All right, brethren, let's go
to Genesis, Genesis chapter one. Genesis one, we'll be looking
at verses one and two this morning. Here in this part of Genesis,
we are given an account of God creating the heavens and the
heaven and the earth. And just so you're aware, the
book of Genesis It spans the first nearly 2,400 years of man's
history. There's a lot of history that
is packed there into the book of Genesis, the first almost
2,500 years of our history. And so this morning, I'm going
to look at some details regarding creation. But let us never forget
that all of scripture is given to us, it's written by the inspiration
of God, and it's given to us to reveal Christ to us, to reveal
the salvation of God. for his of his grace revealed
in his son. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he was speaking to the Jews in John chapter five, verse 40,
he said, you search the scriptures. You men, you study the scriptures
and you look in the scriptures because in them, you think you
have eternal life. You think that by your studying,
by your works, by your knowledge, by your finding out, that you
can obtain salvation for yourselves and make a righteousness for
yourselves, but they were missing the salvation of God. And Christ
said, you search the scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life, but they are they which testify of me. The scriptures testify of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and that's fully evident here in creation. We're told that Philip, in John
chapter 1, Philip findeth Nathanael. and saith unto him, We have found
him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus
of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Moses wrote of Christ. That's John 1.45. And then after
Christ went to the cross and was crucified and buried and
rose again, and he came to those two men on the road to Emmaus
in Luke 24.27, were told that beginning at Moses and all the
prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things
concerning himself. And so when we go to these scriptures
We're not looking to these scriptures to get ourselves saved, to find
out how we can come to God by our works and by our righteousness,
but we're coming to behold the salvation of God revealed in
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the grace of God to you,
His people. He's the grace of God, the salvation
of God revealed to you. And so, These scriptures are
recorded for us and given to us to reveal our ruined condition,
to show us what we are in Adam, how we are ruined. by the fall. We're destroyed in Adam. And they show us Christ, who
is the gift of God, revealing the grace of God, the mercy of
God, the compassion of God for his people to obtain for them
forgiveness of sins. And so in creation here, we see
pictures of man's need. We see a picture of man's ruined
condition. We see a picture of the fall
of man. We see a picture of us. We see
our destitute and ruined fall in Adam, in ourselves, in our
sin. And we're seeing the Lord declare
the grace of God. Christ. We're seeing Him declare
to us, this is my salvation. Christ is your justification.
Look to Him. He's the mediator between you
and me. That's what God is saying. You
look to Christ. I've titled this message, In the Beginning. In the Beginning. Alright, so
in verse 1, Genesis 1.1, in the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth. Our Lord is telling us that God
is our creator. He brings forth all things. All matter is created by Him. All the elements are brought
forth by the Lord. And all the laws that govern
those elements are all created and brought forth by the Lord. Our God is our creator. There is nothing in this universe
that has not been created by God. God created all things,
living and dead, animate and inanimate, all the things, whether
it's a tree or a rock, an animal, piece of dirt or the water, the
air, it's all created and governed by the Lord our God. He brought
it into existence out of nothing. Out of nothing. Turn over to
Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. We declare that God is the creator
and it's without dispute. We don't argue or debate this
at all. We believe it. We believe the word of our God
revealed to us by the Spirit. Hebrews 11 verse 3. Here it says through faith. Faith
is wrought in us by the gift of God. 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. And so the word of
God, and Christ is the word of God, by the Lord Jesus Christ,
the word of God, all things that are created were created by him. And the things that are created
came out of nothing. God brought them out of nothing.
He spoke them into existence. God didn't need dust and particles
to exist first. He created those dust and those
particles. He brought forth everything.
And so we're told that God creates things, I think the words are
ex nihilo, ex meaning out of, and nihilo, nothing. Out of nothing,
God created everything that we see and know. Man can make and
manufacture many things. He has many devices, many inventions
that he creates. But his inventions and his creations
are all born out of, he uses everything that God created.
And he makes things based on the laws that God created and
put into place for him. And so God alone is the creator. He creates. So that the things
which are seen were not made of things which do appear. The next thing that we learn
is that in the beginning, in the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth. What is this beginning? Because
God is eternal. God is eternal. What does he
mean in the beginning? He's speaking of the beginning
of time, in the beginning of creation. At the very beginning,
it was God who created the heavens and the earth. We know that the
Father is eternal. We know that the Word of God,
the Son of God, He is eternal. He was with God in the beginning.
We know that the Spirit of God is eternal. God has no beginning. No part of God had a beginning,
just as no part of God has an end. He's eternal. but the Lord
is speaking here of the beginning of creation, the beginning of
time. And so God created the heaven
and the earth at the beginning of time. In Mark 13, verse 19,
I'll read it to you. Mark 13, verse 19, the Lord is
speaking of the end times, the end of time. And he says, in
those days shall be affliction such as was not from the beginning
of creation. the beginning of creation, which
God created unto this time, neither shall be. And so the Lord speaks
of the beginning of time, and he speaks of the end of time,
because God is eternal. And we live in time right now,
but in that day, we shall dwell with God forever, eternally with
him, not confined by the bounds of time. in that day. So the
beginning of time, it's what's in view when the Apostle John
spoke of Christ creating all things. So in John, the Gospel
of John, chapter one, verses one through three, he says, in
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. And so the eternal word of God
was there with eternal God in the beginning of time when the
earth and the heaven was created. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him and without him was not
anything made that was made. And so we read up in the scriptures
that Christ is the wisdom of God and the wisdom of God was
with God in the beginning when the foundations of the world
were laid. And when God spoke all things
into existence, he was speaking. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the word of God. He's the revealer of God. He's
the creator of all things that we see. And so we read of in
Proverbs 3 verse 19, for example, that the Lord by wisdom hath
founded the earth. By understanding hath he established
the heavens. And so what do we know and what
do we understand of God? It's all revealed to us in and
by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who created us,
He's the one who created the heaven, He's the one who created
the earth, and He's the one who reveals all things to the people
of God, to know our God, to know our Creator, to know our Savior,
to know Him. And He's our wisdom, and He's
our understanding, which is given to us, to believers, who in themselves
have no righteousness, but we know that God is holy and righteous,
And we are made to know our need of Him that we cannot save ourselves
but that He is our God and He created us to know Him and to
worship Him and to serve Him and we only know this by the
revelation of God in His Son Jesus Christ. So in the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth and we believe Him. We
believe Him. We trust Him. We know that He
is true. and that he is revealing this
to us, making us to know who our creator is and who our God
is, that we should seek him and desire him and ask him to reveal
himself to us, which is all wrought in the people of God, because
God is faithful to reveal himself to his people and to put in them
that desire to know him and to be known of him. Next we come
to verse 2, Genesis 1-2, And the earth was without form and
void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters. Now, as I was reading
this, it became obvious pretty quickly. And I'm familiar with
these, but I was reading it again, and there's different views about
the creation of the heaven and the earth. Some men say that
God first spoke into existence. He first created all the elements,
all the dust particles, and just brought in all these things in
the form of a chaotic manner. There was all these pieces there
available to God now. He laid it all out, and then
he began to form and create the earth, and to create the heaven,
and to make use of those things that he brought forth. And from
there, he made a finished product. And that's what we see being
talked about and worked out in the rest of Genesis there. And I don't have any problem
with that. By itself I don't have any issue
or take any exception to that and there's reason why some men
say that and why they speak of creation in that manner. But
there's also another sense in which we understand the creation
of our God. In other words, God spoke and
created it in its final state. He created the heaven and the
earth. He just spoke it into existence and there it stood
fast. It was made whole when God brought
it forth. And from that perfect and finished
state they understand the scriptures to be saying, from there, it
fell into darkness, it became void, it became ruined, it had
no form. Now let me just read to you a
few scriptures, because there are scriptures that speak of
God's creation, that when he speaks it, it stands forth, it
comes forth in that final state. So Psalm 33, verse six, and then
verse nine, I'll read. By the word of the Lord were
the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of
his mouth. Now there's a picture of the
Trinity right there. There's the Lord, the Father, and he
spoke, there's the Son, and he breathed, which is the Spirit
of God. We see the Trinity right there.
By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the
host of them by the breath of his mouth. And then in verse
9, for he spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. God brings forth what he wills,
and it's done. It's complete. It's exactly as
he wills it to be when he speaks it. And God said, let there be
light, and there was light. There was no additional construction
on that light. There was light. when God spoke
it. He spoke it into existence. And
so, either way though, both viewpoints, both define and understand the
creation of God to be quick. and instantaneous. There's no
long lapse of time. There's no need for geological
evolution things. There's none of that. We don't
come from a stewie pot of goo and where a single cell had to
divide and multiply and become other organisms. God created
it. God brought forth all life. He's
God. He's able to do that. He doesn't
need millions and billions of years. That's the finite mind
of man who cannot comprehend God and tries to explain away
the reality that God is our creator. And it's not scriptural what
they say, and it's a lie. God is our creator. And he didn't
bring it forth through evolution. He's almighty, all-glorious,
holy God. And he does exactly as he pleases. And that comforts the people
of God. Again, we see other things which
explain the instantaneous power and glory of God in the scriptures.
For example, Paul speaks of a moment. of something that happens in
the twinkling of an eye. He says, in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye at the last trump, for the trumpet shall
sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be
changed. Even the Apostle John says, we
aren't what we shall be, but we know that when we see him,
We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. In that
instant, God will change us and transform us to be perfectly
conformed to Christ in an incorruptible, immortal body. This corruption
will put on incorruption, and this mortal will put on immortality. So God is able to do that. And so the difference really
does come down to this word in verse 2, and the earth was. That's really what they're looking
at, and the earth In one sense, that word was is from the verb
to be, right? To be. So that means, and the
earth being without form and void, God went to work and shaped
it and molded it into that final product that we see traced out
and declared in Genesis. But the other sense is that that
word was means it became. God created the heaven and the
earth and it became without form and void and darkness was upon
the face of the earth. And so we see there in that sense
God created it in its final state and it was perfect. And then
it became, something happened, which we don't know, but something
happened that made it devolve into something without form and
being void and in darkness. All right, another sense that
we see here that speaks to that in the scriptures is Ecclesiastes
7, 29. This only have I found that God
hath made man upright. He didn't make man deformed. He didn't make man a defiled
creature in sin and in ruin. He made man upright. But he hath
sought out many inventions. He became wicked, he was defiled
in sin in Adam. That's Ecclesiastes 7, 29. So
God makes all things perfect. God makes everything perfect,
it's good, and from there it goes into ruin and sin if God
permits it, if God permits it. And so here in another verse,
go to Isaiah 45, go to Isaiah 45. In creation, we see the will
and the purpose of God in creating the heavens and the earth. Isaiah 45 verse 18. 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. And so the idea there is that
God created the heavens and the earth. And before man was populated
there in the earth, something happened. Some say that that's
where where Satan was lifted up in pride and fell and that
you can look up in in Ezekiel chapter 28 verses 14 through
18 that describes the fall and I just don't Want to give him
any more space than than that. It's just he fell and sin and
then he came down to the earth and and destroyed it and ruined
it and brought it into this description here of being void and in darkness
and without form. And so we don't know for certain
there, but we do know for sure that God created. We know and
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. And there are some things that
we don't know. We see through a glass darkly. We prophesy in part, we know
in part, we speak of these things through darkness. We're separated
by much time and it just has a few words on it. And the secret
things belong unto the Lord, our God. But those things which
are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever. And
what has God revealed to us? Who has He revealed to us? He's
revealed Christ to us. He makes us to know that I am
that fallen creature. I am the sinner. I do need the
grace of God. He created me and I defiled myself. I ruined myself in my own sin,
in my own folly, in my own foolishness, but God in mercy and in compassion
has revealed to us the Savior, the Mediator, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And He's precious unto the Father,
and He sent His darling Son in the likeness of the sinful flesh
to do for me what I cannot do for myself. I destroyed myself,
I ruined myself in sin and in darkness, but He's provided everything
in His darling Son. All my salvation, all my hope,
all my forgiveness is witnessed and revealed in the Lord Jesus
Christ who created me for His own glory to know Him, to call
upon Him, and to fellowship with Him in spirit and in truth. And so our Lord has shown us
that Christ is all and in all, and He is before all things,
and by Him all things consist. And so we understand and know
the truth of our God. And that's clearly defined in
the scriptures. You know, I guess the question
you could say is, well, was there a fall between verse one and
two that isn't really spoken about that much? Because that's
what what what the two the differences are there that God created the
heaven and the earth and the earth became Void and without
form and void and darkness was upon it some kind of a fall happened
something happened in there I don't know, but there is a fall that
I do know about There is a fall that does concern me greatly
Because I was an atom when Adam fell. I was in his loins in the
same way that Levi was in the loins of Abraham when he gave
tithes to Melchizedek. And Abraham, when he gave tithes
to Melchizedek, didn't even have his son Isaac. Isaac wasn't born. And that means Jacob wasn't born
to Isaac. And that means Levi wasn't born to Jacob. And yet
we're told that Levi was in Abraham's loins when he gave tithes to
Melchizedek, the priest of God. And so it is that we all were
in the loins of Adam. None of us were born yet, and
our parents weren't born, and our grandparents, but we were
all in Adam when he fell. And the picture is that when
he became defiled and corrupt with sin, his whole body became
defiled and corrupt. And that's why when we're born,
we're born of that corrupt, defiled seed, ruined in sin. And we come
forth going astray from the womb. We come forth in darkness. And
we go out and seek many inventions and do worse and worse things.
and defiling ourselves. We come forth dead in trespasses
and sins. And so we do see a picture here
in verse two. And that's really the main point
is that just like the Earth's description here, that's a description
of you and me in our nature. We are void and without form
and in darkness is upon us. darkness, because of what we
are in Adam. The earth was without form. That
means by natural birth, we don't have any part in that form in
the body of Christ by nature. We're outside of that body. We
have to be born again, born of his seed, adopted into the body,
the family of Christ, built in the Church of God by Christ himself. And like the earth, which is
void, so are we void of righteousness by nature. We're void of goodness.
We're void of that holiness of the Lord, that perfection of
our God. We are not perfect in ourselves.
We don't have a righteousness to stand before Holy God in that
day by our own works. That's why He declares over and
over again to us the Lord Jesus Christ. Because in Christ, covered
with His blood, are we faultless. Are we cleansed of our sin and
can stand faultless before the throne of God. in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We come in Him, not in our own
confidence and boldness in our good works. Like the earth, we
come forth in complete and utter darkness. Darkness, having no
understanding, no understanding of our God, no knowledge of Him. Our minds are in darkness, our
hearts are darkened, our thoughts are darkened, until he comes
and shines the light of Christ into our dark hearts. As we'll
see as we go through this creation account in future times, we'll
see that light is Christ, who is the light of his people. So we're void of Christ's righteousness,
we're in utter darkness concerning the things of God, and we're
not in the body, we're deformed. We're conformed to this world
by nature. We must be conformed to Christ.
We have to have that image of corrupt Adam stamped out and
the image of Christ put in its place. Stamped in its place,
to borrow some words from Charles Wesley in his hymn. And so, we're
by nature dead and unprofitable, but in Christ we're made alive.
Listen to this description, go to Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter
four, we'll read a description there. So that would be after
the Psalms, after Isaiah. And then we come to Jeremiah,
chapter four. And in verse 19, I'll pick it
up. You see here this ruin which comes on the people. This is
Jeremiah describing this sudden realization that it's over. It's
been destroyed, it's been ruined. He says, my bowels, my bowels,
Verse 19, I am pained at my very heart. My heart maketh a noise
in me. I cannot hold my peace because
thou hast heard, I've heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet,
the alarm of war. We've rebelled against God and
we've made war against him in Adam. There in that garden we
fell and we made war. Destruction upon destruction
is cried, for the whole land is spoiled. Suddenly are my tents
spoiled. This flesh is ruined and my curtains
in a moment. How long shall I see the standard
and hear the sound of the trumpet? There's a coming impending judgment
of God upon the inhabitants of the world who know not God, who
continue in their own wicked ways. For my people is foolish. They have not known me. They
are soddish children, and they have none understanding. They
are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form, and void, and
the heavens, and they had no light. They were in darkness.
And so that description here is a description of man. And verse 27, though, here's
the mercy. For thus hath the Lord said, the whole land shall
be desolate, yet will I not make a full end. And so we see the
will and purpose of God. is to establish us in Christ,
to make us righteous, to deliver us from that death. And so if
God created the heaven and the earth, you could see why he would
allow it to fall into that state of being void and ruined and
in darkness, that he might show his glory and grace. Because
we see how God is our creator, and there's a lot of people that
do believe that God created them, and yet they have no knowledge,
no fellowship, of Christ. We're sinners, and God's making
us to know that we're the void ones. We're the ones in darkness.
We have no form. We need his salvation. We need
his savior, that he provided the surety of his people, the
one who came and paid our debt in full. And that's what God's
making us to know. And so it's one thing to be created
of God, like the angels who were created upright and did not fall,
but we know Christ in a very different manner. Because it
speaks of the Holy Spirit then coming upon the waters, hovering
above the waters. It said the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters. And that is revealing that beauty
of what our God does for us. That word hovered there, well,
it means to hover, it means to flutter over, it means to brood
over the way a hen nurtures her chicks, nurtures her little chicks. And what we know of God, it's
one thing to be created in an instant, but when we've fallen,
as we have, and God in care and mercy and in compassion comes
and flutters over you. and me, unworthy sinners. We
don't deserve that. Yet he comes in tenderness and
in care and flutters over us and moves upon us to make us
to know, to conform us to Christ in that patient manner. And then
we see scriptures like that too, right? Second Peter 3.18, when
he says, but grow in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. It's one thing to be in an instant
perfect, but our God has taken us in our fallen, ruined nature,
fluttering over us and growing us, which we see and understand
in the walk of faith. Walk of faith, but not as we
would be. We grieve over our sin because we see our foolishness
and the folly of this flesh. The flesh is dead because of
sin, but the spirit is alive. because of Christ. And so we
long for Him, we desire Him, but it's a walk of faith, as
we should be proud and lifted up and think of ourselves more
highly than we ought to think. But God, in mercy, cares for
us and comes upon us and gently moves us in Christ, in life,
in light of the Lord Jesus Christ, teaching us and growing us. And those waters are a picture
of man, right? In Revelation, we're told that
the waters which thou sawest, where the horse sitteth, are
peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. So the
waters are peoples. And so that picture of the Spirit
moving on the waters is a picture of God moving upon us. And so we see here that in the
beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth
was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of
the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters. God sent his Son, his Son obtained. the mercy and compassion of God
for us in putting away our sin, and he purposes to bring this
knowledge to us, and sends his spirit to come and hover, to
brood over us, to call us out of darkness, to teach us his
word, to declare the gospel, and to give us a hearing ear
to hear that blessed word and to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so he gives us life by the
Spirit. So I pray the Lord bless that
word and we'll come back and see more of how our Savior creates
us in newness of life and forms us and develops us in him. All
right, amen, brother. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy. We thank you, Lord,
for your grace and compassion, which is revealed to us abundantly
in your Son. And Lord, we see how even the
very first words which you speak here in the account of creation,
even these declare Christ to us. They show us our ruin by
nature and our need of forgiveness and salvation. and how that you
provide everything that we need, and everything is in Christ.
He's all, he's all our understanding. Lord, help us to see him, help
us to hear his words, to hear his voice speaking to us, calling
us out of darkness, and putting us into the body of Christ, which
he builds and makes. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks, amen. All right, brother. So when we
come back, We'll be in judges again, judges five, so.