[0:00] I want you to turn to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. Last week we began talking about these beginning passages of Scripture, Genesis 1 through 11.
[0:12] I believe they're foundational passages of the Bible. Not only are they the first things you come to, but they are also the base for understanding everything else that happens after this.
[0:25] Like a blueprint to a new construction. I think of this as a blueprint that kind of lays the foundation for everything else that you learn from Scripture.
[0:38] Last week we looked at the first three days of creation and we learned how it's really about God. It's not so much about the earth, although it describes how it was created.
[0:50] Earth is often the focus of that, but the reality is the focus is God and about Jesus. He was there and we continue to see that in the text today.
[1:02] We also found that it's about God's order and today we'll flesh that out a little bit more, but today we're going to focus on the second half of the week of creation. It's in Genesis chapter 1 beginning in verse 14.
[1:14] And it says this, And God said, And God saw that it was good.
[1:49] And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said, Let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures and let the birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.
[2:02] So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves with which the water swarm according to their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind.
[2:12] 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 birds multiply on the earth.
[2:25] And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.
[2:40] And it was so. God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kinds.
[2:52] And God saw that it was good. Then God said, Let us make man in our image and after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
[3:13] So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the ground.
[3:37] And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with its seed and its fruit, you shall have them for food.
[3:50] And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food, and it was so.
[4:06] And God saw everything that he made, and behold, it was very good, and there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. I heard that an eloquent African-American pastor put it this way, God stepped from behind the curtain of nowhere and stood on the platform of nothing and spoke a universe into existence.
[4:31] And I agree with all of that. There's a lot to discuss here about creation, but I want to focus our time this morning on what the Bible clearly points out to us in these passages as the most essential, things that you don't miss.
[4:51] Don't miss his order. There's a phrase that's used again and again. You may have heard it as I read it. It is found in the creating of the fruit trees and the vegetable-bearing plants in verses 11 and 12.
[5:12] It is found in the creating of the creatures of the waters and of the air in verse 21. It is found in the creating of the creatures of the land in verse 24 and 25.
[5:26] It is a repetitive phrase that is translated according to its kind. Now, the reputation of that phrase is huge.
[5:39] I like the Hebrew language because it is for simple-minded folks. Not to learn it. It's hard to learn, but it repeats itself a lot. It puts it out there pretty plain for you.
[5:51] Kind of rudimentary if you can ever get the difference. And what we've learned is our native language and, man, what a drastic difference Hebrew is. You start at the back of the book.
[6:02] You read from right to left instead of left to right. They don't have vowels, really. They have points and those type things that count as vowels. You read a word kind of zigzag.
[6:13] It's a nightmare and I'm glad I passed a class. But the reputation of any kind of phrase like that, the reiteration of it is huge.
[6:25] And when it says according to its kind, it points to God distinguishing what he made clearly. We need not be confused. We need not entertain those that try to confuse.
[6:40] God is clear. It does not say that God made the waters and the waters produced an amoeba that grew cells into a fish, that turned into a tadpole, that grew into a monkey, that evolved into Homo Neanderthal, then into Homo Erectus, and then into Homo Sapien.
[7:06] That's too many homos. It brings order, not chaos. God made the seed. God made the fruit.
[7:20] God made the creator. And then in his own image, he made man. Some believe in the Big Bang Theory. It may surprise you, I believe in Big Bang.
[7:31] I do. As a matter of fact, I believe in several of them. I believe God said sun and bang, the sun was created. I believe he said plant and bang, the plant was created.
[7:46] And I believe it went on and on. It came out of nothing when God spoke. It didn't come out of nothing until God spoke it out of nothing.
[8:01] Because God brings order, not chaos. What God makes according to its kind, let humankind not confuse. God made a cat.
[8:15] It's not a dog. It can hang out with dogs. It can act like dogs. It can pretend to be a dog. It can be raised by a pack of dogs.
[8:30] It can identify as a dog. But it's still a cat. If a blueberry, as it grows into a fruit, somehow were to claim that it was an apple, it's not.
[8:44] It's still a blueberry. And if a guy tries to sell you a bushel of apples, but they look distinctively, taste particularly, like a bunch of grapes, don't buy his apples.
[8:57] Okay? Just because that old boy identifies his fruit as something that it's not, does not mean that it's so. Are you with me?
[9:07] You get what I'm saying? Because God brings order. The evil one brings chaos.
[9:20] The evil one brings confusion. The evil one stirs it up. And part of the way that he brings chaos is he makes what makes us feel, really, really feel like a lie is the truth.
[9:40] We'll see that in the garden in the coming days. If you turn on your television or you go to social media, you'll see lies that are disguised as truth. For instance, when a family holds hands in a hayfield or in the park in their newest clothes, and they are laughing and frolicking and hugging and having such a splendid time, they're not.
[10:06] They're not. You know why they're not? Because that's picture day. Laughter I think somebody can relate to that, but anyway.
[10:17] They're faking it. They're faking it. Not my family, but everybody else's. Okay? They're faking it. That is deception. Deception. But that's not the deception that I speak of.
[10:31] A great deception of the evil one in our day is over gender, and it is utter confusion, and that is not of God. God's design and his rule is not for us to decide.
[10:45] I'll tell you another great deception is that somehow we can decide based on our feelings what is right and what is wrong. And that somehow morals are based on the trends of the day, and they're not.
[11:03] Let me warn you. History tells us that there have been other strong countries destroyed by the devil's deceptions, and don't ever believe we're immune to it happening to us.
[11:18] If you think I've left my sermon, I'm not, because I'm speaking of order versus chaos. And when we read about creation, we tend to become preoccupied sometimes with the science of the origins of the world.
[11:33] But when I look at Genesis 1, what I see the message of creation is that things are the way they are because God made them so. And for us to alter from his guidance, for us to alter from his direction and order, is disobedience that outside of Christ leads to death.
[11:54] Now what's interesting about this is, and we'll dig into this in coming weeks, but the word of God, the word for God in Genesis 1 and 2 is the word Elohim in Hebrew.
[12:06] The more personal God of Yahweh, or sometimes translated Jehovah, is found in Genesis 3 when we get into the make of man and woman and his relationship with man and woman.
[12:20] But here, Elohim is used in Genesis 1 and 2 46 times. And that word for God comes from a root word for power or strength.
[12:34] And so the message again and again, and notice he didn't say he much, it said God. There's an emphasis there. The message again and again is that God made everything.
[12:47] heaven and earth and all that encompasses them and he made it all from nothing. He spoke and it was. Did not evolve from an algae to a plant to a fish to a person.
[13:02] Man does not turn into a woman or a man is not made to mate with men. God made each according to its kind. Now I know that in today's life that's a shocker.
[13:14] But that's still true. No matter how it may feel. Each thing is made God made was distinctive, was designed, and was specific.
[13:32] There's a story about Sir Isaac Newton who had somebody make him a, had a skillful mechanic, make him a miniature mechanical replica of the solar system.
[13:46] He had a large ball for the sun. He had smaller ones for the planets. Each one of them were fixed on arms that were varying lengths from the sun in proportion to where they're gauged to be and they were all geared by cogs and wheels to move in harmony with each other.
[14:07] An elaborate solar system. Newton believed that God created the earth. He was confused on some other things along his theology, but he, he had a friend who was a brilliant scientist that was an unbeliever.
[14:23] And Newton was showing him this model and the scientist looked at that model and said, how exquisite. Who made this?
[14:34] And Newton said, nobody. The other scientist looked at him and said, evidently you didn't, you didn't understand my question.
[14:46] I asked who made this? And Newton looked at him and said, nobody made it. It just assumed this form. And the scientist said, you must think I'm a fool.
[15:01] Of course somebody made it and he's a genius and I'd like to know who he is. And Newton put his hand on his shoulder and said this, this is but a puny imitation of a much larger system whose laws you know and I'm not able to convince and I'm not able to convince you that this toy is without a design and a maker.
[15:24] Yet you profess to believe that the great original from which I had this design from is without either a designer or a maker.
[15:36] Now you tell me by what sort of reasoning do you reach such an incongruous conclusion? They say the man became a believer after that conversation.
[15:51] Be clear about something. God thought it. God willed it. God spoke it. And it was. And it was good.
[16:05] And it was orderly. And it was right. Don't miss God's order. Second thing I don't want you to miss is this, his image. Day six. Thank God for day six.
[16:18] It's got something to do with us folks. That's a pretty big day. That was the day that humanity was created. Verse 26 says that man is made in our image in our likeness.
[16:29] That's interesting, isn't it? Who's he talking to when he says our image in our likeness? Is he talking to the angels? No. Because we're not made like angels.
[16:43] We're not made in the image of angels. You know what? In reality if you look at a biblical angel, angels aren't even made like angels. Not the way we think of angels. When people think of angels, they think of beautiful women with wings or they think of naked babies with wings.
[17:03] But I want you to look at what the word of God says. Or just listen. You can write this down and check me out. See if I'm right. Isaiah chapter 6 speaks of the seraphim which is a kind of angel.
[17:15] And it says the seraphim has six wings, two to cover his face, two to cover his feet, and two to fly. Genesis 19 speak of two angels in Sodom that came to rescue Lot.
[17:32] And it says those angels were warriors that struck men with blindness and then warned Sodom to get out before the city was destroyed. And what about the creatures that are in Revelation 4?
[17:45] They're angels, those around the throne of God. They have six wings and they are full of eyes, it says. There's eyes in the front, there's eyes behind.
[17:57] I had a teacher one time that had eyes in the back of her head, but she was no angel, I can tell you that. In Revelation, one looked like a lion, one looked like an ox, another looked like a man, another looked like an eagle.
[18:17] I bet you don't have those sitting on your mantle at home, do you? So angels are not the picture that we picture most of the time. And we're not made in the angels' images.
[18:30] We're made in the image of God. And what you see here is the evidence of the Trinity right here in Genesis 1. because in Genesis 1-2, you see the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters.
[18:47] Passage I just read, God made us in our image which speaks of the Trinity. John 1-2-3 clarifies that when it speaks of Christ being in the midst of creation.
[18:59] It says this, He was in the beginning with God, all things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. That's Jesus they're talking about. And I want you listen to how the Apostle Paul says it in Colossians 1-15 through 18 and how he describes them.
[19:13] He says, He is the, speaking of Christ, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation for by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through Him and for Him and He is before all things and in Him all things hold together and He is the head of the body the church He is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in everything He might be preeminent.
[19:48] Therefore the image that we are made in is the image of God. This is referred to again before the flood in Genesis 5 it is referred to again with the murder of Abel in Genesis 9 James 3 verse 9 says we're made in the likeness of God 1 Corinthians 11 7 says that we are made in the image of God and I just want you to listen to Psalm 8 listen to Psalm 8 verse 3 through 5 it says this when I look at your heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have set in place what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him yet you've made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor I believe when you look at creation in Genesis chapter 1 you need to get and not miss his order I believe you also need to see his image but lastly I think you need to see our responsibility we have a responsibility of this
[20:54] God blessed man and woman and said in Genesis 1 verse 28 be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth in other words we are in charge of the blessings of this earth and we are responsible for these resources that have been given to us he created it with order and he created it good and we need to maintain that order and we need to keep it good but often we don't get it right it seems to me that we make one of two mistakes one is we don't care about what we have we need to care about the earth in which we live in if we are draining our resources that we won't have for our children or we are pulling the waters that they are to drink or polluting the waters that they are to drink or we are wasting the commodities that have been passed on to us then we need to change our ways and conserve what we have
[22:04] I do my part by going around my house and cutting off lights because I think I am killing the ambiance but hey listen I care about the planet and the power bill so if you have trash pick it up if you see trash pick it up they say on the trail don't leave a trace let me tell you what else it says because there's a second problem that we have some tend to worship nature scripture says we have dominion over nature we've been charged to subdue it and to be responsible with what we have however we're not to be more concerned about the poisonous dart frog or the bow headed whale than we are the unborn children in
[23:05] America than we are the starving children in the tribes of Africa than we are hungry children in our own county or the elderly that are right here among us that may need a helping hand God chose to make us the crown of his creation and he gave us the responsibility to manage it without wasting it and without worshiping it I read from Psalm 8 a bit ago let me read some more because in verse 6 to 9 it says this you have given him dominion over the works of your hands you have put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea whatever passes along the paths of the sea oh Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth we have dominion over what we've been entrusted with and the worship belongs to
[24:21] God who is our ruler we're to rule over the earth he's to rule over us I like the way King David put it in Psalm 145 1 I will exalt you my God and King and I'll bless your name forever and ever the hymn writer John W.
[24:41] Peterson put it this way it took a miracle to put the stars in place it took a miracle to hang the world in space but when he saved my soul and cleansed and made me whole it took a miracle of love and grace I thank God that the God that spoke the world into order still speaks today he still speaks he speaks to hearts not audibly louder than that beckoning us to come to him so my question is what's he saying to you today the God that spoke the world into existence speaks to us what's he saying to you today you may be here and maybe there's never been a time in your life when you surrender your life to the
[25:47] Lord Jesus I mean you realize that you've sinned and done wrong and scripture tells us that that separates you from God for all of eternity but that Christ came to live a sinless life to die on an old rugged cross for our sins so that we can have forgiveness forgiveness and walk cleanly before the Lord when we just agree with God on the state of our circumstances and the state of our circumstances without Christ is that we're lost in our sin for all of eternity if we'll admit that and ask the Lord Jesus to forgive us of our sins to come into our life and save us scripture says everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Romans 10 13 if you've never given your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ what an injustice it would be to have that opportunity that God has given you and you to waste your life never surrendering your life to him and have eternity to pay if you need to get saved today if you need to give your heart and life to Christ we're going to stand and we're going to sing in just a moment but more important than that
[26:58] I want you to do exactly what God tells you to do maybe you're here and you know you're a Christian but there's never been a time when you publicly acknowledge that you did it privately but you never let other people know that Jesus told us by example and by commission that we're to follow that up with a public baptism to let others know what Christ has done in our life if you've got a private decision for the Lord but you've never made that public will you come I encourage you to come I'd love to guide you in that process we'll lead you through as slowly as we need to for that process but let's begin that today maybe you're here and God's drawing you to be a part of this church maybe it's your first time here maybe you've been here a long time maybe some of us even think you're part of us but you've never committed yourself to be a part of God's family you've never made that official I encourage you today you come we'd love to guide you in that process or maybe there's something else
[27:58] I will never stand before you and pretend that I know what God's laid on your heart I don't know that but I know God still speaks and I know he speaks to hearts and I know that if he's telling you what you need to do that you'll never be happy until you do it a life of disobedience will never be happy when God's made you to be in right relationship with him and so you obey God this is the time to do it and so I encourage you as we stand and sing you obey God Lord Jesus I love you and thank you for your word for the clarity of it help us to live in response to it dear God to condition our lives in such a way that we're in obedience to you even in the things that we don't understand lead us oh God I pray in Jesus precious name amen