World, Meet Your Maker (Part 1)
GENESIS 1:1
Grab your seats this morning. One of my favorite quotes about church is that you come to church to forget about yourself and that's a good church service. When you're thinking about the Lord. And musicians, thank you so much for leading us this morning in those anthems.
It is good to be with you today, church. It's good to be back. I just want to say thank you to Ian and Kyle and Joshua for filling the pulpit faithfully this summer, especially Joshua taking a number of weeks as a benefit to our family.
I just have a little bit of a breather this summer, still involved in the flow of ministry, but the weekly preaching burden is described as a burden. In fact, John MacArthur would say it's a relentless bondage. It feels like you found out on Monday that you're pregnant, and then you carry that baby all week, you deliver it Sunday, and then you find out again on Monday you're pregnant again.
And obviously he's not a woman, so you know, I don't know, I don't know how far you want to take those analogies, but there's a sense in which to study and to think through issues and try to think your way clear through them from the text, understand what God means by what He says, and apply it to your own life. There is a burden with that, and that's not a burden that I would give up. I love to do it.
It's a thrill, and in fact, over the last weeks, my heart's desire has been eager to be back in the pulpit, but at the same time, it was a blessing to give attention to other things and have a little break from that particular burden. So we're grateful for this, church. We love you guys.
We are so thankful to be a part of this ministry, and we love you very, very much. I am still wrestling with figuring out the cause and solution relating to my vocal cords, so we're gonna do the best we can with what we got. I want to be yelling and projecting more than I am, but if you hear some of that weakness, just bear with me.
It is what it is, and we are still kind of looking for a solution, but I just have not found that yet. Well, with that being said, this morning we're gonna embark on the consecutive exposition of the book of Genesis, and by that, I mean we are gonna take Genesis 1, and we're gonna work our way through Genesis. Now, I know what some of you are thinking.
You're thinking, man, I'm old enough that I'm wondering, like, is this the last book of the Bible that I'm gonna be sitting through because it's a big book? Sometimes we go slow.
Here's my commitment to you. We're not going to go any slower than we need to, okay, but I would expect things are going to be a little slower at the start, and then we'll pick up pace as we go, and if we need to take a break along the way, we can do that, but this is just a thrill to be stepping into Genesis this morning, and my excitement has been increasing in the preparation over this material entitled this morning's message, World, Meet Your Maker, Part One, and I'm so out of shape.
I didn't even tell the AV people that, so you just gotta hear it and write it down. World, Meet Your Maker, Part One. There's a comma between world and meet your maker, and then a comma, and then part one.
We're gonna be here for just a bit on Genesis 1-1. This morning there's not an outline, but I just want to kind of briefly set the stage for where we're going to be in Genesis, and then I want to introduce the text itself, and so we're going to kind of stay at a high level this week, and then we're going to begin to work our way into the details. So Genesis, as you know, is a book of beginnings.
In fact, that is what the word Genesis means. In the Hebrew Scriptures, it's entitled bereshit, which is in the beginning. That's what it means.
One word in Hebrew, three in English, but this is in the beginning. It's how everything started, and the themes of the book of Genesis are grand. These are magnificent themes.
Genesis answers basic questions like, where did we come from? How did the universe come into being? Why are we here? What kind of morality are we to adopt, and why? How should we order society? Maybe very pointedly asking, why are things so messed up in the world around us right now? Why are things so bad in my own heart? Why do I struggle with evil desires? How does God even view evil? What hope do we have for humanity? And understanding God's redemptive plan, and what faith is to look like, and the understanding of a God who makes a covenant with His people and chooses to bless us in spite of ourselves. And so Genesis is where we trace our roots. Genesis is not only the roots of humanity, but Genesis is the roots of Christianity.
And so I'd say to be a Christian, you can't really understand Christianity, even the ministry of Christ, apart from a proper understanding of what is taught, these roots in the book of Genesis. Now Genesis was taught by, or was written, excuse me, by Moses. And so we take a view here that Scripture is inspired and authoritative, and so we know that Moses wrote Genesis because Jesus, in fact, in John chapter 7, cites Moses as the author of Genesis.
Okay, so there's a lot of different theories people come up with as to who wrote Genesis, or how many people, what was compiled, and what wasn't. Jesus, in John chapter 7, said to the crowds, Moses gave you circumcision. Okay, well what he's talking about there is the rite of circumcision, the practice of circumcision that the Jewish people adopted.
That was actually given in Genesis chapter 7 is where it's recorded, where God gave that plan to Abraham as a sign and seal of His covenant promise. And so Jesus says, Moses gave you circumcision. Then He clarified, not that it is from Moses, but it's from the So He's saying God gave circumcision to Abraham.
Moses wrote it down in Genesis 17. And so I just side in this with Jesus. I generally think He's on the winning team.
So I side with Jesus here over against liberal scholars and believe that Moses is the one who wrote Genesis. And so this book of beginnings is written by Moses, and there are major themes, major theological themes that we're going to see and develop as we go through Genesis. But ultimately, Genesis reveals the God who created the universe to display His glory.
Okay, David began Psalm 19 and said, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. And if I were to give you the overarching theme, then, of Genesis, of this creator God, I would say that I believe that the overall theme is introducing us to God who is a creator and king. The theme of Genesis, in many ways, is a kingdom because we're introduced to a God who sits in the heavens and rules over the universe.
And that God who rules over the universe created a kingdom on earth, what we might call a mediatorial kingdom. So we're going to use theological terms. God has a universal kingdom where He reigns over the universe.
Then on earth, He established a mediatorial kingdom in Adam. Adam was His vice-regent. He was a vassal king. He was a co-regent. And that kingdom, due to Adam's sin, became corrupted. That's not a fallen kingdom. It's a corrupted kingdom. And God then promises to restore that kingdom. And so, He's a covenant-making, covenant-keeping God who redeems people.
We see that throughout Genesis. And yet, He by no means leaves the guilty unpunished. Genesis ends in chapter 50, but right before that, in Genesis 49, Israel is giving blessings to his sons.
And He says this in Genesis 49.10, the scepter. What's a scepter? Well, a scepter is the instrument by which a monarch rules, okay? A king has a scepter. The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Israel, when He's blessing His sons, comes to Judah and says, Judah, there's going to be a scepter here for an unending kingdom. There Israel is prophesying of the future of God's plan to recreate the original creation in a kingdom for which His Son will rule. If you think of the language then of the Bible, you understand this is very familiar to us, familiar to us.
Isaiah 65:17, the Lord says, And so when we come into Genesis, what we're going to see is God the creator, the sovereign king, and His plan not only for earth right now, but for the summing up of all things in Christ, the ultimate kingdom of God. And so when you come to Genesis, generally in the church, it's a pretty familiar book. Even if you've never finished a Bible reading program, you've probably started one.
You've probably at least gotten through Genesis. Usually, we get bogged down a little bit after that. It comes in Leviticus or Numbers. Numbers is always a hard one to get through. So, most of you are familiar with Genesis. And Genesis, I think as we begin to study, will see forms the Christian worldview.
That is to say that our frame of reference through which we understand ourselves and the world we live in is rooted heavily in the book of Genesis. One author describes a worldview as this. It's the set of beliefs about fundamental aspects of reality that ground and influence all of one's perceiving, thinking, knowing, and doing.
I want to read that again. A worldview is a set of beliefs about fundamental aspects of realities. This is basically what I believe about kind of the fundamental realities of how things are.
Goes on and says that these ground and influence all, all of one's perceiving, thinking, knowing, and doing. And of course, this includes understanding how it is that we come to knowledge itself, the origins of the universe and life, what the purpose and meaning is of the universe or of the human race. This would include your beliefs about the existence and nature of God, your understanding of the nature of man, your anthropology, and your morality, what you believe is good and bad and right and wrong.
And so, what I want to help you understand and grasp and as we kind of set expectations here for where we're going is that Genesis properly understood and believed will ground you and establish you in the truth in such a way that you're going to find you have access to wisdom that comes only through this revelation. Okay, the psalmist in Psalm 119 would say as he was assessing the landscape, "'Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation, and I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.'" Listen, Genesis properly understood and believed will make you smarter, excuse me, not smarter, wiser than your teachers, wiser than your professors, wiser than the elderly, wiser than your legislators, wiser than your boss.
I don't mean to say that you have more intelligence than they do, but I mean you have access to divine information about how things are that apart from this you don't possess. And so, Genesis is going to do a couple of things for us here. If you're new in Christ, if you're a new Christian, Genesis is going to help you understand a Christian worldview.
It's going to help you understand how to make sense of the world around you. If you're already in Christ, what Genesis is going to do is it's going to be a tremendous reminder. I mean, as I'm studying Genesis, it's, oh, yeah, that's why I believe what I believe about this.
Oh, yeah, that's why I do what I do here. Oh, you know what? I need to reconform my thinking to this truth that is rooted in Genesis. I want you to just think for a moment about areas that Genesis speaks to.
I want you to kind of put this on for a minute, and here's what I'm going to postulate. It's kind of the thesis here. Did the truths contained in Genesis establish a worldview that immediately set you at odds with anyone who rejects it? I want you to think about this for just a minute.
Okay, Genesis is going to teach us about origins. That informs our perspective on how the universe got here, big bang, evolution, intelligent design. Genesis informs our understanding about the animal kingdom, okay, the relative importance and not importance in God's kingdom.
Whether or not it's okay to eat them, what we're to do with them, Genesis informs that perspective, the understanding of the fundamental goodness of God's creation, that God has created all of these things that we see for His glory and it's fundamentally good. It's from Genesis that we're going to understand the dominion mandate. Why is it that we want to be productive and why we want to create things and make and do and build and fix and conquer? And what has God designed the earth for in relation to that? Why are we here in the role of humanity on earth? It's in Genesis that we're going to encounter the Sabbath principle, why one day in seven is set apart.
It's in Genesis that we're going to come to the Imago Dei, the true understanding of what it means to be a human, what it means to be a human created in the image of God, what brings human beings dignity and value, and that informs the sanctity of life. How we view about exterminating people who are not happy any longer with their life or worth less. That's why we believe that murder is wrong, including abortion.
Genesis informs our worldview on two sexes, male and female, that God has created for a purpose that are undeniable and unalterable. Sex itself, why it exists, what its purpose is, transgenderism, homosexuality, marriage, what it means, the reality of one man and one woman for life, a complementarianism that God has distinct roles for men and women on this earth, has implications for divorce. Genesis teaches us about children and how we're to think about them, how children are to be viewed, what their purpose is, how they fit into your goals and agendas, why or why not to have children, reproduction.
In fact, the very definition of the family is covered in Genesis. It's important as well as its limitations. And then if you're beginning to kind of expand out maybe from some of those very direct things that Genesis speaks to, it actually speaks more broadly than that as well.
See, Genesis informs the way that you're going to think about something like a so-called climate crisis and your ability to sustain life by God's design. Whether or not the earth has an overpopulation problem and whether humanity is a blight on the earth or part of God's design, it's going to impact your view of racism and all of the prevailing thoughts that go with that, from critical race theory to intersectionality. It's going to impact your view of disease.
Yes, even how you might think about COVID is going to be informed by a biblical worldview rooted in Genesis, about economics, private property, the value of work, to some degree communism and socialism and national sovereignty or national borders. All of these are realities that you and I are going to form perspectives about, drawn from principles taught us in Genesis. In Genesis, we learn about war, the inevitability and purpose of it.
We learn about government, its role and its basic fundamental purpose. We also learn why it's always going to be beset by corruption, and it's limited in its ability to remedy the problems that exist on earth. In Genesis, we learn about crime and punishment and the death penalty.
We learn in Genesis why evil exists, why life is so hard and painful, proper expectations for life on earth. I'd say Genesis informs both our understanding of the benefits and limitations of scientific discovery, and that's not even beginning to get into all of the explicit spiritual lessons that are taught us in Genesis, about distrusting and trusting our covenant God, and the necessity of faith in His promises, and even the imputed righteousness of Christ. I mean, the doctrine of justification by faith alone is taught in Genesis.
So, my friends, I don't need to tell you this, but the understanding of origins here is absolutely essential to how you view the world. And you and I live among a people who largely do not understand or accept their origins. They understand very little of how it all began.
And in fact, the basic elements of a Christian worldview or even a theistic worldview are fading from our society. And so, most of this worldview comes to us in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. And what I want to encourage you as we begin this study is to either accept Genesis as God has revealed it or reject it in its entirety, which I'm not actually encouraging you to do that, but I'm encouraging you to have integrity, to not begin to selectively pick and choose what parts of Genesis conform to the world as you would like it to be, or the world that you convey it or the world according to you, but rather to say Genesis is God's revelation of what He wants me to think about the world, and so I'm going to now by faith receive it.
It's been fascinating to reflect on this reality because we know that Jesus is a dividing line. As we studied the gospel of Mark here as a church, we found often Jesus makes Himself the issue. He makes accepting Him or rejecting Him the definitional matter as what separates humanity.
And we start talking about sheep and goats, eternity with Christ, or eternal damnation. Jesus is the dividing line. You know, I would say that as we study the Scriptures, what we find is that before you get to Jesus as the dividing line, which He is, we actually take a step back to whether or not you and I believe we were created by the God of the Bible.
In fact, this is ultimately what begins Genesis. And so, if you have your Bibles this morning, which I trust you do, turn with me to Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It's how the Bible begins.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And you can just pause for a minute and take it in. This is how God chose to introduce Himself. And this begins the revelation of God to His creation. World, meet your Maker. And so, this statement functions really as the thesis over the creation account and then the orientation of all of the Bible.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now, we are very familiar with the importance of introductory statements, opening lines. They grab attention.
In fact, every introduction, every story ever told is possible because of this introduction. But they're all derived from this ultimate introduction, and they kind of set the stage or the tone. Some popular familiar introductory statements, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, or in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit, or call me Ishmael.
I'm kind of picking from some different genres. So, some of you are like, I've never heard that statement. Other people are like hopping up and down in their seats.
You're kind of outing yourself a little bit of what you're into. Michael Vlock writes just as classic stories sometimes begin with, long, long ago or once upon a time. So, too, God's kingdom program takes us way back to an age long ago, to the days of creation as recorded in the opening chapters of Genesis.
As God's book opens, we are told, in the beginning, let the story begin. No lengthy preamble, no preface. It just starts in the beginning.
And so, immediately, you and I are introduced then to the character who existed before there was a beginning. See, all those other stories, once upon a time or long, long ago, refer back to some origin, and there was always something that preceded it. Yet, in the beginning is before time even existed, and it brings us face to face with our Maker.
So, one commentator writes, creation's mystery and its Maker beckon us to know the One in whom we live and move and have our being. The opening section of Genesis introduces us to the Creator. He is the main character of the book, even all Scripture.
The creation account is theocentric, not creature centered. Its purpose is to glorify the Creator by magnifying Him through the majesty of the created order. This passage is doxological.
That means it is to produce praise. As well as didactic, it is to instruct us. Hymnic, there's a melodic line and a melody to it, as well as history, it's fact as it took place.
He goes on and says, God is the grammatical subject of the first sentence and continues as the thematic subject throughout the account. And God said is the reoccurring element that gives cohesion to 1 1 through 2 3. God is the primary actor. And for this reason, one could use the title of this first section, the affirmation of the Apostles' Creed, God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
I mean, there is one actor in Genesis 1, and it's God. God created, God spoke, God saw, God separated, God said, God blessed, God looked. God is the only one acting because He is the great divine actor.
He accomplished creation by fiat, that is, not the car, but by decree, by divine decree. And so, when you read, in the beginning God, it attests immediately to God's eternal nature. So, we just sang about His everlasting nature, that He is eternal and uncreated.
The word for God here, when you read, in the beginning God, is Elohim. It's really the kind of common garden variety name for God, in the Old Testament. It automatically refers to God's power, to His majesty, and to His sovereignty. That's what that name designated. So, there's different ways of referring to God in the Old Testament. They emphasize different perfections or attributes of who He is.
And when you and I read, in the beginning God created, there's something going on here that's a little bit hard to pick up in English. Think of it this way, you and I create things, do we not? There's even some people that we call creatives. It's kind of become like a normal job now to just be a creative, which is kind of interesting, but that's for another day.
We create things, we make things, we do things, we build, we accomplish. And throughout the Bible oftentimes we read about man doing, man creating, man building. But the word for creation here, when we read God created, this verb is used only of God in the Scriptures.
It's such a edifying study to just go through the Old Testament and see 41 times that this verb is used. And ever and always it refers exclusively to God creating. Why the distinction? Well, when you and I create and make something, what are we doing? We're actually just reconstituting something that already exists.
We're taking materials and then we're compiling them in a certain way. And the Bible has a word for that because we can do it. We can make things, we can create things.
But the reason why this word is reserved for God's creative work, why His creative work stands alone from any human created work, is to understand that when God created, it was out of nothing. It was utterly original. And so, the traditional rendering that you have in your Bible most likely is in the beginning God created.
If you have in the beginning when God created, it's not helpful. This is not talking of the beginning of creation as though there were things that pre-existed. Rather, in the beginning, here is an absolute clause indicating that there existed nothing prior to God's creative work other than God.
You're probably familiar with the Latin phrase ex nihilo, which is simply a way of expressing out of nothing. And it is the recognition that when God created, there was no pre-existent matter. And we use this expression all the time, but we use it in hyperbole.
I was reading about a college basketball coach in women's basketball, and that they had this season and it was unlikely what she was able to do with the talent that she had. And they said, quote, she really made something out of nothing. We're just speaking hyperbolically, right? We're saying that you're really effective in kind of working with what you got, and you didn't have a lot of resources, and you made something great with it.
We're not saying you actually out of nothing produced something because that is impossible. Isn't it interesting that John opens his gospel with the words, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God? And He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Do you understand how comprehensive that statement is? It's repeated two different ways for clarity.
All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. And so, for a moment, here's what I want you to do. Just stop, okay? Group exercise. Everybody stop. Okay, you can even close your eyes if you want. If that helps you. If it doesn't help you, don't close them. What I want you to imagine for just a minute with me is nothing, okay? Go. Well, that's frustrating, isn't it? You probably imagine like thin air.
Well, guess what? Air is something, okay? It's impossible. You can't imagine nothing. You have no concept of it because you're a creature and you exist in the created universe.
And so, it's incomprehensible for us to be outside of time and space and matter. And so, when we go outside of creation, it is there that we discover a God who is uncreated, who has no origin, who has no beginning. And the text says in very simple language, He created the heavens and the earth.
Now, the Hebrews had no single word to describe the universe. So, they wanted to express the concept of everything. They'd speak of the heavens and the earth. We do the same thing. The device is called a merism. It's where you take two opposites and you mean to communicate everything.
So, if you use the expression soup to nuts, you're talking about the whole deal. Why? Well, whenever they invented it, you started the meal with soup. That was kind of your appetizer. You ended it with a dessert of nuts. I'm so thankful that we've grown beyond that. Soup to nuts was an expression to talk about the totality of something.
So, in the same way when it says God created the heavens and the earth, that is to say He created everything. He created the universe, the heavens, the earth, everything in between. It's all His, and this is how He was known.
In Genesis chapter 14, Melchizedek meets Abram, and he blesses Abram. And I want you to hear how he describes God. Genesis 14, 19, Melchizedek says, Blessed be Abram by God most high, possessor of heaven and earth.
God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, the God who owns it all, the God to which everything belongs. I mean, this is kingdom language here. It's dripping with the ideas of sovereignty and majesty and power that God alone has a divine right to rule and to reign, that He is the Creator King who rules over His universe from the heavens above.
I want you to grasp the full weight of this introduction. We are being introduced in Genesis 1:1 to the ultimate sovereign. To the ultimate King of kings and Lord of lords.
I want to read a lengthy quote to you that I think just helps to orient this concept in our minds. The kingdom program starts with God's universal kingdom, which is God's absolute sovereignty and control over all creation from heaven at all times. No area of the universe is exempt from God's control, nor has there ever been a time when God's dominion over His creation has been compromised or lost.
Several passages discuss God's eternal and sovereign reign over all things at all times. For example, Psalm 145:13 states the eternal nature of God's reign. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
Psalm 113:19 declares the extent of God's universal kingdom over all things. The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all. Not only is God's kingdom eternal and unending, it extends to everything.
David affirmed God's universal kingdom with his prayer in 1 Chronicles 29:11 when he said this, "'Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth. Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might, and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.'" This exertion of God's kingdom control occurs both in miracles and providence.
Even the powerful pagan king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, eventually affirmed that God is sovereign and does what he wishes over his creation. Remember what he said? He said this, "'But at the end of that period I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All of the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth, and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, What have You done?' Brothers and sisters, if the universe was created, then it changes everything.
If the universe was created, then it changes everything. It instantly produces a reaction in the human heart. I mean, to understand that you are created by this Creator, it either produces in your heart love, adoration, awe, fear, a desire to know Him, homage, or frustration and rejection to think that a God would come and impose His will into your life and tell you how you should be or what you should do or how you should think.
I mean, Genesis is confrontational in the very opening line. When God asserts through Moses in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. We're going to look at many of the ways that studying our Creator produces worship and awe.
We're going to look at the intricacies and the details. We're going to explore what actually happened by God's creative power when He spoke. But this morning, we're just being introduced to God as Creator.
That's how He first represents Himself to His creation. And so, every creature on earth ultimately finds his or her genesis, his or her beginning and purpose in God Himself. That's the reason why the doctrine of creation is so under attack today.
The reason is because the implications are so massive on the human heart of the knowledge of a Creator. The late Dr. R. C. Sproul said a number of years ago, “as soon as we meet up with the subject of creation, we're now touching the issue that I believe is the key and central in our culture today that separates Christianity and other religions from all forms of secularism and atheism. Those who have been proponents of atheism and secularism have aimed their guns almost exclusively at the Christian and Judeo-Christian doctrine of creation because they understand this point, that if we can undercut the concept of divine creation, the whole Christian life and worldview collapses. Because primary to Judeo-Christian faith is the concept that this world in which we live has not emerged by cosmic accident, but is the result of the direct, supernatural, purposive work of a Creator.”
My friends, if there's a Creator, then it changes everything. And what's probably coming to your mind at some point in this is how Paul opens his epistle to the church at Rome.
Because Paul there is indicting humanity. He's reminding them of their guilt. He's going to establish this, that it exists for Jew and Gentile. And yet he connects it there, not that they've rejected Jesus as Messiah, but they've rejected God as Creator. Listen to what he writes.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness, by doing the things that God has said are wrong, so by their wrong deeds they're suppressing the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. What has He shown them? Well, it's His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived. Since when? Well, ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so that they are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God, that is the God who is the sovereign Creator-King, for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.
Now get this, they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator. Who is blessed forever. Amen.
The knowledge of a Creator is immediately polarizing. This is what puts us as believers on our face in fear and awe and wonder of the God who is or causes the natural man to run and hide. Psalm 14:1 says that it is the fool who says in his heart there is no God, the seeking desire to deny the existence.
And it is, we'll see, the evidence for a Creator is all over creation, those fingerprints exist. And so, as I was reflecting on this, this opening reality of God presenting Himself to the world first and foremost as Creator, yes, He's going to be our Redeemer. Yes, He's going to be the ultimate end of all things, but He begins here showing us that He is Creator.
And just to realize, man, how often have I denied Him the sovereign right to rule in my life as Creator? How often have I exchanged the glory of the incorruptible for images that are corruptible? And so, lest we automatically think of all the unbelievers that have a non-Christian worldview and how messed up that is, remember the words of Scripture that say, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one.
I think perhaps the deepest manifestation of human sin, as Christopher Ashe writes, is the replacement of the Creator by some created good. Perhaps the deepest manifestation of human sin is the replacement of the Creator by some created good. And so when we come to the beginning of Genesis, I just encourage you to worship your Creator, to come and meet your Maker, and to realize that as we worship our God for His work of redemption at the cross, as glorious as it is, the refrain in heaven, I mean, Revelation 4.11 actually begins not with redemption but with creation, where the creatures are singing, worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.
For You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created. Will you pray with me? Lord, we come to these words that are so incredibly familiar. It's one of the first verses that usually is put to memory by children.
Many of us have heard this story, we've learned it by flannel graph, we've read it in our Bible reading. And Lord, we affirm that we believe it and we know it, and at the same time say that we don't fully comprehend it and we certainly don't faithfully apply it as we ought. Lord, we come to You this morning, we just say, hey, we worship You.
We praise You, we give You honor and glory for being the Creator. We recognize that we exist by Your will and for Your purposes. And Father, I pray that as we study Genesis that You would use it to profoundly shape how we view ourselves, how we view the world around us.
And Lord, that the result would be greater glory that You get, not just generically through the world, but personally through each of our lives. We love You so much. We thank You for this revelation that You've given to us.
It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.
It is good to be with you today, church. It's good to be back. I just want to say thank you to Ian and Kyle and Joshua for filling the pulpit faithfully this summer, especially Joshua taking a number of weeks as a benefit to our family.
I just have a little bit of a breather this summer, still involved in the flow of ministry, but the weekly preaching burden is described as a burden. In fact, John MacArthur would say it's a relentless bondage. It feels like you found out on Monday that you're pregnant, and then you carry that baby all week, you deliver it Sunday, and then you find out again on Monday you're pregnant again.
And obviously he's not a woman, so you know, I don't know, I don't know how far you want to take those analogies, but there's a sense in which to study and to think through issues and try to think your way clear through them from the text, understand what God means by what He says, and apply it to your own life. There is a burden with that, and that's not a burden that I would give up. I love to do it.
It's a thrill, and in fact, over the last weeks, my heart's desire has been eager to be back in the pulpit, but at the same time, it was a blessing to give attention to other things and have a little break from that particular burden. So we're grateful for this, church. We love you guys.
We are so thankful to be a part of this ministry, and we love you very, very much. I am still wrestling with figuring out the cause and solution relating to my vocal cords, so we're gonna do the best we can with what we got. I want to be yelling and projecting more than I am, but if you hear some of that weakness, just bear with me.
It is what it is, and we are still kind of looking for a solution, but I just have not found that yet. Well, with that being said, this morning we're gonna embark on the consecutive exposition of the book of Genesis, and by that, I mean we are gonna take Genesis 1, and we're gonna work our way through Genesis. Now, I know what some of you are thinking.
You're thinking, man, I'm old enough that I'm wondering, like, is this the last book of the Bible that I'm gonna be sitting through because it's a big book? Sometimes we go slow.
Here's my commitment to you. We're not going to go any slower than we need to, okay, but I would expect things are going to be a little slower at the start, and then we'll pick up pace as we go, and if we need to take a break along the way, we can do that, but this is just a thrill to be stepping into Genesis this morning, and my excitement has been increasing in the preparation over this material entitled this morning's message, World, Meet Your Maker, Part One, and I'm so out of shape.
I didn't even tell the AV people that, so you just gotta hear it and write it down. World, Meet Your Maker, Part One. There's a comma between world and meet your maker, and then a comma, and then part one.
We're gonna be here for just a bit on Genesis 1-1. This morning there's not an outline, but I just want to kind of briefly set the stage for where we're going to be in Genesis, and then I want to introduce the text itself, and so we're going to kind of stay at a high level this week, and then we're going to begin to work our way into the details. So Genesis, as you know, is a book of beginnings.
In fact, that is what the word Genesis means. In the Hebrew Scriptures, it's entitled bereshit, which is in the beginning. That's what it means.
One word in Hebrew, three in English, but this is in the beginning. It's how everything started, and the themes of the book of Genesis are grand. These are magnificent themes.
Genesis answers basic questions like, where did we come from? How did the universe come into being? Why are we here? What kind of morality are we to adopt, and why? How should we order society? Maybe very pointedly asking, why are things so messed up in the world around us right now? Why are things so bad in my own heart? Why do I struggle with evil desires? How does God even view evil? What hope do we have for humanity? And understanding God's redemptive plan, and what faith is to look like, and the understanding of a God who makes a covenant with His people and chooses to bless us in spite of ourselves. And so Genesis is where we trace our roots. Genesis is not only the roots of humanity, but Genesis is the roots of Christianity.
And so I'd say to be a Christian, you can't really understand Christianity, even the ministry of Christ, apart from a proper understanding of what is taught, these roots in the book of Genesis. Now Genesis was taught by, or was written, excuse me, by Moses. And so we take a view here that Scripture is inspired and authoritative, and so we know that Moses wrote Genesis because Jesus, in fact, in John chapter 7, cites Moses as the author of Genesis.
Okay, so there's a lot of different theories people come up with as to who wrote Genesis, or how many people, what was compiled, and what wasn't. Jesus, in John chapter 7, said to the crowds, Moses gave you circumcision. Okay, well what he's talking about there is the rite of circumcision, the practice of circumcision that the Jewish people adopted.
That was actually given in Genesis chapter 7 is where it's recorded, where God gave that plan to Abraham as a sign and seal of His covenant promise. And so Jesus says, Moses gave you circumcision. Then He clarified, not that it is from Moses, but it's from the So He's saying God gave circumcision to Abraham.
Moses wrote it down in Genesis 17. And so I just side in this with Jesus. I generally think He's on the winning team.
So I side with Jesus here over against liberal scholars and believe that Moses is the one who wrote Genesis. And so this book of beginnings is written by Moses, and there are major themes, major theological themes that we're going to see and develop as we go through Genesis. But ultimately, Genesis reveals the God who created the universe to display His glory.
Okay, David began Psalm 19 and said, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. And if I were to give you the overarching theme, then, of Genesis, of this creator God, I would say that I believe that the overall theme is introducing us to God who is a creator and king. The theme of Genesis, in many ways, is a kingdom because we're introduced to a God who sits in the heavens and rules over the universe.
And that God who rules over the universe created a kingdom on earth, what we might call a mediatorial kingdom. So we're going to use theological terms. God has a universal kingdom where He reigns over the universe.
Then on earth, He established a mediatorial kingdom in Adam. Adam was His vice-regent. He was a vassal king. He was a co-regent. And that kingdom, due to Adam's sin, became corrupted. That's not a fallen kingdom. It's a corrupted kingdom. And God then promises to restore that kingdom. And so, He's a covenant-making, covenant-keeping God who redeems people.
We see that throughout Genesis. And yet, He by no means leaves the guilty unpunished. Genesis ends in chapter 50, but right before that, in Genesis 49, Israel is giving blessings to his sons.
And He says this in Genesis 49.10, the scepter. What's a scepter? Well, a scepter is the instrument by which a monarch rules, okay? A king has a scepter. The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Israel, when He's blessing His sons, comes to Judah and says, Judah, there's going to be a scepter here for an unending kingdom. There Israel is prophesying of the future of God's plan to recreate the original creation in a kingdom for which His Son will rule. If you think of the language then of the Bible, you understand this is very familiar to us, familiar to us.
Isaiah 65:17, the Lord says, And so when we come into Genesis, what we're going to see is God the creator, the sovereign king, and His plan not only for earth right now, but for the summing up of all things in Christ, the ultimate kingdom of God. And so when you come to Genesis, generally in the church, it's a pretty familiar book. Even if you've never finished a Bible reading program, you've probably started one.
You've probably at least gotten through Genesis. Usually, we get bogged down a little bit after that. It comes in Leviticus or Numbers. Numbers is always a hard one to get through. So, most of you are familiar with Genesis. And Genesis, I think as we begin to study, will see forms the Christian worldview.
That is to say that our frame of reference through which we understand ourselves and the world we live in is rooted heavily in the book of Genesis. One author describes a worldview as this. It's the set of beliefs about fundamental aspects of reality that ground and influence all of one's perceiving, thinking, knowing, and doing.
I want to read that again. A worldview is a set of beliefs about fundamental aspects of realities. This is basically what I believe about kind of the fundamental realities of how things are.
Goes on and says that these ground and influence all, all of one's perceiving, thinking, knowing, and doing. And of course, this includes understanding how it is that we come to knowledge itself, the origins of the universe and life, what the purpose and meaning is of the universe or of the human race. This would include your beliefs about the existence and nature of God, your understanding of the nature of man, your anthropology, and your morality, what you believe is good and bad and right and wrong.
And so, what I want to help you understand and grasp and as we kind of set expectations here for where we're going is that Genesis properly understood and believed will ground you and establish you in the truth in such a way that you're going to find you have access to wisdom that comes only through this revelation. Okay, the psalmist in Psalm 119 would say as he was assessing the landscape, "'Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation, and I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.'" Listen, Genesis properly understood and believed will make you smarter, excuse me, not smarter, wiser than your teachers, wiser than your professors, wiser than the elderly, wiser than your legislators, wiser than your boss.
I don't mean to say that you have more intelligence than they do, but I mean you have access to divine information about how things are that apart from this you don't possess. And so, Genesis is going to do a couple of things for us here. If you're new in Christ, if you're a new Christian, Genesis is going to help you understand a Christian worldview.
It's going to help you understand how to make sense of the world around you. If you're already in Christ, what Genesis is going to do is it's going to be a tremendous reminder. I mean, as I'm studying Genesis, it's, oh, yeah, that's why I believe what I believe about this.
Oh, yeah, that's why I do what I do here. Oh, you know what? I need to reconform my thinking to this truth that is rooted in Genesis. I want you to just think for a moment about areas that Genesis speaks to.
I want you to kind of put this on for a minute, and here's what I'm going to postulate. It's kind of the thesis here. Did the truths contained in Genesis establish a worldview that immediately set you at odds with anyone who rejects it? I want you to think about this for just a minute.
Okay, Genesis is going to teach us about origins. That informs our perspective on how the universe got here, big bang, evolution, intelligent design. Genesis informs our understanding about the animal kingdom, okay, the relative importance and not importance in God's kingdom.
Whether or not it's okay to eat them, what we're to do with them, Genesis informs that perspective, the understanding of the fundamental goodness of God's creation, that God has created all of these things that we see for His glory and it's fundamentally good. It's from Genesis that we're going to understand the dominion mandate. Why is it that we want to be productive and why we want to create things and make and do and build and fix and conquer? And what has God designed the earth for in relation to that? Why are we here in the role of humanity on earth? It's in Genesis that we're going to encounter the Sabbath principle, why one day in seven is set apart.
It's in Genesis that we're going to come to the Imago Dei, the true understanding of what it means to be a human, what it means to be a human created in the image of God, what brings human beings dignity and value, and that informs the sanctity of life. How we view about exterminating people who are not happy any longer with their life or worth less. That's why we believe that murder is wrong, including abortion.
Genesis informs our worldview on two sexes, male and female, that God has created for a purpose that are undeniable and unalterable. Sex itself, why it exists, what its purpose is, transgenderism, homosexuality, marriage, what it means, the reality of one man and one woman for life, a complementarianism that God has distinct roles for men and women on this earth, has implications for divorce. Genesis teaches us about children and how we're to think about them, how children are to be viewed, what their purpose is, how they fit into your goals and agendas, why or why not to have children, reproduction.
In fact, the very definition of the family is covered in Genesis. It's important as well as its limitations. And then if you're beginning to kind of expand out maybe from some of those very direct things that Genesis speaks to, it actually speaks more broadly than that as well.
See, Genesis informs the way that you're going to think about something like a so-called climate crisis and your ability to sustain life by God's design. Whether or not the earth has an overpopulation problem and whether humanity is a blight on the earth or part of God's design, it's going to impact your view of racism and all of the prevailing thoughts that go with that, from critical race theory to intersectionality. It's going to impact your view of disease.
Yes, even how you might think about COVID is going to be informed by a biblical worldview rooted in Genesis, about economics, private property, the value of work, to some degree communism and socialism and national sovereignty or national borders. All of these are realities that you and I are going to form perspectives about, drawn from principles taught us in Genesis. In Genesis, we learn about war, the inevitability and purpose of it.
We learn about government, its role and its basic fundamental purpose. We also learn why it's always going to be beset by corruption, and it's limited in its ability to remedy the problems that exist on earth. In Genesis, we learn about crime and punishment and the death penalty.
We learn in Genesis why evil exists, why life is so hard and painful, proper expectations for life on earth. I'd say Genesis informs both our understanding of the benefits and limitations of scientific discovery, and that's not even beginning to get into all of the explicit spiritual lessons that are taught us in Genesis, about distrusting and trusting our covenant God, and the necessity of faith in His promises, and even the imputed righteousness of Christ. I mean, the doctrine of justification by faith alone is taught in Genesis.
So, my friends, I don't need to tell you this, but the understanding of origins here is absolutely essential to how you view the world. And you and I live among a people who largely do not understand or accept their origins. They understand very little of how it all began.
And in fact, the basic elements of a Christian worldview or even a theistic worldview are fading from our society. And so, most of this worldview comes to us in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. And what I want to encourage you as we begin this study is to either accept Genesis as God has revealed it or reject it in its entirety, which I'm not actually encouraging you to do that, but I'm encouraging you to have integrity, to not begin to selectively pick and choose what parts of Genesis conform to the world as you would like it to be, or the world that you convey it or the world according to you, but rather to say Genesis is God's revelation of what He wants me to think about the world, and so I'm going to now by faith receive it.
It's been fascinating to reflect on this reality because we know that Jesus is a dividing line. As we studied the gospel of Mark here as a church, we found often Jesus makes Himself the issue. He makes accepting Him or rejecting Him the definitional matter as what separates humanity.
And we start talking about sheep and goats, eternity with Christ, or eternal damnation. Jesus is the dividing line. You know, I would say that as we study the Scriptures, what we find is that before you get to Jesus as the dividing line, which He is, we actually take a step back to whether or not you and I believe we were created by the God of the Bible.
In fact, this is ultimately what begins Genesis. And so, if you have your Bibles this morning, which I trust you do, turn with me to Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It's how the Bible begins.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And you can just pause for a minute and take it in. This is how God chose to introduce Himself. And this begins the revelation of God to His creation. World, meet your Maker. And so, this statement functions really as the thesis over the creation account and then the orientation of all of the Bible.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now, we are very familiar with the importance of introductory statements, opening lines. They grab attention.
In fact, every introduction, every story ever told is possible because of this introduction. But they're all derived from this ultimate introduction, and they kind of set the stage or the tone. Some popular familiar introductory statements, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, or in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit, or call me Ishmael.
I'm kind of picking from some different genres. So, some of you are like, I've never heard that statement. Other people are like hopping up and down in their seats.
You're kind of outing yourself a little bit of what you're into. Michael Vlock writes just as classic stories sometimes begin with, long, long ago or once upon a time. So, too, God's kingdom program takes us way back to an age long ago, to the days of creation as recorded in the opening chapters of Genesis.
As God's book opens, we are told, in the beginning, let the story begin. No lengthy preamble, no preface. It just starts in the beginning.
And so, immediately, you and I are introduced then to the character who existed before there was a beginning. See, all those other stories, once upon a time or long, long ago, refer back to some origin, and there was always something that preceded it. Yet, in the beginning is before time even existed, and it brings us face to face with our Maker.
So, one commentator writes, creation's mystery and its Maker beckon us to know the One in whom we live and move and have our being. The opening section of Genesis introduces us to the Creator. He is the main character of the book, even all Scripture.
The creation account is theocentric, not creature centered. Its purpose is to glorify the Creator by magnifying Him through the majesty of the created order. This passage is doxological.
That means it is to produce praise. As well as didactic, it is to instruct us. Hymnic, there's a melodic line and a melody to it, as well as history, it's fact as it took place.
He goes on and says, God is the grammatical subject of the first sentence and continues as the thematic subject throughout the account. And God said is the reoccurring element that gives cohesion to 1 1 through 2 3. God is the primary actor. And for this reason, one could use the title of this first section, the affirmation of the Apostles' Creed, God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
I mean, there is one actor in Genesis 1, and it's God. God created, God spoke, God saw, God separated, God said, God blessed, God looked. God is the only one acting because He is the great divine actor.
He accomplished creation by fiat, that is, not the car, but by decree, by divine decree. And so, when you read, in the beginning God, it attests immediately to God's eternal nature. So, we just sang about His everlasting nature, that He is eternal and uncreated.
The word for God here, when you read, in the beginning God, is Elohim. It's really the kind of common garden variety name for God, in the Old Testament. It automatically refers to God's power, to His majesty, and to His sovereignty. That's what that name designated. So, there's different ways of referring to God in the Old Testament. They emphasize different perfections or attributes of who He is.
And when you and I read, in the beginning God created, there's something going on here that's a little bit hard to pick up in English. Think of it this way, you and I create things, do we not? There's even some people that we call creatives. It's kind of become like a normal job now to just be a creative, which is kind of interesting, but that's for another day.
We create things, we make things, we do things, we build, we accomplish. And throughout the Bible oftentimes we read about man doing, man creating, man building. But the word for creation here, when we read God created, this verb is used only of God in the Scriptures.
It's such a edifying study to just go through the Old Testament and see 41 times that this verb is used. And ever and always it refers exclusively to God creating. Why the distinction? Well, when you and I create and make something, what are we doing? We're actually just reconstituting something that already exists.
We're taking materials and then we're compiling them in a certain way. And the Bible has a word for that because we can do it. We can make things, we can create things.
But the reason why this word is reserved for God's creative work, why His creative work stands alone from any human created work, is to understand that when God created, it was out of nothing. It was utterly original. And so, the traditional rendering that you have in your Bible most likely is in the beginning God created.
If you have in the beginning when God created, it's not helpful. This is not talking of the beginning of creation as though there were things that pre-existed. Rather, in the beginning, here is an absolute clause indicating that there existed nothing prior to God's creative work other than God.
You're probably familiar with the Latin phrase ex nihilo, which is simply a way of expressing out of nothing. And it is the recognition that when God created, there was no pre-existent matter. And we use this expression all the time, but we use it in hyperbole.
I was reading about a college basketball coach in women's basketball, and that they had this season and it was unlikely what she was able to do with the talent that she had. And they said, quote, she really made something out of nothing. We're just speaking hyperbolically, right? We're saying that you're really effective in kind of working with what you got, and you didn't have a lot of resources, and you made something great with it.
We're not saying you actually out of nothing produced something because that is impossible. Isn't it interesting that John opens his gospel with the words, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God? And He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Do you understand how comprehensive that statement is? It's repeated two different ways for clarity.
All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. And so, for a moment, here's what I want you to do. Just stop, okay? Group exercise. Everybody stop. Okay, you can even close your eyes if you want. If that helps you. If it doesn't help you, don't close them. What I want you to imagine for just a minute with me is nothing, okay? Go. Well, that's frustrating, isn't it? You probably imagine like thin air.
Well, guess what? Air is something, okay? It's impossible. You can't imagine nothing. You have no concept of it because you're a creature and you exist in the created universe.
And so, it's incomprehensible for us to be outside of time and space and matter. And so, when we go outside of creation, it is there that we discover a God who is uncreated, who has no origin, who has no beginning. And the text says in very simple language, He created the heavens and the earth.
Now, the Hebrews had no single word to describe the universe. So, they wanted to express the concept of everything. They'd speak of the heavens and the earth. We do the same thing. The device is called a merism. It's where you take two opposites and you mean to communicate everything.
So, if you use the expression soup to nuts, you're talking about the whole deal. Why? Well, whenever they invented it, you started the meal with soup. That was kind of your appetizer. You ended it with a dessert of nuts. I'm so thankful that we've grown beyond that. Soup to nuts was an expression to talk about the totality of something.
So, in the same way when it says God created the heavens and the earth, that is to say He created everything. He created the universe, the heavens, the earth, everything in between. It's all His, and this is how He was known.
In Genesis chapter 14, Melchizedek meets Abram, and he blesses Abram. And I want you to hear how he describes God. Genesis 14, 19, Melchizedek says, Blessed be Abram by God most high, possessor of heaven and earth.
God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, the God who owns it all, the God to which everything belongs. I mean, this is kingdom language here. It's dripping with the ideas of sovereignty and majesty and power that God alone has a divine right to rule and to reign, that He is the Creator King who rules over His universe from the heavens above.
I want you to grasp the full weight of this introduction. We are being introduced in Genesis 1:1 to the ultimate sovereign. To the ultimate King of kings and Lord of lords.
I want to read a lengthy quote to you that I think just helps to orient this concept in our minds. The kingdom program starts with God's universal kingdom, which is God's absolute sovereignty and control over all creation from heaven at all times. No area of the universe is exempt from God's control, nor has there ever been a time when God's dominion over His creation has been compromised or lost.
Several passages discuss God's eternal and sovereign reign over all things at all times. For example, Psalm 145:13 states the eternal nature of God's reign. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
Psalm 113:19 declares the extent of God's universal kingdom over all things. The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all. Not only is God's kingdom eternal and unending, it extends to everything.
David affirmed God's universal kingdom with his prayer in 1 Chronicles 29:11 when he said this, "'Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth. Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might, and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.'" This exertion of God's kingdom control occurs both in miracles and providence.
Even the powerful pagan king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, eventually affirmed that God is sovereign and does what he wishes over his creation. Remember what he said? He said this, "'But at the end of that period I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All of the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth, and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, What have You done?' Brothers and sisters, if the universe was created, then it changes everything.
If the universe was created, then it changes everything. It instantly produces a reaction in the human heart. I mean, to understand that you are created by this Creator, it either produces in your heart love, adoration, awe, fear, a desire to know Him, homage, or frustration and rejection to think that a God would come and impose His will into your life and tell you how you should be or what you should do or how you should think.
I mean, Genesis is confrontational in the very opening line. When God asserts through Moses in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. We're going to look at many of the ways that studying our Creator produces worship and awe.
We're going to look at the intricacies and the details. We're going to explore what actually happened by God's creative power when He spoke. But this morning, we're just being introduced to God as Creator.
That's how He first represents Himself to His creation. And so, every creature on earth ultimately finds his or her genesis, his or her beginning and purpose in God Himself. That's the reason why the doctrine of creation is so under attack today.
The reason is because the implications are so massive on the human heart of the knowledge of a Creator. The late Dr. R. C. Sproul said a number of years ago, “as soon as we meet up with the subject of creation, we're now touching the issue that I believe is the key and central in our culture today that separates Christianity and other religions from all forms of secularism and atheism. Those who have been proponents of atheism and secularism have aimed their guns almost exclusively at the Christian and Judeo-Christian doctrine of creation because they understand this point, that if we can undercut the concept of divine creation, the whole Christian life and worldview collapses. Because primary to Judeo-Christian faith is the concept that this world in which we live has not emerged by cosmic accident, but is the result of the direct, supernatural, purposive work of a Creator.”
My friends, if there's a Creator, then it changes everything. And what's probably coming to your mind at some point in this is how Paul opens his epistle to the church at Rome.
Because Paul there is indicting humanity. He's reminding them of their guilt. He's going to establish this, that it exists for Jew and Gentile. And yet he connects it there, not that they've rejected Jesus as Messiah, but they've rejected God as Creator. Listen to what he writes.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness, by doing the things that God has said are wrong, so by their wrong deeds they're suppressing the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. What has He shown them? Well, it's His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived. Since when? Well, ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so that they are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God, that is the God who is the sovereign Creator-King, for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.
Now get this, they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator. Who is blessed forever. Amen.
The knowledge of a Creator is immediately polarizing. This is what puts us as believers on our face in fear and awe and wonder of the God who is or causes the natural man to run and hide. Psalm 14:1 says that it is the fool who says in his heart there is no God, the seeking desire to deny the existence.
And it is, we'll see, the evidence for a Creator is all over creation, those fingerprints exist. And so, as I was reflecting on this, this opening reality of God presenting Himself to the world first and foremost as Creator, yes, He's going to be our Redeemer. Yes, He's going to be the ultimate end of all things, but He begins here showing us that He is Creator.
And just to realize, man, how often have I denied Him the sovereign right to rule in my life as Creator? How often have I exchanged the glory of the incorruptible for images that are corruptible? And so, lest we automatically think of all the unbelievers that have a non-Christian worldview and how messed up that is, remember the words of Scripture that say, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one.
I think perhaps the deepest manifestation of human sin, as Christopher Ashe writes, is the replacement of the Creator by some created good. Perhaps the deepest manifestation of human sin is the replacement of the Creator by some created good. And so when we come to the beginning of Genesis, I just encourage you to worship your Creator, to come and meet your Maker, and to realize that as we worship our God for His work of redemption at the cross, as glorious as it is, the refrain in heaven, I mean, Revelation 4.11 actually begins not with redemption but with creation, where the creatures are singing, worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.
For You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created. Will you pray with me? Lord, we come to these words that are so incredibly familiar. It's one of the first verses that usually is put to memory by children.
Many of us have heard this story, we've learned it by flannel graph, we've read it in our Bible reading. And Lord, we affirm that we believe it and we know it, and at the same time say that we don't fully comprehend it and we certainly don't faithfully apply it as we ought. Lord, we come to You this morning, we just say, hey, we worship You.
We praise You, we give You honor and glory for being the Creator. We recognize that we exist by Your will and for Your purposes. And Father, I pray that as we study Genesis that You would use it to profoundly shape how we view ourselves, how we view the world around us.
And Lord, that the result would be greater glory that You get, not just generically through the world, but personally through each of our lives. We love You so much. We thank You for this revelation that You've given to us.
It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.
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