get 0:05:03.860 --> 0:05:07.380 any tighter or any smaller than that. The one person, 0:05:07.420 --> 0:05:09.300 the hero of the Bible, you know who that is? 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:15.049 It's Jesus Christ. The two events, his first coming, his 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:18.710 second coming. His first coming, he comes to deal with sin. 0:05:19.150 --> 0:05:22.270 His second coming, he comes to reign with those who 0:05:22.290 --> 0:05:25.010 have been cleansed from sin. That is the whole Bible. 0:05:25.790 --> 0:05:31.060 One person, two events. Genesis is the foundation. It's the 0:05:31.110 --> 0:05:35.410 ground floor. If we don't understand the book of Genesis, 0:05:35.730 --> 0:05:39.710 we won't understand what follows the book of Genesis. It 0:05:39.870 --> 0:05:45.230 is all about origins. That's what Genesis means. The Hebrew 0:05:45.510 --> 0:05:50.950 title is Bereshit, in the beginning. Our title is Genesis. 0:05:51.010 --> 0:05:54.150 It means the origin. And we get in this book 0:05:54.190 --> 0:05:57.450 the origin of, well, everything. the origin of the heaven 0:05:57.490 --> 0:06:14.020 and the earth. <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> 0:06:14.350 --> 0:06:18.669 Everything is covered in terms of its origin in this book. 0:06:19.670 --> 0:06:21.650 Now we're going to look at tonight the first 11 chapters. 0:06:23.250 --> 0:06:24.900 And the next time we're going to finish the book 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:26.900 of Genesis and go on in the next week into 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:30.040 the book of Exodus. But the first 11 chapters are 0:06:30.100 --> 0:06:34.040 about events. The second part of the book of Genesis, 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:38.020 chapters 12 through 50, highlights people. We're going to look 0:06:38.100 --> 0:06:40.840 at events. And the four events that you've seen just 0:06:40.900 --> 0:06:45.060 in the introduction video are the fall, or excuse me, 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:49.540 the formation, followed by the fall, followed by the flood, 0:06:49.940 --> 0:06:51.080 followed by the fallout. 0:06:51.890 --> 0:06:53.080 I'll briefly explain it. 0:06:53.110 --> 0:06:56.690 Chapters 1 and 2, the formation of the heavens and 0:06:56.710 --> 0:06:59.910 the earth. The universe is formed by God. And it's 0:06:59.980 --> 0:07:05.260 explained briefly in two chapters. Then we have in chapters 3, 4, 0:07:05.260 --> 0:07:08.960 and 5, the fall of man. Adam and Eve sinned 0:07:08.980 --> 0:07:12.630 in the garden and the repercussions of the fallout. Then 0:07:13.030 --> 0:07:17.320 we have the flood in chapter 6, 7, 8, and 9, 0:07:17.310 --> 0:07:21.470 a universal judgment where waters covered the earth, followed by 0:07:21.530 --> 0:07:26.440 the fallout of man's rebellion in chapters 10 and 11. 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:30.280 So let's begin at the beginning with the formation of 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:30.920 the universe. 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:32.400 We're going to look at the first verse of. 0:07:32.380 --> 0:07:35.120 The Bible, and we're going to kind of pick this 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:37.280 out singularly and then move on through the rest. Let 0:07:37.300 --> 0:07:40.240 me just say, as I've said so often before, If 0:07:40.300 --> 0:07:45.720 you can accept Genesis 1-1, everything after that. 0:07:45.740 --> 0:07:47.170 Gets really simple. 0:07:49.050 --> 0:07:51.250 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 0:07:51.310 --> 0:07:55.350 That's a good trick. That's a lot of power. That's 0:07:55.370 --> 0:08:00.830 an incredible feat. If that can happen, then every single 0:08:01.610 --> 0:08:06.710 other miraculous event is now possible. So if you can 0:08:06.770 --> 0:08:10.010 get past that first verse, get through that first verse, 0:08:10.590 --> 0:08:14.130 understand it in part and embrace it, you'll be good. 0:08:15.250 --> 0:08:18.760 So look at it. In the beginning, God created the 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:25.080 heavens and the earth. It's so simple, right? So straightforward. 0:08:26.260 --> 0:08:31.990 And it happens to be very precise. Back in 1903, 0:08:31.990 --> 0:08:35.610 an unbeliever, a scientist by the name of Herbert Spencer 0:08:36.429 --> 0:08:40.170 argued that all things in the universe, everything in the 0:08:40.250 --> 0:08:43.829 universe can be fit into one of five categories. 0:08:44.350 --> 0:08:45.270 Now listen to what he said. 0:08:45.309 --> 0:08:53.270 The five categories are time, force, action, space, matter. Everything 0:08:53.290 --> 0:08:58.080 can be fit into one of those categories. Time, force, action, space, matter. 0:08:59.450 --> 0:09:01.610 What he did not know is that God beat him 0:09:01.650 --> 0:09:05.230 to the punch. Because when he said that statement, he 0:09:05.290 --> 0:09:09.120 just said Genesis 1.1. 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:13.060 Look at it again. In the beginning, that's time. God, 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:13.800 that's force. 0:09:14.900 --> 0:09:19.520 Created, that's action. The heavens, that's space. And the earth, 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:24.359 that's matter. In the beginning, God created the heavens and 0:09:24.380 --> 0:09:29.829 the earth in a precise, succinct statement. The earth, verse 2, 0:09:29.809 --> 0:09:32.370 was without form and void. Darkness was on the face 0:09:32.429 --> 0:09:35.470 of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering 0:09:35.590 --> 0:09:39.490 over the face of the waters. So now we understand 0:09:39.970 --> 0:09:44.719 that God involved His Holy Spirit in His creation. As 0:09:44.780 --> 0:09:47.340 we keep reading through the Bible, we're going to understand 0:09:47.380 --> 0:09:51.579 that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were 0:09:51.700 --> 0:09:54.960 all involved. Not only is the Spirit hovering over the waters, 0:09:56.020 --> 0:10:00.550 But John chapter 1 will tell us that Jesus was 0:10:00.610 --> 0:10:05.510 before all things and that he created all things. It'll 0:10:05.530 --> 0:10:08.370 also be repeated in Colossians chapter one. He is before 0:10:08.410 --> 0:10:11.630 all things and by him all things consist. John 1, 0:10:11.630 --> 0:10:13.439 one in the beginning was the word, the word was 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:17.300 with God, the word was God. All things were made 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.679 through him and there was not anything that is made 0:10:20.860 --> 0:10:25.069 or that was made except by him. Then verse three, 0:10:25.110 --> 0:10:27.230 God said, let there be light and there was light. 0:10:28.030 --> 0:10:30.570 And God saw the light that it was good. And 0:10:30.610 --> 0:10:34.460 God divided the light from the darkness. God called the 0:10:34.500 --> 0:10:39.300 light day and the darkness he called night. So the 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.420 evening and the morning were the first day. Now we 0:10:43.460 --> 0:10:47.030 have in the verses that follow the six days of creation. 0:10:47.710 --> 0:10:51.290 On day one, the light comes on. On day two, 0:10:51.370 --> 0:10:55.890 the hydrological cycle begins as waters on the surface pool 0:10:56.510 --> 0:11:01.000 and waters above the firmament or the expanse of heaven exist. 0:11:02.140 --> 0:11:08.460 On day four, the celestial bodies are formed. On day five, 0:11:08.500 --> 0:11:13.340 the animals are formed. And so God basically decorated his creation. 0:11:14.460 --> 0:11:20.490 He created it, then he decorated it, now he populates it. 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:26.640 On day six, he creates us, mankind. Verse 26, then 0:11:26.740 --> 0:11:29.910 God said, let us make man man. 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:33.820 In our image, isn't that an interesting way to put it? 0:11:33.910 --> 0:11:38.220 God said, let us, the Father, the Son, the Spirit, 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:42.720 the triune God, in communication with each other, according to 0:11:42.940 --> 0:11:46.100 our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:48.120 the sea, the birds of the air, and over the cattle, 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:51.280 over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:52.100 on the earth. 0:11:52.580 --> 0:11:56.080 You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Every day, friends 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:58.760 like you help connect people around the world to the 0:11:58.820 --> 0:12:02.860 life-changing truth of God's Word through clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching. 0:12:03.580 --> 0:12:07.230 Our world constantly tells us we need something more. But 0:12:07.250 --> 0:12:10.530 the book of Colossians reminds us that everything we truly 0:12:10.590 --> 0:12:14.040 need is found in Jesus Christ. That's the heart of 0:12:14.100 --> 0:12:18.580 Pastor Skip's resource, Expound Colossians. As he walks verse by 0:12:18.620 --> 0:12:22.240 verse through this powerful New Testament book, you'll discover why 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:26.180 Christ is supreme over all things, how to recognize truth 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.079 in a world full of competing voices, and what it 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.580 means to live each day firmly rooted in Him. We'll 0:12:32.620 --> 0:12:36.520 send expound Colossians as our thanks when you give $ 50 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:42.340 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 0:12:42.830 --> 0:12:48.589 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now let's return to today's teaching. 0:12:49.470 --> 0:12:53.710 So God created man in his own image. In the 0:12:53.750 --> 0:12:57.670 image of God, he created him male and female. He 0:12:57.990 --> 0:13:03.360 created them. Then in chapter 2, verse 1, when God 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:06.340 was all done, it has this unusual term. 0:13:07.460 --> 0:13:10.020 God rested. God rested. 0:13:10.900 --> 0:13:15.450 That becomes the very basis for a commandment Israel will follow, 0:13:16.010 --> 0:13:18.490 the day of rest, the Sabbath. God created the world 0:13:18.530 --> 0:13:20.610 in six days. On the seventh day, he rested. Why 0:13:20.630 --> 0:13:23.579 did he rest? Was he tired? No, he was done. 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:27.040 When he rested, it's not like, don't picture God, oh, man. 0:13:28.410 --> 0:13:30.920 That was tough. You know, getting those animals out. I 0:13:30.910 --> 0:13:35.140 was just like that rhinoceros. That was tough. No, he 0:13:35.179 --> 0:13:38.240 was done. And so he ended it. He ceased or 0:13:38.300 --> 0:13:42.820 he rested from it. There is a word. 0:13:44.140 --> 0:13:46.339 It's found in verse one that happens to be a 0:13:46.540 --> 0:13:49.670 stumbling block for a lot of people. That's why I said, 0:13:49.710 --> 0:13:51.650 if you can get past verse one, you'll be fine. 0:13:52.290 --> 0:13:55.650 And that is the word created. Created. Boy, when you 0:13:55.710 --> 0:14:00.339 say God created, there's an awful lot of people in 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:05.720 this world who hate the idea, this naive idea, that 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:11.090 there's a super being out there named God who created things. 0:14:12.850 --> 0:14:17.770 Because most people believe that in our culture, evolution is 0:14:17.910 --> 0:14:18.790 a done deal. 0:14:19.530 --> 0:14:21.360 Nobody believes in creation anymore. 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.220 The only problem is it's not a done deal in 0:14:25.260 --> 0:14:31.140 the scientific community. There's an awful lot of biologists, biochemists, 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:35.850 and others who object to the standard theory of evolution. 0:14:36.490 --> 0:14:40.550 One molecular biologist by the name of Michael Denton, whom. 0:14:40.470 --> 0:14:43.240 I've greatly admired his works, said. 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:47.860 The evolutionary theory is still, as it was in Darwin's time, 0:14:48.340 --> 0:14:57.570 a highly speculative hypothesis entirely without direct factual support. Did 0:14:57.610 --> 0:15:00.050 you know that when Charles Darwin came up with his 0:15:00.110 --> 0:15:05.670 theory of evolution, he knew that there was one glaring 0:15:07.150 --> 0:15:09.650 lack of evidence in one area, and that was the 0:15:09.750 --> 0:15:14.370 fossil record. He couldn't find any evidence in the fossil 0:15:14.430 --> 0:15:20.230 record of transitional forms. He could find plenty of transmutational forms, 0:15:20.310 --> 0:15:21.570 but no transitional forms. 0:15:21.850 --> 0:15:22.580 It was absent. 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:27.220 But he believed that over time he would be vindicated, 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.780 that enough science would go by that would vindicate his 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:34.210 theory of evolution. But what has happened is exactly the opposite. 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:38.540 David Ropp, the curator of the Field Museum of Natural 0:15:38.580 --> 0:15:42.710 History in Chicago wrote this, we are now about 120 0:15:42.710 --> 0:15:46.570 years after Darwin, and the knowledge of the fossil record 0:15:46.610 --> 0:15:48.030 has been greatly expanded. 0:15:48.990 --> 0:15:51.390 We now have a quarter of a million. 0:15:51.390 --> 0:15:56.780 Fossil species, but the situation hasn't changed much. We have 0:15:56.940 --> 0:16:03.280 fewer examples of evolutionary transition than we had in Darwin's time. 0:16:04.620 --> 0:16:08.859 So a growing group of these scientists are looking at 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:13.600 evolution saying, this is a ridiculous idea to think that 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:22.150 no one plus nothing equals everything. That somehow just lacks 0:16:22.210 --> 0:16:26.990 common sense, right? Because no matter how far back you go, 0:16:27.410 --> 0:16:31.930 however infinitely you regress, You got to do something about 0:16:31.970 --> 0:16:32.950 all that gas. 0:16:33.330 --> 0:16:35.570 Where did it come from? And all that space, where 0:16:35.590 --> 0:16:36.210 did it come from? 0:16:37.510 --> 0:16:40.190 As you came in the church building tonight, if you 0:16:40.230 --> 0:16:43.390 came from the east parking lot, you passed our courtyard. 0:16:43.450 --> 0:16:47.130 And in our courtyard is a baptismal fountain, a water feature. 0:16:47.190 --> 0:16:49.710 It has a waterfall, but it's also used as a baptism. 0:16:49.750 --> 0:16:52.150 We can fill it up. We can warm it up 0:16:52.550 --> 0:16:54.030 to like 90, even 100 degrees if we wanted to. 0:16:55.660 --> 0:16:57.460 and make it kind of like a jacuzzi. We fill 0:16:57.500 --> 0:16:59.640 it up, we baptize people, and then we bring it 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:00.310 back down. 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:02.070 For the rest of the week as a water feature. 0:17:02.990 --> 0:17:04.750 So as you go by, I don't know if you've 0:17:04.790 --> 0:17:07.070 ever thought this, but I thought this from the beginning, 0:17:07.670 --> 0:17:15.020 this thing's cool. And it's designed really well. And because 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:19.899 it's designed, obviously, there must be behind it a designer. 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:22.899 But if I were to say, you know really how 0:17:22.940 --> 0:17:24.939 that came about? It was really freaky, but one day 0:17:24.980 --> 0:17:29.149 it just appeared. And I figured that over millions of years, 0:17:29.230 --> 0:17:33.750 gases and energy and rocks and steel collided, and eventually 0:17:33.869 --> 0:17:38.740 it just formed itself in this fashion. You would say, 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:41.680 you're a nut. And you would be correct, I would 0:17:41.700 --> 0:17:45.070 be a nut. Because something that is as intricate as 0:17:45.109 --> 0:17:46.720 that demands design. 0:17:46.780 --> 0:17:47.709 Like your home. 0:17:47.820 --> 0:17:50.619 When you go home, you can look at your house 0:17:50.710 --> 0:17:54.359 and it shows a builder did this. An architect formed 0:17:54.420 --> 0:18:01.860 plans and a builder followed those plans. Design shows a designer. That, 0:18:01.900 --> 0:18:05.199 by the way, is called the teleological argument for the 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:08.980 existence of God, that there is a designer behind the 0:18:09.140 --> 0:18:11.379 intricacies of the designed world. 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:17.020 He created them, it says at the end of verse 27. 0:18:17.020 --> 0:18:22.100 In Genesis chapter 2, verse 4, this is the history 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:25.380 of the heavens and the earth. 0:18:25.790 --> 0:18:27.510 Here's this word again, when they were. 0:18:27.730 --> 0:18:31.890 Created in the day that the Lord God made the 0:18:32.070 --> 0:18:36.810 earth and the heavens. A couple days ago, many of 0:18:36.869 --> 0:18:40.510 the pastors and myself were camping outside for a couple 0:18:40.530 --> 0:18:43.440 of days in northern New Mexico by the San Juan River. 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:48.120 And at night, far from the city, you can look 0:18:48.220 --> 0:18:51.359 up and see the panoply of stars like diamonds spread 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:52.679 across black velvet. 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:56.450 They just pop. They're brilliant, the planets, the stars. 0:18:58.170 --> 0:19:01.389 And when you see the universe, like it says in 0:19:01.430 --> 0:19:05.350 the book of Psalms, the heavens declare the glory of God. 0:19:05.390 --> 0:19:08.950 The firmament shows his handiwork. Day into day, they utter 0:19:08.990 --> 0:19:13.090 their speech. Night after night, they reveal knowledge. You really 0:19:13.150 --> 0:19:16.679 get that when you look in that perspective out in 0:19:16.700 --> 0:19:18.859 the tules at the heavens. 0:19:20.140 --> 0:19:25.409 To say, well, it's just a weird accident. It's a 0:19:25.470 --> 0:19:26.520 cosmic accident. 0:19:26.630 --> 0:19:31.919 It just so happens that the sun is 93 million 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:35.820 miles away from the earth and has a surface temperature 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:40.220 of 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Really, it just so happened, if 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:43.540 we were as close, say, as Venus, our surface temperature 0:19:43.580 --> 0:19:46.879 would be 860 degrees Fahrenheit. 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:48.899 You think it was hot here today? 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:54.500 Imagine 860 degrees Fahrenheit. If you moved far back, like 0:19:54.540 --> 0:19:59.219 to the orbit of Mars, you would have 195 minus 0:19:59.220 --> 0:20:01.000 195 degrees Celsius. 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:01.919 That's cold. 0:20:03.170 --> 0:20:06.750 In either extreme, life as we know it could not survive. 0:20:08.180 --> 0:20:11.260 but we are right here in that spot. Or if 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:13.200 you were to say, well, it just so happens that 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:18.450 the earth is rotating 365 orbits around the sun. Why 0:20:18.510 --> 0:20:21.910 not 30? What if our days were that long? So 0:20:21.970 --> 0:20:24.730 it took 30 orbits. Like some of the planets are 0:20:24.770 --> 0:20:28.290 very slow in their rotation. Well, the day would be 0:20:28.290 --> 0:20:31.389 10 times longer. The night would be 10 times longer 0:20:31.670 --> 0:20:35.440 and there would be alternate events of freezing and heating. 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:37.359 Life could not be sustained. 0:20:38.330 --> 0:20:40.510 If you say, well, it just so happened that the 0:20:40.570 --> 0:20:43.770 earth is tilted 23 and a third degrees on its axis, 0:20:44.170 --> 0:20:44.730 giving us. 0:20:44.690 --> 0:20:48.330 The beautiful array of four seasons. Or it just so 0:20:48.390 --> 0:20:53.840 happened that the atmosphere is this unusual balance of 78 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:57.679 parts nitrogen to 21 parts of oxygen with 1% of 0:20:57.859 --> 0:21:02.679 variant gases. It's weird how it just so happened. And 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:03.619 it just so. 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:07.159 Happened that the amount of water to land is the 0:21:07.220 --> 0:21:09.959 ratio that it is, which gives us the rainfall that 0:21:09.980 --> 0:21:11.480 we have on the earth. Did you know that if 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:16.790 the oceans were just one quarter larger than they are, 0:21:17.670 --> 0:21:20.810 we would have a flood on the earth? It would 0:21:20.850 --> 0:21:23.830 be eight times the amount of rainfall. Life couldn't be sustained. 0:21:23.869 --> 0:21:26.100 If they were just a little shallower than they are, 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:30.419 it would be dry all over the earth. And we 0:21:30.460 --> 0:21:33.859 know it's dry here. It would be dry everywhere and 0:21:33.900 --> 0:21:36.420 life couldn't be sustained. So it didn't just so happen. 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:40.000 It was just so designed by a designer. And the 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:43.940 Lord God made the earth and the heaven. So when 0:21:43.980 --> 0:21:47.780 you go outside and maybe you'll see a star or 0:21:47.820 --> 0:21:50.620 two tonight. We have light pollution around here. And you 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:52.699 look up and you see a couple stars or a planet. 0:21:52.900 --> 0:21:53.440 Think this. 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:57.790 If the art hanging in the skies must be that magnificent, 0:21:58.930 --> 0:22:01.710 how magnificent is the artist behind it? 0:22:03.730 --> 0:22:04.970 That's the God of the Bible. 0:22:05.910 --> 0:22:14.950 In Genesis 2, in verse 8, the Lord God planted 0:22:14.970 --> 0:22:15.670 a garden. 0:22:16.060 --> 0:22:19.020 I love that God was a gardener. Where? 0:22:19.220 --> 0:22:22.600 Eastward in Eden. And there he put the man whom 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:25.220 he had formed. Now, we don't exactly know where this is. 0:22:26.100 --> 0:22:30.300 Probably was in the Mesopotamian River Valley, the River Delta 0:22:30.619 --> 0:22:34.620 between the Tigris and Euphrates River. Of course, the earth 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:38.740 was very different, but that would make it around Iraq somewhere, 0:22:39.090 --> 0:22:42.510 that delta. Verse 9, out of the ground, the Lord 0:22:42.550 --> 0:22:45.429 God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the 0:22:45.490 --> 0:22:47.909 sight and good for food. The tree of life was 0:22:47.990 --> 0:22:50.040 also in the midst of the garden and the tree 0:22:50.060 --> 0:22:52.899 of the knowledge of good and evil. Go down to 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:56.600 verse 15. Then the Lord God took the man and 0:22:56.660 --> 0:22:58.680 put him in the garden of Eden to tend it 0:22:58.800 --> 0:23:03.270 and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 0:23:03.950 --> 0:23:08.570 Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat. 0:23:08.869 --> 0:23:12.370 Please notice that. We always notice you can't eat that 0:23:12.510 --> 0:23:14.119 one tree. And we kind of get bummed out at 0:23:14.130 --> 0:23:18.220 God for making a rule. You can eat everything in 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:21.550 this garden. You may freely eat it. 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:23.180 But. 0:23:24.480 --> 0:23:27.840 Of the tree, of the knowledge of good and evil, 0:23:27.940 --> 0:23:31.260 you shall not eat, for in the day that you 0:23:31.359 --> 0:23:35.270 eat of it, you will surely die. Now we're going 0:23:35.290 --> 0:23:37.830 to see this in chapter 5 more than any other 0:23:37.850 --> 0:23:40.810 chapter in this early part, because it'll be a list 0:23:40.869 --> 0:23:42.209 of all the people who die. 0:23:43.290 --> 0:23:45.669 It'll say eight times, and he died, and he died, 0:23:45.750 --> 0:23:47.149 and he died, and he died. 0:23:48.710 --> 0:23:50.510 In the day that you eat, you will surely die. 0:23:52.630 --> 0:23:56.470 Go down to verse 19. Out of the ground, the 0:23:56.510 --> 0:23:59.270 Lord God formed every beast of the field, every bird 0:23:59.290 --> 0:24:02.710 of the air, and brought them to Adam to see 0:24:02.750 --> 0:24:06.510 what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each 0:24:07.210 --> 0:24:10.490 living creature, that was its name. 0:24:12.950 --> 0:24:16.590 Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Now, 0:24:16.930 --> 0:24:20.170 here's how to pre-order an exciting resource from Pastor Skip 0:24:20.210 --> 0:24:21.430 that's coming next month. 0:24:21.890 --> 0:24:26.090 The Bible is one unified story of God's love and redemption, 0:24:26.369 --> 0:24:29.130 but sometimes it can be difficult to see how all 0:24:29.170 --> 0:24:32.690 the pieces fit together. In Soaring Above It All, Pastor 0:24:32.710 --> 0:24:35.990 Skip Heitzig takes you on a one-year devotional journey through 0:24:36.030 --> 0:24:40.439 the entire Bible, highlighting the key people, events, themes, and 0:24:40.560 --> 0:24:44.159 truths of Scripture in a way that's approachable, encouraging, and 0:24:44.359 --> 0:24:47.740 easy to follow. Pre-order your copy of Soaring Above It 0:24:47.820 --> 0:24:49.900 All today, wherever you buy books. 0:24:50.350 --> 0:24:54.150 Before we go, remember, your generosity helps share God's Word 0:24:54.190 --> 0:24:58.230 with people around the world through clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching. 0:24:58.630 --> 0:25:01.650 And this month, when you give $ 50 or more, we'll 0:25:01.690 --> 0:25:06.439 send you expound Colossians as our thanks. In this five-message study, 0:25:06.619 --> 0:25:09.919