Genesis chapter 1. You've noticed
I've asked our young people, the two older of our classes,
to be in our class this morning. I know that you all would rather
be in your class each week, but I want you to come out here this
morning. you don't realize how much you're
on my heart every single day, and especially this week as I
thought about preparing a lesson on creation. You older folks,
I want you to listen too, but our young people have been especially
on my heart this week because you're growing up in a world
where the story of God creating the heaven and the earth is under
such attack, people just try to doing everything they can
to deny the fact that this story of creation that we'll read from
God's word. And I'll tell you why they're
doing it. For the prophets, it must be important for us to understand
God created heaven and earth because the prophets frequently
refer to God as the creator. And the reason they do that is
because whoever created everything's God. Isn't that right? Whoever
created everything, now that's God. And this is why people today
push this theory of evolution. If they can prove God didn't
create everything, then everything that happened after Genesis 1
isn't true either, right? If they can prove that God does
not exist, that God's not the creator, then they don't have
to answer to God. They don't have to answer to
God's law. They don't have to bow to Christ. They won't have to
face God in judgment. And one of the reasons that I
love this story of creation It reminds me God's in control. Now there's nothing outside of
God's control. He is all powerful. Everything's all right. It's
right on God's schedule that he has purposed from all of eternity. And this is what I want us to
see this morning. God did create heaven and earth. God does rule
in heaven and earth. And here's why God created heaven
and earth. God created heaven and earth
for the glory of his son, our Lord Jesus Christ. God created
man and put man on his earth so that Christ would get glory
in saving them from their sin. Now, here's another reason that
people don't want to admit God created heaven and earth and
why they push this theory of evolution is because they don't
want to admit they need to be born again. If man started out
on the bottom, if he started out in this primordial ooze and
he's been working his way up ever since, well, man doesn't
need to be born again because eventually we'll get there. But
if man started out on the top and he fell all the way to the
bottom, he fell all the way to sin and death, then it's obvious
we must be born again. Here's another reason I love
the story of creation. God who created heaven and earth
has got the power to do for me what I must have. He's got the
power to cause me to be born again. He's got the power to
create a new heart in me. And that's what I want us to
see this morning. So let's begin in verse one, Genesis one. In
the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Now the
Bible begins with God because everything begins with God. Now
God wasn't created, God's eternal. There's never been a time that
God hasn't been. He's always been. God doesn't
have a beginning like we do. And the Bible, you notice this,
never tries to prove that God exists. It's just obvious. It's just a given that we're
to believe God is. The theory of evolution has got
to be proved. I mean, volumes of books written
trying to prove the theory of evolution. The Bible never wastes
a word trying to prove God is. He just is. That's just obvious
to anybody. And there was a time there was
nothing but God. You think about there was no
earth, there was no sun, no moon, no stars, no angels, only God. And one day, one, I can't even
say day, a moment, I don't know how to say that, because God
doesn't dwell in time, but there was a time God's created the
heavens and the earth. There was a day God put this
ball in space, earth, that we dwell, there was a day God, that
ball wasn't there, and suddenly it was. God put it there, put
it right where it belongs. That's Genesis 1-1. This is the
time we also believe that angels were created. Now, verse two.
And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon
the face of the deep and the spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters. Now something has happened between
verse one and verse two of Genesis one, something happened. God
created the heavens and the earth and the earth became, that word
was there is became. The earth became without form. It became void. It became full
of darkness. It was without form. That word
means worthless or a place of confusion. God's creation became
worthless and a place of confusion. That word vain is empty. God's creation became empty.
And darkness doesn't just mean there was no light. It means
that God's creation became a place of misery and destruction. It
became a place of death and ignorance. God's creation became filled
with these things. Well, God didn't create anything
that way. God didn't create anything that was without form and void
and darkness. God is light. Well, what happened? What happened between verse one
and two? Well, look over in Isaiah chapter 14. This is when we believe
that Satan fell. This is when we believe that
Satan was cast from heaven and cast to earth. Lucifer, one of
the angels that was created, was one of the chief angels.
He was the son of morning. And that wasn't good enough for
Lucifer. One day he said, I'm gonna be
God. And look what happened, Isaiah 14 and verse 12. How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground which did weaken the nations? Why was he cast down? Why did
he weaken God's creation? For thou hast said in thy heart,
I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the cloud. I will be like the most high.
Yet thou shall be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly
look upon thee and consider thee, saying, is this the man that
did rule the earth, that made the earth to tremble and did
shake the kingdoms? How did he shake the kingdoms?
How did he make the earth to tremble? When he was cast out
of heaven and came to earth. Our Lord said in Luke chapter
10, that he beheld Satan fall from heaven as lightning. And
when he struck the earth, earth was destroyed. When Satan came
to earth, earth became without form and void and full of darkness. Now, this is just in there for
what it's worth category. It seems like there was a time
that dinosaurs lived and those kinds of things. Well, that they
live between verse one and verse two of Genesis chapter one. But
when Satan was cast to earth, everything was killed. The earth
became without form and void. Now, Who knows how much time
passed between verse one and verse two? We have no way of
knowing how much time passed. There's no time to God. It didn't
matter to God, but probably it was a lot of time by the way
we count time between verse one and verse two. You know, the
earth itself, the ball earth, it may be millions of years old.
God may have created that ball in verse one and when it became
without form and void, That may have been a million years on,
who knows? But people who believe evolution,
they say, well, the story of creation can't be true because
the earth is older than 6,000 years. The rocks and the minerals
and things on earth, they're older than 6,000 years, so the
Bible story can't be true. Well, the earth very well may
be millions of years old, but man's time on earth, from the
time God created man, that's just been 6,000 years. So just
because rocks and things, somebody might think they're older than
6,000 years, in no way makes God's story of creation not true. That God's first creation became
without form, it became void, it became full of darkness. Well,
look at verse three. And God said, let there be light,
and there was light. And God called the light and
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 evening and the morning were
the first day. Look at Colossians chapter one. Who said this, let
there be light? Well, that was our Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ spoke and said, he is
the word of God. He said, let there be light.
Colossians 1 verse 15. It's speaking of Christ who is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
For by him were all things created. He's the one that spoke these
things into existence. By him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible.
Whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by him and for him. Christ is the one
that said, let there be light. Well, what is this light? It's
not the sun. Well, see this sun wasn't created
till the fourth day. So what's this light? Look at
John chapter one. This light is Christ. Christ
appeared in God's creation. John one. Verse one, in the beginning was
the word. That's Christ, he's the word
of God. 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 was not anything
made that was made. In him was life and the life
was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not. Christ spoke the light
into existence and he is the light. And when God burns up
this creation and he makes new heavens and a new earth wherein
dwells righteousness, you read this this afternoon, if you want
Revelations 21, they're not gonna be a sun because Christ will
be the light of it. He's the light of creation. And
the very moment Christ the light appeared, what happened? Division. At the moment Christ appeared,
there was division. The light and the darkness must
be divided. The light and the darkness can't
be in the same place at the same time. Holiness and righteousness
must always be divided from sin and iniquity. But in heaven,
in the second creation, when God makes everything new, there
won't be any night. There'll be no more division
there, only union and unity with Christ. And God saw that the
light was good. You know why he saw it was good?
Because he saw his son, who is good. Now we'll come back to
that in just a few minutes, but that was the first day, the first
24 hour period. God did all the work of creation
in six 24 hour periods, six 24 hour days. We'll look at verse
six, the second day. 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.
Now look over at Psalm chapter eight. The firmament, that's
the sky, the atmosphere above the earth, Then there's the second
heavens, the outer space. And God created all that massive
space that we can't even measure. He just spread it out with his
fingers. That's how great God is. He just spread that out with
his fingers. Just as easy as we open and shut
the drapes. Look at Psalm 8 verse 3. When
I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, This didn't take
God's hands and arms, this space we can't even measure. That's
just the work of God's fingers. The moon and the stars which
thou hast ordained. What is man that thou art mindful
of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him. This creation
of the firmament, the skies, this was the work of God's fingers. And it was so. God said, let
it appear, and it was so. Now look back at verse nine. And God said, let the waters
under the heaven be gathered together under 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, and 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. Now notice, every time God says,
let something be, it was so. It always happened just the way
God said for it to happen. That's the power of God. Let
something be and it's so. And every time God saw something
that he'd done, God saw that it was good. That's the goodness
of God, both the power and goodness of God. Now here on the third
day, the whole earth, the whole globe was covered with water.
And God said, water, go back. And it went back. And God said,
stay right there. And it has forever stayed right there. Other
than the time of the flood, Noah's flood, that water stayed right
exactly where God told it for 6,000 years. That's where it's
been. because God said to stay right
there. And the earth has been there, the dry land has been
there ever since by God's commandment. And once the dry land appeared,
God said, let all the plants be. Just suddenly there's grass
and there's herbs and there are vegetables and there's fruit
trees, just all of them were suddenly there because God said,
let them be. And there they were, it was so. Now, God didn't take
things that were already there and make the plants and make
the trees That's making something. That's like Cecil, he made these
banisters. He took stuff that was already
there and put it all together and made that. That's not the
way God made the earth. There was nothing. There's nothing
but thin air and God said, let it be. Suddenly there it was. That's the power. He created
those things out of nothing. God spoke and the sun appeared
and the moon appeared and the plants appeared, just all the
animals because God just spoke them into existence. And we see
an important phrase here in this third day, whose seed is in itself. Those trees producing more fruit
trees after their kind, after his kind. A tomato plant will
never produce anything but a tomato plant. You get tomato seeds,
you'll never get a broccoli plant. It'll always be a tomato whose
seed is in itself. An apple tree will only ever
produce an apple tree. You'll never take seeds from
an apple tree and get an orange tree, ever, because its seed
is in itself. A sugar cane, you plant that
and you're only gonna get another sugar cane stalk. You'll never
get oregano or some other kind of herb. And I'll show you why
that's so important in a minute, whose seed is in itself. Now
verse 14. And God said, let there be lights
in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night,
Here's the sun. And let them be for signs and
for seasons and for days and years. And let them be for lights
in the firmament of 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 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. Now here it's been, it's the
fourth day. There's been light since the first day, hadn't there?
It's not to the fourth day. God put the sun in space. He
creates the sun and the moon. Now I just love to imagine this,
the fingers of God making the sun. And putting it right there
in an exact spot. And there it stayed. He put it
in an exact spot that is the exact distance from the earth
that will warm the earth and give us light and warmth. It
won't burn us up. It's not too close to burn. If
it was almost any closer, John Keel, if you care to read that,
he's got this big calculation of the earth is just this much
closer to the sun. You know, we'll all burn up.
If it's just, this hair's different, you know, way, we'd all freeze
to death. Why is that? God in his wisdom and his goodness
put it right there. And he did it with just his fingers.
There it is, you know. And he put the moon right where
it is, circling the earth. It's just, it's astounding. God
put those things with his fingers. And all those stars, God put
them right there, just with his fingers. They're not spread randomly.
God put them all right where they are, just exactly where
they are, and they've been there ever since. That's wisdom of
God. And scripture says the sun and
the moon rule the earth. Now, all the writers talk about,
you know, making sure you don't think you're supposed to worship
the sun and the moon. I don't think anybody here has
that issue. But they rule the earth in this way. The sun determines
the days, the length of days, the heat of the days. It determines
the different seasons, you know, depending on how the Earth, I
don't understand how all that works. Some of you all do, the
Earth's rotation and whatever, you know, tilting, whatever.
But the sun determines our days, the length of the days and the
seasons. The moon determines the ocean
tides. It seems like the moon even affects
people. So, you know, the moon gets full, people get crazy.
It's somehow, you know, seems to be affecting what's going
on here on Earth. And God put the sun and the moon right where
they are to continually replenish and do things for us, give us
changes in seasons and different things that we need so the earth
thrives. That's because of the wisdom
of God. Now look at verse 20. And God said, let the waters
bring forth abundantly and the moving creature that hath life
and the fowl that may fly above the earth and 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 and the seas,
and let fowl multiply in the earth, and the evening and the
morning were the fifth day. Here in the fifth day, God created
every kind of fish that there is. There's not ever been a new
kind of fish since this day. God created them all, from minnows
to whales. God created them all. Scripture
said God created the whale to play in the seas. That's God's
creation. He created catfish, and perch,
and cod, and musky, all the different kinds of fish. And he told them,
fill the sea. And buddy, they did. I mean,
the sea's still full of fish. But I want you to notice God's
wisdom in creation. God is a God of order. This is why I know God didn't
create anything that was without form and void. God's a God of
order. First, God created the dry land,
didn't he? Then he created the birds. He didn't create the birds
first. Then the birds wouldn't have
a place to land. They would have crashed in the sea and died or
something. God's a God of order. He prepared everything. First,
he prepared the dry land and the grass and the things the
birds might eat. Then he created the birds. That's
God's wisdom. God's a God of order. And everything
brought forth after his kind. The fish brought forth after
their kind because The seed is in himself. A bass brought forth
a bass. A whale brought forth a whale.
A reptile brought forth a reptile. A reptile never brought forth
a rat. A reptile never gave birth to
a rat and the reptile never gave birth to anything. Turn into
another animal. They always brought forth after their kind. Fish
brought forth more fish, just like the kind of fish they were.
Birds brought forth the same kind of birds that they were.
This is the way God ordained it. Nothing changed, nothing
evolved into something different. Everything is what God created
it. It brought forth after his kind. Now verse 24, 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."
Now here God created all the animals. He created every different
species of animals that are on the face of the planet today.
From ants to elephants, God created them all. And they all brought
forth after their kind. They didn't change into something
else. A horse never at one time gave birth to a giraffe. A horse
always brings forth another horse, because its seed is in himself.
And I want you to think how great God is. I mean, if I were creating
animals, there'd be about two or three kinds of fish. That's
all I would make. It'd be the kinds I like to eat,
probably. There'd just be a couple different kinds of birds. There'll
only be two or three kinds of animals, and if I were creating
the animals, almost all of them would be cows, because I like
to eat beef. So that's why I make a few chickens
and a few pigs, you know, if you're going to eat that kind
of thing, and maybe a couple of horses to help the farm. But
that's all I'd make, because that's all my mind has the capacity
to think about. Not God. God made thousands and
thousands of different species of animals and Every one of them
is different. Every one of them is unique and
They're not unique just because God will make something different.
They all do something good for their they all do something to
even insects do something different do something that's good for
the earth and Not one of them ever evolved into something.
Now that's just the foolishness of man to think that's foolish. This kind of creation takes the
wisdom and the greatness of God. I love this story of creation
that God just spoke and all these different species and just such
intricate detail just came into being. Now look at verse 26. 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. All they're going to eat, they're
not going to eat animals, they're not going to eat meat, they're going
to just eat plants. I've given you every herb bearing
seed which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree in
the which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed. To you it
should be from meat. and every beast of the earth,
and every fowl of the air, and everything that creepeth upon
the earth, wherein there's life, I've given every green herb for
meat. And it was so. See, even the
animals, they just ate plants. Even lions, they weren't carnivores
at this time. Everything just ate plants. Now
you'll notice on the other five days of creation, God said, let
something be, let something appear, and it was so. But here, when
it came to making man, scripture says God created man. God formed Adam's body from the
dust of the ground. And he said, let us make man
in our own image. Well, now only God exists, so
who's God talking to here? Let us make man in our own image.
Well, he's talking to the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. We're together in this matter
of creation, because they always are together. He said, let us
make man in our image. Now, how does man bear the image
of God? Well, I thought of three reasons.
First, God is spirit. God doesn't have a body. You
know, we talk about the, the scripture does, you know, talks
about the fingers of God, the eyes of God. Well, God doesn't
have a body. God is spirit. Well, you know, so is man. Now
we have a body. But we are a spirit. When this
body dies, a spirit continues to live. We are a spirit, but
we have a body. I'll show you that in chapter
two, look at verse seven. And the Lord God formed man of
the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life. And man became a living soul. The animals didn't become
alive like that. Animals don't have a soul. Man
was created this way in the image of God because he's got a spirit.
He is a spirit. Second, man was given a body,
but that body's upright. Like God is upright. You know,
we're not walking around all fours like a dog. You know, we're
not walking all hunched over like an ape. A man is upright
because God is upright. And the father knew the body
that he would prepare for his son. He gave Adam a body like
that body, upright. And third, man is made in the
image of God in this way. Man was given dominion over things. Man was given dominion over the
animals, over the fish, over the birds, over the seas, over
the creation. Man had dominion. Animals didn't
have any dominion over anything. They were just animals. But man
was given dominion. God brought all the animals to
Adam to name because he had dominion over them. You know why we call
a horse a horse? Because when God brought a horse
to Adam, Adam said, that's a horse. And we call it a horse to this
day. Adam had dominion in that way. Similar, it's not the same dominion,
but it's similar. It has a picture of how God has
dominion over all things. And Adam was Brilliant. I mean, God didn't create somebody.
The brain didn't work right. God created a man who's brilliant. It's a picture of the wisdom
of God. It's different from all the other animals. God didn't
make an animal that way, just man. Now in six 24-hour periods,
God created everything. Now on the seventh day, God rested. And he didn't rest because he
was tired. He rested because the work was finished. There's
nothing else to do. Look at chapter two, verse one. Thus the heavens and the earth
were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day,
God ended his work which he had made and rested on the seventh
day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the
seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested
from all his work which God created and made. And that's why the
Jews under the law rested on Saturday. They rested, they observed
the Sabbath and rested on the seventh day because it was on
the seventh day God rested from his work because it was finished.
And God looked at everything he made. Look at verse 31. God saw everything he made and
behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning
were the sixth day. It was very good. Now notice
God didn't say it's perfect, did he? He said it's very good.
Creation wasn't perfect because there was still opportunity for
man to fall. In chapter two, God's gonna give
man a law. Just one, but now it's law. There's opportunity
for Adam to disobey that law. There's opportunity for him to
fall. The creation wasn't perfect because Satan was already here.
So it's not perfect, but it was very good. Now at Ruby Thompson's
memorial service, Dan Culver made an astounding statement.
I told him afterwards, I'm going to use that. That's good. I'll
give you credit when I do. So don't give me credit. I probably
read it somewhere, but I never heard anywhere else. I'm giving
Dan credit for this. This is what he said. God said the creation
is very good. He didn't say it was precious,
did he? What does God call the debt of
his saints? God says it's precious. Now we know what's going to happen.
We'll look at this in the message this morning. Man's going to
fall into sin and to death. How can the death of a son of
Adam ever be precious in God's sight? The new birth, the new
birth. Creation gives us a picture of
the new birth in Christ. Genesis one is given to tell
us God created the heaven and the earth. But always remember
this about the Bible. The Bible is not a history book.
You know, the reason the Bible doesn't answer every question
about creation or evolution or anything like that is because
the Bible is not a history book. The Bible is not a science book.
The Bible is written of Christ. And Genesis 1 is like all the
rest of the Bible. It's written to show us Christ.
Our Lord said, Moses wrote of me. When Moses sat down to write
Genesis 1, he was writing primarily of Christ. And we have a picture
of the new birth. The new birth is like creation
in several ways. First, they both start with God,
don't they? None of creation ever would have
happened if God didn't say, let there be light. It had to start
with God. And the new birth always starts
with God. Only God had the power to create
this planet and only God has the power to create a new man
in the hearts of his people. Second, the new birth and creation,
they both start with Christ. Now man was created upright and
we'll see this in chapter three, but man failed. He fell all the
way to the bottom in sin and death. And when Adam sinned,
all men sinned in Adam. When Adam sinned, we all became
without form. We all became worthless. We all
became, our souls became a place of confusion. When Adam fell,
every one of us, we became vain. We became empty, empty of anything
good, of any righteousness at all. And when Adam fell, our
souls were covered with darkness, spiritual darkness, where there's
no light, just our souls are places full of misery and destruction
and death and ignorance because we fell when Adam fell. But God
Almighty comes to his people and says, let there be light.
Let my son appear in their heart. Christ came to this earth as
a man, he just suddenly appeared because God said, let there be
light. Everybody didn't see him. Simeon saw him, didn't he? Oh,
this is the one. This is God's salvation. And
God sends his spirit to each one of his people and says, let
there be light. And suddenly Christ is formed
in the heart. And we only see because Christ
the light is formed in our heart. Everybody sees the sun, the S-U-N. But not everybody sees Christ
the Son, do they? The S-O-N. Well, why do we see
Christ? Look at 2 Corinthians 4. Why
do God's people always see Christ? Because God said, let there be
light. That's why. He sends his Son
to the hearts of his people. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 5. We preach not ourselves but Christ
Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We see because
God commanded the light to shine in the darkness of our soul. And then what happened on the
first day? The first day God said, let there
be light. And Christ appeared, didn't He?
That was the first day of the week, Sunday. Well, you remember
after our Savior was crucified, the disciples were in such a
time of darkness and doubt and despair. But on Sunday, the first
day of the week, Christ arose. That stone rolled away, and Christ
appeared. He had risen again for the justification
of His people. I know I've gone too long, but
I got two of the classes out here, so it doesn't matter as
much if I go over today. Taryn and Eric aren't gonna be too
upset with me. Remember I told you about this phrase, his seed
is in itself. Each one brought forth after
his kind. A fallen man has a seed in himself.
It's a corrupt seed. It's a sinful seed. And we can
only produce, we can only give birth to more sinful men. We're
just going to give birth to people just like us, sinners, depraved
and fallen. Well, if we're going to be saved,
if we're going to be holy and righteous, if God's going to
accept us, he's going to have to make us something different
and he has to. Well, we can't be changed into
something different. God can't just take this flesh
and make it into something different because the flesh can only ever
be flesh. Our flesh can never be made to
be something better. It's seed, it's in itself. It's
corrupt. If God's gonna accept us, if
we're gonna be righteous and holy, God's gonna have to make
a new creature. And that is exactly what he does
in the new birth. He makes a new creature that
never existed before. And he's made from different
seed. What seed does God use to give
the new birth? It's his word. Peter says it's
the incorruptible seed, the perfect seed, the word of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ gives the new birth to
his people. And when we're born, we're not
born like our father Adam, we're born like our heavenly father,
with his nature, with all his characteristics. And when God's
finished with his new creation, he looks at his people and he
said, this is very good. It's very good. This creation
is perfect. You know why he says it's very
good? Because when he sees his people, you know who he sees?
He sees his son. The perfection of his son. He
sees us in Christ and Christ formed in us. And that creation
is a whole lot better than the first creation. That creation
is perfect. Perfect. All right. Well, I hope
you don't mind me going a few minutes too long. I thought it
was a blessing to you.