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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I'm going to have you turn in your Bibles for the third time to the book of Genesis, chapter one. I know I have preached through this chapter two weeks in a row. Could you give me that little advanced remote control there? Thank you, Patty.
[00:00:14] Appreciate that. You know, I was remembering a number of years ago, I was reading a story about an attorney who really struggled with believing in God.
[00:00:23] And his wife was a Christian. She was trying to convince him, you know, that, you know, he needed to know God. He needed to experience this life that God promised him. But he had a problem with it until one day he went to church with her, and the pastor was speaking on the nature of evil. And after the sermon, you know, he responded. He gave his life to Christ. And his wife was shocked. She says, I don't understand.
[00:00:47] He said, I had a hard time understanding maybe goodness in God, but I had no problem understanding evil.
[00:00:53] And so when he began to understand, you know, the nature of evil and where it originated from, he responded. And I want to talk a little bit about that. Today, as we look here in Genesis chapter one, we come to a text, I believe, that will help us not only understand the origin of our world, but maybe understand some deep, powerful insight into actually the nature of the goodness of God and possibly even get a little glimpse into. Into understanding where evil originates. So how many realize that nothing really happens until it's first thought, eventually spoken, and then acted upon? And Victor Hamilton says all creation stories, biblical and non biblical, describe creation in one of four ways. We're not on our slides. Okay, so it's either done through some deity or deities.
[00:01:50] It could be done through conflict.
[00:01:53] Okay, here we go. Thank you. With antagonistic forces through birth and self reproduction or through speech. Now, one of the messages I spoke on, I talked about how God spoke and things came into being. So obviously the second and third are not found in Genesis 1 and 2. And both chapters, however, reflect the use of. Of the first, which God spoke. And our fourth one is God spoke. And the first one is through God himself. God acted in a certain way.
[00:02:23] So we know that God both spoke and acted in the creative process. Genesis 1:2 describes the condition of the earth as formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. The. Now, you know, when you and I read that, as 21st century readers, we don't really connect with that verse at all. But if you were an ancient reader, this text would speak profoundly to you. And that's what I want us to look At Jewish scholar Gary Rensberg points out four of the five key Hebrew words here, like the word for speak of chaos and evil, the formless and empty, darkness, deep and waters. All of these are negative terms in an ancient person's understanding. Now, when I say that this is Rensburg, he says these are symbols of chaos and evil in the ancient Near East. And it's because we actually have text from Mesopotamia, Canaan, and from Egypt which indicates that these items are actually symbols of evil.
[00:03:33] In short, we have our text, but underneath this biblical text lies an entire world of the ancient Near East. And I could go into, you know, more elaboration on these words, but I'm not going to do that. Rather, just you'll have to take my word for it here.
[00:03:48] The people of ancient Israel were reading the book of Genesis and who were a part actually of that ancient world, and they would have recognized the point very clearly that this text is symbolic of evil. In other words, God was bringing order and goodness into this chaotic and evil world. So you say, well, where did evil come from? Well, we'll get there in a minute.
[00:04:15] Rendsberg continues on to say this. The first step was the manifestation of light. And God stated that the light was good, and he separated it from the darkness. In this first chapter, we find God separating elements from each other.
[00:04:32] God names and determines purposes. It's God who is the one who determines what is good. Now, how many in your life, you know, maybe before you were a Christian, or since even being a Christian, you made decisions that you thought were good and turned out to be not so good, Anybody, Anybody do that? Decisions you made that were you thought were good but didn't turn out that good, you know, so we have to understand something. God is the one who knows what is good. And when we line up our lives to what God knows what is good, and we do what God is saying, we're going to have a better outcome as we do what God is telling us to do. But if we're going to kind of trump over God's basically his determination of what's good and we ignore that and we do something the opposite of that, we're going to suffer as a result of that decision.
[00:05:29] Rensburg continues to explain this understanding. He says, with God creating light which is good, and he separates it from darkness, it's interesting, in verse three, he says, and God spoke, and he said, let there be light. And there was light and light here, basically, God said, what's good? And so with the creating of light and separating it from darkness, the beginning of the story seeks to explain the question of evil in the world.
[00:06:01] Now this is a theological issue for all religions and they all have to answer, where did evil come from? Now, for the polytheism of the ancient world, polytheism means the people who believe in many gods.
[00:06:14] It was a simple answer to the problem of evil. This is what they believed. There were plenty of gods to go around and some of them were evil gods who were capable of inflicting great harm on human beings. How many see that?
[00:06:27] Now I'm going to say something. You go, well, that's interesting, Pastor, but how does that relate to the 21st century? Well, can I tell you something? We're still dealing with this mythologies of cosmologies. Cosmologies is the origins of the universe.
[00:06:44] So a lot of the heroes and antiheroes today are actually gods and goddesses of ancient myths. How many know that?
[00:06:53] Yeah, that's true. And so, you know, it's been popularized by movies. Now we got all these movies. I know for most people that's just entertainment. I get that. But do we really understand that that's what's really going on? So these things are carrying themselves into the 21st century via entertainment.
[00:07:13] And you know, sometimes people who don't have a good biblical worldview, they can embrace these ideas not only as myth, but as reality for them.
[00:07:22] Israel, by contrast, this is a major problem because since there's only one God who's worshipped and that's God, by definition, he's a good God, the question then comes, where did evil arise from? That's a, that's more of a challenging question.
[00:07:39] Now Rensburg argues that this pre existence of evil before creation lets God off the hook for creating evil.
[00:07:48] But does it? And I'm not so convinced it does. And then he says some other things that I don't agree with. So I'm not going to go there, but I'm going to say this.
[00:07:57] This perspective may answer the question that God was not responsible for evil as it existed before creation. But left said something unstated. Where did evil originate? And one of the things that the scriptures give us is a progressive revelation. And we know from the Old Testament that the Old Testament is, I'm going to use a fancy word here, truncated. You say, well, what's that mean? It just simply means unfinished realities to be fulfilled. So if you're a Jewish person and you only have the Old Testament, and that's called the Hebrew Bible, you only have that. How many know that? There's a lot of things happening there. You have the creation story, you have the promise of redemption. You see it in the chapter three, we'll look at that. The initiation of God's plan to deal with sin in the human family. You have all of these prophecies of a coming Messiah. But then you close at the book of Malachi. That's the end of the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible, where there's a promise for a messiah, but then that's the end of it. They're waiting, they're waiting, they're waiting. But I'm going to just say this. The New Testament all of a sudden comes along, and there's a lot of things that get answered because the New Testament is a fulfillment of the Old Testament. That's answering a lot of these questions. And what happens from the New Testament is that it gives us a fuller picture of some of these original concerns. And one of them is demonology. You say, what's demonology, Pastor? It's the study of, you know, demonic forces. And in the New Testament, we see Jesus constantly dealing with demonic forces. How many recognize that in the Gospels, especially in the Gospel of Mark, you see Jesus casting out demons all the time, and we see a whole more developed viewpoint of seeing. And then you get to the end of the book. In Book of Revelation, even though it's apocalyptic literature, we have this dragon who's called Satan, and he's drawing down a third of the stars with him. And so we're getting a picture of Satan's revolt against God in the heavenly places. And what we have. And this is. I'm convinced that. And a lot of theologians are convinced of the same thing, that prior to the creation of our universe, you know, God had created angels, and some of these angels rebelled against God and fell. And so we have an evil in the, you know, prior to the story.
[00:10:29] And you say, well, why do you believe that? Because we know this revolt because all of a sudden a tempter shows up in Genesis chapter three in this idyllic life of the first man and first woman. And we read as well, and others would argue, and I think this is correct. We must understand the chapter through the lens of an original audience. Like what's being presented here in Genesis 1.
[00:10:57] What did they understand?
[00:10:59] And I believe that what Genesis 1 is an answer to the mythologies of the other ancient Near Eastern cultures. And it was also used to understand how a good God could create good, but evil is a very real threat to this world.
[00:11:16] Now, just think about the tempter for a minute. He's in the garden that reveals to us that evil was present in God's good world and was trying and did seduce God's caretakers of the planet, which in turn brought evil into the human family and God's good creation. Now we're going to see later in chapters two and three, God had warned man of evil.
[00:11:43] How many catch that you see up. And you know, some people think, well, there was no evil to this point. But I don't believe that because when God says to Adam, first of all in chapter two, he says, you cannot eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The fact that God even said that suggests to me that there has to be evil.
[00:12:01] So what's there? Evil is in the world. You cannot warn of something that does not exist.
[00:12:08] We have to understand. So evil is not necessarily, you know, affecting the world at that point.
[00:12:15] But as we're going to find out, God gave God created human beings with a very high purpose.
[00:12:21] And one of the high purposes was to have dominion over this entire planet. It says so right in Scripture. So that human beings become co rulers with God.
[00:12:32] But when Adam and Eve fell, they lost something of their power and authority and it had to be reclaimed. And that's part of the story of the Bible, how that happens, how you know, you and I now, when we come to Christ, what does the Bible says that we are now ruling and reigning with Christ.
[00:12:52] See, so God is restoring humanity back to its original design in the book of Genesis.
[00:13:00] Now in chapter one, we see this unfolding drama of creating light which was good and it was separating it from darkness. We know that light and darkness can also be understood not just in a physical understanding, but also or literal understanding, but also needs to be understood in what we would call moral terms or metaphorical terms.
[00:13:26] And it's simply this, that when you read the New Testament, isn't it interesting that God is, you know, light and in him there is no darkness. And then it says that you and I are to walk in the light and that you and I are to flee the darkness. They're not speaking of, you know, physical light and darkness. It's speaking of moral light and darkness. We're called children of the light. You know, it says walk in the light as he is in the light. These are all understandings, this concept. And then we continue this unfolding drama of the creation of universe, witnessing how God is creating a perfect environment for his crowning creation. That's us. You know, I love that verse. It's Jesus says to his disciples, I'm going to prepare a place for you. How many? As a believer, you know exactly what that means.
[00:14:12] What does that mean?
[00:14:14] He's preparing heaven. He's preparing us to be ready to be in his presence. We love that verse. Can I tell you that God has already prepared a place for you and you're living in it. It's called Earth.
[00:14:26] You know, everything that he did in this planet before he created human beings, he was preparing a place for us. And he prepared a perfect planet so that you and I could live on this planet. And we're going to see that here in just a few minutes. God was also creating order out of disorder and chaos. Because we read in verse two, there was disorder, there was chaos. And when it talks about the deep and the waters, it's talking about the idea in the ancient mind was that the seas were dangerous and they were evil. And you say, well, why was that? Because first of all, human beings couldn't control it. And number two, you know, storms would come upon it and it would be, you know, life threatening. And so they saw it as, you know, a difficulty and a great evil. And you know, you read, you study that in these ancient mythologies, they all felt that way. Now Hebrews gives us a summary of literally what God's intention was for humanity. It says, it is not to angels.
[00:15:32] He has subjected the world to come about which we are speaking.
[00:15:36] But there is a place where someone has testified, and this is in Psalm 8.
[00:15:41] What is mankind that you're mindful of them? A son of man that you care for him?
[00:15:48] What is that you're mindful of mankind? It's plural there.
[00:15:52] And then he goes on, you made them a little lower than the angels. You crowned them with glory and honor. We'll read about that today. What's the glory and honor God crowned us with? You and I were made in the very image and likeness of God. How many say that's crowning us with glory and honor? And then it says, and you put everything under their feet. You gave dominion over the world to human beings.
[00:16:17] In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them.
[00:16:23] So you know, what we're seeing here is God's purpose for human beings, that you and I should have dominion over this planet. Planet God is allowing us to be co regents or co rulers with him over planet Earth. And we'll talk about what does that mean or what it does not mean. So let's take a look here at three expressions of God's goodness to us today in the creation of Our world. And the first one is simply the gift of light.
[00:16:55] While many ancient peoples worshiped the heavens, God, who created us, gave, gives us the gift of day and night to help give direction to our lives.
[00:17:05] God designed to give us a rhythm for our life and the need for daily rest, the energy to work and the ability to enjoy life. So God, these are gifts. How many appreciate the fact, you know, that God gave you time to rest?
[00:17:21] Anybody? How many here have ever gone without sleep for long periods of time? You'll start really appreciating the gift of rest, right? I'll tell you, it's so critical.
[00:17:31] So let's pick up the story. In verse 14, it says, and God said, let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night. And let them serve as signs to mark sacred times and days and years. And let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth. And it was. So he goes on to say, God made two great lights, the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. And he also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth to govern the day and the night and to separate. There's God making a distinction, light from darkness. And God saw that it was good and there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
[00:18:20] So God created the celestial bodies, the heavenly bodies, to give a means to measure time and to give distinction between ordinary time and that which is what we'll call sacred or set apart time so that we could give ourselves to God in a special way, you know, and then we'll discover rest, I believe is a sign of our trust in God, a declaration that it's not totally dependent on us as human beings to survive. You know, it's really hard for some people to stop. You know, some people, they don't. They have a hard time going. You know, there's two extremes in life. The ones that don't do anything, you almost have to put a Bunsen burner underneath them and hardly moves them. And then there's the other people. You have to rein them in. They're going all the time as if everything depends on them, them. But what we have to understand is God is not only our creator, but he's our sustainer. And so God created a rhythm to life and he created a calendar to life. And he created days to life and he created a week to life. And within that week, he designed one day as a day of rest.
[00:19:30] And it's interesting. You know, I like Westerns and so I'm reading westerns and I did a little study and it was fascinating, you know, when they did those cross trips, trails across the continent, the wagon trains that stopped every seventh day to rest and worship actually beat the trains that went seven days a week and continued on because you see the animals and the people wore themselves out.
[00:19:54] They just couldn't do it. So they were getting further and further behind. And so some of us in this room are probably trying so hard to get ahead and you never get ahead because you still still haven't learned the secret.
[00:20:06] And the secret is learning to honor God and learning the pattern and the rhythm of God in our lives. And we have to rest.
[00:20:14] That's God's designation for us. God will sustain us and he designed it that way.
[00:20:20] Now what's also interesting in this chapter and in verse 14, we see this separation and the marking of sacred times. Victor Hamilton says few commentators deny that this whole chapter has a strong anti mythical thrust. In other words, when you study ancient cosmologies, those are the origins of these ancient peoples.
[00:20:46] They're really crazy. You know, they got, you know, monsters, dragons, they got animals, they got all kinds of battles going on.
[00:20:56] It's really interesting. But you know what? Genesis doesn't read like that. There's nothing mythical about Genesis.
[00:21:04] And then perhaps in no other section except the sixth day does this polemic, this argument against that mythology appear so bluntly as it does here in the fourth day. It's sufficient to recall the word proliferation means just the many astral deities. In other words, when you start studying all of these religions, you know what they've got all of these worship of things like the sun and the moon and all these stars.
[00:21:32] And by the way, we look at that and it says there, you know, in most of the Mediterranean religions, the sun, moon and stars are considered divine. They're God, they're gods to these people. And so what are they doing? They're worshiping that which God created as if it's God.
[00:21:49] By the way, do people do that today?
[00:21:51] Yeah, I think they do. You say, well how did they do that? Well, you know, the people that are, you know, letting horoscopes define their destiny, you know what they're doing, they're reading a reading based on their astrological sign, astrological in the heavens. And then they're looking at things like how the planets line up. And there are even religions in our culture, modern day culture, that the day that they get married and the time they get married is based on the astrological movement of the planets.
[00:22:24] So don't tell me this is not relevant for today. It totally is relevant for today.
[00:22:29] But scripture, you know, comes against that.
[00:22:32] As such, you know, they're considered these autonomous bodies. Around each of them focuses various kinds of religious cults and devotees. And that's still happening today.
[00:22:42] In the light of this emphasis, Genesis 1:14 is saying that these luminaries, these lights, are not eternal. They are created.
[00:22:51] They're not to be served, but they actually serve us as human beings. That is the mandate under which they are functioning. God created them to function and do something specific.
[00:23:04] Now, I don't know about you, but I decided to look into how does the sun enhanced the life of human beings. Now, little research here, I think. You know, first of all, it's designed to enrich our lives. I know some of us jokingly say that you're a sun worshiper, meaning you enjoy being in the sunshine. But there's some really powerful benefits to the sun. And let me just give you a few of them. You know, these ultraviolet B rays trigger natural sense synthesis called vitamin D. Now, I know sometimes we take it as a vitamin, but, you know, your body's producing vitamin D. Does anybody know that? It's actually naturally producing vitamin D, which helps build strong bones and teeth and supports our immune system.
[00:23:52] Then the sun helps create sleep in a circadian rhythm, which means simply this. It's a fancy word, but it just means this.
[00:24:01] Your body naturally produces melatonin. Now, I know you can go to the drugstore and buy melatonin. Why would you buy melatonin? To help you to sleep.
[00:24:10] But actually, the sun is actually designed. Watch what happens during light. You are exposed to sunlight. Your body stops producing melatonin so that you can have energy and be alert for the day. But when the sun goes down and it gets dark, what happens then is melatonin is released in order for you to sleep.
[00:24:33] God designed us that way. How many think that's amazing?
[00:24:37] I think it's pretty fascinating.
[00:24:40] How about this one? Exposure to natural light boosts serotonin. If you know anything about serotonin, it's a natural chemical that's released from our own bodies and it helps improve our moods. So people have high serotonin levels are happier than people have lower serotonin. Serotonin levels. And that's why some people have what we call weather disorder. So when they're seeing a lot of gray cross, some people can't live on the West Coast. It's too cloudy for Them and it affects their emotional moods because they're not getting enough serotonin produced in their bodies. This is all God doing this.
[00:25:16] I'm impressed with this. Or how about the UVA rays on the skin, which releases nitric oxygen into our blood vessels, which helps dilate blood vessels and lower blood pressure, to just name a few of the benefits of having sun be exposed to our bodies. But how many know if you get too much sun exposed to your body, you're going to be in trouble as well. So it's all in moderation, Right? Okay.
[00:25:41] So now the author here, as Victor Hamilton, is saying this polemic, this attack against these ancient sets of beliefs continue in these verses as indicated first of all by his choice of terminology. This is very interesting. He uses the unusual expression the greater luminary. That's a light, instead of the normal word sun, which he undoubtedly was aware of that word. That's a Hebrew word. And then it says. In the same way, he opted for the lesser luminary instead of the familiar yara, which means moon. And the reason for this choice of terms may be due to the fact that these words are actually very similar in the other neighboring Semitic languages. And they were the names of their deities. And he didn't want to say the sun and moons like as if they're deities. He's basically arguing these are just created by the real God.
[00:26:41] They're just creations of God.
[00:26:44] Many have pointed out that, having read that first day, a division between light and darkness. And it was not until the fourth day that God created the light and the greater light, the sun and the lesser light, the moon to govern the night. This kind of appears confusing.
[00:27:04] How many have ever thought about that? You know, it's interesting. You have day one, light, day two, day three, then day four. All of a sudden the sun shows up and the moon, and it's set apart as days to measure time.
[00:27:16] Wait a minute. What's going on in days one, two, and three?
[00:27:19] Anybody had that thought?
[00:27:21] Okay, some of you. Okay, some of you are just. I'd never paid attention, Pastor, but this was perplexing. But I had a couple. I have a scientific reason and also a theological reason. I'm just going to tell you the theological one.
[00:27:37] And again, Victor Hamilton says it perhaps strikes the reader of the story as unusual that its author affirms the existence of light and a day, for that matter, without the existence of the sun, which is still three days away, the creation of light anticipates the creation of sunlight. Eventually, the task of separating the Light from the darkness will be assigned to these heavenly light luminaries.
[00:28:02] It is unnecessary to explain such a claim as reflecting scientific ignorance. What the author says, he's saying you can't. This is not an argument against people at that time being not not knowing what's going on. Rather, he says the author is saying that God caused the light to shine from a source other than the sun for the first three days.
[00:28:26] So where did that light come from?
[00:28:29] God. That's exactly right. And I think we have to remember something is that God is light. And we find that the Bible begins and ends by describing the world which is being created as filled with light and no sun. I don't know if you notice this. Here you have the first three days. God is the light. And how does the book close in the book of Revelation? Well, let's take a look. I find this fascinating. It says, no longer will there be any curse. This is the last chapter of Revelation. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him, and they'll see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night.
[00:29:09] Interesting. No more darkness. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light and they will reign forever and ever.
[00:29:21] So the sun is only a provision for time. It's not the ultimate provision. And how many are happy about that? Because, you know, scientists are telling me that the sun is slowly dying, but we're not going to need it one day, just like they didn't need it at the very beginning. Okay, I thought, that's interesting.
[00:29:41] The second expression is the creation of creatures in the seas and the skies.
[00:29:46] God so designed our world to sustain human life.
[00:29:49] And the fifth day, we discover the creation of the creatures in the sea and the skies. God said, let the waters teem with living creatures. Let the birds fly above the earth and across the vault of the skies. So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teemed and that moves about in it according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them and said, be fruitful, increase in number.
[00:30:17] Fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the Earth. And there was evening and there was morning. The fifth day.
[00:30:26] Walter Brueggemann makes this little point. He says the expository attention tends to concentrate. Most of us tend to concentrate on verses 26 to 31. Which is the creation of human beings. But he said verses 3 to 25 protest against an exclusive anthrocentric approach, meaning it's not just all about people.
[00:30:50] The Creator God is not totally preoccupied with human creatures, but I'm going to make an argument that he's building this planet for people. Okay, now I think we need to note that God's creation of other creatures besides human is also to support our lives. So I decided to do a little research and find out why birds matter to human beings. So what are the benefits of birds? Okay, well, I don't know if you know this, but they help pollinate birds do that. Birds like hummingbirds, sunbirds, honeyeaters, pollinate flowers, help produce fruit and seeds that support agriculture.
[00:31:29] Secondly, they are part of the pest and rodent control.
[00:31:32] I don't know if you know that.
[00:31:34] Birds and raptors such as owls and hawks eat billions of insects and rodents that damage crops and spread diseases.
[00:31:41] A single barn owl can eat over 1000 mice every year.
[00:31:48] One owl.
[00:31:49] Now, I hope you're going to get more to the sermon than remembering that point.
[00:31:53] What did you get out of the sermon? Yeah, I found out a barn arrow can eat 1,000 mice every year.
[00:32:00] Also, this is fascinating to me. Birds disperse seed for over 90% of rainforest tree species, allowing forests to regenerate and absorb carbon dioxide. So the birds are sustaining the trees.
[00:32:15] Wow, that's pretty neat. Didn't know that. How about this one? Seabirds bring massive amounts of ocean derivatives nutrients onto the land via their droppings.
[00:32:24] Most of us went to the beach ago. I sure hope they don't drop it on me. Right.
[00:32:29] Fertilizing coastal soil, boost plant growth and support local food webs.
[00:32:34] And then birds monitor illnesses. So they can test birds to discover things like the avian influenza or Welsh Nile virus. Because. Because we think that, yeah, they're in the bird, but actually it helps the public health officials about potential outbreaks. So we see it in birds before we see it in humans. So they are actually protecting us so we can address the problem before it gets to us. How many go, wow, isn't this amazing? God designed our world this way. But how about this?
[00:33:07] Why sea creatures and how do they matter to humans? Well, how many know that they're the primary food source for half the population or just a little under half the population of our world. They rely on seafood as their main source of animal protein number two.
[00:33:24] This was interesting. It says ocean and climate regulation. Ocean life ranging from microscopic photoplankton to large marine animals. Generate roughly 50% of the Earth's oxygen and absorb a huge share of the excess carbon dioxide and heat from the atmosphere.
[00:33:48] I didn't know that. I'm going, hey, that's pretty impressive. How about medicines and pharmaceuticals? Marine organisms such as sponges, corals and fish produce unique chemical compounds used to develop life saving drugs that treat cancer, heart disease and other illnesses.
[00:34:05] Also its storm protection. Marine and coastal habitats like coral reefs and mangroves act as natural buffers that protect shorelines and human settlements from severe storms, food and erosion.
[00:34:21] So what's all this mean? God designed the planet to sustain life.
[00:34:28] How many go? God's prepared a place for you and I to live in.
[00:34:33] I'm pretty impressed. How many go? That's the goodness of God.
[00:34:36] Okay, let's move on to the third point.
[00:34:42] Some people get impressed by certain things. I can see. I get impressed by things.
[00:34:48] I'm impressed by God. I'm just being honest with you. Totally impressed by God. The creation of domestic and wild land creatures and human beings. So God makes the wild animals and those who could be taken domesticated by humans in order to help us survive.
[00:35:02] Not only do they become a source of food, but they also become one of the great engines of labor. Do you realize until we developed a combustionable motor, you know, we were using animal power to basically help assist us in most activity of human existence for the majority of our time on this planet. So God gave these animals to help us. And then I put down this for all of those people, pet lovers. And yes, we can enjoy them as our pets. Okay, all right, so God's creation of the animals here in verse 24 says, and God said, let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds, livestock creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals each according to its kind. And it was so. And God made the wild animals according to their kinds, livestock according to their kinds, all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kind. Kinds. And God saw it was good. And then in last verse it says, God saw all that he had made and it was very good. And it was evening and there was the morning of the sixth day. So I jumped over this part of creation which is us, human beings made in the very image of God. Think about that for a minute. Alan Ross says the climax of the six days of creation is the creation of animal and human life. Everything prior to this prepares for the final creation, creation of human beings. And although man is the last creature mentioned in the days of creation, he did not evolve from earlier forms.
[00:36:32] You're not made from a monkey or an ape or any other critter.
[00:36:38] That's what he's saying.
[00:36:39] We were separately formed by God and it was made. Man was made from the dust of the ground, not from earlier forms. And he was given the breath of life from God and did not gradually develop the breathing and thinking faculties. And then God said, let us make mankind in our image and our likeness so they may rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created us with a purpose in mind. The scriptures fly in the face that humans evolved from other species.
[00:37:21] Scriptures does not teach that, folks. Human beings were created directly by God, in God's image and in his likeness. We see that God created human beings as male and female.
[00:37:35] Okay? Unlike God, man is characterized by sexual differentiation. Unlike animals, man is not broken down into species according to their kinds, but rather is designated by sexuality. Male and female. He created them.
[00:37:52] There's only two genders.
[00:37:55] Don't get confused.
[00:37:58] I'm just telling you.
[00:38:00] And I would dare say people have a hard time proving that there's one more than two genders.
[00:38:07] Sexuality is applied to animal creatures, but not in the creation story, only later in the Flood narrative. Rather, this verse affirms that God created in his image a male Adam. Because the word man means Adam. That's the literally Hebrew. When you say Adam, that means man, mankind.
[00:38:24] So you have a man, a male human and a female human. Both share the image of God. Sexuality is not an accident of nature. Nature, nor is it simply a biological phenomenon. Rather, instead it is a gift from God. While sexual identity and sexual function are foreign to God's person, they are nevertheless a part of his will for his image bearers. So what does it mean to be made in God's image and likeness?
[00:38:51] It's clear in verse 26. Is not interested in defining what the image of God is. Doesn't say what it is. The verse simply states the fact which is repeated in the following verse. Some see this image and likeness of God as our role in overseeing the earth.
[00:39:09] Others innumerable definitions. It's been suggested the image of God is our conscience or the soul, or the original righteousness or reason, or the capacity for fellowship with God through prayer and posture.
[00:39:23] Most of the definitions of are based on subjective inferences rather than objective exegesis. In other words, we're guessing we don't know it's not stated any approach that focuses on one aspect of man Be that physical, spiritual or intellectual to the neglect of the rest of man's constituted features seems doomed to failure. In other words, it's the totality of our being. We're made like God. And how many know? Unlike animals, animals can have a personality a times but they don't have the ability to reason and have the ability to fellowship with God. And only human beings does God speak to.
[00:40:01] That's it. Read it in the text. God spoke to the man.
[00:40:07] Then we're warned against taking the life of a human being made in the image of God. In Genesis 9:6. Whoever sheds human blood by human shall their blood be shed.
[00:40:17] Why? For in the image of God, God has made mankind. And what happens in society when we decide that we're going to make decisions that are contrary to what God decides is good? We become less. I'm going to use the word humanized or less godlike.
[00:40:35] You see, we have lost something in our society today. It's called the sanctity of life. In other words, life is sacred and we have desacred. We have desecrated. That's the right word. If it's not sacred or sanctified, it's desecrated. And we're desecrating human life today and we're marginalizing human beings. And every time we do that we're defacing the image of God. And that's why I believe that we have principalities and powers ruling over nations. And their motivation is to destroy human beings. Because every time demonic forces look at you and me, they see the image and the likeness of God. And that's why there's a negativity towards humanity today.
[00:41:23] You know, in that sense we've desecrated humanity. So what is God's created purpose for us? In closing, it's going to share this. God blessed them and said be fruitful, increase in number, fill the earth, subdue, rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.
[00:41:41] Now he's given us a purpose. He's saying, I want you to be a co ruler. But I want you to notice he's calling us to be responsible in I'm going to say it this way. We have a responsibility to our planet. We need to be good caretakers of it. We need to be concerned about not exploiting it. But, but you know, bringing order out of chaos, doing good by, you know, our world and doing good by all of the animals that we have. And also being good.
[00:42:14] It's always for our benefit. How Many know when we have certain animals that go extinct, that changes the ecosystem. So God has already given us this mandate. But let me move beyond that to the New Testament. So what's the mandate to?
[00:42:28] Well, we not only have the Old Testament mandate, we have a New Testament mandate. Just as we're to care for people physically and the world physically, we're also to care for people spiritually. And we're to go out and bring the life of God to other people. We're called to make disciples. So let me close with this.
[00:42:51] What we discover in Genesis 1 is, is a good God created a good world in which he designed for his creation to enjoy.
[00:42:59] And both has what has been created to serve God, to co rule with God with compassion and like God, bring order out of chaos and what is good out of what is evil. We need to be aware that evil is in our world trying to destroy this beautiful world and the people living in it. It's God who defines, distinguishes and separates what is good from what is evil. And every time we start to play God, we do a lot of damage. We need to embrace what God is saying. We cannot live independently of God, nor define for ourself what is good and evil. God determines what is right for us and what will destroy us. Nor can we live independently of others. And it is worth noting that humankind is spoken of, as Walter Brueggemann says, as a singular he created him and plural he created them. This particular formula makes an important affirmation. On the one hand, humankind is a single entity and all human persons stand in solidarity before God. But on the other hand, humankind is a community, male and female, and none is in the full image of God alone. Only in community of humankind is God reflected.
[00:44:12] God is, according to this bold affirmation, not mirrored as an individual, but as a community. So what is he saying? He's saying it's not enough.
[00:44:21] Just one person doesn't totally reflect God's image. Male and female did.
[00:44:26] And you know, it's interesting that Jesus said, I will be in your midst when you gather together.
[00:44:33] Isn't that fascinating? So God is. It's a call to communion, so no one in this room can say, I can do this all by myself. You will never survive.
[00:44:42] You need other people. So I'm going to have a stand as we close in prayer this morning.
[00:44:49] So there was a lot of information today, a lot of understanding.
[00:44:56] This is a polemic, a theological argument against all the false mythologies.
[00:45:04] How many see that it's an answer to evil it's already pre existent because God had created angels before he created this.
[00:45:15] And there's a warning in that that you and I need to listen to that. God determines what is good, not human beings.
[00:45:24] And when we try to play God, we do so much damage.
[00:45:27] If we would have only listened to God, if we only listened to God, things go so much better.
[00:45:34] We don't destroy ourselves. That's what happens.
[00:45:38] So let's pray today that you and I would say, okay, God, I made in your image and I have a purpose for being here.
[00:45:46] What's my purpose? I'm going to go out, be fruitful and multiply.
[00:45:52] I'm responsible for my brother. I'm responsible for the planet. I'm responsible to bring the life of Christ actually to other people. I'm responsible to bring God into the lives of other people. God's called us to do that. We're messengers.
[00:46:09] We are light bearers.
[00:46:12] I say we're Christ bearers. We're bringing Christ into the situation and we're bringing a proper understanding of our world.
[00:46:22] A lot of people have a wrong cosmology, a wrong understanding of origin. And how many know if you're going to build a house and you don't have the right kind of a foundation, I don't care how nice that house looks, if that foundation is incorrect, that house is coming down and it just takes a storm to do it.
[00:46:38] And Jesus talks about that. He said, you know, people sometimes build their house on sand. And what does that mean? He says, they're not doers of my words, but those who hear My Word and do it, they're building their house on a solid foundation. And when the storms come to both houses, the house. You know what, a storm will show you where your foundation is.
[00:47:01] Some of you today, you're in a storm, it's showing you where your foundation is. And if it's built on being a doer of God's word, I can tell you something, that's storm is not going to bring you down.
[00:47:11] God is going to sustain you. So, Father, we thank you this morning.
[00:47:15] Thank you for your beautiful word. We thank you for the beautiful planet you created with us in mind. We thank you for the way you organized it in such a marvelous way and how you set it up. Lord, you, prepared a place for us to live on this planet and enjoy it.
[00:47:31] But Lord, we can never fully enjoy it apart from you.
[00:47:35] And when we try to, you know, move away from youm, it brings devastation, it brings chaos, it brings evil, it brings destruction, it brings darkness.
[00:47:47] And so, Lord, we pray today that yout would open our hearts to youo and help and give us a passion. Give us a passion to see youe world renewed. And it begins by renewing our own mind. Minds, Father. But we want your world to be renewed. We want our nation to be renewed. We want our families to be renewed. Because, Lord, we know there's a good way to do things. And it's your way. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave.
