The God of Creation Forms and Fills, Part 2
Genesis • Sermon • Submitted
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Transcript
BLANK SLIDE TO BEGIN RECORDING (Please don’t wait for Matt to be on podium.)
SLIDE: Series Graphic
Introduction and Scripture Reading
Introduction and Scripture Reading
Brief Prayer
Brief Prayer
Majestic Lord, only sovereign one, Creator and Eternal Sustainer, we praise you this morning, for You, alone, are God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As the One who gave light to the earth by the power of Your Word, speak the light of illumination—understanding—into our souls this morning through Your very precious and life-giving Word. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Scripture Introduction
Scripture Introduction
We’re seeing some magnificent
God created
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Proposition: This morning we’ll see that God, who created all things from nothing is to be praised as Creator even before He is to be praised as Redeemer.
Proposition: This morning we’ll see that God, who created all things from nothing is to be praised as Creator even before He is to be praised as Redeemer.
The fourth and fifth chapters of Revelation contain wonderful hymns of praise to God. But in chapter four, God is praised by the living creatures and and the twenty-four elders for being and creating.
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8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”
Here God is praised simply for being…for existing eternally. “God, who was and is and is to come.” Then a few verses later God is praised for creating.
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11 “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.”
In Genesis in Space and Time, Francis Schaeffer exhorts us,
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“Our praise to God is not first of all in the area of soteriology (the doctrine of salvation). If we are being fully scriptural, we do not praise him first because he saved us, but because he is there and has always been there. And we praise him because he willed all other things, including man, into existence.” (Genesis in Space and Time, 27)
RESTATE PROPOSITION - not on screen
God is to be praised as Creator even before He is to be praised as Redeemer.
In ancient Hebrew days, these polytheistic people (people who worship many gods—lowercase “g”—created gods from the figment of their imaginations.
They conjured up ideas and worshiped creation rather than the Creator.
This is a grave error, friends. Our purpose in understanding the Word of God is first and foremost to worship and praise God for who He is as Creator.
Open your Bible app/Bible to Gen. 1:14, where the Word of the Lord tells us on the fourth literal day...
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1. God gave light-givers
1. God gave light-givers
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14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
God has formed the earth according to His perfect, intentional design. Now He is filling the earth with light-givers and living things.
Remember, God created light on day 1 when he created the heavens and the earth. Now He attaches that light to objects of light. The giver of light gave light-givers for the earth.
God gave light-bearers/luminaries, beacons/signals of light (14-15)
ILL: like lighthouses on a jagged (re-word) coastline
To separate the day from the night.
For seasons, for days, and for years
Seasons - the sun effects the climate
The earth orbits around the sun once every 365.2 days (why we have a leap year).
Growth seasons and dormant seasons
The sun is 93-million miles away - exactly the right location. Any further, we’d freeze. Any closer and we’d burn up.
God has fixed his sovereign eye on the earth, which He created for mankind to dwell (which we’ll see next week).
“And it was so.” (15b) Do not ever just read over simple phrases like, “God said......And it was so.”
This phrase, “and it was so” occurs in this passage for the fourth time (out of six) in Genesis 1 (verses 7, 9, 11, 15, 24, 30). Moses’ account, here, stresses that what God says, He also does.
The phrase “and God said” occurs ten times (verses 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 28, 29). The first seven of these were each followed by a creative command beginning with the imperative word “Let …!”
God is to be praised as Creator even before He is to be praised as Redeemer because everything God commands comes into being just as He wills.
“God made two great lights—the great light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night” (16)
Their purpose is to give light on the earth. Think about the earth’s size for a moment:
Mt. Everest, on the China/Nepal border, is the earth’s tallest mountain and stands just over 29-thousand feet at its summit.
Every year about 800 apply for permits to climb this massive mountain. Just this mountain alone is massive.
(And there are 10 other mountains on earth within about a thousand feet of the height of Mt. Everest. That is a lot of majestic beauty towering over us on this earth.) The earth is massive, isn’t it?
Scientists tell us that about 1.3 million earths (with over 10, 28-29k-ft mountains just on the face of the earth would fit inside the sun!
And the sun is quite small compared to the many massive stars in our, and other galaxies.
The last words of verse 16: “—and the stars.”
The moon (quite smaller than the earth), the earth, and the sun pale in comparison to the many stars in the heavens. The stars dwarf the sun, which can hold about 1.3 million earths. And Moses says, God made these greater and lesser lights—oh, “—and the stars.”
The whole principle focus is what God will do on the earth.
God gave the sun and the moon, which is simply a reflection of the light of the sun. (Really, this is how we’re to live, as those who reflect the light of the S-o-n.)
Notice how the language of Gen. 1 is focusing our attention on the fact that God is unequivocally focused on earth, eventually for the purpose of testifying to His majestic power for His glory!
This was not so in the mythology of the pagans. Sun gods, moon gods, and the whole astrological arrangement form the worship of the pagans.
They thought of these heavenly orbs as objects of worship, as forces of destiny, like genies in a bottle, that were available for gaining insight into the ways of the world through alignments and eclipses.
Allen Ross rightly concludes,
“How (ridiculous) it was to follow the astrological charts of the Babylonians or to look to the sun god of the Egyptians, thinking that the answers to destiny were there. Rather, Israel must trust in the personal God who created all these stars and planets by his Word and must give no credence or respect to the gods of the pagans.” (Ross, 111)
In Deut 4:15-19 the Lord takes the Israelites back in their memory to a time (when God was giving Moses The Ten Commandments and they were afraid because the didn’t see God, or His spokesman, so that made idols.
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15 “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
“…and it was good.” “And there was evening and morning, the fourth day.”
Transition statement: And on the fifth and sixth days, God gives the blessing of life.
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2. God gives the blessing of life (21-25)
2. God gives the blessing of life (21-25)
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20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and 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. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
24 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. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
God continues filling the earth with birds and sea creatures (20-23)
We see a great variety of birds and sea creatures that are created at the same time, in one day, full grown—flying or swimming.
Note: even though plant life was created beforehand, on day 3, the Hebrews didn’t consider plants as living beings.
God created animal life separately, not from plant life or any other form. All of the creatures God wanted there to be simply were when he said so.
Just think of the diversity, many of whom share similar structures: birds, reptiles, mammals, and so forth. Doug Kelly points out:
“This argues at least as persuasively for a common Designer as it does for a common life source. All life did not come from the same primordial cell, but it did all come from the same Designer.
God creates everything “according to their kinds.” This phrase is not accidental as it is used two times in v. 21, after which “God saw that it was good.”
God singles out “the great sea creatures” for special focus because the pagans worshiped great sea creatures as dragons and monsters in rebellion that had to be subdued.
The Canaanites called this creature Lôtān.
“The Torah (Gen-Deut) subdues this view rather,” as Allen Ross describes, “simply by reporting that God created (bārāʾ) them. Canaan may fear and (worship) them as gods, but Israel knew that they were just another part of God’s perfect and harmonious creation. Only the Creator, Job would learn, can control Leviathan. Here too the blessing of fertility is granted by the sovereign decree. God, not some pagan ritual, is the source of life and fertility.”
Great and small, God created them all. Every animal is created according to its kind.
Blue whale, weighing in at 198 tons and nearly 100 feet long. Just their tongues can weigh as much as an elephant and their heart as much as a car!
There are creatures where a drop of water can hold 500,000,000 microscopic creatures that are so small that, to them, a teaspoon of water would be as the Atlantic Ocean is to us.
From what is so large that it takes our breath away and so small that our human eyes, on their own, can’t even see it. God blesses them, part of God’s good handiwork.
“And there was evening and morning, the fifth day.” (23)
On the sixth day God continues His work of creating life and blessing with land animals.
Notice the continual pattern from the God who is to be praised as Creator even before He is to be praised as Redeemer:
“And God said,” … “and it was so” (24)
“And God made,” … “and God saw that it was good.” (25)
Animals - living creatures according to their kinds.
Beasts of the earth: animals that are not easily tamed
Livestock: Animals that are easily tamed
Creeping things: Animals with short legs whose bellies are close to the ground.
Jesus picks up on God’s creative work, which Jesus, himself created and sustains (Col. 1:16 tells us, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”) When speaking of worry and anxiety Jesus brings people right back to God’s creation:
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
We see creation coming to its climax in day six now, which we’ll finish next week with the creation of mankind.
Conclusion and Transition to Communion
Conclusion and Transition to Communion
But friends, the same message God gave Moses to communicate to Israel some four-thousand years ago was true for the Apostle Paul as he ministered and is true for us today:
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God is to be praised as Creator even before He is to be praised as Redeemer.
You might even say, “God must be praised as Creator before a person can praise Him as Redeemer.”
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18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 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. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
The Israelites need reminders that God alone is to be worshiped as Creator even before He can be worshiped as Redeemer, and so do we. But you and I are on this side of creation and the cross, so we worship God as Creator, yes, and if your trust is solely in Jesus as your only hope of salvation, you worship Him as Redeemer.
God gave us creation to help us see God’s eternal attributes as God, He gave us Jesus—the Living Word—to enable us to see the invisible God made visible, and what’s more, God gave us the written Word of God to testify to everything that is true and necessary for salvation and a life of faith in Him.
And Jesus, while on earth, gave us The Lord’s Supper to remind us of who He is, and what He accomplished for us that we would never be able to accomplish for ourselves. He gave his life. And he gave us this reminder—to eat and drink—to help us remember to worship Him as Redeemer after we’ve worshiped Him as Creator.
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
Communion
Communion
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Barrett, Matthew. 2019. None Greater: The Undomesticated Attributes of God. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books: A Division of Baker Publishing Group.).
Boice, James Montgomery. Genesis: An Expositional Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 81.James Montgomery Boice, Genesis: An Expositional Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998).
Calvin, John. Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis.
Ham, Ken. From Creation to Babel: A Commentary for Families. (Green Forest: Master Books, 2021).
Kelly, Douglas F. 2017. Creation and Change: Genesis 1:1–2:4 in the Light of Changing Scientific Paradigms. Revised & Updated Edition. Ross-shire, Scotland: Mentor.
Kidner, Derek, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1967).
Morris, Henry M., The Genesis Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Book of Beginnings, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1976).
Poythress, Vern S. 2019. Interpreting Eden: A Guide to Faithfully Reading and Understanding Genesis 1–3. Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
Ross, Allen P. 1998. Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Schaeffer, Francis. Genesis in Space and Time (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1972), 27.
Waltke, Bruce K., and Cathi J. Fredricks. 2001. Genesis: A Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Wenham, Gordon J. 1987. Genesis 1–15. Vol. 1. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Incorporated.
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