Jesus and the Beginning (10/13/2002)

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. We're going back into our our study that we've been doing about the character of God for a while this morning. Give me just a little light, Greg, if you would. And we had talked about the verse where Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No man comes to the Father but by me. And we talked about the fact that God is the way, and we talked about God is the truth. And this morning I want to speak to you about the fact that God is life. Let's pray.

Father, we ask that you would take these scriptures and that your Holy Spirit would speak to our hearts as if we're hearing them from your very lips. Father, may we be elevated from this place into the heavenlies where we might literally sit at your feet and hear you teach us this morning.

Nourish our spirits. Strengthen our hearts and our resolve to live a relationship with you and to nurture that relationship each day, each moment. For therein is our real reason for being and our real success.

And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. The Lord of life. Genesis 1 -1. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And you go all the way to the end of the Bible and to Revelation chapter 22 and verse 1 says, and he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. This word beginning is an interesting word in the Hebrew. In Genesis 1 -1, the word beginning is the word Rosh, which literally means to shake, which in the Hebrew language comes to mean the head.

You may say, well, how do they speak to one another when that's how they use their words? Well, they speak to one another in pictures. Jews talk in pictures. And the head is the most easily shaken part of your body.

You can just shake your head. And so that comes to mean the word head. And so it's interesting when you read this in that context because it gives you a bit of an underlying meaning in the verse that you might not have seen before.

We know that it means in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The beginning from the point of view of the head of all things or the beginning of time as we think of it. But it carries the idea of in the head.

Now look at the word God for a moment. This word God is Elohim. And there are many names for God throughout the Bible because as he reveals himself, often he reveals himself to us by his name and what the name means.

But the first name that we see where we meet God in the Bible is Elohim. Elohim means the supreme God or the mighty one, but it's found in the plural, which brings forth the concept of the plurality, the plural nature of God, or we call it the triunity of God from the very first verse of the Bible.

So we have to understand this is the name of God. It's important because in a few moments we're going to have the name Jehovah introduced for the first time, the first mention in the scriptures, but not in chapter 1.

Not until we get to chapter 2 where we begin to see the detailed description of the creation of man do we see the word Jehovah used. So this is the word Elohim and if you look at it in the Hebrew, this first verse literally reads, in the head Elohim created the heaven and the earth.

We find an underlying meaning here as we see Elohim being literally the plurality of God, the Godhead, the Father, the Son, the Spirit of God, and we see that Elohim created the heaven and the earth in the head or in the Godhead.

Now it comes to light more as we continue to read the passage, but I wanted you to see that word definition before we go on. In 1898, a scholar named Dr. W. Henry Green wrote this about the names of God.

He says, Elohim represents God in his relation to the world at large as creator, providential ruler in the affairs of men and controlling the operations of nature. Jehovah represents God in his special relationship to his own people as revealing himself to them as their guardian and as the object of their worship.

So we have to realize that the word Elohim is what we find in this entire first chapter. Elohim, the Godhead, the plurality of God. Verse 1, in the beginning Elohim created the heaven and the earth. Verse 2, and we see the first day of creation here the earth is without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the earth and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God said let there be light and there was light and God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness.

Day one, the creation of light is such an important aspect of all that we know and learn of God and it teaches so many things about what we're supposed to know about ourselves and how we are to behave in the Church of God because on the first day of creation the outstanding feature of it is that God created light and then immediately divided the darkness from the light and I remember reading in the life of Spurgeon he wrote a little devotional one for us to read in the mornings and the topic of one of those simply had Genesis 1 -1 and it said God divided the light from the darkness and as you read the little passage Spurgeon told about how later in his life towards the end of his life his own denomination kicked him out because they had gone liberal and he was still preaching that the Word of God was the Word of God and he said sometimes there has to be a division he says always God says it is good when there is a division between light and darkness.

One of the reasons we find ourselves sitting in this little church with this crowd that's at least small in numbers certainly not in quality but in quantity is because there have been so many divisions of light from darkness from the first Baptist Church of course Canada if it truly was the first Baptist Church let's assume it was started out perhaps this size and as the Word was preached God brought people in the sheep came because they heard the shepherds voice and the church grew and it grew and it got to be a large church and all of a sudden it was large enough for the tares to feel comfortable and hide within to find a cozy spot in the pew somewhere and before long that tear had to do what his nature causes him to do and he began to create division.

One of the seven things God hates listed in the Bible is to sow discord among the brethren and he began to do that and it didn't work and God rooted that out somehow and all the sudden he said well I'll just start another church.

So he goes over starts another church and now all of a sudden there's peace. But then the same thing happened in that church and sometimes it's not the tear that leaves. Sometimes it's the wheat that has to leave because if the tears take over the hierarchy of the church and they're in the leadership positions then the wheat has to leave and maybe they go and start a little church and we find ourselves in this situation.

It's not bad because dividing the light from the darkness is good. God says he saw this and he said it is good when we think of this separation of light from darkness and we think about Elohim the one who in the head created all things.

It brings us to John chapter 1 keep a hand there in Genesis and turn over to John chapter 1 in verse 1. And this was of course information that the Old Testament Saint did not have as readily as we have.

So we can look back at Genesis chapter 1 with the advantage of having read John chapter 1 before many times and so we can begin to see that Elohim even though this is the word most commonly used for the God head the plurality of God the unit plurality of God.

God is one God and yet we have him as the father we have him as the son and we have the Holy Spirit. And so we see this. And yet there are times in the scriptures where clearly Elohim is talking about the Son and his particular work.

And we know from John 1 1 that this is a reference to Elohim being the everlasting Son of God because it says in the beginning was the Word and that Word has a capital W and it's a reference to Jesus.

You find that out by reading on down through to 14 and 16 but verses 14 and 16 makes it very clear. But in the beginning was Jesus our let's just say the everlasting Son because he hadn't been named Jesus yet but it is our Jesus looking back and so I'm going to use that word with your permission just to make it say what I'm wanting to get across in the beginning was Jesus Elohim and Jesus Elohim or Yeshua Elohim was with God and Jesus was.

That's why he can be called Elohim. The same was in the beginning with God. Now how can you be God and be with God unless there's a plurality in the God head. And yet we find it in Genesis 1 1 and throughout that chapter and even later when God makes man he said let us make man in our image in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God. So when we go back to Genesis chapter 1 in verse 1 at least that beginning and even back beyond that beginning we find our Savior. We find the eternal Son of God present and active in the creation of all that is all things verse 3 were made by him Yeshua Elohim.

Jesus Elohim made all things and without him was not anything made that was made and in him was life and the life was the light of men. Now look at this separation of light and darkness in John 1. And the light shineth in the darkness that separates it.

The light creates the separation you see. And the darkness comprehended it not could not deal with. It is really the best sense of what the Greek word means there. This is the true light that lighted every man that cometh into the world.

Because without Yeshua no man rather lost or saved has any vitality. He is nothing more than a clump of dirt without this life that must be breathed into him that he might stand up and walk so proudly upon this world that God created.

And so we see how that ties in so well with the early portions of Genesis. Verse 5 says. And God called the light day in the darkness he called night and the evening and the morning were the first day as if to suggest a literal 24-hour day.

And then we move to day 2 of creation the division of the waters and the heavens from the waters upon the earth verses 6 through verse 8. And then we move to day 3 of the creation the gathering of the bodies of water and appearance of dry ground.

And then the creation of the grass and the herbs and the fruit trees. Pick it up with me there in verse 9 we're talking about life the generation of life. And God said let the waters. This is Elohim. This is the same Elohim that's called the word in John chapter 1 in verse 1.

And probably most of the scholars in the world would tell you that we're doing damage by saying that this Elohim is none other than the word. But I think they've read too many books because I think that the scriptures make it clear that it's the same one as we'll demonstrate.

Without him was not anything made that was made. And Elohim said let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place and let the dry ground appear. And it was so. And God called the dry land earth and the gathering together.

The waters called he the seas. And God saw that it was good. And Elohim said let the earth bring forth grass. And the Word of God spoke a word and the earth brought forth grass. Now don't just overlook that.

I mean how many of you have even those who have studied some science and been into science in your background have ever looked at grass and wondered at the fact that it comes life out of dirt which is dead which is a mineral filled with minerals but not something that an animal or a human could even consume and digest.

And yet you look around their little green living things everywhere. Look at Miss B's yard. You don't believe that she babies those little green things as if they're animated. I don't know that she talks to him or not.

Does it work to talk nice to them because they don't grow very well. Sometimes in my yard I do not well with even grass. But I was looking at Russell's grass yesterday. He has a beautiful St. Augustine underneath cedar trees.

Well those things have acid in them and they're not supposed to grow grass under all around my cedar trees is the nicest dirt you ever saw brings me all the way back before day three. You know you had nothing before day three.

You just had dirt. And that's the way it works sometimes. But God brings living plants out of minerals out of dirt. We look at us. Okay. We got to create the plants. There they are. This is amazing. It's amazing that a plant has life.

It's not the same kind of life as animals have and certainly not as humans have. Because God did not breathe the breath of life into the trees and the plants but God did make them alive. And the whole thing is a miracle.

We look at it except it is very scientific. Show me a scientist who can explain how a plant can live out of dirt. He can try but he gets to a certain place where he has to stop. And that's where we find ourselves going all the way back to day three and look at the specific language that's used here in verse 11 God said let the earth bring forth grass.

The herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit. Now look at this phrase after its kind whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so Elohim just spoke it and it was so he spoke. And all the sudden there was grass there were plants there were trees there were herbs there were bushes there were fruit trees and they were all mature.

And they were all living. And they all had the potential within themselves to produce another one just like it just with the voice the words of his voice this came to be. Picture it. Can you be there.

The Bible let you be there. Can you picture yourself doing this as you see nothing but but a chaos without form and void. And a spirit of God hovers as a mother hen hovers over her chicks and he hovers over this and all the sudden it begins to take form.

And then you have the raging seas and you see the land come up. Actually the waters go away and it reveals the land. And then you have minerals dirt and water. And then all the sudden he speaks this stuff just grows.

You see plush life everywhere. What is that. Oh ok. I hadn't heard the new phone makes you want to go answer that. Well we're not home right now. We're in the heavenly. So just let it ring. Can you imagine if you animate this and make it look anything near anything near.

Just shoot all the sudden greenery everywhere. And each thing having its seed within itself to reproduce itself after its own kind. And the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after its kind.

And God saw that it was good. The word said it is good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. Note the number of times that the phrase after his kind is used in this chapter one of Genesis and the phrase the seed is in itself these are used throughout this passage.

There is no hint of evolution here. I was laughing on the way over. I was reading over my notes and I spelled evolution. E V E L O T I O N thought that'd be a good name for a skincare product. Evolution.

You have to see it to get it. I mean evolution. But there's no hint of evolution here. No hint of a gradual process of the complex things coming from the more simple. No hint here of any transitional stages between different forms.

Everything was created mature. Everything was created with its own seed in itself. Everything was created to duplicate self-replicating self-repairing showing the majesty of God. And then we move to day for the creation of the Sun and the moon and the celestial bodies.

Now keep in mind this happened a day after the creation of all the plant life. And then day five the creation of the water creatures and the foul of the air. Verse 20. And God said let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature.

Elohim spoke with his voice and just as we saw earlier the dry the dry ground all the sudden just was filled with green life. Now he speaks to the water and it says let there be life. And it's teeming with fish.

Now wouldn't you like to been scuba diving that day. Your scuba diving enjoying the beautiful view of clear blue water and dirt on the bottom. No life. I don't know. I guess when he created the plants maybe you put some seaweed under there.

And all the sudden shooting teaming all around your fish. I don't know if any of you been snorkeling or scuba diving. But the variety they still haven't even come close to naming all fish. They don't even know them all.

The variety is just unbelievable. And it all came to pass. Speaking of a word Elohim said let the waters bring forth and abundantly the moving creature that has life and the foul that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

This word the creature that have life. The word life in the Hebrew is Kahi and it literally means alive vital vibrant. In verse 20 God created great whales and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind.

The evolutionists would love you to believe that that the water brought forth this little brilliant one celled amoeba. It was so smart that he figured out he wanted to be more complex. So he reached out to the edge of the water and he wiggled up on the ground and he grew some legs and he slid up to a true tree and he grew a tail and some arms and he climbed up that tree and became a monkey reached over to grab a coconut slipped and fell and landed on two feet and became a PhD began to teach evolution.

That's what they want you to think. But you know that this first amoeba only produced after its own kind forever. And everything brought forth abundantly after its own kind. And God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let the foul multiply in the earth and the evening and the morning where the fifth day day six now comes about the creation of land animals and insects and man.

And let's read it verse 24 and God said let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind cattle and the creeping thing and the beast of the earth after his kind. And it was so you know what if God said that was so then don't tell me a different story don't tell me a different way that this happened.

God said it's so. He said here's how I made it. I just spoke it into existence and I created within each thing the seed and the ability of itself to be self-duplicating self-replicating and self-repairing.

And I did it with my voice. And it was so. And not only was it so but God made the beast of the earth after his kind and the cattle emphasized again and again after their kind and everything that creepeth the insects that we love so much in the spiders the earth after its kind.

We wish he hadn't made them self-replicating and God saw that it was good. Note something with me for a moment here did you know that the Sun which makes photosynthesis possible was made on the fourth day and the insects which make fertilization of the plants by carrying the pollen from one plant to another were created on the sixth day.

The plants themselves are created on the third day. Now if like so many of our scholars in the seminaries want to teach us that these are day ages rather than literal 24-hour days we have a problem because if these were not literal 24-hour days and the plants would have died long before the fourth and the sixth ages came which brought the Sun for photosynthesis and the insects to spread their pollen.

These were literal 24-hour days of creation. These were days where Elohim brought forth all of the life forms. Jesus is the life verse 26. And God said let us make man in our image and after our likeness this is the word Elohim once again verse 26 and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Now as we study the life that God gives we've now come to this climax of this chapter the creation of man. And let's stop for a moment. Maybe all the time we'll have is to look at this for a few moments today.

But look what it says in verse 26 Elohim said let us make man in our image. Now as we go into chapter 2 we're going to find that we have further revelation of who Elohim is because it then calls him the Lord Elohim and it's all caps.

So that's Jehovah Elohim. And then we look into John 1 and we see this is the word without whom nothing was made and so we see that Elohim Yeshua the word Elohim said let us make man in our image. Now this certainly included the Father and certainly included the Holy Spirit.

But it certainly was spoken by the lips of our Lord and he said let's make man in our image and after our likeness and let him have dominion. Now let's look at these words for a moment. Image. The word image in the Hebrew it's set limb set limb and it means the root meaning of it is to shade.

It carries the connotation of a shadow or a phantom an illusion. But the meaning here is certainly not that of an illusion but rather a resemblance hence a representative figure. Now I want us to think about this word image even in the English language.

If you look up the definitions of it you find some interesting statements in Webster's. An image is a reproduction or imitation of the form. It is an imitation in solid form it Webster's another definition an exact likeness a tangible or visible representation.

But the most fascinating definition to me delves into the area of math. And brother Bill I've had just enough to be dangerous of math. But I want to read this for you and for a few others that can remember enough math to get some of this because this is phenomenal.

I believe I believe God is a mathematician among other things. But listen to this definition of an image in Webster's dictionary a set of values given by a mathematical function that corresponds to a particular subset of the domain i .e. a homomorphism.

So what is a homomorphism. Mathematically speaking homomorphism a likeness in form. But mathematically it is a mapping of a mathematical group ring or vector space. Now how many remember vector spaces come on.

I remember them simply because I've taught some of those math bases and gone back over them. But I do remember what they are. But listen to this it is a mapping of a mathematical vector space on to another in such a way that the result obtained by applying an operation to the elements of the domain is mapped on to another place creating the exact image or copy of the original obtained by applying the same or a corresponding operation to their images in the range.

Now now that's a lot of verbiage and you get it better if you could draw a picture and that usually true of math. If you can draw a picture well let me tell you a simple thing you all did in high school math.

Do you remember the time your teacher made you go buy a compass and you come back in the next day and you find out why. And she says take this triangle and make an exact copy of it over here using only that compass in a straight edge.

How many of you remember doing that. Raise your hand. I want to see how far back you. Okay that is taking the original form which in this case is a triangle taking a set of rules and laws where we measure exactly the nature of this triangle and we remap it over here and we make an exact duplicate of it.

That's a very simple example of a homomorphism. And in the afternoon class we'll have Bill draw a more complex concept of this. But that's a good simple example and we all remember how this does. Now it helps us to understand what Elohim means when Jehovah Elohim says let us create man in our image.

Let us take the qualities. Let us take the the quantities although not all. Let us take the aspects of ourselves and map them over here and create an image an exact image of ourselves. Now if that's all that God wrote in this passage we would then certainly be lifted up in pride and say well then we're none other than God's and in the sense we are Jesus himself says does not the scripture say you are God's and he means by that we are the image.

This is where evolution fails in its richest form. Evolution fails to make a difference between man who is a homomorphism of God and between an animal which is not or a plant which is not. And evolution fails in its grandest form in this area of not listening to what God told the scientists when God said let me give you some hints on where to start.

And they don't listen. But you know what it not only says we're created in his image but it gives us this word in his likeness. This is a very important word for us to understand. In the Hebrew it is demuth and it means a resemblance or a similitude in the English dictionary.

The word resemblance comes from old French word sam Blair or simply which means you know I could speak French that well did you to be like comes from a Latin word similar which I don't know how to pronounce Latin words to copy something.

So it means to be like or to be similar to. Now let me give you Webster's clear definition of the word likeness having characteristics in common alike and substance or essentials. Now listen to this not differing in shape but only in size or position.

Webster says similar implies the possibility of being mistaken for each other when his last time you were mistaken for Jesus in this beautiful we are created in his likeness. Now listen. The word image creates the connotation of taking the elements of God and and by a mathematical way digitizing it.

Perhaps DNA is digital they think now taking it over here and genie man creating man generating man with the genes of God. But the word likeness limits the likeness. It limits it to the place where we are a resemblance of God which means we are not differing from him so much in shape our matter or material or the way we are as in the size or the position.

In other words the power that we have. And this is absolutely amazing as we think about it. A similitude is a visible likeness or a point of comparison. So verse 27 says. So God created man in his own image.

He emphasizes it by putting the word own in there. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them man in the perfect sense as represented by Adam before the fall and certainly as records represented by the second Adam Jesus Christ after the fall when he was incarnated into this world.

Man in the perfect sense and for all eternity is a homomorphism of God and yet lesser in magnitude size and position. Verse 28 God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.

And look at these two words subdue and have dominion. Do you realize that that is limited omnipotence. I know that's not good grammar because it's not omnipotence if you limit it. But I'm trying to make a point.

Limited omnipotence is what it is. Brandon when you can sit up in a stand and look down at the pig the wild hog or wherever you were standing and you can take aim at that wild hog. You're having dominion over him because you out thought him and you subdued him and you have that power over all of the creation of God.

God gave man that dominion. It is a lesser form of omnipotence. You see we are a homomorphism of God. We're created in his image but we are limited in power. So the same ability to plan to contemplate that the Everlasting Son has to feel to love even limited abilities to create.

We have creativeness. We can create new musical sounds. We can create new artwork. We can create new bridges that have never been built before. We can't create anything out of nothing but we can take the things God has given us.

And we can be creative. It's a limited form of the way Elohim is himself. We subdue which means to tread down and conquer. We have dominion which means to subjugate. Verse 30 says into every beast of the earth into every fowl of the air into everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life.

I have given every green herb for meat. And it was so and God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good. And the evening in the morning were the sixth day. And we go into chapter 2 and we see God reveal something new about himself.

He gives a new name that's never been given before and it's given in relation to the creation of man. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the hosts. Now we're going to get a review and more detail.

And as we get more detail we're given more detail about the nature of God himself by his added name. On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had made.

And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he rested from all his work which God created and made God Elohim throughout the creation account until we come to this part where we see the detailed creation of man gone back over or rehearsed in verse 4 these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the heaven the earth in the heavens do you see the word Lord.

It's all caps that is always Jehovah when you see that in English. So now he is not just called Elohim. Now the word God there in the Hebrew is Elohim. Now he's called Jehovah Elohim and he says these are the generations of the heavens and the earth.

Remember that word from last Sunday. Remember in Psalm 24 we were speaking of Jesus Christ and his triumphal entry into through the everlasting portal that opens up between these two dimensions and Jesus walks through it as the father speaks them open.

And in verse 6 of Psalm 24 it speaks of Jesus Christ who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord who shall stand he that has clean hands. This is the generation of them that seek him that spoke of how Jesus was our generation.

Well now in Genesis chapter 2 verse 4 these are the generations. It is a different Hebrew word but it is a synonym of the other Hebrew word toledo which means descent which means to generate reproduce.

These are the generations of the heaven and the earth which when they were created in the day that Jehovah Elohim made the earth in the heavens the generation of all life all life that there is we just were told about them.

These were the generations the creation the descent the genie of all life. Note here that we see Jehovah Elohim for the first time. And there are many places by the way in the Old Testament scriptures where Elohim is clearly a reference to Jesus.

Now there are not many scholars that will tell you that you won't read that in very many places. You just have to go find it yourselves pretty much. I want to just give you a couple of examples. I know we're out of time but Psalm 45 6 you might jot this down because it's a very unusual passage and you read it in conjunction with the New Testament Hebrews chapter 1 verse 8.

So put that down in your margin so that you have it. You can find it readily Psalm 45 6 and Hebrews 1 verse 8 and Psalm 45 6 it says thy throne O God. Now this Hebrew word for God is Elohim. Same one used in the first chapter of Genesis.

Thy throne O God is forever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter now that speaks of Psalm 24 where the Son of Glory enters into this heavenly portal. And yet here it calls him Elohim.

And you say well how could you know. How do you know that's talking about Jesus. Because it says thy throne O God is forever and ever the scepter. Thy throne O Elohim is forever and ever. Thy set the scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter.

Hebrews chapter 1 verse 8 says. But unto the Son he saith it's made very clear who he's speaking to. Thy throne O God is forever and ever a scepter. Righteousness. It's quoted it's a direct quote from Psalm 45 and Hebrews 1 8 says this is speaking of the Son of God.

So in Psalm 24 verse 3 through 7 this is the generation of them who seek thee. And and then Psalm 45 verse 6 through 8 it calls Elohim the word Elohim but it is a reference to the Everlasting Son not to the Father.

So there are times when the Lord our Lord Jesus Christ is known as Elohim. Now there are many times where he's known as Jehovah. Zechariah 12 6 through 10 you might jot that down. It literally says they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.