“Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth! Worship the LORD with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. Acknowledge that the LORD is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.” Psalms 100:1-5 NLT
(Genesis 2:4 NASB95)This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven.
God gives his account of creation. The Creator reveals the events of the origins of our universe. God tells how he did it and pronounces it very good.
And, yet, billions reject his account for the account of a human or humans who travel the planet an average of seventy years.
Well, that makes sense.
Two things that we should be aware of as we make decisions that will impact our lives forever.
God has given his account of life and truth and forever.
We will one day be called to give an account for our lives before the God who has given us his account.
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(Romans 14:11–12 ESV)11 For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” 12So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
(Matthew 12:36 NASB95)36“But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.
(Revelation 20:11–15 ESV)11Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Personally, I’m going with God’s account.
(1 Timothy 1:17 ESV)To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
(Titus 1:2 ESV)In hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began.
Message Title: The Account of theDay that the Lord God Made the Heavens and the Earth!
Sin does not come onto the scene in Genesis until chapter three, but we have much to learn in the two earlier chapters about our desperate predicament as humans occupying the planet and the depths of our sin.
As in … Paradise and Paradise Lost.
As we see what we have lost. As we understand better God’s original gift to humans in creation. Now we may realize that we really do need to let God instruct us from his word as to our need for a Savior (and for everything else in life).
For those who are lost and need to be found, Genesis is absolutely foundational to understanding God, ourselves and the world in which we live. Undermine Genesis as the exact account that God chose to give us, and you have undermined your ability to believe in God as he defines and describes himself.
You choose. You lose.Pick apart his message and miss his message and miss the abundance of life that God offers through Jesus Christ.
What does it matter? Well, it seems to matters a lot.
Experience Day One of creation as you look up at the night sky and see the glory of God. You get a glimpse of Day Two as you stand on the shore of the ocean and hear the roaring and crashing of the waves. Day Three brings grass, flowers, trees, all plant life. Take it all in now as you smell freshly cut grass, spring flowers and corn growing. Observe the stars scattered over the heavens and declare his praise. Go for a walk under a beautiful moon or drink in the beauty of his blue sky and feel the warmth and life of his great light which he brought about on Day Four. Listen to the music of Day Five as birds tweet, coo, shriek and caw. Or be captured by the performance of an eagle in the sky or a great whale on the open sea. Day Six introduces lions roaring and elephants trumpeting. All the land creatures. Foxes showing off their speed and oxen their strength.
Travel this earth and see the the uncharted territories brought about by the word of God, the wonders of unpolluted oceans, and green, vibrant forests alive with beasts of every variety. Explore the universe in all of it’s stunning immensity and variety of color and shape and form. And marvel at the greatness of our God.
But if you want to experience the peak, the pinnacle, the summit, the top, the zenith, the apogee, the apex, the height, the crown, the climax …
If you want to travel to the summit and the spire of God’s creation to catch a glimpse of God’s greatest work, then I invite you to the afternoon of Day Six, where God took council with himself and decided to make humans in his image, and after his likeness.
Sin does not come onto the scene in Genesis until chapter three, but we have much to learn in the two earlier chapters about our desperate predicament as humans occupying the planet and the depths of our sin.
As in … Paradise and Paradise Lost.
As we see what we have lost. As we understand better God’s original gift to humans in creation. Now we may realize that we really do need to let God instruct us from his word as to our need for a Savior (and for everything else in life).
For those who are lost and need to be found, Genesis is absolutely foundational to understanding God, ourselves and the world in which we live. Undermine Genesis as the exact account that God chose to give us, and you have undermined your ability to believe in God as he defines and describes himself.
You choose. You lose.Pick apart his message and miss his message and miss the abundance of life that God offers through Jesus Christ.
Read the following by Kent Hughes and be amazed at the power and wisdom of God!
God had formed the world in three days, and now in three parallel days he had wonderfully filled it with the light of the sun and moon and stars and trees and plants and creatures of the deep and the winged creatures of the sky and a zoo of wondrous earth-treading beasts.
The seas literally swarmed with living things—the monsters of the deep. There were whales, sharks, leviathan (crocodiles); swordfish reigned amidst schools of tuna and dolphin and thousands of lesser colorful finned creatures—many unknown until the twentieth century. And above, an ornithologist’s delight filled the skies—eagles, cormorants, ravens, gulls, geese, ducks, woodpeckers, finches, cardinals, indigo buntings. The skies and seas teemed with astonishing variety, all from the mind of God. The waving, undulating beauties seen first by the sea diver and the gliding, iridescent arrays of the heavens exist because of God’s thought and at his pleasure—“And God saw that it was good.”
[Hughes, R. K. (2004). Genesis: beginning and blessing (p. 34). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.]
I can hardly wait to see what God is going to do in my life, and yours, through this Genesis study. What a challenge, but also I believe God has impressed on me the great blessing in that very challenge as he speaks to us in this essential book.
I want you to know this morning that you have every good and excellent reason to believe and trust God’s Holy Book the Bible!
From beginning to end. From creation to the end of days on this planet. God’s word. Believe it. Trust it. Believe God. Trust God.
When he begins his Book: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Then count on it. Let no one, absolutely no one, undermine your faith in a God who can do exactly what he says in his word.
Message Title: “In the Beginning, God Created the Heavens and the Earth!”
God gives us the choice. It has been that way since the very first humans walked the planet. Believe God and trust him or believe the lie.
For decades now many professing believers in Christ have listened to those whom God calls fools when it comes to the creation account.
(Psalm 14:1 ESV)The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.
For too long many sincere believers have cowered before the voices of “reason” and “science” even though the very ones defining reason and science have turned their backs on their Creator. For the sake of prestige and place in this world, too many have listened to those who are wise only in their own eyes.
(Romans 1:21–22 ESV) For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools.
But not from this pulpit. God speaks very clearly the things that are necessary for us to hear and believe.
God, and God alone, is Creator and Redeemer!
Message Title: “In the Beginning God Created the Heavens and the Earth!”
Why can’t we find the things that we share in common as brothers and sisters in Christ and work together? We agree on so many things. Why can’t we minister to the world from this common ground that we share? It just makes sense. Why draw denominational or doctrinal distinctions?
Do you know what is so absurd about that rationale? We disagree with them on the things that the Apostle Paul tells us are “of first importance.”
It is true that as the liberal, false teachers point out, we do have much in common. But what we do not have in common is what the Apostle Paul delivers to us as the things “of first importance.” Think about it. The issue is not the common things, but the great divide on who Jesus Christ is, exactly what he has accomplished at the Cross of Calvary and the authoritative voice of the word of God. The distinction should not be drawn by what we have in common but by the huge, glaring differences in our beliefs on Jesus Christ and the word of God.
I heard on the radio again this past week a liberal church in the area: “Come join us for Easter and celebrate with us the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
Face value that may sound okay. We have that in common with that church. We too next week are going to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But that is where the common ground ends because we will connect that resurrection to Christ’s death for our sins which they no longer believe is of first importance. And we will connect his resurrection with his literal, physical death according to the Scriptures. And we will not come up with various theories that explain away the authoritative instruction of the Word of God concerning sin. We will connect this celebration to Jesus Christ dying for our sins, my sins, your sins, redemption by his blood for the forgiveness of sins.
And we will connect our celebration with the physical, bodily resurrection of our Lord and his appearance to over 500 people according to the Scriptures. And we will continue to hold the absolute authority of the teaching of God’s word that this resurrection provides the only way of salvation, the only way for us to go to the Father. The only way. That there is no other name to call on, no other religion that escapes the tentacles of some form of works salvation formed by and based upon the reasoning of sinful, fallen man.
So, yes, we are very narrow in our view of salvation. Our Lord tells us this morning to: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
