Princeton Presbyterian Church

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1667

January 5, 2025

Genesis 1.1-25               Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)

 

“God’s Creation Order”

 

¹In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ²The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

³And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. ⁶And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” ⁷And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. ⁸And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. ⁹And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. ¹⁰God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. ¹¹And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. ¹²The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ¹³And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. ¹⁴And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, ¹⁵and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. ¹⁷And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. ²⁰And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” ²¹So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²²And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. ²⁴And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. ²⁵And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

 

 

• The Creator God

 

The very first thing that Genesis 1 reveals is the existence of the Creator God. There is a Creator and He is the God of the Bible. The Bible does not make any description of God at this point other than God is and that in the beginning God created. No apologies. No answers offered to the hundreds of questions that try to get behind the text to God’s origin or anything else. In the beginning God...In the beginning God created. Done. Trust and believe! One of the problems with the modern mind is that we tend to only believe what we can see and touch and prove through scientific criteria or some other enlightened means. But the Bible seldom calls on us to believe in that way. The Bible is more about faith than sight, more about trust than empirical data analysis. That is not to say that there are no instances at all for seeing and touching. Jesus invites doubting Thomas to touch the nail scared hands and His pierced side (John 20.27). The Psalms invite us to look at the moon and the stars to see the handiwork of God (Psalm 8.3-4). But we cannot prove in a scientific method any of this in particular. We cannot prove through science, but our proof is in the testimony of the Bible and in the conviction of the Holy Spirit and in the belief that we know within our hearts that every single Word of the Bible and in today’s reading, every single Word of creation is true and truth. God is the Creator of all we see and hear and touch, and of all we cannot see and hear and touch!

 

A second important aspect of creation is the word create. In Hebrew it is bara. This word is only use when God is the subject. Humans cannot bara. Humans can only make or form, but never technically create. To create in the Hebrew is to call into existence that which does not exist. You and I cannot speak anything into existence. We can take what God has created and form it into a pot or a house or a car, but we cannot call any of those things into existence. Make and form are also used with God as the subject, but only God creates. God can make a way. God forms us in the womb. We can make a hamburger and we can form a plan, but God creates.

We use the term create liberally in our description of things we have made and speak of being creative and that’s okay, but note that what we really are doing is making and forming. We might be creative in the sense of being able to make something impressive, but we are not creating something out of nothing. Even being creative is God’s doing because He has created our brain and our imagination to come up with a creative idea or concept. There is nothing new under the sun!

 

 

• Creation With a Purpose

 

Humans are created to be ranked above all other creatures. We have a purpose in being created. In the creation story, we have the responsibility to order, rule, and care for creation and all that is in creation. One of the purposes of the created man and woman is to exercise authority and power over subordinate creatures – namely the animals. We are given the freedom to do as we will within the guidelines of God’s will. For us today that means doing all things in the name of Christ, in the Spirit of Christ, in the Lordship of Christ, following Christ. We read in Ephesians, [For He has made] “known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on” (Ephesians 1.9-10). There is in these two verses a look toward the creation story and the purpose of God, the “plan for the fullness of time”. All things will be united in Christ Jesus just as all things have been created in Christ. Colossians 1.16-17, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” All things were created through Him and for Him. We are a part of that created order, so that our purpose, along with taking care of creation, is to praise God for that creation and for who God is (1 Corinthians 10.31; Isaiah 43.21).

In the book It’s Good to be a Man, the authors observe the purpose of God’s creation comes about through a process of dividing and filling. Here are a few examples...

1 – God fills the world with light, and divides the light from the darkness. By doing this, He also divides the cosmos into two fundamental realms: night and day.

2 – He divides the waters from the waters, establishing two more realms: sea and sky.

3 – He fills the seas and the skies with swarms of creatures, divided by kind.

4 – He fill the earth with beasts, divided by kind.

5 – He divides man from the earth and then divides woman from the man (p.42-43, Michael Foster and Dominic Bnonn Tennant).

God creates all that is for a reason, for a purpose and they are good because they have that purpose and meaning inherent in them as God’s creation. In the end all of the created order exists to bring glory and praise to the Creator. This is our purpose and that purpose is best seen when we are living in obedience to the created order of God.

This sermon series will later address the damage done to that purpose through the fall, the sin of Adam and Eve that has been passed down to all. But for now, the creation story is all good!

 

• It Was Good

 

It is the refrain throughout the creation story, "God saw that it was good". Good! Properly ordered! Pleasing to God. It is good because it has meaning and purpose. But it is also good because it is pleasing to the eye. Creation has an aesthetic quality. It is good because creation has a purpose to give glory to God.

"Good" is the Hebrew is the word tov which has very much the same meaning in English (good), but as with all biblical words, the depth of a word is greatly influenced in the context of sentences and narrative. What made creation good? And even more so later in 1.31, very good? AS we have seen, creation has a particular purpose in God's design. Every element of creation has a role within itself, light and darkness, for instance, mark days and nights, and yet also come to mean something more in a spiritual sense of good and evil. All the plants and creatures play a role in a brilliant ecosystem and, in another spiritual sense, all plants and creatures praise God simply by being what they have been created to be (Isaiah 55.12).

We can still see, despite sin, the good of God's created order. We can still participate in the ordered creation when we are faithful to God's design for the care and dominion we have been given over creation. We can see later in chapter 1 our purpose to be fruitful and fill the earth..."Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (Genesis 1.28).

The good news is that in Christ all things are once again ordered, in Him, by Him, and through Him, and it is good! The kingdom of heaven is at hand and will one day come to fruition with a new heaven and new earth. Creation was good, is being made good again, and will one day be recreated and reordered. This is our hope and joy in Christ who created all things good. John 1.1-5, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." The darkness will not prevail. The light has come and it was good and is good.

 

 

• God’s Creation Order

 

One of the reasons I am doing a series of sermons in the book of Genesis is because of a personal study I am doing on the roles of men and women in accordance with God’s design. I am sure I will be sharing my findings with you either in preaching or another form of communication. So as we proceed through Genesis, we will be noting how God has ordered all things in particular ways for particular purposes.

All of God’s creation shares in one purpose – to glorify God. Romans 11.36, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Within that purpose is the distinctive role that each created being has to praise God. We do not all have the same distinctions or the same roles for that glory. It is like any team in any sport. Each player has a role. If all did the same thing, they would never win a game. We are not all molded into the same mass of humanity or created to be like other creatures. Paul gives the same kind of example in the role we all have in the church. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? (1 Corinthians 12.27-30). The answer to all of those questions is no. We do not all have the same role. God has appointed to all of creation a particular order and purpose and even appointed a rank. This is reflected in 1 Corinthians as well, 11.3, 8-9, “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God… For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.” Now to our culture and to our modern ears and sensibilities that sounds ridiculous and archaic, out of touch with women’s liberation and all that has come with those types of movements, but the more we study Scripture, the more we will see the way God has created things to be, and we will see how far men and women both have strayed from God’s creation order.

 

One side note is that our order of worship is something of a reflection of God’s creation order. We are taught in 1 Corinthians 14.33 and 14.40, “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace… ⁴⁰But all things should be done decently and in order.” There is order to our experience of worship which comes from the very nature of God’s creation order. Sometimes we look for spontaneity in worship, which may indeed come by way of the movement of the Holy Spirit, but God’s way is one of order and peace. Liturgical worship springs forth from the created order of all things and, in that sense, also gives glory to God. In recent years, there has been some discussion that worship in this manner is preferred precisely because it has order. People come to worship from a world of disorder and long for the order of God.

 

The world and the forces of evil are at work doing everything they can to disrupt the order of God’s creation. The devil sows seeds of disorder, through entertainment industry, through politics, through sexual dysfunction and confusion, through any means to reverse the order God has created and ordained for good. This is the force behind the transgender issues and male and female confusion and redefining marriage. This is the force behind abortion being labeled a health issue. This is the force behind all the woke ideologies that push for feelings over facts, my truth over God’s truth, feminism destroying femininity, narratives of toxic masculinity, these and many others all in an effort to destroy God’s creation order.

It is part of our role as the church to define God’s creation order by living in it. We are called to yield our lives to God’s design and to take joy in doing so. The nature of sin resists God’s design. Rebellion against God is what we are seeking to hang on the cross so that we might live fully into God’s good creation order and purpose. I would invite us all to reflect on Genesis 1-2 and other Scripture that speaks to God’s design for us and for all of creation. What might change for us as we reflect on the way God intended for us to live in relationship to one another, to all of creation, and to God Himself? Let us pray for the wisdom and the courage to live solely in God’s creation order, obedient to Jesus Christ, joyfully submitting ourselves to all that is good, even very good. Amen.