Series: THE STORY GOD IS TELLING
Title: “Let’s Begin …”
Text: Genesis 1:1, 26-27, 31a [NKJV]
Genesis 6:5, 8 [NKJV]
Introduction:
A. On our calendar January marks the beginning of a new year.
1. With that new year come a myriad of resolutions … to read the Bible daily … to pray more often than at the dinner table … to have perfect attendance in Sunday School … [Jeannie can remember the year her family’s resolution was to stay for church after Sunday School dismissed] … and then there’s most everyone’s favorite: lost weight!
2. If you’re at all like me, you’ve broken most of them already. We’re just starting the fourth week and I’m up four pounds … OK, maybe five.
B. January also marks the beginning of a new semester for many of our schools and colleges.
1. At Ivy Tech we have some new internet technology called Campus Connect. It‘s not working more than it is … I’ve never seen anything this slow … dial-up is faster. Of course it got more than 10 million “hits” the first four days.
2. Not a good beginning.
C. In the story God is telling there is both a beginning and an ending … that ending may be off in the far distant future, or as near as the next second, or the next, or the next … you get the idea.
1. We’ll talk more of that ending in this sermon series … if God allows us the time.
2. He has given us this time … and so we want to begin.
Central Idea: Genesis is a book of beginnings … that’s what the Hebrew word means. In this first part of the Law we discover the beginning of Man, Sin, Forgiveness, and Sanctification.
I. In Genesis We Discover the Beginning of Man.
A. Last week we mentioned that Man has a Maker … we came from God.
1. This is recognized in Scripture, especially by the Psalmist.
Psalm 139:13-16—For you formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.
2. And it is known in our hearts.
Helen Keller was nineteen months old when she was stricken by “brain fever,” [probably scarlet fever or meningitis]. The illness left her without sight, or sound, and thus she could not speak. But into her life came that most wonderful teacher, Anne Sullivan. Anne broke through the isolating barrier and eventually told Helen of her Creator. Helen is reported to have signed back, “I always knew He was there, but I didn’t know what to call Him.”
B. But today we want to focus on this thought … His image.
1. In Genesis 1 God says, “Let us make man is Our image, according to our likeness ….”
2. Does this mean that God looks like us? Does He walk through His creation on two legs … with two arms and hands … and one head?
3. Or, since He is a triune God, does He have three?
4. Don’t be ridiculous … the image we bear is spirit, not matter.
5. Genetically, man and chimp are 98.5 percent identical. But the differences between us are profound. [Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent, Reuters]
6. With all apologies to the Planet of the Apes movies, we were given dominion over the chimp. We were created with a moral compass capable of knowing good and evil. We are capable of walking and talking with our Creator.
a. Our first parents shared every evening with Him … Genesis 3:8-9.
b. Enoch [the father of Methuselah, the oldest man in the Bible] walked with God [see Genesis 5:24].
Supposedly, God came down and visited with Enoch, and then the patriarch walked with Him back toward heaven. Each time they took that walk they ended up a little further from earth before Enoch turned back. Finally the day came when God turned to His friend and said, “We’re a lot closer to my house than yours, why don’t you just come home with me?”
… and he was not, for God took him!
C. God wants us to come home with Him, too … someday. That’s why we were made. According to the Westminster Catechism, our chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.
Transition: In Genesis we find our beginning, and how marvelous it was. We were made in God’s spiritual image … just a little lower than the angels but crowned with glory and honor [Hebrews 2:7]. Then something terrible happened … SIN!
II. In Genesis We Discover the Beginning of Sin. It is a downward spiral with only three steps
A. Sin begins with Satan’s deceit.
Genesis 3:1-5--Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
1. Now Eve might be excused … for she had never met the serpent before.
2. But we have … from our youth up he has been tempting us with evil, whispering his lies into our ears.
a. Your parents [or spouse, or boss, or whoever] will never know …
b. Everyone else is doing it … c. You’re not really hurting anyone …
d. Come on, it’s going to be fun …
e. Finders keepers, losers weepers …
3. And we know who this “snake” is … the devil. He is a liar and the father of lies … and does not stand in the truth [John 8:44].
B. Satan’s deceit leads to sinful desire.
Genesis 3:6—So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
1. Looks take a closer look at this desire. Why do I call it sinful?
2. Notice that the tree was good for food. There’s nothing wrong with desiring to eat, unless like me, you carry it to excess. Then you are bending your will to your flesh.
a. Hear Jesus: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing” [John 6:63].
b. And Paul: “Bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come”
[1 Timothy 4:8].
3. The tree was also pleasant to the eyes. O, be careful little eyes what you see!
Jesus said that the eye is the lamp of the body. “If therefore your eye is good, the whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad [if your focus is on the sensual, the immoral], your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! [John 6:22-23].
4. And the tree was desirable to make one wise … to be like God. This is the ultimate pride of life … to share God’s throne, only such pride shares nothing.
So we shove Him off to the side … who needs God when you have Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking? But science can only describe what is and how what is works. Where did this what is come from and where is it going? Such arrogance …
Romans 1:22ff—Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man … therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts … to vile passions [unnatural, as in “Brokeback Mountain,” which is not a story of enduring love but of lies and betrayal]. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind ….
And every other sinful desire!
C. Sinful desire leads to spiritual death.
1. Adam and Eve were cast out of their paradise. The entrance to Eden was guarded by samurai cherubim with flaming swords.
2. Worse still, was their isolation from God. No longer did the three walk together in the cool of the day.
3. And then came the most terrible day of all … that day when Death knocked on their front door, holding the limp body of Abel … murdered in a jealous rage by his older brother, Cain. Cain … who was supposed to look out for Abel … betrayed that trust … and was forced to flee for his life … and now Adam and Eve were without their two oldest sons.
4. Can you feel their hearts breaking, the burning tears falling on the grave?
Romans 5:12, 14—Therefore, … through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned … Death reigned … even over those who had not sinned [in the same way] as Adam.
All would sin … all would die … and all of it was their fault!
Transition: If only they had listened to God. But they chose to heed a liar’s voice … and were cut off from God … but not entirely. The fellowship between Man and his Maker was broken, but not beyond repair.
III. In Genesis We Discover the Beginning of Forgiveness.
A. All communication is through symbols.
1. The words we speak are verbal symbols for ideas, objects, and events.
2. If meaning was found in the word itself, all would speak the same language … using the same sounds as symbols for the same ideas, objects, and events.
3. There are also visual symbols …
B. Physical death is a visual symbol of the seriousness of sin.
1. Sin separates … it separates brothers and sisters; they no longer speak to each other. It separates neighbors; they build fences between their property lines. In separates nations; and they go to war.
2. When the fellowship between the body and the spirit is broken … we call Urban-Winkler, James Todd, or Moster and Cox.
3. But who do we call our fellowship with God is broken, the preacher? To be honest, he’s in as much trouble, if not more, than you. So where can we go?
4. There only one answer … to the Lord!
C. In the wonderful story God is telling … right here in the beginning … we find symbols of God’s forgiveness.
1. Turn with me to Genesis 3:21 … for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
Where did God get those tunics of skin? The answer is obvious … from somewhere in the garden came the shriek of the banshee of death. God Himself took an innocent animal’s life and covered Adam’s and Eve’s sin.
2. Turn a second time with me to Genesis 4:13ff …
And Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is greater than I can bear! Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me."
And the LORD said to him, "Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.
3. Once more, Genesis 6:5-8 … here we read that God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of the heart were only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man [and wanted to destroy him] … but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
There are two symbols of forgiveness to be found in this story. The first and obvious symbol is the ark … you remember the song:
The animals are coming two by two; the elephant and the kangaroo.
The animals are coming four by four; the old hippopotamus got stuck in the door.
The animals are coming six by six; the hyena’s laughing at the monkey’s tricks.
The animals are coming eight by eight; Noah hollered out “Shut that gate!”
The animals are coming nine by nine; Noah hollered out, “Cut that line.” [Author unknown]
The second symbol is the water … notice what Peter has to say in the NT. The eight souls in the ark were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism [… the answer of a good conscious toward God], through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
D. A type is an OT person, object or event that pictures a NT truth. The type is the symbol … the antitype is the reality.
1. Joshua … who led God’s people into the Promised Land … is an OT type of Jesus, who will lead God’s people, the church, into heaven.
a. Heaven is the reality, not the Promised Land … it’s just a piece of realty.
b. I should add; this type is so exact that the two have the same name … Joshua [in Hebrew] and Jesus [in Greek] both mean God saves.
2. Baptism into Christ identifies us with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.
Therefore, Romans 6:4, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Transition: Baptism marks on God’s calendar the beginning of this new life … yours, mine. It is a symbol of both God’s forgiveness and our sanctification.
IV. In Genesis We Discover the Beginning of Sanctification.
A. Sanctification is one of those BIG words with an easy definition. It means to be “set apart” for service. To be “sanctified” is to live for God with God’s help.
B. And it has its start in Genesis. I’m going to give you just two examples.
1. Let’s turn to Genesis 12:1-4 … Now the LORD had said to Abram; "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
Abraham service wasn’t perfect. No one’s is … but it was complete in this sense, once he started, Abraham never stopped … and neither should we.
2. Our second example is Joseph. Listen to Genesis 50:15-20 … When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him." So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, "Before your father died he commanded, saying, ’Thus you shall say to Joseph: "I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you."’ Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, "Behold, we are your servants." Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones." And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
a. If you’re unfamiliar with this story, Joseph was his father’s favorite. Perhaps you’ve heard of his coat of many colors. It was a gift from his father. His brothers received nothing.
b. Joseph flaunted his favorite status … to such an extent that what probably began as bullying ended up with Joseph being sold into slavery. I don’t believe we’re ever told how the brothers spent the money they were given for him … perhaps they ordered their very own colorful coats.
c. In Egypt, Joseph fell into and out of Potipher’s favor … but eventually ascended to become second only to Pharaoh.
d. In that position he saved both Egypt and his father and brothers from a seven years famine.
e. Think about this story … Joseph was separated from his father and his brothers so that God could use him to preserve the Messianic line that was to descend through Judah [the very brother who came up with the idea of selling him].
C. Our sanctification is incomplete without our service … to Christ, His church, this community.
1. And perhaps the greatest contribution we can make is to become a moral compass for our sin blinded world.
2. We are to be the temple of the living God … but first we must come out and be separate … only then we can serve the Lord as His sons and daughters [see
2 Corinthians 6:16-18].
Conclusion:
A. Genesis is definitely a book of beginnings … and the story God is telling would be incomplete without it. From its pages we read of …
1. The Beginning of Man … made in God’s Image.
2. The Beginning of Sin … and its downward spiral.
3. The Beginning of Forgiveness … our fellowship with God is not broken beyond repair.
4. The Beginning of Sanctification … we can still serve Him … but we must set ourselves apart from the world.
B. He came to my desk with a quivering lip—The lesson was done.
“Dear Teacher I want a new leaf,” he said, “I have spoiled this one.”
I took the old leaf, stained and blotted, And gave him a new one all unspotted,
And into his sad eyes smiled, “Do better now, my child.”
I went to the throne with a quivering soul—The old year was done.
“Dear Father, hast thou a new leaf for me? I have spoiled this one.
He took the old leaf, stained and blotted, And gave me a new one all unspotted,
And into my sad heart smiled, “Do better now, My child.”
-- Kathleen Wheeler
