Jesus and the Beginning (10/13/2002)

Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. We're going back into 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 and 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 into 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's important because in a few moments we're going to have the name

Jehovah introduced for the first time, the first mentioned in the scriptures, but not in chapter one, not until we get to chapter two, where we began to see the, the, 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 shepherd's 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 tare 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 of a 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 tare that leaves. Sometimes it's the wheat that has to leave because if the tares 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 one.

Keep a hand there in Genesis and turn over to John chapter one in verse one. 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 one with the advantage of having read

John chapter one before many times. And so we can begin to see that Elohim, even though this is the word most commonly used for the

Godhead, the plurality of God, the uniplurality 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 one one 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, or 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

God. 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 Godhead? And yet we find it in Genesis one one 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 one and verse one, 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 three, 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 one. 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 five says, and God called the light day and 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 two of creation, the division of the waters and the heavens from the waters upon the earth, verses six through verse eight.

And then we move to day three 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 nine. 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 one and verse one. 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 of 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, there are little green living things everywhere. Go look at Miss B's yard, if you don't believe that.

She babies those little green things as if they're animated.

I don't know that she talks to them 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 them.

All around my cedar trees is the nicest dirt you ever saw. It brings me all the way back before day three.

You know, you had nothing before day three. You just had dirt. And that's, yeah, that's the way it works sometimes. But God brings living plants out of minerals, out of dirt.

We look at it and say, okay, well God created 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 and accept it as 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 it's 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 of a 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 lets you be there. Can you picture yourself viewing this as you see nothing but chaos without form and void and the spirit of God hovers as a mother hen hovers over her chicks and he hovers over this and all of a 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 of a sudden he speaks and this stuff just grows.

You see plush life everywhere. What is that? Oh, okay.

I hadn't heard the new phone. Makes you want to go answer it, doesn't it? Well we're not home right now, we're in the heavenlies so just let it ring.

Can you imagine if you could have seen this? I don't even think

Hollywood could animate this and make it look anything near. Anything near, just shoo, all of a 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. I thought that would be a good name for a skin care product, evolution.

You have to see it to get it, evolution. But there is 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 four, 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 fowl 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 ground all of a 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 have been scuba diving that day? You're 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 he put some seaweed under there.

And all of a sudden, shoom, teeming all around you are fish. I don't know if any of you have been snorkeling or scuba diving, but the variety, they still haven't even come close to naming all the fish.

They don't even know them all. The variety is just unbelievable and it all came to pass with the speaking of a word.

Elohim said, let the waters bring forth. And abundantly the moving creature that hath life and the fowl 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 the water brought forth this little brilliant one -celled amoeba who was so smart that he figured out he wanted to be more complex.

So he ooched out to the edge of the water and he wiggled up on the ground and he grew some legs and he slithered up to a 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 and the seas and let the fowl multiply in the earth and the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Day six now comes about, the creation of land animals and insects and man and let's read it.

Verse 24, 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 and 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 were 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, then 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.

Webster says 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 of you remember vector spaces? Come on. I remember them simply because I've taught some of those silly 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 onto another in such a way that the result obtained by applying an operation to the elements of the domain is mapped onto 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, that's a lot of verbiage and you get it better if you could draw a picture. Isn't 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 and a straight edge.

How many of you can remember doing that? Raise your hand. I want to see how far back. OK. 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 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 are 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 sembler, or semble, which means, you know,

I can't speak French that well, did you? But 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 in 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's the last time you were mistaken for Jesus?

Isn't 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 or 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.

The 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're 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, 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 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, 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 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 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 and 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 gening 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 are out of time. But Psalm 45, 6 you might jot this down.

Because it is 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. In 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 do you know that is talking about Jesus?

Because it says thy throne O God is forever and ever. The scepter, thy throne O Elohim is forever and ever.

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 of righteousness.

It's quoted. It's a direct quote from Psalm 45. And Hebrews 1 verse 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 in 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.

And I challenge you to go into that chapter. And find out who the me is a reference to. Find any other in the chapter that me could be a reference to.

In Zechariah 12 10. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced. The only person named is

King David. Which he was not crucified. And capital

L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Jehovah is the only other name in that chapter that it could refer to.

Jeremiah chapter 23 verses 1 through 5. Behold the days come saith

Jehovah. That I will raise unto David a righteous branch. A king shall reign and prosper.

And shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved.

And Israel shall dwell safely. And this is the name whereby this one shall be called.

Jehovah Sedeq. Jehovah our righteousness.

And it's talking about Jesus. So Jesus is called Elohim in the

Bible. He is called Jehovah in the Bible. Psalm 68 4 it calls his name

Yah. J -A -H Yah which means the self -existent one.

And you read all the way through Psalm 68 verse 4. All the way down to verse 18. And you find out who this person is called

Yah. Which is the first part of Jehovah. Verse 18 thou hast ascended on high.

Thou hast led captivity captive. Who is this? We spoke about it in the hall didn't we?

Who is this that led captivity captive? Thou hast received gifts of men. For men.

Yea for the rebellious also. That Jehovah God might dwell among them.

Who is this Yah? It's Jesus. Psalm 102 verses 13 through 28.

Compared to Hebrews chapter 1 verse 8. And Isaiah chapter 8 verse 13 through 15.

Compared to first Peter chapter 2. Verses 7 and 8. Jesus is known as Jehovah in all these places.

And now back into Genesis chapter 2. These are the generations of the heaven and the earth.

When they were created. In the day that Jehovah Elohim made the earth and the heavens.

This is our Lord. And every plant of the field. Look at this phrase.

Before it was in the earth. Now what does that mean? Do you mean that every plant was spoken into existence before it was in the earth?

Before it was a seed in the earth? Do you mean that it's so specific here that it literally says that.

Jehovah Elohim spoke these plants into existence. And so now we know which came first.

The plant or the seed. It speaks about chicken and eggs in here somewhere. The plant came before the seed.

The chicken came before the egg. But it came with egg. Jehovah Elohim generated, created, made the earth, the heavens.

And every plant before it was in the earth. And every herb in the field before it grew.

It says in verse 5. Before it grew. Before it was little and grew up.

It was created with maturity. For the

Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth. And there was not a man to till the ground when all this stuff happened.

But there went up a mist. You see it's rehearsing the six days. It's giving us more detail.

But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God Jehovah Elohim formed man.

The Lord Jesus Christ formed man of the dust of the ground.

And we're talking about life. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

And man became a living soul. Formed.

Yotsar in Hebrew means literally to squeeze into shape by pressure. He literally made man from clay.

Just like you read as a little child in Sunday school. He literally formed it with pressure. And made a man.

The first sculpture that was ever made on the earth. Was made by Jehovah Elohim.

Our Lord Jesus. And he made man by squeezing him into shape.

And then he breathed. He puffed. Literally meaning in the

Hebrew to kindle. Do you realize that God shaped man from the dust of the earth.

And he blew upon him in such a way. As to not blow too hard but blow just right amount.

As to kindle the spark of life. In that created thing. Life came from Jehovah Elohim.

The breath. The puff of air. The kindling of the spark of life.

Ke alive. The breath. The kindling life came from God.

And he became a living Ke soul. Nefesh. Which literally means a breathing living creature.

In body and mind. That's what the soul is. He became a living soul.

You know what? Even the little phrase became is important. Because the evolutionist would have you believe.

That man slithered out of that water like we described earlier. A long process of one thing simple changing into a more complex thing.

Until man came forth from all of that. And yet God says. That Jesus.

Padded the clay into form by applying pressure. And then breathed and sparked life into this man.

And he became. The word became means. To exist.

To come to pass. He wasn't there for this. He wasn't anywhere to be seen.

He wasn't hanging around on some monkeys. Trees with monkeys. He was not there.

He didn't become until this spark of life was breathed into him. And then he became.

In the Hebrew it's better than English. English became. We use that all the time. In the Hebrew. He came into existence.

From not having been there before. He became. A living soul.

And God. Jehovah Elohim planted. A garden eastward in Eden.

And there he put the man whom he had. Squeezed into shape. The word form means.

And out of the ground. Made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight.

And good for food. The tree of life. In the midst of the garden. The tree of knowledge.

Which is light. Good. Takes us back to. Genesis one four.

In him was life. And the life was the light of men. There was a tree of life. And a tree of light.

Tree of knowledge. But Jesus Christ is the ultimate. Life. And light.

Of men. He that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the sun shall not see life.

But the wrath of God abideth on him. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.

But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water. Springing up unto everlasting life.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me has everlasting life.

For as the father hath life in himself. So hath he given the son to have life in himself.

And shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life. And they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.

Search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life. And they are they which testify of me,

Jesus said. And ye will not come to me that you may have life. John 6, 33.

For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. And Jesus said unto him,

I am the bread. Verse 40. And this is the well of him that sent me. That everyone which beholds the sun with eyes that can see.

And believeth on him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up in the last day.

And the Jews murmured at him because he said this. They murmured at him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.

Verily, verily, he said to them, I say unto you, he that believeth on me has everlasting life.

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate man in the wilderness and they died.

But this is the bread which comes down from heaven. That a man may eat thereof and not ever die.

I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever.

And the bread that I will give is my flesh. Which I will give for the life of the world.

Except you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood. You have no life in you.

As the living father hath sent me and I live by the father. So he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

Jesus is our life. This is the bread which came down from heaven.

Not as your fathers did eat man and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever.

Then spake Jesus again unto them saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness.

But shall have the light of life. The thief cometh but to steal and to kill and destroy.

That's Mohammed. I am come that they might have life. That they might have it more abundantly.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Jesus said unto her,

I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.

And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? These words spake

Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son. And thou hast given him power over all flesh.

That he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

Praise God this morning. That you were known from the foundation of the world with love.

Known with love. Praise God this morning that God knew before he stepped into that stage in Genesis 1 .1.

He knew you by name. He knew every little part of you because you were going to be made in his image.

Not with all of the power. Not with all of the omnipotence. Having the attributes but not with the same power and force and fullness.

And yet having them. Being the image of God. He knew he would breathe the breath of life into you like he did all the other men in the world.

But he knew that beyond that he would then feed you the bread that they don't eat. He would feed you the bread that once you eat it, it is impossible for you to die.

Thanks be to God for what he's given us. He is our life. Let's stand and have a prayer together.

Father, we thank you for your word once again this morning as we have every Sunday as far back as we can remember.

Because it is your word that is the centerpiece of your worship service. It is you speaking to our hearts that is far more important than anything we might have to speak to you.

And yet as you speak to our hearts, we as the bride respond and want to speak back to you.

We want to praise you and to love you and to tell you how wonderful and majestic and awesome you are.

And yet our words are so feeble as we think about the creation of the smallest little cell.

With the microscope we see the complexities beyond our ability to number. And when we look at man and the human body and the human brain and the aspects of man that are beyond the physical.

Such as the ability to love and to know and to feel and to know you and to know one another.

All we can say is you are majestic. You are all powerful. You are beyond our ability to even know how powerful and wonderful and marvelous you are.

That you cause us to want to say these things to you. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ whom you have given to us as our savior, as our guide and example.

But you have made him our life, our eternal life. Thank you for the fellowship and the union that you give us with yourself by Jesus Christ.

Father go with us into this time of fellowship and may we continue to remember some of these marvelous things throughout the day.