Dr. Bradford Reaves
Crossway Christian Fellowship
Hagerstown, MD, USA
www.mycrossway.org
View this and other messages at: https://mycrossway.churchcenter.com/channels/8118
I heard this a few times over the years and I thought it was fitting for today: “God created the dog and said: 'Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.'
The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?'
So God agreed.
God created the monkey and said: 'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span.'
The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?'
And God agreed.
God created the cow and said: 'You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.'
The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?'
And God agreed again.
God created man and said: 'Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years.'
But man said: 'Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?'
'Okay,' said God, 'You asked for it.'
So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.
We’ve spent the last 8 weeks in a series called “Beginnings” going over in very fine detail the creation account found in Genesis. All of this is critical to understand if we’re going to fully understand who we are and why we are here. It is critical to understand sin and the effects of sin; not only on our lives, but our families, our communities, and all of creation.
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For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.(Romans 8:19–21)
Nothing about evolution is compatible with the biblical account of creation here in Genesis. They teach our children evolution as scientific fact (which it is not) and it is having serious spiritual repercussions on their faith. So it should not come as a surprise to us that those who would want to dethrone God start by tearing down creation by denying there is even a creator. From here all other biblical doctrines can be uprooted. We could never fully appreciate or understand this portion of Scripture without studying the rest. If we don’t understand how and why God created everything in the first 6 days, our understanding of why he created man at the end of Day 6 will be incomplete.
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26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1:26–31)
The first thing I want you to observe is there is a distinct change in the creation narrative starting in verse 26. Up until this point God has created by declaration or ‘Divine Fiat.’ God spoke and it existed. “Let there be… and there was...” It is almost impersonal. Now God becomes personal and He begins to speak in relational terms. “Let us make man in our image.” And God, for the first time in the Bible there is intimacy or a relationship between God and what He is creating.
We are now introduced for the very first time to the fact that that there is a Godhead. The Hebrew has eluded to this, because the word for God, Elohim, has a plural ending but now it is specific. We have specific language that tells us God who is more than one, and we are introduced to the relationships within the Trinity by this statement, “Let us make man in our image.” That there is an executive divine council. We saw this in chapter 1, verse 2. God creates, at the beginning of verse 1, and then in verse 2, we’re introduced to the spirit of God moving over the surface of the water. John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” That is the second member of the Trinity, Jesus Christ.
What is important to know is that we have a clear, unmistakable reference to the Trinity here in Genesis. You can’t fully understand this doctrine without the perfect harmony of the Old Testament and the New Testament. There is clear imagery in other places throughout the Old Testament and New Testaments but there is clear evidence of the Trinity in operation in the creation narrative.
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I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. (Psalm 2:7 ESV)
The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”? (Psalm 110:1)
and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22 ESV)
yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (1 Corinthians 8:6 ESV)
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” (Revelation 4:11 ESV)
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. (Genesis 1:26 (ESV)
Now, there are four features discussed about man. The first feature is man is made in the image of God. It says it repeatedly, “Let us make man in our image according to Our likeness.” Image and likeness are synonyms. What does it mean? It’s what identifies a difference between us and every other created thing, including the conscious animals. This is critical because it tells us that man cannot evolve. You can’t evolve into the image of God. That is not something that shows up in genetics. That’s not something you find in a chromosome. That’s not something that appears in DNA.
Man is transcendent. You cannot reduce who you are down to chemicals, you cannot see the image of God in DNA or chromosomes. You cannot dissect a brain or heart and find the true part of man. Man is distinct from every other created creature. Man is created eternal and with the image of God. Man has the ability to appreciate beauty, feel emotion, be morally conscious, and personally relate to others. Man is especially created to relate with God and worship Him... Man has the ability to love, man has the ability to fellowship, converse, commune, have language.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV)
Number two, man is given dominion over all of the earth and its inhabitants.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26 (ESV)
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28 (ESV)
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The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (Genesis 2:15)
We live in a world that is designed by God to manifest his glory, and we do have a responsibility to have rulership over that creation. For what purpose? To continually honor, worship, and glorify God. I don't know about you but when I see creation in all of its beauty, my instantaneous response is to glorify God and to praise him. Why do you think he created them? To give glory to himself, and when you cultivate those kinds of things you are doing that; you’re putting God’s creative power on display and giving glory to Him.
We don’t worship the plants or animals or anything that is created. That’s an abomination to God because He is the creator of those marvelous things - and they are marvelous and we should enjoy the beauty of God’s creation, but never worship it in any way. Which, of course, is part of the decalogue.
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For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:19–21 ESV)
Third, Man is to fill the earth. This is God’s command to man to “be fruitful and multiply.” (Gen 1:28)
You know, there is a movement among elitists, like Bill Gates, who want to reduce the population of the earth down to less than 500,000,000 people. In fact, there is even a monument outside of Atlanta Georgia, dedicated to this cause, in which there are carved the 10 Commandments for a New Age of Reason. It’s called the American Stonehenge and it is a monument to this evil. That’s how I know this is evil and how people behind this like Bill Gates and others are evil and using this virus for control.
The command of God was “have babies and families honor my name in your fruitfulness.” We’ll get into the specifics of Adam and Eve in a couple of weeks, but that is why God says for the first time in His creative order, “it is not good… it is not good for man to be alone” (Gen 2:18). So what does God do, but created a helper for man; a woman.
God designed marriage one man, one woman, and the man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife. They become one flesh, and the way they become one flesh is in the life that comes from them. One flesh means sexual intimacy, one flesh means that you think alike and do things together, and one flesh is the fruit of your intimacy in children.
But man has desecrated the pleasure God created for Him. Pleasure without God, without the sacred boundaries, will actually leave you emptier than before. And this is biblical truth, this is experiential truth. The loneliest people in the world are amongst the wealthiest and most famous who found no boundaries within which to live. That is a fact I’ve seen again and again.
That was man’s mandate because in so doing man multiplies the image of God. That’s why must emphasize to Christian parents who have children to understand the stewardship you have from God to bring that little one, made in the image of God, back to the knowledge of God through faith in Jesus Christ. That’s why we must teach parenting and marriage. It’s not because we are philosophically or relationally oriented. It is right here in the creation and God’s mandate to us.
Included in our relationship is the uniqueness of man for language. Unlike apes and other living creatures, the human capacity for language is a door into the eternal realm. It’s a door into the presence of God and it demands the recognition that we have been created on a heavenly pattern for communication with one another and communication with our Creator who made us in His image. Oller and Amdahl: “Our capacity for language cannot have originated within the narrow confines of any finite duration of the experience. If all the eons of the space-time world could be multiplied clear to infinity, the material world would still fail to account for the abstract conceptions that any human being can easily conceive of through the gift of language.” Amazing. Only a speaking God could have made speaking persons. God communicates to us and gives us the blessing of communicating to Him and each other.
Lastly, God gave man the fruit of the earth to live with abundance.
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And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. (Genesis 1:29–30 ESV)
There’s so much we could get into here, but here is what I want you to understand: Adam and Eve (and all the animals) were created, vegetarians. They could eat every plant yielding seed on the surface of the earth, every tree yielding fruit with seed in it was food for them, and to every beast of the earth and every bird of the sky, and everything that moves on the earth which has a life I’ve given every green plant for food, and it was so. It was so again that the punctuation statement that indicates this was the permanently established pattern. Man was a vegetarian and animals were also vegetarian at creation. Why? Because there was no death, nothing died. There was just one exception, chapter 2, verse 9 there was the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden.
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And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1:31 ESV)
It is not until sin that death is introduced to creation. The wages of sin which is death. God later allowed people to eat meat over in chapter 9 when Noah and his sons came out of the ark God said be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Chapter 9 verse 2, “The fear of you and the terror of you shall be on every beast of the earth.” Now all of a sudden you’re going to be king of the earth, you’re going to have authority over these animals, but they’re not going to be amiable to that. All because of 1 sin.
Thank God, He is the God of redemption. Not only second chances, but the God of complete redemption. That is what this entire book is all about. God’s plan of redemption for you and His creation.
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The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord. (Isaiah 65:25 ESV)
There is a coming restoration of God’s plan for creation and He wants you securely with Him. That’s the work of Jesus Christ, outlined right here in Genesis 3:15 and will culminate on the Cross. How wonderful to know that when Jesus Christ speaks to you and to me, he enables you to understand yourself, to die to that self because of the cross, and brings the real you to birth.
