The Foundational Book of the Whole Bible
Psalm 119:160
January 12, 2025
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
Bible Baptist Church of Ballincollig
I. Introduction (Genesis 1:1)
A. Today starts the study of The First Book in your Bible – the Book of Genesis
B. A Best-seller, that has been almost lost to this generation! And that is not the fault of scientists and evolutionists… it is the fault of modern “church-ianity”, that has no time for Bible study and doctrine anymore
C. It comes with no pictures, and no graphics, only words on a page
D. But it starts at the very beginning of time
1. Genesis 1:1 In the beginning…
2. Before there was anyone around to see what happened at the beginning, except the Author and His angels
3. And that Author, was Almighty God
4. Genesis 1:1 In the beginning … God!
E. And the words reveal not only our past, but they put our lives INTO PROPER CONTEXT, answering the real questions that have plagued mankind since day one!
1. Who am I?
2. Why am I here?
3. How did I get here?
4. Where did everything come from?
5. What’s the point?
6. Where is everything going?
7. Is there a God?
8. Does He even care?
F. Modern people are trapped in “the now”
1. Most people have no connection to the people and events of their past and even of there now – some don’t believe things like the Apollo Moon landings happened, or Auschwitz because they weren’t there
2. Modern people live disconnected, and out of context
a. You don’t know where you fit in the world
b. Untethered - floating through life – from problem to problem to problem
c. Yes, people interact with other people and with experiences, but nothing is shared
d. Life is experienced only in the now - they seek the pleasures of life now and find themselves unable to wait or to rest in a past experience – never content
e. Without context, without the past, without a true and accurate picture of the past, you will have no framework to hang your senses on
f. You don’t know if you need to laugh or cry?
g. You'll have no point of reference to help you make decisions and choices
h. And you will be destined to repeat every failure of the, past simply because you do not know the past or refuse to learn those lessons
i. So, you will end up having an identity chosen for you - a prescribed identity instead of a discovered identity
G. Nothing has meaning without the story behind it
1. The Bible itself has no meaning with the back story
2. Jesus has no meaning without the back story – the context in which He lived and died
3. A wedding ring is just a small circular piece of metal without the story behind the proposal and the engagement and the pursuit and the wedding day
4. Idioms and jokes, words and phrases will usually be empty if they are without context
5. For example, the punchline of a joke requires context... Without the initial statement, the end of a joke makes no sense and is just plain stupid
6. Examples:
a. If I said, “Because its days are numbered” you wouldn’t laugh. Those words have no meaning without the context – without the previous statement
b. Joke: Why shouldn't you marry a calendar? Because its days are numbered!
c. If I said, “Five ... six ... seven ... eight” you would not laugh
d. But if I said, “How many dance instructors does it take to change a light bulb?”
e. Now the answer has MEANING. “Five ... six ... seven ... eight!”
f. “Police are looking for leads.”
g. Huh?
h. Joke: Did you about the stolen dog collar? Police are looking for leads.
i. Final one… “The horse says, ‘You read my mind!’”
j. Joke: A horse walks into a restaurant. The host says, “Hey!” The horse says, “You read my mind!”
k. Do you understand the NEED for “context” now?
7. But you wouldn’t know this without Genesis. Genesis provides context for why things are the way they are, even today. It shows us where we all came from, how everything started, where we all went wrong, and how to get back! An important Book
H. I hope to prove to you that You are not an accident like evolutionists teach
1. You are NOT a cosmic burp along the shores of a rocky planet that just happens to have had the impossible LUCK of supporting life on it for a brief while
2. You are the product of the mind of God, not of a mindless explosion
3. Your life is the result of the combined lives and experiences of your parents, your siblings, and your grandparents and all of their history and experiences
4. And… You are also the result of famines and diseases and wars and disasters that happened long before you were born, and yet forged where you were born, to whom you were born, your genetic flaws, and your financial constraints
5. But know this as well… you are the product of God's influence on your life through every moment of your life
6. And your life is the result of your fight against Him throughout your life!
I. What you learn from this Book of Genesis… WILL help you, it will help your home, your marriage, your sanity, your heart, your worship, your prayer life, your trust in God, and your understanding of the will of God
1. It is going to be a great Book to study
2. Open your Bible to the first page of Scripture
3. Get a notebook and let’s begin!
II. Message – The Introduction to the Book of Genesis
A. Genesis means, “The Beginning”
1. Look at the TITLE of this Book… “Genesis”
2. It means “the beginning”
3. Not the beginning of a story like, “A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…”
4. But the start of literally EVERYTHING
a. The creation of Heaven, and the earth, stars, galaxies, man, animals, sin, salvation, all the different people groups and languages
b. Genesis reveals how it all started
c. And who started it all
B. Genesis, like all the Bible, is TRUE from beginning to end (Psalm 119:160)
1. Genesis is not just as a story, or a myth, or a religious text
2. Psalm 119:160 Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.
a. It is the words of God, not of men… and God cannot lie!
b. 1Thessalonians 2:13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
3. Sadly, for most “Christians” and denominations, the Bible is NOT true from the beginning – it is only a metaphor, a story with a “hopeful meaning”
a. Modern people “like” the Bible, but they don’t believe it is actually, literally TRUE from the very beginning
b. (By-the-way, I do)!
c. Thankfully many Pentecostals believe Genesis is true from the beginning
d. And today, most Baptist churches teach and believe that Genesis is true from the beginning. Not all, but most
e. But 99% of Catholics accept the Genesis creation stories only as myths (a story that is not true, but conveys a deep or complex truth).
1) Every priest I have talked to says, “The Genesis story of Creation is not meant to be taken literally. Only the message that the story conveys is important and true.”
2) Back in Oct of 2014, at an assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, where the Magisterium was discussing "Evolving Concepts of Nature," Pope Francis said, "When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so."
3) Really? Pope Francis was calling GOD a liar then!
f. I have not found a single Church of Ireland Vicar today who believes Genesis is true from the beginning.
g. No Lutherans, or Methodists
4. Many, many scientists reject Genesis
a. They believe, and are seriously taught that everything somehow, accidently appeared in a Big bang a long time ago, and that all of life has just crawled up out of primordial soups and goo’s, and after billions of years, stood upright, and created the internet!
b. Stephen Hawking (a famous cosmologists) said, “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.”
c. Some very “smart” people, can be very stupid!
5. But not all scientists agree with Hawking – There are hundreds and hundreds of research organisations around the world that do peer-reviewed science from a Creationist viewpoint.
a. Answers in Genesis
b. Biblical Creation Society
c. Creation Ministries International
d. Creation Research Society
e. Institute for Creation Research
f. And there are more than 10,000 actual, PhD Doctors of Science who believe Genesis is true from the beginning.
6. Because…
a. History has proved the Bible to be completely accurate
b. Prophecies have proved the Bible to be superior to all human writings
c. The science in the Bible has always been 500 years ahead of modern research
d. Bible believers are not tinfoil hat “believers”
e. We have searched the Scriptures and researched the truthfulness of this Book, and found that everything we CAN verify has been true… people, places, events
f. So we trust the statements we cannot verify – like how everything began!
C. The point is… You are going to have to look at all the evidences, and decide for yourself…
1. Is there an Almighty God who created everything like Genesis says?
2. Or did everything just appear by a series of very, very, very lucky accidents?
3. I choose to believe it by faith
a. Hebrews 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
b. Psalm 33: 6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
c. Isaiah 45:12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
D. Written by Moses
1. The Title of the Book - The First Book of Moses Called the Book of Genesis
a. Genesis is the beginning of the Holy Scriptures
b. It was Moses’ first Book.
2. Yes, written down by Moses
a. It is called the First Book of Moses because God used Moses to write FIVE books in your Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy - the first book being Genesis.
1) Moses wrote Genesis, the Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, like a Scientific Journal, recoding what God SAID, and how people reacted.
2) Numbers 33:2 And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of the LORD: and these are their journeys according to their goings out.
3) When Moses finished writing the fifth Book, Deuteronomy, he made sure the Levites kept it and made copies of it so that people would read it and obey it.
4) Deuteronomy 31:9 And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and unto all the elders of Israel.
b. The first five Books were first called the single Book of the Law of Moses, and later were separated into five Books - the Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 31:24-26) And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, [A VERY LARGE BOOK] until they were finished, That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.
3. Inspired by God – Moses wrote what he did not before know
a. Like a secretary would write down what his or her boss spoke – just wrote it down
b. The truth of the bible is not found in the writers, but in the Author!
c. Moses took dictation about the Creation from the mouth of God.
1) They were not his own words
a) Exodus 24:4 And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
b) 2Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
2) They were, and are the words of God!
3) 2 Peter 1:20,21 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
d. He wrote about things he had not seen, and did not understand
1) Like the instant of creation of everything from nothing
2) The formation of a human body out of a pile of dust
3) The marriage of the first two people in paradise
4) The entrance of the serpent and its deception of Eve
5) The world-wide flood of the entire world
6) Moses never saw any of those things happen. But he writes like they actually happened, because God said it all happened!
E. Written in Hebrew
1. God’s choice language – not mine!
2. It is read from right to left
3. Hebrew is a language that is over 4,000 years old – the oldest language still surviving and still being used today!
F. The Date of Writing: somewhere around 1450 B.C. - Put into perspective…
1. Creation occurs around 4004 BC
2. Noah’s Flood occurs 2400 BC
3. Abraham arrives in the Promised Land in about 1900 BC
4. Moses leads Israel out of Egypt around 1450 BC
5. So, Moses wrote this Book and the other four first Books of the Bible while leading Israel through the Wilderness
G. Its Theme - "Beginnings"
1. The beginning of Time, and all history
2. The beginning of Life
3. The beginning of Sin
4. The origin of Languages
5. The beginnings of music, the arts, and human creativity
6. The origin of the races – God started off with one race (Adam and Eve). We now have three main variations of the human race – through Noah via Shem, Ham, and Japeth
7. The beginning of human government
8. The beginning of the family
9. And the start of everything else that we experience today
a. The first day – time
b. The first wedding – Adam and Eve
c. The first job – gardening
d. The first sin – of doubting God’s word and deciding to live without God
e. The first lie – of Satan to Eve that she and her husband don’t need to obey God
f. The first death – spiritually of Adam and Eve, but physically of a lamb in the Garden for their sin
g. The first argument – between Adam and God
h. The first promise – for redemption through the Messiah in genesis 3:15
i. The first birth – Cain
j. The first murder – of Able
k. The first city – the city of Enoch, the son of Cain
l. The first rapture – of Enoch
m. The first rain – at the Flood
n. The first rainbow – after the Flood
o. The First Dispensation – The dispensation of Innocence in the Garden
p. The first Covenant – with Adam
q. The first Empire – Babylon
r. The first cult – Babylonian religion
H. Written as a Revelation, not just history
1. Genesis is not a religious Book, or a Science Book, or even a History Book – it is all of those things and more – it is a Revelation
2. It is a revelation that tells us where we ALL came from, how WE got here, how everything got here, what our purpose was / is, where we went wrong, and especially how to get things back right!
I. Without the Words of Genesis…
1. Most things will never make sense:
a. God won’t make sense – you won’t know who He is and what he is capable of
b. Jeremiah 32:17 Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:
c. Sin won’t make sense
d. The reason why God chose the Jewish people won’t make sense
e. Death won’t make sense
f. No won der so many people are superstitious, and rely on drugs and drink to cope
2. Everything written in the Bible expects that you believe Genesis 1:1
a. Every promise, every commandment, every doctrine expects that you know and believe what is described in the Book of Genesis
b. John 5:46,47 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?
J. God shows us the past to give us hope
1. That's why the Bible was written starting With Genesis 1:1, to give us hope
2. Romans 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
3. By learning from the examples and experiences of real people in history all the way back to the beginning
4. Romans 5:3,4 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
III. Conclusion
A. You need to read, and learn this first Book in your Bible! Don’t neglect it
B. What we will discover is that NOTHING has changed in 6,000 years of history
1. Man does not get better and better
2. Technology has not given man eternal life – oh how they want it to though
3. Technology has only enabled the silent murders of hundreds of millions of unborn babies
4. Wars have expanded from tribal wars, to nation-states, to European and Asian wars, to World Wars, and soon to interplanetary wars!
5. Men and women still divorce, still murder, still fight and hate one another
6. Religion still damns people by putting a yoke of bondage on them they can never be free from
7. And the only way to be saved is NOT by MORE good works, or by a NEW religion, but by being born again, trusting the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ the Messiah to save you and change you from the inside out! Just like Genesis will show us!
C. Man still needs a Saviour! The Messiah promised in the very first Book of the Bible!