Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Genesis

Genesis 1:1-2 09/23/01

Introduction: Anyone here ever run in a marathon? I haven't, bad knees, but right now I think I know what it must feel like to stand at the starting line knowing that over 26 miles of sweat, pain and exhaustion awaits me. Well, that is what I am feeling about our 'Beginning' in Genesis. I promise, however, the sweat, pain and exhaustion will all be found in my study and not in here on Sunday mornings. Genesis is an exciting book, full of truths relevant to where we all live today and for that reason I am excited about this new series.

     Did anyone see the Presidents address to the Nation last Thursday night? Some people call the President of the US the most powerful leader in the world, but more than one former president would disagree. Ex-presidents have confessed that their executive orders weren't always obeyed and that there really wasn't much they could do about it.

     We are going to find from the Book of genesis that when God speaks, something happens! What God says, what God desires, what God wills...is, it becomes, it happens.

Ps. 33:9 says 'for he spoke and it was done'

     When you consider the acts of God recorded in Genesis 1, you can't help but bow in worship, shout in praise, rejoice in thanks. Because God's creative acts reveal a God of power and wisdom whose word carries with it total and complete authority.  But not everyone would agree.

Humanist Manifesto: Humanists regard the universe as self-exisiting and not created, we begin with humans not God...we can discover no divine purpose or providence for the human species...no deity will save us, we must save ourselves.

     Well, here it is. We must and will take sides. Genesis and the rest of the Word of God tells us one thing about humanity and the universe and the world tells us another. Which will you believe? Which will you live? Which will you teach to your children, tell to your relatives, your neighbors and coworkers?

Trans: Open your Bibles to Genesis 1:1. This morning we will examine verses 1-2 and we will see what God wants us to know about humanity and the universe.
     We will also examine what the world wants us to know about the same thing.
     We will end with a challenge...who is it gonna be....God or the world, the truth or the lie, hope or despair.

Question: More than anything else, what does God want us to know about how life began?

Read: Gen. 1:1-2
God wants us to know the WHEN of creation.
    1. (WHEN) In the beginning
         When did creation take place....in the beginning! Before there were clocks, before there was even time. Time, as we know it didn't begin, until the beginning, until God's first creative act. Genesis 1 declares that  the universe did not always exist, but that it in fact had a beginning.

God wants us to know the WHO of creation
    2. (WHO) God (Trinity)
     Scripture does not argue for the existence of God, it declares his existence. God is the subject of this text. And God dominates the entire first chapter with the name Elohim being used 32 times. Elohim. It is interesting that this name of God should be used right here in the first verse of Genesis, in the first book of the Bible. Elohim is a strange word in Hebrew. It is plural. A literal translation of Gen. 1:1 is 'In the beginning, Gods created the heaven and the earth.' Because all the other parts of this sentence are singular, it must grammatically be translated God not Gods.

     So what do you thing God is trying to tell us, right here in the first verse of the first book of the bible? He is telling us that right from the beginning, God wants it to be known that there is a plurality in God. He doesn't explain it here but does bring it up again later in vs 26 of chapter 1. And, the second person of the trinity is mentioned in vs 2 as the Spirit of God. Coincidence? I think not!  The Trinity is expressed right here at the beginning of the beginning. Is it important, you bet.

     This should leave no doubt what this chapter, and book is about. It is about God. It tells  us that God actually exists, that he is real.

God wants us to know the WHAT of creation
    3. (WHAT) Created
     Hebrew word 'bara' means to create out of nothing, w/o pre-existing material...it intimates the initial moment of bringing something into existence. This word is used exclusively of God in Scripture. Man may make (which is the Hebrew word 'asa' which means to assemble together out of pre-exisitng materials) but God creates, brings something out of nothing.

God wants us to know the WHAT of creation
    4. (WHAT) The heavens and earth
     Scripture does not argue that the heavens and earth have a creator, it declares that God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in it.

    The word heavens means 'space;. In the beginning God created space, not just outer space...but physical space. Physical space was a prerequisite for things to be placed in space.

     So in this first verse we see God creating, out of nothing both time and space and he began to fill this new space with the earth. Awesome, isn't it?

God wants us to know the HOW of creation
    5. (HOW) Earth was formless, void and dark
     'tohu wa bohu'  without form and empty. Scripture doesn't tell us why he created it well, basically as a lump of clay. Which from our human perspective was chaotic and empty. But God saw it from his perspective and what he saw was the beginning of something he intended to make very good.  Formless, void and dark was how the earth began, but it was not to be it's finished product.

6. (AND) The Spirit of God was moving
     Notice that the Spirit of God is the first mover. Humanity asks if this chaos, this darkness, this emptiness can be made into something beautiful. And God says YES! But only by the moving of His Spirit. The earth would have stayed in it's infant state of being formless, void and dark if the Spirit of God had not made the first move and quickened it, brought it to life.

     God's sovereign power to bring life from that which is chaotic, empty and dark is still a reality. Each time a soul is saved, each time a person trusts Christ as their Savior, the Spirit of God has moved over the emptiness and lifeless human spirit and quickened, made it alive with the Spirit of Christ. And pronounces it very good!

     God is still Sovereign and God's Spirit is still moving to bring about new creations in Christ.

Trans: What we have been looking at is called 'Creationism'. This is the belief that God is the source of all things and that what the Bible says concerning creation is to be taken literally. We will look at that in greater detail next week when we study Gen. 1:3- 2:3 and the Creation Week. But for now, lets look at the other side of this initial argument.

Question: More than anything else what does the world  want us to know about how life began?

 That it didn't happen like the Bible teaches. Instead try...
1. Atheistic Evolution

    1. Variety: There are variations w/in individuals of the same  species.
    2. Overproduction: there are more individuals in a species than  can survive to maturity.
        Conclusion: Struggle for existence. In order to survive,   members of the species must compete with other members.
    3. Survival of the fittest: In a competitive environment,   only those best fitted to survive, will survive.
    4. Inheritance of favorable characteristics: Fit    individuals pass on their good characteristics to their offspring.
        Conclusion: New species arise by the continued survival   and reproduction of the individuals best suited by their
                            particular environment.

     Basic premise is that there is no God, just random chance. And that this process while still going on, began millions of years ago.

Problems
 -Evolution requires the earth to be millions of years old. However thousands of scientists today agree that the earth is no more
    than 8,000 years old.

 -Evolution has been disregarded by much of the scientific community as not true.

 -Many of the fossils and skulls found have been revealed to be a hoax and are much younger than originally estimated.

 -If evolution is true then death came before sin and the fall of mankind. This is not possible since it was the sin of Adam and
    Eve that ushered in death to humanity and the created order.

 -The Biblical account of creation is a myth. If this is true then where do we stop? Was there in fact an Adam and Eve..no,
    how about Noah, no, how about David..yes, why David and not Noah when the Bible says both were real? Who decides
    what is truth and what is myth?

2. Theistic Evolution
     Those who hold this view acknowledge that God began everything, but then set it free to evolve. He formed the first protein molecule, then left it free to collide with other molecules and evolve into many different forms of life. Many Christians hold this idea.

     They are evolutionists because they believe in the evolutionary process, they are theists because they believe in the Christian God. The main difference between atheistic evolution and theistic evolution is the believe in the Christian God starting the ball rolling at creation.

     These Christians hold to a day-age theory of the 6 days of creation. Each day was not a 24 hour period but an age or period of time, perhaps millions of years. They say this because the word for 'day' (yom) is sometimes used both ways....24hr period and a longer period of time or age.

     This is what is being taught in may of our Christian schools, colleges and seminaries.

Problems
 -These 'Christians' can't take Genesis in it's normal and literal sense. They have to say that it is just a story made up to appease
    the questions of Israel when confronted by the pagan religions of their day.

 -Evolution has never been scientifically proven. Therefore , those who hold this believe God to have done something he may
    not have done.

 -When 'yom' is used with a qualifier such as first or one in Scripture,  it is always means 24hr period.

 -God defines day in Gen. 1:5 'and God called the light day and the darkness he called night and there was evening and
    morning, one day.' This was the normal way the Hebrews understood a 24 hr period, from evening to morning.

 -The biggest problem is how did plant life (3rd day) survive thousands of years before the creation of the Sun, Moon and
    stars (4th day) given to order the seasons?

4. Gap
     This idea is held by even more Christians than Theistic Evolution and it holds that there is a huge gap in time between what happens in Gen. 1:1 and Gen. 1:2. The teaching is that during this gap, Lucifer sinned in heaven and fell to the earth and God judged the earth and destroyed it. (Isa. 14) The fossil record is the result of this.

Problems
 -Nowhere does the Bible establish any connection between the fall of Lucifer and the alleged recreation of the world
    supposedly destroyed by Lucifer's fall.

 -If this is true then death happened before the fall of man in the garden and this contradicts Scripture which says that death
    came as the result of mans sin in the garden.

 -In the other texts that speak of the creation in the Bible, there is not even a hint to recreation or Satan's fall and the alleged
    destruction of the earth.

     The word has many ideas about how life began and wants you to accept any one of them. But God is clear, he wants you to accept what he has clearly written....

Conclusion
     Genesis declares an astounding truth: life did not just happen by chance. The earth and universe were created, from nothing, by a sovereign God who reveals himself through his glorious creation.  The earth, the universe, humanity and all things have been created deliberately and personally by God.

Genesis 1:1-2
 -refutes the atheist who says there is no God,

 -refutes the agnostic who says if there is a God we can not know him,

 -refutes the polytheist who says that there are many different gods,

 -refutes the pantheist who says that all nature is God,

 -refutes the materialist who says that matter is eternal and not created

 -refutes the fatalist who says that there is no divine plan behind creation and history.

 -and it refutes all those who come up with some other idea of how life was created other than what God has said in His Word.

     Part of the problem is that Genesis 1 has been misread and misunderstood, even by those in the Church. Most look at Genesis 1 and see the creation of the universe and human life and they ask questions about how, when, what...but the focus on Genesis 1  and specifically in vs 1-2 is on the WHO of Creation...God!

     While Genesis may not answer all the questions we may have about the what, when, how and why of Creation, it does give us sufficient answers concerning the who...God and God alone.

     The challenge this morning and each day you wake up is What do you have to say to this sovereign God this morning?

     Remember, God is still in the creation business. He still  takes lives in chaos, in darkness, empty of meaning and sends his Spirit to move. And where the Spirit of God moves, life is given.

     Do you want new life? Do you want an end to the darkness and chaos of your existence? Jesus said that he came to give life and give it abundantly.

     Perhaps God's Spirit is moving, is touching your heart right now. How do you respond?

1. Recognize your sin, your life of darkness before God, tell him you are sorry for acting like God when he in fact is your
    creator.

2. Accept Jesus' death of the cross as payment for your sin and separation from God.

3. Ask God to make you a new creation through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ His Son.

 And God will send His Spirit to move in you to bring about life...eternal life and life that God says is very Good.