Creation Series, Part 7b
Genesis 1:27 – Gen 2:3
Introduction
- This evening, we bring to a conclusion our series on Creation from Genesis 1
- Let me ask … has this series helped you understand God’s miraculous work?
-- If your answer is yes, I want to encourage you to be bold enough to share it
-- Remember that these messages are not only available online, but on CD as well
- What’s important to keep VERY close at hand is the things we have discussed
- 1) We have a Creator, He is God, and He has given us a clear account of His story
- 2) What we find ourselves in is a situation that separates all of us: Do we believe?
-- If you do not believe this account, you fall into one of these two categories:
- Theistic Evolutionist: Believes that God is real, yet He used evolution to evolve all things in this world to include the creation of mankind
- Naturalistic Evolutionist (which most non-believers are): Believes that everything evolved by accident, and that there is no God nor Creator
-- Evolution uses the formula: “Nobody times Nothing equals Everything!”
-- This is absolutely the wrong angle for us and is at the heart of our beliefs
- Before we can even see the Redeemer, who is Jesus, we must see the Creator
-- We must see the Glory of a Creator who specifically put each thing into place
- APP: If we cannot see the work of the Creator; can we see the work of a Messiah?
- IMP: There is NOTHING in scripture that supports something evolved from anything
- What we have seen to date is that God has created:
1. The Earth
2. The skies above (including the atmosphere)
3. The land and the seas
4. The vegetation that we see around us
5. The lights in the sky (to include the sun and the stars)
6. The fish in the sea and the birds in the sky
7. The creation of the animals which inhabit this
8. This morning we saw the creation of man in God’s own image and His purpose
- Stand and read Genesis 1:26-2:3
- Pray
Point 1 – Control is given to Man (1:27-31)
- First we see God’s decision to create; and then it was done by His word
- However, what God has created is not something that looks just like Him
- What has been created is something that contains the same attributes that God has
- Man is a person; animals are not people; which again strengthen “non-evolution”
-- What man has that animals do not is consciousness; awareness; ability to reason
-- Animals realize their environment; but for them it is an instinctive realization
-- Mankind however not only realizes our environment, but we interact with it
- We can appreciate beauty; think about issues; to choose right/wrong; etc.
- Mankind also; created in God’s image; we have the ability to show emotion to others
-- Example of God reacting to us: Rom 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
- In the same manner we were created to react to God; to worship and adore Him
-- It is what separates us from Fido and Fluffy; and what we must grasp in these verses
- God then gives us a blessing in how we should live (28); critical to comprehend this
- Rev John MacArthur said, “We have a cursed earth to deal with and it's not easy. But like Adam after he sinned, we need to work at it a little to the point where we sweat in order that God's creative beauty might be on display. We're still stewards of His creation. …. While I'm here I want God to be able to be on display.”
- God has graciously given us everything on this Earth to be stewards of; but will we?
- Will we act in a way that reflects everything that God has presented to us?
-- 1 Cor 10:31 says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
-- Paul is not telling us how to drink a cup of coffee; but to react to God in everything
-- APP: Will we allow God to be reflected in everything that we are and that we do?
- TRANS: (31) When God has finished; He said that is was VERY good (perfection)
Point 2 – A completed work (2:1-3)
- Creation then comes to a close with a defining moment in history; He rests
-- But here on the 7th day, God rests from all that He has done and steps back
-- The word used in Hebrew is “qedesh”; which means sanctified; set apart
-- This day, more than any other day, is to be set apart and to give honor to the Lord
- So the seventh day is a special day. It is a day set apart.
- It is a day cut off from the other days and elevated.
- It is a day lifted up. It is a day exalted by God; something to realize and apply here
- The verb "rested" is actually the word Shabbat in Hebrew; it is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism
- It does not to imply any kind of weariness.
- IMP: It is not that God was worn out after a tough work week.
- There is nothing in scripture that says God needed a break to rest from Creation
- Psalm 121:4, “indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”
-- God is not a sleeper nor a napper (as most of us are on a Sunday); He doesn’t stop
-- God does not need to be replenished from His work; it’s the DAY that’s sanctified
Conclusion
- The events surrounding the Creation are not just historical facts open for debate
- God created man in His own image, created man to be king of the earth
- Created man to procreate, to fill the earth with others also made in God’s image
- Verse 31 says, "And God saw all that He had made and behold it was very good."
- Not just the parts, He's commented on the parts being good: This time: very good
- There is nowhere in this study where evolution logically fits into place
- There was no death. There is no mutation & dying for billions of years during this time
- When God says a day, He means an actual day. And so you come to chapter 2 verse 1, "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts."
- Simply stated … When God stepped back and said it’s completed ... IT IS DONE
- 34 verses give us a complete insight into the mind and will of God as Creator
- Now, how do we respond to God? We’ll examine this over the next few months
- Pray
