Series: Genesis
Title: In the Beginning
Text: Gen 1: 1-5
Date: December 3, 2010
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
The glory in the salvation of a sinner belongs to God alone. Sinners are made to behold the glory of God in Christ Jesus. The one thing that makes a child of God to differ is that God makes his children a new creature (creation)--created anew by God--a new spirit, a new body and a new heavens and earth will all be the work of the Creator, wherein all shall be created in perfect righteousness and holiness.
2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Galatians 6:15: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
Proposition: By looking at how God created the heavens and the earth and the first day, we behold something of how the LORD God makes this new creation.
I. THE NEW CREATION BEGINS WITH THE WORD
Genesis 1: 1: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Natural man wants proof. God reveals.
When God gives faith, the sinner has all the proof we need.
Hebrews 11: 1: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen…3: Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Everything revealed in this book is to glorify God in the face of Christ Jesus. Read Hebrews 11: 3 again--the worlds were framed by the WORD OF GOD.
John 1: 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2: The same was in the beginning with God. 3: All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4: In him was life; and the life was the light of men….14: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Lesson: NEW CREATION BEGINS WITH THE WORD
1. Jesus Christ the Man who eventually was born into this world is the Word--in the beginning, the heaven and earth was framed by the Word.
2. Before the beginning here in Gen 1: 1--there was a beginning-- Note: "In the beginning" is used two times in John 1: 1-2. Verse 1 speaks of a beginning which came before verse 2. Verse 2 is the beginning we are looking at in Genesis 1. But there was a beginning before God began to create the world.
So what happened in the beginning before God began creating the heaven and the earth? God the Father entrusted this entire work of making a new heavens and a new earth to God the Son in the everlasting covenant of grace--the Word--Covenant and Counsil is the Word. Christ is given for a Covenant--the Sign. Then the Word began the work entrusted to him by first creating THIS heaven and earth and all things in it by the Word.
3. In the same manner the heaven and earth were created, sinners are made new creations. By the Word, by God the Word through the preaching of the word--it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. New creation begins with the Word!
Genesis 1: 1: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
II. THE SPIRIT OF GOD CREATES A NEW CREATION WITHIN A SINNER
Genesis 1: 2: And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep.
A Description of Sinners Born the First Time
1. Without form--vanity
2. Void--empty
3. Darkness upon the face of the deep--the heart is spirit, compared to water--we are born into this world in darkness of spirit because of sin, no light, no life.
The Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters
Genesis 1: 2:…And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
John 3: 3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and [of] the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
The wind moves upon you, you do not move upon the wind. The Spirit of God moved upon the waters, the waters were without form, void, dark. So the sinner is moved upon by the Spirit of God.
God Speaks Light And There Is Life Within
Genesis 1: 3: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Again, we have the Word--God said….God spoke Light and it was--God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Ps 33:6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth….9 For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
Ps 148:5: Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.
Lesson: Spiritual Life comes by God speaking Life, Light in dead, void, sinners--revelation--through the Spirit.
Matthew 8:3: And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
John 11:43: And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. 44: And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
The Light is Life which is Christ. (Back to John 1)
John 1: 4: In him was life; and the life was the light of men 5: And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Remember: the new creation begins with the Word. God sent John preaching the Word--the Word comes first. John bore witness of the Light.
John 1: 6: There was a man sent from God, whose name [was] John. 7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all [men] through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but [was sent] to bear witness of that Light. 9 [That] was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (1Co 1:21 AV)
2. Yet, dead void sinners comprehended him not, they believed not on Christ.
John 1: 10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
3. But some believed and how so?
John 1: 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
(Turn to 2 Cor 4: 6--let's compare the first creation with how Paul says sinners are made new creations)
Genesis 1: 1: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2: And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
2 Corinthians 4: 6: For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
Lesson: 1) Everything begins with the Word. Creation began with the Word--Christ the Word of the Gospel we preach. We can not stress the importance of hearing the preaching of the Word because through this means it pleased God to save sinners--the glory in this is that Christ is the Word everything begins with Christ.
2) Through the Word, the Spirit of God moves upon the sinner.
3) Through the Word, through the Spirit, God speaks life and light in the heart and it is.
Genesis 1: 4: And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5: And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
You have been looking at creation trying to figure out God. God makes us see Him then we understand creation.
Isa 60:19 The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.
AMEN!