Sermon
Genesis
Chapter One
The
Beginning
My text for today is
from the first verses of Genesis chapter one: “In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over
the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over
the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and
there was light.”
We are starting a series
centering around Genesis – the first book of Moses. It will not be my purpose
to demonstrate the Mosaic authorship of Genesis, or any of the other four books
that are are attributed to him by the best and most conservative Bible
scholars.
Let me only say this: You
will find plenty of anti-supernaturalist so-called ‘scholars’ who will tell you
Moses didn’t write the Torah – the five books of Moses. And, of course, Liberal/anti-supernatural
false teachers do the same thing with other Old and New Testament books such as
Isaiah, Daniel, Acts, and so forth. I will, however, only refer to the words of
Jesus Himself, who clearly believed in the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch. For
example: MT 19:7, quoting from DT 24:1-4; MT 22:24 quoting from DT 25:5; Mark
1:44 citing Leviticus 14:1-32; Mark 7: 9-11 citing Exodus 20:12 and Leviticus
20:9; Luke 24:44 citing the Pentateuch in general as the books of Moses.
You can look up those
passages on your own. But at the outset
of this series, I will make it as clear as I know how: Since Jesus accepted the
Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, I will do the same in our series in Genesis.
One of the first
questions people often ask is, how Moses knew of the details of Creation, as
well as, for example, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, and the histories of the
patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so forth? But we could also ask the same
question about the future prophecies spoken by the prophets throughout the Old
Testament. How did THEY know the future? We could also ask that question about
the future prophecies of the Lord Jesus and His apostles such as those of Paul
and Peter (e.g. Matthew 24; 1 and 2 Peter; 1 and 2 Thessalonians).
Answer? Certainly, the
stories in Genesis – not only of the creation days but of events such as the
Tower of Babel, the global flood, and the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and
the Twelve Tribes, these stories were passed from generation to generation.
However, Christians – and the Jews before us – believed that the work of the
same Creator who created the universe and everything in it simply by speaking –
this same Creator just as easily supernaturally ensured that the stories handed
down and eventually compiled by Moses would be the truth and nothing but the
truth.
It's called
‘supernatural’ for a reason. And it is at THIS point that our faith either fails
to keep us persevering for Christ through persecutions and disappointments, or
it is at this point of believing in the supernatural God that our faith moves
us toward maturity in Christ. If God, by His Holy Spirit, did not or could not
ensure His truth to come to us undiluted, then where does Truth really begin
and where does it really end?
And who is elected to
determine truth? You? Me? Your pastor? Some theologians with PhDs after their
names? Or is Truth determined by what God's word says it is AND how that truth
has been understood and preserved for us by those early Christian councils –
from the Jerusalem council in Acts 15 and through those in the first few
centuries of the Church as they fought against a multiplicity of heresies such
as Judaism stuck in the Law of Moses, or the heresies of Arianism or Marcionism
and dozens of others.
At the outset of our Genesis
series this really IS an important question we each must answer for ourselves.
Satan has, throughout the millennia since God created the heavens and the
earth, Satan has and will continue his attempts to pull us from the true center
of Biblical faith. The ancient heresies I just mentioned are still alive and
well in the 21st century. For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons,
and Muslims are theological the children of the early heretic Arius who
believed Jesus was a created being.
And you may have read
so-called ‘Christian’ books or sat under pastors – even Pope Francis two weeks
ago on ’60 Minutes’ – who promote the fifth century heresy of Pelagianism.
Pelagianism – an early type of humanism – teaches the philosophy that humanity
is ‘fundamentally good.” In other words, we don’t sin because we are sinners,
but we are sinners because we sin.
This is a very
important distinction, and we will look at that point in closer detail when we
get to chapter three of Genesis and the introduction of sin into God's
creation. But for now, I will tell you
what God's infallible word tells: We sin BECAUSE we are sinners. THAT is why –
because we are BORN sinners – that God sent His Son to die in our place as our
substitutionary sacrifice for OUR sins.
This question about
whether we will follow the truths of Scripture or philosophies and theologies
that drift from Scriptural truth is not dissimilar to the question Jesus asked
the theologians of His day. For example, they asked Jesus: (Mark 11:30-33) “Was the baptism of
John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.” [And] “They began reasoning
among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did
you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘From men’?”—they were afraid of
the people, for everyone considered John to have been a real prophet. Answering
Jesus, they *said, “We do not know.” And Jesus *said to them, “Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
What do you think the Lord says to theologians
and pastors who today reject the truth that ALL Scripture is inspired by God? I
think what the Word-made-Flesh said at a different time to the crowds in
Matthew’s gospel might be the answer to that question: (Matthew 13:13-14, 15) “I speak to them in
parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do
not hear, nor do they understand. In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is
being fulfilled, which says . . . For the heart of this people has become dull
. . . and they have closed their eyes, Otherwise they would see with their
eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I
would heal them.’
If we close our eyes to
God's truths because we do not like something He said, or what He said doesn’t
make sense to us, then we should not be surprised if He keeps us in the dark
about others of His truths.
So, again, back to the
text: In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth. In these ten words – seven in the original Hebrew – we
already witness a critically important point necessary for a fruitful walk with
God.
In these simple words
God tells us the universe and the Earth had a beginning. Before God created the
heavens and the earth, nothing existed. Nothing. Not light, or molecules, or
even atoms. Nothing existed that now exists. And although it might seem curious
that I would spend more than a passing reference to what is clearly obvious to
the Bible-believing Christian, I must say a few more words about the creation
of all that is seen and unseen because the truths of God's word are being
rapidly eroded by false teachers in clerical garb.
Not many years ago Nancy
and I sat in a church here in Johns Creek and listened to the pastor tell us
the universe is as eternal as God is eternal. He may or may not have known it,
but he was teaching his flock the basic tenet of Pantheism.
Pantheism is a religious
belief that teaches the universe is identical to ‘a’ supreme being. Pantheism
does NOT recognize a personal god, and so how this pastor even holds his
position in a church is simply another evidence of the growing apostasy in so
many churches – Protestant and Catholic.
When I sent him an email
describing my confusion that he would teach such error from the pulpit, he essentially
told me he knew better than I about God. And so I caution everyone: Be very
careful around pompous people like that – regardless of their position in the
Church. But let’s move on: “In the beginning, God . . . .”
In the original Hebrew text
‘Elohim’ – translated ‘God’ – is the third word in
the sentence. But the noun for God is plural in
Hebrew, and ‘created’ is in the SINGULAR. In other words, the plural for God –
Elohim’ – is the first indication that the God who created the heavens and the
earth is not a ‘singular entity’ but a ‘plurality entity.’ And we see
this many times in Moses and in the rest of the Old Testament, not the least of
which is later in chapter one, verses 26 and 27:
“And 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 fowl of the air, and over the
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon
the earth. So, God created man in His own image, in the image of
God created he him; male and female created he them.”
I want us to notice the
shift of pronouns: “Let us make man in our own image . . . . So, God created man in HIS OWN
image . . ..” We see something similar in Deuteronomy 6:4 when Moses writes: “Hear,
O Israel: The Lord our God (Elohim) is one Lord.” The Hebrew word Moses uses
here for ‘one’ is ‘echad.’ We find ‘echad’ in Genesis 2:24. For
this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his
wife; and they shall become one (echad) flesh.
The point in all this
is that while echad means ‘one,’ according to the context in which it
appears, echad is defined as a unit. Thus, Adam and Eve became echad
flesh. Now there is another Hebrew word for one – ‘yachid.’ But yachid ALWAYS refers
to a strict numerical one, as in one sheep, one grape, one rock). It is NEVER
used in the context of God.
So, why is that
important? Because the biblical truth of the Triunity of God appears as
early as the third word in the Bible and is not an invention by the
Church of the first and later centuries. God's word teaches from the third word
of Genesis that God is ONE God in three Persons. You would think that should
have put to rest the heresies that were yet to be birthed in later centuries that
denied the Trinity of God, and which survive to this day in various forms.
The necessity for our
belief in the supernatural work of God in implicit in these very few verses of
chapter one of Genesis. If we accept the truth of creations supernatural
origin, then we will be able to accept His further unveiling of truth –
including His truth about Jesus as the second Person of the Trinity.
Now, let’s move on in
the text: “The
earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the
deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the
waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.”
The words Moses used for formless and void have several possible
meanings, such as chaotic, a wasteland, and emptiness. And so, this is a good
time to make application of this text to 2024. We can make application because the
word-picture is also a metaphor for our life and the lives of so many we know
and care about.
Have you ever walked in darkness? Has your life ever been chaotic and
void of meaning? I don’t think there’s a person over the age of fifty today who
can honestly answer no to those questions. I certainly will confess how chaotic
and wasted my life was before I met Jesus. I can also easily extrapolate how
utterly devoid of hope and light my life would be today if I’d continued along
that trajectory.
But the beginning has not for me – nor for you here who know and follow the
Lord Jesus – our beginning has NOT determined our end. The darkness in which we
lived and worked was one day dispelled by the same Spirit who hovered over that
original darkness and brought light – stunning, explosive light – to our life-path.
Jesus said to His listeners the same thing He says to you and me today:
“I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in
the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” (John 8:12)
And then in 12:35 – “Walk while
you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he
who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.”
David Strauss (d. 1874) was a leading German
anti-supernaturalist who spent a lifetime erasing belief in God from the minds
of others. Listen to what he said just before his death: "My philosophy
leaves me utterly forlorn! I feel like one caught in the merciless jaws of an
automatic machine, not knowing at what time one of its great hammers may crush
me!"
And then there is Anton Levey (d. 1997) who authored
the Satanic Bible and was the so-called ‘high priest’ of Satanism. His dying
words were these: "Oh my, oh my. What have I done? There is something
very wrong. There is something very wrong.”
That’s what walking in spiritual darkness
does to a person, including those living here at Ashwood Meadows who’ve
rejected the light of Christ. It leaves them without even a glimmer of the
light of hope.
On the other hand, those who walked and who walk in
the light of Christ have a different experience at their death. For example, Elizabeth Catez, known as St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, died
at the age of 26. She went to her Lord murmuring a soft chant: “I am going to the
light, to love, to life!” They were her last intelligible words.
When pastor John
Inskip's lay on his deathbed, he pulled his wife close, took her hands in his
and raised them up together. With a countenance radiating joy, he shouted his
final words: "Victory! Triumph! Triumph."
What does it mean to
walk in the light of Christ? It means to walk as Jesus Himself walked – in
obedience to the Father. Listen to these words of our Lord: (John 5:19) “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son
can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father
doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in
like manner.
And then in 6:38 – “For I have come down from heaven, not
to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”
To walk in Christ’s light is to live a lifestyle of REPENTANCE, a
lifestyle that reflects His obedience to His Father. Will we fail to obey at
times? Certainly. But that is what confession and repentance are all about – confessing
to God our sin, turning from that sin, and asking His forgiveness through and
by the sacrificial atonement of Christ Jesus.
Long after Moses wrote these words on which we’ve been focusing our
attention during this message, Isaiah wrote these words which remain applicable
to all of us (Isaiah 9:2): “The people who walk in darkness
will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land the light will shine on
them.”
And so I must close today’s message, and I will do it in
this way: The whole of Scripture, from these
first words in Genesis to the final words in the Revelation – the whole of
Scripture has one overarching theme, and that is God the Father sent God the
Son to be our atonement, the Light of life who, by God the Holy Spirit, will
rescue all who walk in darkness but who also WANT to be rescued the darkness
and the chaos that has infected their lives AND our world. A darkness and chaos
that will inexorably destroy those without the light of Christ.
Jesus is the ONLY light to bring us out of darkness. If you have
already come to His light, then I urge you to keep coming again and again, lest
we drift slowly back into darkness. And if you have never before come to
His light, then I urge you once again – come. Now. He is only a prayer away.
No one is promised a tomorrow.
We will return to Genesis chapter one next week.
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