God Created

/ pastorjasonmiller

Transcending Eden

Listen to the sermon here

Transcending Eden | Part 2

God Created

Genesis 1:1-2:3

 

Introduction

Last Week: TRANSCENDING EDEN

  • Transcend / transcend time = to go beyond the historical space and time in which an event occurs
  • What happens in Eden doesn’t stay in Eden

What we learn from the first three chapters of Genesis is FOUNDATIONAL TO THE WAY WE APPROACH THE WORLD.

 

In the Epic of Eden we learn

  • who God is,
  • our beginning,
  • why we are here,
  • what’s wrong,
  • and what’s the cure.

 

Last week: Before there was time there was God

1.) God is complete – He lacked nothing before creation and He lacks nothing now

  • He is totally self-sufficient and needs nothing more than Himself in order to exist or to act.[i]
  • Out of His glory God created
  • We are NOT THE POINT of God’s creative works
  • We ARE THE PRODUCT of God’s creative work for His glory
    • We have purpose
      • God created us to reveal and reflect His glory
      • Before the foundation of the world.. before there was time.. God has a purpose for you
      • God DIDN’T say to Himself, “Let us create and see what happens.”
      • God KNEW and God KNOWS
  • God knew that we would fall
    • ..that we would get distracted from our purpose..
    • And so He also extended grace before the foundation of the world
  • Purpose and Grace existed before time in the mind of God

 

2.) God is uncaused – He is the origin of all things

  • This IS A BOLD statement.. not in church but in culture
  • It is a BOLD CLAIM yet it is the PRINCIPLE CLAIM
    • of the first sentence of Scripture
    • of essentially the first two chapters
    • repeated over and again throughout Scripture
  • That GOD CREATED is the principle claim

 

Who is this God of Creation?

“Elōhîm” = Hebrew name of God that indicates honor or majesty[ii]

  • 35x
  • But I thought Yahweh was the name of God? It is for the name of God in relationship
  • “Elōhîm” is the name of God of creation indicating honor, majesty, power.. He simply speaks and creation bursts forth
  • “Elōhîm” – masculine, plural
  • Every verb associated with the subject – masculine, singular

 

Provides a peak into the Trinitarian nature of God (vv1-3)

  • God the Holy Spirit is moving (v2)
  • God the Father is speaking (v3)
  • “But where is Jesus?” God the Son is the Word (v3)

John 1:1-4

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

 

1 Corinthians 8:5-6

5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

 

Colossians 1:15-17

15 He [JESUS] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

 

“firstborn”

  • Not a title of numerical order
  • It is a TITLE OF PREEMINENCE
    • The Son of God would take on flesh
    • Fully man, yet fully God
    • Therefore He always has first place status
    • Made clear as we keep reading

 

16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

 

There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: “Mine.” – Abraham Kuyper

 

Who is this God of Creation?

1.) He is “Elōhîm” perfect in honor, majesty, power

 

2.) He is the One True Trinitarian God

  • Trinitarian God of the Scriptures who exists as three persons who are equal in their attributes and yet individual and distinct in their offices and ministries
  • God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit

 

Even the way the Scripture announces Creation is Trinitarian

In the beginning = time

Heavens = space

Earth = matter

 

If this is from whom Creation came, what is ruled out?

1.) Dualism – eternal battle of good versus evil

 

2.) Polytheism – many gods

 

3.) Pantheism – everything is God.. God and the universe are essentially identical

 

4.) Naturalism – root of Darwinian evolution

AND ITS CLOSE COUSIN

5.) Materialism – Naturalism almost always gives way to materialism

  • physical matter is the only reality or category of existence
  • rejection of God who exists in Spirit being able to affect anything physical
  • But how a spiritual thing can affect the physical is clear: Your emotions, etc..

 

Darwinian Evolution Requires You to Believe

  1. Nothing produces everything
  2. Chaos produces order
  3. Unconsciousness brings about revelation
  4. Non-reason produces reason
  5. Non-life-produces life

 

These all require a type of faith that is blind..

These are unbelievable.

 

Scripture makes quite the opposite claim

Elohim spoke:

  • Form from nothingness
  • Order from chaos
  • Revelation from unconsciousness
  • Reason from ignorance
  • Light and life

 

When we reject God we accept nothingness, chaos, unconsciousness, ignorance, death

 

6.) Pluralism – many equal paths to God/salvation

 

But the God of Creation sets the way of Salvation

God created you,

You are His

In your sin, you rebelled against Him

You separated yourself from Him for all eternity

Yet God in His grace and mercy has made a way of redemption

>>> Col 1:17-22

 

 

 

 

[i] Wiersbe, Warren W. Be Basic. “Be” Commentary Series. Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor Pub., 1998.

[ii] K. A. Mathews, Genesis 1-11:26, vol. 1A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 127.

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