Back and forth so turn there
with me to Genesis and hopefully I can find what I'm looking for. Last week we got through the
first three days maybe the first four days but there are seven
days in the days of creation and As I said last week, a lot
of times people try to take the creation account and make it
a separate issue completely in the Old Testament narrative,
but it's not. It is the outline and introduction
of the entirety of the Old Testament, specifically the Pentateuch,
as well as it is dynamically the introduction and the outline
of Genesis itself. And so we do the same thing with
everything that we read, everything that we learn. We try to systematize
it in such a way that we can actually speak as though we are
experts or say, hey, you know what? I've got all the answers
here. I know what I'm talking about. Here's the theological
way it should be understood, et cetera. But God doesn't teach
that way. God teaches supernaturally through
the reading of his word. God teaches us when we read the
scripture in whatever language it has been written. Now, I know
that I've been through massive debates over the years privately,
publicly, and other places about, well, which version of the scriptures
should you read? Should you read the original
Greek, or should you read Chinese, or should you read Spanish? Whatever
you speak. Whatever language you speak,
you should read. Now, there is a difference in
translations. Some of them are dynamic. Some of them are word
for word. Some of them are thought for
thought. Some of them are this, that, and the other. Some are
paraphrases. all the way around but ultimately
you need to stick with something that has years and years of scholarship
in the context of translating the terms and translating the
words and most importantly you need to be discerning. You need
to ask yourself is what I'm reading here in this particular word
like I'm a stickler in John's writing because I know the Greek
very well in John's writing and so when I see an English translation
that doesn't fit with what I've been studying for the last 15
to 20 years in that I go, nope, that's a wrong translation. It
doesn't mean I throw it out, but it does mean I pay attention.
I say all that to say this. God's word, no matter how it's
been translated, can still speak. Because the truth of who Christ
is is there. Now there may, there have been
good attempts at trying to manipulate it and change it and hide it
and twist it, just like there have been in all sorts of historical
writings and theological systems and everything else. There's
always a purpose behind the author. But beloved, God's word cannot
be twisted. God's word cannot be hidden if
we just read it, if we're familiar with it. Because they might do
a good job in John's writing, but they may miss Peter's. They
may miss the Old Testament. They may miss something over
here, and all of a sudden, there's an incongruent mindset that pops
out. There's this, wow, something's
different here, so what are we learning? Well, here's the reality,
is that the scripture cannot contradict itself. And as a matter
of fact, the scripture does not contradict itself. There are
zero contradictions in the Bible whatsoever. There are none there.
Now the higher critics are going, well, I've got an entire paper.
I don't care what paper you've written. You've just wasted all
of your time. There are no contradictions in the Bible. You are contradictory
in your illogical inability to understand it. And you're looking
for those contradictions. You see? And so we don't have
to be these high scholars to understand the Scripture. As
a matter of fact, God doesn't give the depth of Scripture to
high scholars. He won't give it to them. God
will not give the PhDs the understanding of the Word of God because of
their academia. God gives the understanding of His Word simply
to the sheep. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 as
I read chapter 2 this morning, Paul makes it very clear in those
first two chapters that he did not come with all of his pharisaical
knowledge. He did not come with any application
of all of his understanding of Moses. He did not bring, he brought
zero of that to his illustrations. Zero of that to his explanations.
None of that. None of that. He said, all of
this is dumb. My understanding of every jot
and tittle of the Word of God from birth to the day Christ
met me on the road to Damascus is nothing. He didn't marry his
brain into the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God go, wow,
boo, I needed a guy like Paul. Now everybody can see. Paul said,
God will not use the wise. And I say that to reemphasize,
and I'm gonna get on my war horse. I'm not gonna beat the drum anymore,
I'm gonna be on my war horse. We must be in the word of God
alone. Get off of social media and Google
and YouTube and all the other sources where we find the answers. And it seems somewhat silly because
we're looking for the answers, but beloved, listen, read the
scripture. Read the scripture, then when
we have questions, we can discern if others are answering correctly. Don't quote a sermon from me
to prove your point in the scripture. It is erroneous. It is erroneous. It is a huge
fallacy to quote me as an authority. You ever thought about that?
You ever quoted a human being who didn't write the Bible? It's a, it's a fallacy. It's
a fallacy. It doesn't matter what I say. What matters is, is what I say,
is it what God's word is saying? So for example, I mean, I got
a lot of heat last week on that. I just, people, well, you know,
why do you think your understanding of Genesis is the right one?
I don't. I think Genesis is written very
plainly. If I have to know science to understand Genesis, there
is no gospel there. If I have to understand theological
systems to know the gospel, there is no gospel there. If I have
to know what antichrists look like in order to see what Christ
looked like, there is no Christ there. You see, I don't need to know. You don't need to know. Salvation
is of the Lord, not of the antithesis. Salvation is of the Lord, not
of academics. Salvation is of the Lord by grace
alone. By grace you have been saved,
beloved. By grace you have been saved.
How do you know that you have eternal life? Because God has
saved you by His grace. The Spirit of God rests in us,
the reality of that, and saving faith is a breath, inward rest,
sitting still without any worry, fear, or searching to find eternal
life. We don't search to find eternal
life. Eternal life finds us and His
name is Jesus Christ. And that is the only gospel that
of which you do not have. You do not have good news in
your heart. You don't have to know anything except Christ and
Him crucified. And all that that means will
be taught to you and you will understand it. But saving faith
is a supernatural work of God that regenerates the 3 year old,
or the 30 year old, or the 93 year old. When He wants to, at His will,
at His command, when He says, let there be life in the light
of My child, the elect one here, there is life. And the Word of
God just starts to make sense. That's evangelism, by the way,
beloved. That is evangelism, to share the good news of Christ
Jesus. And what does God do? God calls
His elect people. to come and learn and to hear. How do we know? Because you know Him. The scripture
will teach you of him. The scripture will show him to
you. You will see Christ and you will
know Christ and Christ will be a person, a God, a redeemer,
a friend, a savior. You will know him and then the
Bible will teach you what he's done. And the sheep will receive that
teaching. The sheep will hear it and go, yes, this is the beauty
of my Savior. Yes, this is the voice of my
Savior. Yes, this is the truth of my Savior. Yes, this is the
doctrine of my Savior. Yes, this is the gospel. Wow. And what is our response? All wonder, thanksgiving, excitement
in our soul, peace beyond all comprehension. unity despite
the fact that the world is falling away and then we wake up the
next day and all that goes to heck. So then where's our assurance?
In Him alone. By grace you have been saved.
By grace you have been saved. Beloved, by grace you have been
saved. the kindness and the mercy and the love of God through Jesus
Christ who died for his people, who satisfied the wrath of God
for his people, who substituted himself in the justice of righteousness
for his people, and who credits his people his own righteousness. See, you don't have to really
understand the depths of all that, but you must know this
Christ. There are many Christs in the world today. There are
many so-called gospels in the world. There are many so-called
preachers in the world, but every company that I've ever been around
has evangelists by name. That's what they call it. They're marketing the next person.
They have evangelists. They have director of evangelism
companies. Look it up. Go on LinkedIn and
look up evangelists. You'll see it. Sun Microsystems. They have them. Everybody has them. Because to
them, their company is good news. So I'm going to tell it. I'm
going to tell the story of our company. But we all know what
the good news is. It's the story of Christ. And
that's what Genesis is about. It's about how did all this get
started? How did all this happen? Moses had been hearing this story
since he was a little tiny baby saved out of the basket by the
sovereign grace of God. God saved him by grace because
he had a greater purpose to point to Christ. He is not the Christ.
Everything that takes place, when the wind blows, it blows
by the will and the wishes of God the Father that he has decreed. He has said it. And therefore
it is, and because it is, it is good. The activity of the
demonic, the activity and the experience and the reality of
evil, divisions and things of this nature are all part of God's
sovereignty. So we either get to rejoice in
it or snob our nose at the Lord for His good gifts. Genesis is
a book about the beginning of redemption, which is a book about
the illustrations and the preparations of God being glorified for who
He is, being seen for who He is, being seen through the creation
of His people who He will create for Himself out of the darkness,
out of the chaos, out of the tempest, out of the law. And
beloved, when I get to chapter three, or I get to chapter two
and three, some of us are gonna have conniptions. Y'all might
break dance in the floor, we might get Babs DeCostal up in
here for the first time ever. Y'all might knock over chairs
and tables. Because when I tell you that
Adam was cursed, before he ever fell, you're gonna have a heart
attack. The Bible says it. How do you know? You're so smart.
No, I'm not. I've just read the English. And
in Romans chapter 3, Paul has already told us that everyone
who is under the law is cursed. The covenant of works is an illustration
of the curse of the work. The covenant of works is an illustration
of the fact that only Christ is the righteousness of God.
And that's why God created the world, see. That's why we have
so many legalists in the world. That's why we have so many legalists
on every scale. Well, I can't do this or I won't
do this or I won't do that. And all this kind of stuff. And that's
why I have so many legalists that are known as antinomians.
Antinomian is just a new law. It's just a new regulation. It's just a new condition. It's
just something else that must be present. Well, I know I hear
you say you trust in Christ, but let's dig a little deeper. Is it wrong to dig a little deeper?
No. No, not at all. But it feels bad, doesn't it?
Why don't we dig a little deeper? Because we care. And when we
find out that there's really not the Christ of the Bible there
in that testimony, we can then proclaim the Christ of the Bible.
We can share the truth. We can correct the error as it
comes along. And we can walk together in unity
knowing that we have done our job of just being a vessel and
letting the Lord do the work of salvation. And when the Christ of the Bible
is then confessed, we rejoice. And when the Christ of Bible
is not confessed, but people double down on their alternatives,
we do what? We pray that the Lord would do
His work. That person is not reprobate. We won't know that
until the day of judgment. Christ alone knows His people.
He knows those for whom he died. He understands the purposes of
God because he is God and he has put them all under his feet,
all humanity. And so we don't get to make that
judgment. To say that we do is to say that
we are indeed God. At the very least, we are like
God because we have the eyes of God to see the hearts of men.
It's not okay. Where's this coming from? It
comes from the scripture, doesn't it? Because what is the instruction
of the apostles, the instruction of the prophets? We see Moses,
who had heard this story his entire life, and then by the
Spirit of God, instead of it continuing in the context of
the oral tradition, God the Holy Spirit decided to write it down
through the hands of Moses, and Moses wrote down the story. It isn't embellished, it isn't
added to. You ever had people tell you a story and you heard
it before but it changed a little bit? You know why that happens?
Because in people's minds, psychologically, especially ones who don't sleep, what you say in your mind becomes
a reality. What you think you heard becomes
the reality. That's why a guy like me has
every note, every email. I take notes when I get home
from a meeting. I write them down. I've got millions
and millions and millions and millions of pages of notes. And
so no, I don't know what I ate this morning, but I can look. I can look. I can go back and look. I can
go back and look and see what I said to my wife in 2006. I can go back. I can look. I know
what I said to my doctor when he delivered my first child who
just had her first baby. Crazy. 1998. I know what happened. I know what happened at dinner
that night. Why? Because I wrote it down. I wrote it down. My memory's not that good. So
now instead of trusting the oral tradition or maybe there's an
embellishment. Maybe instead of trusting that
we can trust the spirit of God wrote through the hands of Moses.
That he put in his heart exactly what was to come down on this
paper so that it is the word of God. The apostles sent by
Christ say that it is the word of God. Jesus the Christ himself
says that it is the word of God. He says that Moses wrote of him.
This begins here. God has declared salvation for
a people that did not exist but would exist when He created them
and Genesis is the story of how they came to be. Genesis is the reality coming
into being. Genesis is the promises of God
seen. Genesis is the light. visible
for the first time ever, which is the glory of God. I talked
last week about the fact that there was some confusion over
the Old Testament application, especially in the context of
Genesis, but some people think there are kingdom purposes and
things of that nature. Well, see, Jesus talked about
kingdom. He talked about himself. See, we know that because in
the other gospel, John's gospel, we see that Jesus was talking
about himself. Jesus was talking about the time
when there would not be a world, but everyone who was in him would
be at this world in a new world. See how easy the cults can come
up with some of these things? A new world, oh, a new world
order maybe. And so on and so forth. And there's
always creativity in the mind of man, but creativity is not
what God is looking for. That's not how we interpret scripture.
We just read it and the spirit of God gives us the simplicity
of it. Some people think it's about
creative intention. Some people think it's about scientific evidence
for God. Some people think it's about the scientific reality
of creation. And all those things are interesting
hobbies, but they have no relevance to the word of God whatsoever.
The word of God is to teach us about the redemption of God's
people, which is ultimately his glory. And what is the undercurrent
of all of this? Why did God say, let there be
light? Because he had elected a people for himself. Oh, that's a stretch. It's not
a stretch. It's a stretch to divorce Genesis
1, 2, and 3 out of the rest of the Pentateuch. It's a stretch
to divorce Genesis 1, 2, and 3 out of the rest of the 50 chapters.
When the first 12 chapters have to do with God dealing with the
world and it's Genesis creating the peoples of the world and
the purpose of redemption, what does He do? He makes promises
of redemption. And then he calls a man out of
the world, out of the chaotic garbage, out of the destruction,
out of the darkness, and his name is Abram. He's worshiping
a false god. He's worshiping the reflected
light of the moon. And then what happens? He grants
Abraham, by grace, faith to trust in the promise of God. He doesn't
disclose himself fully to Abram. And then he says, go and Abraham
went. He was empowered by God to believe
the promise of God and he went. And out of Abram, God created
then a people out of the world for himself. And then in the
last chapters, 13 through 50, is the teaching of what God did
with Abram. And it's a picture of election.
It's a picture of redemption. So then even out of Abraham,
there were chosen people. And God's blessing the world,
and God's blessing the people that He chose out of the world,
and then out of those people that He blessed, He blessed a
particular people called the elect, which in the Old Testament
are called the remnant. And this is a continual reality
of the work of God throughout the entirety of the Old Testament,
even today in history now, post-Pentecost. so that we can see the redemption
of God's electing grace, electing people, electing love. We can
see God creating a people for himself who he has saved in Jesus
Christ. And we saw these things in the
beginning. God created the heavens and the
earth. We see that that's just a plain statement. This is a
review, and then I'll get into day four. God created the heaven
and the earth in the beginning. God created the heaven and the
earth. This is just a blanket statement. that God, before there was, started
and created all that there is. And specifically, He created
the sky and the dirt. The earth being the dirt, the
heavens being the atmosphere. In the beginning, before there
was anything, there was God, and then He created the heavens
and the earth. And then the earth was without
form and void. The earth did not exist. The
earth was not there. That's what that says. The dirt
didn't happen. It wasn't there and God said,
well, what is that down there? Let me see what I can do with
it. Yeah, we had a really good cook in the kitchen and there's
just really not anything prepared in the refrigerator. But they
can go in there and find stuff like, you know, crushed up Cheetos
and all sorts and create a gourmet meal. That's not how God created. God didn't go in there and make
much to do out of a mess. He went in there with nothing.
He didn't even go in there. He was and then he created there.
And then he created it all with order and with purpose. And that
purpose is to see his glory. And that glory is ultimately
seen in the creation of a people who he has chosen before the
world began, that they may be alive in Christ. And that's the
story of the Bible. That's what it's all about, by
the way. That's it. So the earth was not. And then
the illustration of darkness over the face of the emptiness. Over the abyss, the emptiness,
the darkness, the void, the nothingness. God, the Spirit, in reality,
in essence, was there over the face of nothingness. And the
illustration there of nothingness is used in the metaphor of water. So here's God. And God has revealed Not just
here, the apostles prove what I'm saying, that God, the scripture
reveals, God reveals himself through his creation. Paul says
that in Romans 1, doesn't he? All men are without excuse, for
they can clearly see. You know what's funny about the
way Paul says that in Romans 1? He said they can clearly see.
It's absolutely obvious when people look at the world that
there is a designer and a creator and an orderer of such things. And so all of the other ideas
and philosophies behind that is just an attempt to suppress
what they absolutely know is true. And beloved, it's the same thing
that happens in the gospel. When people hear the gospel in
their natural mind, or in their religious mind, or in their self-righteous
mind, or in their pious mind, or in their academic mind, and
they hear it and they go, I just don't know. And then they create
a way for it to work in all sorts of ways. that the scripture doesn't give,
they're just suppressing the truth. Well, this is what he
really meant. This is how I really ought to
look at it. There's some things that I used to could listen to,
and for fun, I used to listen to some scientific nonsense. That's an oxymoron, but I just
love the nonsense sometimes. It's just, to see someone with
a PhD in physics, talk nonsense. It's entertaining. I don't know
why it's just entertaining to me. Shouldn't be, but it is. But we see these people, they
say these things, they express these things, but yet they really
know. They're not tricking anybody.
They're just lying to themselves. And so what does the scripture
say in Romans 1? God gives them over to a debased mind. He lets
them continue to believe all this stuff. But one thing that
I can't deal with, I can listen to that, but one thing that I
can't deal with is these people who are changing the narrative
of the Bible in order to make sense of social issues in the
context of creation. Now, maybe you haven't come across
it. Please don't deal with it. Please don't go look at it. But
now that I've told you not to, you probably are already looking
it up on your phones. Well, God didn't really create
Adam and Eve. He created a whole new race. You know, y'all have
heard the theories, you know, all this, that, and this is what
it makes sense. And this is, you know, blah, blah, blah. I don't
have the stomach for that. I don't have the stomach for
that. I don't have the stomach for
false gospels, false Christ, false narratives. whether it
have to do with the scripture or anybody else, but specifically
in the one to whom the scripture points. But this beginnings,
God then says in verse three, he says something, he declares
something, he decrees something, he says, and let there be light.
And what God declares is. What God decrees shall come to
pass. So what that means for us, and
this is a review of last week, is that everything that comes
to pass, God has decreed. Why did Satan rebel in his heart? Because that's what he was created
to do. Why is there evil in the world? Because that is what God
decreed. Because if God is sovereign, then He is. If he's not, then
we're in trouble. And we really shouldn't be playing
happy days with a little old book like this that's just a
bunch of nonsense. God said, let there be light.
He decreed it and then there was light. And this light, God
saw it. He understood it. He knew it.
He decreed it. He was not a distant force behind
it. He is the light and it was good and in this sense
in verse 4 the latter part of that sentence this is the quintessential
chopping block, pun intended, of the entire biblical narrative
of God and His electing glory and God separated the light from
the darkness And God called the light day
and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there
was morning on the first day. Now I said this last weekend,
we didn't get there because I talked too much last week, but we are
ramping this up. The whole point of the creation
account is to get to day seven. Day seven is the point. The reason
everything exists is because God rests. It's the point. God's not tired. The reason God
separated the light from the darkness is because that's what
He's in the business of doing. Displaying Himself in righteousness, in
light, and in everything that He does in the creative order,
He shows that because He is creating a people for Himself to save
according to His righteousness and His justice, which are equivocal. So God reveals that He can create
all things out of nothing. And he reveals that he has done
it in a sense where he has revealed himself as the one doing it. And he has a purpose behind it.
Let's keep going. And God said, verse six, let
there be an expanse in the midst of the waters. And all of a sudden
he's separating the waters from the waters. That's what it says.
So you created the waters. Now he's separating the waters.
What's the point of this? God is separating the waters.
God is dividing. God is on the chopping block.
He's pulling things away from other things. He's separating
things. I'm going to go ahead and give you the punchline. Think
about the sheep and the goats. This is the purpose of Genesis. This is why God created the world
the way he did. This is why the order of the
cosmos and all of its amazing intricacies, all the things that
I that I drool over sometimes, not because they're so enticing
and tasty, because my brain goes dead and I don't swallow. To sit there and go, wow, this
is amazing. But it's nothing because the
cosmos and all of its things and all of its glory only points
to the very one who is most glorious, who created it all, to whom it
points and reflects. who is God the Creator, Jesus
Christ our Lord, who is the God-man who came and separated himself
from glory in order to separate a people from darkness, to the
praise of His glorious grace, and so on and so forth. So God
is separating the waters, and God made the expanse, verse 7,
and separated the waters that were under the expanse, so now
here we get, and this is where we get the flat earth ideas,
because of the imagery and the poetry of antiquity. of how they
understood this writing. It's not scientific data here.
Though science speaks to it, it's not scientific data. There's
an expanse. So God separated this water. The water that was here, he pulls
some of it here and it is in the atmosphere and he leaves
some of it down there and we would know it as the seas. And
it is the water up here that gives water to the ground where
there are no seas. God has created this. He separated. And it was so. He said it and
it was so. And God called the expanse the
skies. Or your Bible might say heaven. And there was evening and there
was morning the second day. So here is this nothing and then
it became something. And then there's waters separated.
He separated light from darkness and then he separated the waters.
You need to understand, too, if you read the Old Testament,
you will see that a lot of the people of the Old Testament,
even the pagans, understood that things that were untouchable
and unsearchable were ominous or mysterious or glorious. So
the things under the ocean, the things that were impossible to
see there, were scary and dark and empty and deadly. And yet,
even the Greeks and the Romans in latter antiquity would come
to the idea that the heavens were a place of celestial glory
and that there were gods. They called the gods the constellation.
They named them after their gods and different things. And so
they came up with these stories of how the divine beings were
in the skies because they couldn't get there. You realize we haven't
been flying very long. And even less so, we've been
to outer space, which I could have told them what was out there. So people looked up at the heavens,
at the skies, and thought, oh, heaven. So that's where we get
the idea of heaven being up, and death and devilness and demons
being below in the abyss, in the sea. That's where we get
that idea. It's not a physical manifestation
of, you know, right above the atmosphere, at a particular point,
we get to heaven. But yet they tried to do it at Babel, didn't
they? And mankind has been trying to
erect a tower to the glory of God from the beginning. And only God can separate the
light from the darkness. Only God can separate the waters
and the expanses. And God saw that it was good. And in verse nine he says, let
the waters under the heavens be gathered together in one place and let
the dry land appear. So all of a sudden he's pushing
the waters away. He's separating the waters. He
separated the water from the water. Now he's separating the
water from itself and bringing land. And this is what I talked
about last week is now God is establishing in his order a place
to put a people. We're not amphibians. And even
if we were, we'd need somewhere else but the water to go. We,
we are humans. God purposed to create a people
for Himself and established a bedrock, a foundation. This is the picture
here. Why does the land exist? So that
God could create a people in Christ. Let the waters be gathered into
one place, and let the dry land appear. He said this, and it
was so. And God called the land dirt,
or earth, and in the waters that were gathered together He called
seas. And God saw that it was good. In verse 11, and God said,
let the earth out of the earth now come something out of the
earth comes life, vegetation, plants, yielding seed, fruit
bearing trees, and in which is their seed. I don't know why
that always trips my eyes up. each according to its kind on the
earth, on the land, and it was so. And the earth brought forth
vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds,
and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according
to its kind. And God saw that it was good,
and there was evening, and there was morning on the third day. So now God has created the form
of the earth. God has established land and
seas. God has established the sky and
the land, the atmosphere. He's separating, and then from
this separation, He creates life. Not sentient life, though some
people have argued with me that you can hear broccoli scream.
And I didn't mean to smile. I was trying not to smile at
that. People are serious about that stuff, y'all. I don't want to mock it,
but I mean, soulless in that sense. It's for our food. So his first three days, God
creates the place to inhabit. And then he brings forth life,
but it's not the point of the life that he wants to bring forth.
It's not the reality of why the world exists so that we can have
beautiful things and greenery, though I love it. I love to grow
plants. I love it. And my wife caught
that bug a year or so ago and now together we are an unstoppable
monster. You can't walk on our porch now.
Plants, plants, plants. But on the fourth day now in
verse 14, God said, let there be lights in the sky, in the
expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. and let
them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years and
let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light
upon the earth. Now this is illustrating how God orchestrated the cosmos. How God orchestrated the order
in which the world, the earth actually works and operates.
How God in his creative purposes put the earth and gave it its
own star and sun and then gave it a moon to reflect that light
in the evening. So that even in the darkness
and now, well, what about full moon? Guys, come on. It's a picture. That as John says, the darkness
has not overcome the light. When we look into the heavens
and we see that the sun is up right now. And we see on the
evenings when the moon is visible, there is light there. There is
something to behold, the reflection of the light. That even in the
darkness, we are not forsaken. Because the very Son of God was
forsaken in our place. What do you think the psalmist
means when he says, the heavens declare your glory? This is what he's talking about. So in this fourth day, now God
begins to do incredible things. As he's divided the plants and
the vegetation, and as he's created now these expanses in the heavens,
these celestial bodies, he goes on and he says in verse
16, and God made the two great lights. the greater light to
rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and he created
the stars. And then verse 17 says God set
them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth to
rule over the day and to rule over the night and here's a key
and to separate the light from the darkness. There's a distinction. And God saw that it was good
and there was evening and there was morning on the fourth day. But yet this is the first sunrise. Because the sun didn't exist
until this day. See how we have to read the scripture? What is
God teaching us here? God is outlining exactly what
He's going to tell you over in chapter 4. what he's going to start talking
about in chapter 4. God creates man and out of man he creates
woman. God separates the land and out
of land he takes and makes man. Out of man he takes and makes
woman. Out of woman he gives the first son. Then he gives
another one. And then between those two he
separates one from the other. He hates one and loves the other.
Light and darkness, light and darkness, light and darkness,
life. These celestial bodies, these
lifeless planets, these lifeless stars, they display the work
of God in his hands and they declare his glory. And he sets
this order in the cosmos and he sets it in such a way that
all life shall be sustained, that the elect may come forth.
And these two great lights, this glory, is a picture of his glory.
They rule. It's a picture of his power in
all circumstances. Just as he made two great lights,
he shall make two great peoples. A people for his own possession,
who will share in his glory the very thing that Lucifer declared
was his. The elect shall receive. And
then the other for a great purpose, which is destruction. And in verse 20 we continue. God said, let the waters swarm
of living creatures and let the birds fly above the earth across
the expanse of the heavens. So now God has decreed to fill
the heavens and the waters with life. He's got plant life on
the land and he's going to put other types of life in the other
places. So then God created the great
sea creatures. He created every living creature
that moves, with which the waters swarm according to their kind.
He created every winged bird according to its kind, and God
saw that it was good. And God blessed them. He approved
of them. And He said, Be fruitful and
multiply, and fill the waters in the sea, and let the birds
multiply on the earth. And there was evening, and there
was morning on the fifth day. God said, let there be and there
was. God now in each division, as
I've said, puts life. He provides and establishes the
water for the birds in the heavens to fly. He provides and establishes
the salty waters of the seas or even if we had the rivers
and the lakes and the tributaries and all the other things that
we know of in our water systems, whatever they needed for life,
God established it for them. God is in the business of establishing
what is needed for life so that He can show that He is
sovereign in what is needed for eternal life. We don't have to distrust God. Just look at the world. If he
can do that, he can do this. And if he can do this, he can
do that. Then we see the separation in the New Testament. We see
that the church is supposed to listen to the simple instructions
of the apostles. We follow them very clearly. We listen to them
and we do them. Why? Because it is God's prescription
for life. Not eternal life, but for living
life now. and specifically that we are
to be humble and quiet and tend to our own business and work
with our hands and serve each other as is the law of Christ. As Christ did in his way to the
cross, we should do in this life. Amazing, isn't it? But we want
to be the whipping in the temple guy. That's not the order. I mean, I know Hitchcock wrote
an incredible piece It was good cinema, the birds, and as a young
boy, that scared the living daylights out of me. Used to be a bird
watcher, then I walked out with a BB gun. But it doesn't happen. They're
not going to revolt. The zombie apocalypse of birds, it's not going to happen. But
yet, humanity constantly revolts. The creation and everything that
it is and all the life in it except humanity does exactly
what it was created to do. One night we came home and we
have a pair of redbirds in our yard we've had for about six
years. This is some of my idolatry, I know. But they mate for life.
And when one of them dies, that's it. Now I'm a sap. Okay? I'm very sappy in things like
this. And I'll drive up one evening about nine o'clock and I hear
this screeching. And I see these birds diving down at one of my
cats, whom I love dearly. And then I see the other cat
run, and in its mouth was a baby cardinal. Well, that cat toted
one that night. And if you don't know what that
means in the Tippins house, I took that bird from it. And that bird
survived, and it's still alive today, back with its parents. There was no way I was going
to allow that cat to eat that bird or one of those Forever
mated cardinals, see? And you wonder why I don't sleep.
I'm worried about birds' relationships. Their marriage is in trouble.
Children are hurting. Gosh, I'm doomed. What's the
point of it? That cat was just doing what
it was created to do. It wasn't evil. Abigail says, it's so evil.
You're so evil. Oh, is it? I thought you loved
that cat. Can we get rid of it? It's just evil. No, it was doing
exactly what it was created to do. It was created to eat. The very
vocalization of a feline and all the different noises they
make are to emulate sounds to which birds will be caught off
guard. Did you know that? I mean, think about it. So they
can eat them. I mean, I grew up watching that,
Sylvester and Tweety. Creation does everything it's
supposed to do. It's working. It's establishing
the purposes of God this very moment. Storms coming up, purposes
of God. Where do we fit in all that?
As the elect, we have eternal life. Why are we worried about
dying in a storm? I don't even think we're worried
about dying as much as we're worried about losing stuff. I just bought that
car. I just put up that house. And
let's just be honest. We're so busy about the world's
work, and we have to be good stewards of it, and we shouldn't
just let it fall apart, but there are a lot of things on our hearts
that are so out of order. That's why learning the scripture,
and reading the scripture, and being together in the word of
God is God's remedy for these types of things, so they don't
overcome us, so they don't overpower us, so that we can see that God
has separated the light from the darkness, and we are in the
light. that there's waters in the expanse
of the ocean that are sucking up into the cloud right there.
It's just a tiny little picture. It's a little, it's a little,
what do they call that? It's like a syndication of creation. God's just showing you how awesome
He is. And then I feel like I'm at the
foot of Sinai. I don't want to see this. I don't
want to hear this. I don't want to watch this. I
want to go somewhere else. Come back and see what happens. God brought all living creatures. And on day five it shows that
he created all the things that would bring forth great harvest
in and of themselves in each of its kind. And just like we see in John's
writing as Jesus gave him his revelation, he listened and heard
the voices of the elect. And then he looked and he saw.
I want you to think about this for a second. He looked and he
saw every nation, every tongue, and every tribe. And the translated
word that we use in that text in Revelation is, I saw thousands
of thousands and myriads of myriads of innumerable people. In Hebrews
chapter 12 it talks about that gathering. That will be the only
pure gathering of the Church of Christ that will never cease. That is the Sabbath. There will
never be a sundown again. And when we think of the birds
and the sea and stuff and all these things constantly, with
cardinals as an exception, constantly just mating and doing, it's just
a picture of what God is doing to reproduce his people, to create
a people for himself. It hit me when I was studying
this a few weeks ago, that out of the house of many reprobates
come elect children. And sadly, out of the house of
many elect families come reprobate children. And that is God's business. But through the body of Christ,
the gospel continues to be proclaimed, and through the proclamation
of the gospel with the body of Christ, God will continue to
call His people to the truth of who they are in Christ. Verse 24. And then God said,
let their earth bring forth living creatures according to their
kinds, livestock, creeping things and beasts of the earth according
to their kinds. And it was so. And God made the beasts of the
earth according to their kinds and livestock according to their
kinds and everything that creeps on the ground according to its
kind. And God saw that it was good. And then 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 birds of the
heaven and over the livestock and over all the earth and over
every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Verse 27, so God
created man in His own image. In the image of God He created
him. Male and female He created them. Now this is just like verse
1. It's a statement saying what God did. God created the heavens
and the earth. Now He's going to talk a little bit about it.
Now He's saying God created male and female. He created them.
Now He's going to talk a little bit about it in chapter 2. Verse 28 says, then God blessed
them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill
the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish,
over the birds, fish of the sea, birds of the heavens, and every
other living thing that moves on the earth." This is another
way in which Scripture interprets itself. There aren't birds in
the celestial heaven, the abode of God. It's talking about the
sky. And God said, verse 29, behold,
see, look, here it is. I have given you every plant
yielding seed that is on the face of the earth and every tree
with seed in its fruit. What does that mean? That means
you have food that replicates itself. You shall have them for food.
Verse 30, and to every beast of the earth and to every bird
of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything
that has the breadth of life, I have given every green plant
for food. So not only are men to eat the
plants, so are all the things on the earth to eat the plants.
And it was so. You notice God did not say in
the deep monsters of the sea, because he was going to feed
them people. I said, make sure you're paying
attention. That's the way I view it anyway. Stay out of the ocean.
And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very
good. And there was evening and there
was morning on the sixth day. God decreed and then God did. God created all living things
according to their kind. God decreed, let us make man
in our image And what does that mean? I'm going to preach a text.
I'm going to preach a specific sermon on that. And I want to
preach a specific sermon on what it means to be blessed by God
according to Genesis. I don't know, maybe I can put
them into one, but if not, it'll be two. But the scripture says
that let us make man in our image. And there are a lot of philosophies
behind this. There are a lot of you know,
historical ideas and traditions. I'm just going to say traditions.
There's a lot of scholarship behind these things and there
are a lot of opinions. But there's only one answer.
And the answer is in the text of Scripture. The answer is that
when God created human beings, He did so in a sense in which
they were after His own image, His own likeness. And that's
all that He gives us. That's all that He gives us.
And in the other explanation of the text, there's only these
things. And it's not exclusive or exhaustive. They have dominion over the world
and everything in it. They have all provision at their
fingertips forever. and that they have life. Life in a sense of having the
ability to do that. The birds don't have any type
of ability to do this or that or the other, but human beings
do. I'm not even going to go as far
to say that it is in the image of God and His righteousness
because I don't think that Adam and Eve were righteous. I don't think they were evil. I think they were just a created
being. It's like a cat's not evil if it eats a bird or if
it scratches the child who wouldn't put it down. Dog's not evil because
it runs after a squirrel or it bites the neighbor because it
feels threatened. Adam and Eve aren't evil, but they're also
not righteous. They didn't fall from grace,
they'd never been given grace. They were created as a created
being perfectly as God intended to do what they were intended
to do in just a few minutes. So God decreed and did create
all these things and in the image of God He created man to walk
in His goodness approved by Him as a type of rule to display
His rule over all that He has made. Now did God want mankind
to rule the earth in perfection? No. Otherwise that's what would
have happened. So God rules. The pictures of
light show that God rules like the light does on day four. And
the pictures of the persons of light, the life that is the light
of men, the light that is the life of men, show that they have
two lives. These two lights rule and these
two lives rule on day six. So God is in the business of
displaying Himself in His creative purposes, in His creative order.
But the point of all of it is not for the rule. The point of
all of this is for the day that is here. Genesis 2, 1 through
3. Day 7. And I really wish, I remember
in seminary, I don't know when, I don't know which time it was,
but I remember going through Genesis 2 and dealing with the
Hebrew poetry here. And looking at the structure
and the language and it's beautiful. Even the Hebrew in Genesis 1
is beautiful. It rhymes in the Hebrew. It's actually poetic. It actually has rhyme and meter
in certain places. But we don't have time to show
the Hebrew poetry here in Genesis 2, but ultimately God has created
a place for His people to rest. That's why He created the world.
He created a place for His people who are made in His image to
rest in Him. In Him. And to worship Him. And in the
typology We can look at the world as a creation of like a temple.
We can look at the Garden of Eden as like a creation of the
Holy of Holies, and I think that's why God illustrates the temple
in the way that he does in his commands. Because the Garden
of Eden is where God meets man, walks with him in the cool of
the day. He's in perfect unity with God as a created being,
and God the Son at that. but then he's outside because
he's not worthy. He, in and of himself, even as a created being,
is not worthy to share in the glory of God. You understand
that? That was Lucifer's heart. See, humanity didn't mess up
God's plan. Humanity is God's plan. And this creation of this world
in the Garden of Eden is a type of temple, and ultimately the
picture of the earth and the sky and the cosmos all points to
the same thing, the centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And that's what Genesis 2 unfolds. I don't think it should be Chapter
2, but it is, so we'll just go there. Go to Chapter 2. Thus
the heavens and the earth were finished. I mean, don't you put
the the end on the last page? You don't put another chapter
before it. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and
all the host of them. Everything that was ever going
to be created was created. It was done. It was finished.
And on the seventh day, God finished His work that He had done. Reemphasizing
that God had done it all. And He rested on the seventh
day from all His work that He had done. Now let's just, at
face value, it's not like God was tired. But God is not tired. God is not like man that he may
sleep. God is not like man that he may think. God is not like
man that he may learn. God is. And we need to see in this way
that God has done it all. The water had no part, the land
had no part, the skies had no part, the birds and the creeping
things and the sea creatures had no part, the oceans had no
part, the land had no part in it all. They were not, then they
were because He made them. And the beasts of the field and
the men, or the humans, the man and the woman, He made them.
They had no part in it. They just were. God decreed,
then God did, then it was, and it was good. And if this isn't a picture of
sovereign grace, I don't know what is. There was no man, then
there was a man. Poof! It's a picture of the gospel. The picture of there was nothing,
then God gave life out of nothing. God is the one who is the giver
of life at all times. And beloved, there is no time
when a child is born that it's not a blessing from God. I don't
care who he's born to. A child born into the world is
a blessing, even if it's born into the household of the most
wicked, vile atheist that could ever walk the face of the earth. It's a gift. Don't ever forget
that. Our bigotry sometimes rises above
our own IQs. God is the giver of life. And
when he was finished with all of his work, he approved and
blessed the seventh day and made it set apart. He sanctified it.
He made it like himself. He separated it. God is separate. from everything and then he created
everything and he's still separate from everything. And then in
that creation he separated all of these things to show he is
the God of distinctions, a God of separateness, a God of the
word there is holy. And then he rests and he separates
the day of rest that has no end. It has no end because that's
the point of creation is that he created a people and he would
continue to separate his purposes and separate his people and create
his people and separate them in Christ. That's what it means
to be sanctified in Christ. that they would sit with Him
and bask in His glorious grace forever. This is what worship
is all about. This is why we exist. And this
is why, as often as we're able, we should get together and assemble
to hear the Word so that we can know the truth and be reminded
of the truth and then be instructed in the life that we're supposed
to live as truth bearers. So there's no end to the seventh
day. All things are perfect. This is what we need to know
concerning every day and breath of our existence here. God has
decreed the perfect rest with Him for His people. He shows this rest in how He
created the world. He shows this rest in how He
orchestrated history. He shows this rest in how He
promised it all to be renewed in the person of Jesus Christ,
as we'll see in chapter 3. And Jesus says this often. He
says it often. He talks about how heaven has
been opened and how the kingdom has come and all of these different
things. And the apostles reiterate this
idea, except they do so through the cross of Christ, is that
Christ now has separated a people for himself through purchasing
them. through purchasing them. Jesus
tells in John 1, oh, you think you've seen that? You think you've
seen something? That's amazing. Just because
I said I saw you under the fig tree, you're impressed? Why do you think John's gospel
starts out with the creation words? Because it's the gospel. You think you've seen something
because I say to you, I saw you under the fig tree. Wait, just
wait, just wait. Until you see heaven open. Until you see the heavenly angels
descending and ascending on the Son of Man. You want to see creation? You want to see what it's all
about? You want to see why God did what He did? The whole purpose
of humanity is when heaven is opened on me. That's what Jesus
is saying. And the fullness of all that God is, is revealed
through me. God, the Son, came down from
heaven to bring Himself. He is the life that was the light
of men and in Him was life, John says. See, John understood the
gospel. John understood regeneration.
John understood faith because he'd been shown by the Word.
He'd been shown by the Spirit. He didn't have to sit down and
dig and dig and dig to try to get it right. God just settled
him with it. He was settled. Beloved, you
need to be settled. When we're fearful, we're not
settled. When we're in turmoil, we're
not. It is not of God. God does not put fear and turmoil
in the hearts of His people. It is the devil. It is the flesh. It is not good. He doesn't put
anger in there either. And if I could print out, wouldn't
it be something you could do, like a Z-tape on a cash register?
You just print out all your upsets and angers and just print it
out and say, lookit there, lookit there, boy. There ain't enough
paper in the world to print this one. There ain't enough. So Genesis and the Gospel, Jesus
came and He is the life of men. God will unite His people to
Himself. He's done so judicially and spiritually
already and one day He will do it completely physically. When God's ultimate intention
of creation will culminate in the recreation of what? Of His church. Of His world. Not this one. He's not going
to fix this one. That wasn't His point. This is
the separating. This is the sifting grounds. This is the thrashing
floor. The wheat and the chaff, the
goats and the lambs, buddy, we're going to go together all the
way to the end. There will come a day when the final act of creation
The final act of, and I'm using that metaphorically, when the
it is finished will be true in the glorified sense. It's true
now in the real sense. Jesus Christ, the word, the living,
the creator God, the life, the light. He tabernacled with us.
He revealed himself to us. He taught us. He reconciled us. And he says, and where I go,
I'm going to return and you'll be there with me." And why is it that we do what
we do each week? That we may be reminded of these
things so that we may worship with thankfulness, so that we
may look at the world around us, maybe even our own hearts
and minds, maybe even our own households, and we can rest.
Jesus, in Hebrews chapter 1, is the very God that rests. I
mean, look at that. Listen to these words. I read
it last week, I think. Long ago, at many times and many ways,
God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days,
He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of
all things. You talk about who's going to
rule the world. Christ rules the world. Through whom He also
created the world. Christ is the radiance of the
glory of God and the exact imprint of His essence, of His nature,
and Christ upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purifications for
sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high,
having become as much superior to angels as the name He has
inherited is more excellent than theirs. And there's a lot there. But for our purposes today, Jesus
Christ, the creator of the world, created the world that he may
create a people for himself. And he paid for them with his
own life by becoming like them in the flesh. And satisfying
the wrath of God on their behalf and then giving them his righteousness,
according to the apostles. How can a man stand in the presence
of God? He must be absolutely righteous as God is righteous.
The only way that can happen is twofold, is that the sins
of our essence are paid for and punished, and then we are converted
into an absolutely perfect righteous being. And beloved, we're not perfect
righteous beings, so our righteousness is Jesus Christ alone. He counts
for us. in His death and in His life,
in His flesh and in His divine. And He rests. He is the rest. We could go through Hebrews.
I mean, I read through it a couple of months ago. And then we have
confidence to enter into the holy places. We have confidence
to go back into the Garden of Eden that's being held by cherubim
with flaming swords. And we have the confidence to
just walk right on in there. by the blood of Jesus, who has
separated us out of the world, snatched us out of the domain
of darkness. And beloved, if we can do nothing, if we can
do nothing, we can live together as a people and be patient and
be loving as we worship God together. Without that, we have no purpose
on the earth. There's no greater purpose than Let the Lord's peace be your
heart. Let the Lord's peace be your God. Beloved, we must pray
for one another that the peace that surpasses all understanding
will be our mantle as the Spirit of God teaches us. Let's pray. We thank you, Father, for the
creation of the world. We thank you, Father, for the
creation of our lives. Lord, that through all that you've
made, you have purpose to bring your son into the world to save
your people for your glory and for your namesake. And so as
we worship today, as we continue to sing, as we think about our
independence, Lord, help us to see the silliness behind that.
Though we might be, in an American sense, free, we are totally bound
to your glory in the gospel. We are freed from the law, we
are freed from death, we are freed from sin, we are freed
from the wrath that is to come on those who are unbelievers. But Father, as your elect people,
you have shown us the truth and we have peace. Lord, let us have
the freedom of peace. Let us look at the world around
us. And yes, we see what it is and we see what exists in it.
And Lord, if it weren't for your grace, we would be like the rest
of the world, lost without hope, wondering how we're going to
fix the problems around us. But Lord, you are the one who
orders in the chaos. You are the one who brings light
out of darkness. Father, you are the one who speaks
to the dead and life comes. So help us to trust in you for
our salvation and to trust in you for this life. To trust in
you and the lives of those around us. Father, our own loved ones,
as you well know, so many of us have loved ones who do not
believe. Father, we trust in you that
you will do what is your purpose in their lives as we share the
gospel with them. Father, we pray that you would
also help our brothers and sisters in the faith, some who are troubled, some who are scared, some who
are ill. And Father, there are many of us, too, who are just
having a difficult time with the normal things of life. Lord,
we thank you that you are gracious in the small things and that
your grace abounds, whether we spend a dollar, Lord, or have
a child or get very bad news from our doctors, whatever it
might be. Your grace is enough. Your favor in Christ is enough.
That's what it means that you have created us in Christ Jesus
to live. You've created us in Christ Jesus
to learn and to love one another and to learn the gospel. You've
created us in Christ Jesus to praise you for your glorious
grace. And so help us do that faithfully. Help us to be gentle. Help us to pray and help us to
labor. without fear, and help us to
labor, Lord, without anxiety, and help us to labor, Lord, without
giving up. For Christ cannot fail us. He
did not quit, but He gave Himself as a ransom for many. And we
are glad to be counted in that number. In His name we pray. Amen.