Preparing for the Wedding

Let's pray. Lord God, as we open up with your word, we pray that you would speak to us, help us to understand what we are to believe, teach, and confess, and embrace it through faith in Jesus Christ.

Amen. Alright, so here's the question I have for you to start off this morning in our abbreviated lesson.

How do you know, how can you be confident that what we have in the

Genesis account is an actual historical account? There are people out there who claim, oh, this is what we call

Theopoetry. Now, Theo meaning God, this is some kind of God poetry they say.

So the Genesis 1 is like, it's like one of the Psalms. Or it's like that poem,

Roses are red, Violets are blue. How do you know whether or not this is history or poetry?

I'll give you a hint, Scripture interprets Scripture. That helps.

Huh? Did Jesus talk about it? Oh, that's a good question.

Did Jesus talk about Genesis? What do you guys think? Well, isn't there a scripture that says that all

Scripture is God breathed? Well, that's in 1 Timothy, yes. 2

Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 3. All Scripture is God breathed. Yeah, but see, that's not quite what we're talking about here.

Why would it be important if Jesus actually talks about the creation? What difference does that make?

Okay, we're getting there.

Let's smooth that out and make it a little bit easier. So here's the idea. In today's world, you cannot practice medicine unless you go to school.

You go to medical school, right? Now, would any of you be willing to have open -heart surgery from somebody who got their medical degree from a diploma mill in Mexico?

No? It has nothing to do with racism.

Because I'm not saying have heart surgery performed by somebody who studied medicine in Mexico.

I said somebody who got their medical degree from a diploma mill in Mexico. Yeah, big difference.

There are some good doctors who are south of the border, and they've been to reputable medical schools, right?

So we're not making some kind of racist statement here. To make it even more clear, a

Norwegian who got his medical degree from a diploma mill in Mexico.

Kind of like a bubblegum machine. Yeah, kind of like a bubblegum machine. Yes, it's a lot like that. So would you want to have your open -heart surgery performed by somebody like that?

No? So credentials kind of mean something. Let me ask you another question here. You farmers here, how many of you guys would like me to plan the planting of the crops next year and the harvest for your fields?

Any takers? Yeah, me do it. Any takers? Come on. I can offer my services cheap.

I'm telling you, really cheap. I'll make it really worth your while. Still no?

You farmers, I mean, what is the deal with you? I feel in my heart that I could really be a good farmer.

Isn't that enough? Are you just talking about Genesis right now?

Yeah, we're talking about Genesis, but I'm using a metaphor here and using a little bit of sarcastic humor because Robin loves it so much, to kind of make a point.

Okay, how about all the times that they actually find tombs or graves of people that are referred to?

Okay, well, historically speaking, yes, there are people that we have, we know where they're buried.

This is true. So we know that at least part of the Old Testament is historical. We know this. But when we're talking about the

Genesis account, how did we get here? In all of human history, is there anybody who we could point to and say that person was an eyewitness to the

Genesis account in Genesis 1 -1? Jesus. Right, Jesus.

Think about it. Who is Jesus? He's the Son of God, right?

That's his claim. He is none other than God in human flesh. So wouldn't

Jesus qualify as an eyewitness to the accounts in the Old Testament? I mean, a couple weeks ago, we read about Jesus having this argument with the

Pharisees, or the Jews, regarding Abraham, and Jesus spoke about Abraham as if he'd met Abraham, and the

Jews picked right up on it. You're not 50 years old yet, and you've met Abraham, they said, right?

How can Jesus talk that way about Abraham? Well, he's the

God who made Abraham, right? So the question then is this. If we were to kind of tie these themes together, who has the credentials that can speak credibly to whether or not what we have in the book of Genesis is history or poetry?

Jesus. Okay, now, what are his credentials, by the way? Well, he claims to be the

Son of God, but work with me here for a second here. I told this joke a couple years ago here, but it bears repeating. Just because you claim to be the

Son of God doesn't mean you're the Son of God. There's a story told about a gentleman who was traveling around, visiting different insane asylums in order to kind of check out whether or not they were kind of up to code, right?

And he considered himself something kind of an amateur psychiatrist type, and so he was visiting this one insane asylum, and off over in the group room, there was a gentleman who was walking around with his arm in his coat like this, and kind of, you know, proudly, and so he walked up to him, he says,

Sir, what's your name? He says, My name is Napoleon Bonaparte, right? And so the guy tried to help him out.

He says, Well, how do you know you're Napoleon Bonaparte? He says, Because God told me, right? And then from across the room, another guy shouts out,

No, I didn't! I never said that! laughter Right?

So Jesus, yeah, he claims to be the Son of God, but what can we point to that backs up the claim?

And Stephen, keep your mouth shut. laughter He was born of, he was born of Mary.

Yes, he was born of the Virgin Mary, yes. He told Mary, the angel came down to Mary and told her that she would have a son.

So it's proven right there. How does the fact that he, the claim is that he was born of the

Virgin Mary prove that he is that? Because the angel said it. Because the angel said.

Because the angel said. Did you see this angel? What color was his hair?

What were the dimensions on his wingspan? When I was growing up, my mother told me to believe what my elders tell me and to trust, and they told me this, and I believe.

Okay, well, sometimes, I hate to say this, elders can be wrong. Well, don't tell my mother.

Okay, I will respectfully not mention that to your mother. Okay. Mark.

He fulfilled prophecies that were so astronomical that he could not have been.

That's right. Now, this is something we will talk about when we get into the Advent season as we're getting closer to Christmas.

One of the things we'll take a look at in our midweek Advent services, we're going to take a look at some of the prophecies regarding Jesus.

In fact, when you read the book of Acts, when you look at the apostles, and they're traveling throughout the

Mediterranean, planting churches. They were always going to synagogues. Two things they would argue. They would argue as eyewitnesses to the resurrection that Jesus was the

Messiah, but they'd also argue from fulfilled prophecy. And when you take a look at the details of prophecy regarding Jesus, I mean, it's either

Jesus or nobody. That's what it comes down to, because nobody could have fulfilled these prophecies. And we're not talking about the

Nostradamus -type prophecies. You ever seen, like, History Channel, Nostradamus, prophet of, you know, whatever.

And you read, if you ever read Nostradamus' quatrains, I mean, that, those things are just esoteric.

I mean, they're so difficult. They don't even sound like they're written by somebody who's lucid. And so you can kind of read into those things whatever you want.

But for instance, okay, you read Psalm 22. Who has Psalm 22? Take a look at that real quick.

Open up to Psalm 22. Let me open up my Bible while I'm at it.

You got it? Okay, Janet, read to us Psalm 22. My God, my

God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?

O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer. By night, and I am not silent.

Yet you are enthroned as a holy one. You are the praise of Israel. In you our fathers put their trust.

They trusted, and you delivered them. And they cried to you and were saved. In you they trusted and were not disappointed.

Keep going. Yeah, keep going. But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.

All who seek me mock me. They hurl insults, shaking their heads. He trusts in the

Lord, but the Lord rescues him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him. Yet you brought me out of the womb.

You made me trust in you, even at my mother's breast. From birth I was cast upon you. From my mother's womb you have been my

God. Do not be far from me, for trouble is near, and there is no one to help.

Many bulls surround me, strong bulls of passion encircle me, roaring lions tearing their prey, opening their mouths wide against me.

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is turned to wax.

It has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.

You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me. A band of evil men has encircled me.

I have cursed my hands and my feet. I count all my bones. People stare and gloat over me.

They divide my garments among them, and cast lots from my clothing. But you, O Lord, be not far off.

O my strength, come quickly to help me. Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs.

Rescue me from the mouth of the lions. Save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

I declare your name to my brothers. In the congregation, I will praise you. You who hear the

Lord, praise him. All you descendants of Jacob, honor him. Revere him, all you descendants of Israel, for he has not despised or disclaimed the suffering of the afflicted one.

He has not hidden his face from him, but has listened to his cry for help. From you comes my praise.

In the great assembly, before those who fear you, will I fulfill my vows.

The poor will eat and be satisfied. They who seek the Lord will praise him. May your hearts live forever.

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of the nations will bow down before him.

Okay, all right. Who's that psalm about? Jesus. How do you know?

Because it says who he was born, how he died, Uh -huh. How does it say in Psalm 22 that Jesus is going to die?

My hand... Yeah, they pierced my hands and my, what does it say?

Right. Uh -huh. Yep. That's right. Now, Jesus, when he's hanging on the cross, does he have the ability to fulfill this prophecy?

Did he force the Romans to crucify him? Did Jesus pay money to the Roman soldiers to divide his clothes and cast lots for them?

No. No. And by the way, this psalm was written, I think at least 400 to 600 years before crucifixion was invented as a form of capital punishment.

And yet it describes it as his hands and his feet being pierced, right? Right. Okay, so when we talk about fulfilled prophecy, that's just the tip of the iceberg.

When you read the Old Testament, you find out it is teeming with prophecies regarding Jesus, both specific and typologically, which is absolutely fascinating.

I mean, the Bible is not like any book out there. So you're right. Fulfilled prophecy argues strongly that Jesus is who he claimed to be, okay?

But what's the ultimate proof that Jesus is who he claimed to be? You remember when Jesus went into the temple and he drove the money changers out, right?

And the chief priests basically said, What sign can you give us to show that you have the authority to do these things?

And Jesus said, tear down this temple and I'll build it again in 3 days. Which means he's rising.

Right, okay. And they thought he's pointing to the temple,

Herod's temple, right? And they said, it's taken 46 years to build this temple and you're gonna rebuild it again in 3 days?

What does the text say? That he was talking about his body. He was talking about his body. So how do we know that Jesus has the authority to do the things that he did?

That he is who he claimed to be? Well, on the 3rd day he rose again bodily from the grave.

Muhammad is still in the grave. Buddha is still in the grave. Hare Krishna. You know,

Sun Yung Moon. They're all still in the grave. Jesus rose from the grave. He claimed to be

God and we have eyewitness testimony that says on the 3rd day after he was crucified and killed, he was alive.

They saw him physically alive. These are pretty good credentials. So that's the idea here.

So if we were to talk about anyone out there, who is the greatest authority regarding scripture?

It has to be Jesus. It doesn't matter if you get a PhD today from the top theological school.

Your credentials cannot trump Jesus' credentials. Jesus doesn't have

PhD after his name. He has Son of God. So the question that comes up is, what did

Jesus think about Genesis? Did he think

Adam and Eve were mythological people? That the creation was really not that, right?

What did Jesus think? Well, let's take a look. Matthew chapter 19. We're going to look at verses 3 through 6 and I'll read it for you.

Here's what it says. The Pharisees came up to him, that would be Jesus, and they tested him by asking, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?

And subtext is, yeah, you wish, right? What is with these

Pharisees? So he says, have you not read? He who created them from the beginning made them male and female.

Does that tell you what Jesus thinks about what happened in Genesis 1? He says, he who created them created them male and female.

And he said, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother, hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

So there are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.

Have you not read? What was Jesus' view of the Old Testament then? Did Jesus think it was truly the

Word of God? Yeah, he did. Did he think Genesis is history? Well, he's quoting it here as if it's history.

Is it not? Is he not? Now, here's a funny thing. From time to time, you may have noticed this if you follow me on Facebook or on Twitter, from time to time there are people who want to, let's just say, have heated exchanges with me.

They want to express their opinions. And well, recently, and this is not the first time this has happened, but this happens with some regularity, recently

I had a gentleman who identifies himself as an emergent postmodern liberal. And the gist of his comment to me was that I was pretty much a doofus and a buffoon because I believed that Jesus believed that the

Old Testament was the Word of God and that Genesis was actual history. And so his response to me, after I responded to him, he basically said, listen, you've got to understand,

Jesus was a man of his times. If Jesus were alive today, he'd be an evolutionist.

Come on, Jesus being a man of his time, he just didn't have access to Darwin's origin of species.

If only Jesus were alive today, he would be an evolutionist. See, here's the thing.

Didn't Jesus rise from the grave? He is alive today, isn't he? Now scripture, by the way, tells us that Jesus is

God, but also scripture tells us that God cannot lie. So if Jesus is wrong here, and Adam and Eve were not really created by God like he said in Matthew 19, is

Jesus really God? No, he's not. He's not, because he's giving us false information.

So as silly as this sounds, as Christians, we stick to our guns.

When we talk about the armor of God, right? You've got defensive armor. What's our only offensive weapon?

The Bible, the Word, right? Whatever you do, if you're sharing your faith with somebody who's skeptical, never allow yourself to be disarmed.

You stick to the text, and you say, I'm sorry, Jesus said this.

And then they come back and they taunt you or say bad things about you or whatever. You say, I'm sorry, but Jesus said this.

That's what I mean. Don't let yourself be disarmed. Don't get into philosophy. Don't get into this other stuff.

Jesus is the only eyewitness to this that has lived that we know of, right? And he says that they were created.

But that usually ticks off the person you're arguing with. Yes, it does. It does.

But let's talk about why that is. Yes, it does tick some people off. Let's do a little bit of Bible, though.

I'm not going to allow myself to be disarmed by such a statement by David, but it's a good statement, by the way.

Romans 1, I want to read to you something. This is also going to give us an understanding of how we share our faith with people.

You're right, you say something like that, it's going to upset them. But watch this, Romans 1, verse 18. Here's what it says.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

You know why somebody doesn't want to hear about Jesus being God and that he created? It's because it says right here they're suppressing the truth in wickedness or unrighteousness.

Now, this is an important thing. There is not a single person on the planet who claims to be an atheist who's telling the truth.

How do I know this? Because Scripture says so. Let's keep reading. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power, and his divine nature, they have been clearly seen being understood from what was made, so that men are without excuse.

It goes on. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him.

But their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.

And they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

And they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the created things rather than the Creator, who was forever praised.

Amen. Now, this is important. This is critical. When you share your faith with somebody who is an unbeliever, don't argue evidences with them.

This text makes it clear there's no such thing as an atheist. There is no such thing. The atheist is the one who has actively suppressed the truth of God that they know is true.

So here's how we share our faith instead. If you talk to somebody and say, well, I don't believe in God, number one, internally, inside, you can say,

I know that's not true, because Scripture says so. And so here's generally how I handle atheists, and it's a good way to handle them.

You don't have to know all of their arguments. You have to understand this. You are an ambassador of the kingdom of God.

As an ambassador, you have a message to give. So when you talk to an atheist, here's what I say to them when they say,

I don't believe in God. I know that what you're telling me is not true. I know that you believe that there's a

God, and you know there's a God. So I'm not going to argue this with you. Instead, I have good news to tell you.

The God that you're angry at, the God whom you are suppressing the truth in your unrighteousness, he's given me a message to give to you.

And here's the message. He loves you. He's unilaterally acted on your behalf to die for your sins.

And he's calling you to repent and to believe in him and to be forgiven. It's all a free gift, and I know you're angry at him, but he's not angry at you right now.

He wants you to believe and to live. I've done this with several atheists.

One of them was reduced to tears when I did that. Because the thing is, is that the atheist is all girded up, ready to argue with you, right?

Oh, evolution, this and that, and what about these things, and all this kind of stuff. Whenever you play their game on their turf, it's like playing chess, and it's 20 moves to stalemate, if you're a good player.

So don't play the game. What does Scripture say about the one who doesn't believe that there's a

God? That he's wise, or that he's what? A fool. The fool says in his heart that there is no

God. Not the wise, the fool. So be merciful.

Understand the person as being foolish, but don't call them a fool to their face.

The idea is, don't play on their turf, and you basically say, you don't believe in God, that's not true.

I know for a fact that you believe there's a God. And when I talk to atheists this way, oftentimes I'll say things like,

I have a message to give you from God, here's the message, he bled and died for you, and then I usually say this, and you also already know that what

I'm telling you is the truth. And I've never had them challenge me on that. It's weird.

It changes the game altogether. But see, the thing is, we're ambassadors of the kingdom of God. We have a message to proclaim, the good news that Christ bled and died for our sins.

And unfortunately, one of the things I've seen, even in my own life, and I've seen kind of take place in the world of apologetics, is that there's these people out there who their pride is puffed up, because they've learned to out -argue people regarding particular things.

They've taken on, you know, Richard Dawkins, or Anthony Flew, or whatever, right?

And so much of their self -worth is caught up in their ability to be that person who was able to stand his ground against said atheist.

That's not what we're called to do. We're called to proclaim Christ. Now that's not to say that apologetic arguments don't have their place, or that evidences don't have their place, but I've found that evidences are a very good thing to discuss in church because they help bolster our faith.

Because when you're brought to penitent faith in Christ, these things help you so that people don't come in and snatch your faith, because those atheists are wascally, right?

They're wascally. But oftentimes, if you just take the time to examine their arguments, they don't hold up.

So how do we know that Genesis is history? Because Jesus says so. And when we look in the

New Testament, Jesus believed that Adam and Eve were historical people. He believed that Abel was a historical person.

He believed that Noah was a historical person, and Jesus believed in the worldwide global flood.

Uh -huh. Jesus talked like he knew Abraham. So it's just real simple.

The idea then is that we have this good news to proclaim, we don't have to play the atheists on their turf, and you just trust in Jesus.

See, that's the thing. 1 Peter says to set apart Christ as Lord and always be ready to give an answer and a reason for the hope that lies within you.

But the reason and the hope that lies within you only comes after set apart Christ as Lord.

If Christ is Lord, you just stick by him. You just say, I'm just a simple Christian, and I think it's just really simple.

Jesus believed that Genesis was historical because it was. And as soon as you die and rise again from the grave, then you'll have the credentials to talk on the level of Jesus.

And he says, until you do that, I'm going to go with Jesus. It's just that simple. It'll drive them crazy, and they'll accuse you of all kinds of things.

They'll say, oh, that's circular logic. You're using the Bible to prove the Bible. No, I'm not. Actually, think about this.

One book, right? This isn't a book. This is a library. If I quote

Jesus to talk about Genesis, am

I quoting the same book? No. I'm quoting a different book in the same library.

It's not circular logic. So you can quote the Bible to support the Bible. You can absolutely do that.

Now, of course, we're cheating, because there's one common author to every one of the books, and that's God the Holy Spirit. But the atheists, they don't believe that anyway, so let them work that out.

So let's come back now to Genesis. Let's go back to Genesis. Point out some things along the way.

And again, my apologies. I'm going to read from my translation. And it seems like we keep getting nowhere, but we're actually getting somewhere.

Steven and I were just talking about that. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Shh! I got you guys figured out.

This is, by the way, there's a term for this in theology. We actually call this the hermeneutical spiral.

And here's the idea. Have you all noticed in your own life that when you were young, you read the

Bible, right? And as you were reading it, certain things kind of popped out, and there were certain truths that kind of stuck in your mind, right?

Well, now that you're older, you go back and you read the Bible, and now that you have a little bit more depth to it, or a passage that you've read 100 times all of a sudden comes crackling to life, right?

And it's not that the Bible has changed. It's that you have. And the reality is that every time you go through the hermeneutical spiral, you're going around and around and around, and we're meditating and learning

God's Word. With each time around the track, you're going to learn more and more and more and dig deeper and deeper and deeper.

I can tell you this. If you think about it this way, is that here in this time -space continuum, think about size and proportion here, okay?

If we were to get an electron microscope, we can drill down into the electrons in the carpet, right?

Go all the way down to the point where the visible eye can't possibly see things this small, yet we know that the world is consisted of these things that are tiny, right?

Really microscopic. But then as you zoom out, we come to this, this magnification level, but now let's zoom out the whole planet, the sun, the moon, the stars, the solar system, and then zoom out from here, the

Milky Way galaxy, and zoom out from there, the universe as a whole with all of the tens and billions of galaxies out there, right?

So you think about that, and there's so much depth in the creation. God's Word is very similar to this.

God's Word is very similar to this. You can study this book exhaustively, day by day by day, and you will only begin to scratch the surface regarding what's going on in here.

This is a deep ocean, a huge universe. And so I never tire of learning

God's Word because with each pass, it goes deeper and deeper and deeper. So although it seems like, you know, 3 weeks in a row, 4 weeks in a row,

Chris has been talking about the same passage. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I know.

It's the hermeneutical spiral. We're going deeper and deeper with each pass. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

And see, chapter 1 of the Bible is this 30 ,000 -foot overview of creation. Chapter 2 drills down into some of the detail.

The earth was formless and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was brooding over the face of the waters.

God said, Let there be light, and there was light. God saw the light, for it was good.

God divided between the light and between the darkness. And God called the light, or like I pointed out last week,

God called to the light, day, and he called to the darkness, night. That's what it says.

And there was evening, and there was morning, day 1. God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and there was separating between the waters to waters.

And God made the expanse and separated between the waters that were under the expanse and between the waters that were over the expanse.

God called the expanse, heaven, and there was evening, and there was morning, day 2.

God said, Collect the waters from under the heavens into one place, and let appear dry ground.

And it was so. God called the dry ground, earth, and collected waters.

He called, seas, and God saw that it was good. And God said,

Let the earth sprout grass, plants producing seed, fruit, trees making fruit.

And the earth brought forth grass, herbage yielding seed according to its kind, and trees making fruit in which it's their seed according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good. The 18th century

Lutheran pastor Valerius Herberger, quite a name, it's a mouthful of a name. In his sermons on this text, he talks about how all this vibrant life is coming, and he says

God is preparing for a wedding. God is preparing for a wedding.

I think that's a beautiful context to think about what we're looking at in Genesis 1 here. You know, we've all, we're all married, right?

Or we've all participated, at least in some degree, you know, with someone's wedding. And you think about all the fuss that goes into the event, right?

And it's such an important thing. And then when it all finally comes together with all the ribbons and the flowers and the dresses and the tuxedos, right?

In a sense, I love that picture of this, is this is God preparing for a wedding.

And who's gonna get married? Adam and Eve. This is what God has in mind all along. You know, he's going to bring forth

Adam, and then from there he's gonna bring forth Eve. And so God, in all of this fuss and bother, these are the preparations for a wedding.

And it's a beautiful picture, beautiful picture. And that helps us to keep the context of what goes wrong so that we understand how

Christ fixes things, how we, as Christians, collectively, we're considered to be the bride of Christ.

This is a big thing that's important in here. So it was evening in the morning, day three.

God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate between the day and between the night, and let them be for signs and for appointed times and seasons and for days and years.

And they have been for lights in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth, and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night and the stars.

And God set or gave them in the heavens to give light upon the earth. Beautiful stuff, right?

Beautiful stuff. And it continues, hang on a second here. I'm gonna switch over now. Although there's a second part to this

I have to get to back in my translation. It was evening and it was morning the fourth day.

God said, let the water team with living creatures and let the birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.

So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teams according to their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, be fruitful and increase in numbers and fill the water in the seas and let the birds increase on the earth.

And there was evening and there was morning the fifth day. And God said, let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds, livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.

And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds and all the creatures that move along the ground.

I like the Hebrew here. It's a little bit more graphic. The creepy things. The creeping little critters.

I call them the creepers in my translation. God made all the creepers. They move along the ground according to their kind.

And God saw that it was good. Notice here, with each passing day. Notice how God creates.

He speaks and it's so. Remember our hymn from today. Talk about justification. Thy strong word bespeaks us righteous.

We're declared righteous by Christ, by God himself. That's the great doctrine of justification. So for each and every one of us,

God has spoken. And you know what he says? Innocent, forgiven, redeemed, purchased, won.

He speaks and it's so. You can't undo what God has done. You can't undo what he said about you.

He says you're justified. It's all good. So God said, let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds.

Livestock, creatures that move along the ground. Wild animals, each according to its kind. God made the wild animals according to their kinds.

Livestock according to their kind. And all the creepers that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

God said, now here's another passage that hints at the doctrine of the Trinity.

Then God said, let us make man in our image. In our image.

And you sit there and grammatically you go, what is going on? Who's God talking to?

Has he got a mouse in his pocket? What's going on here, right? Let us make man.

This is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit saying that. In our likeness. And let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over the livestock, over the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.

And here's the beautiful thing. The beautiful thing is that God, in this creation that he has made, that he's spoken into existence, his initial plan was that he would set up to govern this creation, to care and attend for it.

Humanity made in his image. Perfect representatives of God on earth.

Sounds beautiful, doesn't it? It's still going to happen. New heavens, though, not this one.

New earth, not this one. Because things went terribly wrong here. So let us make man in our image.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God. He created him male and female. He created them.

I want to point this out. It does not just say male. It says male and female.

Every human being has dignity. Male and female.

Because originally all of us are created in the image of God. Now the image of God is broken because of sin.

But if anyone tells you that they're a Christian and that somehow females are of a lesser creature than men, you correct them.

God created them male and female. And they, together, both are created in the image of God.

We're different. But we're all made in the image of God. So God blessed them and said to them,

Be fruitful. Increase in number. Fill the earth. Subdue it.

Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

And then God said, I give you every seed -bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.

They will be yours for food. That's right. Originally there's no carnivores here. We're all fruit and vegetarian types, right?

I don't know. Is it truly vegetarian if it's just fruit and vegetables?

I don't know. No meat here, right? Is it vegan? I don't know. I don't know what the term is.

Yeah, that's originally how we were created. They'll be yours for food. And notice, God gives it.

Notice here it doesn't say... And here we're going to set up an economy. And you see these trees over here.

They're only like 50 cents a bushel. Right? He says he gives.

He gives. This is the nature of God, to give.

If you are a creature, you are given to. This is one of the reasons why salvation is by grace through faith alone.

It's received as a gift. In the same way that the food that was given to us on this planet was given by God as a gift.

He says, I give it to you. Give it to you. Right?

You say, yeah, but I got it. No. No, you don't got a nothing. It's all gift.

Yeah, money wasn't invented until after the fall. Think about that.

So I give you every seed -bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit in it.

They'll be yours for food. To all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground, everything that has the breath of life in it,

I give every green plant for food. Give, and it was so. God saw all that he made, and it was very good.

And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all of their vast array.

And by the seventh day, God had finished the work that he had been doing. So on the seventh day, he rested from all his work, and God blessed the seventh day, made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

First hint at a Sabbath, by the way, although there's no command here to rest in the creation.

There are some who would say, well, see, it's right here in Genesis. That means you have to keep... No, there's no command.

It's just telling you that God blessed the seventh day. And so we will leave it there, and next week we'll pick up at chapter 2, verse 4, when the plot thickens.

Right? So the plot will thicken deeply next week.