Genesis 1:1
And God said, Let there be an
expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters
from the waters. And God made the expanse and
separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters
that were above the expanse. and it was so. And God called
the expanse heaven, and there was evening, and there was morning
the second day. And God said, Let the waters
under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and
let the dry land appear, and it was so. God called the dry
land earth, and the waters that were gathered together He called
seas, and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth
sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing
fruit, and which is their seed, each according to its kind, on
the earth. And it was so. The earth brought
forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, according to their own
kinds, and the trees bearing fruit, and which is their seed,
each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good,
and there was evening and morning the third day. 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 for years. And let them be lights
in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.
And it was so. 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. And God set them in the expanse
of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the
day and over the night and to separate the light from the darkness.
And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there
was morning, the fourth day. And God said, let the waters
swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth
across the expanse of the heavens. So God created the great sea
creatures, and every living creature that moves with the waters that
swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according
to its kind. And God saw that it was good,
and God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and
fill the waters and the seas, and let birds multiply on the
earth. There was evening and morning
the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth living
creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping
things, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And
it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to their
kinds, and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything
that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that
it was good. And 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. So God created man
in His own image. In the image of God, He created
him. Male and female, He created them. 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. And God said, Behold, I have
given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the
earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. you shall have
them for food. And to every beast of the earth,
and to every bird of the heaven, 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. 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. Thus the heavens
and the earth were finished, and all the host of them And
on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and
He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had
done. And so God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,
because on it God rested from His work that He had done in
creation. This is God’s Word for us. Let
us pray together. Our God, be gracious to us in
giving understanding to your Word. Give us grace that we might
see and hear and understand and believe, that we might repent
where we are unfaithful, that we might have greater faith where
we need it. And we pray that your Word would
do its work, that it would build us up in our most holy faith,
that it would encourage us on a long life’s way, that it would
show us how we can better worship you, And we pray, Father, that
it would put again in us great wonder for all that you are as
the creator and sustainer of the universe. This we ask and
pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. everybody around you has big
questions big life questions they want to ask now for young
people this holiday season it might be is something like Santa
real for others of us who are a little more serious about life
we wonder What’s going to happen to us at death? Or we wonder
the question this, how did everything we see around us come to be? Where did the world and everything
in it come from? Sometimes we ask the question,
how do we know the difference between right and wrong? How
do we know that something is right or wrong? Sometimes we
ask questions about things that we can only wonder about. Sometimes
we ask questions about things and we don’t get satisfactory
answers to them. But friends, the Bible, dear
Christians, the Bible always gives us answers to life’s ultimate
questions. And when it comes to the ultimate
question of where did everything in the world come from, The book
of Genesis, written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through the
prophet Moses, gives us the answers to those questions. You see,
Genesis was written. It literally means beginnings.
It was written to instruct Israel on how to have a proper world
and life view in light of the reality that Yahweh was their
God. and that there were no other
gods in the universe that could compete with them or compare
with them. And he was the one who made everything
in the world and was the ultimate reality for them. You see, the
Israelites lived much like we do today. They lived in the midst
of all kinds of worldviews. They lived with all kinds of
religions around them. They lived just like we do with
all the voices of the world screaming into our ears for attention.
And so the Bible does many things for us, but one of the things
it does so well is it gives us the answers to life’s ultimate
questions. The ultimate question for us
today is how did all that we see come about? Where did the
world and everything in it come from? Well, the scriptures start
with giving us the answer to that question. And the answer
to that question is no other than God. And not just any God,
not any pick and choose God that you may desire, but simply the
God of the universe. That’s how the Bible begins.
It starts with God. And it answers the ultimate question,
who made the world and everything in it? Well, God did. And so
today as we look at some of the major passages of the Bible,
the major themes of the Bible, we want to consider creation
and how it should inform our world and life view, but how
it should help us think about Christmas. How it should help
us think about the coming of Christ into this world that God
made. and how it should matter to us
as we live and as we bear witness to the glories of Almighty God.
I want us to consider creation from three angles. The first
angle is this, the reason for creation. The reason for creation,
why did God create? Why did he make the world and
everything in it? For what reason did he do it?
What is its purpose? What is its aim? Well, simply
this, as our confession of faith says so well, because it pleased
God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He made the world and
everything in it. Isn’t that a simple reason? Isn’t
that a wonderful reason? Simply because it pleased Him.
Because it made Him happy. It brought joy to Him. It pleased
God the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit to make the world
and everything in it to show His glory. To show the world
His wisdom and His power and His goodness. And so the reason
for creation is simply because it pleased God. John Calvin,
the 15th century theologian, said of the creation, it is God’s
theater for His glory. If you’re wanting to put on a
show, if you’re wanting to put on a play or some sort of theatrical
show, you’re gonna build a stage. And behind that stage is gonna
be all the rigging and all the orchestra pits and all the behind-the-scenes
workings to make all things possible. And if you think about creation,
you think about the work of creation, God’s making all things out of
nothing in the space of six days. You realize that God is making
a stage. And front and center in that
stage is God’s glory, God’s goodness, God’s pleasure. And so we look
at the world and everything in it. And as the Apostle Paul says
in Romans chapter 11, he says that all things are from God,
all things are through God, and all things are to God. And then he ends that threefold
statement with saying, to him alone be glory. God has made
all things. They are for him, they are through
him, and they are to him. No other God can say that and
it be true. for our God has created the world
and everything in it for his own glory. And the apostle Paul
says it so well under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to him alone
be the glory forever. King David knew something of
this. And when he wrote Psalm 19, he
says these words, he says, the heavens declare the glory of
God, the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours
out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no
speech, there are no words whose voice is not heard. What are
they saying? They’re saying that the reason
for creation is the glory of God. The reason that God made
the world and everything in it is not only because it pleased
Him, but it displays His goodness. There’s a museum down the street
in Graham that from time to time has different art displays. Recently,
they had a glass art display. A couple years ago, some of you
may remember, they had some Lego art, modern art, I guess it is.
But you see, they give opportunity for artists’ work to be displayed. What happens when you walk through
a museum and you see someone’s artwork? Well, you see their
creativity. You see their imagination. but
you begin to understand who they are. You see their personality.
You see their taste, the colors they prefer. You see the textures
they like. You see how their mind and heart
takes a medium and makes a message out of it. And so, friends, in
creation, We can see the glory and the wisdom and the power
and the majesty of almighty God. Every day and every night, the
psalmist says, it is screaming, it is proclaiming, it is heralding
to the world, this creation is God’s creation. We sing of it
from time to time in worship. This is my father’s world. We
sing wonderful hymns of the faith that speak of God’s goodness
and his majesty and his power and creation. Simply put it this
way, as the kids’ catechism asks the question, who made you? The
answer is God. And the next question in that
children’s catechism says, why did God make you in all things? And the answer is simply this,
for his own glory. You know, we joke from time to
time, if you’re getting asked a question in church or Sunday school, if
you say the answer, Jesus, you’ll probably be right. Well, another
good safe answer is for His own glory. Why did God do something?
Why did God make oak trees or the ocean or sharks? Why did
God make snakes? Well, the answer is for His own
glory. And so that’s the reason for
creation. The second thing we want to consider
is the work of creation. We read of it in the first chapter
of Genesis. Our catechism summarizes it very
well and it says this, the work of creation is God’s making all
things of nothing by the word of his power in the space of
six days and all very good. The work of creation is God taking
chaos and bringing order to it. The work of creation is God taking
what was formless and void and He formed it and He filled it.
Did you notice the way, the pattern of Genesis chapter 1? It says
in the beginning, God. And it says there was darkness,
there was chaos, there was formlessness, there was void, there was emptiness.
And God takes that and He speaks. And He speaks into that formlessness
and He forms it. He speaks into that void and
He fills it. He speaks into that emptiness
and He creates beauty. And so the work of creation is
God taking chaos and making a creation. God taking disorder and making
it orderly. Our catechism says it so well,
the work of creation is God by the Word of His power taking
something or taking nothing and making something and making it
wonderful and beautiful and orderly. And so he takes emptiness and
he creates what we might call a habitat for humanity. He creates
a stage for the glorious drama of redemption that we will read
of throughout the entirety of the Bible. There is a sense that
the work of creation in Genesis is fulfilled at the very end
of our Bible in chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation. The goal, the
end of creation is seen. But the whole Bible, the whole
Bible is an unfolding of the reasons we see for the work of
creation. Now, what is the crown of God’s
creation? Well, it’s man. You see God working and working
and working and speaking and even giving His benediction.
He makes light, He makes darkness, He makes stars, He makes sharks
and He makes snakes and whatever else, but then he makes man. And at the end of every day of
creation, he said, it’s good. But after he makes man, what
does he say? He says, it is very good. And so we read in our catechism
that God made man in his own image. He made him in his own
image and knowledge and righteousness and holiness. He gave him dominion
over the creatures. We’ll study in the coming weeks
what all that means and how it helps us point to Jesus and his
coming. But He makes man in His own image
that we might serve and reflect His glory in this world. So that’s
the work of creation. The final thing we want to consider
is the goal of creation. Why did God make it all? Why
did God make the world and everything in it? Why the ecosystems? Why
the sharks and the snakes and the bears and the mountains and
the valleys and the rivers? Why did He make the sea and all
that is in it? Why did He make the birds of the air? corn and
wheat and all the things that we see. He made it for his own
glory, but there is a goal. There is a goal. The goal of
creation is that God might dwell with men. If somebody asks you
what the story of the Bible is about, just simply say it this
way. It’s a story about God living with men. Now you know the sadness
of that story that there was interruption. Man could not live
with God because of sin, because of their fallen condition. And we’ll see that Jesus comes
in and repairs that. But the goal of creation, you
read it in the book of Revelation, it’s that God would dwell with
his people forever and ever. God dwells with His people face
to face. Now in the book of Revelation,
when John the Apostle is an older man, he’s on the Isle of Patmos
for preaching the gospel. He’s in trouble. He’s on a prison
island. He’s an old man and he’s there and Jesus wants to encourage
him in his exile. He wants to encourage him in
his persecution and he comes to him and says, look, the second
coming is near. Why is that encouraging to John?
Why would that be encouraging to us? Well, because if the second
coming is near, then the goal of all creation is soon to come
to pass. And the goal of creation is that
God would dwell with us and that the separation that has come
to us because of sin and because of our scarred relationship that
took place in the garden and has continued thereafter in our
hard-heartedness toward Him. It’s about to end. Jesus is about
to usher in the new heavens and the new earth. He’s about to
make a new creation that will far outweigh and far outshine
the beauty of Eden which Adam and Eve had joined. You see,
God made His first creation as a place, as a temple if you will,
where God could dwell with man. He made a place where God could
come and walk in the coolness of the garden with Adam and Eve.
He made a place where man could rule for God on earth. And he
could subdue the earth. He could live in God’s blessing,
live in God’s benediction. And he could live for God’s glory. But that was lost because of
sin. Some of you may have read in your school days Milton’s
great poem, Paradise Lost. And there’s a second part to
that story, paradise regained. And we must remember that though
Adam and Eve lost paradise for us in the garden, the Bible speaks
of paradise being regained in the new heavens and the new earth.
And so one of the things we have to remember is that the creation
we see around us will be renewed. It will be remade. We’ll see
a new heaven and a new earth when Jesus returns. That’s something
we often don’t think of. We build here permanently. We
hear ecologists and all these folks say we need to take better
care of the earth, and yes we do. Christians ought to be the
best stewards. But God is going to take what
is broken and marred and ruined by the sin and its effects and
He’s going to remake it. He’s going to turn back the curse
and reverse the effects of the fall. He’s going to come again.
Jesus says, behold I come and I make all things new. He’s not
just going to make people new. It’s not just that you will have
a new body, you’ll be able to run and jump and dance, and your
knees won’t ache, and your hips won’t hurt. All that is true.
But He’s going to make all things new. Remember in the letter to
the Romans, the Apostle Paul is saying to the Christians in
that letter, he’s saying that not only did Jesus save sinners,
Jesus has come to redeem the earth. And he says, all of creation
groans. Think about maybe being like
on an old wooden ship at the ocean and you’ve heard, maybe
you’ve seen in the movies or you’ve been on a replica of the
Mayflower up in Boston, something like that. But you get on one
of these old ships and you hear it creak and you feel the creaking
and you feel the stretching of the wood and the sounds that
it makes as it rocks upon the sea. That is, in a sense, what
the Earth is doing, is it is creaking, it is groaning, it
is waiting in travail, it is waiting with anxiety for the
adoption of the sons and daughters of God. Because when we get redeemed,
guess what? The Earth will be redeemed. God
will make all things new. And that new creation that we
will live in with God will be greater than Eden. greater than
anything Adam and Eve ever experienced. And it’ll be a place where we
can live with God. And there will be no more tears,
no more sorrow, no more sin. There will be no more aches and
pains, no more hips that hurt and knees that need replacing,
no more tears of sadness, no more relational struggles. The
lion shall dwell with the lamb and God shall dwell with his
people. and paradise will be regained.
And so what is the goal of creation? Well, the goal of creation is
that God will make it all new again and we will enjoy what
was lost because of sin. The whole earth will be filled
with the glory of God. The whole earth will be filled
with people who belong to the city of God. And the whole earth
will be filled with the holiness of God and his presence with
us. If you read the end of Revelation, if you read the end of the Bible,
you’ll see that God is working towards that goal. He’s marching
us towards that goal. And so if you want encouragement
in this life, If you’re down over elections or stock markets
or down because of job circumstances or health, whatever reasons,
be like John on the Isle of Patmos and be encouraged by Jesus coming
and speaking to him and saying, look, I know things are tough
now, but I’m going to come and I’m going to make all things
new. It’s going to be wonderful. It’s going to be beautiful. It’s
going to be majestic. It’ll be the end of sin and sadness and
sickness and sorrow. And it’ll be the beginning of
eternal bliss. in the creation. When God made
the world and everything in it, he put Adam over it and he told
Adam to rule it. But Adam failed. Adam failed
and Adam lost that fellowship with God. He lost his ability
to rule for God and to serve him in the way that God had designed. But God came He came to Adam
and Eve, and He clothed them. He clothed them in the skins
of animals that would point to a greater sacrifice that would
come. And that would come in Jesus, who would come one day
to this earth, this very earth that He made. And He would come
to this earth, and He would live, and He would suffer, and He would
die. And in His death, He would make peace through His blood
on the cross that would reconcile all things to Himself. In Revelation
chapter 11, when it speaks of the second coming of Christ,
it says this. Now the kingdom of this world has become the
kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. And he shall reign forever
and ever. So let me encourage you, brothers
and sisters, simply in this way. There are ultimate questions
in this life. And one of the greatest ultimate questions that
you can answer here and now today in this place is what must a
man do to be saved? And the answer is simply this.
He must put his faith. He must put his trust. He must
put his hope. He must put his confidence in
Jesus alone. Not only did Jesus create the
world and everything in it, but he can recreate you. Throughout
the Bible we see that God can take something that is dead and
He can speak just like He did in the beginning of the Bible
at creation. And He can speak in the dead
rise. He can speak and that which does
not live comes to life. And He can do that for you. He
can speak and you are no longer dead in your sins and trespasses,
but you are made alive in Christ Jesus. And so I hope today that
not only do you have the ultimate answer of where did everything
come from answered, but that you have at least settled in
your mind, maybe not yet your heart, but God willing in your
heart, the answer to the question, what must I do to be saved? It’s
faith and the creator, Jesus Christ. Let’s pray together.
Our gracious God and King, we thank you for this day that you’ve
made. We rejoice and are glad in it. And we look around at
all the creation that you’ve made. We look at the beauty of
the earth, the changing of the seasons. We look at faces of
our brothers and sisters who are made in your image. We hold
babies. We We visit the zoo. We look
at the trees around us and we can’t help but be amazed at all
that you have done to make this world and everything in it. But
we also can’t help but wonder at the recreation that has already
begun in us through Christ Jesus, but that will come to full fruition
at the at the great day at the second coming when Jesus will
come. and he will make all things new. Help us to understand this,
to believe it, to live by it, to trust you and to obey you.
And help us not to be like Adam and Eve who failed to receive
your promises because of disobedience, but help us to be like Jesus
with faith in you, our father, to obey your will and to live
a life that is pleasing in your sight. We ask and pray all this
in the name of Jesus, our great savior. Amen. Let’s stand together
as we respond to God’s word and sing hymn number 124, Come Thou
Long Expected Jesus.