Note: The following audio transcription is largely accurate, but in some cases may be incomplete or inaccurate due to transcription errors.

How was the Universe Created?

Through the unseen and in comprehensible wisdom of the triune God. A universe was born and devoid and bereft of matter. God uttered but a sentence and gave birth to time and space and this physical world as the angels looked on while the morning stars sang together they could not help themselves as they shouted for joy for before their very eyes Jesus Christ grew mountains, tall and valleys, low and sparkling seas and flowering plants and animals to fill up these spaces and crowning His creation. God took His own matter, the dust of the ground and formed His vice regents and breathed to give them life and standing back He called it very good and rested. And from that day, creation has been shouting deafening gladness over the glory of God, day by day and night by night, the heavens speak to us the same refrain. See what God has made. The title of my sermon this morning is genesis created by Christ, created for Christ, existing for the glory of God, created by Christ, created for Christ existing for the glory of God. This will be a, an introductory sermon, to the book of Genesis and starting in two weeks, after this introductory sermon. We'll start in genesis chapter one and we'll end in genesis chapter 50 sometime before I retire.

Miriam Webster Dictionary defines the word genesis as the origin or the coming into being of something. Genesis is the origin or the coming into being of something. Genesis introduces us to the world as we know it. We're introduced most importantly to God himself beyond the creator. We're introduced to man and woman to plants and animals to light and dark today and night, to days and seasons and to planetary bodies. We are introduced to good and evil to marriage and procreation, to adultery, to perfection, to imperfection, to relationships, and to discord, to obedience and to sin, to communion and to separation. We see the genesis of life, of murder, of blessing and of exacting judgment on the whole world of God's power over creation, including the human body and the womb. To man trying to thwart the plans of God. We are introduced to a broken world in disarray and to a promise of restoration to God's mercy and choosing a nation to that nation spurning its chooser.

We see the genesis of God making covenants with man and of God sustaining his people through unanticipated means. Genesis answers, key questions about our lives. How did we all get here? Is there a god and what does he like? Why is there so much evil in the world? Where does marriage come from? How does God relate to mankind? Can God be known personally? Where did Israel originate? To whom are we accountable? Where do all the languages come from? And many others, one Baptist minister and author who lived from 1877 to 1958 wrote this as to scope. Genesis tells us the beginning of everything except God, the beginning of the universe of life, of man, of the Sabbath, of covenants, of nomenclature, of marriage, of sin, of redemption, of death, of family life, of sacrifices, of nations, of government, of music, of literature, of art, of agriculture, of mechanics, of cities, and of languages. Indeed everything we know as to its limits. It is only the beginning. There is here, no finality end quote.

Is the Book of Genesis Important?

Indeed genesis is these seminal book in the Bible for without it, we would lack a clear foundation for God's plan for man, His worldly operations and His promise of restoration. Now, the book of Genesis, it prompts some very important questions and we're going to look this morning at a couple of different questions that the book of Genesis prompts and as we move through the book in the coming weeks and months, we'll look at more questions that the book prompts. But the first question that we'll look at this morning is why? Why did He do it? Why did God create the world? Have you ever wondered that? Why did God create the world he existed prior to it? He is from everlasting to everlasting. So what was it for? Why did he put us here? Why are we breathing and have life and meeting together here this morning? Why do we have jobs?

Why do we exist at all? This is I think one very important question that when you read the book of Genesis, I think you may be would ask yourself. One pastor had this to say, when God created the world, he did not create out of any need or any weakness or any deficiency. He created out of fullness and strength and complete sufficiency, but we can't leave it here. It's too general. It's too disconnected from the specific persons of the trinity and from the flow of history, the way God is guiding it. The question is not just why did God create the world, but why this world? Why these thousands of years of human history with a glorious beginning and a horrible fall into sin and a history of Israel and the coming of the son of God into the world, a substitutionary death, a triumphant resurrection, the founding of the church and the history of global missions to where we are today. Why this world, this history and quo? Well, thankfully God does give us some very direct answers to that question in His word. Why did he create this world? Why did he create us? Turn your Bibles if you would to Isaiah chapter 43 Isaiah chapter 43

Isaiah 43 and look at verse one but now thus saith the Lord that created thee, and by the way, I'm going to read a portion of this passage and see if you can identify as we're reading the answer to the question, why did God create the world? See if you can notice it in there. And when I stop, we'll look at it. Isaiah 43 verse one but now thus saith the Lord that created the o Jacob and he that formed thee o Israel, fear not for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. When thou passes through the waters, I will be with thee and through the rivers. They shall not overflow thee. When thou walk us through the fire, thou shall not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord Thy God, the holy one of Israel, thy Savior.

I gave Egypt for thy ransom Ethiopia and see before the, since thou was precious in my sight, thou has been honorable and I have loved the therefore will I give men for the and people for thy life. Fear not for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the east and gather the from the West. I will say to the north, give up and to the self. Keep not back. Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Even every one that is called by my name, for I have created him for my glory. I have formed him. Yeah I have made him. Did you notice it? Did you notice the answer to the question? Why did God create the world? If you missed it, let's reread. Verse seven look for it in there. Even every one that is called by my name for I have created him for my glory.

I have formed him. Yay. I have made him. First of all, why did God create this world? He created this world for his glory. The ultimate purpose for which we this world was created is for the glory of God. That same pastor that I quoted earlier went on to say this. Now what then does it mean to say that God created for his glory? Glory is a very hard thing to define. It is like the word beauty. We all can use it and communicate with it, but to try to reduce it to words is very frustrating. It is easier to point to examples, a sunset seen from the top of the IDS Tower, that's glory or the ids tower itself, almost invisible like crystal against a gray, blue sky. That's glory. A perfectly executed 30 foot jump shot with one second to go that's glory. The glory of God is the beauty and excellence of his manifold perfections.

It is an attempt to put into words what God is like in his magnificence and purity. It refers to his infinite and overflowing fullness of all that is good. The term might focus on his different attributes from time to time, like his power and wisdom and mercy and justice. Because each one is indeed awesome and beautiful in its magnitude and quality. But in general, God's glory is the perfect harmony of all of his attributes into one infinitely beautiful and personal being. Now, when God says that he created us for his glory, it cannot mean that he created us so that he would become more glorious.

That his beauty and perfection would be somehow increased by us. It is unthinkable that God should become more perfectly God by making something that is not God. It is a staggering but necessary thought that God has always existed, that he never came into being, and that everything which exists, which is not God, is from his fullness and can never add anything to him, which did not come from him. That is what it means to be God, and it should humble us. Oh, how it should humble us when we ponder his reality end quote.

So there were other verses that speak to this reason that God created the world, that it is for his glory. We looked at Isaiah 43 Isaiah six three I won't have you turn there says, and one cried unto another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. First Corinthians 10 31 we know this first. Well, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do do all to the glory of God. Matthew Five 16 another well known verse, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father, which is in heaven. Isaiah 43 21 this people have I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise.

We were created. This world was created for the glory of God, so this means that we're to glorify God if we were created for his glory then ought we not to glorify him, but how?

Well yes, we glorify God by telling him that he's, we did that this morning. We sing five different songs and we praised God and we told him that he was glorious, and that is one way that we can glorify him, but we glorify God even more by aligning with his will and his purposes and his commands and his attributes. So it's not just enough to come to church on Sunday and sing some songs and say, we've glorified God. It's not just enough to pray before a meal and say thank you God, and we've glorified God. No, we live our entire lives in line with his will and his purposes and his commands and his attributes. But is that the only reason that God created this world for his glory? Well, that is the ultimate reason, but there are other reasons that the Bible gives us. Secondly, he created us for his family. Ephesians one five through six says this, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of His grace where in he hath made us accepted in the beloved. He says here that he predestinated us to adoption as sons and daughters. We sing about that this morning.

One of the reasons that God created this world is because he wanted us in his family. Now, the ultimate purpose for that was his glory. As it says here in Ephesians one five through six, he wanted to adopt us into his family for his glory, but that is one of the reasons that he created us was to be part of his family. What an amazing plan and what an amazing privilege that we could be part of the family of God. Do you ever think about different countries in the world that may be downtrodden economically? Maybe people are growing up in poverty, maybe people don't even know where their next meal is coming from. And we think to ourselves, wow, what a privilege that we were born in Canada, what a privilege that we were, that we got to grow up in a place where we didn't have to wonder where our next meal was coming from, but that we were taking care of, that we had a place to live to keep us out of the cold elements, the hot elements that we had clothing to put on our backs, maybe even scads of different pairs of clothing that we had food on the table and that we actually got to go do recreational things like enjoy going to a park and whereas other people in the world are just scavenging for food all day long just to keep alive.

What a privilege that we get to grow up in a place like this and live in a place like this? Well, an even greater privilege is to be created to be part of the family of God. What an awesome privilege to be part of the family of God. The second reason why God created this world. Well, what's another reason why God created this world? How about this one? Because he wanted to because he wanted to. You know, God says several different places in his word that we don't get to question him. Why does the creation get to say to the Creator, why did you make me like this? We don't get to say that. Revelation four 11 says this, Thou Art Worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created. We saw that in the verse we just read about being created for the family of God.

Ephesians one five and six having predestinated us unto the doctrine of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. So in Ephesians one and Revelation four we see this idea that God just willed it to be so that he wanted it. So in some ways when we asked the question, why are we here? Thankfully God gives us the ultimate answers, but at the end of the day, he wanted to and that's enough for us. He created everything so we don't get to ask why. And fourthly, an answer to the question, why did God create us? He created us for Christ, for Messiah.

Follow along in your mind's eye as I go through several, several verses that speak to this, revelation five, nine says this, and they sung a new song saying, thou Jesus Art Worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by the thy blood. Out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation we were created to praise the lamb. Philippians two nine through 11 says, wherefore God also have highly exalted him. That is Christ Jesus Christ was highly exalted and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. We were created to praise Christ to the ultimate end that God would be glorified.

Colossians one 16 we've been studying through Colossians. We were just in verse 17 last week, the week prior we were in verse 16 let's look back. Verse 16 of Colossians one you don't have to turn there for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in Earth, visible and invisible, whether they be Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for him, for who? For Christ. So how many things were created for Christ, all things, anything, whether they be Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. In other words, doesn't matter what it is, whether it's in the corporal world or the non corporal world, everything was created for Christ. So why? So why was this world created? Why are we here? Why this world? Why this history for Christ to the glory of God? John six 39 Jesus said this, and this is the father's will, which had sent me that of all which he hath given me. I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day. What did God give to Christ us? Did you notice that there in John 6:39 that of all which he have given me, I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day, God gave us to Christ. Now turn over to John Chapter 17 I have you turn to this one. It's a little bit lengthier. We'll look at six versus here.

John 17 takes place right after the last supper. Jesus was on his way to the Garden of gethsemane where he knew that he was about to be betrayed, handed over, unlawfully tried and sent to the cross to die. So this is literally right after supper. He's outside. He's somewhere in route to the garden of Gethsemane. He from the upper room and he looks up into heaven and he's praying to God. And this passage has been termed John 17 the high priestly prayer, praying Jesus the high priest praying on our behalf. So let's look at verses one through six and see if we can pick out where in this passage we find the idea that this world was created for Christ. John 17 verse one these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee glorify thy son.

First two as thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou what's the phrase has given him? God gave us to Christ for three and this is life eternal. That they might know the the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent. I have glorified the on earth. I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do and now, oh father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was, I have manifested thy name unto the men, which thou gave me out of the world thine they were and now gave us them to me and they have kept thy word. We were created for Jesus Christ. The aforementioned pastor that I quoted went on to say this, and all things were created for him.

All that came into being exists for Christ. That is, it exists to display the greatness of Christ. Nothing. Nothing in the universe exists for its own sake. Everything from the bottom of the oceans to the top of the mountains, from the smallest particle to the biggest star, from the most boring school subject to the most fascinating science from the ugliest cockroach to the most beautiful human from the greatest saint to the most wicked, genocidal dictator. Everything that exists exists to make the greatness of Christ more fully known, including you and the person you have the hardest time liking, and the short answer to that question is for the glory of God's grace displayed supremely in the death of Jesus or to say it more fully. This world, this history as it is unfolding was created and is guided and sustained by God so that the grace of God supremely displayed in the death and resurrection of Jesus for Sinners would be glorified throughout all eternity in the Christ.

Exalting joys of the redeemed end quote. And Genesis is riddled with Christ and we'll look at that as we go through the book of Genesis. It is riddled with Christ. One author said this about Christ in Genesis. Christ is the seed of the woman. Genesis three 15 the seed of Abraham, genesis 12 three and the Shiloh descended from Judah. Genesis 49 verse 10 Christ is also the life giver in contrast to Adam who brought death. Romans five 12 and First Corinthians 1521 through 22 Christ is the ultimate object to the sacrifices point. Genesis three 21 in John One 29 in addition, the sacrifice of Isaac points to the death of Christ who was the lamb provided by God. Genesis 22 Christ is also prefigured in Melchizedek to whom? Abraham paid tithes. Genesis 1418 through 20 psalm one ten one and Hebrews seven one through 17 end quote. So as we go through genesis, we're going to see Christ Christ is a major subject of genesis. Why? Because this whole world was created for Christ, for the glory of Christ, for the praise of Christ, for the ultimate purpose of the glory of God. But there's a second question that the book of Genesis bags from the first verse of Genesis one go back to Genesis one and let's look at the first verse we mentioned earlier that genesis tells us the beginning of all things except about whom? God.

So then genesis one one says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So here's the question that you might ask. What was going on before the beginning? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. What was going on before the beginning. One Christian speaker had this to say about the beginning. One reason people give for rejecting a young universe is that they think it's somehow limits God after all. What was he doing all that time before creation? This question reflects a basic misunderstanding of God and time. Because of my stand on a young universe, a man approached me and said, but it makes no sense to believe in a young universe. After all, what was God doing all that time before he created I answer, what time do you mean the person answered? Well, it doesn't make sense to say that God has always existed and yet he didn't create the universe until just 6,000 years ago.

Apparently he was worried that God once had a lot of time on his hands with nothing to do. I then went on to explain that because God has always existed than it is meaningless to ask. What was God doing all that time before he created. No matter how far you were to go back in time, you would still have an infinite amount of time before he created. So even if the universe were billions or trillions or quadrillions of years old, you could still ask the same question. Time was created with the universe, I then answered, but you're missing the fact that there was no time before God created. Time is actually a created entity. The first verse of the Bible reads, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis one one a study of this first reveals that God created time and space and matter on the first day of creation week. No one of these can have a meaningful existence without the others. God created the space mass, time, universe, space and matter must exist in time and time requires space and matter. Time is only meaningful if physical entities exist and events transpire during time.

In the beginning is when time began. There was no time before time was created. So what was before creation? God existing from everlasting to everlasting, God existing in eternity end quote, there are some versus, and that speaker did, uh, refer to one of them. But there are some other verses that speak to this question of what was God doing before the beginning? The Bible does shed light on this idea. Go with me to John Chapter 17 if you would, you might still be there. I'm not sure if that's the passage we left off on and we read this verse, but I just want to focus on this one verse and I want you to look at it with me if you would. John 17 and verse five so does the Bible answer this question? What was going on before the beginning? John 17 five Jesus said this, and now, oh father, so who's speaking? Jesus, who is Jesus talking to? He's talking to the father and then he says this, glorify thou me with thy known self with the glory which I had past tense with thee before the world was so what was going on before the beginning, the son was glorifying the father and the father was glorifying the son. Go to first Corinthians chapter two, nimble fingers for just a few moments.

First Corinthians chapter two and verse seven. It is fascinating. The God answers. That gives us some insight into this question of what was going on before the beginning. First Corinthians two and verse seven but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which ordained before the world unto our glory. So before the world began, before the beginning, God was ordaining the wisdom that is Christ for us. Remember, we already looked at one of the reasons why God created the world. He created it for Christ. So what was he doing before the beginning? He was ordaining the wisdom that is Christ for us before the beginning of the world. Go to first Peter Chapter one first Peter Chapter one. We just have three verses left in this, but I just like this to look at these verses. First Peter Chapter One in Verse 20 Peter One and verse 20 but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was for ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you? So what was God doing before the foundation of the world? God was decreeing the birth and life and death and resurrection and Ascension and glory of Christ before the beginning. Go to Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one.

Ephesians chapter one in verse four. What was God doing before the beginning? Before there was time and space and matter. Ephesians one four according as He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. There's a lot there that tells us what God was doing prior to the beginning. What was he doing well, for one, he was choosing for us to be holy and without blame. God was choosing for us to be holy and without blame. Before the beginning. What else was he doing? Well, he was choosing us to be adopted into his family, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children. So before the beginning, God was choosing us to be holy and without blame. He was choosing for us to be adopted into his family. And what else? According to the good pleasure of his will, God was acting for his own pleasure. Before the beginning, God was choosing for us to be holy and without blame, choosing for us to be adopted into his family and acting for his own pleasure. And the last verse I'll have you look at his Titus chapter one and verse two. Titus chapter one in verse two.

This is a fascinating verse that shed some light into what God was doing before. Genesis one one Titus one and verse two. Paul, a servant of God and try this one's a little bit. You can miss it if you, if you don't, see it there right away if you're not paying attention. So we'll, we'll go over this one. But see if you can see in Titus one and verse two, what God was doing before the beginning. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness. And then verse two in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began.

All right, so let's deal with the subject. Who promised? Somebody promised something. Who Was it? It was God. Okay, so who promised God promised? Well, what was promised? What did God promise? He promised eternal life. So God's doing the promising he's promising eternal life. Well, when was it promised? When was this promise made? Well, he promised before the world began. So you have the subject God, and then you have God promising eternal life, but you have God promising eternal life before the world began. Well then that begs this question. To whom did God promise eternal life before the world began?

Well, who was there? God. God promised eternal life to himself. Well that fits in line with the whole reason that he created the world. God created the world for the praise of Christ to the glory of the father. So before the beginning, before genesis one one God was promising Christ a people for himself, God in himself, the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit was making the promise of eternal life. Of those whom he would create in Genesis one one. So these verses give us some insight into what was going on before the world began. But aside from these glimpses into the pre beginning, the answer truly is that it is not for us to know. Deuteronomy 29, 29 says this, the secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever. That we may do all the words of this law. We could sit and ask these questions all day long. And it is important that we find those verses scripture that answer these questions. But beyond that, we just need to do what the Bible tells us to do and the secret things belong to God. Many other questions abound that we'll discuss in the future as we go through genesis.

But let's take a moment to discuss one very important topic. This is a very important topic, uh, for our church. Uh, it's very important to my dad and it's very important to me and that is a literal approach to scripture. This is a very important topic for the book of Genesis, a literal approach to scripture. Simply put, we must take the Bible at its word. Literally. This is a very important rule of interpretation. When we come to the Bible, how do we view it? Do we view it as a poem and set of allusions and analogies and metaphors that can kind of twist and flow and mean whatever we want it to mean? And it can mean one thing to you and one thing to you, and I can obey this because I want to and I cannot obey this because I don't want to, and I can change this to mean this thing and you believe it means something else and that's fine.

Or is the Bible clear? It? Can the Bible be taken literally can the Bible be trusted because of extremely important rule of interpretation. Second Timothy Two 15 says that we are to rightly handle the word of God. When Jesus quoted the Old Testament, especially commands, he took them literally, they weren't figurative. The disciples took Jesus' words to them. Literally they went out and died for the cause of Christ and for the glory of God. Now, I'll make a point there. There do exist figures of speech, but those are fairly obvious most times. So here's one example. It's raining cats and dogs. Now, it's not raining today, but I think it rained a little bit yesterday. Okay. But if it's raining hard outside, we might say it's raining cats and dogs. Would anybody listen to that and actually think cats and dogs are falling from the sky? No, because we realize that that's clearly a metaphor. That's clearly an analogy. Now, here are a couple from scripture. So I'm 17 eight speaks of us being the apple of God's eye.

Well, I've never heard anyone preached that God's eye literally has an apple in it. We understand. That's a clear figure of speech. It's a clear analogy. How about this one? If your right hand offends you, cut it off and cast it from you. Have any of us ever done anything wrong? Well, I don't see a lot of hand cutting and casting going on throughout the early church and the apostles ministry. Even though Paul said that the things he didn't want to do were the things he ended up doing. You remember that he's frustrated because he keeps sinning and he says the things I don't want to do. Well, those are the things I end up doing well. I don't see him cutting off his hands or plucking out his eyes, so we realize that these are figures of speech like it's raining cats and dogs like the apple of my eye, but usually figures of speech are quite clear.

We understand that they're figures of speech immediately when we look at them. Now granted there are passages in scripture that are more difficult, but just because there are some exceptions does not mean that everything gets to be an exception in general, unless the passage of scripture necessitates that we take the the phrase or the word as a figure of speech or unless it actually spells out that it is a figure of speech or that it is an analogy. Then the rule is we take it literally and this sort of approach is commonplace in our normal communication with one another. Whether it be verbal, through email, text, reading, a recipe, a Wikipedia page, or a textbook. We take information literally. Wouldn't it be frustrating if you were talking to someone and recounting something that you did the day prior and the entire time that they're listening to you, they're trying to pick out if what you just said was literal or figurative and you said, oh, we went to the park and they're thinking, oh, maybe they didn't mean the park. Maybe they meant the zoo and I'll try to interpret that. No, it's just commonplace that we take people at their word. We take them literally, we read a recipe and if it says add three eggs, we don't say, I think that probably means three cups of flour. I mean you could do that, but you're not going to have a very good plate of food to eat once it's done cooking.

So the rule of interpretation is deeply important when approaching genesis as we will see in the coming weeks. What about authorship? Who wrote genesis? We won't spend a long time on this, but one commentator said this, the tradition that Moses is the author of the first five books of the Bible originates from the word of God itself. The title law does not only refer to the commandments that Moses received at Sinai from God already in the Old Testament. It often refers to the whole pentateuch the torah the first part of the Old Testament, and there's many verses in the Old Testament that actually speak to Moses writing the first five books of the Bible. We don't have time to get into those, but I'll list a few off. Joshua one seven Joshua eight 31 judges 3 4 first kings 2 three second chronicles 23 18 Ezra 3 2 Nehemiah eight one Daniel nine 11 and Malakai 4 4 and exodus 74 I only do that for effect.

Okay. I realize that you can't write all those down, but I did not. I knew that there were passages in the old testament that referred to Moses writing the first five books of the Bible, the law, but I didn't realize how many until I started studying for the sermon. There's quite a few times that the Bible itself says that Moses wrote the law. Now there's even more evidence. The Lord Jesus confirms that, and I'm continuing the quote here from this commentator, the Lord Jesus confirms that Moses is the author in Luke 24:27 Luke 24:44 John 5:40,60 and Paul often speaks of the law call at. He often speaks of the law as the law of Moses. Romans ten five first Corinthians nine nine Hebrews 10:28 if you want any of those verses, I'm happy to email them your way. It becomes evident from two passages in the new testament that the term law or law of Moses includes the book of Genesis.

First Corinthians 14:34 can only refer to the divine order in genesis two 18 and following genesis three 16 since the law of Sinai lacks an explicit command for women to be subject. And in Galatians four 21 following Paul talks of the story of Ishmael and Isaac, Genesis 16, Genesis 21 in both cases, he speaks of the law. Sorry if you didn't catch all that I didn't intend to spend a lot of time on mosaic authorship. But, um, not only is scripture quite clear that Moses wrote Genesis, um, along with Jewish and Christian tradition. So the theme and the outline of Genesis, what's the theme of Genesis and where does it fit into time? We won't spend a long time on this, but one author described the theme of Genesis this way. Listen to this more specifically, the book's theme revolves around how God chose one man out of all nations through whom he would make a nation to bless all nations.

I'll read part of that. I'll read that quote over again more specifically. The book's theme revolves around how God chose one man out of all the nations through whom he would make a nation to bless all nations. There's the theme of, of Genesis. Now how does Genesis fit into the timeline of our human history? Well, chapters one through 11 of Genesis, which is about 20% of the book. It covers about 2000 years of history from creation to about 2,135 BC. Okay, so about 2000 years in the first 11 chapters, but 20 20% of the book. And we know this from genealogies. Now, there are some gaps in, in the genealogies. We will get into that eventually as we get into the genealogies. So we, we may not know the exact pinpointed date, uh, but if we're taking genesis literally and we're taking the genealogies literally, then we know it covers around 2000 years. Uh, and continuing on the quote here, um, chapters 12 through 50 or 80% of the book covers less than 300 years. Joseph died about 1837 BC. Thus, the book is selective thematic history. Not a broad story of mankind end quote.

Well before we end today with this introductory sermon in Genesis, let's very briefly get into verse one. Genesis one one in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. One commentator said of this phrase in the beginning before the creative acts mentioned in this chapter, all was eternity. Time signifies duration measured by the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, but prior to the creation of these bodies, there could be no measurement of duration and consequently no time. Therefore in the beginning must necessarily mean the commencement of time which followed or rather was produced by God's creative acts as an effect follows or as produced by a cause end quote. So verse one in the beginning, God, here's what we know from scripture. In the beginning, God was already there. In the beginning, God had already promised his son. In the beginning, God had already chosen us to be holy and blameless. In the beginning, God was sharing his glory with himself. In the beginning, God was communing with himself.

In the beginning, God was acting for his pleasure and will. In the beginning, God was decreeing the mystery of Christ. In the beginning, God was foreknowing the lamb, the savior of the world. In the beginning, God planned our adoption as sons and daughters, and in the beginning, God created time and space and matter. And the thought that I'll leave you with this this. If before the world began this God chose us to be holy and blameless and part of his family for the praise of Christ, to the glory of God. Then what does that mean for you? What does that make your life about? What does that make your family about? Your job, all about your hobbies, all about how well does your life align with God's ultimate purpose, his glory. And we'll look forward to walking through the amazing days of creation next time.