Word of Salvation – Vol. 53 No.22 – June 2009

 

Made by God

(Sermon 2 of 19, on Genesis 1-12)

By Rev. John Haverland on Genesis 1:1-10

Scripture Readings:  Psalm 148; 1 Timothy 4

 

Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

 

Theme: Over six days God formed, by his Word, an ordered and good world as a home for mankind.

Purpose: To help us appreciate God’s power, wisdom and goodness in creating such a beautiful world.

 

If you pick up any product, whether that be something you use or wear or eat, most will have a name that will tell you where it was made. Somewhere on that product will be a stamp or some writing that will say, “Made in China”, or “New Zealand Made”, or “Product of Bulgaria”.

 

Our world doesn’t have a stamp on it saying, “Made by God”, but the Bible teaches us that it was. You won’t find sign-writing in the sky that says, “Product of God”, but Psalm 19 tells us that “The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the works of his hands.” The world and the universe was made by God. The opening verse of the Bible tells us this: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This is what Christians believe, or ought to believe, if they hold a biblical world-view.

 

As you know, there are many people in the world who hold to another view. Instead of believing in an eternal God who created the world they believe that life evolved out of eternal matter.

 

And then there are people who try to combine these two views. They are known as theistic evolutionists. They want to combine a belief in God with the processes of evolution. But that won’t do because creation and evolution represent opposite interpretations of the origin of the world; they are different world-views, different philosophies, that cannot be combined together. You either believe one or the other.

 

The Bible announces right up front, right at the beginning, that the world was made by God. He created it. It bears his stamp.

 

Today we want to look at what God did on the first three days of creation and what this tells us about him and his world.

Genesis 1 verse 1 tells us that God is eternal and that he is the Creator. These next verses in this chapter tells us that God is powerful, wise and good.

 

1. As a powerful God he made the world.

2. As a wise God he made an ordered world.

3. As a good God he made a beautiful world.

 

 

AS A POWERFUL GOD HE MADE THE WORLD

 

He created the world by his command. He made the world out of nothing. He spoke and there was light and sky and plants and animals. He did this by the power of his word. This wasn’t magical: there was no hocus-pocus, no abracadabra. Nor was this an illusion; it wasn’t a matter of smoke and mirrors; it wasn’t God pretending to produce something that was already there. No, the world was made out of nothing, by his word. God could do this because he is powerful, he is almighty, he is God.

 

This power of God is displayed in the pattern that is repeated in the six days of creation. Each day began with an announcement: “And God said”. Everything happened as the result of God’s spoken word which expressed his divine will. He only had to say something and it happened. We know from the gospel of John that this Word was God’s Son, Jesus Christ. The world was made through him.

 

This announcement was followed by a command: “Let there be light”, and there was light. God’s command is powerful and irresistible. If only our commands were like that! You command your dog to “sit” or “stay” or “come” and often he ignores you! Employers give orders in their workplace but those orders are not always followed and things don’t get done. But when God gives a command, things happen! “For he spoke, and it came to be, he commanded and it was done” (Psalm 33:9).

 

Because he is powerful and almighty he can name what he has made. God called the light “day” and the darkness he called “night”. If you were to invent something or patent a new product then you have the right to name that product because you are the owner. God named the various parts of his creation because he is the Maker, the Creator, the Owner. His naming demonstrates his power.

 

He created the world in six days . This is a widely disputed matter today. For most of history those who believed in God accepted that he created the world in six 24 hour days. It is only since the Enlightenment and Darwin that people have questioned this. Evolutionary theory has to assume millions, even billions, of years to allow the process of change and improvement to take place.

 

Some Christians have tried to accommodate the theory of evolution with the “day-age” theory; i.e., they claim that each day represents a very long time period of millions of years. But that is an unnecessary and unbiblical concession to evolution. We need not allow for long periods of time for God to create the world. The exact length of time is not the most important matter. If he wanted to, God could have created the world in six weeks, or in six hours, or even in six seconds! Genesis 1 tells us that he created the world in six days.

 

The book of Genesis is written as an historical account of the beginning of the world. We may take it straight on, as it is written. It is true that the word “day” (Hebrew, yom ) does not always mean a 24 hour period, but in most cases it does. Furthermore, Moses tells us that each day of creation was marked by an evening and a morning. He also described a sequence of days: the first, the second, the third, and so on. And when Moses gave the fourth commandment in Exodus 20 he told us: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that his in them, but he rested on the seventh day” (Ex 20:11). We can believe what the Scriptures actually say and we do not need to accommodate this to the assumptions of modern science or geology.

 

God also sustains the world by his power . In the 18 ^th century there was a belief called Deism which said that God was like a clockmaker. He made the world and then put it out in the universe and left it to work by itself without any active involvement after that. But the Bible teaches us that God is active in his creation. He didn’t make the world and then step back. No, he sustains the world by his power. He knows what is going on. He guides all that happens.

 

Jonah reminded himself of that in that great storm on the Mediterranean Sea. He was a disobedient prophet. He ran away from the Lord and went in the opposite direction to the one God had told him to go. The sailors asked him who he was and why he had brought all this trouble on them. He replied: “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” He knew that God was in control of the sea. God had sent that storm. It was a scary thought, but also one of comfort.

 

You too need to remember that this powerful God is in control of this world and of your life. Nothing happens by chance. Everything comes from his hand. At times he demonstrates his power in dramatic ways, such as an earthquake or a tsunami. But Jesus assured us that he also controls the little things in this world. Not even a sparrow “will fall to the ground without the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Mt 10:29-30). May this give you great comfort and strong assurance. God is the all powerful creator.

 

 

Secondly, He is also wise, and AS A WISE GOD HE MADE AN ORDERED WORLD.

 

He formed the world. Genesis 1:1 tells us that God made the substance of the earth, of this world. Verse 2 tells us that it was a watery mass, without shape or form or structure. It was empty, void, there was nothing there apart from watery “stuff”. Then, on the first day of creation, God began to shape this watery stuff and give it order. There is a pattern in these six days. On days one to three he formed the world and on days four to six he filled what he had made.

 

So on Day One God created the light. Some have questioned this pointing out that he did not make the sun until the fourth day. But God can make light without the sun. In the book of Revelation we read that all those in heaven will not need the light of the sun “for the Lord God will give them light” (22:5). There was no need for the sun at the beginning of creation nor will there be such a need in the new creation. God created light first because this is basic and fundamental to all of life. Later on it would be a picture of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, who announced to all: “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12).

 

On Day Two God created an expanse, or the sky, or the atmosphere, to separate water on the earth from water above the earth. This atmosphere and the chemicals in it provide us with all we need to live on this earth.

 

On Day Three God formed the dry land. We aren’t told how God did this, and we can only imagine the huge processes involved in separating the land and the sea. We know from geological studies that mountain ranges like the Southern Alps were formed by massive forces of uplift. The mountains were raised up and the ocean floors subsided. In this way God began the formation of mountains and hills and plains and rivers and lakes. (We’ll deal with vegetation in a later sermon.)

 

God ordered the world by a series of divisions: Light from dark, water from water, sea from land. God gave the earth structure and shape and form. In doing this he established what people have called “laws of nature”. The world is not random or haphazard, but rather is ordered and predictable. There are causes and effects. If you drop a stone from a high cliff, you know it is going to fall down not float up. If you rub two pieces of wood together, you know the friction is going to generate heat. This order means that you can study the world because everything has a pattern. An ordered world is the basis for science.

 

If you take an evolutionary view you have no basis for science because everything is the result of chance and random changes. But a Christian view of the world gives us a basis for study and investigation into all that God has made. This is why scientific study made great progress after the Reformation because their biblical world-view encouraged a study of a creation that had been ordered by God.

 

It was a Reformation man in Scotland who invented logarithms — John Napier of Merchiston (in 1614). A Christian called Robert Boyle spent two years of his education at Calvin’s Academy in Geneva, and in 1663 became a member of the Council of The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge. Reformed people got so involved in mathematics and science that one minister complained that his fellow ministers were better mathematicians and scientists than scholars!

 

Some of you are in fields of mathematics, science, chemistry, physics and engineering. All these are worthwhile areas of study because you can explore this world of order that our wise God has made.

 

God is powerful and he is wise. Thirdly, he is good and AS A GOOD GOD HE MADE A BEAUTIFUL WORLD.

 

If you have just finished painting the house, or tidying up a section of garden, or rearranging some furniture, or hanging a new picture, you will stand back and admire what you have done. You want to see the effect. And if you have done a fine job and it looks good, then you are pleased with your work.

 

This is what God did as he created and shaped this world. At the end of each day he stood back and admired what he had done, and he saw that it was good. At the end of the sixth day “God saw all that he had made and it was very good” (1:31).

 

In the book of Proverbs Wisdom spoke, who is the Lord Jesus, the Wisdom of God, through whom all things were made. Wisdom described the work of creation and said, “Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind” (8:30-31).

 

God is a good God and he made a good world — a world that was beautiful and perfect in every way. He gave us eyes to see its beauty, ears to hear its music, taste to enjoy its fruits and flavours, touch to feel the various textures of the world. The New Testament tells us that “everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” (1 Tim 4:4).

 

This world has been made by God. For those of us who believe, that truth is stamped on everything beautiful in this creation and is clearly written in the pages of the Scriptures. He made this world and put us in it so that we could glorify him and enjoy him forever. He made it and us so we could praise and worship him for all his great works; so we could “Give thanks to the God of heaven” for his great wonders (Psalm 136:26).

 

Our response to God’s creation, says one writer, should be to rise to our feet in a spontaneous standing ovation to this great God, who is powerful, wise and good. “Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendour is above the earth and the heavens” (Psalm 148:13).

 

We know that the world did not stay perfect. It has been scarred by sin. We also know that we do not give God praise and glory as we ought for all his great works. We too are marred by sin. The world is darkened by sin and evil.

 

This is why God sent his Son. Not only has God given us the beautiful light of the sun for our world, he has also given us the light of his One and Only Son. “For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness’, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor 4:6).

 

By that light of the Lord Jesus we can know this Creator God — a God who is powerful, wise and good.

 

Amen.