How Genesis 1 Strengthens Your Faith

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.560 --> 00:00:05.080 Well, if you would please remain standing and let's turn our attention to genesis 2 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:13.589 chapter one. I'll be reading the whole chapter plus one verse in Chapter Two. 3 00:00:13.630 --> 00:00:30.739 If you need to sit please a feel free. This is the word 4 00:00:30.780 --> 00:00:37.929 of God. Please give your attention to it. In the beginning, God 5 00:00:38.210 --> 00:00:44.250 created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void and 6 00:00:44.450 --> 00:00:49.490 darkness was over the face of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering 7 00:00:50.039 --> 00:00:54.840 over the face of the waters and God said, let there be light, 8 00:00:55.359 --> 00:01:00.119 and there was light and God saw that the light was good and God separated 9 00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:07.349 the light from the darkness. God called the Light Day and the darkness he 10 00:01:07.469 --> 00:01:12.390 called night, and there was evening and there was morning the first day and 11 00:01:12.629 --> 00:01:17.549 God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and 12 00:01:17.709 --> 00:01:22.540 let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and 13 00:01:22.659 --> 00:01:26.140 separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the 14 00:01:26.299 --> 00:01:33.530 expanse. And it was so and God called the expanse heaven, and there 15 00:01:33.689 --> 00:01:38.890 was evening and there was morning the second day and God said, let the 16 00:01:38.969 --> 00:01:44.569 waters under the heavens be gathered into one place and let the dry land appear, 17 00:01:45.049 --> 00:01:49.280 and it was so, and he called the dry land earth and the 18 00:01:49.400 --> 00:01:53.280 waters that were gathered together he called seas, and God saw that it was 19 00:01:53.400 --> 00:02:00.239 good. And God said, let the earth sprout vegetation plants yielding seed and 20 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:04.750 fruit, trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its 21 00:02:04.829 --> 00:02:07.870 kind, on the earth, and it was so. The earth brought forth 22 00:02:07.949 --> 00:02:15.069 vegetation plants yielding seed according to their own kinds and trees bearing fruit in which 23 00:02:15.189 --> 00:02:19.180 is their seed, according to its kind, and God saw that it was 24 00:02:19.300 --> 00:02:24.419 good. And there was evening and there was morning the third day and God 25 00:02:24.580 --> 00:02:29.740 said, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the 26 00:02:29.860 --> 00:02:34.169 day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and 27 00:02:34.409 --> 00:02:38.250 for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the 28 00:02:38.370 --> 00:02:43.330 Heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God 29 00:02:43.449 --> 00:02:46.439 made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the 30 00:02:46.439 --> 00:02:53.120 lesser light to rule the night and the stars, and God set them in 31 00:02:53.240 --> 00:02:55.919 the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over 32 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:00.830 the day and over the night, and Accep vorrate the light from the darkness 33 00:03:00.669 --> 00:03:05.789 and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was 34 00:03:05.949 --> 00:03:12.030 mourning the fourth day and God said, let the waters swarm with swarms of 35 00:03:12.110 --> 00:03:16.060 living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. 36 00:03:16.979 --> 00:03:23.060 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves with 37 00:03:23.180 --> 00:03:27.810 which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according 38 00:03:27.810 --> 00:03:31.370 to its kind and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, 39 00:03:31.409 --> 00:03:36.729 saying be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let 40 00:03:36.770 --> 00:03:39.409 the birds multiply on the earth. And there was the evening and there was 41 00:03:39.569 --> 00:03:46.800 morning the fifth day, and God said, let the earth bring forth living 42 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:51.680 creatures according to their kinds, live stock and creeping things and beasts of the 43 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:54.949 earth according to their kinds. And it was so, and God made the 44 00:03:54.990 --> 00:03:59.870 beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the live stock according to their 45 00:03:59.909 --> 00:04:03.750 kinds and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind and God saw 46 00:04:03.870 --> 00:04:09.270 that it was good. Then God said, let us make man in our 47 00:04:09.310 --> 00:04:13.500 image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of 48 00:04:13.620 --> 00:04:16.779 the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the live stock and 49 00:04:16.899 --> 00:04:20.980 over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 50 00:04:23.220 --> 00:04:27.490 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God. 51 00:04:27.689 --> 00:04:34.009 He created him male and female. He created them and God blessed them and 52 00:04:34.209 --> 00:04:39.839 God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it 53 00:04:40.279 --> 00:04:43.759 and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the 54 00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:48.319 heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, 55 00:04:48.920 --> 00:04:53.870 behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the 56 00:04:53.990 --> 00:04:58.430 face of all the earth and every tree with seed and its fruit. You 57 00:04:58.550 --> 00:05:01.350 shall have them for food and to every beast of the earth and to every 58 00:05:01.430 --> 00:05:05.350 bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that 59 00:05:05.509 --> 00:05:10.139 has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. 60 00:05:10.220 --> 00:05:15.139 And it was so, and God saw everything that he had made and behold, 61 00:05:15.779 --> 00:05:20.730 it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning the 62 00:05:20.889 --> 00:05:26.889 sixth day. Thus the heavens and the Earth were finished, and all the 63 00:05:27.050 --> 00:05:30.649 host of them. May God bless his word to us. Ye may be 64 00:05:30.730 --> 00:05:58.829 seated. When you begin a story. It's typical and appropriate to set the 65 00:05:58.990 --> 00:06:03.740 setting, usually very quickly in the first few sentences. So, for example, 66 00:06:03.899 --> 00:06:11.339 in a fairy tale we might begin you know, a long time ago, 67 00:06:11.699 --> 00:06:16.500 there was once a land and that land's name was something and and so 68 00:06:16.699 --> 00:06:21.850 on from there. Well, after that point you have that that place, 69 00:06:23.129 --> 00:06:27.370 that land, is not just called a land but is referred to specifically as 70 00:06:27.449 --> 00:06:30.329 the land. Right. The reason for that is because it's been introduced and 71 00:06:30.449 --> 00:06:35.040 specified and we all know what's taught, what's being spoken about, and in 72 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:41.000 that you enter into the story and you begin to understand this, this world 73 00:06:41.240 --> 00:06:46.910 that is being created imaginatively. Well, Genesis also begins and tells us a 74 00:06:47.029 --> 00:06:51.949 story, a true story, but it begins in a way that's unique to 75 00:06:53.389 --> 00:06:59.310 fairy tales. It tells us of a story we already belong to. It 76 00:06:59.430 --> 00:07:03.860 doesn't say in the beginning God created a heavens and a earth, and here 77 00:07:03.899 --> 00:07:08.980 are their names and let me tell you about them. It tells us about 78 00:07:09.180 --> 00:07:14.339 the Earth, the heavens, the ones that we already know, the ones 79 00:07:14.379 --> 00:07:20.529 that we are intimately familiar with. Genesis begins by talking about known entities, 80 00:07:21.689 --> 00:07:26.009 which is a way to introduce us to this point. I want to make 81 00:07:26.089 --> 00:07:30.720 here at the beginning, which is that when we hear Genesis, we hear 82 00:07:30.759 --> 00:07:36.199 it not as something that's entirely new, although there may be new information there 83 00:07:36.279 --> 00:07:41.759 to us, but it's a part of something that already exists and, more 84 00:07:41.800 --> 00:07:46.790 than that, something which we are already set in, which we belong to, 85 00:07:47.310 --> 00:07:54.589 which means that we already have a perspective about this story. We already 86 00:07:54.629 --> 00:07:58.029 have a sense of what the heavens are, what the Earth are, what 87 00:07:58.230 --> 00:08:03.620 animals and beasts and fish and creeping things and day and night, all of 88 00:08:03.740 --> 00:08:09.339 these various elements of creation that God created are things that we know, that 89 00:08:09.459 --> 00:08:13.730 we have relationships with and in one sense or another. So not only are 90 00:08:13.730 --> 00:08:18.410 we in the story already from the from the very beginning, but we have 91 00:08:18.529 --> 00:08:24.689 perspectives about it as well. But our perspectives and our interpretations have to be 92 00:08:24.730 --> 00:08:28.839 subject to God's, because it's by his will that the earth was created, 93 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:35.039 it's by his will that anything in the earth is sustained, and so only 94 00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:39.720 he has the authority to proclaim in any kind of final way what is and 95 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:46.149 isn't, what exists and what does not, what is true and what is 96 00:08:46.269 --> 00:08:50.230 false. Now, this kind of general perspective as it applies to us, 97 00:08:50.269 --> 00:08:58.500 also applies to the very first people that received this book. Israel is real 98 00:08:58.820 --> 00:09:03.779 when they were given these books, Genesis, exodus, Leviticus, numbers and 99 00:09:03.940 --> 00:09:09.649 Deuteronomy, most likely before they were entering into the promised land. They had 100 00:09:09.970 --> 00:09:16.129 this content. They were coming to it and receiving it from the hand of 101 00:09:16.250 --> 00:09:24.519 the Prophet Moses, with a particular perspective, a particular view and experience about 102 00:09:24.879 --> 00:09:30.240 the world in which they lived. And so as we think about this passage 103 00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:33.759 this morning, I want to start by thinking about it from Israel's perspective. 104 00:09:35.639 --> 00:09:39.269 Thinking about it. What does it mean to receive genesis one and one, 105 00:09:39.350 --> 00:09:45.230 not necessarily one and following, not necessarily from an entirely blank slate, but 106 00:09:45.389 --> 00:09:50.029 from those who have experienced being and in the world and living under God and 107 00:09:50.230 --> 00:09:56.220 hopefully, I hope it's true for you, also under his salvation? So 108 00:09:56.379 --> 00:10:03.139 go back to Israel for a moment. What would it mean to receive genesis 109 00:10:03.059 --> 00:10:09.809 having come out of Egypt? What's their particular experience of the world? Of 110 00:10:09.929 --> 00:10:13.889 course, we can say all kinds of things about this, but I'll just 111 00:10:13.970 --> 00:10:18.850 say it's very simply. They knew a lot about what it meant to live 112 00:10:18.929 --> 00:10:24.639 in a world that was not very good, or, to put it another 113 00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:26.480 way, they knew a lot about what it meant to live in a world 114 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:33.879 that would was characterized by sin, by misery. This this state, this 115 00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:41.389 condition which man fell into. What kinds of things might we think about Israel, 116 00:10:41.590 --> 00:10:45.230 having no nation of Israel, having been just brought out of Egypt, 117 00:10:45.269 --> 00:10:48.789 about to enter into the Promised Land? Well, first of all, they 118 00:10:48.789 --> 00:10:54.500 were very familiar with pagan worship, with idolatry and false gods everywhere in Egypt, 119 00:10:54.500 --> 00:10:58.700 and we have all kinds of testimony to this today, and not only 120 00:10:58.779 --> 00:11:01.419 in the pages of scripture, but in our own archeology and the things that 121 00:11:01.539 --> 00:11:07.490 we find. And we know what is often attached to idolatry and the worship 122 00:11:07.570 --> 00:11:16.009 of the sun and the moon and animals, perverse sexual practices, violence, 123 00:11:16.049 --> 00:11:24.200 all kinds of other sins and and offensive things to God. This is something 124 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:28.840 Israel, having lived under this system, under these religious systems, was very 125 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:33.350 familiar with. They saw what it meant for man to look at the world 126 00:11:33.509 --> 00:11:41.070 that God had created and to worship it instead of, excuse me, instead 127 00:11:41.070 --> 00:11:52.379 of the Creator. What else would it be to be in Israel's position and 128 00:11:52.580 --> 00:11:58.740 having just come out of Egypt, can you imagine the store rays of missing 129 00:11:58.860 --> 00:12:05.210 brothers and sisters that were murdered during Pharaoh's work of systematic infanticide, is destroying 130 00:12:05.289 --> 00:12:09.049 of the children, people that, when they list the names of their children, 131 00:12:09.090 --> 00:12:11.850 would say, well, there was also this one and this one and 132 00:12:11.929 --> 00:12:16.720 this one, but we lost them. You had a brother, but during 133 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:22.080 the genocide. Can you imagine what it would be like to live with those 134 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:26.960 kinds of realities? Or think about the slavery? The people that heard this, 135 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:31.230 or their parents or their grandparents, would have had the marks of slavery 136 00:12:31.350 --> 00:12:37.389 on their bodies, old scars lashed across their backs, hard hands, calloused, 137 00:12:39.389 --> 00:12:46.419 missing limbs and fingers that come from strenuous and constant manual labor, and 138 00:12:46.580 --> 00:12:50.220 then all the other kind of experiences and things you can imagine of what it 139 00:12:50.299 --> 00:12:54.860 would be like and what it is like to live under the tyranny of a 140 00:12:56.019 --> 00:13:01.450 tyrant, of a king, of a pharaoh that hated them and sought in 141 00:13:01.610 --> 00:13:07.330 every way for them to be weak and servants and slaves. Israel was a 142 00:13:07.450 --> 00:13:13.159 people that knew about sin, the effects of it, the misery of it, 143 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:22.759 the terrors of it. They knew about sin and misery. Now, 144 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:26.399 if this is the world that you have experienced, a world so bad that 145 00:13:26.600 --> 00:13:30.509 they had ride out to God and said save us, and he did, 146 00:13:31.549 --> 00:13:35.509 through all kinds of other judgments and difficulties which you may remember, God's bringing 147 00:13:35.549 --> 00:13:43.460 them out of Egypt. Now imagine being in that perspective of recently freed slaves 148 00:13:43.740 --> 00:13:52.700 and how striking it would be to hear genesis one how immediately the sinfulness of 149 00:13:52.779 --> 00:13:58.610 sin shows up. How the sin and misery that characterizes a fallen world is 150 00:13:58.769 --> 00:14:03.850 compared to the world that God made it. God makes this world, and 151 00:14:03.970 --> 00:14:07.210 this picture that we have in genesis is this one, this world that is 152 00:14:07.370 --> 00:14:13.279 beautiful and diverse. It's well ordered and teeming with life. There's nothing fighting, 153 00:14:15.399 --> 00:14:22.720 there's nothing struggling or conflicting. It's just this simple progression and elevation of 154 00:14:22.840 --> 00:14:26.750 one event after another after another. And God said and it was so, 155 00:14:26.230 --> 00:14:30.309 and God said and it was so, and God said and it was so. 156 00:14:31.590 --> 00:14:33.909 These words, these commands that God gives. And let there be light, 157 00:14:35.190 --> 00:14:39.580 and there was light, and let the earth bring forth vegetation, and 158 00:14:39.620 --> 00:14:46.539 there's vegetation. These beautiful descriptions of his making man and God's placing man sovereignly 159 00:14:46.659 --> 00:14:50.779 over all of these things. No sense of man then turning and bowing down 160 00:14:50.899 --> 00:14:54.889 to the things that he's made, of Man's rebellion of all of these things. 161 00:14:56.649 --> 00:15:00.889 In stead, it simply ends by saying in verse Thirty One, and 162 00:15:01.649 --> 00:15:05.570 God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good, and 163 00:15:05.490 --> 00:15:11.200 there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. Thus the heavens and 164 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:15.440 the Earth were finished and all the host of in them. It's such a 165 00:15:15.799 --> 00:15:22.309 beautiful picture. It's such a happy picture, a blessed picture. It's like, 166 00:15:22.029 --> 00:15:26.149 and being in this context of sinfulness, it's like if somebody were to 167 00:15:26.230 --> 00:15:30.870 go into your house, or let's say you were buying a house and the 168 00:15:30.990 --> 00:15:33.750 house. You went into the House and it was full of carpet and you 169 00:15:33.830 --> 00:15:37.820 say, well, it's kind of old, it's stained, it's dirty, 170 00:15:37.980 --> 00:15:41.580 you can tell it's not good. But then somebody says, well, let's 171 00:15:41.580 --> 00:15:43.740 get a new piece of carpet and see what it would look like if we 172 00:15:43.820 --> 00:15:48.059 were replace it, and you plop it down in the carpet and you see 173 00:15:48.179 --> 00:15:50.490 them compared next to each other and you say, wow, I had no 174 00:15:50.850 --> 00:15:56.370 idea how bad it was. It's kind of like that here in Genesis one. 175 00:15:56.450 --> 00:16:03.090 You could say this is how things began and here is where we are. 176 00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:10.360 You get a sense when you come to genesis one, from the perspective 177 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:17.120 that they and we ourselves find ourselves in. We immediately see the sinfulness of 178 00:16:17.159 --> 00:16:22.029 sin, the great miseries that have been brought into this world because of man's 179 00:16:22.070 --> 00:16:29.950 disobedience to God. But you also see a coloring and a filling out of 180 00:16:30.950 --> 00:16:36.419 the character of God. This God who just brought you out of Egypt now 181 00:16:36.539 --> 00:16:41.740 is displayed with all of his majesty and creative power. No wonder he was 182 00:16:41.860 --> 00:16:45.700 able to part the Red Sea and cause you to draw a walk on dry 183 00:16:45.740 --> 00:16:49.730 land, because he did the exact same thing at the very beginning of the 184 00:16:49.850 --> 00:16:56.090 creation of the world when he parted the seas and created dry land. You 185 00:16:56.210 --> 00:17:03.799 see God's singular uniqueness as the one and true God here. This is no 186 00:17:03.079 --> 00:17:10.160 false God here who promises one thing one day and and is and delivers something 187 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:15.950 else on another. Tempt those who are tempted to worship idols and see the 188 00:17:17.109 --> 00:17:21.549 one who has made the heavens and the earth should bow down to him. 189 00:17:22.470 --> 00:17:26.069 They should not fear Egypt, or love Egypt or want to be back, 190 00:17:26.710 --> 00:17:32.099 but should love this one who has made them but is also sovereign over them. 191 00:17:33.059 --> 00:17:36.380 God is not just their rescuer from slavery, but he is the one 192 00:17:36.460 --> 00:17:41.819 who created them. They belong to him and all of the earth belongs to 193 00:17:41.859 --> 00:17:48.210 him. And yet another thing, just one more. You see God's great 194 00:17:48.730 --> 00:17:56.529 love for man and his special designs for humans, for mankind, in the 195 00:17:56.650 --> 00:18:00.920 earth. You see it a number of ways in genesis one. I'll point 196 00:18:00.920 --> 00:18:06.240 out just a few. First of all, the Earth could have been created 197 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:11.950 in a kind of instantaneous way. Certainly on certain moments within the creation account 198 00:18:11.950 --> 00:18:18.869 we see that happening. But God describes his created work as one of progression 199 00:18:18.950 --> 00:18:23.750 and it has this sense of building, doesn't it? Day One, day 200 00:18:23.910 --> 00:18:30.259 two, day three, day four, day five, day six, and 201 00:18:30.420 --> 00:18:36.980 when we get today six, we have this crowning of creation with mankind. 202 00:18:37.019 --> 00:18:41.009 And even from that, even in the perspective, not only in the numbering, 203 00:18:41.049 --> 00:18:45.250 in the buildup of to man, who is the final part of creation, 204 00:18:45.410 --> 00:18:51.289 where God now declares that everything is good, you see the way in 205 00:18:51.329 --> 00:18:56.440 which God is creating a world that is so hospitable the man, presumably God 206 00:18:56.519 --> 00:19:03.079 could have focused in on on the way He created the seas and talked about 207 00:19:03.079 --> 00:19:07.119 all the various ways in which he intricately made the sea so that the fish 208 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:11.710 could live in them. Genesis one one or genesis chapter one could be all 209 00:19:11.750 --> 00:19:15.309 about God's creation of the seas with the fish, and then just at the 210 00:19:15.349 --> 00:19:18.829 very end and say, and like this he made man. But it's not 211 00:19:18.990 --> 00:19:23.460 like that, is it? Instead, you have this picture of God creating 212 00:19:23.500 --> 00:19:30.660 a home for this particular creature, creating land on which he can dwell, 213 00:19:30.660 --> 00:19:37.500 skies and clouds above which are protected, where man is protected from from water 214 00:19:38.410 --> 00:19:42.890 and also blessed by it. You see the way in which food and everything 215 00:19:42.930 --> 00:19:48.609 is created so that when he places man in the world, it's a place 216 00:19:48.809 --> 00:19:56.359 ready to go. It's there for him to enjoy, to fill, to 217 00:19:56.599 --> 00:20:00.319 rule over, he says. And in addition to that, he makes man 218 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:10.549 not alone but together, in communion with one another. One of the most 219 00:20:10.549 --> 00:20:15.990 beautiful passages in the Bible Verse Twenty Seven. So God created man in his 220 00:20:15.150 --> 00:20:22.019 own image, in the image of God. He created him male and female. 221 00:20:22.059 --> 00:20:27.900 He created them that jump between the singular and the plural. They're that 222 00:20:29.059 --> 00:20:33.099 maybe feels a little bit odd. At first. I think that mash up, 223 00:20:33.299 --> 00:20:37.849 to use a modern term, is really on purpose. It's to describe 224 00:20:38.009 --> 00:20:42.609 that are bearing the image of God, is is not just as individuals, 225 00:20:44.410 --> 00:20:52.200 but we do it together, man and woman together, as people created under 226 00:20:52.279 --> 00:20:56.880 him. And all of this begins, in what way, the spirit of 227 00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:03.720 God. This is verse too, the spirit of God hovering. The verb 228 00:21:03.839 --> 00:21:11.269 there is is like a bird hovering over the waters. I've tried many times 229 00:21:11.390 --> 00:21:21.660 to visualize verse two. I don't think I can do it. The earth 230 00:21:21.900 --> 00:21:27.980 was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep. 231 00:21:30.619 --> 00:21:33.849 I'm not really sure how you how you imagine that. I read one commentator 232 00:21:34.049 --> 00:21:38.049 said this is perfectly clear. I have difficulty. Maybe it is clearer than 233 00:21:38.089 --> 00:21:42.609 I know, but to me it seems like the emphasis is on this. 234 00:21:44.130 --> 00:21:48.279 There's this kind of thing that exists, there's some kind of creation that has 235 00:21:48.319 --> 00:21:53.400 been made right, but it has yet to be filled in the way that 236 00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:57.640 God has filled it. It's not a bad thing that is here. It's 237 00:21:57.680 --> 00:22:02.269 not like an evil thing, but it said, to use the words of 238 00:22:02.309 --> 00:22:07.190 scripture, an empty thing, a deep thing, a mysterious thing, a 239 00:22:07.309 --> 00:22:14.509 without form thing. Some some of the commentators in the reformation often describe this. 240 00:22:15.259 --> 00:22:18.940 It's kind of like the egg of a bird, if the Holy Spirit 241 00:22:19.140 --> 00:22:26.140 is hovering over the over the waters, over this kind of formless void that 242 00:22:26.259 --> 00:22:30.970 you can't fully define but that will some but that will soon sort of spring 243 00:22:30.210 --> 00:22:36.369 forth with all of this life and power. I'm you see this. They 244 00:22:36.490 --> 00:22:40.569 compared it to to an egg. I'm I don't think we want to say 245 00:22:40.650 --> 00:22:44.960 that the earth was like an egg at the beginning of the world, but 246 00:22:45.079 --> 00:22:49.079 there is something here. There's a theological point that is being made. There 247 00:22:49.240 --> 00:22:56.799 is this way in which God is not just there at creation. He is 248 00:22:56.400 --> 00:23:04.430 there, he is hovering, he is protecting and guiding and keeping all of 249 00:23:04.589 --> 00:23:11.069 this under his control, and I think there's even something of a love there 250 00:23:11.269 --> 00:23:15.539 that's going on as well, because you see this same verb in other places 251 00:23:15.579 --> 00:23:22.579 where God is particularly setting his presence in a loving way over people, the 252 00:23:22.700 --> 00:23:26.849 way the spirit of God, for example, comes down and hovers over the 253 00:23:27.009 --> 00:23:33.170 temple, or the way that the spirit hovers, the same word, or 254 00:23:33.210 --> 00:23:40.369 a very similar word I'm being used over a Mary at the divine conception of 255 00:23:40.490 --> 00:23:48.279 God. The spirit hovers over her and she conceives other descriptions like this in 256 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:55.079 scripture. It shows God's special care and God's special work and all these things. 257 00:23:55.359 --> 00:24:00.670 You see how God is making the world and how he is relating to 258 00:24:00.950 --> 00:24:07.029 these people. To Go back that he is brought out of Egypt. He 259 00:24:07.190 --> 00:24:11.819 is not a distant God. He is revealing themselves to them as someone who 260 00:24:11.859 --> 00:24:18.940 has been intimately, carefully, lovingly, singularly and uniquely involved in their existence. 261 00:24:21.180 --> 00:24:30.529 From the very, very beginning. Israel would have heard these words and 262 00:24:30.730 --> 00:24:37.329 seeing how much it contradicted with the world that they knew in Egypt. But 263 00:24:37.450 --> 00:24:42.039 it also spoke to who their goddess, his power over them, his sovereignty 264 00:24:42.079 --> 00:24:48.279 over them and his ability to take care of them. But more than that, 265 00:24:48.359 --> 00:24:52.869 it was also pointing forward to this land in which they were about to 266 00:24:52.029 --> 00:24:56.309 enter into. I won't get into this much now because we'll do it in 267 00:24:56.390 --> 00:25:02.829 other places, but God is in many ways picturing here what he will also 268 00:25:02.910 --> 00:25:07.140 picture in the land of Canaan, a place where his spirit will dwell, 269 00:25:07.180 --> 00:25:11.980 a place where man is to rule and communion with one another, a place 270 00:25:11.099 --> 00:25:17.339 that is full of food and wealth and riches. Israel is about to enter 271 00:25:17.539 --> 00:25:22.690 into their salvation. God has not only rescued them out of slavery and brought 272 00:25:22.809 --> 00:25:26.769 them into a desert, but he will bring them through that desert into the 273 00:25:26.890 --> 00:25:37.799 promised land, into a place that will be very good. Our perspective is 274 00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:45.119 very similar to this. When he we hear Genesis One, one we also 275 00:25:45.279 --> 00:25:51.150 hear when we hear of the beginnings of God making the world, we also 276 00:25:51.190 --> 00:25:56.589 feel deep within our hearts the great conflict between the world as it was meant 277 00:25:56.630 --> 00:26:00.230 to be, or as it was made to be, and the world as 278 00:26:00.269 --> 00:26:07.940 it is now. We also know about genocides, about slavery. We also 279 00:26:07.980 --> 00:26:14.619 know about toiling hard and loss of life, the tyranny of evil. In 280 00:26:14.819 --> 00:26:19.049 many ways, at least in some ways, this tyranny of man over nature 281 00:26:19.170 --> 00:26:23.609 and over other men and trying to rule over God is even more extreme, 282 00:26:25.609 --> 00:26:32.849 the deaths more violent and and more terrible. Even today, the people of 283 00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:40.640 God are making international headlines for the suffering that they are enduring. We feel 284 00:26:40.680 --> 00:26:45.359 very aware that, when we hear Genesis one, that this is not how 285 00:26:45.559 --> 00:26:52.269 things are now. We hear, just as they did, the great sinfulness 286 00:26:52.309 --> 00:26:59.029 of sin, but we also recognize what we have been saved from, though 287 00:26:59.069 --> 00:27:03.420 in many ways were still in that desert wandering period as they were, though 288 00:27:03.420 --> 00:27:07.619 in many ways were still in exile and in and suffering under some of these 289 00:27:07.700 --> 00:27:11.420 things. Do you remember what we read in First Corinthians nine? You once 290 00:27:11.460 --> 00:27:18.410 were these things, you were enslave to these unrighteous things, but God has 291 00:27:18.849 --> 00:27:22.289 set us free, and when we consider our God, who has saved us 292 00:27:22.329 --> 00:27:26.809 from our sin through the death of his son and the coming of Jesus Christ, 293 00:27:27.650 --> 00:27:33.200 we also recognize God's sovereignty in these things. Were reminded of them, 294 00:27:33.240 --> 00:27:37.000 aren't we? In Genesis one. We're a mind it that the God who 295 00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:40.960 has saved us is the one who also created us. He's the one who 296 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:45.750 truly does have the power to create things, and what a blessed hope that 297 00:27:45.950 --> 00:27:51.829 is. When Jesus says to Nicodemus a man must be reborn, regenerated, 298 00:27:52.390 --> 00:27:56.390 when God promises things like the New Heavens and the new earth, we are 299 00:27:56.430 --> 00:28:00.460 receiving those promises, that salvation, from the very same God who created the 300 00:28:00.619 --> 00:28:06.859 First Heavens and the first earth. The one who created the body that you 301 00:28:07.059 --> 00:28:11.500 have right now is the one who will be able to glorify your body and 302 00:28:11.700 --> 00:28:19.450 resurrect your body on the last day. The only difference, though, is 303 00:28:19.529 --> 00:28:26.130 that now when we look, proverbal but proverbially, across the Jordan and we 304 00:28:26.289 --> 00:28:30.519 look forward to our entering into a complete state of salvation, we look forward 305 00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:37.039 to entering into our promised land, that heavenly city, that place that we 306 00:28:37.160 --> 00:28:42.630 look forward to is permanent, unlike Canaan, and we also see it brighter 307 00:28:44.349 --> 00:28:48.710 and more clearly. We receive the same news that came to them, but 308 00:28:48.829 --> 00:28:53.750 the news that comes to us is filled with the content of God coming into 309 00:28:53.789 --> 00:29:00.579 the world, of God coming in and taking on human flesh so that he 310 00:29:00.619 --> 00:29:04.740 might bring about the salvation of the world. Jesus, in a number of 311 00:29:04.819 --> 00:29:11.369 places is referred to as the second Adam, as the one who came to 312 00:29:11.490 --> 00:29:15.930 do the things that Adam failed to do. God's, the father's son, 313 00:29:17.170 --> 00:29:22.970 this second Adam would come to complete the cultural mandate, to do what Adam 314 00:29:23.009 --> 00:29:29.359 and Eve failed to do, to fill the earth with goodness, to fill 315 00:29:29.440 --> 00:29:34.880 the earth with a people. And he does that. And so that means 316 00:29:34.920 --> 00:29:40.670 when we believe in Jesus Christ and we look forward to the promises that are 317 00:29:40.910 --> 00:29:45.150 are still yet to come, we enter into that life now, in that 318 00:29:45.309 --> 00:29:51.029 salvation now, and we hope for that salvation to come with a great confidence, 319 00:29:52.230 --> 00:29:56.980 a confidence in God who made the world, created the world, saved 320 00:29:56.019 --> 00:30:02.380 US and has sent this son to do everything that we see Adam and eve 321 00:30:02.940 --> 00:30:07.130 failed to do, this great sinfulness of sin, this great misery that we've 322 00:30:07.170 --> 00:30:11.210 been thinking about. We're told over and over again in the pages of scripture 323 00:30:11.769 --> 00:30:18.490 that Jesus Christ overcame it. He took sin on himself so that he might 324 00:30:18.730 --> 00:30:25.960 defeat sin. He took death on himself so that he would take away its 325 00:30:26.039 --> 00:30:32.519 sting. And from that we are rescued out of a dominion of darkness and 326 00:30:32.599 --> 00:30:36.990 brought into a kingdom of life. We are taken out of death and broad 327 00:30:37.109 --> 00:30:42.430 into life, but not as those who will have to try again, but 328 00:30:42.589 --> 00:30:48.750 as victors and rulers, not as those who are called to yet again fulfill 329 00:30:49.539 --> 00:30:53.579 all that God has commanded us to do, with the with the threat of 330 00:30:55.140 --> 00:30:59.220 punishment if we owe to disobey, and the promise of life if we if 331 00:30:59.299 --> 00:31:06.450 we obey, but with life freely given to us as a free gift in 332 00:31:06.569 --> 00:31:12.970 Jesus Christ. One more way to think about it is to say that that 333 00:31:14.170 --> 00:31:25.119 same spirit who created the world now leads us, guides us and even in 334 00:31:25.160 --> 00:31:32.440 dwells US personally. And corporately. This same spirit which created the world has 335 00:31:32.720 --> 00:31:38.230 recreated us, has changed our hearts, has caused us to be reborn, 336 00:31:40.190 --> 00:31:45.309 to come to life, and is now even making us fit for the kind 337 00:31:45.390 --> 00:31:51.339 of union that we lost with God, even a Greater Union, a more 338 00:31:51.500 --> 00:31:57.460 permanent one. This is what the Crost of Christ accomplishes and it is our 339 00:31:57.539 --> 00:32:05.289 great hope. It is Jesus who rescues us from the Tea Syranny, to 340 00:32:05.609 --> 00:32:10.250 sin and tyranny and evil and misery that we see so clearly when we hear 341 00:32:10.410 --> 00:32:16.960 genesis one. And so, when you consider the creation of the world, 342 00:32:19.200 --> 00:32:25.480 consider what was lost and humble yourself before God because of your sin, but 343 00:32:25.680 --> 00:32:35.150 also consider what was regained and reclaimed and promised forever and ever through Jesus Christ, 344 00:32:35.230 --> 00:32:38.950 the son. And all this to the praise of the King of Heaven, 345 00:32:39.029 --> 00:32:44.740 as we sang earlier, to the praise of our God, our creator, 346 00:32:44.819 --> 00:32:50.420 our Savior and our king. Amen, let us pray