Genesis 1:1-2:3 God is Holy

God is Holy

Introduction

If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to ; if not, it will be on the screen.

If you don’t own a Bible, please come see me when we are done and we will get you one

GMJR is our theme: God is Holy, Man is Sinner, Jesus is Savior, Response Required

The next four weeks we are looking at these truths as shown to us in ; a wise preacher once said, “You tell me what you believe about the first 3 chapters of Genesis, and I will tell you what you believe about the rest of the Bible; that is how important this is.

Now I am a 45 minute man in a 25 minute time slot, so we have to get moving and stay moving, okay? Are you with me?

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PRAYER

Father, you are majestic; your greatness knows no bounds and you are worthy of all the praise of every person, every creature, every part of your creation.

Help us this evening to further see the glory of your holiness in your creation. Holy Spirit illuminate the truths of this Word not only in our minds, but in our hearts also.

Jesus, use this time to help us better understand the saving work you accomplished on the cross. And it is in your name that we pray, Amen.

God is holy…that is what we want to take away from this text tonight.

Now, I wish we had more time because there is so much here that we could learn, but if nothing else, we want to understand that this text shows us that God is holy.

Does anybody remember what it means that God is Holy? Other, distinct, separate from creation and to himself.

He cannot be compared to any person or thing because he is not created, he just simply is. He is the one from which all creation proceeds; apart from him, there is no creation.

That is what we see, plain and simple in this text.

So where do we begin in trying to understand this text? Well, we have to start with the setting.

You see, every written work has an author and a purpose; if you receive written instructions for an assignment, your teacher’s purpose in writing that out is to inform you how to do the assignment at that point in time.

Well what does that mean? Two things: 1) we have to pay attention to what is being said around our text; what is going on? Who is involved? What is the setting? This part is easier for us because we

If you read an article called “10 Reasons Facebook is Destroying Relationships,” you can know that the author’s purpose is to persuade people in our day and age to quit using Facebook so much.

And equally important to note is that Moses was recording this stuff for specific purpose.

In the same way, Genesis was written by a particular person in a particular time for a particular purpose. Who wrote Genesis?

Moses. And who was Moses and what did he do? He was the one whom God sent to lead Israel, his chosen people, out of slavery in Egypt.

Moses wrote Genesis as he received it from God at some point during that journey away from Egypt, and his purpose was to inform the people of Israel about who God is.

At this point, Israel did not “know” God. Their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did, but at this point they were 400 years removed from those guys.

They didn’t have the Law at this point, or any written Scriptures as far as we know. The memory of God’s work among their ancestors was but a distant memory for most of them.

Now there is lots that we don’t know, but we can be sure that they were influenced by the myriad of other religions that surrounded them, and their creation myths about many gods being involved in creation and how that all came about.

So when Moses came to lead them out, they

These people probably believed some of that to be true, and many of these foreign gods were said to be powerful and temperamental…if you make them mad bad things happen

And these bad things were all the afflictions of this life; all the false religions of the time taught that there was a god in charge of every part of nature; when bad things happened, it was because the gods were mad.

Now we can relate to the fear of natural events can’t we?

Have you ever had to take shelter because a tornado is coming? Or thought about the possibility of an asteroid hitting earth and wiping it out? Or maybe even human things, like terrorist attacks?

Well, that’s how Moses’ audience, the Israelites, felt. Only it was way more serious.

These are fearful things. And so Israel feared them too. But they thought false gods were in charge of them.

So then they are wondering, “who is this Yahweh God who we are supposed to be following? Is he just more powerful than the other gods? Are the other gods going to afflict us for following him?”

In short, they had some bad theology, but that’s the setting. And toward those concerns, Moses, under the power of the Holy Spirit, writes these words...

Genesis 1:1 CSB

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

As we have already said, God simply is. He exists in and of himself, apart from anything else. He was there in the beginning, and he created.

He himself was not created, he simply exists, without beginning or end.

And it says that he created the heavens and the earth.

This language considers the heavens to be everything from here out; all that the eye can see out in space and beyond to its furthest reaches, God created.

Then on a closer level, the earth. Every piece of matter that exists on this planet, God created.

This introductory statement is meant to be all inclusive that God created absolutely everything, out of nothing.

So right off the bat Moses is proclaiming that everything you see and experience, the expanse of space, the asteroids in it, the terrifying effects of weather, the wonders of the earth…all of it has its source in God, for he is the creator of all of it.

Holy, separate, other; God is not a part of creation nor dependent upon it; he is the one who rules over it.

But verse two tells us something interesting, it says...

Genesis 1:2 CSB

2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Understand the point here; when Moses wrote this, pretty much all of the pagan creation myths told some variation of a story which went like this;

There are many gods who exist and each represents a different aspect of humanity or nature.

These gods are finicky and easily angered and they all got mad at each other, starting fighting and produced absolute chaos, which is pretty much always represented by a vastness of water and darkness. But somehow through the death of one or more of these gods, out came creation.

So then the rest of the remaining gods each rules over a piece of creation, with humans as subjects who are to appease these gods.

There are many variations in the stories, but they all fit that general description.

Now we have already seen many gods didn’t produce creation, but rather one God, the Creator King of the Universe.

However, the water and the darkness mentioned in verse 2 does tell us that one piece of those myths was true; in the beginning things were in a state of chaos. Order did not rule and the earth was in a terrible, terrible state.

But God is a God of order. We are not told why things were in a state of chaos, we could examine some possibilities but time does not allow.

The important thing is for you to see God’s interaction with the chaos

It tells us that the Spirit of God was hovering over the watery depths in the midst of darkness

Chaos by definition is all out disorder, yet we see here even initially God keeping the chaos at bay.

The only thing keeping the formless and void earth from literally exploding was the Spirit of God who has all power and control over his creation.

So you see Moses address the fears of Israel in the first two sentences of the book. No matter what there is to fear on this earth, none if it compares to the terrible chaos that existed here.

Our minds cant comprehend it. But the Spirit of God was in absolute control of the worst chaos, so then he is absolutely in control of everything that has ever been created.

Why? Because he is the Creator; holy, and above it all...

But see what God does with the chaotic disorder...

Verse 3, he says “Let there be light”

As an illustration from Scripture we can compare the state of the earth at that moment to the dead bones in the valley of Ezekiel’s vision in ; can dead bones come to life? Can unthinkable disorder be made into a beautiful and orderly creation?

Yes, but ONLY IF a spirit of life enters into it from the one true, Living God.

In Ezekiel, God made the bones to come together with flesh and he breathed life into them. In the beginning God took what also was seemingly beyond repair and beyond understanding, and he brought beauty and life from it, beginning with the light.

Now, we are going to have to broadly summarize the rest of this text, but as we do, see this from verse 4.

God separated the light from the darkness; the darkness represents the disorder, the absence of God’s illuminating blessing, the chaos of disobedience

And as the one who controls all things, he separates the light which is good, from the darkness which is not

This entire account shows us how God, because he is holy, is able to bring order out of chaos, to bring redemption, the reclaiming of what is rightfully his, out of the greatest pit of disorder.

And so the stage is set from the very beginning to help us understand that everything is subject to God’s powerful will; that he casts light into darkness; and that he is able to accomplish redemption wherever and in whomever he wills.

And finally, God will always separate the light from the darkness, until the darkness is no more.

John 8:12 CSB

12 Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

In the end God will separate those who walk in the light, those who follow Christ and trust him fully, from those who walk in darkness, who follow their sin.

In this way, those whom he has redeemed will enjoy the light of his presence for all eternity. That is the good news of Jesus Christ to those who believe.

Now, with the few minutes we have left, I want to take a look at the rest of this chapter thematically, so here we go:

So the first day, there is the heavens and the earth and God speaks light into existence and separates it from the darkness.

Then on day 2, verse 6 tells us he separated the waters from the waters, meaning water on the earth from water in the sky, the clouds, and between them he made the sky. Verse 7, “and it was so”

Then on day three God formed the land and the seas together and made the plants to grow on the earth, plants of every kind to bear fruit and seed. Verse 11 “And it was so.”

Then on day four God put the lights in the sky, the Sun to rule the day and the moon and stars for the night. Now light already existed, but at this point God brought definition to it, defining what type of light shined where and in what manner. Verse 15, “and it was so”

Then on day five God created the creatures of the seas and the birds of the air, all kinds of kinds, the first animals that were created. Verse 21, “And God saw that it was good.”

Then on day six, created all the animals of the land, the wildlife of the earth. Verse 25, “And God saw that it was good.”

On the same day, as the final act of creation, God created man and woman, in his own image, the pinnacle of his creation which he charges to “fill the earth and subdue it,” to rule over it. Verse 30, “and it was so,” then verse 31, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed.”

At the beginning of every act of creation, it begins with, “then God said”

Not, “then God took some stuff he had laying around,” or “God asked for help.”

God simply spoke his will, and the Word tells us, “it was so.” And furthermore, “it was good.”

because God is holy, and he is sovereign, all he has to do is speak and things come into being.

And all that he creates is created good.

I want to point out two more things here;

1) Everything that exists is explained here as created by God; the heavens, the earth, plants, animals, seas, land, and mankind.

The pagan religions around the Israelites had a god for everyone of these things, often multiple gods for each.

But we see clearly here that there are no other gods. There is but one Creator who is the giver and sustainer of all matter and life.

And simply by his spoken Word he rules over it. The thought of other gods is utterly foolish. He is in perfect control of all things at all times, and that is a good thing.

2) The order of creation proceeds based on status, from lowliest to highest, from earth to plants, to animals, to mankind.

Mankind is at the height of all creation.

So when you examine the earth and the vastness of the heavens and you see the mighty hand of God in a universe that we can’t even comprehend, we should be stirred to say with David from

Psalm 8:4 CSB

4 what is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him?

Psalm 8:

That’s crazy and humbling and a whole bunch of other adjectives, because God does remember man, and he does care for him.

But brother Allen is going to press in on the role and status of man in creation next week, so let me conclude with this...

If God is the king of all creation and man has the highest position in all creation, why should we fear the unknown?

Do you live your life as if you are the product of some cosmic accident, subject to the laws of chance for whatever good or bad may happen to you?

Or do you live as one who knows the One who is sovereign over the unknown, the one true Holy God who holds creation in the palm of his hand? The one who reigns supreme over this life and everything that happens in it? If so, does that bring you comfort?

It should, because he is worthy of our trust. He formed you by his hand and he set you upon this earth where he has graciously given you all that you need for life on this earth. In the same way then, he will also give redemption and eternal life to all those who trust him for it. Let’s pray.