observations, I'll call them,
and of course this is message number one in the series on the
book of Genesis, and if you're keeping up with titles, it is
simply in the beginning, God. in the beginning God. And as
I make some introductory remarks to you, I think the first and
the most important observation that is to be made, really not
only upon the book of Genesis, but upon all of the word of God,
is what our Lord Jesus himself said. And I think it would do
us good to read what he had to say. It's in the book of John,
chapter 5. John chapter 5. Our Lord spoke
concerning the writings of Moses and he had something specific
to say about the things that Moses wrote. John chapter 5. Our Lord is indeed
speaking to those who really despised him and had no use for
him whatsoever. They didn't believe his word,
and this is, of course, kind of earlier on in his ministry,
but I want to pick up reading at John 5 and 39, John chapter
five and verse 39, where the Savior says, he says, search
the scriptures. And literally he is saying, and
all the commentators of any value agree with this, he's saying,
you do search the scriptures. He's speaking to Jewish people.
He's speaking to those who treasured the Old Testament, people who
memorized vast portions of the Word of God, and they diligently
went into the Scriptures. And he said, you do search the
Scriptures. There's no question about that.
He isn't calling into question as to whether they ever opened
the Bible or not. That wasn't the case. He said,
you do search the scriptures for in them ye think ye have
eternal life. But, he then specifically speaks
to the reason for the Word of God and that which the Word of
God does. He says, these are they, or they
are they which testify of me. And this is what they missed.
This is what they missed. That portion of scripture that
I read to you just a few moments ago, Genesis chapter one, while
they knew that passage of scripture, They loved the Word of God, so
they would say, and all of the writings of Moses, being the
Pentateuch, the Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy,
and the portions that he wrote in the book of the Psalms as
well. And of course, there are even
some people who believe he wrote the book of Job. a question for
another day, but they would agree the writings of Moses were to
be very highly esteemed. And so they searched the scriptures,
but he said, they are they which testify of me. And this is what
they missed. This is what they were ignorant
of. And he says then in verse 40, and ye will not come to me. They go to the scriptures to
read, thinking that they have eternal life there, but he says,
you won't come to me. The word of God is about the
Lord Jesus and his work of redemption. And he said, these testify me,
but you won't come to me. You think in reading the Bible,
that's how you have eternal life. Listen, it is wonderful to read
the scriptures. We're all for that. We read the
word of God every time we gather together. A few of the men met
back in my office before the Scriptures, and one of the brethren
read a passage of Scripture to us. We do highly esteem the Word
of God, but we've got to understand this. Reading the Word of God
is not the way of salvation. The Lord Jesus and His substitutionary
work, that's the way of salvation. That's the way to God. See, there
are lots of people who have their daily Bible readings, and that's
good to read the Word of God, but you read the Word of God
to no prophet to your soul if in reading you don't see the
Lord Jesus Christ. So this is their problem. I look at verse 41. He said,
I receive not honor from men, but I know you Oh, that's a very
powerful statement. I know you, I see you, nothing
is hidden from Him. I know you that ye have not the
love of God in you. You've memorized the Bible, but
you don't have the love of God in you. Look at verse 43, I am
come in my father's name and you receive me not. If another
shall come in his own name, him you will receive. And then he
asked this question, how can you believe which receive honor
one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?
Do you think that I will accuse you to the father? There is one who accuseth you,
even Moses, even Moses in whom you trust. For had you believed
Moses, you would have believed me." And my, what very powerful
words follow now. Four, watch these four words.
He wrote of me. That's very significant. He wrote
of me. But if you believe not His writings,
how shall you believe My words? In other words, if you don't
believe Him, you're not going to believe Me. But if you do
believe Him, you will believe Me. Because He wrote of Me. You see, the Redeemer, He didn't
deny the fact that they were Bible readers. They made a diligent search of
the scriptures, but they didn't search the scriptures
looking for Christ Jesus. Let us always keep those four
words of our Savior in our minds. Moses wrote of me. Moses wrote of me. In fact, that'd be a good motto
or a heading to put over every book of the Bible as far as that
goes. But especially in the book of
Genesis, which we're embarking upon a study of, we could just
put over the book of Genesis, Moses wrote of me. That's what Christ said. Moses
wrote of me. He wrote of Christ. And since we had this indisputable
authority, about the subject of the writings of Moses, well,
whether or not we're able to perceive the Savior in any given
passage of Scripture or not, we may safely make this conclusion. As you read, as we read and study
in the book of Genesis, we can safely conclude, surely our Lord
Jesus is in this place, wherever you're reading. Surely he's in
this portion of scripture, whether we recognize his presence or
not. And may we always approach every
portion of scripture, and especially now the book of Genesis as we
begin a study of it, may we approach this scripture With this desire,
Lord, teach us. Lord, open up our eyes. I'm reminded
of the Ethiopian eunuch. When he was going back to Ethiopian,
and as you know, he had been to Jerusalem and he was no better. He went to one of the great festivals in Jerusalem. like going to a
Bible conference, and it didn't do him any good. And he's going
back, and he's reading the Scriptures, and Philip comes along and says
to him, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How
can I except some man guide me? And the word guide has in it
the meaning, except somebody teach the ignorant. That's exactly
what the word guide means. He is acknowledging his own ignorance. And one of the best things we
can do when we come to any portion of Scripture is, Lord, I cannot
understand this unless you guide me by your Spirit. I acknowledge
my own natural ignorance. We're smart about many things. And I'm speaking to people who
are, many of you are very highly educated, and all of you are
very intelligent people. But that which we have no natural
knowledge or understanding of is the salvation of God. the person of God, our own dilemma,
our own depravity, and the work, the ministry, and the work, the
death of our Lord Jesus, we have no comprehension of even the
necessity of that work. And so as we come to the book
of Genesis, that which we desire in this is, Lord, help us to
see Moses wrote of you. And if we don't get that, and
you know, if we ever get back to having Sunday school classes,
this is what the Sunday school teaches. This is what we've got
to stress in any given portion of scripture. And this would
be a good motto for you to give to your students. what the Lord
Jesus said, what did Jesus say? He said, Moses wrote of me. Therefore, we better be looking
for him. And if we don't look for him in a passage of scripture,
and if we don't see him, then it's not the fault of the scriptures. It's our fault, our own ignorance. And that's when we say, Lord,
help me. I acknowledge, I don't know. I'd say it's a blessed day when
the sinner finds out that when it comes to spiritual things
and eternal truths, the gospel of God's grace, it's a blessed
thing when he comes to the realization that, Lord, I don't know anything. And I'll tell you this, all of
us together, and many of us have been converted for a lot of years.
If we added up the years of the conversion, since the conversion
of all of us in here, it'd be a lot of years packed together. But all of us together, we don't
have a thimble full of knowledge of the infinite God. And we've
got to be taught. It matters not how many times
you've opened the book of Genesis chapter one and read it. I'll
guarantee you've never plumbed the depths of it, nor have I. We've just commenced to begin
and to get started to scratch the surface of it, Ron. That's
all. That's all. It's way above us. The Lord's
got to give us some understanding. So that's the first observation.
And so most important observation that to know that what Moses
wrote, of course, all of the scriptures is true, but what
Moses wrote was of the Lord Jesus. Moses wrote of me. Here's another
observation now that I wanna make about the book of Genesis. Remember the graciousness and
the, the graciousness of God and the mercifulness of God in
making certain a sacred record has been preserved for us to
read about creation and the wonders of it. God has carefully preserved
this book and he has handed it down one generation after another
and here we are some 6,000 give or take years since creation
and here we are reading about it tonight and it's still fresh to us. It's
still news to us. I'm not much interested in in
reading any news hardly today, but especially I'm not too interested
in reading stuff that's old. But there's nothing older than,
there's nothing more ancient than the Word of God, and this
excites us, doesn't it? It's a marvelous thing. The grip
that this book has on us. Somebody says, do you hold to
the doctrine of grace? I hope the doctrine of grace
holds me. I hope it reaches out and grabs
me. Because I can let go, but if
grace takes a hold of us, if God the Spirit takes a hold of
us, he won't let us go. And the scriptures, oh, if they
would just, as it were, if the Holy Ghost would reach out and
just squeeze our hearts. so that we know of the power
of His grace. Oh, how blessed we would be.
And we'd be so thankful that God has preserved this sacred
book. Because you see, the God who
spoke all things into existence, He's the same God. He hasn't
changed. And ever since man fell, man
hasn't changed. We're all depraved. And the one
way of approaching God, of drawing near to Him, that hasn't changed. No wonder Solomon, the wisest
man who ever lived, no wonder he said, there's nothing new
under the sun. No. The scripture says here in Genesis
1, In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The very first sentence of this
sacred book puts us immediately in the presence of him who is
the infinite source of blessedness. You notice there is no elaborate
argument in proof of the existence of God. The Holy Spirit would not enter
into anything of that kind. God just speaks through Moses. And He just tells Moses, write
this, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. He's
not trying to prove that God is real. The evidence that God is real
is, look what He's made. This isn't a non-person here. This is a real person. This is
our God, and we know He's real by what He's made. And we know He's real because
He visited this earth 2,000 years ago in the person of His Son.
We know He's real. You need evidence of the reality
of God? Look at the cross of Calvary.
And hear the perfect man cry out, My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken me? He
sure believed in God. He believed God. There's no question
about the existence of God. The salvation of sinners is proof
and evidence of the reality of God. You wouldn't believe tonight
if it were not for the existence of God, the reality of God, the
truthfulness of God, the power of God, and the grace of God.
After all, who but an infinitely wise God could ever come up with
the design to save fallen rebels by substitution and satisfaction? Oh, He's real, all right. And
he saves not at the expense of his law, but with the law's full
consent. How would God have men to know
him through his word? And his word reveals to us that
one who is the incarnate word, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, when we read, in the
beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, this is God breaking
the silence of eternity. This is God breaking the silence. Listen, if God doesn't speak,
He won't be known. You can't know Him unless He
speaks. That's what The writer of the
book of Hebrews is saying to us right there at the very beginning,
God in sundry times and diverse manners, spoken to the prophets,
spoken to our fathers by the prophets. What if he hadn't spoken? Can God be made known if he doesn't
speak? Can we know him if he doesn't
speak? He can't be known. A silent God
is an unknowable God. The only way we will ever know
God is for him to speak. He's got to put his word in a
book and then send his only begotten son, the incarnate word who fulfills
this book. He's the living word. In the beginning God, Moses at
once introduces us to the greatest of all beings, our God. He presents him in the essential
fullness of his being and in the greatness of the work which
none could do except for God himself. A monumental statement And then
I would say this thirdly, here's another foundational truth that
needs to be understood and embraced. Everything begins with God and
everything ends with God. Revelation chapter four, verse
11 says, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and
power. thou has created all things and
for thy pleasure they are and were created. Everything finds
its origin in God. And everything finds its fulfillment
in God. And everything in the end will
be found Praise the name of our God. Again, I point this out to you.
Moses makes no effort to prove the existence of God. His existence
is just a fact to be believed. And men know there's God. Men
know there's God. The heavens Declare the glory
of God, the psalmist said, and the firmament showeth his handiwork,
Psalm 19 one. Look over in Isaiah chapter 40.
Isaiah chapter 40. Look at verse 25. Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 25. And this is the Lord, he's presenting
himself. And to those who think that God
is weak and pitiful and can't bring his purpose to pass, they
need to read Isaiah chapter 40. And I pick up the reading here.
The Lord says in Isaiah 40, 25, to whom then will ye liken me? Or shall I be equal? Said the
Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high. That's what God says. Lift up
your eyes on high and behold, who created these things that
bringeth out their host by number? He calleth them all by names
by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power,
not one faileth. which leads him then to say,
Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is
hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? I
made all of these things. And then you say, I think the
Lord's forgot about me. Oh, woe is me. I don't think
He knows the kind of shape I'm in. I don't think God knows what
I'm going through. I don't think He cares. Wait
a minute. Look around. Who are you talking
about here? This is the great God, the infinite
God, the all-knowing God, the all-powerful God. You think He's forgot you? He
doesn't forget the mountains that He's made or the rivers
that He's made. Why, He knows when a bird falls
and dies. That's according to His will.
Aren't you more valuable to Him than sparrows? Look at verse 28. Hast thou not
known? Hast thou not heard that the
everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator, You see, Isaiah is led
of the Spirit to go back and draw from the creative glory
and the omnipotence of God to show His people that He takes
care of us. He who made all things, He cares
for His people. Hast thou not known? Hast thou
not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There's
no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint.
Do you feel faint? Well, he gives power to the faint. And to them that have no might,
He increases strength. Why, even the youth shall faint
and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they
that wait upon the Lord, those that believe God, those that
rest their souls in the hands of Christ Jesus, shall renew their strength. They
shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not
be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. And he's laid the foundation
for these promises that he makes to you and me by reminding us
of the greatness of his creative ability. Now, of course, there
are some people who say there is no God. There is no God. Well, let me just say this first
of all, there is no excuse for denying the reality of God. Because
the scripture says in Romans chapter one, the things that
God has made leaves people without excuse. And maybe this is the right word
to use. I'm not sure it is, but there
is, God has put within us, though this has been defaced and deformed
by our own fall. And so we have a depraved, we
are depraved, but there is a God awareness or consciousness that's
in everybody. It is depraved, there's no question
about that. So we don't know what he's like.
That's the reason people worship rock or a tree or an idol, something
like that. But you can go to the tribes
in Africa, For instance, where they don't have the education
and so forth, the knowledge, computers, and all that kind
of stuff, you know what they do have? They got a religion. And they got a God. They got
a God they worship. Now, it may be a tree, could
be a cow, but it's like the enemies of
Israel, they had Molech. And they knew he's got, he judges. And so with Molech, even the
Israelites put their little babies in his arms and they were sacrificed
to him. Scripture says this, look over
at Psalm 14. Look at Psalm 14. Psalm 14, verse 1. You know this. The fool hath said in his heart,
there is no God. Literally, no God for me. You want religion? You want the
opiate of the masses? You go and have your religion.
But no God for me. The fool hath said in his heart,
there is no God. Of course, we don't call them
fools anymore. We call them philosophers. We call them scientists. We call
them biologists. God calls them fools. That's
God's word for them. The fool hath said in his heart,
there is no God. God said, they're corrupt. I'll
deal with a little bit next Wednesday night with this issue of evolution. Fools, denying the creative glory
of God. God says they're corrupt, they've
done abominable works, there's none that do it good. The Lord
looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if
there were any that didn't understand and seek God. God said, they're
all gone sad, all of them together. Hey, that's you and me too, right? That's right, that's you and
me and all of us, all of mankind, we're all fools by nature. They're all together become filthy,
all of us together just stinking. What's that saying? We stink
to high heaven. That's pretty bad, stink to high
heaven. We stink to God. The only pleasant savor to God
is the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a pleasant smell to Him. But you and me in our self-righteous
rags, it's a stench in the nostrils of God. The only thing God will
ever accept is the bloody death of his son and his resurrection. And he only accepts us in him. We're accepted in the beloved. Well, in the beginning God, that's
the foundation of all truth. All true doctrine begins right
here in the beginning God. All true theology, all true religion
begins right here in the beginning God. You see, all of man's religion,
all of human philosophy begins with man and then comes down
to God. But the Bible begins with God
and comes down to man. See, we've got it just reversed. And what men have done, they've
made man the center of the universe. Fact of the matter is, we're
nothing. And He's everything. In the beginning, God. And doesn't
that put you in mind of John 1, in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. The same
was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and
without Him. There wasn't anything made that
was made. Our Lord Jesus is then the creator. And you know, I'll kind of bring
this message to an end here. The picture laid out in Genesis
chapter one of the original creation It speaks of a greater creation. It speaks of a spiritual creation. And that is the creation of a
people to the praise of the glory of God's grace. Let me ask you, was there anybody
to assist God in this first creation? Kind of silly question. There's
nobody to assist God in the first creation. Well, what in the world
makes you think God needs some assistance in the spiritual creation,
in the creation of a people predestinated to be conformed with the image
of Jesus Christ? Why would you think he needs
help with this when there wasn't anybody to help him with that? If there is a creation, the work
must necessarily have been of God. And if there is a salvation,
the work must necessarily be of God. The salvation of the
righteous is of the Lord. Now the book of Genesis is the
book of beginnings. In fact, the word Genesis means
beginnings. Someone said the book of Genesis
is the seed plot of the Bible, and it is. It is. And that which I read to you
tonight is God preparing the earth to receive a man and a
woman that he himself would make And then He would cause those
two to procreate. And through the ever how many
thousands of years God's going to leave humanity on this earth,
a people will be brought to salvation upon this earth. A people that
He ordained unto eternal life before He ever made the world.
In fact, He made the world as a stage upon which He would bring
to pass the great drama of redemption. And the reason God made all of
this that I read to you just a few minutes ago, He made it
for us. You see, man wasn't made for
the earth. The earth was made for man. Enjoy
it. I'm not saying destroy it, but
there are people who are earth worshipers. They're earth worshipers. Oh, you can't do that. The air, the earth, Mother Earth. Listen, we weren't made for the
earth. The earth was made for us. That's
what the scripture said. He got it all ready. And then
he said, now, I'm going to put my people there. And through
the years and years that we've been here, God is bringing to
pass his ultimate purpose. The salvation of a people to
the praise of the glory of His grace. In the beginning, God. Powerful, isn't it? Well, may the Lord bless His
word. Let's close in prayer. Oh, our great and glorious God, after speaking and studying for
a little bit of the glory of yourself in creative might and
power, we're again reminded of how little we are and how little
we know about you. We stand in awe before you, Lord. You speak, and it was done. You said, let there be light.
Oh my, the sun started shining. Oh, we do enjoy singing, Lord,
how great thou art. And then in this matter of salvation,
oh, we see the greatness of your grace. We're thankful that we've
been made new creatures in Christ Jesus. And as it was in the original
creation, all things of God, so it is in the creation of a
people of God. a people made righteous in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's all of God. And we've just
come together tonight, Lord, to thank you and praise you.
Try to worship you and adore you here in the middle of the
week. And I hope we've done that. Forgive the sin and the preacher
and the sins and the hearers. And Lord, adorn yourself with
glory and make us to be true worshipers, for such the Father
seeketh. Bless us as we go our separate
ways and keep us safe. Keep us looking unto Jesus, the
author and the finisher of our faith, in whose name I pray,
amen.