March 23, 2025 • 34 mins
Our creator God transcends time, existing eternally before the beginning began, and delights in creating all things from nothing through the power of His word.
• God is eternal, existing before and outside of time, with no beginning or end
• Creation reveals God's power as He creates ex nihilo (out of nothing) simply by speaking
• Every human being has infinite dignity and worth as image-bearers of God
• God formed man personally from dust and breathed His own life into humanity
• Work was part of God's perfect design before sin entered the world
• God's commands are pathways to freedom rather than restrictive limitations
• The Bible's story moves from garden to garden-city through Christ's redemptive work
• Our Creator entered His creation to restore what was broken through sin
If you're here today and want to know more about having a relationship with your Creator, please come speak with one of our pastors after the service.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:23):
1st Baptist, baptist El Dorado, will you join me now
in listening to our sermon fromthis week?
The beginning words of any goodstory can sometimes transcend
time.
There's probably lines of books, the first lines that you know,
(00:45):
though you've never even, maybe, read the book.
Call Me Ishmael, moby Dick.
It was the best of times, itwas the worst of times.
A Tale of Two Cities.
It was a bright, cold day inApril.
The clocks were striking 13,.
That's 1984.
In a hole in the ground therelived a hobbit.
Probably guess which book thatis?
(01:09):
In the beginning, god createdthe heavens and the earth.
What's interesting?
Four of those are fiction.
One of those is absolute fact,and yet the one opening line
there, that's absolute fact, isactually the most fascinating of
them all, the most transcendentof them all.
(01:34):
In the beginning, god createdthe heavens and the earth.
I want to begin really just thefirst four words in English, the
first three in Hebrew in thebeginning, god.
In the beginning God.
Just from that phrase we candraw a lot of theology about who
God is, about what he's up to,about his power.
In the beginning God.
What does that tell us?
Well, from the start, it tellsus this that before the
(01:56):
beginning began, there was a Godwho began the beginning, that
before any of this started thehistory of you and I, there was
a God that preexisted all ofthat.
And so when we read in thebeginning, we should never do
this.
We should never consider it thebeginning of God.
(02:17):
Let's be clear there is nobeginning of God.
This is the beginning of God'swork in this world and what we
call humanity, but it is not thebeginning of God, because God
has no beginning.
We know God is eternal.
Let this hurt your mind a littlethis morning that if you and I
(02:38):
were to load up today into atime machine, we got in this
morning and we just pressed thearrow forward into the future.
We pressed the arrow forwardand we pressed go, there is
nowhere we could get out intothe future, that we could step
out of the time machine and Godwould not be present.
But let this hurt your mindeven more.
I'm tempted to not even say itbecause you'll probably spend
(03:01):
the rest of the service thinkingon that and not what I'm saying
.
But if you got in that timemachine and you press the arrow
backwards and you just startedgoing backwards, there is no
place into the past in which youcould step out and God would
not be.
If God is eternal, god iseternal into the future and God
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is eternal into the past.
And yet even these phrasesbreak down because God is
outside of time.
God doesn't need time.
God is God all by himself.
We've talked about that a fewtimes.
But in the beginning, god,there was a God who began the
beginning.
And what did God do?
In verse 1, we see that in thebeginning, god created First.
(03:45):
From that I see this that Goddelights to create.
Again, as we've said, god isGod all by himself.
God is God if he doesn't create.
God is God if he doesn't createthe earth and the mountains,
and the rivers and the streamsand you and I.
God is God all by himself.
And yet what did he delight todo?
He created, and the mountains,and the rivers and the streams,
and you and I.
God is God all by himself.
(04:05):
And yet what did he delight todo?
He created.
And how did he create?
He created from nothing.
You and I, we are creators aswell.
We create things, but we don'tcreate out of nothing.
Things, but we don't create outof nothing.
If my family this afternoon wereto maybe head to the kitchen
(04:30):
and we were going to bakesomething.
We're going to drop somethingoff at your door today.
We're going to bake cookiestogether.
We're going to create thoseincredible chocolate chip
cookies, but the reality iswe've created the cookies, but
how did we create them?
From ingredients that alreadyexisted?
We got the sugar, we got thecookies, but how did we create
them?
From ingredients that alreadyexisted?
We got the sugar, we got thebutter, we got the chocolate
chips.
The ingredients were there.
(04:51):
That's how you and I create.
When God creates, he createsfrom nothing.
There were no ingredients.
God created the ingredients heneeded to create anything he
creates, and so it's not as ifthings were pre-existing and God
formed and fashioned themtogether.
No, god created everything andformed it into the world.
(05:15):
So there was only God.
And then God delighted tocreate.
He chose to create.
What did he create?
The heavens and the earth iswhat verse one says, which
really a summary statement ofeverything we're going to see.
Verse two the earth was withoutform and void, and darkness was
over the face of the deep andthe spirit of God was hovering
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over the face of the waters.
The spirit of God, the activeworkings of God within creation.
That spirit was hovering overthe deep, as it was forming and
filling everything we see.
And we see in verse 3 that Godsays this.
(06:00):
God says let there be light.
That next phrase and there waslight.
So not only does God create, welearn that he's a creating God,
a powerful God, but then we seethis how does God create?
He creates by his word.
He spoke, he said let there belight.
And then what happens next?
He said let there be light.
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And then what happens next?
Light just obeyed.
There wasn't even light beforethat.
And not only has light beencreated, but it has been created
, obedient to the one whocreated it.
He said let there be light, andit obeyed.
God did not have to flip aswitch, fire up a generator.
I've been up with Craig Bonzelin the attic of this building
(06:48):
and taken out some of theselight bulbs and put some of them
in.
God didn't have to walk thatterrifying catwalk up to the
attic there.
He just said it and it was.
And so if you knew nothingabout scripture, if this morning
we could erase our minds andpretend that and maybe for some
(07:08):
of you that's the case, praiseGod, you're seeing this for the
first time, if we could walkinto Genesis knowing nothing
else.
Already we're three verses inand we already know this.
We serve a God who is acreating God, an all-powerful
God, a God who has been aroundfor a while, actually forever.
We also serve a God who is apowerful God only has to speak
(07:32):
the words and it's done.
And over the next seven days,god continued to create.
I've got a chart I want to putup on the screen.
I've got a chart I want to putup on the screen.
We see day one, two, three, four, five, six.
It's fascinating how God doesit.
On days one through three, youhave God forming.
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On four, five and six, we haveGod filling.
So over these six days, you seeday one God created light
forming.
Day four he's filling sun, moon, stars.
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He creates water and sky andthen animals and mankind to fill
that land.
Three days of forming, threedays of filling, and then day
seven.
We see in scripture that Godrests.
Why Does he need a nap?
God has never needed a nap, godhas never been tired.
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But God rests why?
Because God sits back one todelight in his creation.
He calls it good.
He creates mankind.
He calls it very good.
He delights in his creation.
I believe he gives us a modelfor our own life and a way to,
in our own life, to take time torest, to take that Sabbath for
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ourselves.
But God sits back and rests andenjoys what he's made.
We serve a good creator who hascreated all things good, and
the God who creates is the Godwho delights, delights in his
creation.
So this morning we have areason to worship.
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We have a reason to worship aswe think about our creative God,
as we think about our.
When there was nothing, godspoke it and there was.
This is the creator who weserve.
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This is the power that he holds.
As we continue, we see that notonly is there a creator, there
is a creator, but it goes deeperthan that.
Next, we see this that we aremade in the image of that
creator.
There is a creator and we aremade in the image of that
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creator.
Look with me now in chapter 1,verses 26 and 27.
We've walked through creation.
We saw seven days, three offorming, three of filling On.
One day, god rests.
God sees his creation, he callsit good.
But within that sixth day,something fascinating happens,
(10:26):
as he's creating, he's createdthe land, vegetation, he creates
these animals that creep acrossthe earth.
But now, in verse 26, somethingdifferent happens.
As he creates mankind, it saysthis then God said let us make
man in our image, after ourlikeness, and let them have
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dominion over the fish of thesea and over the birds of the
heavens and over the livestockand over all the earth and over
every creeping thing that creepson the earth.
So God created man in his ownimage, in the image of God.
He created him Male and female.
He created them First of all inverse 26, you may see something
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interesting at the beginning.
Then God said look at thislanguage.
Let us make man.
Then God said let us make managain in our image.
What is this us and ourlanguage that we see here?
Well, there's a few ways peoplethink about it.
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I think the best way to thinkabout it is simply we see an
idea early on in the book ofGenesis of the plurality that
exists within the Godhead.
You and I know we serve God,one God, three in one Father,
son and Spirit.
Already we've seen God workingand even in verse 2, you see the
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Spirit that hovers over thewater.
In the book of John at the verybeginning.
The gospel writer is going totell us that in the beginning
was the Word, capital W Word.
This is Jesus, who is with Godin the beginning, at creation.
We know there is Trinity.
Present our God in Trinity,even at creation.
I see a little piece of it here.
(12:16):
Let us create man in our image.
As we're reading through Genesis, if again we wipe our memory
and we're seeing it for thefirst time, I don't think we
have it fully fleshed out yet ofwhat that plurality within the
Godhead means.
But scripture is going to makethat clear.
But right now we already seethe bricks that are going to
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make up the home.
That is the Trinity here.
But what's astounding here isthe sun and moon didn't get this
, the fish didn't get this, thebirds didn't get this.
But mankind, what do they get?
Let us make man in our imageafter our likeness, made in the
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image of God.
That's what God says aboutmankind.
Now, what does that mean?
Does it mean that somewhere upin heaven there's a mirror image
of me up there, who is the Godof the universe?
I pray that's not the case.
I pray it's not the case.
No, it's not that there's amirror image of any of us, as if
we're made in the image, inthat kind of way.
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But I believe it's this that,in a sense, we are God's
representatives here on earth.
We are God's representativeshere on earth.
We are God's representatives.
We are God's creation, setapart to serve him, to be his
representatives.
We'll see in a moment that Godis going to give mankind work to
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do.
God is going to give himresponsibility.
God is going to give himcommands.
We are made in the image.
We are God's representatives.
We are God's ambassadors hereon earth.
And that tells me there isdignity for everyone who has
ever walked on earth.
Do you understand the worth ofevery human that has ever walked
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on this earth?
That everyone you see as youlook around this room is someone
who is made in the image of God?
Let's take it a step further.
Everyone you see when you walkout of this room is made in the
image of God.
That person at your work thatyou've got to pray to the Lord
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for some patience with, thatindividual is made in the image
of God.
The person that cut you off onthe way here this morning is
made in the image of God.
Your children and yourgrandchildren, your friends,
your family, everyone you comeinto contact with students when
you come back from spring breakand you step in your first class
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, back in your classroom.
Everyone you see in that roommade in the image of God.
Do you understand the worth ofeveryone who's walked this
planet?
Now, let's make no mistake.
We may know what's coming nextweek in chapter three.
We know, as mankind, we aremarred in sin, but yet even more
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, there is worth and there isdignity for all people because
all people are made in thatimage.
I love CS Lewis in his sermonthe Weight of Glory, preached in
the summer of 1941.
He said that there are noordinary people.
You've never met a mere mortal.
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There are no ordinary people.
There's not one in this room,there's not one in any room you
can be in.
There are only people made inthe image of God.
We can take it a step further aswe turn to chapter two.
Just how special this is.
It's interesting as Moses iswriting.
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It's interesting what happenshere in chapter 1 and chapter 2.
It's as if in chapter 1 of thecreation story, what we get is
almost this view, as if we werealmost sitting in some stadium,
seating in outer space, watchingthe earth from this 10,000 or
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10,000 mile foot view and seeingGod's creation.
And then chapter two.
We get the same story, butinstead of our stadium seating
in outer space, the authorbrings us down on the ground
level.
We get the same story, but weget to see it now from a
different perspective, sittingin the garden, seeing what has
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taken place around us.
And look with me in chapter 2,starting in verse 4.
These are the generations ofthe heavens and the earth.
When they were created, in theday that the Lord God made the
earth and the heavens, when nobush of the field was yet in the
land and no small plant of thefield had yet sprung up, for the
Lord God had not caused it torain on the land, there was no
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man to work the ground and amist was going up from the land
and was watering the whole faceof the ground.
Look at this, the whole face ofthe ground.
Look at this.
Then the Lord God formed theman of dust from the ground and
breathed into his nostrils thebreath of life, and the man
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became a living creature.
And the Lord God planted agarden in Eden, in the east, and
there he put the man whom hehad formed.
Do you want to talk about thedignity and worth of every human
who has ever walked the planet?
Look at the reality that inthis moment, to create the first
man, god reaches down into theground and grabs up the dust of
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the earth and we'd be tempted tosay, yeah, is there a lot of
dignity in the dust of the earth?
Is that all that impressive?
We come from dust, but thenlook at what God does With his
own breath, the very breath ofGod, from his own breath.
This is the mouth of God thathas just spoken everything, that
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just said the words andeverything came in to being.
But he just had to speak and ithappened.
But this he gets a lot closerfrom his very breath, he
breathes the breath of life intomankind.
You and I are created in theimage of God, formed by God.
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We have our life because Godbreathed his life into us,
causing us to live.
We are reminded of the psalmistthat reminds us that this is
the God who knit us together inour mother's womb.
You and I have infinite dignityand worth, and everyone you
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come into contact has infinitedignity and worth because there
is a God who delighted to getclose and personal with us and
to create in his image, for hisglory.
And there's the most importantpart why does God create For his
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glory?
So I do announce our dignityand our worth, but I don't
necessarily do it so that we canwalk out and think more highly
of I mean, I hope you do thinkhighly of yourself just as made
in the image of God, but not ina way that we'll walk out of
here and just show off aroundtown and tell everybody just how
impressive we are.
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Look at me, aren't I something?
No, we are created in the imageof God.
I praise God for that.
We have dignity, but why?
So that we can glorify ourcreator.
It all happens so that we canpoint back to him.
So, you and I, this morning wehave reason to worship because
God created us and he formed usout of nothing.
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He knit us together in ourmother's womb before we were
even thought of.
God had us on his mind and thiscreation on his mind, and he
formed us with dignity, withintentionality and with delight.
And now, as his creation, weget to turn around and worship
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the creator.
We haven't been created so thatwe can worship the creature.
We've been created to worshipour creator.
So not only do we have acreator, we do.
Not only are we made in theimage of our creator we are, but
we were made to honor and serveour creator.
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We were made to honor ourcreator, creator, we were made
to honor our creator.
Look with me chapter 1, verses27 through 30.
We'll read 27 again.
So God created man in his ownimage.
In the image of God, he createdhim male and female.
He created them and God blessedthem.
And God said to them befruitful and multiply and fill
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the earth and subdue it and havedominion over the fish of the
sea and over the birds of theheavens and over every living
thing that moves on the earth.
And God said behold, I've givenyou every plant yielding seed
that is on the face of the earthand every tree with seed and
its fruit.
You shall have them for food toevery beast of the earth, to
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every bird of the heavens and toeverything that creeps on the
earth, everything that has thebreath of life.
I have given every green plantfor food.
And it was so.
So God created mankind.
It says male and female.
He created mankind, he placedthem in the garden and he gave
them a job to do.
He gave them work.
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Genesis 2, 15, kind of ourcloser up story.
The Lord, god, took the man andput him in the garden of Eden.
Look at this.
To work it and to keep it.
God gave mankind work to do tokeep it.
God gave mankind work to dothat.
From the start Adam and Eve andall mankind they had work.
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They had work within the garden.
God delighted that they wouldsubdue, that they would have
dominion over that.
They would work it and theywould keep it and they would
protect it and it would be aplace that would prosper and
grow.
Because of the work mankind isdoing.
God desired them to be fruitfuland multiply, so quite
literally expand, grow.
This people made in the imageof God that there would be more
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God worshipers here on the earth.
They had work.
Now, many times maybe you'retempted to say that work in and
of itself must have been aresult of Genesis, chapter three
, when sin entered the world.
Surely that's when work enteredthe world.
But the reality is God gavemankind work to do.
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Work is a really good thing.
A job and command from the Lordis a beautiful thing and just a
quick little side note as wetake a quick exit ramp.
I want you to think about yourwork right now, whatever it may
be, and by that I can mean yourcareer, I can mean your work as
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a husband or wife, I can meanyour work as a mother or father,
I can mean whatever you want todefine your God-given work.
As there's a temptation we havewhen we think about work.
We think this that here's thespiritual work, it's the work
that Dustin goes to every dayand Colby and Brian.
That's the spiritual work,that's the ministry work, that's
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the special high and lifted upcalling.
That's what they do.
But here's the work I do.
It's just work.
It's just the Monday throughFriday, nine to five work Now.
Now I wanna say this I praiseGod for the call of ministry and
Dustin and Colby and Brian, andhumbly myself, that God has
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given us a certain calling toserve you all as best we can and
under God's leadership.
But I wanna tell you, every oneof you who works, in any and
every category, what you do isGod's calling and God has placed
you there specifically for thismoment, for this time, and
there is value in work, in thework that you do.
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There's value in what you do,and God-given value.
And what a gift that is.
Work, to work the land to honorGod's command existed in the
Garden of Eden, existed withinthe perfect Garden of Eden.
But also, not only do we work,we read chapter 2, verse 16 and
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17,.
The Lord, god, commanded theman, saying you may surely eat
of every tree of the garden, butof the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of
it you shall surely die.
So not only did God givemankind work, God gave them
commands and we were created sothat we might obey.
(25:31):
God has given us a calling tolive in obedience.
God has given us a calling tolive in obedience.
God has given us a calling toobey him.
But this calling to obedienceis a calling towards freedom.
Where do we find freedom?
We find it in the life thatChrist has given us through
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obedience to him.
We find it in salvation andbased on that, in response us,
through obedience to him.
We find it in salvation andbased on that, in response to
that, we obey.
It's fascinating to me that weread verse 16 and 17 and if
we're not careful, we'll seeGod's command, we'll see our
need to obey.
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And we'll look at verse 17 andwe'll see this.
But God said there was this onetree, the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, that youshall not eat.
And we'll see that if we're notcareful and we'll say isn't God
restrictive?
You know, isn't God restrictive?
(26:32):
Isn't that just like God tothrow a rule and a regulation
and a restriction upon us?
But we skip verse 16.
You may surely eat of everytree in the garden.
God had given mankind allthings, the entire garden was
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open to them, and we'll talkmore about that next week, as we
see Genesis, chapter 3.
But God had given mankind thistrue freedom in the garden and
had given one command, andwouldn't you know it next week?
We can't obey it, but we werecreated to honor and serve and
to obey, and that's the coursetowards freedom, that's the life
(27:16):
we find of freedom.
Verse 24 and 25, I read,therefore, of chapter 2,
therefore, a man shall leave hisfather and mother and hold fast
to his wife and they shallbecome one flesh.
Here, in this moment, we seesomewhat the first marriage
ceremony in all of scripture, asGod has now created Eve, man
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and woman, husband and wife, inverse 25.
And the man and his wife wereboth naked and were not ashamed.
What you see in the garden isthe picture of freedom, living
under the sovereign authorityand sovereign care of a creating
God.
(27:58):
It's fascinating.
In verse 25.
Man and his wife were bothnaked and were not ashamed.
We'll see next week that oncethey commit their sin of
disobedience, the first thingthey do is what?
Try to cover up their nakedness.
You see, in chapters one andtwo, nakedness, it wasn't a
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thing.
A fish doesn't realize he's inthe water, he just realizes he's
alive.
That's just where fish live.
They're not thinking about thefact they're in the water,
they're just living their lives.
And we too were in the garden,in in in the full beauty of
freedom before our god, in thefull, uh, created order of a
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creative god living to work forhim, living to obey him, to live
in the freedom that oursovereign God had provided.
This is who we are.
This was the air that we werebreathing in these first two
chapters.
We were made to honor God, andhere's the problem we couldn't
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do it.
We didn't do it.
God, and here's the problem wecouldn't do it, we didn't do it.
There are 1,189 chapters in theBible Across 66 books.
There are 1,189 chapters in theBible and we got through two of
them before we disobeyed ourcreator.
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Two of them, and I think aboutthe bookends of the Bible
Genesis 1 and 2, and thenanother bookend on the other
side Revelation 21 and 22.
You have perfection in thegarden in Genesis 1 and 2, and
then you have a restored and newand even greater perfection in
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the new garden city, the newheavens and the new earth.
Perfection on one side,perfection on the other, and
you've got all of these chaptersin between the two of them.
And what happens here?
How in the world do we get fromone perfection to a new and even
greater perfection, especiallywhen considering the fact that
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mankind, we were the very oneswho destroyed that perfection,
who disobeyed our creator?
How in the world do we get there?
We get there because thecreator, god, entered his
creation.
God entered his creation andthat everything in between those
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two bookends is the story ofhow our creating and loving and
redeeming God delights to bringus back to himself At the cost
of who?
His very son, god himself,coming to us in creation.
That's what scripture is allabout.
That's what we're gonna seethroughout this Easter series.
That's what we're surely gonnasee on Easter morning as Christ
gets up out of the grave.
That everything in between isthe story of God redeeming a
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broken people and moving us fromGenesis 1 and 2, in the first
garden, where we ruined creationthrough our own rebellion, to
the new heavens and earth, whereall things are made right once
again, when all things arerestored, and in that new garden
(31:29):
city, you and I, who are inChrist Because of the work, the
death and the resurrection ofChrist, can live in that new
garden city, fully restored,fully glorified for all eternity
.
Why?
Because we earned it.
Why, because of our good workswe've earned that new creation?
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No, no, no, because of our goodworks we've earned that new
creation.
No, no, no, Because ChristJesus did what we couldn't do.
Because the garden of Eden willlead us to the garden of
Gethsemane, will lead us to across made of wood from that
tree, made of the tree that wasin a garden, lead us to the
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garden tomb, which will lead usto the garden city that is to
come.
This is the beauty of ourgospel that we are about to
march over, these next few weeksfrom garden to glory.
We're gonna do it together andwe're gonna do it as we worship
the very one who has made thispossible.
(32:38):
And so this morning we havereason to worship.
And maybe you're here thismorning and, for the first time,
you want to come to that placeof worship.
For the first time, you want torealize not just that you have
a creator, but that my creatorknows me, knows you.
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Please come down and talk to me.
Our pastors will be down.
We'd love to talk to you aboutthat.
Maybe you want to join thischurch.
We'd love to welcome you intothis family of faith.
Maybe you want to come, let oneof us pray over you.
Maybe you need to sit rightwhere you are and just pray and
just worship your creator.
However, you need to respond.
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I hope you will respond thismorning.
I'll pray and then we'llrespond.
Lord Jesus, thank you for thegarden, thank you for creation,
thank you that you are acreating God.
But not only did you create us,you love us.
Not only did you make us, butyou redeemed us.
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And so, lord, if there is onein this room that doesn't know
about that redemption, I praythat they would not leave this
room without knowing that youare a savior.
I thank you for the gospel.
I thank you for Easter and thehope of the resurrection.
We love you, lord.
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We pray this in Christ's nameAmen.
Would you stand now as weworship?
1st Baptist, baptist El Dorado, will you join me now
in listening to our sermon fromthis week?
The beginning words of any goodstory can sometimes transcend
time.
There's probably lines of books, the first lines that you know,
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though you've never even, maybe, read the book.
Call Me Ishmael, moby Dick.
It was the best of times, itwas the worst of times.
A Tale of Two Cities.
It was a bright, cold day inApril.
The clocks were striking 13,.
That's 1984.
In a hole in the ground therelived a hobbit.
Probably guess which book thatis?
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In the beginning, god createdthe heavens and the earth.
What's interesting?
Four of those are fiction.
One of those is absolute fact,and yet the one opening line
there, that's absolute fact, isactually the most fascinating of
them all, the most transcendentof them all.
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In the beginning, god createdthe heavens and the earth.
I want to begin really just thefirst four words in English, the
first three in Hebrew in thebeginning, god.
In the beginning God.
Just from that phrase we candraw a lot of theology about who
God is, about what he's up to,about his power.
In the beginning God.
What does that tell us?
Well, from the start, it tellsus this that before the
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beginning began, there was a Godwho began the beginning, that
before any of this started thehistory of you and I, there was
a God that preexisted all ofthat.
And so when we read in thebeginning, we should never do
this.
We should never consider it thebeginning of God.
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Let's be clear there is nobeginning of God.
This is the beginning of God'swork in this world and what we
call humanity, but it is not thebeginning of God, because God
has no beginning.
We know God is eternal.
Let this hurt your mind a littlethis morning that if you and I
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were to load up today into atime machine, we got in this
morning and we just pressed thearrow forward into the future.
We pressed the arrow forwardand we pressed go, there is
nowhere we could get out intothe future, that we could step
out of the time machine and Godwould not be present.
But let this hurt your mindeven more.
I'm tempted to not even say itbecause you'll probably spend
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the rest of the service thinkingon that and not what I'm saying
.
But if you got in that timemachine and you press the arrow
backwards and you just startedgoing backwards, there is no
place into the past in which youcould step out and God would
not be.
If God is eternal, god iseternal into the future and God
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is eternal into the past.
And yet even these phrasesbreak down because God is
outside of time.
God doesn't need time.
God is God all by himself.
We've talked about that a fewtimes.
But in the beginning, god,there was a God who began the
beginning.
And what did God do?
In verse 1, we see that in thebeginning, god created First.
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From that I see this that Goddelights to create.
Again, as we've said, god isGod all by himself.
God is God if he doesn't create.
God is God if he doesn't createthe earth and the mountains,
and the rivers and the streamsand you and I.
God is God all by himself.
And yet what did he delight todo?
He created, and the mountains,and the rivers and the streams,
and you and I.
God is God all by himself.
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And yet what did he delight todo?
He created.
And how did he create?
He created from nothing.
You and I, we are creators aswell.
We create things, but we don'tcreate out of nothing.
Things, but we don't create outof nothing.
If my family this afternoon wereto maybe head to the kitchen
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and we were going to bakesomething.
We're going to drop somethingoff at your door today.
We're going to bake cookiestogether.
We're going to create thoseincredible chocolate chip
cookies, but the reality iswe've created the cookies, but
how did we create them?
From ingredients that alreadyexisted?
We got the sugar, we got thecookies, but how did we create
them?
From ingredients that alreadyexisted?
We got the sugar, we got thebutter, we got the chocolate
chips.
The ingredients were there.
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That's how you and I create.
When God creates, he createsfrom nothing.
There were no ingredients.
God created the ingredients heneeded to create anything he
creates, and so it's not as ifthings were pre-existing and God
formed and fashioned themtogether.
No, god created everything andformed it into the world.
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So there was only God.
And then God delighted tocreate.
He chose to create.
What did he create?
The heavens and the earth iswhat verse one says, which
really a summary statement ofeverything we're going to see.
Verse two the earth was withoutform and void, and darkness was
over the face of the deep andthe spirit of God was hovering
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over the face of the waters.
The spirit of God, the activeworkings of God within creation.
That spirit was hovering overthe deep, as it was forming and
filling everything we see.
And we see in verse 3 that Godsays this.
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God says let there be light.
That next phrase and there waslight.
So not only does God create, welearn that he's a creating God,
a powerful God, but then we seethis how does God create?
He creates by his word.
He spoke, he said let there belight.
And then what happens next?
He said let there be light.
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And then what happens next?
Light just obeyed.
There wasn't even light beforethat.
And not only has light beencreated, but it has been created
, obedient to the one whocreated it.
He said let there be light, andit obeyed.
God did not have to flip aswitch, fire up a generator.
I've been up with Craig Bonzelin the attic of this building
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and taken out some of theselight bulbs and put some of them
in.
God didn't have to walk thatterrifying catwalk up to the
attic there.
He just said it and it was.
And so if you knew nothingabout scripture, if this morning
we could erase our minds andpretend that and maybe for some
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of you that's the case, praiseGod, you're seeing this for the
first time, if we could walkinto Genesis knowing nothing
else.
Already we're three verses inand we already know this.
We serve a God who is acreating God, an all-powerful
God, a God who has been aroundfor a while, actually forever.
We also serve a God who is apowerful God only has to speak
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the words and it's done.
And over the next seven days,god continued to create.
I've got a chart I want to putup on the screen.
I've got a chart I want to putup on the screen.
We see day one, two, three, four, five, six.
It's fascinating how God doesit.
On days one through three, youhave God forming.
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On four, five and six, we haveGod filling.
So over these six days, you seeday one God created light
forming.
Day four he's filling sun, moon, stars.
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He creates water and sky andthen animals and mankind to fill
that land.
Three days of forming, threedays of filling, and then day
seven.
We see in scripture that Godrests.
Why Does he need a nap?
God has never needed a nap, godhas never been tired.
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But God rests why?
Because God sits back one todelight in his creation.
He calls it good.
He creates mankind.
He calls it very good.
He delights in his creation.
I believe he gives us a modelfor our own life and a way to,
in our own life, to take time torest, to take that Sabbath for
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ourselves.
But God sits back and rests andenjoys what he's made.
We serve a good creator who hascreated all things good, and
the God who creates is the Godwho delights, delights in his
creation.
So this morning we have areason to worship.
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We have a reason to worship aswe think about our creative God,
as we think about our.
When there was nothing, godspoke it and there was.
This is the creator who weserve.
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This is the power that he holds.
As we continue, we see that notonly is there a creator, there
is a creator, but it goes deeperthan that.
Next, we see this that we aremade in the image of that
creator.
There is a creator and we aremade in the image of that
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creator.
Look with me now in chapter 1,verses 26 and 27.
We've walked through creation.
We saw seven days, three offorming, three of filling On.
One day, god rests.
God sees his creation, he callsit good.
But within that sixth day,something fascinating happens,
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as he's creating, he's createdthe land, vegetation, he creates
these animals that creep acrossthe earth.
But now, in verse 26, somethingdifferent happens.
As he creates mankind, it saysthis then God said let us make
man in our image, after ourlikeness, and let them have
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dominion over the fish of thesea and over the birds of the
heavens and over the livestockand over all the earth and over
every creeping thing that creepson the earth.
So God created man in his ownimage, in the image of God.
He created him Male and female.
He created them First of all inverse 26, you may see something
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interesting at the beginning.
Then God said look at thislanguage.
Let us make man.
Then God said let us make managain in our image.
What is this us and ourlanguage that we see here?
Well, there's a few ways peoplethink about it.
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I think the best way to thinkabout it is simply we see an
idea early on in the book ofGenesis of the plurality that
exists within the Godhead.
You and I know we serve God,one God, three in one Father,
son and Spirit.
Already we've seen God workingand even in verse 2, you see the
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Spirit that hovers over thewater.
In the book of John at the verybeginning.
The gospel writer is going totell us that in the beginning
was the Word, capital W Word.
This is Jesus, who is with Godin the beginning, at creation.
We know there is Trinity.
Present our God in Trinity,even at creation.
I see a little piece of it here.
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Let us create man in our image.
As we're reading through Genesis, if again we wipe our memory
and we're seeing it for thefirst time, I don't think we
have it fully fleshed out yet ofwhat that plurality within the
Godhead means.
But scripture is going to makethat clear.
But right now we already seethe bricks that are going to
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make up the home.
That is the Trinity here.
But what's astounding here isthe sun and moon didn't get this
, the fish didn't get this, thebirds didn't get this.
But mankind, what do they get?
Let us make man in our imageafter our likeness, made in the
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image of God.
That's what God says aboutmankind.
Now, what does that mean?
Does it mean that somewhere upin heaven there's a mirror image
of me up there, who is the Godof the universe?
I pray that's not the case.
I pray it's not the case.
No, it's not that there's amirror image of any of us, as if
we're made in the image, inthat kind of way.
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But I believe it's this that,in a sense, we are God's
representatives here on earth.
We are God's representativeshere on earth.
We are God's representatives.
We are God's creation, setapart to serve him, to be his
representatives.
We'll see in a moment that Godis going to give mankind work to
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do.
God is going to give himresponsibility.
God is going to give himcommands.
We are made in the image.
We are God's representatives.
We are God's ambassadors hereon earth.
And that tells me there isdignity for everyone who has
ever walked on earth.
Do you understand the worth ofevery human that has ever walked
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on this earth?
That everyone you see as youlook around this room is someone
who is made in the image of God?
Let's take it a step further.
Everyone you see when you walkout of this room is made in the
image of God.
That person at your work thatyou've got to pray to the Lord
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for some patience with, thatindividual is made in the image
of God.
The person that cut you off onthe way here this morning is
made in the image of God.
Your children and yourgrandchildren, your friends,
your family, everyone you comeinto contact with students when
you come back from spring breakand you step in your first class
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, back in your classroom.
Everyone you see in that roommade in the image of God.
Do you understand the worth ofeveryone who's walked this
planet?
Now, let's make no mistake.
We may know what's coming nextweek in chapter three.
We know, as mankind, we aremarred in sin, but yet even more
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, there is worth and there isdignity for all people because
all people are made in thatimage.
I love CS Lewis in his sermonthe Weight of Glory, preached in
the summer of 1941.
He said that there are noordinary people.
You've never met a mere mortal.
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There are no ordinary people.
There's not one in this room,there's not one in any room you
can be in.
There are only people made inthe image of God.
We can take it a step further aswe turn to chapter two.
Just how special this is.
It's interesting as Moses iswriting.
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It's interesting what happenshere in chapter 1 and chapter 2.
It's as if in chapter 1 of thecreation story, what we get is
almost this view, as if we werealmost sitting in some stadium,
seating in outer space, watchingthe earth from this 10,000 or
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10,000 mile foot view and seeingGod's creation.
And then chapter two.
We get the same story, butinstead of our stadium seating
in outer space, the authorbrings us down on the ground
level.
We get the same story, but weget to see it now from a
different perspective, sittingin the garden, seeing what has
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taken place around us.
And look with me in chapter 2,starting in verse 4.
These are the generations ofthe heavens and the earth.
When they were created, in theday that the Lord God made the
earth and the heavens, when nobush of the field was yet in the
land and no small plant of thefield had yet sprung up, for the
Lord God had not caused it torain on the land, there was no
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man to work the ground and amist was going up from the land
and was watering the whole faceof the ground.
Look at this, the whole face ofthe ground.
Look at this.
Then the Lord God formed theman of dust from the ground and
breathed into his nostrils thebreath of life, and the man
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became a living creature.
And the Lord God planted agarden in Eden, in the east, and
there he put the man whom hehad formed.
Do you want to talk about thedignity and worth of every human
who has ever walked the planet?
Look at the reality that inthis moment, to create the first
man, god reaches down into theground and grabs up the dust of
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the earth and we'd be tempted tosay, yeah, is there a lot of
dignity in the dust of the earth?
Is that all that impressive?
We come from dust, but thenlook at what God does With his
own breath, the very breath ofGod, from his own breath.
This is the mouth of God thathas just spoken everything, that
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just said the words andeverything came in to being.
But he just had to speak and ithappened.
But this he gets a lot closerfrom his very breath, he
breathes the breath of life intomankind.
You and I are created in theimage of God, formed by God.
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We have our life because Godbreathed his life into us,
causing us to live.
We are reminded of the psalmistthat reminds us that this is
the God who knit us together inour mother's womb.
You and I have infinite dignityand worth, and everyone you
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come into contact has infinitedignity and worth because there
is a God who delighted to getclose and personal with us and
to create in his image, for hisglory.
And there's the most importantpart why does God create For his
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glory?
So I do announce our dignityand our worth, but I don't
necessarily do it so that we canwalk out and think more highly
of I mean, I hope you do thinkhighly of yourself just as made
in the image of God, but not ina way that we'll walk out of
here and just show off aroundtown and tell everybody just how
impressive we are.
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Look at me, aren't I something?
No, we are created in the imageof God.
I praise God for that.
We have dignity, but why?
So that we can glorify ourcreator.
It all happens so that we canpoint back to him.
So, you and I, this morning wehave reason to worship because
God created us and he formed usout of nothing.
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He knit us together in ourmother's womb before we were
even thought of.
God had us on his mind and thiscreation on his mind, and he
formed us with dignity, withintentionality and with delight.
And now, as his creation, weget to turn around and worship
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the creator.
We haven't been created so thatwe can worship the creature.
We've been created to worshipour creator.
So not only do we have acreator, we do.
Not only are we made in theimage of our creator we are, but
we were made to honor and serveour creator.
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We were made to honor ourcreator, creator, we were made
to honor our creator.
Look with me chapter 1, verses27 through 30.
We'll read 27 again.
So God created man in his ownimage.
In the image of God, he createdhim male and female.
He created them and God blessedthem.
And God said to them befruitful and multiply and fill
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the earth and subdue it and havedominion over the fish of the
sea and over the birds of theheavens and over every living
thing that moves on the earth.
And God said behold, I've givenyou every plant yielding seed
that is on the face of the earthand every tree with seed and
its fruit.
You shall have them for food toevery beast of the earth, to
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every bird of the heavens and toeverything that creeps on the
earth, everything that has thebreath of life.
I have given every green plantfor food.
And it was so.
So God created mankind.
It says male and female.
He created mankind, he placedthem in the garden and he gave
them a job to do.
He gave them work.
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Genesis 2, 15, kind of ourcloser up story.
The Lord, god, took the man andput him in the garden of Eden.
Look at this.
To work it and to keep it.
God gave mankind work to do tokeep it.
God gave mankind work to dothat.
From the start Adam and Eve andall mankind they had work.
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They had work within the garden.
God delighted that they wouldsubdue, that they would have
dominion over that.
They would work it and theywould keep it and they would
protect it and it would be aplace that would prosper and
grow.
Because of the work mankind isdoing.
God desired them to be fruitfuland multiply, so quite
literally expand, grow.
This people made in the imageof God that there would be more
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God worshipers here on the earth.
They had work.
Now, many times maybe you'retempted to say that work in and
of itself must have been aresult of Genesis, chapter three
, when sin entered the world.
Surely that's when work enteredthe world.
But the reality is God gavemankind work to do.
(23:13):
Work is a really good thing.
A job and command from the Lordis a beautiful thing and just a
quick little side note as wetake a quick exit ramp.
I want you to think about yourwork right now, whatever it may
be, and by that I can mean yourcareer, I can mean your work as
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a husband or wife, I can meanyour work as a mother or father,
I can mean whatever you want todefine your God-given work.
As there's a temptation we havewhen we think about work.
We think this that here's thespiritual work, it's the work
that Dustin goes to every dayand Colby and Brian.
That's the spiritual work,that's the ministry work, that's
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the special high and lifted upcalling.
That's what they do.
But here's the work I do.
It's just work.
It's just the Monday throughFriday, nine to five work Now.
Now I wanna say this I praiseGod for the call of ministry and
Dustin and Colby and Brian, andhumbly myself, that God has
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given us a certain calling toserve you all as best we can and
under God's leadership.
But I wanna tell you, every oneof you who works, in any and
every category, what you do isGod's calling and God has placed
you there specifically for thismoment, for this time, and
there is value in work, in thework that you do.
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There's value in what you do,and God-given value.
And what a gift that is.
Work, to work the land to honorGod's command existed in the
Garden of Eden, existed withinthe perfect Garden of Eden.
But also, not only do we work,we read chapter 2, verse 16 and
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17,.
The Lord, god, commanded theman, saying you may surely eat
of every tree of the garden, butof the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of
it you shall surely die.
So not only did God givemankind work, God gave them
commands and we were created sothat we might obey.
(25:31):
God has given us a calling tolive in obedience.
God has given us a calling tolive in obedience.
God has given us a calling toobey him.
But this calling to obedienceis a calling towards freedom.
Where do we find freedom?
We find it in the life thatChrist has given us through
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obedience to him.
We find it in salvation andbased on that, in response us,
through obedience to him.
We find it in salvation andbased on that, in response to
that, we obey.
It's fascinating to me that weread verse 16 and 17 and if
we're not careful, we'll seeGod's command, we'll see our
need to obey.
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And we'll look at verse 17 andwe'll see this.
But God said there was this onetree, the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, that youshall not eat.
And we'll see that if we're notcareful and we'll say isn't God
restrictive?
You know, isn't God restrictive?
(26:32):
Isn't that just like God tothrow a rule and a regulation
and a restriction upon us?
But we skip verse 16.
You may surely eat of everytree in the garden.
God had given mankind allthings, the entire garden was
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open to them, and we'll talkmore about that next week, as we
see Genesis, chapter 3.
But God had given mankind thistrue freedom in the garden and
had given one command, andwouldn't you know it next week?
We can't obey it, but we werecreated to honor and serve and
to obey, and that's the coursetowards freedom, that's the life
(27:16):
we find of freedom.
Verse 24 and 25, I read,therefore, of chapter 2,
therefore, a man shall leave hisfather and mother and hold fast
to his wife and they shallbecome one flesh.
Here, in this moment, we seesomewhat the first marriage
ceremony in all of scripture, asGod has now created Eve, man
(27:38):
and woman, husband and wife, inverse 25.
And the man and his wife wereboth naked and were not ashamed.
What you see in the garden isthe picture of freedom, living
under the sovereign authorityand sovereign care of a creating
God.
(27:58):
It's fascinating.
In verse 25.
Man and his wife were bothnaked and were not ashamed.
We'll see next week that oncethey commit their sin of
disobedience, the first thingthey do is what?
Try to cover up their nakedness.
You see, in chapters one andtwo, nakedness, it wasn't a
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thing.
A fish doesn't realize he's inthe water, he just realizes he's
alive.
That's just where fish live.
They're not thinking about thefact they're in the water,
they're just living their lives.
And we too were in the garden,in in in the full beauty of
freedom before our god, in thefull, uh, created order of a
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creative god living to work forhim, living to obey him, to live
in the freedom that oursovereign God had provided.
This is who we are.
This was the air that we werebreathing in these first two
chapters.
We were made to honor God, andhere's the problem we couldn't
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do it.
We didn't do it.
God, and here's the problem wecouldn't do it, we didn't do it.
There are 1,189 chapters in theBible Across 66 books.
There are 1,189 chapters in theBible and we got through two of
them before we disobeyed ourcreator.
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Two of them, and I think aboutthe bookends of the Bible
Genesis 1 and 2, and thenanother bookend on the other
side Revelation 21 and 22.
You have perfection in thegarden in Genesis 1 and 2, and
then you have a restored and newand even greater perfection in
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the new garden city, the newheavens and the new earth.
Perfection on one side,perfection on the other, and
you've got all of these chaptersin between the two of them.
And what happens here?
How in the world do we get fromone perfection to a new and even
greater perfection, especiallywhen considering the fact that
(30:19):
mankind, we were the very oneswho destroyed that perfection,
who disobeyed our creator?
How in the world do we get there?
We get there because thecreator, god, entered his
creation.
God entered his creation andthat everything in between those
(30:46):
two bookends is the story ofhow our creating and loving and
redeeming God delights to bringus back to himself At the cost
of who?
His very son, god himself,coming to us in creation.
That's what scripture is allabout.
That's what we're gonna seethroughout this Easter series.
That's what we're surely gonnasee on Easter morning as Christ
gets up out of the grave.
That everything in between isthe story of God redeeming a
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broken people and moving us fromGenesis 1 and 2, in the first
garden, where we ruined creationthrough our own rebellion, to
the new heavens and earth, whereall things are made right once
again, when all things arerestored, and in that new garden
(31:29):
city, you and I, who are inChrist Because of the work, the
death and the resurrection ofChrist, can live in that new
garden city, fully restored,fully glorified for all eternity
.
Why?
Because we earned it.
Why, because of our good workswe've earned that new creation?
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No, no, no, because of our goodworks we've earned that new
creation.
No, no, no, Because ChristJesus did what we couldn't do.
Because the garden of Eden willlead us to the garden of
Gethsemane, will lead us to across made of wood from that
tree, made of the tree that wasin a garden, lead us to the
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garden tomb, which will lead usto the garden city that is to
come.
This is the beauty of ourgospel that we are about to
march over, these next few weeksfrom garden to glory.
We're gonna do it together andwe're gonna do it as we worship
the very one who has made thispossible.
(32:38):
And so this morning we havereason to worship.
And maybe you're here thismorning and, for the first time,
you want to come to that placeof worship.
For the first time, you want torealize not just that you have
a creator, but that my creatorknows me, knows you.
(32:58):
Please come down and talk to me.
Our pastors will be down.
We'd love to talk to you aboutthat.
Maybe you want to join thischurch.
We'd love to welcome you intothis family of faith.
Maybe you want to come, let oneof us pray over you.
Maybe you need to sit rightwhere you are and just pray and
just worship your creator.
However, you need to respond.
(33:19):
I hope you will respond thismorning.
I'll pray and then we'llrespond.
Lord Jesus, thank you for thegarden, thank you for creation,
thank you that you are acreating God.
But not only did you create us,you love us.
Not only did you make us, butyou redeemed us.
(33:43):
And so, lord, if there is onein this room that doesn't know
about that redemption, I praythat they would not leave this
room without knowing that youare a savior.
I thank you for the gospel.
I thank you for Easter and thehope of the resurrection.
We love you, lord.
(34:03):
We pray this in Christ's nameAmen.
Would you stand now as weworship?
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