We left verse 2 last week in a state of eager anticipation.
! Our world was described as dark, a formless void, uninhabitable, undesirable in every way.
! And it's against this backdrop of a shapeless and empty wilderness that Moses
puts God's creative brilliance on display in the rest of the chapter.
It was over that dark and formless void that was hovering the only living and animate being
in the entire universe, the Spirit of God hovering in preparation to do something significant
and we're left at the end of verse 2 wondering what will he do?
What will it be like? How will he do it?
Will it be good?
And the answers to those questions come to us here in 3 to 31.
There's a real beauty to the way that Moses wrote this chapter.
It's a beauty that isn't always immediately evident in English.
The text has a remarkable symmetry and in this case actually brings a depth of meaning that
is helpful to our understanding of what's actually happening here, what we're meant to take away
from it.
Many scholars have noted that in the Hebrew text, it's uniquely arranged in multiples of seven.
Seven often being used in the scriptures to communicate perfection and completion.
And it seems to do that here in Genesis chapter 1 in a number of ways.
Most obviously, of course, is that God's work is completed in seven creation days.
Six days of creative action followed by a single day of rest that completes it and a day of enjoyment
of the created world.
But it's not just that there are seven days.
That would be significant in and of itself perhaps, but it's more than that here in this text.
We can look at the opening and closing of the section.
There's brackets here.
The opening being chapter 1 verses 1 and 2.
We studied that last week.
The closing section or portion of the section being chapter 2 verses 1 through 3.
And what we find in the Hebrew text is that it's given to us in multiples of seven.
Chapter 1 and verse 1, seven Hebrew words.
Chapter 1 and verse 2, 14 Hebrew words.
We get to the concluding section.
Chapter 2 verses 1 through 3, we find three different statements.
All equalling up to 21 Hebrew words.
There's symmetry here.
There's bracketing what is taking place here in Genesis chapter 1, intending to communicate
perfection, completion.
The nouns of verse 1, to take it even further, and we could go even further than this.
God, heavens, earth, all repeated in multiples of seven throughout Genesis chapter 1.
Why does that even matter?
Why would we even bring that up?
Because it's not a coincidence.
It's too significant.
It's too detailed to be a coincidence in this case.
I say all of that to say that what we have here in Genesis chapter 1 is remarkable, amazing literature
more than anything else, or as much as anything else.
Moses made great effort to communicate a particular message to us, not only in the words themselves,
but in the way that he arranged them in the text.
It's too magnificent to be a coincidence.
In beautiful fashion, God used Moses to communicate the story of creation in a way that brings a depth of meaning
to God's creative power and order and brilliance, perfection.
Moses is doing something not necessarily historical, strictly speaking, not necessarily scientific, strictly speaking.
He's doing something theological in Genesis chapter 1.
He's telling us something about God by conveying brilliantly the real history of creation.
But the beauty of the text doesn't necessarily mean that it's myth or legend.
In fact, it's distinct from the ancient mythologies and legends of other similar literature from this day and time.
It's distinct in that while it's beautiful, while it has an amazing symmetry to it,
Moses still gives it to us in the ordinary narrative prose.
He's just telling us what happened.
It's the history of the universe.
Why is he doing it?
He's doing it in a way that will hopefully increase our faith,
but primarily that it will provoke our worship.
That's the intent of the text.
Now, the structure of the creation account, of course, it tracks along six creation days.
Of course, there's all kinds of debate about the nature of these days,
whether we should consider them as six or seven literal 24-hour solar days or as something else.
I just want to say I'm not intending to get into the debate this morning,
but just to say over the centuries, two millennia,
at least six different dominant views have persisted among Christians,
all from Christians that are seriously theologically minded,
seriously gospel-focused,
wholly committed to the authority and inerrancy of the Bible.
All of them.
It's possible that these are 24-hour solar days,
that that's what we're meant to accept here in the text,
though that is not the measure of orthodoxy that some Christians seem to make.
It just isn't.
It actually seems to me that Moses was using language here
to appropriate God's creative work in a way that is analogical to our solar days,
though not necessarily identical to them.
But in either case, there are things about Genesis 1 that Christians must believe.
The nature of what these days are in their length is not one of those things.
We might liken it to the many discussions that we might would have
over perhaps the millennial age of Revelation, the end of Revelation.
There are things about the end times that we must believe.
We must believe that Jesus is coming back.
We must believe that there will be an eternal separation of the righteous and the wicked.
We must believe that he will bring a new heavens and a new earth.
What you believe about the nature of that millennium
is not unimportant, but it's not the most important thing.
I think we can look at the nature of these days the same way.
There are things about creation every Christian must believe.
We must believe that what is came from God,
that he spoke what is out of nothing,
that it all comes from his creative power,
that he holds it all together,
that he does not simply create and then step away and let natural processes take over.
No, he is intimately involved in every part of creation.
He is to be worshipped as the creator God.
The question of the days is not unimportant.
It's just not the most important.
Now, important to the structure of these days is how they're actually arranged.
Six days are grouped into two corresponding categories.
Now, think back to verse 2 that we studied last week.
We're told that the Spirit of God was hovering over the formless void,
emptiness on one hand, shapelessness on the other.
And what we find God doing in the rest of the chapter is corresponding to that condition.
In the first three days, he's forming.
He's forming the earth.
In the second three days, days four to six,
he is filling the earth that he has now formed.
And there is a unique correspondence between the two groups.
Let me just highlight them for you before we get in.
On day one, we find God forming light, separating the light from the darkness.
Corresponding with that is day four.
What do we see God doing?
Filling.
He fills the heavens with the great lights, the sun and the moon and the stars.
What are those things that he's filled the heavens with functioning as?
They are governing the light and the darkness that he has shaped and that he has formed in day one.
Day two, God is forming the atmosphere.
He's separating the waters.
On day five, what do we find him doing?
As if it's mapping right over top of those first three days.
We find on day five, he's now filling the sky with winged creatures,
this atmosphere that he has shaped and formed.
And he's filling the seas with marine life that he has shaped and formed on day two.
Then we get to day three.
God forms dry land.
And in a second creative word, God brings forth vegetation from that land that he has now formed.
And then what do we find him doing on day six?
Mapping right over top of that.
We find him filling the land that he has formed, first in a creative word with land animals.
And then in the apex of the creation narrative, we find a second creative word.
This time, it's humanity.
It's mankind.
It's human life.
So in the first three, he's forming.
He's shaping the formless void.
In the second set of days, he is filling what he's now shaped.
And all of this is to show that Yahweh is a God of power and order.
He not only creates all things, but he orders and structures life for optimal flourishing and enjoyment,
all for his glory.
He sets boundaries around each facet of the created world so that it functions in exactly the way that it must function.
And it does not rebel.
And he does it all through the power of his word.
Truly, we come to Genesis 1 and moving forward in our scriptures.
And the only conclusion is there is no God like this God.
The purpose of Genesis 1, then, is to exalt the one true creator God to provoke our unending worship.
It's a shame, then, that we can so often spend our time arguing over matters that are peripheral to the text
when its intent is to draw us into wonder and amazement at the God who created all that is.
Moses is informing our minds so that he might then, by the Spirit of God, stir our affections toward this God.
So that our study of Genesis 1 should always conclude with the exclamation of,
How great thou art.
Let's look first at forming the earth, days 1 to 3.
We come to day 1 in verse 3.
And God said,
Let there be light.
And there was light.
And God saw the light that it was good.
And God separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light day,
and the darkness he called night.
There was evening, and there was morning, the first day.
The anticipation of the spirits hovering over the formless void,
it now breaks suddenly into creative action.
And surprisingly to us, unless you've already read it before,
which I assume most of you have,
if you haven't read it, it's almost a surprise to us.
The only instrument of creation, the sole instrument,
is God's word.
It's the power of his word.
He speaks into the darkness.
He speaks into the void.
And into it comes forth light.
Let there be light.
And there was light.
Until day 4, though, there's no created source for the light.
What's actually giving the light?
What's actually separating the light from the darkness?
How could there possibly be an evening and a morning?
Those things don't come until day 4.
The implication being that God himself is the light shining into the darkness.
Interestingly, if you know your Bible well,
you will begin to pick up on the fact that the Bible both begins and ends in the same condition.
An eternal source of light emanating from the Lord God himself.
We read in Revelation 22,
than just the bulb that emanates energy so that we might be able to see something in this room.
It's more than that.
The light will be represented as an image of knowledge in some cases,
as righteousness in other cases,
as life and resurrection.
All of these things being summed up in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.
It says John in John chapter 1,
In him was life,
and the life was the light of men.
And the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
A motif that should not be lost on us right here,
at the very beginning,
in verse 3.
And then what does God do with it?
He speaks the light into existence,
and then he separates the light from the darkness.
He calls the light,
day.
Day in this case,
not being a full day,
but daytime.
He separates light,
daytime,
from nighttime.
It's the first of several separations that take shape in the chapter.
This particular separation of light and dark,
night and day,
is essential for forming an inhabitable earth.
He's forming.
And Kenneth Matthew suggests that there is more for us to see here than just night and day.
Matthew says God leaves a remnant of the darkness each day as both a reminder of what existence would be like apart from God's creative act,
a dark void.
It cannot give life to itself.
But also a continual reminder
of His mercies
and how they are new
every morning.
Notice that the ordering of the day doesn't begin with morning as we typically think of.
It begins with evening.
Why?
Well, perhaps it's meant to be a signal to us
that just as God spoke light into the darkness,
each day,
evening and morning,
representing His faithfulness,
His loving kindness,
a sign of His life-giving faithfulness,
bringing us through
our anxious nights.
Is this not what the psalmist picks up on?
We studied it just a few weeks ago in Psalm 30.
Weeping may tarry for the night.
Joy comes with the morning.
Let there be light.
God's forming.
He's forming in significant ways.
We go to day two.
God continues to form.
Verse six.
And God said,
let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters.
Let it separate the waters from the waters.
And God made the expanse
and separated the waters that were under the expanse
from the waters that were above the expanse.
And it was so.
And God called the expanse heaven,
or you'll see in a footnote probably in your Bible,
or sky is the idea here.
Not the place where God dwells
and sits on His throne,
His heavenly court,
but literally the sky that we see above us.
And there was evening and there was morning,
a second day.
So on day two,
God creates the atmosphere that surrounds the earth.
He calls it sky, heaven.
And another separation takes place.
Did you see it?
It's a separation this time of the waters.
There are waters that are below the expanse.
That would be the waters that are on the earth.
And then there is waters that are in or above the expanse.
What is that?
Different suggestions have certainly been made.
How would the wandering Israelites
in the midst of the wilderness at Sinai
understood Moses writing the separation of these waters?
Clouds that contain water,
that eventually drop water in the form of dew and rain.
That's what God is doing.
This is important for us.
God is not only forming matter itself.
He's forming the laws of nature
that will govern the world that He created.
We have here on day two,
water cycles that through scientific investigation now,
we fully understand the evaporation of the waters
that are on the earth to contain the clouds
that are eventually poured out on the earth once again,
so that it can sustain itself.
All the work of the creator God,
forming, fashioning a world
that is no longer shapeless and void,
but is glorious.
This is the wonderful care of God
who perfectly designed a world
that functions in itself to sustain life.
Says the psalmist again in Psalm 147,
He covers the heavens with clouds.
He prepares rain for the earth.
Day three, verse nine.
And God said,
let the waters under the heavens
be gathered together into one place
and let the dry land appear.
And it was so.
God called the dry land earth or land or dirt.
And the waters that were gathered together,
He called seas.
And God saw that it was good.
And God said,
let the earth sprout vegetation,
two kinds,
plants yielding seed,
and then fruit trees bearing fruit
that has their seed,
each according to its kind.
And it was so.
The earth brought forth vegetation,
plants yielding seed according to their own kinds,
trees bearing fruit in which is their seed,
each according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good.
And there was evening,
and there was morning,
the third day.
The third day of God forming the earth
is unique, at least in this sense.
There's two creative acts here,
two creation words here.
The first word,
verses nine and 10,
commands a separation between the waters
that are under the earth.
So remember,
day two,
He separates the waters that are below the expanse
from the waters that are in or above the expanse.
Now He focuses His attention on the waters that are below.
And He separates them,
He gathers them into seas and lakes and rivers
and what have you,
and He separates from those waters the dry land.
And He names it.
He names one the earth,
He names the other the seas.
And then comes a second creative word.
It's on the same day.
This one's in 11 to 13.
He calls us the land then to bring forth vegetation
that He then separates again into kinds.
Again, God is forming not only matter,
but the systems that govern life in His world.
He's fashioning, He's shaping,
He's forming an inhabitable and desirable world.
Amazingly,
this vegetation is designed by God to replenish itself.
No doubt as a result of the light from day one
and the waters from day two.
He's forming,
He's fashioning.
Notice, however,
there is no mention here
of a mother earth.
The earth itself is not divine.
It does not contain the soul of God.
Its fruitfulness does not come
as a result of mankind praying toward it,
nor does its barrenness come
as its displeasure with humanity
in the way that humans are then treating it.
This is a polemic for Israel
against the pagan deities.
Each day,
representing a different deity
that they would have known,
particularly in their time in Egypt.
It's a polemic against them.
When they get into Canaan land,
they will face this particular dilemma again
with the gods that reign in Canaan culture
and in Canaan civilization.
Lewd and crude and ridiculous acts of worship
that might stimulate Baal and Ashtoreth
to somehow bring some kind of fruitfulness
to the land of Canaan.
And Moses says right from the beginning,
before you get there,
you need to know the fertility of the land.
It doesn't come from Baal.
It doesn't come from Ashtoreth.
It doesn't come from Mother Earth.
It comes from the creator God.
It comes from Yahweh.
Yahweh alone.
It is God alone who creates
and sustains the world in which we live.
And the fruitfulness of the earth
is under his sovereign control.
God is forming.
He's fashioning.
And he's reigning over what he forms and fashions.
And then we get to the second half.
Three more days are listed here for us.
This time God moves from forming to filling.
Now there's a distinction between the two.
There's different things in some cases
that are happening in the filling of the earth.
Let me just highlight them for you
before we walk through the days.
The first difference is that the creations
on days four to six are animate.
They are demonstrating life
in a way that is distinct
from the vegetation even of day three.
There's motion here.
We see the repetition of living beings
on days five and six
in which is the, quote, breath of life.
They are living creatures
in a way that's distinct
from the rest of creation.
But even the celestial bodies of day four,
though not living beings in the same sense,
give the appearance of animation
from the earth, don't they?
The perspective of Genesis chapter one
is of us standing on the earth
and watching all of this happen around us.
As we look up to the sun
and to the moon and to the stars,
we see motion, right?
It's not that they're living beings
in the same way.
Genesis one doesn't say that they are.
But it tracks here, doesn't it?
If they're in motion,
they're animated in some sense,
at least from our perspective.
The second difference
is that God does not name the things
in days four to six
with one exception.
Men.
Now, why is that important?
In the ancient world,
naming something communicated authority
over the thing named.
You know, it's not that God
does not exercise authority
over the whole of creation,
but what we're gonna see happen
in chapter two
is God delegating the authority
of naming to Adam,
his image bearer.
However,
the image bearer himself
remains under the direct
sovereign authority
of the creator.
He is not a God unto himself.
A vice regent,
we might call him.
Imaging God
with a delegated authority
that he might have dominion
over the created world.
There's a third difference though.
A final significant change
is in the addition
of divine blessing,
a stated blessing
on days five and day six.
A blessing
that specifically relates
to procreation.
God blesses the living creatures
with not only the ability,
but the responsibility
to multiply
and to continue
to fill the earth
that he has now formed.
Let's look at day four,
verse 14.
And God said,
let there be lights
in the expanse of the heavens
to separate the day
from the night.
Let them be for signs
and for seasons,
for days and years.
Let them be lights
in the expanse of the heavens
to give light upon the earth.
And it was so.
And God made
the two great lights.
Notice he doesn't name them here.
Sun and moon, of course.
The greater light
to rule the day,
the lesser light
to rule the night.
And then almost
as a throwaway statement,
and the stars.
We'll get to that in a second.
God set them
in the expanse
of the heavens
to give light on the earth,
to rule over the day
and over the night,
to separate the light
from the darkness.
And God saw
that it was good.
And there was evening
and there was morning
a fourth day.
So corresponding
with the forming
of light
and darkness
on day one
is the creation
of the heavenly bodies
that we understand
to govern them.
There were two great lights,
the sun,
the moon,
as well as
a multitude of stars.
Their primary function
is to give light,
or at least
to reflect light.
But they're also there
to aid in navigation,
we see.
To cause seasonal changes
that are necessary
for sustained life.
We might pray
to the God
who created them
that this next season
would hurry up
so we can stop
with these 100 degree days
in September.
They provide a means
of charting days
and years.
Ian Duggett says
the function
of these heavenly bodies
is carefully limited
to providing services
to those on earth.
In other words,
they are not
to be served,
they are here
to serve us.
They have no independent
status as deities.
The stars
which were conceived
by many in antiquity
to control
human destinies
are almost
an afterthought here.
Although the heavenly lights
are good
and useful
to humanity,
there is nothing
in their nature
that deserves
worship and praise,
he says.
A significant statement
to the wandering Israelites
in the wilderness
having just come
from 400 years
of captivity
in pagan Egypt.
Loved ones,
your life
is not governed
by the alignment
of the planets
or the position
of the stars.
Throw away
your horoscopes.
It's pagan.
They're all
but creations
ruled by the God
of the Bible
who alone
is worthy
of worship,
who alone
rules your days.
Go to him.
Pray to him.
Cling to him.
Worship him
alone.
Day 5,
verse 20.
And God said,
let the water swarm
with swarms
of living creatures.
Let the birds
fly above the earth
across the expanse
of the heavens.
So God created
the great sea creatures,
every living creature
that moves
with which the waters
swarm according
to their kinds
and every winged bird
according to its kind
and God saw
that it was good
and God blessed them.
saying,
be fruitful
and multiply
and fill the waters
and the seas
and let birds
multiply on the earth.
And there was evening
and there was morning
the fifth day.
Corresponding
to day 2
and the creation
of the sky
and the separation
of the waters
are the creatures
that are now brought
to life
on day 5.
skulls of fish
swarming
in the seas
and in the waters.
The great sea creatures
perhaps even
the Leviathan
that we read of
in other
Old Testament texts.
The ones that keep me
from actually getting
in the water
when I go to the beach
all created here
on day 5.
And then he fills
the sky,
doesn't he?
All kinds of bird life,
winged creatures,
creatures.
And again,
they're all but creatures
who serve the purpose
of the creator.
They are not gods themselves.
They do not represent
gods themselves.
And then here is
the first statement
of blessing,
a divine blessing.
God instructs
the creatures
of the air
and the sea
to multiply
and to fill
the respective environments
so that the ability
to perpetuate life
is presented
from the very beginning
as God's glorious favor,
something to be honored,
something to be
perhaps even pursued,
something to be held
in high esteem
and guarded
and protected,
a theme
that is going to continue
all throughout Genesis
and the rest of the Bible.
We're going to see this
again and again
and again.
The blessing of God
linked
to childbearing.
There's a reason
we find later
in the book of Genesis
over and over
women in the stories
who are barren
and they grieve
as a result.
This is a blessing
from God.
The blessing
of Isaac,
the blessing
of Jacob,
the blessing
of their children
is the blessing
of God.
It's the favor
of God.
It's the goodness
of God.
Day six.
And God said,
let the earth
bring forth
living creatures
according to their kinds,
livestock
and creeping things
and beasts
of the earth
according to their kinds.
and it was so.
And God made
the beast
of the earth
according to their kinds,
the livestock
according to their kinds
and everything
that creeps
on the ground
according to its kind
and God saw
that it was good.
But then he continues
another creative word
and God said,
let us make man
in our image
after our likeness
and let them
have dominion
over the fish
of the sea
and over the birds
of the heavens
and over the livestock
and over all the earth
and every creeping thing
that creeps
on the earth.
And here we have
a break
from narrative prose
and we have poetry.
So God created man
in his own image.
In the image of God,
he created him.
Male and female,
he created them.
And another word
of blessing.
And God blessed them.
And God said to them,
be fruitful
and multiply,
fill the earth
and subdue it.
Have dominion
over the fish
of the sea.
Have dominion
over the birds
of the heavens.
Have dominion
over every living thing
that moves on the earth.
And God said,
behold,
I have also given you
every green plant
yielding seed
that is on the face
of all the earth.
Every tree
with seed in its fruit.
You shall have them
for food.
And to every beast
of the earth
and to every bird
of the heavens
and to everything
that creeps on the earth,
everything that has
the breath of life,
I have given
every green plant
for food.
And it was so.
And God saw everything
that he had made.
And behold,
it was very good.
And there was evening
and there was morning,
the sixth day.
Like day three,
day six
has two creative words.
Of course,
the first one
is the creation
of animal life,
the separation
of kinds.
There's livestock,
the domesticated animals
that will be useful
to man.
There's the creepy crawlers
that I don't know
why they're useful
to man.
They glorify God.
There's the wild beast
of the earth,
all created
in the first word,
separated.
And then comes
the second creative word.
More space
is given
to this part
of creation
than any other part
of the entire chapter,
the entire account.
Everything in Genesis 1
is pressing forward
to this climax
of the whole account.
This is the apex
of the whole thing.
On day six,
God crowns his creation
with human life,
with humanity.
We're going to come back
to this next week
and we're going to look
at 26 to 31
on its own.
But for our study
this morning,
for its own sake,
there's just a couple
of things that we should note.
That God creates humanity
as his own image bearers
is of utmost importance
in the biblical text,
not only here,
but moving forward from here.
The inerrant dignity
of human life
from the womb
to the tomb
is predicated
throughout the scriptures
on the fact
that human beings
are distinct
from everything else
in God's created world.
We are not a higher form
of animal life.
We bear the very image
of the creator
that is to be
perpetually communicated
to the rest of the universe
in the way that we live
and in the way
that we worship.
We represent him.
We image him.
We mirror him.
And with this image
bearing distinction
comes the unique privilege
in the text
of exercising dominion
over the created world
on God's behalf.
This distinction
in human life
begins to lay a foundation
that is necessary
for us to understand
the whole point
of the Bible,
which takes us
to one image bearer.
the person
of Jesus Christ,
the truest image bearer
who will come
and redeem
fallen humanity
from sin
and death.
The foundation
for the person
of Christ
is being laid here
for us to understand.
It's revealed
in the Gospels.
It's explained
in the epistles,
Hebrews chapter 1.
He, Jesus,
is the radiance
of the glory of God,
the exact imprint
of his nature.
And he upholds
the universe
by the word
of his power.
And after making
purifications for sin,
he sits down
at the right hand
of the majesty on high.
This is laying
the foundation
for us to understand
the person of Christ
and who he truly is
so that we might
understand
our own salvation
from the fallenness
that we will find
in chapter 3.
We find humanity
here is also blessed
to enjoy the benefits
of what God created
the earth
to produce for them.
God sustains them
along with land creatures
with the vegetation
from day 3.
This doesn't necessarily
demand that
all creatures
were essentially
vegetarians
until the fall.
That's not the takeaway here.
The takeaway is that
God has made the earth
and its resources
for the good
and pleasure
of mankind.
He has created
a world
that is pregnant
with resources
for us
to sustain life
and to enjoy life.
And he alone does it
as the creator
of all that exists.
David Helm
in a sermon
on Genesis 1
said this.
The chapter
is to make us
bow
in humble adoration.
How it is
that we have
turned it
into a chapter
of argumentative
wrangling
is only an indication
of how little
we understand
the author's intent
in writing.
I heard him
say that in a sermon
and I took out
about a thousand words
I put in here.
It's so true
isn't it?
Would you just
consider for a moment
how is it
that we're to reflect
on Genesis 1?
What is the real intent
of the text here?
Would you just consider
for a moment
how every other
biblical author
references
Genesis 1
and what they're doing?
Interestingly
they never engage
in disputes
over the nature
of the days.
They never engage
in disputes
over the sequence
of events.
They never engage
in the compatibility
of the text
with the finer points
of scientific investigation.
That's not what
the biblical authors do
because they knew
that's not what
Moses meant
for them to do.
The point of the text
was never to produce
that kind of exchange.
Each time creation
is referenced
in the biblical authors
it is to display
the glory of God.
It is to provoke
the reader.
It is to provoke
the hearer
to genuine worship.
You should always
walk away
from Genesis 1
saying
what a God
how great
thou art.
Has it driven you
to this kind
of worship?
It's one thing
to understand
the God
of Genesis 1.
It's one thing
to understand
the created world
of Genesis 1.
It's another thing
to actually worship
Him.
That's what
we're meant to do.
Says Psalm 33
By the word
of the Lord
the heavens were made.
By the breath
of His mouth
all their hosts
He gathers
the waters
of the seas
as a heap.
He puts the deeps
in storehouses.
And here's what He says
Therefore
let all the earth
fear the Lord.
Let all the inhabitants
of the world
stand in awe
of Him
for He spoke
and it came
to be
He commanded
and it stood firm.
That's the intent
of Genesis 1.
Worship.
Hang with me.
He controls
the rain
doesn't He?
We're almost there.
the point of the text
is to show
that the self-existent
transcendent creator
God
needs nothing
other than
His own will
voiced through
the breath
of His spirit
to bring what is
into existence.
And when He speaks
His will
is perfectly accomplished
whether in the creation
of a universe
or in the new creation
of a lost soul
that He calls
to Himself
that is the power
of the Word of God.
And it is to show
that what God does
is very good
because He
is good.
So that when we consider
God's very good creation
the only right response
is wonder
and worship
and how do we relate
that to everyday life
now?
I'm going to give you
four quick things
before we pray.
Number one
rest
in His sovereign power
until Jesus returns
this earth
will keep on spinning.
Its boundaries
will be held together.
Don't worry about
the ice caps.
God's in control
of that.
Rest in it.
Rest in His sovereign power.
Number two
go in and enjoy
what He has made.
Enjoy it.
Enjoy it
with the goal
of worshiping Him
because of it.
And I say that
as an avid
indoors man.
let's go enjoy
the world
He has created
for our benefit
and for His glory.
Number three
trust that the one
who made the world
will through Christ
remake it
for His people.
He will remake it.
He still rules creation.
He is the final judge.
Every injustice
you see now
will be judged.
He will do it.
You only need
trust Him.
Number four
rest.
Rest.
rest in Christ.
The word of Genesis 1
made flesh
for you.
Rest in Him.
Trust Him.
Believe Him.
Worship Him.
the God
who made it all.
Let's pray.