Sermon Tone Analysis

The Divine order of all made good

gen1.6-

There are so many patterns to see here, there is so much we can learn from .

The interesting thing is how much people overlook because of their desire to answer questions that Genesis is never meant to answer.

The whole bible is a revelation of God and most closely resembles a history book with different types of literature styles.

It is never meant to be a science book or a math book or an art form… although there are moments where we find good science, math and art.

We cannot approach the Bible and especially Genesis with a desire to answer questions that are not the point.

This is simply why we will not get caught up in a debate of Old Earth and Young Earth.

We believe in a literal 7 day creation account and we loosely hold to a young earth viewpoint.

I say loosely hold that viewpoint because it is not a gospel issue, in that it doesn’t mean that people who agree or disagree are saved or not.

There is room for those who vary in opinion on this.

Yet we hold to it because we find no sufficient reason from scripture to wander from it, meaning it is nothing more than speculation based off of science that the bible does not directly speak to.

We also hold to it because to unravel this view based on sources outside the scriptures is a dangerous practice that can be a gospel issue if you apply it to other doctrines found in scripture.

So for simplicity and fidelity we hold this view.

And saying all that to say, this is not the point of genesis.

Genesis is an orderly account of the nature of creation and the structures God put in place.

I love what the Reformation study bible says about .

In the beginning, God.

The Hebrew word for “God,” the first subject of Genesis and the Bible, is plural to denote His majesty.

There is no other god (Deut.

4:39; Is. 40:21, 28; 43:10; John 1:1; Col. 1:17).

He is truth, the basis for all sound knowledge (John 14:6).

God is personal; He speaks and acts

Gen. 1 does not attempt to tell us in detail how God manufactured the physical world and everything in it.

Rather, it seeks to explain the hierarchy of relationships and boundaries established by God.

Behind the simplicity of presentation, structured around seven days, the text does not tell us everything about the processes by which God created the world.

Even so, it affirms certain important truths about the creation of our world, including the fact that God directly made all things, that everything He made was originally very good, and that men and women are made in His image.

It is necessary for us to be on the same page about scripture and Genesis specifically, and that is this...

The Bible is a revelation of God, who he is, what he has done, and how we are to live in light of this knowledge of God.

Simply put...

The Bible is about God

I cannot emphasize this enough.

In a day and age when the modern evangelical church tries desperately to make man the center of all scripture and the main hero, we need to hear this more than anything.

The Bible is a divine revelation of God.

It contains the origins of humanity only because it is the beginning of our in relating to who God is and how we are to live in light of this knowledge of him.

Genesis opens with the Bible’s most extraordinary claim… There is 1 God, only one, and he made everything.

Everything in the heavens and everything in the earth.

And as Jared Wilson mentioned last week, this is a major distinctive from all other creation accounts that people would try to promote in their own religion.

One God who is outside of time and space.

He creates matter out of nothing and he does it by speaking!

The ancient world would’ve heard of a such a unique God and creation story that it demands a response.

you either believe or you reject it.

Likewise to this day we need to ask ourselves, what are we to do with this?

If God is the sovereign ruler who creates and controls everything, then everything we read after this point is seriously important to us in getting to know God.

All of life’s greatest questions and purposes begin and end with God.

Who God is determines who we are and why everything in the universe exists.

God’s role as creator and all powerful king is seen here in .

We are going to see a pattern emerge that shows is sovereign rule over all things.

We will see how God provides for people before making them by first creating the whole universe and the planet with everything on it.

Since God is the creator, that will mean that everything he creates including humanity is meant to be his servants.

And we all have similar and yet very different roles in serving God as our creator.

Like the sun moon and stars we are called to give glory to God.

Like the animals we are uniquely fashioned by a creative God who instills beauty in the smallest of details, yet our voice is unlike theirs.

And most importantly our image is distinctively different from the celestial beings and heavenly bodies above, the majestic beauty of the natural world around us, and different kinds of flesh that cover the animals who display their magnificent creator.

Our image is made after his likeness, but more on that next week.

For today lets dive into the text and see just how orderly and divine this creation is.

Keeping in mind that we already heard about the first day of creation which included the creation of Light and the formation of the the heavens and earth out of what is described as a chaotic dark state.

gen1.

So here is in days 2 and 3 we see the creation of the sky and the water as well as the land and vegetation.

Notice the order of creation here is how God provides land and vegetation before animals and people.

God is showing that his order provides for what follows.

That may not seem too deep a revelation about God, yet it is profound to notice and see how this pattern is always repeated once scripture tells of the struggles of men in the future.

Every time there is an issue and man is directly affected, we also will see how things are developing in preparation for what is coming next.

Think about it… in almost every story we have in scripture, God is always providing for his people before they are aware of it.

Abraham needs to sacrifice his son Issac, and God already had a ram stuck in the thickets waiting for him, God provided for his people.

Jacob and his sons are starving in a famine that is throughout the land, and God has already placed Joseph in the Palace of Pharoah to deliver his people from the deadly drought.

What about Esther?

She is faced with life defining challenges that carry implications of life and death for her and God’s people.

Mordecai is having a death planned for him with no hope in sight, and God is working behind the scenes in the kings heart to give the favor to his people and deliver them from harm, yet they don’t know it till the last minute.

I could go on and on but the most profound way we see God provide for his people is greater than land, vegetation, and animals.

It is greater than simple sacrifices being prepared, divine placement of his children under the darkest of circumstance by having your brothers sell you slavery in order to bring them deliverance, and it more mind-blowing than seeing the misdirection and plot twist of an enemy preparing his won death by trying to kill God’s servant...

It is how all these things are telling one story… The Gospel is the story in which God provides for his people before they even recognize their deepest need in him.

God provides a savior for his people when he himself in the deity of the Son steps out of eternity into the timeline he created for his people to do for them what they cannot do for themselves.

He himself was the true sacrifices that was provided before the foundations of the world, he was our real brothers that we sold into slavery, who becomes a ruler that saves his wicked brothers.

And while our enemy Satan is plotting his demise and death, he by sovereign order of the King uses the instrument of his death to crush his enemy forever.

Every story in scripture speak of God’s redeeming power for his creation and all this is first seen in the order of creation and how he provides place for his people to live and be sustained by in lush vegetation.

In we see God, the supreme ruler and creator of all things, form the various realms of the world in days 1-3, and in days 4-6 we will see what diverse life forms these realms are created for.

The second thing we see develop here is a pattern of creation in God’s power and character.

Every day in the 6 days of creation we see the same pattern.

An announcement, a command, a report, an evaluation, and a conclusion.

And it looks like this.

Announcement - “God said”, Command - “let there be”, a report - “and it was so”, evaluation - “it was good”, a conclusion - “the first day”

Why is this worth pointing out?

Thinking of the first few generations to hear this and understand this about God, it would have made their God a very distinct God among the other peoples they encounter.

Many ancient peoples worship the elements of creation itself as various gods.

These supposed gods would create things in narrative stories of war, love and intercourse, rebellion or chance.

These gods were far off and feared because of their wrathful character.

These gods were unknowable, out of reach, somewhat indifferent to their creation.

Yet what we see in is a framework of creation that shows the character of a God that is not an element of creation… this god created all the elements.

He is not the the Sky he crested the sky, he is not the land, he created the land, nor is he the wind or rain, he created these realms and elements.

Because of the hebrews could proclaim a god who hung the stars in their place and created the Sun and Moon, while other religion worshipped these entities.

This made the claims found in give automatic pre-eminence to the God of scripture!

And the pattern we mentioned, declares an even more magnanimous maker, who loves, speaks, is involved and powerful yet is outside of the time he instituted for his creation.

Think about when the Bible says, ‘God said” it shows us two things.

First that God speaks! and Second that God creates by his word.

So a speaking God that creates and controls all things with the command of his words.

This God is so powerful that his words carry his very divine essence.

This is taught all through scripture...

ps

A speaking God commands creation and that is final, it stands firm.