All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn with me back to the book of Genesis, chapter 1. Genesis,
chapter 1. Today I'd like for us to consider
verses 6 through 8, and I've entitled this message, The Creation
of the Heavens. Glorious revelation of God's
creation is that which we believe. We don't try to prove it. Man may argue and cast a doubt
on the revelation of God's work, but to no avail. The scripture
says in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and
that ends it. Now, last time we considered
the glory of God in the work of regeneration. God created
the earth, but the scripture says, according to Isaiah 45,
18, not in vain, but to be inhabited. But the earth became or existed
without form, void, and darkness was on the face of the deep,
just as man was created upright, and man placed in the garden,
he walked, he talked with God, fellowship with God, and the
day that he did eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, according to the word of the Lord, man died, and now is
in the darkness of sin and separation from Almighty God, but God in
mercy moved or hovered, brooded upon the face of the waters,
picturing the care and the love that our Lord has eternally had
for His sheep, and said, let there be light. And just as God
commanded the light to shine out of darkness in the day of
creation, light, the light of the glory of God in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ, shines in the hearts of His people when
it pleases the Lord. And God saw the light. He saw
the light in natural creation. He saw the light in glorious
regeneration, that it was good. He saw Christ formed in his people,
and that's good. And then the Lord divided the
light from the darkness, the scripture said, distinguishing
the two natures that's found within his people, the old man
and new man, that's going to battle until the Lord receives
them unto himself The Lord, in natural generation, he called
the light day, and the darkness he called night, revealing the
mercy that he'd shown his own to call them out of darkness,
but still to teach them that they were going to go through
the rest of this life with the two natures. First Thessalonians
5.5, the apostle Paul was moved by the spirit of God to say,
ye are all children of light and children of the day. We are
not of the night nor of darkness, though sin is present with us,
we're not of it. Now today, let's consider the
second day of God's creation. Scripture says in verse six to
eight, and God said, let there be a firmament. That is an expanse
in the midst of the waters. And let it divide the waters
from the waters. 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. And God called
the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning
were the second day. Now, in verse 6, the Lord said,
let there be a firmament. That is an expanse that is spread
like a curtain that's drawn or a sheet. It appears to be all
that we can see visibly with the eye or with a telescope or
something, everything that is visible between the earth, where
it touches the earth, the very ground that touches the earth,
unto the third heaven, wherever that is. We'll deal with that
in just a minute. Let there be a firmament, let
there be an expanse, let there be sky, let there be that great
curtain that's above us. And now obviously this expanse,
this firmament, that's what it's talking about when it says the
firmament, it's that air, atmosphere, it includes the air that is directly
touching the earth, but also the outer atmosphere. According
to verse 14, I'll tell you why I say that. It's verse 14, it
says, and God said, let there be lights in the firmament of
the heaven to divide the day from the night. Let them be for
signs and seasons and for days and years. And then, so it's
in that expanse. Now here's what I'm saying. Soon
God's going to create the lights that are in it. But right now
He just made the expanse that was the air. That's where He
was. What He did was He created something
that was going to be the medium, I guess you would say, in which
the lights were placed or created. Look at verse 20. And God said,
let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath
life and fowl that it may fly above the earth in the open firmament
of heaven. So you see what I'm saying? It's
before God created the great lights of heaven. He made the
firmament, made the air, the expanse above to be that vehicle,
that receptacle that will house the beams that will flow forth
from the sun when he creates it, the moon when he creates
it, the stars when he does create it. It's that medium between
the visible and the invisible. That between heaven itself and
the earth. I mean, how far does it go? I
don't know. I have no idea. And I don't think anybody...
I mean, they give these big numbers, you know. How do you know? How
do you know how far it goes? But God created all of that.
He made this. And this is that part of God's
creation that the Spirit of God moved upon David to pen these
words. Psalm 19.1. The heavens declare
the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. So the
Spirit of the Lord declared that the heavens are declaring as
a continual testimony God's existence. I mean, when we, you know, you
see, how did that get there? Well, God created it. He made
it. He's talking about his power.
Can you imagine to put that there and it maintains it? Do we think
it maintains itself? No. God made it. His wisdom and
His goodness, He's creating all of this that He might, in all
of this creation, set forth the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
in the redemption and the eternal salvation of His people. God
is going to declare Himself to be the Savior of all of His people. So He made all this. He created
all of this. And here's this great firmament
above us. When we get up and look, and
you look up and you think, God made that for His glory and the
eternal good of His people. So at no time David says, the
heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth
his handiwork. At no time does the firmament
fail in the consistency of now what we see in it. I mean, God,
soon we'll see, God's gonna start putting stars and everything,
but at no time does the firmament fail to declare that continual
testimony of God's existence. And so here the sun doesn't rise,
the sun doesn't set, the seasons don't perform in perfect harmony
without showing the glory of God. That's what it is. And that's
why the scripture says in Romans that men are without excuse.
They're without excuse. They're looking at it. They're
beholding the firmament. They're holding creation. And
so the Lord says, without excuse. But that firmament is also a
continual reminder of God's mercy to undeserving sinners. centers
of God's choosing. Hold your place right there.
Turn to Daniel. Daniel chapter 12. Daniel 12. Daniel chapter 12, verses 1 to
3. Now this Michael is actually
proclaiming the Lord Jesus Christ when I read that. And at that
time, shall Michael stand up? the great prince, which standeth
for the children of thy people. And there shall be a time of
trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that
time, same time. At that time, thy people shall
be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the
book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame, and everlasting
Here's the day of judgment now. And they that be wise, wise unto
salvation, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament.
And they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.
We good outside at night. If you can catch a really dark
night when you're just little or no other light, and you've
seen this before, you behold the stars in heaven. I remember
as a kid, back when I was in Louisiana, and I'd go outside
and it'd be so dark out there when I could see the Milky Way.
And all those billions and billions and billions of stars, those
same stars that the Lord asked Abraham, can you count the stars?
Can you count the stars? That's so shall your seed be.
I'm thinking. We look at that in amazement,
and according to Daniel 12 verse 3, in the day of judgment when
God shows mercy to those that he's everlastingly loved in Christ,
they're going to be like the stars of the firmament. They're
going to shine as bright images of God's mercy and compassion. So that great day we're going
to behold in the mercy of Almighty God, what we're actually seeing
now in picture and type, but also in the firmament back in
Genesis 1. We behold God's mercy toward
his people in this light. Found within the firmament in
the latter part of verse 6, and the whole of verse 7, an amazing
part of God's creation. The latter part of verse 6, it
says, in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters
from the waters. And God made the firmament and
divided the waters which were under the firmament from the
waters which were above the firmament. firmament, and it was so. Now
there's some water below the firmament, and we see it in lakes
and rivers and streams. You think, well, that's below
where it touches the earth. Now there's some water down here,
but there's some water also in the heavens. And God divided
that. He made a division found with
the waters. There was a division. He divided
the waters upon the earth from the waters in the clouds, in
the heavens, and we found within those clouds, and it's an amazing
thing, I've thought about this often when I'm in an airplane
flying, and we'll fly between, we're in the clouds, and it's
just It's just airy. It's like you could just run
your hand through it. It's just mist. It's just vapor. But there found within that water
in the firmament above is held by the Word and power of Almighty
God tons, tons. Imagine how much water. these
clouds just hold. And God, He puts that water that
He divided, He puts some, and it's on the earth, and there's
some in the clouds, in the firmament, and we're looking at it, and
it's, there's a division between them, and it stays there, according
to God's good pleasure, to be dispersed when and where God
pleases. The Lord said concerning his
father in Matthew 5.45, for he maketh his son to rise on the
evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Now you think how the clouds,
this airy mist that holds their weighty burden of water, and
it only disperses the water when the Lord commands. You say, well,
that's mercy. God's mercy. Hold your place
there. Turn to Psalm 65. Psalm 65 verses
9 and 10. Psalm 65 verses 9 and 10. The scripture says, Thou visitest
the earth and waterest it. Thou greatly enrichest it with
the river of God. which is full of water, thou
preparest them corn when thou hast so provided for them, thou
waterest the ridges thereof abundantly, thou settest the furrows thereof,
thou makest it soft with showers, thou blessest the springing thereof. God Almighty is merciful in just
the distribution of the water, and you consider that these waters
that God divided, you know, how did they get up there? God put
them up there. How did they stay up there? God keeps them up there
until God says, okay, rain, rain here, don't rain here, rain here.
And so here's these waters that are in these clouds, but also
they're set, the scripture declares, in reserve. to accomplish God's
will and purposes. Storms that God has sent or shall
send to thwart the evil desires of men, all for the good of His
people. But the greatest display of God's
mercy to me, this is what I was, when I was thinking about how
when God divided it and He put it up there and He made clouds,
you say, well those are just clouds. They are witnesses of the mercy
of God. That God puts them up there and
He holds them up there and that's tons and tons and tons of water,
and those clouds are so, how does it, man, when it comes out,
it comes out, not as airy mist anymore, it comes out, it can
come out as a deluge. Just when God Almighty sent the
flood and destroyed the earth except for Noah and his wife
and their sons and their wives, he promised, Never to destroy
the earth again with water. But every time we see an ominous
storm coming, we were going the other day to visit the kids over
in Ashland, and we came up just before we got there on the most,
I have never seen clouds as ominous, that's the only word I can think
of, as those clouds. They were just, it was like,
it was like large fingers coming out of the clouds, almost looked
like little tornadoes or something, but they were just hovering all
around. And it was a tremendous storm. But when you see that,
how we remember that God at one time was pleased to pour out
of heaven and open the earth and cause the waters that he
had kept in the earth to destroy everything except his elect. And we're reminded, you see that
ominous cloud and you think, God Almighty said, mercy on me.
He's kept me from myself, kept me from the plague of my own
heart, saved me by his grace. So here's the Lord. God created
a firmament, divided it, divided the waters from below from the
waters above. And then in verse eight, We're
instructed concerning the ever-expanding revelation of God's creation
concerning the heaven. Look at that, look at the way
in the first verse. In the beginning God created
the heaven. See that lowercase h? But look at this one, verse 8.
And God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the
morning were the second day. Now, in the first instance, we
know that that was talking about the firmament that we're looking
at. But this second is not just that place in which clouds are
found and birds are found, but this heaven, it stretches away
into the boundless regions of our lack of knowledge, if I can
say it like that. It goes beyond that which we
can comprehend, past the stars, the galaxies, but with a greater
enlargement of the same word. We're made to consider that which
is the heaven of heavens. It's that chamber of the Most
High. where the scripture reveals there
to be the Lord himself, cherubims, the innumerable company of angels,
and the myriads of the saints that are found. referred to as
the third heaven. We've got this area right here
where we can breathe it. There's some oxygen here and
we can breathe and animals can breathe it. But then there's
a place between here and the third heaven which there is no
oxygen. You can't breathe in that. That's
a different region. It's that firmament above that,
you know, is the starry galaxies. But this one is called the heaven,
the third heaven. 2 Corinthians 12.2, Paul, the
apostle, said, I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago. Whether in the body, I cannot
tell. Or whether out of the body, I
cannot tell. God knoweth. Such an one caught
up to the third heaven. That's scripture. That's what God says. That's
what God says it is. It's called the third heaven.
And 2 Corinthians 12 says how that he was caught up into paradise. That's what it's called. That's
what this heaven is called. Paradise. And heard unspeakable
words which is not lawful or possible for a man to utter. Paul said, I knew a man whether
I was really there in the body or whether it was a vision, I
don't know. God knows. But there were some
things that he heard. He said unspeakable words. He said, I can't say them. It's
not possible for me to say them. It was things that I heard. And
that here is the place that the Lord Jesus revealed, the place
of rest and deliverance and final salvation for his people, speaking
of the thief that besought the Lord to remember him when the
Lord Jesus entered into his kingdom. The Lord Jesus said, Verily I
say unto thee, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Luke 23, 43. Heaven. This is an amazing thought. The creation is an amazing thing,
but I began to contemplate God created this place called
heaven. Before all this, as I said last
time, there was God. In the beginning, God. And He
created the heaven and the earth. And this place called heaven,
it was created to manifest the glory of God in His rule. Sovereignty. Deuteronomy 10, verse 4 says,
Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's, thy
God, the earth also, with all that is therein. This is that
place created by God for His glory, but for His people. For His people when they leave
this world to eternally be with him. He said this was the bosom
of Abraham. That's where Lazarus the beggar
was found. The Lord Jesus Christ described
this place called heaven. We speak of heaven and that's
right. The Lord described it as my father's
house. My father's house, and he said,
in my father's house there are many mansions. He said, I go
to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be also. And then he said, if this wasn't
so, I would have told you. But here is this place called
heaven that the Lord has gone to prepare Hebrews 12.22 reveals
heaven to be the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. It just takes my thoughts beyond
comprehension that God would create a place called heaven. The wonder for Him to create
a place wherein he's been pleased to declare his throne to be,
that place where his people shall ever, forever enjoy His manifested
presence. They're going to behold the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to be there. We'll
be in this glorious place that God, and how could we ever conceive
the wisdom of God to create that place A place created to teach
frail creatures of the dust something of himself. Heaven. Listen to this. God is spirit. God is spirit. And in the glory
of God, the scripture says that he made a place to be his dwelling. Deuteronomy 2615, the scripture declares, and this
is the prayer found in that blessed book, look down from thy holy
habitation from heaven and bless thy people Israel and the land
which thou has given us as thou swearest unto our fathers land
flowing with milk and honey. Heaven is that place which God
has said to dwell, but it can't contain Him. Second Chronicles
2.6, who is able to build Him a house, seeing the heaven of
heavens, the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him. That place that is established
as to be the throne of God. This is where God's throne is. In the wisdom of God, He knew
best to create a place to teach us frail creatures of dust that
just can't comprehend virtually anything. has established a place
and declared it to be for our good and His glory and our understanding. That's just like talking about
the hand of the Lord, the eyes of the Lord, you know, God's
Spirit. The only thing we know of God
is the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ. But here is a place
that the scripture says He dwells in a place that can't contain
Him. 2 Chronicles 2 says, who is able to build him a house,
seeing the heaven of heavens cannot contain him? In that place
that's his throne, the Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's
throne is in heaven. So when we hear that, we perceive
something of God's rule, where the established place of rule. There's a place that he's established,
ruled. According to that place in which
he rules, the Spirit of God moved to call Nebuchadnezzar to say
these words. All the inhabitants of the earth
were reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest
thou? But this is the place for our understanding. We know that
the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world. He came into this
world. Where did He come from? The Lord
said, I came down from heaven. Not to do mine own will, but
the will of Him that sent me. That glorious place that is established
in the minds of God's people, that's where I'm going. Where
are you going? I mean, if there wasn't a heaven,
and you would tell somebody, well, after I die, I'm going
to be with the Lord. Where are you going to go? I
don't know. I don't know where heaven is, but I know it's heaven.
I know that. It's God's throne, the place
of God's throne. It's the place of God's dwelling.
The Lord looked down from heaven to see the sons of men. And so they were none good. God
dwells in this place and cannot contain Him. And here's an amazing
thing. This is where the names of all
God's elect are recorded. Now, let me tell you what I believe.
I don't understand all of it. I don't understand what I'm about
to say. You know, somebody says, prove it to me. I can't prove
this to you. God said it and I believe it. I believe it. Luke
10, 20. Notwithstanding, when the disciples
came, they were sent out, the 70 were sent out. They came back
and they were rejoicing because the devils were in subjection
to them. The Lord told them, Luke 10, 20. Notwithstanding,
in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you,
but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Now, I'm telling you that in
this place called heaven, this place that God created, there
is recorded the names of all of God's elect. They're there.
Where are they recorded? Recorded in what? They're written
in what? Well, the scripture says in Revelation 17.8, And
they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were
not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. In this glorious creation, Almighty
God created the heaven and the earth. He created it and it became
without form and void. God moved on the face of the
earth. And in picturing the glorious
regenerating power of God, let there be light. And there was
light. And it was good. And God said,
let there be a firmament. Let there be an expanse of water. And he put it over the earth.
And he divided it between the heaven and the earth. Water above,
water below. And he called that firmament
Heaven, the heaven of heavens. And it says in the evening and
the morning, we're the second day. I pray that God bless this
to our heart. We're lost in the wonder of this
truth, but as we read this blessed word, Isn't it like those two
on the road to a maze? Did our hearts not burn when
he opened unto us the scriptures? I pray that God bless it to our
hearts today for his glory and our good. Amen.