In the Beginning - Part 2
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
Intro:
Intro:
Good morning.
The Sunday before last we started a new sermon series on the first eleven chapters of Genesis.
We mentioned last time that these first eleven chapters of the Bible lay some critical foundation for the rest of the Bible.
There are MANY foundational principles that are found in these first 11 chapters — foundational MORAL principles.
And we briefly talked about some of the problems you can get into if you don’t take these first 11 chapters literally.
For one, Jesus took them literally, and we mentioned several verses that prove that, such as Matthew chapter 19.
We talked about how God cannot lie (Heb. 6:18), and He has treated the first 11 chapters of Genesis literally in His Word, which is God-breathed (Theopneustos - 2 Tim. 3:16).
And we mentioned a few very important principles found in the first chapter of Genesis.
By way of review, before we look at a few more principles in Genesis chapter 1, I want to recap what we mentioned last time.
Recap of What We’ve Covered So Far:
Recap of What We’ve Covered So Far:
The first principle we talked about last time two weeks ago was THE foundational principle for the rest of the Bible, and that is that the Scripture is plain about “In the Beginning GOD!”
You can believe in a Big Bang, or you can believe in God.
You CANNOT believe in both!
The Bible is clear that it is “In the Beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth!”
Everything you need to have a physical universe is in the first verse of the Bible:
In the Beginning - Time.
God — The First Cause — An eternal Deity that PRECEDES time (very important)!
Created - The action of creating it all.
The Heavens - Space.
And the Earth - Matter.
The second principle we mentioned — “It was good.”
That is, God’s creation was good!
Verses 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25 - Underline it, star it, circle it!
And then verse 31 - “It was VERY good!”
Why is this principle so important?!
Because it answers the question about evil, pain, and suffering.
GOD is not the author of those things!
SIN and the DEVIL are to blame for those things!
God created this world GOOD!
And finally, we talked about one last principle — “The evening and the morning were the ________ day.”
We talked about the 7 literal 24 hour days of creation and rest.
And we talked about how the Gap Theory (idea that there was a GAP of millions of years in between Gen. 1:1 and 1:2) and the Day Age Theory (the idea that each day was millions or billions of years) — Both of those are patently false!
If you missed that, I would encourage you to go back and listen to the recording, because that’s important when it comes to the topic of the false doctrine of theistic evolution.
Alright, let’s glean some more principles this morning from Genesis chapter 1, and the first one is …
The Seed Principle:
The Seed Principle:
This is found in verses 11-12, verse 21, verses 24-25.
Very similar and in conjunction with this topic of the seed principle is the topic, “Be Fruitful and Multiply.” (We are going to hold off until next week on that one though, because that’s a big topic).
So let’s look at Gen. 1:11-12
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
And also Gen. 1:21
So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
And Gen. 1:24-25
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
These verses all bear witness to the fact that God ordained something called “the Seed Principle.”
That is, everything in Biology reproduces after its own KIND.
Birds reproduce and make … more birds.
Reptiles reproduce and make … more reptiles.
Rabbits reproduce and make … a lot more rabbits.
Tigers reproduce and make … more tigers.
Dogs reproduce and make … more dogs.
Human beings reproduce and make … more dogs.
Plants reproduce and make … more plants of the same kind.
Everything in biology reproduces according to the seed principle!
You start with a plant seed, and you will get THAT PLANT.
You start with the seed of a dog, if you will, and you’ll get a dog.
You start with the seed of a lizard, and you get a lizard.
You start with the seed of man and woman, and you get a baby human being!
Things always reproduce after their KIND!
That term “kind” needs defining by the way.
What is the Biblical “kind.”
A species?
Not quite!
Think a little broader — Probably a genus (which is a step above species, or maybe even family which is a step above that), if we are thinking taxonomy.
(Kingdom -> Phylum -> Class -> Order -> Family -> Genus -> Species, which you might remember from Biology class).
But just think of it this way.
What the Bible calls a KIND is probably the same thing taxonomy calls a FAMILY of animals.
For example, dogs are in the CANINE family, as are foxes, coyotes, wolves, jackals, etc.
They are all in the CANINE family, or KIND we can possibly say, and the seed principle says that animals only reproduce after their KIND.
God ordained it that way.
And we could also talk about the FELINE kind (cats, Tigers, Lions, etc.) and many other kinds.
Why does all of this matter?
It matters because by the time you get to the ARK in a few more chapters of Genesis, God tells Noah to populate the ark based on KINDS, not species.
And when certain scientists say that there could not have been enough room on the ark for all the various SPECIES, we can explain — You didn’t need enough room for every SPECIES, just enough for every KIND.
And then we can have a discussion speciesation — the gradual dispersal of different genes, such as dog breeding, for example.
So from an apologetics standpoint, that’s actually pretty important.
But from this biological principle, there is another important SPIRITUAL principle we can mention, and it’s found in Luke 8:11
“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Jesus is explaining the meaning of the parable of the Sower, the SEED is the Word of God, and the principle we can gather from it is this …
What do you get if you plant the seed?
Buddhists? Hindis? Muslims? (No)
Baptists? Lutherans? (No)
CHRISTIANS!
That’s what you get when you plant the seed which is the Word of God!
So just a side point there, but an important one!
Next principle we will notice in this first chapter of Genesis, and that is that we are …
Made in the Image of God:
Made in the Image of God:
This is from Gen. 1:27
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
We’re going to notice another important principle that goes along with this, from verse 28, NEXT week, but for now, let’s just notice a quick point about man that differentiates him from the animal kingdom.
And that is that we are created in the image of God!
How?
Physically?
(I’ve often wondered about that — We know that God is a Spirit according to John 4:24, but I’ve wondered if He still has a “look” in a sense up in heaven that He then in turn gave us. I don’t know).
But I don’t think that is what is primarily being discussed here!
So what is it then?
I would say this is talking about the fact that God created us as a THINKING, FEELING, and ACTING moral agency.
He gave us a SOUL, which differentiates us from animals!
We don’t just follow animal instincts — No, we are morally culpable!
Gen. 2:7 (KJV) says
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Not only did God give us a soul that is ACCOUNTABLE to God, but He also gave us FREE WILL to CHOOSE whether or not we would serve Him!
God didn’t create us as robots that automatically follow the programming, so to speak!
He gave us free moral agency — And that will come into play when we get to chapter 3!
Our next principle we want to look at is found in this same verse, verse 27 …
Male and Female:
Male and Female:
And oh boy, this is a big topic for today isn’t it?!
Gen. 1:27
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
“Male and female He created them!”
We are not too far away from the day when uttering those words from the pulpit, and emphasizing their distinction and the exclusivity of this truth, will be considered hate speech!
My question for all of us this morning, and especially myself as a preacher, is … Will we preach it anyway?!
We HAVE to!
It’s the truth!
It’s a FOUNDATIONAL truth! Right here in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible!
And it’s LITERAL!
Anyone want to say it’s not?
Do you want to join in with the transgenders and say there’s over 70 different genders?! (That’s what they’re up to currently).
Absurdity!
There’s an old poem by Lewis Carroll (writer of Alice in Wonderland).
The old poem by the same man is called “Jabberwocky!”
Jabberwocky? What’s that?!
Dictionary.com defines it as “a playful imitation of language consisting of invented, meaningless words; nonsense; gibberish!”
Transgenderism = Jabberwocky!
A bunch of nonsense!
What IS a man, by the way?
And what IS a woman? (You don’t have to answer).
(We KNOW what those definitions are!)
(And you don’t need a degree in biology to know what they are!)
We live in a society gone mad!
And that’s about all I want to say because it gets me pretty fired up!
One last thing — JESUS Himself quoted this verse in Matthew 19:
Matt. 19:3-6
The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Jesus thus 1) legitimizes Genesis chapter 1 as historical and literal, (He doesn’t allegorize it) and …
2) He lays the ground rules for marriage and human sexuality!
One man, one woman, for life! That’s the ground rules.
One exception - Fornication (Matt. 19:9) - Innocent part can remarry in that case.
The ground rules for marriage, and sexuality belonging in that marriage context.
Male and female!
Heb. 13:4
Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
1 Cor. 7:1-3
Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband.
Ephesians chapter 5 tells husbands and wives their duties to one another:
Husbands love your wives like Christ loved the church!
Wives submit to and respect your husbands!
1 Peter 3 calls marriage “the grace of life” (verse 7).
These are ground rules for marriage and human sexuality, and they were from the “get go” in Genesis chapters 1 and 2!
Do you see why it’s important for us to have this study?!
The sexual revolution of the 1950s and 60s has given rise to:
Free love,
Live and let live,
Homosexuality,
Abortion,
Transgenderism,
Polyamory (You may have seen this come up recently — There’s a big push for it currently on places like Tik Tok).
None of those things are in accordance with God’s design!
Male and female!
This is so important, and one of the many reasons we are spending time in these first 11 chapters of the Book of Genesis!
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Lord willing next Sunday, we will wrap up our final discussion of chapter 1!
And then we will keep moving through this book.
We want to offer you a chance to respond to the Lord’s invitation this morning if you never have:
Obeyed the Gospel?
Are you living faithfully?