Genesis chapter 1. 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. And God
said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw
the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from
the darkness. And God called the light Day,
and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning
were the first day. And God said, Let there be a
firmament 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. And God said, Let the waters
under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and
let the dry land appear. And it was so. And God called
the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters called
he seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring
forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding
fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth.
And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass
and herb yielding seed after his kind, And the tree yielding
fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind, and God saw that
it was good. And the evening and the morning
were the third day. And God said, let there be lights
in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night.
And let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and
years. And let them be for lights in
the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. And
it was so. And God made two great lights. The greater light to rule the
day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars
also. And God set them in the firmament
of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the
day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness.
And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning
were the fourth day. And God said, Let the waters
bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and
fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
And God created great whales and every living creature that
moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their
kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, 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 fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the
morning were the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring
forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping
thing, and beast of the earth after his kind. And it was so.
And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle
after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth
after his kind. And God saw that it was good.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the
earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of
God created he him. Male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God
said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the
earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have
given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face
of the earth, and every tree, and the witch is the fruit of
a tree yielding seed. To you it shall be for meat.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air,
and to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein there
is life, I have given every green herb for meat. And it was so. And God saw everything that he
had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and
the morning were the sixth day." So much. We won't cover all this
today. I just want you to get the whole
thing in the one reading. There are several things that
immediately stand out there, aren't there? It's interesting
to me that the Lord created for three days. He created light. He created this expanse called
the firmament. Which separated the waters above
from the waters below. And He created, He called the
land out of the sea, separated the land from the sea. And then
He caused the herb that had seed in itself and the tree that had
seed, fruit with seed in itself, to come forth from the earth.
And that was the third day. And then on the fourth day, it
was until the fourth day that He created the sun and the moon
and the stars. So it's clear that God created the earth before
he created those bodies in heaven that we look at, called the sun,
the moon, and the stars. That's pretty amazing, isn't
it? It's pretty amazing. What does that say about God's
purpose? Doesn't it say that God's purpose
has to do with what he's doing here on the earth? It is, because
that's where He sent His Son. And that's a condescension that
we can never really grasp. That God would send His Son to
this earth to live, to suffer and die, rise again, and then
reign over heaven and earth as the Son of Righteousness. So,
there's several things to be pointed out in this chapter.
We certainly can't point all of them out. But the first thing
I want you to see here is that when God created, God was alone. There was no one with Him. No
one helped Him. No one gave Him advice. No one
could prevent Him from doing what He did. And so, all that
God did, He did out of what He found in Himself to motivate
Himself to do it. It was His will. It was His purpose. It was His design. It was His
Word, and it was His work. And He's the one, after He did
this by His Word, when He called everything into existence by
His Word, because we understand by faith that the things which
are seen were not made of things which do appear, that they were
created by the Word of God. That when He created everything,
He always said, and God saw. So God spoke, He said what He
wanted to have done, it happened, and then He saw what He did.
And He looked upon it and pronounced it good. In every case at the
end He pronounced it very good. So those things stand out, don't
they? That God acted without any He didn't need creation. I've heard this before. I don't
know if I've heard it recently. But when I was younger, I heard
that God created us because He wanted to have fellowship with
us. Well, maybe He did, but He certainly didn't have need of
us. God needs nothing. For eternity, God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit subsisted as God, one
God, and having need of nothing. And there's no changing God.
He's immutable. He doesn't change. And He's eternal. Creation came, and the heavens
and the earth will be burnt up and be recreated. And then there
will be eternity with those things. But it doesn't change God. God,
it says according to Paul in Acts chapter 17, He doesn't need
our worship. He doesn't need us. He gives
to all life, breath, and all things. That's the first principle
of creation is that everything comes from God. He gives to all
and He needs nothing. He is almighty because He could
create all things by His word. Can you imagine that? That God
could create all things by His Word? Ecclesiastes 8.4 is a favorite
verse of mine. It says, Where the word of a
king is, there is power. And who can say to him, What
doest thou? That's an amazing thing. Where
a king on earth, we understand we don't know much about kings,
but if a king on earth could speak, his word would be done
because men would run about to do his word. Otherwise the king
would say, off with your head or something. So he has power
in his word. But the king of kings, the Lord,
who is over all, his word actually accomplishes his will. He didn't
need men to do his will. He did it with His Word. He did
it by Himself. The motivation came from Him.
We contributed nothing. Neither our help nor our advice. We weren't there. We were created
by Him. Psalm 100 says, He hath made
us, and not we ourselves. The Lord has made us, not we
ourselves. Those are the first thing we learn from creation.
Romans chapter 1, it says that creation teaches us, teaches
all men everywhere, God's eternal power and Godhead. His eternal
power and Godhead. Because He who creates all things,
Himself is not created. Jehovah's Witnesses say that
Christ created all things, but somehow He was created. That
can't be. Nothing was created that was not created by Him.
John chapter 1 verse 3. And so He's eternal. We know
He's eternal because He made everything. Everything that is
was created by Him. Except Himself, of course. And
He has all power because His Word could create everything.
And He is God. Here it says in the very beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. And then a little later
he says, let us make man in our image after our likeness. The
name God, as has been pointed out last week, it really is a
name that has to do with a plurality. And so this has to do with our
God and Savior. Our God, our Father, God, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
here is said to have moved upon the face of the waters. But I
want you to understand that creation was the very first thing that
God did in time. He spoke and it was created.
Now, this is, I think, important. We know what creation is. It's
intuitive to us, isn't it? We can't think outside of creation. That's so much part of us that
scientists fall into the trap of thinking that all that they
can know about things is what they observe. Because that's
all they know. And that shows how small the mind of man is. That he can only know what has
been created by God. But God first created what we
can see and touch and smell and taste. What our senses can observe
and absorb. And He did it by His Word. He
tells us how He did it. That's significant. That God
first started with creation that we can see and touch. And He
tells us how He did it by His Word. But then, later in the
Gospel, He tells us what He did by His Word that we cannot see
and touch apart from faith. So He lays those foundations
for us. A long foundation is laid. God is very patient. He
takes His time. All of creation was laid and
men were put on the earth and all of our lives were spent.
And then He tells us, this is what I did. This is what the
Lord has done. He did it by His Word. And we're
to believe Him, to believe His Word. And if we believe His Word,
then when He tells us about heavenly things, then we can believe Him
and have eternal life. That's the way that God has worked
throughout the earth. Look at a couple of verses of
scripture to support this. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He says in verse 46 of 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. It's always been a verse that
has caught my attention. He says in verse 46, how be it
that was not first, which is spiritual, But that which is
natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is
of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. You see how God did that? First
it was the physical. First His Word created. And He
tells us what He did in the physical. And then second, He brought into
creation the Lord Jesus Christ who was the spiritual man. A
life-giving spirit, He said in the verse before that. And then
look again at another verse of Scripture, look at John chapter
3. Remember what Jesus told Nicodemus
in John chapter 3? This is one of those, all of
scriptures like this, but this is one that we often refer to
because there is so much foundational truth in John chapter 3. He says,
Jesus said to him after Nicodemus, Nicodemus asked the question
in John 3.10, he said, how can these things be? I'm sorry, he said that in verse
9, but look at verse 12. Jesus said, if I have told you
earthly things, And you believe not. How shall you believe if
I tell you of heavenly things? That's the principle. God first
tells us the earthly things. And then he tells us the heavenly
things. First he creates us. He gives us a life. He enables
us to perceive the physical world that we're in. And then he tells
us all of this was done by my word. By my power. He writes
it in his book. Scripture he tells us. Is the
greatest gift that we have. We are holding here in our hands
the very word of eternal God. Whose mind is infinite. Whose
power is almighty. Is unlimited. And He condescended
to not only create things, but give us His word to tell us who
He is and what He did. But first he tells us the natural
and the physical. And then he tells us the gospel.
He tells us the spiritual. He tells us about the first Adam.
Then he tells us about the second Adam. And so that's significant. God tells us that he created
all things out of nothing. Remember Romans 4.17. God, Abraham, believed God who
calls those things which be not as though they were. That's our
God. He calls things before they exist. into existence, and nothing can
disobey His Word. He commands and is done." Remember
that verse that we have, that I gave you last week, as a memory
verse in Psalm 33? He says, Let all the earth fear
the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of Him. For He spake, and it was done.
He commanded, and it stood fast. That's what we're to understand.
Let us stand in awe of God who spoke, and it was done, and commanded,
and it stood fast. That's our God. He's the God
who speaks, who does all that He does by His Word. He tells
us first about the physical creation, and then He tells us about our
spiritual creation. We were created physically, and
then we were created new in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5.17, if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creation. That's the Word of God. Now,
the Lord Jesus Christ throughout Scripture, and I could give you
lots of them, is called the Beginning and the End, the First and the
Last, the Alpha and the Omega. That's significant. Because here
we have, what? The beginning of Scripture. The
very beginning of this creation. Christ is the beginning and the
end, the first and the last. He is before all things. Colossians
1.18. He says He's before all things. Christ is before all things. That means He wasn't created.
He was there when creation was brought forth. And He created
all things. Colossians 1 16, by him and for
him all things were created, that were created. All things
were created by him and he is the purpose for which they were
created. He himself fulfills his purpose
in creation. Now he did that when we see creation. We see him doing that by his
word. He commands and then he brings it to pass. But he also
fulfills his word and his purpose, his long purpose, his spiritual
purpose in creation, in providence, and especially in our redemption. Not only is he the first and
the last because he's the one who did all things for his purpose
and for his pleasure and by his power, but he himself declares
from the beginning what the end will be. He tells us why he did
it He tells us all about it. He speaks of Himself here. God
created the heavens and the earth. That's speaking of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. And God the Father and the Holy
Spirit. But primarily He's speaking of
Himself because He's the one God focuses on that created all
things by His Word. The Lord Jesus Christ. He upholds
all things by His Word. Everything was brought into existence
by His Word. That's the message of Scripture.
What a God we serve that He would have this power and this wisdom
to be able to have the understanding and the wisdom to create everything. And to do it in the order and
the way that it's done. and uphold it too, and then to
bring out of that great creation a picture that portrays what
He meant to do in our redemption. This is absolutely mind-boggling. But the Lord Jesus Christ did
this in the beginning, and like I said, He fulfills what He did.
He fulfills the shadow of it. Last week we talked about the
light. He created the light, and we saw what that means. This
week I want you to look at a couple of things with me. Here he said,
we just read Psalm 148, but think of creation and all these things
that God has created, whether it's the sun, the moon, and the
stars, or the earth itself, the sea, and the land, the trees,
the herbs, the animals, and men, the fish, whatever they are that
God has created, the birds, everything. All these things that God created
have a voice. And they all say something. They
tell about God's glory in their existence. By their very existence,
they speak. Like so many servants, they declare
God's goodness to us, His wisdom, His righteousness, and His power.
Look at Psalm, we read Psalm 148, look at Psalm 19. Psalm 19 tells us that these
things that are created are speaking a message to us, and that message
that is spoken is the glory of God. He says in verse 1 of Psalm
19, "...the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament
showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech,
and night unto night showeth forth knowledge. There is no speech nor language
where their voice is not heard." Isn't that amazing? There's not
a place on earth, not a person, not even a beast on the earth
that does not know that God created the heaven and the earth. According
to God, He has showed it to us. And to say that there is no God
is a direct denial of the truth that God has showed to us. This
is what it says in Romans chapter 1. In fact, look over at Romans
chapter 1 just to reinforce this. Chapter 1. This is the reason
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. He says in verse 18, For the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. To hold the
truth means to keep it from coming out, from admitting it, suppress
it. He says, "...because that which
may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it
to them." Now if God has showed you something, you can't deny
that you know it. But we do, don't we? For the
invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse."
And then he goes on and describes what men do. Though they know
the truth about God, about His eternal power and Godhead, they
go on and they rebel against Him. That's the testimony of
this creation. But everything God has created,
the sun and moon and all of creation, down to the most, the smallest
part of creation, testifies to our great Creator. Men, as you
know, have spent long periods of time trying to understand
what is life. And they've tried to look at
it in microscopes and stuff. They come to the final thing. They determine that life is this
sequence of these things connected together that we call DNA. And
it's really the code of how all of living cells are manufactured,
put together. And what they're made of. All
these things are described in this code for every cell. It's
got its own unique code. Every different type of living
cell. That's an amazing thing, isn't
it? That that code describes how life is at the cellular level. And that's as far as they can
go. That's it. And so that code reminds us how
that all things come about by the Word of God, doesn't it?
Men would say it's data that describes the way the world is.
It is. God's Word. It's data. It's an intelligent data. And that's the servant. Everything
God has created is a servant that testifies of God. He acted alone. There was none
with him. He accomplished what is impossible
for men. Now, all these things have a
parallel in our salvation. Think about it. He acted alone.
There was none with Him. He accomplished the impossible
for men. None gave Him counsel. None gave
Him help. He is Himself Almighty in need
of nothing. And He gives to all life and
breath and all things. That is how we're saved. He acted
alone. There was none with Him. He accomplished
the impossible. None gave Him help. He needed
no help. We couldn't give Him help. In
creation, we didn't exist. In the spiritual sense, we were
dead in trespasses and sins. And He provides all of our life,
all of our breath, and all things for us. What is the response? What is the response? that we
ought to give. Now we know that angels are higher
than us, don't we? We know that they are holy, but
we are sinful. We know that they are strong,
but we are weak. Men have no strength against
angels, and yet angels spend all their time praising God for
his person. Just the glorious majesty and
greatness of who he is. How much more are we who are
sinful and weak, without strength, spiritually ignorant, saved from
our sins by the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, who came
in the form of man, and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh,
and took our sins, and died under them too? How much more ought
we who are saved by his blood give thanks and praise him with
all that we have and all that we are. That's the message of
creation and the gospel together. Let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord. That's the last verse of Psalm
150. The last verse of the Psalms. Now one thing you see in creation
is the mercy of God. Look at a couple of Psalms here.
Mercy of God. Think about the fact that here
we are on the earth, us, Men, God says that we're like grass
today, we're here tomorrow, we're gone. Psalm 136. Which one did
I tell? I don't remember which one I
said, just turn to. Psalm 136. But here today, gone tomorrow,
in that sense, all flesh is as grass, and the goodliness of
man is as a flower of grass. That's what we are. Now, considering
that, and consider that God has set the moon, the sun, and the
moon, and the stars in the sky to give light on the earth, and
created the earth and all things that are in it, and put that
all under the dominion of man, can you see the goodness of God
to us? It's mind-boggling how good God
is to us. He gives to all life, breath,
and all things. Psalm 136. Look at this. This is a celebration of the
mercy of God. Verse 1. Oh, give thanks unto
the Lord, for He is good. For His mercy endureth forever. Oh, give thanks unto the God
of gods, for His mercy endureth forever. Oh, give thanks to the
Lord of Lords, for His mercy endureth forever. To Him who
alone doeth great wonders, for His mercy endureth forever. To
Him that by wisdom made the heavens, for His mercy endureth forever. To Him that stretched out the
earth above the waters, for His mercy endureth forever. To Him
that made great lights, For His mercy endureth forever, the sun
to rule by day. for His mercy endureth forever.
The moon and stars to rule by night for His mercy endureth
forever. And so on. You can see what God
is saying here. He's trying to get us to see
that all of creation testifies to God's goodness and His mercy
to us. God says that He has to humble
Himself to behold the things that are on earth. And yet He
created these things out of mercy to us. But this physical creation
not only teaches us that, but how much more does our spiritual
creation teach us that? Look at the last few verses of
the psalm, beginning at verse 23. Who remembered us in our
low estate, for His mercy endureth forever. And hath redeemed us
from our enemies, for His mercy endureth forever. Who giveth
food to all flesh, His mercy endureth forever. Oh, give thanks
unto the God of heaven, for His mercy endureth forever." You see, creation is a testimony
of God's mercy on a physical level. But He wants us to understand
that at a much deeper and profound way, His mercy endures to us
on a spiritual level, to His people, to Israel, those who
have been chosen by God and redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and
born of the Spirit of God, that they're called the sons of God.
This is an amazing thing. This is beyond comprehension. But I just want to take a second
here to exhort you. Each one of you. Young and old. Remember how the Psalm 148 said
it? Young and old. Old men and children. Let them
praise the Lord. God has created you. Here you
are in a life. It's not your own. We do not
live to ourselves. No man lives to himself. No man
dies to himself. Whether we live or die, we die.
We live and die to the Lord. You are not your own. God has
created you. And you owe him your life. He doesn't need it. You see,
that's what worship is. It's giving God who doesn't need
your worship. But worshipping Him because He
is good and great and good to you. Beyond comprehension. We cannot
just take our life and live it as if it's our own. We are not
our own man. There's no such thing. Or our
own woman. We are the Lord's. And faith teaches us that we
must bow to Him in loving admiration and adoration. All of creation
gives praise to God for the purpose for which it was created is fulfilled
because God ensures it. And God will have His due from
us. Either in justice or in mercy
and grace. And that's what these words of
His are to teach us, to drive us to Christ. Now go back to
Genesis chapter 1. I want to look at this pattern
here that's in Genesis chapter 1. Notice how He said this over
and over again. He says in verse 3, "...and God
said..." Notice, you see that in verse 3? "...and God said..."
Let there be light. And there was light. And then
you look on a little in verse 6. And God said, let there be
a firmament in the waters. And it was done. And it was so
at the end of verse 7. And then in verse 9 it says,
and God said, let the waters and the heaven be gathered together
in one place. And it was so at the end of verse
9. And then in verse 11, and God said, let the earth bring
forth grass, and at the end of verse 11, and it was so. This
pattern happens throughout here, this chapter, over and over.
God said, and it was done. That's what Psalm 33 verse 9
tells us. He spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. God said, and it was done. I
wish that we could have that so emblazoned on our conscience
and mind and heart that whatever God said must be done. Jesus said in Matthew 24, 35,
"...heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall never
pass away." The truth of scripture cannot be broken. It's eternal. And it's the only truth. Whatever
God says must be. It is so. And it will be done. And that's the first lesson here.
God, not only, it will be done, but it is always done by His
Word. And so our salvation is all by
His Word. The scriptures are able to make
us wise unto salvation. The Word of God declares the
purpose for which God created all things. And that same Word
is the Word that was... the Word written speaks about
the Word spoken. And the Word spoken was by the
Living Word who came and lived and died and now declares His
Word in the Gospel. So that's the first thing I want
you to see, is that God said, and it was done. We're saved
by the Word of God. The Gospel is the Word of God,
isn't it? The Gospel is what? The power
of God unto salvation. God said, and it was so. The
gospel is that power. The gospel tells us of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And when the gospel is applied
by the Spirit of God to the heart of a dead sinner, He not only
gives life, but He maintains that life and causes it to grow
and be fruitful, too. God said, and it was done. Ephesians
chapter 2, verse 8 through 9, it speaks about how we are saved
by grace, through faith, and that faith is not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
And then he goes on in verse 10 and he says, we are his workmanship. God created us. Not we ourselves. We are His workmanship. And He
created us by His Word. We're saved by grace through
faith. And that faith is faith in His Word. And that faith is
not of ourselves. It's the gift of God. We are
His workmanship. He created it. And He created
us by His Word in Christ. And the second thing in Genesis
chapter 1. Notice. You see it in verse 1. And God said, let there be light.
And there was light. I'm sorry, verse 3. And then
in verse 4. And God saw the light. That it was good. So the second
thing here is God said and God did it. And then it says God
saw what he did. And he tells us what he thought
of what he saw. It was very good. Everything
that God did, He looked at it. And then He tells us, this is
what I did. It was good. It was good what
I did. It was good. The only way we
know what's good is what God said is good. Isn't that true?
The only way we know what's evil is when God said is evil. But that's because God's Word
is the only truth that there is. We can't know anything apart
from God's Word. That's why it's so essential
that we read it and the Lord teach it to us. That's why I'm
constantly asking the Lord. I'm sure that you do too. Lord,
show me yourself from your word. Not from some kind of experience
with nature. From your word. Thy word is truth,
Jesus said. And so God saw and it was good. What Christ did, the Lord Jesus
Christ did, is very good. Nothing can be added to it. Nothing
can be taken from it. What Christ did is complete.
It's perfect. It's finished. Look at Hebrews
chapter 1 verse 3. It's important that we connect
these things together. Because that was the purpose
for which God made creation. So that He would lay the foundation
on which He would build. That we would be able to understand
through faith that all things were made by the Word of God.
And then in seeing Christ we would stand in awe of Him. Who spoke and who lived and died. Let's see, I'm looking to go
to Hebrews chapter 1. I'm talking and my fingers aren't
working. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3, listen
to this. We're going to read 1-3. God, who at sundry times
and in divers manners spake in time past to the fathers by the
prophets, not like the idols that don't speak, our God speaks.
And he spoke to the fathers through the prophets. Hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son. There's the second part. That's
the spiritual man, by his Son. whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness
of his glory, and the expressed image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power," listen, "...when he had
by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on high." What Christ did here, in purging our sins,
was what he said he would do. And he looked upon it and he
said, very good. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
took his place on the right hand of the majesty on high. And that's
because he did it all very good. Look at chapter 8 of Hebrews. Verse 1, now, of the things which
we have spoken, this is the sum. We wrap it all up and condense
it down to this. We have such a high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens. That's the whole summation of
it. Christ, our high priest, sits as king on heaven's throne. Look at chapter 10, verse 9. He says in chapter 10, verse
9 of Hebrews, That's the word, who accomplishes
his will, he taketh away the first that he may establish the
second. Listen, by the witch will we
are sanctified to the offering to the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering, often times, the same sacrifices which
can never take away sins. But this man, After he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God. Because he said it was done,
he looked upon it, and he said it's very good. Therefore he
sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. Our Lord Jesus
Christ did that. When he cried from the cross,
it is finished. It's finished. If it's finished,
it's done. It's very good. The Lord Jesus
Christ, all that God saw that He did was very good. It's very
important to understand that by saying this, that God is telling
us what He did is what is very good. What He did is what's important. What He did is what we need to
look upon. Hear His word. See what He did. Agree with Him. It's very good. It's glorious. He's wonderful. Because that's all of our salvation.
What God thinks of what He did in Christ is all that matters
in all of our salvation. That's creation speaking to us
of the glory of our Savior. And then, the third thing you
see here in Genesis, is that after He spoke and it was done,
and saw and it was very good, then it says He divided things. Back in Genesis it says, After
he created the light in verse 4, and God saw the light, that
it was good, and then God divided the light from the darkness.
He divided the light from the darkness. And then, that was
on the first day. And on the second day, he created
this expanse called the firmament. And He separated the waters which
were below from the waters which were above. And we think of that
as the clouds and the oceans and things. The oceans and the
rivers below, the clouds above. But even in that firmament extends
beyond that. Because there's also the sun
and moon and stars placed in that firmament. So it extends
not only from the atmosphere all the way up through the heavens.
That we see in the sky. What we call the sky in space.
He separated. He divided the waters which were
above the firmament from the waters which were below. And
then on the third day, it says, that he said let the waters in
verse 9 under the heaven be gathered together in one place and let
the dry land appear and it was so and God called the dry land
earth and the gathering together of the waters called he seas
and God saw that it was good so here you see God called the
dry land he made it appear and he gathered the seas in one place
and he put the dry land in another he separated the waters from
the land All these things of separation speak about how God
separates things. He separates, according to Jeremiah
15, He separates the precious from the vile. In Leviticus 10.10,
He separates the unclean from the holy. And here we saw He
separates the light from the darkness. All these things are
God separating. He gave His gospel He sent the
gospel throughout the world to do what? To separate his people
to himself. To call them, to sanctify them
by his word. and to call them by His grace
and to put His name upon them. That was God's work of separation.
He divided. The gospel comes. It's a message
of life to life in them that are saved, but it's a message
of death to them that are unbelieving. And that's the way God works.
Those who were ordained to eternal life, Acts 13, 48, believed. And God says in Acts 2, 39, that
as many as the Lord should call, You see, the gospel comes, it's
a call, and God separates. He calls His sheep. He gathers
His sheep into His fold. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold, Jesus said, them also I must bring. And His word accomplishes that
will. He brings them. The gospel is the power of God
to salvation. He divides, He separates. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2,
look at this with me. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, how
the Lord divides things and separates them. He makes a difference. He says in 1 Thessalonians chapter
2, in verse 11 he says, "...as you
know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you
as a father doth his children." Then 1 Thessalonians 2.12 he
says, "...that you would walk worthy of God who hath called
you unto his kingdom and glory." Walk worthy of God who called
you to his kingdom and glory. Not as you used to walk. You
used to walk as those unbelieving Gentiles, or unbelieving Jews
for that matter. You walked according to the course
of this world. But no, now you're supposed to
walk worthy of God who called you to His kingdom and to His
glory. Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 verse 13 and 14. He says, in fact we should read
a little bit before this. Let me read verse 11. For this cause God shall send
them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. that they
all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure
in unrighteousness." And that includes all of us by nature,
but in verse 13 he uses that great word of grace. What a word
of grace that is. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's a separation. The gospel
divides. He chose us to salvation. That
salvation was by the sanctification of the Spirit. That's a separation.
And belief of the truth. That's the evidence. That's the
fruit of that separation. And He called you, by our Gospel,
to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So this is a common theme. Remember
Revelation chapter 9? They give thanks to all those
gathered... Revelation chapter 5, I meant
to say. Revelation chapter 5, verse 9.
He says that they praise the Lord Jesus Christ. They say,
"...who hath redeemed us out of every kindred, tongue, nation,
and people by thy blood." That's what the Lord Jesus did. For
His saving purpose, by His grace, He separated us. He redeemed
us by His blood. There's so many scriptures that
talk about this. He created us. Look at Ephesians,
since we're here in the New Testament. In Ephesians chapter 4. In verse 24. Look how He created
us. Verse 23 says, Be renewed in
the spirit of your mind. The spirit of our mind, that's
the spirit of God in our mind. Who's taught us that the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ is true. We look to Him. We call upon
Him. We worship Him. We don't take
any confidence in our flesh. And we worship Him. He says in
verse 24, that you put on the new man. He wasn't there before,
God created him. Which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness, put away lying, speak every man
truth with his neighbor, remembers one of another, be angry and
sin not. All these things are because
God has separated us to himself. It's the grace of God that does
this. We're separated and sanctified by the Spirit of God because
we were separated and sanctified by the blood of Christ. Hebrews
13, 12. And we were separated and sanctified by the electing
purpose of God. Jude 1, verse 1. God has preserved
us in Christ. He sanctified us. He separated
us in Christ before time. And He redeemed us by His blood
in time. And then He sends His Spirit
to call us by His grace according to His own purpose. He called
His people. But back to Genesis chapter 1. There's the fourth thing that
God did. He not only spoke and it was done. He saw and it was
good. He divided. But He also called
things. Look at this. He says in Genesis
1. He says... After he divided the light from
the darkness, in verse 5 he says, And God called the light day,
and the darkness he called night. And the evening and the morning
were the first day. God names things. He says, this
is your name. That's your name. Light, we're
going to call that day. Darkness, that's called night.
And then he goes on. He calls everything. He gives names to things. And
so this corresponds to how the Lord calls us. When He calls
us, He says in 2 Timothy 2.19, I'll just read this. He says,
"...nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure having this
seal, the Lord knows them that are His, and let every one that
nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." We name the name
of Christ because God has put His name upon us. This is a significant thing.
In fact, Paul builds on this. Look at 1 Thessalonians. I apologize,
having to flip back and forth so far between Genesis and Thessalonians. But 1 Thessalonians again. I
should have given you a warning. You know, these little memory
verses are handy. I use them as bookmarkers. 1 Thessalonians,
chapter 5. I'll try to reduce the flipping
back and forth here. Look at verse 5, 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. You are all, what? The children
of light. It's no coincidence, I mean it's
no accident. It's no accident that God called
the light day. It's no accident that He called
the light first, that He created the light first. He says you
are all the children of light. and the children of the day."
We are not of the night nor of the darkness. It has to do with
that separation. He calls his people, you are
the children of the day. The children, who is the light?
The Lord Jesus Christ. I am the light of the world,
Jesus said. We're the children of the Lord Jesus Christ. By
his gospel, he has birthed us. And we're His children, children
of the Father, redeemed by His blood. Anyway, He says in verse
6, But let us who are of the day
be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a
helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." That's
what God has done. He's called us by His own name.
It's fantastic what the Lord has done here, isn't it? He's
created us. He's looked in Christ. He redeemed
us. He looked upon all the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And He even looks upon the work
of His Spirit, having given us this birth in Christ. And He
says it's very good. It's very good. So I just want
to touch just a little bit on this with you. One more thing
here. There's much we could talk about here. So creation is the
first step of a much larger plan. You see that. First, on day one,
God created the world. And on that same day He created
a light. Then He separated the waters above from the waters
below. That was day two. And then He
made the land appear and separated the land out of the sea. And
created the seed bearing herbs and the seed bearing trees. And
then He created the sun and the moon and the stars to be lights. And to be for seasons and signs
on the earth. And created fish and water and
all the creatures in the water on the fifth day. And then on
the sixth day all the animals and man on the earth. Now this
pattern, this pattern of how God creates is repeated throughout
time. God brings creation out of nothing. He brings light out of darkness,
order out of chaos, and He separates things above from things below.
He divides waters from judgment. The waters of judgment. Remember
Noah's flood? What were those waters? The waters
of judgment. He takes the sea and He separates
it. He brings the land out of the sea. That's separating the
judgment. from those who are not under
the judgment of God. The land, remember in Revelation
22, in the new heaven and new earth, he says, and there will
be no more, what? Sea. No more sea. That's amazing. I always thought,
I kind of miss the ocean. There won't be any sun either.
He says there's not going to be any sun because the Lamb will
be the light of that place, that city. No more sun, no more sea. All those things were temporary.
The judgment of God's wrath is taken away in Christ. Isaiah
54, he says, I hid from you for a little while. I was angry with
you for a little while. But just as the waters of Noah,
I've taken it away. And now your maker is your husband. And you're going to be fruitful.
This is the gospel. So the Lord does all these things
to teach us these things. This is the way God works throughout
time. He is righteous in all His ways and holy in all His
works. He works when it is impossible
for men to do any work. He works so that He has to have
all the glory. He won't save us unless He gets
all the glory. Think how God brought Christ
into the world through the seed of a woman. Think how, even though
Satan intended to kill the woman's child by killing Cain, under
the judgment of God, and killing Abel at Cain's hand, think how
God brought his son into the world anyway. Think how God found,
or had grace on Noah, even though the whole earth was corrupted,
and had corrupted itself, and he destroyed it by the flood.
He saved Noah out of that. Think how God brought Abraham
out of Ur of the Chaldees from an idolatrous people, and think
how he saved all of Abraham's sons, Isaac and Jacob, and Jacob's
sons, even by sending them into Egypt after they delivered Joseph
into Egypt by wickedness and by treachery. And God had a purpose
for that. You see the pattern? God saves
when it's impossible, when it's dark, when it's void, when sin
abounds, grace much more abounds. That's the message. When Israel
was in bondage in Egypt, God brought them out. When Pharaoh
thought he had power over them, God destroyed him in the Red
Sea. God preserved that nation even though they were idolaters
and unbelievers through the wilderness. He spared that nation even though
they had many enemies and he brought his son out of that nation. He even had a remnant in that
nation and saved them even though if he had brought his judgment
upon them it would have been like Sodom and Egypt. This is
the way the Lord works. Think how God chose His elect
and set His love upon them when it was the most unlikely thing
to do, and brought them into union with His Son, and raised
them to life because of His love and His mercy." Think about how
God has done everything for us. He created us. We did not create
ourselves. We were absolutely passive. The objects of His saving mercy
and grace and power And He did it all by His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. By the Spirit of God, He raised
us to life and taught us what He did in His Son. What a mercy. All of this was done for a great
purpose. The world was created not so
that God could just create the world, but so that He could bring
a people out of it into union with His Son and bring them to
glory. And that His Son, with them,
would be set in dominion over all of creation to the glory
of His grace and power. That is the message of creation.
Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for
your mercy to us. Thank you, our Father, that you've
given us your word by your spirit and taught us what you've done.
When we were without strength, when we were completely without
strength, the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood and died for us,
reconciled us to God, and now he lives to perfect us and bring
us to God. by his everlasting life. Lord,
help us to see that our great God is our creator and savior. Let us know that nothing can
separate us from your love. That we, in this life, though
we experience all that seems dark and trouble and the world
itself may crumble, we know that your word cannot fail. You will
do all your pleasure. You will finish the work you
started. You will bring us to glory. We will see your face.
All sin will be put away. The devil himself will be thrown
into the lake of fire and all the world, but left to their
own will, left to their own desires. They will bear the judgment.
Lord, we pray, save us from that judgment. We deserve it as they
do. We pray, find us in Christ. For
his name we pray, amen.