Alright, let's take our Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Genesis chapter 1. Genesis
chapter 1. These midweek services I've been
preaching, trying to, in the book of Genesis. We've been going
through the first chapter in the creation. And tonight I want
us to consider the fifth day of creation, that's in verses
20-23. And while we read, I want to
read these verses 20-23, and while we read these verses, the
bringing forth of the creatures of the sea, the fowls of the
air, I pray that the Lord give us understanding in the creation
that though God absolutely spoke everything into existence, created
it out of nothing, in that creation we behold the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in the redemption and salvation
of His people. If we don't see the gospel in
the creation, then we missed it. We missed it. Now let's look
at these verses. Verse 20, And God said, Let the
waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath
life. and fowl that may fly above the
earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great
whales, every living creature that moveth, which the waters
brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged
fowl after his kind. And God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and
fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the
earth, And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Now, without controversy, the
scriptures declare that Almighty God divided the waters when God
created the heaven and earth. That's what it says in the beginning.
God created the heaven and the earth. And between chapter, I
mean verse 1 and verse 2, something happened. The scripture says
that the earth was, and looking up the meaning of the word. The word means became. The earth was, it became without
form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Now, in that scripture right
there, one thing that we know, something happened, but what
the earth became was not what the earth was made to be. I know
I've said this in many of the messages, but it bears repeating. In Isaiah 45, turn there, I want
you to see it again. was the earth became void, the
scripture says. It was without form, it was void,
and darkness was upon the face of the deep. How did God make
the earth? How did God make it? Isaiah 45
verse 18 settles this issue. For thus saith the Lord that
created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth and made
it, He hath established it. He created it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there is none
else. How did God make the earth? He
made it not in vain. It wasn't empty. It wasn't dark. It wasn't wild. He made it to
be inhabited. And the earth was without form. It was void. Darkness was upon
the face of the earth. What does that say? There's a
picture of man's fall. Man was created upright. And
man in the garden fell. And he became something that
he was not created to be. He was upright. And man died
in the garden. Now the rest through this creation,
we're seeing how God has been pleased to show mercy and compassion
to fallen creatures of the dust. That's what this is all about.
So here we are in verse 20. We'll pick up. I'm not gonna
go back. You can go back and listen. All the messages are
online if you wanna see all the others before this. But here's
where we are tonight. Verse 20. And God said, now I
want us to pause just for a moment and think about what we just
read. And God said. What a marvel of God's grace
that Almighty God would speak for the benefit of frail creatures
of the dust. David cried unto the Lord that
the Lord would not be silent to him because of the catastrophic
consequences. doesn't speak to a sinner in
mercy, in power, in grace. If God doesn't speak, what hope
does that creature have? That's right, might none. He is none. Listen to what David
said, Psalm 28.1. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord
my rock, be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me.
It's like David was saying, Lord, you've spoken to others. You
spoke to the prophets. Lord, you spoke to your people.
You called them by name. They heard you. But Lord, be
not silent to me. If you be silent to me, I become
like them that go down to the pit. If I don't hear from God,
my sheep hear my voice. I know them. They follow me. Lord, speak. So God said, let
the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath
life. Let the waters bring forth abundantly
the moving creature that hath life. Now remember where we are
now, the waters. And the waters was upon the face
of the earth. And the earth was without form,
dark, wild. And the waters, as we've seen
in these previous pictures of this world, I know I can prove
this. For the sake of time, I'll just
tell you. You know when the Lord was giving a parable, and He
said, the kingdom of heaven is like into a net. It's thrown
into the sea. And it's drawn in. He draws in
fish, different kinds of fish. And the good ones are taken and
laid aside. And the bad ones, what have they
done? They throw them back. Where did that net go into the
waters? It's a picture of the world.
So God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature. Where is man in his fallen state? We're in the world. In every
nation, and kindred, and tribe, and tongue, But in this world
of fallen creatures, God's got a people. He's got a people. And here the Lord is stating
what He's going to do for His people. Let the waters bring
forth abundantly the moving creature, but here's the key, that has
life. Now I do realize in this life,
we're not cognizant of it. We're not aware of it. There's
the word I'm looking for. Until the Lord calls us out of
darkness and He gives us life and we have now eyes to see and
ears to hear and faith to believe. But eternally, God's people were
chosen in Christ. They were in Him who has saved
us in His eternal will and purpose Pleasure, counsel. According
to that everlasting counsel of mercy and grace. David said,
this is all my salvation. This is all my hope right here.
He made with me an everlasting covenant. Ordered in all things
and sure. He said, that's my salvation
right there. What God's done for me. So in
Christ, being found, chosen in Christ. before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. At what point did God Almighty
not look? At what point did He not look
at His vessels of mercy chosen in Christ with pleasure and look
upon them? and behold them in the blessed
sun and not appoint them to wrath. At what point did he not do that? He never not did it. I'm not saying it right, but
you're getting it. You know what I mean? There was never a point
that God looked at his people in anything other than mercy.
Now that came out right. That sentence did. God Almighty
looks upon his people in pleasure. So you let the waters bring forth
abundantly the moving creature that hath life. Let that which
God has been pleased to behold, let the earth bring forth that,
and it will. Life, let it have life. Where did it come from? Well,
I tell you what, it wasn't through some lightning bolt that hit
some plasma or something like that, and an amoeba came out
of it, and over a billion years, you know, it became a paramecium,
and then it... Almighty God spoke life. And when God created it, He created
it just like it is right now. When God made man, this is what
man was created just like, right just here. You think about what
Adam... Lord willing, we'll get there.
Adam was created in the image of God. Adam named all the animals. He named all the animals. He
was smart. He was a smart, upright man. But here, let the waters bring
forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life. Well, that life
is in him. That's what the scripture says.
John 1, 4, in Him, in Christ, was life, and the life was the
light of men. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. So the Lord declared, life is
in Him. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. So here when the Scripture, the
Spirit of God declares in the creation that God abundantly
called into existence these creatures. Look, let the waters, verse 20,
bring forth abundantly the moving creature. If you have a margin,
I'll tell you what Margin of Mind says, the moving creature,
the creeping soul. Now, what he's talking about
right here, in this part of creation, is talking about these little
microscopic, these little creeping things that were in the ocean. When we see that the scriptures
declare that God Almighty spoke into existence these moving creatures,
we know that these moving creatures must be sustained by Almighty
God. So here we're understanding that
God spoke in the beginning, because it's going to come up the ladder
is what it's going to do. He's going to start making other things
greater and he's going to come to man. He's going to come to
that. He spoke into existence these creeping things, these
little bitty swarming is what it is. Looking up the definition. It's swarming creeping creatures. That's what it is. Little bitty
microscopic animals that have life in them, all the elements
of life, but knowing that the Spirit of God was pleased to
create these little swarming, creeping creatures. Here's a
picture, again, of what? Of us. This is man by nature. We are Those frail, swarming,
creeping creatures. Why? Because of what we became
in the fall. In rebellion, we're worthy only
to be cast out. But Almighty God made these swarming,
creeching creatures that had life. because He was pleased
in picture and type to set forth us, ordained us to everlasting
life, chose us in the Lord Jesus Christ. we should not perish
but have everlasting life. So I love watching nature shows. If I can watch the Explorer or
these nature shows, I love to watch those shows. But here it
shows like in those nature shows, these little amazing animals
and how nature works. But can you imagine these little
microscopic, thousands of these little things that you can't
even see with the naked eye, and you can put them all on the
head of a straight pen, then we consider those creatures,
and us being types in pictures in those animals right there,
that David said, considering that thought, Psalm 8, 3 and
4, when I consider thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the
moon, the stars which Thou hast ordained. What is man that Thou art mindful of him
and the Son of Man that Thou visitest him? Job 7.17, what
is man that Thou shouldest magnify him and that Thou shouldest set
Thine heart upon him? Job 25, 5 and 6, Behold, even
to the moon it shineth not. Yea, the stars are not pure in
his sight. How much less is man that is
a worm? And the Son of Man, which is
a worm. I think about those little things,
and you see pictures on those animal shows, and it's just little
wiggling things, and they're just all, you know, and I'm thinking, What is that? What has that got
to do with me? Mighty man. David said, what
is man? When I consider the creation,
when I consider the magnitude of what you've done, who you
are, what is man? We're just nothing but a swarming
little creeping creature that's just not even worth considering. That's us. We get all high and
mighty and think that we're something. And we're nothing. We're nothing.
And scripture says, latter part of verse 20, and fowl that may
fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. Let birds, that's what he said,
let birds fly over the earth in the open expanse. Now you
know, you start thinking about from these little old swarming
creatures of nothing that we consider nothing. And now we've
elevated it to birds. Boy, what a step up. But in those
birds, the message of mercy and grace to little old swarming
creatures It's the same message of mercy and compassion. I thought about being in the
birds. Genesis 8, just turn over a few
pages of Genesis 8. And how God created these animals. He mentioned birds. Now in the
latter part of this chapter, in the next chapter, chapter
2, we're going to get into different animals. It's going to step up,
it's going to get into cattle. But right now we're talking about
birds. And think how God created birds to magnify the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I realize I'm not going to,
I'm going to just touch on a couple of them. There's no end to it. But just think, Genesis 8, 6
to 9, how in the creation of heaven and earth, and these creatures,
and then the Lord mentions birds. Look at Genesis 8. Verse 69,
it came to pass at the end of 40 days that Noah opened the
window of the ark which he had made and he sent forth a raven
which went forth to and fro until the waters were dried up from
off the earth. And he sent forth a dove from
him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the
ground. But the dove found no rest for
the sole of her foot and she returned unto him into the ark.
for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put
forth his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him into the
ark." Now, I'll get right to it. That little dove that found
no rest for her foot upon the earth, where did she go back
to? Where did she fly back to? She
flew back to the ark. But do we not behold by faith
that little bird being a picture of God's people? And there's
no rest for us in this world. That little bird went out there
and was flying around looking for comfort out there in the
world and there wasn't any. There was no place for her to
rest and find rest for her foot. And she went back to the ark.
And the ark is a picture of Christ. That was the only place that
she could rest and have some footing. She hits that water
and she's gone. Psalm 116.7, Return unto thy
rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.
Is it not a marvel of God's grace that He'd give us a heart that
wants to continually fly to the ark? Come unto me, all ye that
labor, heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Don't you
know when that little bird saw that ark? He said, that's where
I'm going right there. There's safety for me right there. The Lord provided the safety
of that dove when she found no rest for her foot to teach us
something of our rest in Him. I mean, you see that bird now,
that little dove now, and you think, I see that. I see the
beauty of that. Look at Matthew 6. Matthew chapter
6, verse 24, 26. Matthew 6, 24. No man can serve two masters,
for either he'll hate the one, love the other, or else he'll
hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and
mammon, the world. Therefore I say unto you, take
no thought for your life, what you shall eat, what you shall
drink, nor yet for your body what you shall put on. Is not
the life more than meat and the body than raiment? Behold the
fowls of the air, they sow not, Neither do they reap, nor gather
into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them." Are you
not much better than they? You know, I think if the Lord
would take care of that little dove and provide a place of safety
in the ark, will He not take care of us and give us a heart
to continually fly to the to the ark, fly unto Christ, and
consider the mercy of God to teach us, through the picture
of a dove, concerning His faithfulness and good pleasure, to show mercy
and compassion to His people, His sheep, His church, in Christ
Himself, the one sent from heaven. Look again at Matthew 3. Matthew
chapter 3. And listen to the setting forth
of the hope of life in Christ. Matthew
3, 16 and 17. The scripture says, And Jesus,
when He was baptized, went up and straightway out of the water.
And, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit
of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him. And, lo,
a voice from heaven sang, This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased. God Almighty made Birds. He made birds. For the innumerable
reason that He made them, I can't tell, but I can tell you this.
He made some birds and taught us some beautiful things concerning
the glory of Christ in those birds. And His protection for
His people. Listen to Psalm 91.4. He shall
cover thee with His feathers. and under his wings shalt thou
trust. His truth shall be thy shield
and buckler. Listen to Exodus 19, you have
seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagles'
wings and brought you unto myself. You know, if God never made an
eagle, I wouldn't know what an eagle's wing was. What is that?
But I can read that scripture right there and I just imagine,
here's a great old big, beautiful, majestic eagle Powerful bird. God said, that's how I take care
of you. Bearing you up on eagle's wings. In the fowl of the air, we behold
His voice concerning our attitude in this world and our need of
waiting on Him. Matthew 10, 16, Behold, I send
you forth as sheep I know what a sheep is. It's a frail creature
that doesn't have sense to get out of the rain. But God made
sheep to teach me how needy I am of Him. How that I need a shepherd. I need to be led beside the still
waters. I need to be brought to the tender
grass of His provision. and feasting on the Gospel, feasting
on Christ, eating of the bread of Heaven. And the Lord made
that to teach us, to illustrate His provision for us. He said,
I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. I know what
a wolf is. It's a ravenous animal that's
dangerous. God said this is the world, this
is those in the world. The wolves, God made a wolf to
teach me the danger that's in this world. Be ye therefore wise
as serpents. Wise creatures. Harmless, simple
as doves. You see how the Lord took in
His creation just what He's That's what He's taught us. We're in
a world that despises the God we love. But as we walk by faith,
we're taught to be careful. Not to be offensive. Needlessly offensive. I know
the Gospel is offensive. But let the Gospel be true. Let
God be true. Let every man a liar. But we
don't go looking for trouble. But in our trials of being found
in this world, the Lord being our only rest, we rest and trust
in Him. Look now at verse 21. And God
created great whales, and every living creature that moveth,
which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind,
every winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it was good. It is good. It is good. You see the wisdom of God to
make this world. You say, well, He made it for
food. I don't doubt that. I don't doubt that a bit. But
I tell you this, boy, He taught us some things too in these beautiful
creatures. The Lord was pleased to create
out of verse 21, every living creature out of His wise will
and purpose And these creatures, they all move after their kind.
Every winged fowl after his kind. His creation is, without a doubt,
it's glorious in its display of his power and his wisdom.
But the Spirit of God was pleased to specifically bring to light
that God created whales. I read that and I thought, Now
you know he named, he said he named some doves and he made
some fowls and right here he named a certain kind of creature. He made all of them, verse 21,
but he created great whales. Now you know whenever the Spirit
of God is pleased to bring forth something, make a point out of
something. Whenever the Lord was speaking
in Nicodemus and he said, Nicodemus, verily, verily, I say unto you. You know, it was like, now Nicodemus,
you listen up to what I'm about to say. Truly, truly. And here
the Lord specifically said that he made great whales. Here was gonna be the glorious
picture. of his blessed son and in the
redemption and salvation of his people, there was a man named
Jonah that God commanded to go to a city named Nineveh and preach
the gospel. And Jonah, at first, purposed
in his heart to disobey God. And he bought a ticket for a
ship that was going to a city named Tarsus. And the reason
he did that was to flee from the presence of God. Now the
Lord was going to show Jonah and us that those that he loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every
son that he receiveth. What happened to Jonah? Well,
the scripture said he was cast into the sea, and a great fish,
a whale, swallowed him. And for three days and three
nights, Jonah was made to behold the pain of rebellion against
God. Now, that's true. There's no
doubt about that. We learn that those that the
Lord loves, He scourges and chases. But there was a greater message
in that than even the teaching us of God's love for us and scourging
us and chastening us in this world. Jonah was cast out by
the men on that ship that God might declare the one sign from
the Lord to all those who refuse the gospel of God's grace. There's
one sign that God gave all those that refuse to hear Him. Matthew
12, 39 and 40, he said, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh
after a sign. And there shall be no sign given
to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three
days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son
of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Now, let me ask you something. Would God Almighty create whales? for the one reason, would He
create Wales for the one reason and one purpose to totally declare
the glory of God in the death and the burial and the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Would God create Wales for that
one sign to an evil and adulterous generation? Well, the Lord told the two on
the road to Emmaus that all the scriptures are those things concerning
Himself. So would God create a world of
creeping creatures to show us what we are by nature? Would
God create fowl to fly in the firmament to show and display
to us His sufficiency of us fleeing to Him to have a place of rest,
to show us the sufficiency to keep us in this world that the
birds, they have barns and they make... Would God Almighty make
eagles to display unto us that He bears us up and keeping us? Would God Almighty make all these
animals to bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ? Would
He make whales To declare His mercy in Christ, He did. He did. All things were made by Him and
for Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. The heavens declare the handiwork
of God. the power of His hand. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. You hear Him. We have all these creatures today
as a continual remembrance of the putting away of the guilt
and sin of God's declarations of God's mercy and compassion
to hell-deserving sinners to magnify and glorify the Son. And this witness is going to
endure until time is no more. God said in verse 22, God blessed
them. God's blessing was upon them.
Those little old creatures squirming around in the ocean, they're
still there. They're still a continual witness that we are in ourselves
nothing more than little old creeping, swarming things. Life. But what is man? Every time a
bird flies in the sky, God's preaching. God's preaching of
his sufficiency, of his safety. And concerning all these animals,
we shall consider by the grace of God, but especially these
whales. God blessed them, saying, be
fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the sea. Almighty God that made these
whales and told them, He said, you multiply and multiply. In this world, whale after whale
after whale from the beginning, from the creation, continued
to be born into this world until one day, one whale in particular, Almighty God called and swallowed
up a man named Jonah. And that was the one sign that
God said, I'm going to give this evil and adulterous. That's the
only sign you're going to get. As Jonah was three days, three
nights. Jonah was cast out of a ship because of rebellion. Yes. But Jonah, by the grace
of God, was chastened by God for Jonah's good and our good
and the glory of God. And all the whales, since then,
that are blessed of God, and they reproduce, and they come
forth, and they multiply, and they swim in this earth. And
all of the whales, right now, that are swimming in this earth,
saying salvation is of the Lord. That's what Jonah said. That's what Jonah said. This
is my conclusion. Jonah said, the whole thing,
salvation is of the Lord, and Christ is honored. And when God
gives a man eyes to see and ears to hear it, they hear it, they
see it. And they say as the Lord said,
the Lord looked and said, it was good, it was good, that's
good, that's good. Let everything that hath breath,
that's what Psalm 150 verse 6, praise the Lord. You think all
these animals, praise the Lord. You think frogs, I was driving
over here tonight and I saw a frog run across the road, just hopping. You know, you can't hardly look
at a scripture like this and not think, did God create frogs
to show that he's a just God? And pouring out that plague upon
Egypt, did God make frogs like that? Well, if that wasn't the
only reason, the Lord knows. But I can tell you this, I can
see a frog and I can think, God's just. God is just. He lice, flies, all those grasshoppers
that went through and ate all that. Did God create all of those
things to show us in Egypt, God is just. God's able to abase
pride. Did He do that for that? All
things are going to honor the Son. Everything we see, the heavens
declare the handiwork of God. God's message of redemption is
in the firmament, in the expanse above. We see it in the heavens
and we see it on the earth and the scripture says man is without
excuse. And the evening and the morning
were the fifth day. Almighty God created these things
And we consider them on what the Lord declared was the fifth
day. And every day since then, we're
reminded. May the Lord give us a heart
to hear it, and believe it, and bow to it for His glory and our
good. Amen.