Behold Our God

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October 24/2024 | Genesis 1: 1-25 | Expository by Shayne Poirier

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.
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Well, as I mentioned at the onset, we are looking today at the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 1.
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And we will be looking together at verses 1 through 25. And before we get into the text,
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I want to recount a story that I heard a number of years ago. I'm reminded of a story that I once heard
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Paul Washer share a number of years ago as he detailed one of his visits.
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As he detailed one of his visits to a local church that he had been preaching at. As he took his church through, or this church, through a detailed survey of the attributes of God.
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During one of the breaks between sessions, a man who had been a long time member of the church came to Brother Paul and confronted him.
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And he explained that he had been a Christian for decades. And that he had been a church goer for nearly all of his life.
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And his contention was this. That as he heard about God's holiness, as he heard about his sovereignty, and his justice, and his wrath, and his grace.
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He realized something. That despite his being a Christian for as long as some of us have been alive.
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He had never, ever, even once heard about a
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God like this. And he sat in his chair, and as he sat there, he heard about a
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God who made the world. And who sovereignly rules over it.
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Who is angry with sin. And who sent his only begotten son to be a substitute.
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Sent him to the cross as a penal substitute for sinners. And as he sat there, and he heard about this
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God, he was furious. He was incensed and enraged at the fact that his
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God would be portrayed in this light. He went up to Paul Washer during that break and he let him have it.
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And he exclaimed that this God, whose attributes he was, Brother Paul was bringing out of scripture.
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This was not the God that he served. Such attributes were altogether foreign to him.
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And he made it perfectly clear that he would never worship a God like that.
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Worship this God that he was hearing about from the pages of sacred scripture. And Brother Paul commented on this experience and said,
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This is what happens when you don't teach your church the biblical attributes of God.
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They will worship a God. They will worship some God. They will worship any
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God, but they will not worship the God of the Bible. And over the years,
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I have seen this phenomenon firsthand for myself. And I'm sure some of you have as well.
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That as you hear people describe the God that they worship, you ask yourselves, where in the
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Bible is that God found? Or as you relate to someone, the
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God who you worship, they look at you with bewilderment. Who is this
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God? When one draws a crowd through a charismatic personality, or appealing music, or silly anecdotes, but never teaches and preaches the true nature of the
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God of the Bible, professing Christians in these churches are left with a conception of God that is small, that is inaccurate, that is frankly pitiful.
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And the results couldn't be more devastating. I'm reminded of a quote from A .W.
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Tozer who once said this. He said, What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
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For this reason, he writes, the gravest question before the church, before all of you this afternoon, is always
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God Himself. And the most important fact about any man is not what he is at any given time, what he says, or what he does, but what he in his deepest heart conceives
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God to be like. And oh, how I have found this to be undeniably true.
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What we believe about God bleeds into every single aspect of our lives.
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A weak view of God leads to weak thinking. A weak view of God leads to weak praying, to weak believing, to impotent living.
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And it can be very easy for us to sit in this room and think that all of these problems are on the outside of these four walls.
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And yet I would suggest that this weakness affects not only other
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Christians, but us as well. Even for every single one of us in this room, wittingly or unwittingly, we seek to domesticate the living and true
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God. We have been inclined to tame Him intentionally, or for some of you, unintentionally.
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I imagine most of you. Each one of us has endeavored to mold Him to one degree or another into our image and likeness.
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And the result, dear Christian, I can say with confidence, as a result,
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I can say, your God is too small. You might sit here and think,
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I have a massive conception of God. My God is almighty. He is all -powerful.
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He is all -sovereign. Let me tell you, your God is too small. I don't care if you are a five -point
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Calvinist, and you've got the solas of the Reformation on the spine of your Bible. Your God is too small.
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If you read Owen, and Beaky, and Bavinck, and Voss. That matters not.
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Your God is too small. If you sing the best hymns, if you attend a sound church, your
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God is too small. And our stunted view of God is, without a doubt, impacting.
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Oh, it impacts every facet of our lives. And while I am not going to be able to perfectly remedy all of that today, my aim is this, that as we open our
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Bibles to Genesis chapter 1, and look at verses 1 through 25, what we are going to see is the all -surpassing supremacy of our
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God. We are going to see a God who is majestic in all of his ways, who possesses sovereign creative powers.
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We are going to see the weightiness and the grandeur of the living God whom we serve.
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In these first 25 verses of Genesis chapter 1, the word
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God is repeated 25 times. Almost every single verse.
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And when there is a missing one in one verse, it doubles up in the next verse. And I firmly believe that it is because God would have us not simply to behold his creation in this first chapter of Genesis, but to behold our
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God in all of his magnificence. To behold him above all things in this chapter on his creation.
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And so, if you haven't already turned there to Genesis chapter 1, I invite us, let us behold
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God together. And I want to start with just the first three words in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1, in the beginning.
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Now, whenever we start a new book in Scripture, we miss a key opportunity. If we do not take a moment to at least familiarize ourselves with the principal themes of the book.
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Get an overview, a 37 ,000 foot view of the book of Genesis. And that title,
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Genesis, where does that come from? It comes actually from the Septuagint.
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That is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. And we can trace that word
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Genesis all the way back. You might see it on your page, or you might have to flip a page, but to Genesis chapter 2 and verse 4.
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Where we read there, these are the generations of the heavens and the earth.
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In the Septuagint, that word generations is the Greek word genesis, from which we get our
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English word Genesis. And that word Genesis really does capture all that this book is about.
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Genesis recounts the origins of the world, the generations, the first generations of humanity and the beginning of the nation of Israel.
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And while it's possible to look at the structure of Genesis from a number of different angles, it's widely recognized that Genesis is structured around 11 key phrases known as Toledots.
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I'm not sure if you've ever heard that word before. What in the world does that mean? It means that at 11 different places in Genesis, this
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Hebrew phrase appears, Elei Toledot, which can be translated, these are the generations.
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Or sometimes we see in the Septuagint, these are the Genesis. The Genesis.
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In Genesis chapter 2 and verse 4, we read, these are the generations of the heavens and the earth.
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That is the only impersonal Toledot. And then after that we have personal
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Toledots. The generations of men through the early ages of the world.
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In Genesis chapter 5 and verse 1, we read about the generations of Adam. In chapter 6 and verse 9, about the generations of Noah.
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And then in chapter 10 and verse 1, the generations of the sons of Noah. If you want some of these references afterwards,
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I can give them to you as well. I don't want you to be frantically noting them all down. Genesis chapter 11 and verse 10, the generations of Shem.
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And then 1127, Terah, the father of Abram. And then 2512, the generations of Ishmael.
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And then 2519, Isaac. And then 361, and then again in verse 9,
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Esau. And then finally in Genesis 37 -2, Elei Toledot. These are the generations of Jacob and of his sons, the twelve tribes of Israel.
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In Genesis, Moses, who is widely affirmed as the author in scripture and in other historical writings, covers a larger swath of history than all of the other biblical books combined.
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Because where he takes us is from eternity past to Israel's sojournings in Egypt.
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And using these eleven Toledots, he shows us how we came to be.
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And how we fell into sin. How the world was uncreated and recreated through water.
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How sin persisted. How men tried to take matters into their own hands.
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And then, even yet, how a righteous and merciful God would keep his promises to Adam and to Abraham to bring about a mighty nation and through that nation to bring the offspring who would crush the head of the serpent and restore creation back to its pre -fall condition.
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This is Genesis. This is how it begins. In the beginning.
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And now what I want us to look at are three brief points that are going to paint for us,
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I think, a grander and more majestic and more glorious vision of the
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God who we worship. In verse 1 we read, And in that fourth word,
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God created the heavens and the earth. Verse 2, The first of three points that I want to bring before you is this.
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The God over creation. The God over his creation.
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In the first four words of Genesis, Moses takes us back to an aeon where there was no earth.
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Where there was no sun. Where there was no universe. No matter, in fact. But rather to a time when there was only
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God. The first subject in the entire Bible, if you look at that first sentence, and you're a bit of a grammar geek like me, the first subject of the first sentence in the
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Bible is God. And not creation. And not man. And not the universe.
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And not the world. But God. Here Moses employs a title for God that will become the second most frequently used word in the
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Old Testament after the word Lord. It is here that we are introduced to the main character of the
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Bible and the central figure of our human existence.
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And notice here that there is no attempt at any apologetic argument for the existence of God.
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Moses feels no need to defend God and his existence even for a moment. But it's simply the case that God is.
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And why is that? Because deep down in every human heart, no matter how much the knowledge of God has been suppressed, we know this to be true.
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That in the beginning, God. And in this scene where God creates the heavens and the earth, the
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Spirit of God, we're told, was hovering over the face of the waters. We come to learn a great deal about the nature of this
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God over his creation as we look more closely at this. As Moses introduced
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God, he used the term Elohim. That fourth word in your Genesis chapter 1,
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Elohim. But there's something unique about this word. He could have used Elohim in the singular, which is what we might expect, but instead he uses it in the plural.
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Now, again, why in the world would Moses do that? God is one.
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The Lord your God is one. Why is it in the plural? Well, it has become known as the plural of majesty.
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That this title, even as Moses employs the first subject in the
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Bible, is teaching us a great deal. And two very important concepts.
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That in the Hebrew Bible, this plural of majesty conveyed the fullness of God's deity.
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Dear friends, that we are not being introduced to God, lowercase g. We're not being introduced to a
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God. A common God amongst many gods. But we are being introduced to God.
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God of very gods. The plural in this Hebrew word seeks to capture the essence of his, and I've chosen these words very carefully, peerless majesty.
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That he is without peer. He is without equal. He is alone, set apart in the heavens, doing all that he pleases.
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He stands alone at the hierarchy of the cosmos, and there is no equal.
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And secondly, this plural has been recognized by theologians as something that hints to, and I think you know where I'm going here, the triune nature of God.
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In the words of one commentator, it indicates the plural nature of God. That God is one.
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Make no mistake, I am not questioning that. That God is one, but God is also three distinct persons.
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The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so in this first subject in all of the
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Bible, we learn that our God stands alone. He is set apart.
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Dear brothers and sisters, he is God. In the inauguration of time, we read about the spirit of this
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God hovering over the waters. Now again, what does this convey? When God created the world, it was still yet unordered.
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It was unfilled with the diversity of life that we have grown accustomed to.
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Yet the mention of the spirit of God indicates that he is about to bring order to this formless sphere.
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In a way that we as Christians can relate to. I want you to pay attention to this concept.
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We see that it has always been the role of the spirit of God to grant life to that which is inanimate and without light.
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It was not at the moment of our regeneration that the spirit of God entered into the business of giving life.
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But from the moment of creation itself. As our planet hung there in the universe.
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Darkened. Formless. And the spirit hovered over the waters.
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That spirit was there for a purpose. That God was about to bring life to that sphere.
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We read about this in Job 33 and verse 4. If you want to turn there with me more briefly.
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There is this exchange happens in the book of Job. We see that it is written.
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The spirit of God. Job 33 verse 4. The spirit of God has made me.
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And the breath of the Almighty gives me life. That it is the breath of God that gives life not only to the believer but to the planet in which we live.
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And in case you are not compelled by that. Psalm 104 and verse 30. When you send forth your spirit they are created and you renew the face of the ground.
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What a marvelous thing that our immutable God has not changed even one bit.
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But the same spirit that enlivens the heart of Christians today. Is the same spirit of God that enlivened the world at creation.
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And then in this opening scene in Genesis. We see an aspect of the triunity of our
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God. Of the Father working in harmony with the spirit. And as we will see in a short time the role of the
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Son in creation as well. Preparing a habitation for humanity.
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One commentator says on a large scale. That this sets forth a singular message about the character and works of God.
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If we are prepared to see it even in these first two verses.
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We learn enough about God to fuel a lifetime of worship for him.
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And we can begin to glean some of the attributes that we would do well to pay attention to.
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Lest we too run the risk of rejecting the Holy God of Scripture. Now I can't do a thorough treatment but I want to run through just a couple here.
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That here just in these first two verses we capture a glimpse of the unity of God.
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Of the singularity of God. Here we see what the Hebrew Shema repeats in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 4.
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Hear O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one. That God is alone.
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That he is one and he is in a category all his own. He says in Isaiah 44 6.
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And this is a great passage to note if you are expecting Mormon missionaries one day. To speak about the singular nature of God.
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Isaiah 44 6. I am the first and I am the last.
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Besides me there is no God who is like me. Let him proclaim it.
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Let him declare and set it before me. Since I appointed an ancient people.
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Let them declare what is to come and what will happen. Fear not nor be afraid.
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Have I not told you from of old and declared it. And you are my witnesses.
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Is there a God besides me? There is no
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God. I know not any. Here we see the aseity of God.
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What has been called sometimes the self -existence or independence of God. That Latin phrase ase means from himself.
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Meaning God himself is self -existent. Before anything that was made was made.
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God was independent. He was doing fine without us. And yet he chose to make creation.
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We read in Acts 17 24. The God who made the world and everything in it.
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Being Lord of heaven and earth. Does not live in temples made by man nor is he served by human hands.
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But what? As though he needed anything. Since he himself gives to all mankind.
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Life and breath and everything. Here we see the omnipresence of God.
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That the same God who hovered over the face of the deep. Is the same God who is in all places at all times.
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He is the same God who is at work with you. When you go to work again tomorrow or to school.
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He is the same God who will be with you in your moments of trial and temptation this week.
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To think of it for a moment he is the same God. That same
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God who hovered over the face of the waters. Who is present with us now in this room.
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Observing us. Receiving we pray our worship offered to him.
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Where shall we go from your spirit? You read in Psalm 139. Where shall
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I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven. God you are there.
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If I make my bed in Sheol. You are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.
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Even there your hand shall lead me and your hand shall hold me. We learn about the eternality of God.
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There was a time when this world and everything in it was not. But that has never ever ever been the case with God.
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That before the mountains were brought forth. And the earth was formed and the world from everlasting to everlasting.
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Psalm 90 says he is God. And we learn about the sovereignty and the omnipotence of God.
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Here we see that one who has the power to create planets. And moons and suns and stars and galaxies.
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Is God alone. That God himself is king over his creation.
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He transcends. He is not a part of his creation. But he transcends his creation.
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And rules over all of the affairs of the universe. We do not possess even life within ourselves.
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But God grants life to all whom he pleases. It is not the darkened places of the world that generate life.
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But the spirit of God. In believers and in unbelievers.
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Our God is in the heavens and he does all that he pleases. Now we could go through and look at how.
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I believe this still teaches more the spirituality of God. And the wisdom and knowledge of God. The goodness of God.
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The freedom of God. The glory of God. But we will park it there.
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Such a knowledge of God from just these two verses. Should be dear saints almost too much for us to bear.
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That this God is true. That he is alive. And he is the
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God. He is not your God. But he is the God of all the universe.
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And our conception of God must conform to this God. Such a knowledge is enough to bring us to our knees.
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Ought to be in humble adoration before the author of life. It is enough to stop our boastful mouths.
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Before the almighty maker of heaven and earth. Such a God cannot be contained or controlled.
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He cannot be molded to our likeness. He does not conform to our sensibilities. But we must simply stand before him in awe.
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That this is the God who made us. And we know how the story is ending.
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And this is the God who has redeemed us. It reminds me of a story from the
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Westminster Assembly. When the Westminster Assembly met in the 1640s.
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To prepare what became the Westminster Shorter Catechism. They came to this question.
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What is God? And I love that we are memorizing for those who are. The Baptist Catechism.
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Because the exact same question and the exact same answer appear in our catechism. So that is a blessing to behold.
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As I was speaking about this with my children. My daughter could finish the answer to this question.
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What is God? And the men of the assembly were so impressed by.
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So taken aback by this question. What is God?
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That for a time no one spoke a word. This is the Westminster Assembly.
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So some of the most brilliant Puritan minds that we know of. Are sitting in this room.
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And the question is asked. What is God? And there was silence. And then finally after a long consideration.
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And I think some of our young men can probably relate to this. The assembly asked the youngest
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Scotch Commissioner. A man named George Gillespie. To lead them in prayer and to ask for help.
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And so as he led them in prayer. He began this way. He said. God. Oh God.
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Thou spirit. Infinite. Eternal. And unchangeable. In thy being.
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Wisdom. Power. Holiness. Justice. Goodness and truth.
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He led off his prayer with those words. And as he led off that prayer. A bunch of his other
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Puritan friends were writing down notes. What it was that he was saying. As they came to the end of the prayer.
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They said. Not only has he prayed this prayer. But the Lord through his prayers. Provided the answer.
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And so if we ask. Ask one of my children after the service. Or some of the others. Who have been memorizing this catechism.
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What is God? God is infinite. Eternal. And unchangeable.
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In his being. Wisdom. Power. Holiness. Justice. Goodness and truth.
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And there was not one amendment that was suggested. That God is all of these things.
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That he cannot be separated from his attributes. And let me ask you.
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Is that the God? That you serve? Or do you have a small
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God? The God that you have fashioned. Rather than the scriptures.
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Fashioned in your mind. But this account of creation continues. In verse three.
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We read this. And God said. Let there be light.
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And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.
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And God called the light day. And the darkness he called night. And there was evening.
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And there was morning. The first day. And God said. Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters.
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And let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and separated the waters.
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That were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse heaven.
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And there was evening. And there was morning. The second day. And God said. Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place.
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And let the dry land appear. And it was so. God called the dry land earth.
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And the waters that were gathered together he called seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said.
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Let the earth sprout vegetation. Plants yielding seed. And fruit trees bearing fruit in which there is their seed.
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Each according to its kind on the earth. And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation.
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Plants yielding seed according to their own kinds. And trees bearing fruit in which is their seed.
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Each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening.
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And there was morning. The third day. And God said. Let there be light.
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Lights in the expanse of the heavens. To separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons.
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And for days and years. And let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens. To give light upon the earth.
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And it was so. And God made the two lights. The greater light to rule the day.
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And the lesser light to rule the night. And the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens.
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To give light on the earth. To rule over the day. And over the night. And to separate the light from the darkness.
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And God saw that it was good. And there was evening. And there was morning. The fourth day.
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And God said. Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures. And let birds fly above the earth.
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Across the expanse of the heavens. So God created the great sea creatures. And every living creature that moves.
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With which the waters swarm. According to their kinds. And every winged bird according to its kind.
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And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them.
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Saying. Be fruitful and multiply. And fill the waters and the seas. And let birds multiply on the earth.
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And there was evening. And there was morning. The fifth day. And then we'll look together at the first half of the sixth day.
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Verse 24. And God said. Let the earth bring forth living creatures. According to their kinds.
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Livestock and creeping things. And beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds.
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And the livestock according to their kinds. And everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind.
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And God saw that it was good. We first looked at God over his creation.
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And now I want us to look together at the creation of God. The creation of God.
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Time simply will not allow us to look at every verse in detail. But I want to hit some of the important highlights.
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Some of these non -negotiable truths. That once we see them, we cannot unsee them.
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And they will paint a far more majestic and wise and glorious picture of our God. Than we had at the beginning of this sermon.
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As we look carefully at each day in God's creative work.
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We find that there is a standard formula. In each creative act.
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That is unveiled in seven parts. Every day that is created is created completely.
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It is created good. And we see each of these ingredients.
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Each of these standards in each act. In every act. In every day we see an announcement.
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That is number one. Where we read God said.
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At every day, God said in this announcement. Number two, we see a command.
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That God not only says, but that He commands. And He says, let there be.
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And we can fill in the blank. With every one of His announcements.
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And every one of His commands. We find, number three, a fulfillment. That it was so.
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Number four, we read about the execution. Of that fulfillment.
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That the earth brought forth this. That light was. Number five, we read about the approval.
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Of this creative act. That God, in His text, we read it says. God saw that it was good.
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Number six, the subsequent words that appear. When we read that God called the day.
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And then, number seven, we see the day numbered. The first day. The second day.
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The third day. In every instance. For the five and a half days that we are looking at today.
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Each creative act begins with this formula. These seven standards.
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And each begin with those words God said. This phrase appears in our
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Bibles ten times. In the first chapter of Genesis. And it speaks to God making everything out of nothing.
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Now there is a Latin term that is often used. I'm not sure if you can think of it in your mind.
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It is ex nihilo. Ex nihilo. Literally meaning out of nothing.
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To describe God's miraculous works of creation. Now we, dear saints, have taken this for granted.
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We look at this and say, of course, ex nihilo. He created everything out of nothing. There was nothing and then there was everything.
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And then we go on to verse 26. But let me ask you.
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Is that not something that should just blow our minds. That our God made absolutely everything.
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The wood in this pulpit is not from us. It is not from the builder.
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It is not from the hardware store. But this itself is from God.
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Coming from nothing at all. By the power of his word. Imagine for a moment that I were to put you.
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I know some of you like knitting. That I were to put you in a sterile room. A white room with absolutely nothing in it except for you.
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And I said to you. I want you to knit for me a scarf.
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Now if you were in your living room. You might reach for yarn. To begin making this knitted scarf.
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Now what if I said to you. I want you to present to me yarn. Well you'd say
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I need a bag of wool or of cotton. To prepare that yarn. Well what if I were to put you in that sterile room.
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And I were to deprive you of knitting needles. And yarn and wool. And access to sheep or any other material.
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That you would need to make that scarf. And I were to say. I want you to stay here until you knit that scarf.
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I could come back in an eternity of eternities. And what
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I would find is this. That you would be sitting in that room. And in your own imagination.
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You could describe that scarf. You could describe the material that it is made of.
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The colors that are weaved into it. The texture when you hold it in your hands.
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But I can tell you with certainty. You will never be able to present that scarf.
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It will be you and your imagination. And empty hands. But God in that sterile environment.
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Free from even matter. Made the heavens and the earth.
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If I were to put you in that room. Free of matter.
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Save you. And say. Never mind a scarf. Just make me one speck of dust.
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Just one speck of dust. One grain of sand. You would be there for an eternity of eternities.
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With nothing but empty hands. And nothing to show for it. God did not bring a sweater into being.
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He did not bring a solitary stone into being. But he brought a universe into being.
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With billions of galaxies. And solar systems. And black holes. And mountains.
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And oceans. And vegetation. And plant life. And billions of animals. And birds.
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And swarms of living creatures. And man. Ex nihilo. And we read about this creative marvel in Hebrews 11 in verse 3.
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When we read this. And this is an act of faith for us. Because the author of Hebrews says it is.
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That by faith we understand the universe was created by the word of God. So that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
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But it was made. Ex nihilo. By the creative word and the power of God's word.
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On day 1 in verses 3 through 5. We read that God created light to separate the day from the night.
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The same God of whom we are told in 2 Corinthians 4. That said let light shine out of darkness.
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This is the same God who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
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In the face of Jesus Christ. The same God who spoke life into being.
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Is the same God who spoke life into your heart. Through the gospel of Christ.
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On the second day in verses 6 through 8. We read that God separated the waters into an expansive atmosphere above.
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And in the words of one commentator. I think all of these words are important. He says a benevolent system.
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Of clouds, springs and rivers. The water was ordered for our good.
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But was also available to purge the earth of life after the fall.
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On the third day in verses 9 through 13. We see that God separated the earth from the waters.
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And formed land masses and oceans. And upon that land he placed plant life and vegetation to yield seeds and fruit.
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Each according to their kind as God had ordained. Just think of one seed.
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And the amount of information contained in just one seed.
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All the building blocks for that plant that is to come. Every single one of them
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God created. On day 4 in verses 14 through 19.
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We read that God created the sun and the moon and the celestial bodies. I appreciate what one man says about this.
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Thinking about what the early minds would have thought in Moses' day.
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As he writes this book. And as he recounts how it is that God created the sun and the moon.
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He says the sun and moon are creatures not gods. Unlike the
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Hittite sun god. They are not from eternity. Unlike the Egyptian sun god.
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They do not rule. The sun and moon are simply assigned the role of lighting the earth.
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And ruling the day and night as surrogates of God. He says this is quite a lowly function by ancient near eastern standards.
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Finally the stars. Widely worshipped and often regarded as controllers of human destiny.
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We should not have horoscopes as Christians. You should not be going to the corner store and getting the scroll at the checkout.
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Why? Because though they are widely worshipped and often regarded as controllers of human destiny.
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They are mentioned almost as an afterthought. And they too are merely creatures.
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This may be a good time to reflect on the fine tuning of the universe. I admit that I am not a scientist.
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But I had a great deal of enjoyment. And really an opportunity to worship this week.
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As I was studying how it is that our universe is finely tuned according to the knowledge and wisdom of God.
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Something even as simple as gravity. And our placement from the sun and from the moon.
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Has the ability to make or break our existence. The force of gravity on earth is determined by the gravitational constant on the earth.
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And we should stand in awe that if this gravitational constant varied by just one part in 10 to the power of 60.
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Human life on earth would be utterly impossible. Now what does that even mean?
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One part in 10 to the power of 60. The number of cells in your body is 10 to the power of 14 give or take.
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The number of cells we have is less than 100 trillion. 10 to the power of 14 if my math is correct is 100 trillion.
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So it is even less than that. And imagine for a moment that if one cell in your entire body changed.
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If that one cell changed for even a moment you would cease to exist. That is significantly smaller than one part in 10 to the power of 60.
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That if we were to take an old earth creation view and count every single second from the creation of the world.
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That itself would be less than 10 to the power of 60.
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If the density of the universe changed or the expansion rate of the universe.
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Or the habitable zone which the earth perfectly occupies takes up 95 % of that inhabitable zone.
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Or the axis of the earth was altered. If the most minute change was applied we simply would cease to exist.
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And so you say how do we see the knowledge and the wisdom of God in creation? By the very fact that we are here and that we exist.
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And that we have life and breath and all things. Sir Walter Reese who is a professor of cosmology and astrophysics at the
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University of Cambridge. He says wherever physics looks we see examples of fine tuning.
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Charles Townes a Nobel laureate in physics writes intelligent design.
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As one sees it from a scientific point of view seems to be quite real. It is a special universe.
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But you might say you're cherry picking because you're looking at these Christians. Who are doing their scientific study through their faith lens.
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Well here let me quote for you a new atheist. The late physicist and cosmologist former atheist
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Stephen Hawking. Who is famous for saying this.
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The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been finely adjusted to make possible the development of life.
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That there is just something about the creation of the universe that is fine tuned.
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And who could be the tuner? But God himself. On the fifth day in verses 20 through 23.
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God created birds and sea creatures. And then on the first part of the sixth day in verse 24 through 25.
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God created livestock and creeping things and the beasts of the earth. And all of this was created.
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Scripture tells us in six days. Now some are going to question is this six literal days.
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There is debate about this amongst faithful Christians. But I am going to propose that it was in fact six literal days.
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And for some of you, you don't believe me but don't tune me out. Just hear it. The word day as it's used in Genesis chapter one.
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Yam. Means literally a day or even day time.
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That a day took place between the sunrise and the sunset. I think the age day theory is ruled out.
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That this day speaks of an age. And why? Because we see that it is punctuated by a morning and by an evening.
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And then the following day. Or by the genre. Some of our institute students have been looking at this.
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This idea of genre. How does genre play in? Well this is not written as poetry.
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If we remember back to the Toledot structure of Genesis. Each Toledot moves us forward in the chronology of the book.
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And conservative Bible scholars as they look at this. They recognize that this structure. And the continuity of the narrative through Genesis.
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And then into the Pentateuch. That is the first five books of the Old Testament. Demand that we read
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Genesis as a book of history. Not of poetry. Not of mythology.
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But as prose. And as narrative. Listen to this comment from one scholar.
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He says if we are speaking of the original intent of the biblical writers.
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Our institute guys will recognize that language. The style of the book leaves little space to argue over the obvious conclusion.
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That the author intended it to be read as a work of history. That recounts what has taken place.
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In the far distant past. He comments a long tradition of scholarship.
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Both in Jewish and Christian circles. Supports this view that the narrative intends to impart information.
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About the events and the characters of the past. And therefore Genesis may be described as theological history.
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The most magnificent universe imaginable. Was made in six days.
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And it has been designed in such a way. As one author puts it.
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To show God to be the sole cause. Behind the creation of the universe.
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And humankind. That God himself is the powerful creator. And men and women.
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You all of you are his dependent creatures. We are surrounded by such majesty.
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That it ought to blow our minds. You heard me share this before. I won't recount it that often.
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But our conversations with people on White Avenue. If God is real. Why doesn't he just show himself to me?
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Because he has. The heavens declare the glory of God.
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His invisible attributes and eternal power. Are clearly perceived in all that he has made.
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And we're fast approaching Reformation Day. And so I usually preach a Reformation Day sermon.
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But opting out of that this year. At least I will use a quote from Martin Luther. Not only did the
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Lord give Martin Luther eyes. To see the truths of the gospel. But he gave him eyes to see the abundance of God's goodness.
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In the world around him. And one of the things that Luther loved doing. Was observing the birds and the leaves and the flowers.
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And what he called the common gifts of God. And he would marvel at a plate of fruit.
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We had our church family brunch yesterday. Imagine one of the peculiar men in the group.
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Or women in the group. Staring at the fruit tray. And marveling at God's creative work.
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And all of the colors in that tray. He saw, in the words of one biographer.
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The whole volume of God's bounty. All around him. And one day he took a rose in his hand.
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And exclaimed. A man who could make one rose like this.
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Would be accounted most wonderful. But God.
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God scatters countless such flowers around us.
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But the very infinity of his gifts. Makes us blind to them.
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That if you lived in a world that was black and white. And one person came up to you. With a vivid bright red rose.
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And gave it to you. Your mind would be blown. You would marvel. And yet we lose sight of all these things to marvel at.
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Because we are just continuously surrounded by the beauty. And the intricacy of God's magnificent creation.
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So we see God before creation. We see the creation of God.
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And I want to give us just a few moments of application. In man's fitting response.
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When we read Genesis chapter 1. And we get to the end of verse 25. What should we do?
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For most of us. We check it off our bible reading list. We close the cover.
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And then we make breakfast. What do we do at the end of verse 25?
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The first thing I think that we must do is this. That we must humble ourselves.
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Before such a God. We read in scripture. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.
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How we speak so glibly of this God. That we worship.
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How we speak so flippantly about the things of God. That we can get together and speculate about God.
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And go on and on and on and on. Yet we do not consider who it is that we are speaking of.
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Who it is that when we come on the Lord's day to worship. Who it is that we are offering our worship to.
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Martin Lloyd Jones said this once. He said God's power. Not only surpasses our power of expression.
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But it surpasses our power of comprehension. He says take all the dictionaries of the world.
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Exhaust all the vocabularies. And when you have added them all together. You have still not begun to describe the greatness of God's power.
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And in one of his sermons. He recounted a time when he was a young man. And amongst a group of other young men.
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They were smoking cigars and pipes. And theorizing about the nature of God. And to them
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God was a specimen to be pulled apart.
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And to be gleaned at. To be dissected. And discussed. And as he recounts.
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Looking back at that occasion. He said this. He said it would have been better. If we had extinguished our cigarettes.
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And taken off our shoes. And gotten onto our knees. And humbled ourselves.
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Before that God. Of whom we were speaking. Lloyd -Jones felt.
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And I believe it's still true today. That Christians in his day. Had lost a sense. Of the majesty of God.
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And therefore their reverence towards God. That unlike the Jews. Who trembled at the thought of even saying
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God's name. Lloyd -Jones pointed out. That we so often speak about God.
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Cheekily. Perhaps it is the case sometimes. That we are taking God's name in vain.
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Not simply when we stub our toe. And use his name in that way. But then when we speak of God.
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And treat God lightly. As if he were common.
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As if. As the Jews fell into in their day. As if he was one of us.
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As if he were like us. But when we come to Genesis chapter 1.
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In verse 25. We should humble ourselves. Under the mighty hand of God.
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And give him the glory. And the honor due his name. At the end of verse 25.
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Not only should we come to him in humility. But we should come to him in worship. In Romans chapter 1.
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It's interesting. We can read Romans chapter 1. And from a presuppositional apologetics standpoint.
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We can say that all people presuppose that there is a God. That they know in the inner man that there is a
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God. And they are accountable to him. And they are suppressing that truth and unrighteousness. But let me challenge you.
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With something that I think we are all tempted to. In Romans chapter 1 in verse 20. We read that passage about God's invisible attributes.
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And his eternal power. And his divine nature. How these are clearly perceived. We read ever since the creation of the world.
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And the things that have been made. So that the world is without excuse. That in all of creation we have enough light to be accountable.
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But not enough light to be saved. But near the end of that passage.
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In verses 25 and verse 26. We read there that it speaks about God giving them up.
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To the lusts of their heart. To impurity. To the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.
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And worshipped and served the creature. Rather than the creator. Who is blessed forever.
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Amen. When was the last time you saw a sunset?
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Or saw a super moon as it's coming up on the horizon. And you gave praise and glory and honor to God himself.
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For his creative work. But how often it is that we are inclined to worship.
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And incline our hearts to the creature. Rather than the creator of that creation.
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When we rightly apprehend who it is that God is.
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We should sing and offer up our very lives as an act of worship to him.
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Oh that he is worthy of all of our praises. That he has in fact made us to praise him.
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There was once a young man named William Robinson. Who was an unbelieving son of a wealthy Quaker in England.
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In the early 1700s he came to America to teach at a school in New Jersey.
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And one night as he was riding his horse under the dark night sky. He looked up and saw the moon and the stars.
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And they were shining with an unusual brightness. And as he was meditating on the beauty and the grandeur of the scene.
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He said to himself. How transcendently glorious must be the author of all of this beauty and this grandeur.
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But then struck with that thought. There was suddenly this force as if lightning that came to him.
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And he incredulously said to himself. But what do I know of this
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God? Have I ever sought his favor? Have I ever made him my friend?
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And taken aback so much by his neglect of the creator of this world.
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His biographer later wrote. He said this impression never left him. Till he took refuge in Christ as the hope and life of his soul.
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How often do you just see two birds flying, flitting through the trees.
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And think to yourself. What an amazing God. But my last point of application that I'll give you quickly is this.
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That we should come before God in humility. That we should come before God in worship. That we should come before the maker, the author of all creation.
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And receive that author on his terms. We have a more complete picture of creation now than we did.
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In Genesis chapter 1 days. Than they had in Moses' day.
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We read in Colossians chapter 1 verse 16. For by him, that is by Christ, Jesus Christ himself.
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All things were created in heaven and on earth. Visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.
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All things were created through him and for him. In John chapter 1.
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It's amazing to look at the text in the Greek language.
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And then compare that to the Septuagint. It's almost verbatim. One for one.
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In the beginning, God. In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God.
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And the word was God. That not only was the father there in creation.
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Fashioning the world. Not only was the spirit there. But the Lord Jesus Christ was there.
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And a proper response to the creative works that we see in Genesis.
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And that we see around us. Is to give the glory and honor due to Jesus Christ.
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In John chapter 1. In verse 10 we read. And this is one of the most damning verses in the
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Bible. One of the most damning passages in the Bible. That he was in the world.
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And the world was made through him. Yet the world did not receive him.
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He came to his own. And his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him.
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Who believed in his name. He gave the right to become children of God.
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Who were born not of blood. Nor of the will of the flesh. Nor of the will of man.
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But of God. That when we see these creative works. We should see.
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Not just the garden of Eden. But we should see Christ in his garden.
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In the garden of Gethsemane. Tempted as well. Sweating drops of blood.
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Ready to take our hell for us. As our penal substitute.
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And that Christ who came. He is the very author of creation. He is the very maker of the world.
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And for some of you. You have responded to that. You have repented of your sins. And you have believed in Christ.
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But for still others. It could be said of Christ. That he was in the world.
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And the world was made through him. Yet you did not know him. You did not receive him.
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His own people. And this is a call for every single one of us. When we see as we recount these works of creation.
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Not just to stand before God humbled. Not just to give our praise and our worship to God.
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But to give still more of our faith and trust to Jesus Christ.
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Who is that author of creation. And so who is it?
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Who is this God that you worship? Is he a
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God that you have created after your own image and likeness? Or is he the God of the
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Bible? Is he a small God that you can control?
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Or is he God Almighty? Whom the heavens of heaven cannot contain.
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I'll end with this quote from John Piper. He said, God made man small. And the universe big to say something about himself.
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Is your God that big? Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Thank you for listening to another sermon from Grace Fellowship Church.
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01:06:06
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GraceEdmonton .ca We pray that you have been blessed by this recording. God bless you.