1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Transcription

1 SERMON TEXT I want you to turn in your Bible to the book of Genesis. The word "Genesis" itself really means "beginning", because in Genesis what you have is: the beginning of things. SERMON TEXT: GENESIS 1:1-2 Now, let s look at the opening statements of Genesis as recorded in chapter 1, verses 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. There you have the opening statement not only of Genesis but the entire Bible. If you took this statement away then nothing in the rest of the Bible would make any sense at all. This is God himself telling us how everything in our universe came into being: "In the beginning God;" If you cannot believe what the Bible says about creation then logically you cannot believe what the Bible says about salvation. 1

2 Jesus made a statement like this one time: "If I have told you earthly things and you believe not, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" I want you to turn to the book of Hebrews, chapter 11 and I want to show you a statement which makes it very clear why you accept this statement. Hebrews 11:3 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. What he's saying here is: that things that were invisible, things that did not exist, were brought into existence by the word of God and he says that we accept that truth by faith. NOW THEN, I WANT TO GIVE YOU THREE WORDS. The FIRST WORD is obvious, it is the word "CREATION". " verse 1," "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." Now notice the Bible here just flat out states the existence of God. 2

3 He didn't start off trying to prove there was a God, He didn't start off trying to argue the existence of God; Psalm 14, verse 1, says: 1. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Now his mind knows better, you see, It's not a HEAD PROBLEM, it's a HEART PROBLEM. STATEMENT: A few years ago I heard that the atheists were complaining that we Christians seem to have all the special days. We have December 25, the birthday of our Lord. And then we have in the springtime Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord. I think we ought to give the atheists a day, too. I suggest that we give them April 1. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Now I want you to notice: We re introduced to a powerful God: "In the beginning God created." Only God can create. You see, to create means to bring something into existence that did not previously exist. 3

4 I hear people talking about man creating life, they talk about creating life in a test tube; now what they mean by that is that they take certain materials and they just duplicate what the Creator has done. But, you see, when they are able to take a test tube that is absolutely empty, when there's absolutely nothing in that test tube, and when they can make something where there was previously nothing They have created. But, you see, no man has been able to do that. Creation means to make something out of nothing. Now there's a SECOND WORD I want you to look at today. when you turn to verse 2 there's a COMPLICATION. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." : Verse 2: "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." In verse 1 you find: a beautiful, breathtaking picture of creation, but now in verse 2 you find a different picture: the earth was without form [that is, wasteness], and void [that means emptiness], and darkness upon the face of the deep 4

5 Now go to Isaiah 45:18 It says: that He created it "not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited." Now you have a specific statement there that He didn't create it the way you find it in verse 2. He created it not in vain. That is the identical word that is translated "void" in Genesis 1:2. Now what do you have here? You have a PICTURE OF COMPLICATION, you have a picture here of chaos. The last time I went through this; I brought a whole message on this one point... so I'm fixin' to summarize a whole lot of things when I say to you that it indicates to me, that at this point in time SATAN FELL FROM HEAVEN. Now we know in Genesis chapter 3, verse 1, that Satan is on the earth. Now Satan has to get there somewhere between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 3:1, 5

6 and it seems to me on the basis of these particular words used here that what you have is the fall of Satan, and when he did he brought chaos and turbulence and turmoil into the creation. And there it is: without form [wasteness], void [emptiness], darkness was upon the face of the deep. The introduction of evil into the world. And that's why the devil is the sworn enemy of God; because he exists to complicate the plans and the purposes of God for His creation, man. Chapter 1, verse 1: CREATION. verse 2: COMPLICATION. But now here's the THIRD WORD; "CONVERSION." Look at the rest of verse 2: "And the SPIRIT of God moved upon the face of the waters." A picture here of conversion. 6

7 By the way, you have the Trinity In the opening statements of the Bible. Verse 1 In the beginning God. Verse 2, the Spirit of God. Verse 3, God said, "Let there be light": (Jesus Christ the Light, God the Son) Did you know the whole story of the Bible is about the fall of man, what God has done to redeem man from the fall, and the great plan of salvation? Do you remember in Jeremiah 18, when Jeremiah went down to the potter's house? And he saw the potter working on the wheel and he was making a vessel of clay. : And then it says that the clay was marred in the hands of the potter. And then it says that the potter made it a vessel again. There you have the whole story of the Bible F ormed [creation], de-formed [complication], transformed [that's conversion]. That's the whole story of the Bible right there and that's what the Bible is about. And that's what our church is about. And that's what the Christian life is about. 7

8 It's to tell people that God can do something about the wreck and the ruin that sin has done in the human heart. Keep your place and turn to 2nd Corinthians 4:6 The apostle Paul, in talking about the conversion experience, interestingly enough uses an illustration from Genesis 1: 1-3. it says, 6. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness [When did God do that? In Genesis 1:3. God who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness has done what? hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You know what he's saying? He's saying every time God saves a soul He's doing exactly what He did when He created this universe and when He reconstructed a universe that had been wrecked by the fall of Satan. If you don t know Jesus Christ as your Savior you don't know who you are, you don't know where you came from, you don't know where you re going. 8

9 And so, you see, in Genesis 1:2 You have a picture of what sin does in a life. But then notice, "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The word "moved" there is a beautiful word, it is a word that really means hovered, or brooded; like a mother hen brooding over its little ones in the nest. So here is a picture of the Holy Spirit of God moving with compassion, moving in creative power over wasteness, over emptiness, over darkness. You see, that is exactly what the Holy Spirit does in the human heart. And you see, folks, when the light of a Christian and the light of the Word begins to move in the heart of a person it won't be long until God says, "Let there be light." 9

10 And you know what? When the light shines wastefulness is turned into usefulness, and emptiness is turned into fullness, and darkness is turned into brightness, and out of the chaos comes order, out of the confusion there comes conversion, out of the sin there comes salvation. Look at Romans 11: 36, and then there's one other verse I want you to look at. Look at what it says, 36. For of Him [that's origin], and through Him [that's who am I?], and to Him, [that's where am I going?] are all things... You see that? Of Him, through Him, to Him. God created all things, God sustains all things. Now look at First Peter 4:19. "Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator." 10

11 You know what that verse is saying basically? It is saying that the same God who is your Creator wants to be your Savior, and that if the God of this universe is big enough, and powerful enough, and wonderful enough, and loving enough to create a beautiful earth like this upon which we live, : This same God is big enough, and powerful enough, and wonderful enough, and loving enough to save you and give you a life that really has meaning and purpose. And, folks, if you'll come to the Lord Jesus Christ today He'll save you, He'll change your life, He'll forgive your sins, The Bible says, "If any man be in Christ he is a new creation, old things are passed away, all things are become new." 11