OUR ORIGIN: IN THE BEGINNING

FROM DUST TO GLORY  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
0 ratings
· 3 views
Notes
Transcript

picture

“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.” “That is because you are older, little one,” answered he. “Not because you are?” “I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.” C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian

I choose to believe The Bible because it is a reliable collection of historical documents, written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses, reporting supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claimed their writings are Divine and not of human origin.

picture

The Bible is a collection of 66 books written over a 1,500 year span by 40 different authors on 3 different continents (Asia, Africa, Europe), in 3 different languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic).

picture

Among all the books ever written, the Bible is absolutely unique. Actually, it is not just a book—it’s 66 books. And one of its most remarkable qualities is the complete unity of the overall message despite having so many different authors writing over many centuries on hundreds of controversial subjects. Natural explanations fail to account for the supernatural character and origin of Scripture.

picture

The Bible was written over a period of roughly 2,000 years by 40 different authors from three continents, who wrote in three different languages. These facts alone make the Bible one of a kind, but there are many more amazing details that defy natural explanation.

picture

Shepherds, kings, scholars, fishermen, prophets, a military general, a cupbearer, and a priest all penned portions of Scripture. They had different immediate purposes for writing, whether recording history, giving spiritual and moral instruction, or pronouncing judgment.

picture

They composed their works from palaces, prisons, the wilderness, and places of exile while writing history, laws, poetry, prophecy, and proverbs. In the process they laid bare their personal emotions, expressing anger, frustration, joy, and love.

picture

Yet despite this marvelous array of topics and goals, the Bible displays a flawless internal consistency. It never contradicts itself or its common theme.

picture

From Genesis to Revelation, we see man’s repeated rebellion against his holy Creator. God made a perfect world, but mankind has continually rejected His authority and sought to decide truth for himself.

picture

Nevertheless, God promised to extend His love, grace, and mercy to unworthy people who deserved to be cast into the lake of fire for all eternity.

picture

Early in Genesis after Adam and Eve sinned, God made known His plan of redemption, which He repeatedly promised and expanded upon throughout the Old Testament. The promises were fulfilled in a surprising but predicted way: by the Savior’s sacrificial death and subsequent resurrection, as recorded in the New Testament.

picture

The Bible then announced the future culmination of the Savior’s redemptive work in Revelation. Both the Bible and history weave together in seamless harmony, as though the Creator ordained this plan and recorded it in Scripture even before it unfolded in history. And that’s exactly what the Bible claims took place!

picture

God says that He alone can declare the future (Isaiah 42:9), and hundreds of His prophetic predictions have been fulfilled with absolute precision, while others await fulfillment.

picture

The unity of Scripture demonstrates its supernatural inspiration. Only the one true, holy God could provide us with such a flawless Bible that reveals such a matchless message: the Lord’s staggering love for His creation.

picture

Genesis is important to the New Testament. There are at least 165 passages in Genesis either directly quoted or clearly referred to in the New Testament; many of these are quoted more than once, so there are at least 200 quotations or allusions to Genesis in the New Testament. i. In John 5:46-47,
John 5:46 ESV
For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.
John 5:47 ESV
But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

picture

We can’t truthfully and consistently say we believe believe in Jesus if we don’t believe in the Book of Genesis.

picture

There is a story saying that one day, students in one of Albert Einstein’s classes were saying they had decided there was no God. Einstein asked them how much of all the knowledge in the world they had among themselves collectively, as a class. The students discussed it for a while and decided they had 5% of all human knowledge among themselves. Einstein thought their estimate was a little generous, but he replied: “Is it possible God exists in the 95% you don’t know?”

ANNOUNCEMENT NOT ARGUMENT

Genesis 1:1 is not an argument but an announcement, it’s not given for us to bicker over but to believe, it’s not written for debate it is a declaration. It is the statement of the Sovereign, it’s the communication of the Creator , it’s the testimony of the Triune God.

ANNOUNCEMENT NOT ARGUMENT

The libraries of this world contain trillions of written words concerning our origin. In the greatest economy of language, God tells us all that we need to know using 6 Hebrew or 10 English words.
Proverbs 26:4 M:BCL
Don’t respond to the stupidity of a fool; you’ll only look foolish yourself.
Proverbs 26:5 (M:BCL)
Answer a fool in simple terms so he doesn’t get a swelled head.
WE DON’T HAVE TO ANSWER THE ATHEIST WITH SCIENCE ONLY SCRIPTURE.
The burden of proof is on the atheist.
Psalm 14:1 ESV
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.

HOW DO YOU ANSWER A FOOL?

Proverbs 26:5 M:BCL
Answer a fool in simple terms so he doesn’t get a swelled head.

CHRISTIANITY ISN’T A BLIND FAITH. IT’S A BELIEVABLE FAITH BECAUSE OF ITS EVIDENCE.

God has provided enough evidence in this life to convince anyone willing to believe, yet he has also left some ambiguity so as not to compel the unwilling.

Psalm 19:1 ESV
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Psalm 19:2 ESV
Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
Psalm 19:3 ESV
There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.
Psalm 19:4 ESV
Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,
Romans 1:20 ESV
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.
Romans 1:21 ESV
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.
Romans 1:22 ESV
Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
Romans 1:23 ESV
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

REMEMBER THAT EVEN ATHEISM REQUIRES FAITH - ITS A RELIGION.

Every teaching concerning the world’s origin must be taken by faith because no possess empirical proof. Atheists have had to resort to wild speculations to give chance more of a chance.

NO MATTER WHAT YOU BELIEVE - YOU BELIEVE IT BY FAITH.

Hebrews 11:3 ESV
By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Mark Twain had a point when he concluded that it was not the parts of the Bible he did not understand that bothered him—but the parts he did understand!

PICUTRE

The latest survey concerning atheism has revealed that there are 450 to 500 million positive atheists worldwide with half of them living in Chinas. America is 3% (which is where we have been for about 80 years)

PROVING GOD’S EXISTENCE ISN’T OUR MINISTRY; IT’S PROMOTING WHO GOD IS.

HE IS SOVEREIGN.

It is no accident that God is the subject of the first sentence of the Bible, for this word dominates the whole chapter and catches the eye at every point of the page: it is used some thirty-five times in as many verses of the story. The passage, indeed the Book, is about him first of all; to read it with any other primary interest (which is all too possible) is to misread it.
Colossians 1:16 ESV
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.
John 1:3 ESV
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Hebrews 1:10 ESV
And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands;

HE IS BEFORE EVERYTHING.

Job 38:1 ESV
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
Job 38:2 ESV
“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Job 38:3 ESV
Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.
Job 38:4 ESV
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
Job 38:5 ESV
Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
Job 38:6 ESV
On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone,
Job 38:7 ESV
when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Job 38:8 ESV
“Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb,
Job 38:9 ESV
when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band,
Job 38:10 ESV
and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors,
Job 38:11 ESV
and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
Job 38:12 ESV
“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place,

HE CREATES EVERYTHING OUT OF NOTHING.

Psalm 33:9 ESV
For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.
Isaiah 40:26 ESV
Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.
Psalm 90:2 ESV
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Isaiah 45:18 ESV
For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the Lord, and there is no other.
1 Corinthians 8:6 ESV
yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

HE DOES NOT CREATE OUT OF NEED.

“To admit the existence of a need in God is to admit incompleteness in the divine Being. Need is a creature-word and cannot be spoken of the Creator. God has a voluntary relationg to everything He has made, but He has no Necessary relation to anything outside of Himself. His interest in His creatures arises from His sovereign good pleasure, not from any need those creatures can supply nor from any completeness they can Bring to Him who is complete in himself.”

HE CREATES BECAUSE HE IS THE CREATOR.

He creates everything for His glory.

Colossians 1:16 ESV
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.

He creates because He is good.

A God wise enough to create me and the world I live in is wise enough to trust.

Genesis 1:2 ESV
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

A salvation based on works is foolish because the work necessary for salvation has been worked. Rest from your labors. It is finished!

Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more