(Genesis) - Part 3 — Zac Poonen

Genesis 1: Humanity Made in God's Image

We'll turn now to Genesis chapter one, which we were considering in the last two studies. We considered, towards the end of our last study, how God made man in his own image on the same day as the animal, and it was only that fact that he was made in God's image which separated him from the animal.

And unless we keep that before us, it's very easy to descend to the level of the animal. We considered that. We saw that God blessed them, verse twenty-eight, commanded them to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, rule over it, over all the fish of the sea, etc.

And we also saw that God gave man only vegetables and food and fruit to eat, verse twenty-nine and thirty. For all human beings, for man and woman, and also for all animals, God had given only vegetables and fruit to eat.

And then it says God saw all that he made, and behold, it was very good. And we saw that at the end of every day, God inspected the work that he did, and examined it and saw it was good, and then at the end when he has created man and woman, he says it's very good.

Daily Self-Examination Before God

And just like we said in the beginning of this chapter, in the beginning, God, that's the way it should begin in our lives in every area, that in every aspect of our life, in the first place, in the beginning, should be God, likewise, there's something else we can learn from this chapter, and that is to do what God did at the end of every day.

What did God do at the end of every day? He examined all that he had done. And that's a good example for us to follow, to examine all that we have done and said and thought, our attitude, our motives, at the end of every day.

Every day he examined one day at a time. It's a tremendous example for us that's written there right at the beginning of the Bible, so that we can see whether it is good in God's sight, whether God can look at what we have done during the day, and whether he can say, good, very good.

Sanctification as God's Gradual Work

We see that, we saw when we studied the first three verses, there's a picture here of, just like the earth gave unto judgment, a picture of man's fall, and how the Holy Spirit and the Word of God moved upon that judged earth and remade it, beautiful.

And we saw that this is a picture of our sanctification too, how God wants to remake us from our fallen condition. And there we have also something we learned from chapter one of Genesis, that God didn't do it all in one day.

He could have remade it in a moment, that would have been no problem for God at all. But he did it stage by stage, little by little by little by little by little, till the work was complete, teaching us that that is how he works in us, also in our sanctification.

We read the path of the righteous, Proverbs 4 .18, is like the shining light that shines more and more until the perfect day, that is when God completes his work, or as it says in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 3 .18, that the Holy Spirit transforms us from one degree of glory to another, that is like saying, one day, second day, third day, fourth day.

We can say just like in that first week, God had a particular plan to be accomplished each day, and for example, the making of light, that wasn't planned for the second or third day, that was planned for the first day.

And the making of the fish, the birds, that was planned for the fifth day. We can say from that too, that God has a plan for our lives too. Jesus said, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, Matthew 6 .34.

And God intends in all the evil that comes to us in one day, that we overcome it through the power of his Spirit, so that a certain transformation can take place in our lives, on that particular day. That's what he's planned for that day, just like he planned different things for the six days.

In our case, it's thousands of days, because we've lived for many years, but God's planned something for each of those days. That's why Jesus said, if anyone wants to come after him, he must take up the cross every day.

It's a daily matter, there cannot be a single day that I can miss out on taking up the cross. Just think if God had left out one day and done nothing in one day, there'd have been a big gap there in creation.

Maybe the fish and the birds wouldn't have been on the earth. Every day something has to be done, and so it is in our sanctification too. That's why we need to value every day and every trial that comes to us every day.

We need to see all the people and circumstances that come across us every day as something that God wants to do. And this is why we say that for us in the Church, the meeting is not the important thing.

It's the days between the meetings. And why do we place so much emphasis on our life at home? Because every day we are at home. We're not even in our office every day. For some people, two days in a week, they're not in the office.

But every day we are at home. And there is where God allows circumstances, people living in the home, and situations and circumstances. And there we need to keep Genesis chapter one in mind and see that God is seeking to do something in me today, so that when it is written at the end of the day, the evening and the morning, or the first day, that something has been accomplished in that twenty-four hour period that God wanted to accomplish, that I haven't wasted that time by yielding to temptation, by not cleansing myself from filthiness of the flesh and spirit.

If we can be gripped by this, we can come to that end, finally, that God desires, the completion of the work that He wants to accomplish in us. We read here in chapter two, verse one, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their host.

Finishing the Work God Entrusts

Think if that can be said about us at the end of our life, like Paul said, I have finished my course. Jesus said, Father, I have finished the work that You gave me to do. When He died on the cross, He said, It is finished.

God always does a finished work. We see that right in the beginning. He didn't do a work half and then forget about it. That's man's way. And you see how unlike God, men are. You see that with children.

You give them a task to do, even if it's to do their beds or tidy up a room, they'll do it half and go off. That's man's way. And this irresponsible, unfaithful attitude to ordinary earthly tasks is typical of the fallen race of Adam.

God, it is not like that with God. And we are not considering in Genesis chapter one some highly spiritual things God was doing. God was doing very down-to-earth earthly things, we can say. He was making something on this earth.

Earthly things He made in six days. Teaching us the sanctity of earthly work and the importance of a finished work in whatever we take up to do. Jesus said, He who is faithful in little things is faithful also in much.

And it is in the little things that we are tested to see whether we will complete a task entrusted to us. If something is entrusted to you in the church, you have to take it and complete it. That's the spirit of God.

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed and finished. And we know, as we considered, that Jesus and Paul also could say that at the end of their lives. And by the seventh day, God completed His work which He had done.

And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. It's not because God was tired when it speaks about entering God's rest. In Hebrews chapter four, this verse is quoted, if you turn to Hebrews four, in the New Testament, verse four.

For He has thus said somewhere concerning the seventh day. And God rested on the seventh day from all His works. And verse nine, there remains therefore a Sabbath rest, a seventh day rest for the people of God.

What is that? The one, verse ten, who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his own works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience.

It's obvious that all believers don't enter into that rest because he's writing to believers. He's writing to believers and saying, dear brothers, let us enter into that rest. In other words, you haven't entered into that rest just because you're born again.

There is a rest for the people of God. Jesus said, come to Me and I will give you rest. It's all coming back to this seventh day rest. And it says here that, verse three, Genesis two, three, then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, it says here.

Because in it He rested from all His work, which God had created and made. Two things. He created something and He made something. And He rested. And notice the word here, sanctification. Sanctification and rest go together.

You see that right in the beginning of the Bible. God set apart that day and He rested. And in our life too, sanctification and rest always go together. That's why it says in Colossians 3 .15, let the peace of Christ be the referee in your heart.

In other words, when there is some unrest in the heart, there is some area in which you are not sanctified. Because sanctification and rest always go hand in hand right from Genesis chapter two, verse three.

He sanctified it and He rested. Where there is sanctification, there is rest. Remember this. Always, when there is unrest, irritation, whatever may be the crime that other people outside of us have committed, it still proves that we need sanctification.

If only I can take this as a simple thermometer. Whenever the thermometer, the mercury in the thermometer goes above that minimum, that normal temperature, there is fever. Sometimes little, sometimes much.

In the same way, whenever there is unrest in the heart concerning anything, concerning anyone, it indicates there is a lack of sanctification in our life. Maybe your husband does something wrong or your wife does something wrong.

That may be. Maybe they are criminal. Maybe they are very evil. But when it produces unrest in your heart, it's best you forget about your partner and work out your own salvation at such a time. Because you need sanctification.

They may need more sanctification than you, that's besides the point. The point is you need sanctification also because you are so troubled. You are so much at unrest. We can do good things and be at unrest.

For example, Martha, when Jesus came to her house, was working and working and working in the kitchen. But she was at unrest. She was at unrest concerning her sister. Why is my sister like this? You can be at unrest concerning another sister.

Why another sister does like that and doesn't do like that? Or why God has dealt with another brother or another sister like that? And that unrest proves that you need sanctification. So, sanctification and rest go together.

Entering God's Rest Through Wholehearted Faith

So we need to enter into that rest. We need to enter into that rest as we read in Hebrews 4. Meaning that, it says in Hebrews 4, let us strive diligently to enter into that rest. Hebrews 4, let us fear and let us strive diligently.

Which means that it's not something we can enter into easily. We have to fight a battle to enter into this rest. To enter into that rest means that I come to the place where another person's actions and words do not cause unrest in me.

Do not cause me to be all worked up and irritated. Then I have entered into God's rest. Until then, I have not entered into God's rest. I have to fight to enter into that rest. And if each time I get into unrest, if I can fight that battle, I can enter into that rest one day.

Let us, brethren, fear, lest we waste our earthly life only confessing our hope. And at the end of 20 years God gave us, we're still confessing our hope, not entering into rest. Brothers and sisters, we need to be wholehearted.

In Hebrews 4, where it speaks about the seventh day, we know that it also speaks about entering into Canaan. And we know that God wanted the children of Israel to enter into Canaan two years after they left Egypt.

Two years, that's the time God gives. Two years. Have you heard the truth for two years? You should have come into rest by now, otherwise you're not wholehearted. You're not wholehearted. If it's taken 10 years, you're 20 hearted.

And if it's taken 15 years, even less. Two years, you should enter into rest. We must apply that rule to ourselves. Be wholehearted and radical, so that I finish with confessing my hope, and say, Lord, by your grace I've entered in.

I will not allow any of these things to disturb me. Why could God enter into rest? Because He could look at everything that He had made. He had made it. He had made that on the first day. He had made that on the second day.

He had made that on the third, fourth, fifth, sixth day. And it was all very good. And when we can also look at it in the same way, that all these things around me, God has made it to work for my very best.

And this God has made, and that God has made, and that God has made, and that person, and that circumstance, and that thing, exactly like God made in those six days. God has made all these things around me.

And I can say, like God, it's very good. Then I come into rest. I cannot come into rest until I can say, like God, it is very good. That's the meaning of Romans 8 .28. All these things. It's not Judas Iscariot who made it, and that fellow who's causing me some trouble, and that troublemaker there, and that difficult person, and that awkward circumstance, and that person who made a mistake.

Those are all unbelieving believers. And my brothers and sisters, the sad thing is, I've come to see that even in our midst, after ten years of listening to the word of the cross, there are believers who are still so far away from that rest.

So far away. We've spoken umpteen times on Romans 8 .28, and they haven't come to believe that every single thing you can say, it is very good. That is for me. Very good. Very good. Very good. Very good.

Very good. Everything we can inspect, of all the things that are happening around us, all the people who come our way, all the circumstances in our home, and say, very good. Very good. Very good. Very good.

There will be rest. It's when I cannot say very good. I think God didn't have a hand there. That was that person. That person. This troublesome child of mine. That difficult neighbor of mine. That difficult partner of mine.

My brothers and sisters, if you are like that, I say there's very little hope. Very little hope. Unless we are radical and get rid of this wretched disease that we've inherited from Adam. And see that everything is very good.

Grace Before Works: Adam's First Day

Then we enter into rest. There's something else also we see here. It's a picture of grace. That God made man on the, towards the end of the sixth day. And though it was God's seventh day, it was man's first day.

Because he had just been created a few hours before that first day began for him. So we can say that for Adam, his Sabbath was on the first day. He didn't have a seventh day Sabbath. He had a first day Sabbath.

The very first day of his life was a Sabbath. We can say he entered into the benefits of God working for him for six days. And he entered and enjoyed the light and the earth and the trees and the fruit and the vegetables and the animals and the sun and the moon and the stars and the fish and the birds.

Who did all that? God did it all. And man just entered into that and enjoyed it. And that's the picture of grace. And we need to see the difference here between grace and law. Because the law says if you turn to Exodus chapter 20 Exodus 20 and verse 8, 9 and 10 remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Six days you must work and the seventh day you shall not work. It's the Sabbath of the Lord. Because verse 11, in six days the Lord made, not created but remade the heavens and the earth and rested on the seventh day.

Notice what the law says. Work for six days and then you'll get one day holiday. Grace says you take your holiday first and then come and work. Let's have, in other words God says it's very important to see this distinction.

If only we can be gripped by it, I believe it will deliver us from the spirit of the law under which the vast majority of believers labor and struggle and get condemned. What is it? The law says God wants you to work.

What work are you doing for Him? What are you doing for God? Have you given up your job? Have you given up your money? Have you gone off to some difficult place? God wants you to work for Him. Six days you must work and then we'll think of some rest for you.

But grace says what God did for Adam first of all I want to have fellowship with you. Adam I don't want your work first I want your fellowship. Let's have a day of fellowship first and from that fellowship you can go out and work in the garden for the remaining days of the week but it must begin with fellowship and that's what we read in Genesis 2 Adam's first day was a day of fellowship with God and fellowship with his wife fellowship with God and fellowship with his wife not work but fellowship with God and fellowship with his wife think of that.

Think of what God planned for man so different from our human ideas of religion most of so called Christian religion is law law law because man thinks he's a servant under the law man was a servant but the Lord says I don't call you servants anymore in fact He calls us son and the father wants fellowship with his son not work first of all a son will work for his father but fellowship first it's fellowship that a husband and wife need more than the wife working for the husband that's the difference between grace and law and we see that right at the beginning of the Bible when man fell then God had to keep him under law for a period and finally teach him about grace but grace was intended to bring man back to the beginning.

Back to the beginning means back to realizing that fellowship is more important than work. What you do for God is not as important as your fellowship with God. If you don't fellowship with Him all your work for Him is useless your fellowship with Him is primary and that's what we learn in the story of Mary and Martha what was Mary having?

Fellowship. What was Martha doing? Working for the Lord and the Lord rebuked Martha and said you are doing such a lot of work for me but that's not what I'm interested in. Mary has chosen the good part.

That's the one thing needful. That's grace. We need to see that. It's very important to see it because that's got something to do with sanctification. Sanctification doesn't come out of working. It says what did we read in Hebrews for?

We have to seize from our work like God did from His. We got to seize thinking that work is what God wants from me first fellowship fellowship. God does the work I enter into it. Then I can work for Him.

That's how it is in Calvary. Jesus did that work and said it is finished I enter into that and I'm justified without doing a single work. I'm justified my sins are forgiven. I've become a child of God then I can go out and serve the Lord.

After I come into fellowship with Him. But in the law it was not like that. The law said you keep the commandments then you can have fellowship with God. Quite the other way around in grace. If we can see that difference it will deliver us from a lot of bondage and it's all there hidden in the first two chapters of God's word.

Creation, Remaking, and the End of the Age

Verse 4. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. That is Genesis 1 verse 1. In the day that the Lord God made. That is verses 2 to 31 of Genesis Earth and Heaven. Notice the difference there again between created and made.

Now I just want to say one thing before we go on to the rest of this chapter. The six days of work are also a picture of the 6 ,000 years of man's history from the time that Adam was created. Now we are running to the end of the 6 ,000 period of man's history.

One days with the Lord is a thousand years it says in 2 Peter 3. So we can say that in God's eyes six days are now running out. And the seventh day is coming. The seventh day will be the 1 ,000 year reign of Jesus Christ on earth when there will be perfect rest and peace.

No war no poisonous snakes no wild animals. That will be the seventh day. It's all pictured there. The whole history of man as it were is pictured there in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Now we can go on in verse 5.

Humanity's Dust, Spirit, and the Image of God

Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet brought it. For the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth. Now here it is describing in detail what God did on the sixth day.

He first gives you a outline of what God did in seven days and then the writer gives a greater detail of how what happened on the sixth day when man was created. He says there was no man to cultivate the ground.

This was by the end of the evening of the sixth day and the morning had not yet come. The second part of the sixth day had not come no man had been created yet everything else was finished and there was no rain but it says a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground maybe something like dew would fall upon the ground and water it and it's possible though we can't be certain about it that there was no rain on the earth perhaps until the time of Noah because that's the first time we read that rain came upon the earth and this is probably another reason why when Noah said that it's going to rain nobody believed him because they said rain, are you crazy man's been living for two thousand years nearly and there's been no rain, you're talking about rain.

That's what they told Noah, rain, two thousand years we've been going, now you're talking about rain that's exactly what people say today two thousand years the church's been talking about the coming of Christ nothing's happened and one day suddenly the rain came and one day suddenly God's judgment will also come but it says here the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth verse five, but a mist used to rise from the earth and water the ground.

Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and he didn't pick up gold. He picked up ordinary dust and it's just something interesting which I want to point out to you that the Hebrew word which is translated here as dust is also translated in Nehemiah chapter four and verse two as dusty rubble or rubbish and again in Nehemiah four verse ten as rubbish when they were building the wall the people in Judah said there is much rubbish here and it's exactly the same word which is used in the Hebrew, it says there in the margin of Nehemiah four ten or God we can say that God made man out of rubbish so that we have a proper evaluation of all of this body of ours and then you see the folly of man putting a garland of gold around this garbage bin.

Have you seen people putting gold around the garbage bin decorating the garbage bin in their house with gold and lipstick painting all the no we were not created for things like this the reason why God made man out of dust out of that which is the most worthless thing on earth, dust who will pay money for dust it's so that we realize that we are earth and vessels but it is the one living inside it is the transformation of the person inside which God is after otherwise our body is made of the same dust as the animals.

You ask the doctors they will tell you that the functioning of the human body is exactly the same as functioning of all the animals bodies same thing, the same dust, God made man out of dust and we read here breathed into his nostrils the breath of life that is what made man different from the animals, he made animals from the dust, but here God formed the man, he took a personal interest, which means he was interested in this body of man.

It's not that this body is unimportant. What I am saying is, we must remember that this body is made out of worthless dust, but God formed it, Jesus said in Hebrews chapter 10 a body hath thou prepared for me lo I come to do thy will O God in this body.

That's why God formed a body for Adam and we can say God has formed a body for you and me, the question is what you have done with that body in all the years that we have lived he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.

We can say that God breathed into him a spirit. And what do we have there in verse 7 then, a body God breathed a spirit into him, and man became a living soul, and so we see there man is a trinity body soul and spirit.

That's why God said let us make man in our image. The angels are not trinities, the angels are only spirits but man was made in God's image. Man is a trinity body, soul and spirit, and we see that in verse 7, and what God breathed was the spirit and it is in that spirit that we now have a conscience that tells us about God, and even unconverted people have that that conscience that tells them about God, that's why even in the remotest jungles among barbarians you'll find them these people who have gone out and discovered these lost tribes and people they've discovered they are religious, they worship a stone or the sun or some tree or something, they are religious but nobody's ever found a religious monkey or a dog so far, anywhere in the world because this spirit is not there it's the spirit that makes man aware that there is a God and God breathed into him, we are reminded of how, you see there's a lot of similarity between this old creation and the new creation just like the old creation was completed, God breathed into Adam in the beginning of the new creation we read in the first day of the week Jesus came into the midst of his disciples and he breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit.

John 20 verse 22 way back there God gave Adam a human spirit, that was the old creation. Now in the new creation Jesus came and gave his disciples the Holy Spirit. And, verse 8 the Lord God planted a garden toward the east in Eden and there he placed the man whom he had formed.

God's Provision of Home, Beauty, and Daily Bread

It's God who made a home for man. It's very encouraging for us to remember that man didn't go to God and say Lord I need a place to live in. God was concerned man needs a place to live in and he gave him a home and that home was not a palace.

It was a garden. Some people think only a palace would be the best place to live in. God gave Adam something far better than a palace. He gave him a garden.

He planted a garden, he made that home.

And gave it to Adam. Do you believe that God loves you as much as he loved Adam. Is he interested in providing a home for us according to your faith. Be done to you. God saw the need of a home for Adam.

A place to live. Great encouragement for us. We can go to God in faith and say Lord you're the one who saw Adam's need for a place to live in. You see my need too. He certainly does if you have faith.

God's never disappointed a man who has had faith in him. The reason many people do not receive is because they do not believe. They insult God by thinking that God's not bothered about their accommodation problem.

God's not bothered about any of their difficulties. Therefore they live and die like miserable animals when they could have lived as glorious sons and daughters of God if they only had faith. God who saw Adam's need sees my need.

Secondly we read here in verse 9 out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food. I want to tell you that there is an attractiveness that God has placed in creation.

And a sense of beauty that God has placed in us because that's part of his image. Don't think that beauty and attractiveness is evil. God didn't make all of this earth in black and white. White sky and black grass and black trees.

He could have made it all like a black and white picture. He didn't do it. You look at the colors in the sunset or the colors in a flower garden. You can't imitate it. Look at the beauty there is in creation and that is in a fallen world.

Think how it must have been before man fell. I just mention this because I see some believers who think that spirituality is to be sloppy. To be badly dressed is spirituality. That's not true. You're not divine when you're like that.

No, there's a beauty in creation. And God expects his children to be neat and tidy, I'll tell you that there's neatness and tidiness which is part of God's nature. And that's something we've got to really acquire more and more pleasant to the sight.

God knew that black and white won't be pleasant to the sight. So he made so many colors so that it'd be beautiful for man to look at. For whom was it? Who was the one whose sight God was interested in?

He wasn't bothered about the lions and the dogs looking at all these colors. I don't think they're bothered about the colors. He wasn't worried about the angels, they don't have eyes. They're only spirits.

He wasn't thinking about himself. He was thinking of man. When he put that sunset there, he thought of Adam and said, Adam will love to see that. When he put all these colors in the flowers he said, Adam will love to see that.

He thought of Adam. He thought of Adam just like a father planning for his son, think of that and remember the word of God is true in Zephaniah 3 .17. He's silently planning for you in love. He is. He's silently planned for Adam in love.

A home beauty in creation. And good for food. That's another thing. You know these taste buds that we have that God made them, the devil didn't make them. And there's nothing sinful about enjoying a good meal.

There's nothing sinful about enjoying tasty food. God made those taste buds provided. I'm not a slave to them. There's nothing sinful about enjoying it. He made things that are pleasant to the sight and good for food.

The only thing, man's abused all this. That's another thing. But it is God who made all these things pleasing to the sight and good for food. There's an attractiveness in creation. The tree of life also, good for food.

I just want to mention something else here. God who provided a place for Adam to dwell in also provided him food to eat. God knew that man needs food to eat. He's interested in that also. So we see a second thing that God provided for Adam.

He provided him a place to live in a dwelling place. Secondly he provided him food and good food and food that was attractive. See that see the goodness of God there that God's interested in our food.

Give us this day our daily bread. That's what Jesus taught us to pray. God's interested in it. And the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden and there it divided and became four rivers.

And that was water for man to drink and to water the garden. The name of the first is Tyshon, it flows around the whole land of Havaila where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. And I thought of that verse and I thought gold is good in heaven but here on earth it's a snare.

When we get up to Eden we can say that again the gold of that land is good. Now on earth people fight for it and it's evil. The bdellium and the onyx stone are there, precious stones. God made them all.