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This is the second sermon in the First Things First series. We mentioned last week how that Paul said in Romans 1:20 that creation testifies about the nature and characteristics of God. And so the book of Genesis is sort of a "kindergarten" of spiritual things and contains the very first revelations about Himself that God wanted us to know. In this series, we decided to focus on the lessons that we can learn about God from just the first six verses of the Bible, and in the last lesson, we never got beyond the first four words: "in the beginning, God . . . !" We discussed the principles of how God is always at work "in the beginning" and that applies not only to creation, but to our lives and to good things that we receive. In fact, whenever we see God showing up and doing something, He has really been involved from way before we even knew there was a situation! And we learned that prayer is just acknowledging our need for God to give us the answer, but the answer was formed before we even knew that there was a problem. In the beginning, God!

Now, let's at least finish the first verse! "In the beginning, God" and then we come to a mistranslation in the King James Version that sort of obscures the truth that is placed here in the Word of God. For about a year now, I've been studying the characteristics of English translations and in particular some of the mistakes of the KJV. It's a good translation, but it's a translation and therefore not perfect. And there are several unfortunate goofs in these first few verses of the Bible in the KJV.

"In the beginning, God" and then the KJV says "created the Heaven and the earth." But in all the Hebrew texts, the word for "heaven" is plural. That's why the New King James and every other major English translation says "the heavenS and the earth." It's plural for a reason and it's important to understand why. The Jews taught that there were three "heavens." The first "heaven" was the atmosphere around the earth -- the air that we breathe and clouds and such. The second "heaven" refers to the universe -- the planets and stars and galaxies and such. And the third "heaven" refers to the spiritual realm of God's dwelling. When Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:2 about seeing in a vision the "third heaven" he was talking about the spiritual realm, the spiritual home that contains the throne of God and the home of the angels. And so the original Hebrew says that:

He created heavenS but just one earth. And man was put on the earth. The important principle here is that God wanted you to know that there is always more above you than what you can see. There's more to God than just what you see in your circumstances. There's always another level in Him. There's always somewhere else to go. There's always more of God that goes beyond your little world or trouble!

We understand this in the natural. If you are inside on a day, then even though the roof above you may be blocking your view -- there are clouds outside and an atmosphere around you. There are thousands of air molecules around you and you can't see them, but you can feel them in a breeze or blast of wind. Even though you can't see it, it's there and that concept is exactly how Jesus explained the Holy Ghost to Nicodemus in John chapter 3:

We can go further than just our atmosphere, though. If you are outside on a cloudy day or night, you may not be able to see it, but there is a sun and a moon and stars beyond the clouds. Just because you cannot see it, doesn't change the fact that it's there. And we can go even further. Beyond the universe; if you could gaze into the most powerful telescope that could be invented and see to the extremities of time and space, then there is still another level in the spirit world that is beyond all of that! When John was taken up in a vision, he wasn't viewing the universe but rather the spiritual heavenlies! There is a spiritual realm beyond anything that can be seen in the natural. God created the earth. And He created the heavenS! The HeavenS expand far beyond the earth!

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And so from these verses, we find one of the most basic but one of the most important principles of God to grasp. In fact, if you never get this concept, then you will never make it living for God. What is that all important principle? Here it is and it's not deep: We must get over only believing in what we can see because God will always have something for us to believe in beyond our experience. Most of the issues of most Christians stems back to forgetting this simple principle. They start only reacting and believing in things that have been proven to them by physically happening! We think that somehow if we can see something, then it's real and vice versa!

Let me remind you of some very basic scriptures:

Faith is the conviction of things not seen. James says that "faith without works is dead." So let's put it together: faith is believing in something that you have never seen so much that you act upon that belief! If you've seen it happen before, then it's not faith, it's experience and many Christians don't understand the difference. It's only faith unless you are believing and acting according to something that you have never seen happen. If it is something that you personally have seen happen, then it's no longer faith.

Before we move on, how about some practical examples? I don't pay my tithes by faith. I did as a child because I had no experience that it would work. But as a child I discovered that if I paid my tithes and offerings, then God would bless me. Now when I pay my tithes, it's not in faith, it's in believing in my past experiences. God proved Himself to me. I act according to knowledge that came at first by faith, but it's not currently faith.

Let me use another example. The first time you raised your hands and praised God outwardly, was probably an act of faith. You saw others do it. You heard them say that they felt God. You heard that it was commanded in the Bible to do so. But some of you when you came to church, you had never praised God that way before. So when you first raised your hands or clapped them or "got involved" in outward praise, it was a step of faith for you. You had heard that if you did so, God would respond in a favorable way and you would get blessed, but before you first praised God, you had never tried it for yourself. So when you first raised your hands and began to praise God you were acting in faith because you were believing in something that you had never seen so much that you acted upon it!

Now when you come in and begin to praise God, it's not in faith. Oh, you are praising God believing that God will bless you, but now it's based upon experience and past experience has shown you that if you will do this, God will bless you! You are no longer praising God in faith, but rather according to your believing past experiences.

And so with all of this in mind, we come to the following verse a few lines down:

You must believe that God exists -- in other words, you must believe that "in the beginning, God...", we've covered that -- but did you catch the first part? "Without faith it is impossible to please" God! Think about what that's really saying. Without believing in something that we've never seen so much that we act upon it, we cannot please God! Or to phrase it as another scripture says:

The righteous shall live by faith. God's righteousness is revealed from faith to faith. God created the HeavenS and the earth. They are all testifying to one thing and that is that we will never get to a place in God where we will only act upon things that we know or have experienced ourselves. To do so is to no longer live by faith. To do so is to not be able to please God! That’s why the Apostle Paul wrote:

Hear this preacher. Living by faith makes us nervous. We like to take risks that are not risks at all. We like to jump only when we know that there is a landing spot on the other side. And I have heard more than one person say "it's so hard living for God." "You always have to trust in Him and there always seems to be something beyond your grasp." Um, yes. If you walk by faith, then by the very definition you will always believing God for something that you have never seen. And it's only through faith that we please God. What that means is that we will never obtain everything that we want in God. Oh, we will obtain victories and we will grow in God and you'd better or you are heading in the wrong direction. But there will always be a promise of God's Word that you have never seen come true in your life. After you step out in faith on these promises, then God will open up another level. After you are willing to step out on faith on those promises, then God will reveal another level of the "heavenlies" to you and reveal even greater promises to step out upon! And it will never stop. As you live and grow and move forward in faith, there will always be another level to go to. If there wasn't then you would no longer be able to live by faith and no longer be able to please God! God created the earth upon which He put you and I and then He surrounded us with the HeavenS! There is always more to learn! There is always more to grow!

And let me say this. If you are bored with your level, then you need to obey and step out in faith and claim those promises so that you can be revealed greater ones! And you'd better hear this preacher: until you move with faith and obey the Word of God at your current level, then you will never be given the opportunity to move on. You've got to pass the tests at your level first before you go on further! I've had people say "well I'll get around to obeying that, and eventually I'll grow into it." And then just a short time later, they are complaining because they feel as if they aren't growing as fast as others. You'll never move on, until you act in faith for the promises that you do know!

Even creation testifies that God created man to have to live with faith in things that he could not see!

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God created the HeavenS and the earth! It even applies to our personal situation. No matter how bad your storm may be or how bad your circumstance may look, there is always hope because God's level goes deeper than what you can see! In the same ways that the clouds block the stars but they are still there, so is the hope and help of God always there no matter what your situation looks like! You can bet your last dollar that in every situation on earth, there is a spiritual level beyond what you can see.

Some people live their lives in what I call the "cup syndrome." They are like a bug in a cup who looks around everywhere but up and says "the world is a small place and my situation is very big and it's bigger than anything else in my life!" When you are in the cup looking at the cup only, it seems as if your cup is larger than life itself. But if you will just look up you will see that the cup is not the extent of the universe, but rather the cup is small compared to the grandeur of everything around it. It only looks big because you are in the cup and refusing to look elsewhere!

And so it is with our problems. We have a relationship issue or a work issue or a little persecution or a little financial stress and all of a sudden we are in the cup of our issue and we convince ourselves that all there is to life is the problem that has us surrounded. In other words, we stress out and worry and panic! But if you would look up, you would realize that there is more to the situation than what you can see and how small your problem is compared to the rest of life and God!

And so I have hope for you today! You can rest assured that no matter how big the problem is and how extensive it may seem, you can rest easy knowing that God has a layer and a plan and an answer that goes far beyond any problem that this world can bring! He created the HeavenS and the earth. His ways go far beyond what you can see in your present situation! His ways go far beyond what you can see period! His ways go far beyond what you will ever be able to see, because if you can see it, then God goes further! As long as God is involved there is hope!

And so as humans on the Earth we have a choice. We can choose to live our life based upon principles that we can only see with our natural eye -- in other words, live in the realm of earth only, or we can choose to live our lives based upon principles of the heavenlies that go beyond our realm, which are just as real and will last for eternity but not seen with physical eyes. Everyday we choose to either live according to the kingdom of earth, or of the heavenS! But Jesus taught us to pray:

Jesus said “pray that God will help you see His will done on earth as it is in heaven!” He taught us to pray “thy kingdom come.” That “heaven” is the third heaven that is the unseen. But we must live by those kingdom principles. In heaven, people do not take advantage of people. In heaven, people do not steal or gossip or talk negatively. In heaven, God is the sole decider of what is right and wrong. In heaven there is nothing that maketh a lie or an abomination and God is worshipped freely as He should be. That’s unseen to our natural eyes, but it is just as real as the earth! Which kingdom will you choose to live by?

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God created the heavenS and the earth. Not only is there is there always another way of deliverance, there is also always another level to His plan for us! In our other text we read a popular scripture:

As most of you know, the word for "Word" in the Greek is logos which means the "thoughts, intents, or plan of God." And so we learn something else about the beginning. "In the beginning, God" already had a plan in place. What was this plan? We find this revealed in the first words of verse 14 of the same chapter:

"The Word" -- the plan of God -- was made flesh and dwelt among us. Part of the plan of God was to come in flesh and live for us!

Now, here we go with my crazy meanderings. In the beginning God created the Garden of Eden and put Adam and Eve in it. He gave them a choice between obeying and disobeying Him. Only when they disobeyed by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, did they give themselves over to sin. Some preachers have preached that God intended for them to sin and that is why they sinned because God wanted them to. Not only is that errant thinking but it is dangerous. If that is so then that means that we are all predestined to sin because all of us have sinned and we should be predestined to either heaven or hell depending upon what God "wants us to do."

The truth is that God did not want them to sin. He gave them the option to disobey His Word because God wanted a creation that would serve Him out of their own free will. When they sinned, they broke God's heart. He would have rather it never been that way. But at the same time, it didn't catch God by surprise. Because there was another level to God's plan. What has happened -- the history of mankind that you and I know -- is just one level to the plan of God.

I've had preachers quote John 1:14 about the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us and saying that they had to sin because Jesus had to come and die. That's errant logic. According to John chapter 1, the plan of God was to come in flesh and dwell among man. That was the original plan that was in the mind of God in the beginning. Adam was created in the image that God would one day come in, the image of Jesus Christ. And so catch this distinction: The plan was for God to come in the flesh and dwell among men, but the cross only became a part of the plan when Adam sinned. I believe that the original plan was for man to live forever in the Garden and eventually God to come in flesh to live among man. It could have happened just like that and that would have been the way that God preferred. But when man sinned, then the need for Calvary and the blood covering of the Lamb of God came into play.

Understand this. Calvary was "plan B." God wanted man to live for forever. But when man chose sin, then God wasn't surprised. He already had another plan in place! That of Calvary! God's plan is much deeper than our lives. Does God have perfect foreknowledge? Yes, He does, but that means that He knows every possible path that you can take and every possible decision and the outcome of every possible path. But it's still up to you to choose your path. But whatever path you take, God already knows the end of that path and every possible decision. In that way, God has perfect foreknowledge but we are not robots, we can freely choose our course of action!

Hell is a real place but it is a plan B to the plan B. After man sinned, God provided the plan of redemption so that man could still be saved. The scriptures say:

He wishes that ALL should reach repentance. So much for the doctrine of predestination that says you have no choice in the matter because God decided it for you! The Bible says that God does not wish that any should perish, but that ALL should reach repentance. The chapter then goes on to say how that although that salvation is the perfect will of God for every soul, there will be many lost because they chose the path of sin rather than repentance. And so the Bible says this about hell:

In Matthew 25:41, we find that hell was originally created for the devil and his angels. What did hell have to enlarge itself? Because even after the original sin, man rejected God's plan of salvation! Was God surprised? No, He had a plan B to the plan B, but that does not mean that it was His original plan.

What I’m trying to get you to see is that God had alternate plans in place to cover no matter what happened on earth! There is more to the heavenly than there is to what was created on earth.

Think about the Flood of Noah's time. Genesis 6 says that man was so wicked that God wished that He would never have made man in the first place! But He couldn’t destroy the earth because of good ol’ Noah. We owe a lot to Noah!

You’ll never make me believe that it was the perfect will of God to destroy everybody but eight people on the earth. No way. Just like it was not the perfect will of God to enlarge hell to hold human beings. It was definitely a plan C or something, but it was something that God had to do because man chose wickedness.

The point is this. When the Flood came and the vapor canopy collapsed on the earth, it greatly changed the climate and the living conditions. For one thing, for the first time, the earth had seasons. This was because the green house effect of the vapor canopy was gone. The reason that we have seasons is because the earth is tilted a perfect 23.5 degrees on it’s axis. This allows us to have summer and winter and spring and fall. There are no seasons mentioned in the Bible until after Noah steps off of the ark because there was no need for them -- the vapor canopy kept things a nice temperature all over the world year around. But when plan C is enacted, the earth is already at the perfect place for us to have seasons in a post- Flood environment!

I read somewhere the other day where the earth’s orbit around the sun is not perfectly round but is slightly oval in shape. The book talks about the “fortunate luck” of the earth forming in such a way that when we are in summer, we are actually farther from the sun, and when we are in winter, we are slightly closer to the sun. If those had been reversed, the book said, then summers all across the earth would be about 20 to 30 degrees hotter and winters 20 to 30 degrees colder, making much of the earth inhabitable by humans! I’m here preaching to you that it was no accident or “fortunate occurrence” but the hand of God who when forming the earth, was already setting up plan B and plan C and plan D just in case it was needed! He created the heavenS and the earth! His plans go beyond what we can even imagine!

Now let me throw something fun out there, something that's "possible." In studying astronomy, I have learned that the stars are only really visible on a clear night and the less moisture or humidity in the air, the more fainter and thus the more stars that you can see. The moon and sun are visible and detectable on even cloudy and foggy days, but only on clear nights do the stars really stand out in the sky. It's possible that the stars were not all that visible before the Flood and that they were blocked out by the vapor canopy around the earth. The sun and moon would have been visible because they are so bright, but the stars would have been largely hidden. What that would mean is that after the Flood, suddenly the stars and the universe would have been revealed to Noah and his family.

I have in my library a book given to me by my brother that was written by an esteemed theologian and researcher (E.W. Bullinger, The Signs of the Stars). Have you ever noticed that if you try to look at the constellations, that the stars never look anything like what they are supposed to? Sagittarius looks like a tea pot not a "mighty archer." Ursa major looks like the big dipper that we call it and certainly nothing like a "big bear." But in every nation, in every culture, and in every land, those particular constellations are known as the "mighty archer" and the "big bear." The book that I have states the opinion that the reason that it all matches is that the constellations were first invented by God and later corrupted by man's idolatry. The author has studied the original Arabic name for many of the stars and constellations and believes that the constellations were originally laid out by God to mankind as a portrait of redemption and of Calvary. And he has scripture for this belief:

In the southern hemisphere, there is a constellation that is the brightest constellation in the entire sky anywhere. It's called the southern cross and it outshines all of the other constellations. It makes a perfect cross in the sky. We cannot see it from our elevation because the earth wobbles and causes over thousands of years for stars that were once seen in the south to dip below the horizon and not be visible. Astronomers have discovered that the southern cross, that brightest of bright constellations, could be seen in Israel and Jerusalem as recent as two thousand years ago. It's on the ancient star charts that we have found. Furthermore in the A.D. 30s when Jesus Christ was crucified, was when it's bottom star had almost reached the horizon and to the south, it would have seemed to stand up from the ground! After that, the constellation slowly dropped lower and lower until now, from Jerusalem, you can't see it at all any time of the year and if we were to drive down to Brownsville and look out to sea, at certain times of the year, we could just see the top most star of the constellation. But before Christ, it was high in the sky above Jerusalem! And it would have certainly been the most prominent constellation after the Flood!

Can you imagine with me, Noah stepping off the ark and for the first time seeing the heavens filled with the stars!? And then his eyes being drawn to the brightest constellation of them all, one that made a unique shape like a "t"? And he not even realizing the significance of it!? But it had been there all the time, just as the plan of God had been there all the time!

God created the heavenS and the earth! No matter what happens on earth, there will always be another layer of a plan that God has in place! When man sinned and the Flood came and destroyed the earth, God already had the story of the next plan in place clearly visible! The rain of judgment gave away to another hope and a fresh promise! There is always more of God available than we can see at any time in our situation on earth!

And so I close this message by preaching hope to many of us here who have messed up and made mistakes and then believed the lie from the pits of hell that the plan of God was forever ruined in our lives. Yes, your choice may have taken you down a path that God never intended for you to have to walk down, but don’t think for a second that it caught God by surprise. In case you failed. Even if you disobeyed, God had a plan B already in place providing a way for you to get back to God and be used of God! Your disobedience will have caused you much unnecessary hurt and pain and heartache, but it did not stymie God in your life. He can still work and do great things with you just as He always could because He has yet another layer of His will that has been awaiting the entire time!

We consider the oceans “deep” but they are nowhere near as “deep” as the plan and will and ways of God. If you take a cup of poison and go to the beach and throw it in the ocean, that poison will not affect one thing. The immenseness and deepness of the ocean dissolves and swallows up that poison and renders it ineffective. The ways of God are even deeper than the oceans! If you will return to God and pour yourself back into His will, then no matter how much of a mess that you have made of your life, His will can render those mistakes null and void and He can still move mightily in your life. His plans go far beyond what we can mess up on earth. He created the heavenS and the earth! Thank God for having such mercy that even in the “planning stages” mercy was built in! Hope was programmed in from the start! “In the beginning, God created the HeavenS and the earth!”