Islington Baptist Church January 14, 2001
Sermon: Genesis 1
Scripture readings: Job 38, Psalm 8, 19, 136
For the next while you and I are going to consider the early chapters of the book of Genesis. In the past year I have preached twice from the book of Genesis. The last time I was with you we looked at Genesis 3:14-15 which record God’s words of judgment upon Satan—words of judgment upon Satan and words of blessing for us who are in Christ. Earlier in the year we studied Genesis 2:18-25 which answers the question “For what purpose or reason was a woman created for Adam”.
Getting a grip on the book of Genesis is of vital importance for every believer. The book of Genesis tells us where we came from, it tells us how sin, death, and suffering has come to be our experience, it tells us why our physical world looks like it does today---with its high mountain peaks, vast oil reserves, tropical fossils in arctic and mountain locations---I’m talking about the Flood, it tells us why there are so many different nationalities and languages, etc, etc.
Unfortunately many Christians ignore the book of Genesis; I suppose because we live in a culture that mocks anyone who believes in the Bible’s account of creation or the Flood. Just recently Stockwell Day was publicly mocked for affirming that he believes that man and dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time. Christians are regarded as simpletons and stupid if they hold to God’s/the Bible’s testimony regarding our origins.
Today our focus is going to be Genesis 1 which lays out for us how us and this whole universe that we are in came to be.
As you well know, the majority of Canadians believe in something called Evolution. In the 1859 Charles Darwin wrote a book entitled “The origin of the Species”. In this book he proposes that all life is a product of evolution. In essence he posited that we all had our origins in the muck ---muck that just happened to come out of nowhere.
-According to Darwin and his followers, life spontaneously occurred (meaning that which was non living, on its own became alive)
-According to Darwin and his followers, somehow complex systems came about by total chance.
-According to Darwin and his followers, things moved from chaos to order and beauty and design, all by accident.
-According to Darwin and his followers, all human life and all life is just a big cosmic accident. You and I are merely the product of a series of mutuations---according to Darwin you are a big mutant.
The full blown implications of Darwin’s theory is traumatic:
1. Human life has no value and your life does not matter one bit. On the flip side, the Bible invests in us great value, worth, honor, and gives us purpose
2. Morality, right and wrong, are completely relative. In fact—according to evolution—there is no such thing as right and wrong—it’s survival of the fittest
3. There is no God—this is the ultimate goal of evolutionists.
On the whole, the theory of evolution is completely unscientific. It is theory without proof. It is a theory with gaping holes in it.
1. No fossil evidence exists to prove the theories tenet that creatures evolved into higher life forms. No transitional fossils exist. No half man, half ape skeletons exist. No half bird, half reptile skeletons exist. On the flip side, the fossil record records the sudden appearance of multiple life forms (just like the Bible teaches)
2. Spontaneous generation is an impossibility (life does not just happen spontaneously). George Vald, former professor at Harvard University and a winner of the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine wrote an article for The Scientific American Journal. In essence he wrote that either you believe in spontaneous generation or you believe in supernatural creation. He wrote that spontaneous generation of a living organism is impossible, yet, note what he says “here we are a result of such an action any ways”.
3. Things do not move from chaos to order on their own!
Real science has proven this time and time again. Things break down, they don’t build up and get more complex by themselves. (2nd law of Thermodynamics)
4. Complex systems, beauty, order, design do not happen on their own or by accident: There has to be a designer, an intelligence behind such things
Another thing to note is this: there are very few debates between creationists and evolutionists today. It’s not because the issue is settled or that there is a lack of interest. It’s because over and over again evolutionists have been publicly humiliated in such debates. This is not me saying this. A Robert Smith of the Western Missouri affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union (an anti Christian organization) said this.
Before we get to our text this morning I have one last illustration that I believe shows the folly of certain peoples continually pointing to “science” as the ultimate answer to life’s questions.
This is what Albert Einstein said about science. “Science is like reading a mystery novel. You go down to the drug store and buy a novel and take it home and you go to bed at night. You get into bed, snap on the light, prop yourself up with pillows and start reading. In the first chapter there are 2 or 3 murders, with several bodies lying around. The whole of the story begins to focus on “who done it”. Clues appear as you read on. In about the 3rd chapter you decide that the butler did it. Continuing on, the finger of guilt points more and more to the butler. But then, you reach the last chapter in which suddenly all the previous evidence is upset and it wasn’t the butler after all. It was the little old lady in tennis shoes who lives on the third floor. She did it. Now Einstein says “Science is like that. It’s is always struggling from hypothesis to synthesis from a few clues here and there, but it never gets the answer. And then suddenly some new light comes along that throws the first estimate all off, and all the previous answers seem of little value."
As opposed to all this we have Genesis 1. In Genesis 1 we are told where we came from and how we and this universe came to be. Genesis 1 is not “scientific in nature”. Genesis 1 reads as a narrative- which is what it is. If Genesis 1 was to be scientific in nature Genesis would take up 1000’s upon 1000’s of volumes. READ
I. Genesis 1 is corrective in nature--- it sets the record straight
Various creation/origin accounts abound. In our day there is the theory of evolution. In the days when these words of God were delivered to the Jews there were false theories regarding where mankind came from as well.
For example, the Jews had to contend with the Babylonian creation epic, the Enuma Elish which told its own creation story, ultimately contending that people were made from the dead body of a fallen god named Kingu.
II. Not only is the account of Genesis 1 corrective in nature it also demonstrates God’s superiority over all supposed rival gods and creation accounts.
As opposed to rival creation accounts in the Jews day, creation on God’s part involves no struggle, or battle. God merely speaks and the universe created.
Our creation does not involve “evolution” either. God, being all powerful spoke—and we became. Millions of years were not necessary. It makes a lot more sense to believe in an all powerful God creating us and the universe than it does to believe in evolution.
III. Genesis 1 and the chapters that follow are intended to be read literally.
It is not to be read as a fable or as a myth. It is to be read in a literal fashion. What you and I read is what actually happened. The universe and all that is in it was created in 6 literal days by the all powerful God whom we have the privilege of knowing and serving.
Throughout the scriptures the events of Genesis 1 and the following chapters are recorded as literal. Numerous times the act of God’s creating of the universe are referred to. In addition to this Jesus and others, refer to the garden of Eden, Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, the Flood, as real historical people and events.
OUR TEXT PROPER
1. Note how Genesis begins “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”
How did this universe and us come to be? God made the universe and us according to his good pleasure and according to his time line. God, being eternal—without beginning or end- created us—who have a beginning and an end.
Note also the subject of v.1 “God”
What is it that most people want to be rid of today? God.
People don’t like to hear about God, for in their hearing about Him they hear about their sin and their need of repentance and of their responsibility to God. The theory of evolution gets rid of God.
Also note this: Genesis 1 teaches that all that is, God created out of nothing. Before our universe existed there was nothing but God and the angels. At his very word this whole universe came into being.
In Hebrews 11:3 it says this “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible”
The universe and us were created by a supernatural act, not by a Big Bang, but rather, by a Big God.
2. “Earth was formless and empty/void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” v. 2
Envision what it says here. None of the characteristics our world has today were yet created. No land, no sky, no stars, no sun, (formless and void) just darkness and ball of water. This is what God started with.
Also: Spirit of God hovering over the waters
Beautiful image for it reflects the image of God as being nurturing and caring. As an eagle broods over and cares for her young, the Spirit of God hovered our world, prepared to create and bring life.
“Formless and void”**********
-these 2 words set us up to properly read the rest of Genesis 1.
-the world was without shape and it was empty as well.
In the first 3 days of God’s creating what happens? The world takes shape. Forming happens—the formlessness of the world is addressed.
Day 1 Light created
Day 2 Sky made and waters of the earth below
Day 3 Water gathered to one place and dry ground appears. On this dry ground God caused vegetation to grow
During the first 3 days, earth, which in v.2 is described as being formless, gets formed.
Note what happens in days 4-6. The empty/void world gets filled
Day 4 The sun, moon, stars are created
Day 5 Fish for the sea and birds for the air are made
Day 6 All land animals are made and so were we.
Then after all this: Day 7 God rests
AS YOU AND I EXAMINE THE VARIOUS DAYS OF CREATION THERE ARE LOTS OF OBSERVATIONS TO BE MADE
1. God is God of order, design, and purpose.
When he made us, and the universe everything was made for a specific purpose and according to a set plan. There are no mistake in God’s universe or accidents. There is a reason for everything.
Note for example the reason given for the creation of the sun, moon, and stars. Day 4
a. separate day from night
b. serve as signs to mark seasons, days, years—which indeed they do
c. give light to the earth, the sun to give light by day and the moon and stars to give light by night
2. We were and are the climax of God’s creating work
Note in our text how as each day more is said and how it there is a dramatic literary building towards day 6. Day 6 dominates the account of creation.
We are the pinnacle of God’s creation. Next week we are going to really dig into what this means but note this: we are the pinnacle of God’s creation. Why was the earth and universe made. Why are the seas filled with fish. Why does the ground produce all the food it does, why do animals roam the land and birds fill the sky. Why do the stars, moon, and sun, stand where they are? For our benefit, use, and enjoyment, for us, the pinnacle of God’s creation. (NOTE Psalm 8)
3. God’s existence and the world’s being created by God is an inescapable fact
Evolution is a complete lie--- a lie that has been swallowed by the majority (who have accepted its teachings as true without any critical reflection at all)
YET…..No matter what anyone says, the whole universe testifies to God’s glory, might, and existence. The whole of the created order bears the signature of God and its obvious.
In Psalm 19:1-4 it says “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world
In respect the worlds being created by God as an inescapable fact note what Romans 1:18ff says “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities- his eternal power and divine nature- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator- who is forever praised. Amen.
4. Praise, thanks, worship is what we owe God
In Revelations 4:11 it says this “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
In pondering our creation and the beauty of the world God deserves our praise. We are to give him praise—to withhold our thanks is criminal.
Genesis 1 tells us how we and the whole universe came to be. God is the reason. In 6 days God created all that there is and He is worthy of our worship.
