Created For God’s Glory Series

It was a joy to engage via livestream last weekend while Beth and I were in New York visiting our daughter Megan and her husband Lucas. We were both moved to tears by students leading in musical worship and we nearly wept during the message part of worship as Pastor Chris directed us to celebrate God’s provision and providence, while recognizing He is powerful and personal, which should lead us to a response of praise.

As I was meditating on this amazing service, it all came crashing down when I received a text from Edgewood member Tracy Czekalski: “Went to church last night and Chris preached on ‘In the beginning and God saw that it was good.’ At 6pm, I saw ‘that it was good.’ Service over. I told Chris that he should tell you to take note and he laughed. [Pastor] Ed said, ‘text Brian that’ so of course, I had to. Hahaha. JK, have a good rest of your trip.” I quickly sent a reply, “It was the only bad thing about his message.”

Pastor Chris took us through the second and third days of creation. Today I’ll be cashing in on the 15 extra minutes he left on the table as we consider days four, five, and the first part of day six. We’ll slow down the pace during the next three weeks as we unpack the closing verses of chapter one.

We’ll discover how these verses have remarkable application to contemporary issues like the upcoming election, abortion, gender, sexuality, God’s design for marriage, and discovering God’s purpose for our lives. You might want to invite a friend or family member to join you. I also want to give parents a heads-up that the next couple sermons will have a PG rating which some children may not be ready to hear, while those who are older should hear. Here’s where we’re headed.

November 5-6 Image is Everything Genesis 1:26

November 12-13 Gender Matters Genesis 1:27

November 19-20 Created on Purpose Genesis 1:28-31

As we journey through the six days of creation, we can see two triads. God formed creation on days 1-3, and He filled, or finished creation, on days 4-6. Matthew Henry says it like this: “God created the frame and the furniture of the universe.” Isaiah 45:18 says: “He did not create it empty, He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there is no other.”

If we take the first, second, and third days of creation and line them up with the fourth, fifth, and sixth days, we can see an amazing symmetry.

Day 1 (light) Day 4 (sun, moon, and stars)

Day 2 (sea and sky) Day 5 (fish and birds)

Day 3 (earth) Day 6 (creatures of the land)

Let’s go back to Genesis 1:2, where we read the earth was “without form and void.” We can see how the Lord addressed this formlessness on days 1-3 and He filled the emptiness on days 4-6.

Here’s our main idea: God forms and fills His creation for His glory and our good. This makes me think of the answer to the first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Or, as we’ve stated before on Reformation weekend: Soli Deo Gloria, to the glory of God alone. Psalm 19:1 says: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” Psalm 150:1 says, “Praise Him in the highest heavens!”

As we consider how creation gives glory to God, I’m humbled to be part of a church that has always embraced the inerrancy and authority of Scripture. Recently, I came across a booklet entitled, “Your Church and You” published by Rev. William Sears and the deacons of Edgewood in October of 1957. Listen to this paragraph from the section called, “What This Church Believes.”

“We believe in the Genesis account of the creation, and that it is to be accepted literally, and not allegorically or figuratively; that man was created in innocence in God’s own image and after God’s own likeness; that man’s creation was not a matter of evolution…that all animal and vegetable life was made directly, and God’s established law was that they should bring forth ‘after their own kind.’”

Let’s give God glory and enjoy Him now as we submit to the Scriptures. Having created light (singular) on the first day, God now creates lights (plural) on the fourth day.

Day 4

Listen to Genesis 1:14-19: And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.