Genesis: The God of Creation

 Sermon: FCC Afton March 5, 2023 Genesis: The God of Creation Scripture: Genesis 1:1-2 We begin this morning with a return to the beginning. Today we begin a survey of the Book of Genesis- a survey, if you recall, is coming to a big heap of the Word and then digging into it a little each week, examining the truth that we uncover, and then storing those trusts away in our hearts for further examination and application later on. Because each of us who follows Christ is called to be a minister of the varied grace of God, and as such are commissioned to communicate our faith to others, we must be equipped with a foundational knowledge of the truth of who our God is, what He has done, and how what He has done shows us how much He loves us and His purpose for our lives. In a day when even those things once considered absolute truth are being questioned and doubted, it is important for us to know the truth, what the Bible says about things, and to build our understanding of the world on the foundation of God's truth- how else can we share truth with others, share our faith with others, if we do not understand it ourselves? Genesis is the first book of the Bible and the first book of Moses' Pentateuch, the books of the Law. Genesis simply means "the beginning" or "origins;" it sets the foundation for God's Laws and also for our understanding of how all things began. The book was written by Moses during the Hebrew Exodus, probably during the forty years the Israelites spent wandering in the desert, as a reminder to the Israelites of the faithfulness of God toward those He loves. Genesis reveals the origins of the universe, of mankind, of marriage, of sin, of death, and of judgment, but it also introduces the first covenant relationships between God and man and points us forward toward His plan for redemption. Genesis introduces us to the identity of our God- as our Creator, as our companion, as our judge, as our protector, as our guide, as our sustainer, and also as our Savior. Genesis reveals God's plan and purpose for creation, including humanity; it tells of our rebellion against Him, of His desire for loving harmony with Him, and our rejection of that love in our attempt to secure independence and power. Genesis is broken into two parts: Chapters 1-11 are known as the primeval history, we will spend time digging into these more intensively because this history reveals more to us about who God is and what His purpose for us is; chapters 12-50 are the Patriarchal history, which we will examine in larger chunks. Through it all, this survey of Genesis will be an intensive look at the roots of what we believe and why we believe them because, without a solid foundation, the walls of your faith will be at risk of collapse when the storms of life blow through. This week, we will begin our survey of Genesis by examining just the very beginning of Genesis chapter one. What do the opening lines of Scripture reveal to us about the person of God and about the setting and circumstances that would put into motion our creation, especially with God knowing full well that humanity would be fraught with disappointments, rebellion, and betrayal? What does God's dealing with humanity reveal to us today about how we should live rightly before Him? What does this story of love and redemption teach us about the relationship that He still desires from us today, even if we are living just as much in rebellion as our ancestors did? Read Genesis 1:1-2 Pray here. Question: What does Creation tell us about God's identity? Our God is eternal. "In the beginning..." God exists outside of time and space. God is eternal; before the creation of this universe, God was there. Before the beginning of time, God was there. I know it is tough for our finite minds to grasp an eternal God, but He exists outside of the bounds that we exist in. [This is going to be pretty Psalm-heavy this morning, but I'm excited by that because we are starting through the Psalms on Wednesday nights.] Psalm 144:3-4 asks, "Lord, what is man, that You care for Him, the son of man, that you think of Him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow." Psalm 90:2;4- "For in your sight, a thousand years are as yesterday that passes by, like a few hours of the night; Before the mountains were born, before You gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, You are God." Psalm 102:3,25-27 "For my days vanish like smoke; Long ago You established the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will endure; all of them will wear out like clothing. You will change them like a garment, and they will pass away. But You are the same, and Your years will never end." Time is like a breath or a passing shadow to our God. While our universe had a beginning and will have an end, God is beginning-less and endless. We do not know about God's activities before the creation of this universe, but we can examine His actions and His person since this universe began. Jeremiah 1:5 tells us that God knew us even before we were formed in the womb, but Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:4 that God chose us, His creation, for relationship even before the foundations of the world were laid. Before even the creation of the universe, with whatever God was doing, whatever He was filling His time with (maybe you, like me and CS Lewis, believe that God had tried this humanity experiment before with different parameters, different levels of free will), He was doing it with you on His mind. Creator of the Universe. "God created the Heavens and the earth..." And then, God created the universe, with the earth as its sole inhabitant. The universe was probably fairly small at that point- scientists tell us that the universe is growing larger and more chaotic, with more and more exploding stars and black holes. But at creation, the universe was peaceful and good, but it was also empty but for the sphere of water that God had just created. In Psalm 8, David says that God put the Heavens, the stars, and the moon in place by the work of His fingers; in Psalm 33, He says that the Heavens were formed by the Words of His mouth- however it happened, what we do know is that He did it while considering you and me and the people that we would become. When David asks, "Who is man?" compared to the beauty of creation, we can know that we are the ones He was thinking about when He designed it all. Before the creation of the world, God was considering you specifically and thinking about who you would be and what you might accomplish in the universe that He was planning on putting together. "Now the earth was formless and empty." What did we just read in Psalm 90? "Before the mountains were born." Over and over, we are reminded of God's plan in motion before the "foundations of the world were laid." The text tells us that the planet was formless and empty. It was only a sphere of water- the atmosphere had not yet been created, nor were any land formations created- those things happen during day three. The foundations that would make this a habitable planet have not yet been laid. Neither is there any light in the universe; things are completely dark, and we find, in our account of creation, the Holy Spirit hanging out in this empty, formless universe above the surface of the empty, formless sphere of water that God had just created. At that moment, the work on the foundation of the world began. Question: But what about the purpose? Why did God do everything He did? When we take a step back and examine why God went through the effort and the trouble to create this separate dimension that is bound by time and space, to create a universe to contain it all, and create a planet for His creation to live and thrive on, we see that the story of creation is one of love. God undertook creation because He desired to love us and desired for us to love Him and have perfect relationship with Him. God knew, just as anyone who purposefully seeks to become a parent, that with the opportunity to love would come the risk of pain- the pain of us rejecting Him and the pain of watching His beloved creation destroy itself through indulgent choices. And He knew that the perfection would not last long, so He formulated a rescue plan long in advance. God desired someone to love and to have relationship with, but He didn't want robots who would just love Him because He told them to; He wanted us to choose Him just as He was choosing us. Psalm 24:1-2 tell us that "the earth, and everything in it and its inhabitants, belongs to the Lord; for He laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers." Colossians 1:16 says, "For in Him, all things were created: things in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or authorities; all things have been created by Him and for Him." We are His, created to love Him and to be loved by Him! But He gives us the freedom to choose whether we will do that or not. Ephesians 1:4-6 says that "He chose us in Him, before the foundations of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the beloved." He created us and chose us, but then expects us to choose Him, as well. In Eph. 1:13, Paul says, "when you heard the message of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in Him, you were also sealed." But even if you had never heard the message of truth, there would still be no excuse for not choosing God, because Romans 1:19-20 tell us: "For 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 His workmanship, so that men are without excuse." We have no excuse to not believe in God and to love Him, but He does give us that freedom. We are allowed to reject Him, to rebel against Him, to ignore Him. We know that God loves us so much, so greatly, that He gave His Son to save us from our rebellion. He gave us that freedom and waits to see what we will do with it. Galatians 5:13 tells us, "You, my brothers and sisters, were created to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, use it to love one another." And use it to love God. The point of Creation is to love us. God had no need to create us; He did not need to create the world to feel good about Himself; He had no need of someone to worship Him- some try to make God out to be some megalomaniac in need of people to tell Him how good He is. No, He poured out His love on us by giving us the opportunity to worship and love Him. God made for Himself a people in the same way that we imitate Him through the decision to have children: we desire to love someone, to have someone that loves us back, someone that we can pour ourselves into, to pour our personalities, spirit, and love into. God created the earth, the sphere of water without form, and then He hovered over the waters, checking it out, making sure that His creation- the universe, the earth, even the dimension bound by time and space- that it was good. Creation is the framework for His purpose, but we also see in creation the fingerprints of purpose, as well. The things God created do what He created them to do; even in the chaos of this fallen world, things go on working within the framework of His purpose to show us that He had a purpose for each and every one of His creations. Some of them we can't grasp, right? Mosquitos? Who knows. But no matter how we try to pervert His creation and His purposes, or confuse ourselves, women still go on getting pregnant, trees still sink their roots deep into the soil and stretch their branches toward Heaven to worship God, mountain goats still jump nimbly from mountainsides, and the planets still rotate around our star. Everything that God has created has a purpose and they operate within that purpose. God has a purpose for each of us individually, as well. There is nothing random or forgotten about God's creation- He created you for a specific purpose; remember, He has been considering you, what you will look like, what your personality would be like, since before He created this globe that we live on! You are not a mistake! You are not worthless! Even in the hardest, lowest moments of this life, you have a Creator who imprinted His purpose in you before you were even formed in the womb. Even if you have ignored Him for your entire life, you have a Creator who shaped and formed you uniquely because He wanted to pour His love out on your life! God spoke His purpose into the globe and the universe- He wants to speak His purpose and plan into your life. 1 Peter 1:20-21 reveals to us God's plan for salvation even before the first human was created and given the choice to sin or not. God was planning on rescuing us. "He was chosen before the foundation of the world but was revealed to you at the end of times for you, who through Him are Believers in God, who raises Him from the dead and gave Him glory so that your faith and hope are in God." God's plan has always been for relationship and reconciliation. He and Jesus had the rescue plan mapped out even before they laid the foundations of the earth, because even if Adam and Eve hadn't sinned, somebody would have chosen their own way eventually. God has loved you and purposed to rescue you since before this universe was created. That was just the first two verses of Scripture. After creating the universe and the formless globe, He really gets to work. Next week, we will be moving into the first four days of creation and looking at what each day involved in the grand plan of creation. Our good God, who created this amazing universe and planet to hold us all, and designed it in perfection for the chaos to come, He shows us His intentionality and purpose in every level of creation- revealing to us two things: He loves us and He has a purpose for us. Closing Prayer: