In the Beginning - Genesis 1:1

foreign and when I say let's begin I mean let's begin at the beginning you see we're not just beginning a study through the Book of Genesis which I'm very excited about I've taught through the Book of Genesis many times but I've never really laid down any good audio or video recordings of it and I hope to do that with this series so it's not the beginning of my Bible study or the beginning of my teaching through the Book of Genesis but the Book of Genesis is the beginning of the Bible and the bible really is the beginning of wisdom for Humanity so we really are starting at or in the beginning and I hope you'll join us for many of these teachings through the Book of Genesis as we make our way through the book the first few chapters are going to be pretty slow going because there's a lot to talk about there's a lot to think about through these first few chapters of the Book of Genesis but we'll talk about that more as we make our way through it I want to begin today with talking about some thoughts that we should start with as we study the Bible there are many presuppositions there's many foundational truths that see we sort of come to our study of the Bible with I think it's good to talk about that right here at Genesis 1 1 or actually before Genesis 1 1. so here are some thoughts to begin with as we study the Bible we come to the Bible number one knowing that there is a God in other words the purpose of this particular teaching through the Book of Genesis or this particular teaching that you're looking at right now it's not to prove to you that there is a God now there are many good and strong philosophical and logical reasons to believe in God yet the Bible doesn't make elaborate Arguments for the existence of God it does however tell us how we can know that God exists first of all we can know that God exists because of what we see in the created world Psalm 19 verses 1 through 4 explains this very eloquently Psalm 19 beginning at verse 1. the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork day unto Day utter's speech and night unto night reveals knowledge there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard their line has gone out through all the Earth and their words to the ends of the world you see there it's just very plainly sees that it's the heavens that declare the glory of God when you look up at the sky and see a beautiful sunrise a beautiful sunset when you see The Marvelous galaxies on a dark night and a Starry Sky you're seeing something of the glory of God you're seeing something of his handiwork every day every night it reveals something about the language about the knowledge of God and this is universal as the psalmist said there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard other people reject this there are people who deny this but it doesn't mean that it's not there the testimony of God's existence is plain in creation here's another verse which demonstrates this Romans chapter 1 verse 20 says for since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and godhead so that they are without excuse friends from a Biblical perspective humanity is without excuse when it comes to knowing whether or not there is a God God has revealed himself in creation and not only his existence but at least some of his invisible attributes his eternal power his godhead and this makes Humanity without excuse now I know that there are many very intelligent people who deny the existence of God some of them love to bring forth their arguments and declare their voice I get that I understand it but at the end of it God has given Humanity no excuse he's revealed himself therefore the Bible doesn't deal in great depth with Arguments for the existence of God now what we've just talked about is an example of what's called the teleological argument for the existence of God it's the understanding that there must be a purposeful intelligence that created the world because the world we live in shows both purpose and intelligence and in the view of many people including myself this argument from purpose and design remains unanswered by the atheist or the agnostic no friends we come to the Bible believing knowing that there is a God secondly we come to the Bible believing that it is the place where God has spoken to man perfectly and comprehensively in other words the Bible gives us a perfect revelation of God in that it's all true but it also is comprehensive it doesn't tell us everything we want to know about God oh no our curiosity is excited there's a lot about God that we wish we knew more about but comprehensively everything we need to know about God at least on this side of Eternity is given to us in his word you see we believe and I'm speaking sort of the royal weave we I believe this I hope you do as well but we believe what is written in second Timothy chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work you see we can study God but we can't put him under a microscope we can't test God in a laboratory we can only confidently know about God what he chooses to reveal to us and what we are confident about is that what God has chosen to reveal to us in his word is profitable it's useful for us yes God has revealed himself in creation we just spoke about that earlier God has revealed himself also Romans chapter 1 tells us in the conscience of humanity but its greatest his most perfect his most comprehensive Revelation is given to us in and through his word friends that's why I'm here teaching the Bible studying the Bible that's what I've dedicated my life to now when we talk about the Bible we believe that the Bible must be understood literally that is as straightforward and true according to its literary context I have no problem with saying that we should understand the Bible literally as long as we understand what we mean by literary that the Bible uses metaphor that the Bible uses simile that the Bible uses poetry that the Bible uses what some people call apocalyptic literature when we understand all these things together we say yes the Bible is straightforward it's true according to its literary context friends the Bible is much more than a book it's a library of books and it contains books that are written in different literary forms some portions of the Bible give a historical account others are poetic some are prophetic and we must understand the Bible literally according to its literary context let me give you an example David wrote something in Psalm 6 verse 6. let's look at that together David said in Psalm 6 verse 6 I am weary with my groaning all night I make my bed swim I drench my couch with my tears now friends when David wrote that he used a poetic literary form we understand that David did not literally mean that he cried so much that he flooded his room and set his bed afloat he said I make my bed swim no we we understand exactly what David meant he's drenching his bed with tears it's as if it's soaked so much that that it could swim away we understand that he's using poetic imagery we're understanding the Bible literally or we understand as well that it says here in Psalm 119 verse 128 therefore all your precepts concerning all things I consider to be right you see with great confidence the author of Psalm 119 proclaimed the inerrancy of God's word God's word is right not wrong and as he says there in verse 128 of Psalm 119 it is right concerning all things so Friends when the Bible gives us history it is right and true the events actually happened as described when the Bible gives us poetry it is right and true the feelings and experiences were real for the writer and they ring true to our Human Experience even to this day when the Bible gives us prophecy it is right and true the events described will come to pass just as is written or have already come to pass as is fulfilled prophecy when the Bible gives us instruction it is right and true it truly does tell us the will of God and the best way of life and when the Bible tells us of God it is right and true it reveals to us what the nature and heart and mind of God are or at least as much as we can comprehend friends if we do not approach the Bible this way then we can only come to it with how we feel about the text we make ourselves decide what is true or what is false about the biblical text and that is to make ourselves greater than the Bible text itself though the teachings of scripture have many applications there's really only one true interpretation sometimes the interpretation is easy to discern and sometimes it isn't but God meant something with the text of the Bible That's revealed to mankind I kind of like what Henry Morris wrote he was a scholar and a scientist who wrote a lot of things relevant to Creation science this is one thing he wrote in his commentary on the Book of Genesis Henry Moore said this the only proper way to interpret Genesis 1 is not to interpret it at all that is we accept the fact that it was meant to say exactly what it says now as we're dealing with Genesis chapter 1 over this in the next several teachings we should point out that we believe that the Bible is not a book of science yet wherever it touches science it speaks the truth so we can't say that the Bible is completely separated from science not at all it touches on many scientific truths and wherever it does touch on scientific truth the Bible speaks the truth after all if the Bible is false in regard to science or other things that we can prove then we can't regard it as reliable in regard to spiritual matters that cannot be objectively proven okay so that's two we come to the Bible knowing there's a God we come to the Bible believing that it's the place where God has spoken to man perfectly and comprehensively here's number three we come to the Bible knowing that the copies we have in our hands are reliable duplicates of the exact writings which God perfectly inspired you see I don't mean to get too in depth on this but we believe that what God moved the human authors of Holy scripture to write is perfect that it was God breathed completely without any error in any way however we don't have those original copies as I'll discuss later I believe very strongly that Moses wrote or at least compiled and edited the Book of Genesis but you see we don't have the original copy of the Book of Genesis as Moses originally compiled it or wrote it that original copy that Moses wrote was perfectly inspired but what we have are reliable copies reliable duplicates not perfect there's some imperfections that have come into the text but but they're rare they're few they can be discerned we have reliable duplicates of the exact writings which God perfectly inspired you see we can know this about the Old Testament the Hebrew scriptures by seeing the incredible care and reliability of the ancient Jewish scribes this was demonstrated conclusively by the Dead Sea scroll discoveries what they did with the dead Street Sea scroll discoveries was they discovered Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament and other writings but we're concerned mainly with the Old Testament they discovered Hebrew manuscripts that predated anything existent by hundreds of years and they found them to be virtually identical in other words this demonstrated that over a span of hundreds of years these documents were Faithfully copied but we can also know this about the New Testament or what we might call the greek scriptures by knowing that because of earlier manuscripts and a greater number of ancient manuscripts the New Testament is by far the most reliable and exhaustively cross-checked ancient document that we possess really no more than one one thousandth of the New Testament text is in question so are there a few questions about well did they really write this does this really belong yes there are a few but they are very few no we come to the Bible knowing that what we have are reliable duplicates or copies of the exact writings which God perfectly inspired now here's number four one of the things that we come to the Bible knowing we come to the Bible knowing the unique importance of the Book of Genesis I mean after all that's what this series of teachings is we're going to go verse by verse through the Book of Genesis and before we do that I want you to be aware of just how powerfully unique and important the Book of Genesis is the Bible would be incomplete it would perhaps be incomprehensible without the Book of Genesis Genesis sets the stage for the entire drama of redemption which unfolds in the rest of the Bible almost every important Doctrine and teaching of the Bible has its foundation in the Book of Genesis the Book of Genesis gives the foundation for the doctrines of sin the fall Redemption and justification it gives the foundation for the doctrines of the promise of the Messiah Jesus Christ for the personality and the personhood of God and for the kingdom of God in general the Book of Genesis shows us the origin of the universe of order and complexity of the solar system of the atmosphere and the hydrosphere of Life man and marriage the the Book of Genesis tells us about the origin of Good and Evil it tells us about the beginnings of language of government of culture of Nations and religion print it is largely because people have abandoned the truth of the Book of Genesis that society today is in such disarray we can also add that Genesis is important to the New Testament the Greek scriptures there are at least are you ready for this 165 passages in the Book of Genesis that are either directly quoted or clearly referred to in the New Testament many of these are quoted more than once so there are at least two 100 quotations or Illusions to the Book of Genesis in the New Testament and in John chapter 5 Jesus himself spoke of the importance of believing what Moses wrote this is what Jesus said John chapter 5 verses 46 and 47. for if you believed Moses you would believe me for he wrote about me but if you do not believe his writings how will you believe my words you see we can't truthfully and consistently say that we believe in Jesus if we don't believe in the Book of Genesis that's why I understand there's going to be some things that we run across in the Book of Genesis maybe early in the book maybe later in the book that some of you dear viewers or listeners that you have difficulty accepting I would recommend to you the advice of Martin Luther the great reformer he wrote in the 16th century this I beg and Faithfully warn every Pious Christian not to stumble at the Simplicity of the language and stories that will often meet him there in Genesis he should not doubt that however simple they may seem these are the very words Works judgments and deeds of the high Majesty power and wisdom of God again that's a quotation from Martin Luther the great reformer now knowing that the New Testament says that Moses wrote the Book of Genesis this is number five here we come to the Bible knowing that the New Testament tells us that Moses wrote that he was the author or at least the compiler of the Book of Genesis I know that Jewish tradition says that these are the books of Moses the first book of Moses second book of Moses the first five books of Moses were authored by him I know that that's what Jewish Traditions tell us but it's not just Jewish Traditions the New Testament tells us that Moses wrote the Book of Genesis let's take a look at this at Luke chapter 24 verse 27 where we read and beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning themselves that's speaking of Jesus teaching or speaking to his disciples there where did he begin it began at Moses obviously beginning with the Book of Genesis later on in the same chapter Jesus said this Luke chapter 24 verse 47 these are the words of Jesus then he that is Jesus spoke to them these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me what did Jesus refer to the first five books as the Bible as he referred to them as the Books of Moses or the law of Moses the writings of Moses I think that there's something very special about the Book of Genesis I think that the Book of Genesis gives us reason to believe that Moses actually compiled records that were preserved before him now were they preserved in writing well I don't have any doubt that by Moses's time they were not merely oral Traditions but they were written how far back they were written I really don't know there's a tendency for people to think that the older mankind was the more primitive he was but I think that that is a very biased way of thinking I would not be surprised if Adam himself could read and write and left some kind of written record for his descendants to compile and to bring can I say that within certainty no the Bible doesn't say but I would not be surprised if that was the case and what we have in the Book of Genesis are some very interesting indicators of where I believe these records from Moses or that Moses compiled where these Records begin and end I think we see this in some interesting phrasing that's used throughout the Book of Genesis let me explain to you what I mean in Genesis chapter 2 verse 4 it says this is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created now I don't believe that the heavens and the Earth wrote a record but God divinely gave this Revelation but if you notice now at Genesis chapter 5 verse 1 it says this is the book of the genealogy of Adam then Genesis chapter 6 verse 9 this is the genealogy of Noah then if you were to go into Genesis chapter 10 verse 1. now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah Shem ham and japheth Genesis 11 10 this is the genealogy of Shem Genesis chapter 11 verse 27 this is the genealogy of Terror Genesis chapter 25 verse 12. now this is the genealogy of Ishmael Abraham's son Genesis chapter 25 verse 19 this is the genealogy of Isaac Abraham's son and then there's similar statements regarding Esau and Jacob you see in these passages phrases such as this is the history or this is the book or this is the genealogy may I can't say it with certainty but it may indicate the start or the end of the records that Moses collected and compiled if I could read you another quote from Henry Morris he says this it is probable that the Book of Genesis was written originally by actual eyewitnesses of the events reported therein probably the original narratives were recorded on tables of stone or clay in common practice in early times and then handed down from father to son finally coming to the possession of Moses Moses perhaps selected the appropriate selections for compilation inserted his own editorial editions and comments and provided smooth transitions from one document to the next with the final result being the Book of Genesis as we have received it so friends I believe it I hope you do too because I think it's true I believe it that Moses was indeed the author of the book of Genesis compiling records of things that happened obviously before the time of Moses so we come to the Bible knowing there's a God we come to the Bible believing that it is the place where God has spoken to man perfectly and comprehensively third we come to the Bible knowing that the copies we have are reliable duplicates of the exact writings that God perfectly inspired number four we come to the Bible knowing the unique importance of the Book of Genesis and then finally we come to the book of the come to the Bible knowing that the New Testament says that Moses was indeed the author of the book of Genesis now we're going to get started with Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. I I don't know if you're going to be pleased or disappointed but we're going to cover one verse today Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. and in it we're going to begin our discussion of five days of creation but I want to begin just with another note I know this is a lot of introduction but we're beginning the Bible we're beginning the Book of Genesis I want to remind you of the philosophical importance of knowing god as creator the philosopher Jean-Paul sart and many others have stated the essential problem of philosophy here it is that there is something rather than nothing and the question is why why is there something rather than nothing everything else in our life flows from the answer we give to this question if everything around us including ourselves is the result of random meaningless occurrence apart from the work of a creating God then that says something about who I am it says something about where I in the whole universe are going if that is the case then the only dignity or honor that we give to people it's pure sentimentality because we don't have any more significance than an amoeba and there's no greater law in the universe than survival of the fittest now friends I don't believe that I believe what the Bible says that there is a God who has created and therefore gives meaning to all things somewhere around a hundred years ago there was a great German philosopher named Arthur schopenhauer by habit he usually dressed pretty sloppy some people said he dressed like a vagrant like a homeless man one day he sat on a park bench in Berlin and he was deep in thought such as philosophers might be his appearance made a policeman quite suspicious of him he thought he was just a vagrant a homeless guy you know taking up space in the park so the policeman asked the philosopher Arthur schopenhauer who are you replied the way a philosopher would he said I would to God that I knew that's the question Humanity's been asking who am I the only way we can ever really find out who we are is from God and the best place to find that out begins it doesn't end but it begins in the Book of Genesis and there are many possible answers to the question of how everything came into being some people say that there was at one time absolutely nothing and now there is something other people and this would include the Bible say that before there was anything created before anything created there was a person there was a personal being I heard a story and look I'll be truth it's probably just a preacher's story a preacher's story aren't necessarily true but they make a point so there's a story about students in the class of a great physics Professor you know someone like Albert Einstein but of course Albert Einstein didn't actually teach undergraduates or not much so you have this great physics professor and the students in his classroom tell the teacher the professor that they had decided that there is no God and the professor said well that's a very interesting conclusion you've come to that there is no God the professor asked them how much of all the knowledge in the world do you have among yourselves collectively as a classroom so I don't know how many students there were in the class let's say 50. the students discussed it for a while and they decided that amongst themselves among that theoretically 50 students they decided that they had five percent of all human knowledge among themselves well the professor responded because I I think your estimate's a little generous I don't think you actually have five percent of all human knowledge amongst yourselves but then he asked them is it possible that God exists in the 95 percent that you don't know now that's a story but I think it communicates a principle for someone to authoritatively say there is no God would pretty much mean that they claim to know all things it's almost a claim to being God therefore we're gonna approach Genesis and in just a moment here Genesis 1 1. believing what the Bible presents that there is a God in heaven who has created all things Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 is a simple factual statement regarding God's work as creator here we go in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth friends that's pretty dramatic statement that summary statement is going to be detailed in the following verses we're going to walk through eventually the days of creation the Bible simply and straightforwardly declares that the world did not create itself that the world did not come about by chance it was created by God who by definition always has been and is eternal you see God is the subject of the first sentence of the Bible and he's the focus of the whole biblical story being referred to again and again and friends I'm just simply here to tell you that if you can believe Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 if you can believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth if you can believe that you will have no problem believing the rest of the Bible the god who's big enough to have created the heavens and the Earth is big enough to do all the rest that the Bible says that he did and that he does now when it says in the beginning God created the heavens the Earth the word God in that sentence is the ancient Hebrew word Elohim grammatically it is a plural word used as if it were a singular word in other words the verbs and the pronouns used with Elohim here should be in the plural but when Elohim refers to the Lord God the verbs and the pronouns are in the singular I found a very interesting quote from a commentary Adam Clark he was a English commentator of the late 17th and early 18th century he quoted a rabbi named Rabbi Simeon Ben Yokai commenting on this word Elohim and so here I'm going to quote Clark quoting Rabbi Simeon Ben Yokai here it goes come and see the mystery of the word Elohim there are three degrees and each degree by itself alone yet notwithstanding they are all one and joined together in one and are not divided from each other and friends I don't know about you but that sounds like a rudimentary understanding of the Trinity being described by this Jewish rabbi and in light of what the rabbi wrote this is what Adam Clark added he added this thought he must be strangely prejudiced indeed who cannot see that the doctrine of a trinity and of a trinity in unity is expressed in the above words I would agree with that in the beginning Elohim the Triune God created the heavens and the Earth and Friends the simple fact of God's creation is even more amazing when we consider the greatness of God's universe friends I'm not an astronomer all I know is what I read and I hope to reproduce accurately what I read if some mistakes creep in here please forgive me but but in large measure I just think this is true according to the astronomers a typical Galaxy contains billions of individual Stars our galaxy alone the Milky Way contains 200 billion stars our galaxy is shaped like a giant spiral rotating in space with arms reaching out like a pinwheel and our sun is one star on one arm of the pinwheel it would take 250 million years for that pinwheel to make one full rotation but friends that's only our galaxy there are many other galaxies with many other shapes including spirals spherical clusters and flat pancakes the average distance between one Galaxy and another is about 200 million trillion miles our closest galaxy is the Andromeda galaxy and it's about 12 million trillion miles away it said or at least I'll be honest I've just read that for every patch of Sky the size of the moon so just think of how big the Moon is up in the night sky if you could look very deep into space you would see about a million galaxies now the scope of this the span of this is beyond comprehension friends the Bible tells us that God did this all by himself Isaiah chapter 48 verse 13 says this indeed my hand has laid the foundation of the earth and my right hand has stretched out the heavens when I called to them they stand up together matter of fact the Bible tells us that God Is Bigger and greater than all of his creation Isaiah chapter 40 verse 12 says this who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand that means God's hand measured heaven with a span and calculate the dust of the Earth in a measure that's how big God is he's measured the waters and the hollow of his hand he's measured heaven with a span that's a span the distance you can make between your thumb and forefinger no I don't think it's telling us that literally God is a material being that big it's just telling us of the Grandeur and the greatness of the God we serve now let's think of it again Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth if God created the heavens and the Earth then we must forever put away the idea that anything happens by chance you see chance merely describes the statistical probability of something happening chance itself can neither do nor perform anything now look there's some really smart people who kind of fall into this wrong thinking I read of a chemist a biochemist named Jacques Menard and he wrote this I'm sure shocks Menard was a very intelligent man but this is what he wrote chance alone is at the source of every innovation of all creation in the biosphere pure chance absolutely free But Blind at the very root of the stupendous edifice of evolution but friends assigning such power to chance may I say it it just doesn't make sense chance has no power for example if you were to flip a coin when the coin is flipped the chance that it lands heads or tails is 50 percent however chance does not make it land heads or tails whether or not it lands heads or tails is due to the strength with which the coin is flipped the strength of the air currents and the air pressure as it flies through the air it depends on where the coin is caught and if it's flipped over once it is caught chance doesn't do anything but describe a probability many years ago there was a scientist he used to be famous he's long gone and I don't even know if his name is known anymore but there was a scientist named Carl Sagan he petitioned the United States government for a grant to fund the search for intelligent life in outer space Carl Sagan hoped to find evidence of Life by using a super sensitive instrument to pick up radio signals from distant space and when he would receive those radio signals he would look for order and pattern that would demonstrate that the signals were transmitted by intelligent life in the same way the order and pattern of the entire universe demonstrates that it was fashioned by intelligent life not by chance you could say that scientists like Carl Sagan detect chance in radio signals all the time they call it static it has no pattern it's just noise it tells them nothing therefore when someone says that the universe or anything else for that matter came about just by chance you might say that despite their expertise or skill in other areas in which they may be brilliant when it comes to that particular point I don't think they make sense you could even say they're ignorant maybe they're superstitious maybe and this is usually the matter they're simply repeating a tired Theory that's been said and disproved before yet it's unthinkingly accepted by many people friends God created the heavens and the Earth and inherent in the idea of God is that he is an intelligent designer only an intelligent designer could create what is called sometimes a just right universe chance couldn't do it and you could say our universe is a just right Universe in many ways according to the astrophysicist that's I believe his realm of science Hugh Ross Dr Hugh Ross in his book the fingerprint of God makes the following claims he says that the Universe has a just right gravitational force if it were larger then the Stars would be too hot and they'd burn up too quickly and too unevenly to support life if the force of gravity were smaller in the universe the Stars would remain so cool that nuclear fusion would never ignite there'd never be any heat or light from the Stars secondly the universe has a just right speed of light if it were larger faster then the Stars would send out too much light but if it were slower then the Stars would not send out enough light third the universe has a just right average distance between the Stars if that distance were larger than the heavy element density would be too thin for rocky planets to form and there would only be gaseous planets but if that distance were smaller then planetary orbits would become destabilized because of the gravitational pull from other stars now look I before I make the fourth Point here I think you can tell that these are things that I just learned from books I don't know about these things directly it's not my area of research but I think it's fascinating to see what scientists tell us scientists tell us number four that the Universe has a just right polarity of the water molecule if that polarity were greater then the heat of fusion and vaporization would be too great for life to exist but if that polarity were smaller then the heat of fusion and vaporization would be too small for life's existence liquid water would be too inferior of a solvent for Life chemistry to proceed ice wouldn't float it would lead to a runaway freeze up you see when you take just those four and there are many many more aspects I'm just listing four of them for you if you take those things together collectively we could conclude that there's no chance that such a universe could create itself apart from an intelligent designer so in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth this tells us that God used no pre-existing material to create the Earth the ancient Hebrew word Bara here translated created it's very specific it means to create out of nothing showing that God created the world out of nothing the universe out of nothing not out of himself not out of some pre-existing material you see God is separate from his creation unlike many Eastern and pantheistic perceptions of God the Bible teaches that the Universe could perish but God would still remain now mankind cannot create in the sense that the term is used in Genesis 1 1. we cannot create out of nothing we can only fashion or form things out of existing material the closest we come to creating is in reproducing ourselves sexually this is perhaps one reason why Satan wants to pervert and Destroy God's plan and God's standard for sexuality because it's deeply connected to our being made in the image of God I've got a collection of books called the legends of the Jews it's back there on the shelves behind me somewhere and in that collection compiled by a Jewish author named Louis Ginsburg he relays a fascinating Legend it's not true it's just a legend but it's interesting on how the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet all wanted to begin the Bible but in the end the letter bet that's the letter B the letter bet was allowed to begin the bio this is because the letter bet came to the Lord saying this O Lord of the world may it be thy will to create thy world through me seeing that all the Dwellers of the world give praise daily unto thee through me as it is said blessed be the Lord beginning with the letterbed forever amen and amen for this reason again according to a legend the Hebrew Book of Genesis begins blessed God created the heavens and the Earth in the beginning God created heavens and the Earth my friends that's gonna be it for our look at Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. next time we get together we're actually going to begin again at verse one but we're going to make it all the way to verse 2 next time but I want to conclude as I will do these times taking a look at the Book of Genesis I always like to conclude thinking about how does the text that we have just examined in this case Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. how does it point to Jesus Christ you see the Bible's about a lot of things but ultimately it's about Jesus it points to Jesus so how does Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 point to Jesus well I'll give you one way in the beginning God created the heavens of the Earth the Bible also tells us that Jesus Christ is the creator let me read to you Colossians chapter 1 verse 16. it says this for by him that is Jesus all things were created that are in heaven and that are on the earth visible and invisible whether Thrones or dominions or principalities or Powers all things were created through him and for him and he's before all things and in him all things consist friends it's hard to get any more comprehensive than that statement from Colossians chapter one everything that's in heaven or on Earth visible or invisible Thrones are dominions all things in him all things consist but I'll even give you another verse here John chapter 1 verse 3 says all things were made through him that is Jesus and without him nothing was made that was made in other words Jesus created everything so we look at this first point how does Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 point to Jesus well it tells us it reminds us that Jesus is the creator Now by this we don't mean that God the father and God the Holy Spirit are not the Creator no we would say that the godhead in its Triune Glory created all that there is but it isn't wrong to say Jesus Christ is the creator of all and friends that's a staggering statement a man who walked this Earth was also the God who created all things staggering okay that's number one now number two not only does Genesis 1 1 point to Jesus by showing us that Jesus is the creator but Jesus is also the word of God and what do I mean by that well simply said we've been talking a lot today about the importance of the Bible of the word of God and Jesus is the word look at this from John chapter 1 verse 1. in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and then now John chapter 1 verse 14 and the word became 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 you see when we look at the central place that the word has in God's revelation we realize that Jesus Christ is God the word now friends we don't make an idol out of the Bible God forbid but we highly prize it as God's self-revelation the Bible God's living word is his love letter his wisdom letter his warning led her to us and Jesus Christ is so closely identified with God's revelation in and through both the Hebrew and Greek scriptures that he himself can fairly be called the word of God God the word we rest in that we rejoice in that all right I'm going to just conclude with a very brief prayer and I hope you can join us next time Father in heaven thank you for your word thank you that you are a creator and that we have obligations to you because you are the god who's created all things including us we love you we thank you and we give you praise in the name of the Eternal Word Jesus Christ amen [Music]

Channel: David Guzik

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Id: 8jsYUYAA00M

Length: 53min 45sec (3225 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 08 2023