Oh, man! And woman

A blessed good morning to you. We're going to proceed into this Genesis passage that Alan just read for us. Before we do that, just a couple of things to point out. We have a Christmas Eve service here on the 24th here at 7 o'clock. And if you'd like to join us, certainly welcome to do that. Also, just after the first of the year, we have January 5th potluck and special speaker. And that comes highly recommended.

We would like to ask you to sign up on the sign-up sheet in the lobby. Heaven sakes, what a surprise, a sign-up sheet. Anyway, do feel free to sign up as that, we anticipate, will be a very special time. Incidentally, we could also use some help in the cleaning. I realize there's lots of things going on this time of year, but that's one of them that needs to be done. The other point, and by the way, we have these electives and we certainly want to make you aware of those if you haven't signed up for them.

We also just want to thank everyone for the early, quick, and substantial response. That has helped tremendously in knowing where to put classes and how to plan for them. So thank you. And so the three are who you are in Christ, the gospel of John, and biblical anthropology, which is what does the Bible say about man, followed by biblical counseling. So those three electives. All right.

Now, we've been in our previous two studies on Genesis saying we want you to have Genesis on the brain, okay? And we would like you to memorize the book of Genesis. We have simplified that a bit, however, by saying we'd like you to memorize eight words. The first four of those, and I'd like you to say this with me as the Fig Newtons fly by, okay? That's an inside joke, by the way, okay?

Creation, fall, flood, nations, alright, and now the next four, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, alright? Those eight words, you got those down, you got Genesis practically memorized. So, okay, that's off to a good start. The next thing, we introduced last week the creation account, six days of creation, the seventh day God rested, as we'll see further as we continue in our study. We also introduced last week and included in last week's handout this little quick summary of the seven days of creation, six days of creation on the seventh day God rested. And all of today's passage will be on this sixth day.

So last Sunday we covered the first five days of creation, starting with Genesis 1.1 and going through verse 23 of chapter 1. Today will be entirely in that sixth day. One of the points we made, and it'll be a point that I think is not only valuable as we continue through Genesis, but actually throughout the rest of studying the Bible.

The Bible teaches three heavens, and it speaks of the heavens in that way. The first heaven is where the clouds drift and the birds fly. By the way, that's one that's even mentioned in the book of Revelation. We studied that. here five or six years ago. And the second heaven is where there are stars and planets. This was the creation fourth day. The third heaven is the domain of God and the angels. It is mentioned by the Apostle Paul when he says that he went to the third heaven in a particular vision that the Lord gave him.

Now, Today we'll be covering the sixth day of creation, and all of the passage that Alan read for us will be in regards to this sixth day. In Genesis 1, 24 and 25, where we'll be beginning here, and this is where it said, God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle and creeping things, beasts of the earth. And the passage continues on that way. Now we saw in this passage, as we saw in last week's passage, this pattern.

God creates by communication. If we want to create something, there has to be a whole lot more than just words. But for God to create, all he has to do is say it, and it's done. God creates by communication. Notice that what he does He does by bringing about, not with, here's some little thing and it just barely ekes out, but great abundance of quantity and variety as these things are created.

Something else kind of dawned on me. As many of you know, prior to coming to Holly Hills, I was an engineer. And one of the things that we would do because I worked for consulting firms most of that engineering career, we would charge by the hour. If somebody said they wanted something done, we'd give them sometimes this ghastly bill of thousands of dollars. How would we charge? By the hour. Hundreds of hours, thousands of hours, hours and hours and hours.

We would take time in order to bring about these designs and specifications for whatever project was to come about. It would continue to roll on time and time and more time. Why? in order for the intellect that it takes to bring those plans and designs together. And by the way, that doesn't get anything done. That's just plans and designs, right? It takes time for humans. We human beings have to follow things in sequence, even with the right training and tools and equipment and experience, it still takes time to pull it off.

God, however, is not limited in that way. When he would say, let the earth bring forth, all the massive details of the whole global ecology all the way down to the chemistry and biochemistry of the cell, all in one thought. God's intellect in this creative capacity were not challenged in the least when he said this. When God said, let the earth bring forth, it brought it forth in great abundance and it did it just right. God didn't say, let the earth bring forth... Not like that! Oops! None of those kinds of things. Boy, that wasn't quite what I had in mind. That's not how it happened. As He had done with the animals that He created on the fifth day, these were created after their kind and with the vegetation. on the third day. These were created after their kind.

Now this after the kind is not a technical definition in the sense that we would have it like genus and species and order and things of that sort. But it does provide a created kind definition for each of the biological plant and animal created beings. It provides for reproduction within that kind and for variation within that created kind. It doesn't indicate, however, it does not indicate a transition from one kind to another. We don't get that from the passage, and we also don't get the idea of new kinds being brought about subsequently.

Now, as I started reading through this, I started thinking about some of the different animals that would be brought about by this creation act, and I thought, well, you know, some of these are just cute as can be. And then I thought of the cows, oh yes, I'll feel comfortable being an old farmhand from years back. And it kind of warmed the cockles of my heart, whatever those are. So, and I thought of other animals too that I thought, well, this would be very friendly and fine. And I thought, well, I would be quite comfortable with that arrangement. And then there were other animals and I thought that would be great, you know.

And then I saw the part in the passage, you know, cattle and creeping things. And I thought, well, it's important to distinguish here, not creepy things, okay? Not creepy things, but creeping things, okay? An important distinction. And as I continued to read through there, I thought, well, about some of the other animals, well, there would be some other animals here that might be kind of Scary meat?

No, not scary. Why? Because this was a different kind of time. When the Lord originally created things, it was not such that some of these animals that we now think of, well, that's a scary thing to encounter. They didn't seem to be a threat. It was a different kind of ecology globally.

And as I started to look at this, I thought, well, you know, because we've brought up this book of Revelation. As a matter of fact, the very first week we brought up the fact that Genesis and Revelation are kind of bookends. Genesis begins things and Revelation ends it up.

So what about animals and plants in a charity? What place do they have? Well, one of the things that, as I began looking at it, certainly God is aware of animals. Even our Lord said that the Lord knows when a sparrow falls. The Lord is quite aware. The Lord used animals as his agents. And one of those that we mentioned in the elective right before this was Balaam. It was one where the Lord used a donkey to speak to him, of all things. So the Lord can actually work through animals. I would hate to have my spiritual condition be to the point where a donkey had to talk to me, but whatever. There's nothing in the Bible that actually tells us that the animals' souls go to heaven or something of that sort. I'm not denying it, but I'm just saying the Bible doesn't explicitly say so.

But there are some indications that plants and animals do seem to have a part in the heavenly sphere and even in the new heavens and new earth. And some of those indications would be, we see described in the book of Revelation, beginning in chapter 4 and on through the heavenly scene, there are about 150 verses in Revelation that are there in the heavenly scene.

And the four living creatures, three of those four, are described as being like a lion, and a calf, and an eagle. We could add to that Christ is called a lamb, all the way to the very last chapters. of the Book of Revelation. Or, the Tree of Life. This is a tree that we'll see here as we go into this next chapter and into the third. And it is also mentioned in the Book of Revelation. So, the Lord does seem to have some long-term and even heavenly and eternal purpose with these creatures. Now, back into our passage here in verse 26, this is where it says, and then God said, let us make mankind in our image. Now, if you hadn't noticed that, this is a very extraordinary thing to say. Who's us? Who's our? What do these words mean and who's he referring to? Who's God talking to here? The use of this us and our reveals a conversation involving the persons of the Godhead alone.

That is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We had had a discussion in the elective downstairs before about the fact that the Gospel of John, the very first chapter, the very first few verses indicate clearly that there's a relationship there between Jesus Christ and the other members of the Trinity, even before anything is brought into existence. And that passage makes it abundantly clear. This is a conversation between these members of the Trinity.

This is an illustration that we've used before. And we have a supplemental handout that you're free to take that just shows this. Let me explain it briefly just so that we don't miss the point. There is the is not between each of these members. And what that means is the son is not the father. There are two different persons. I don't mean humans. I mean there are two different personalities. The father is not the Holy Spirit and the son is not the Holy Spirit. But the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are of one essence and are God.

And so we have these passages in reference and back up to that. Anyway, there's a handout available, a full page color handout. Feel free to take that if you find that helpful. This use of us and our and we'll find later on we in reference to the conversation and interaction between these members of the Trinity is going to continue to occur in Genesis But also, you'll find it in other books of the Bible. We saw it in a couple places in the book of Isaiah, as we studied it over the last year. And you'll find that also in the Gospel of John, including our Lord's Prayer. And that's really the Lord's Prayer in John 17, where Christ is praying to the Father. And he uses us and our and we.

Now, you have this table on the bottom of page one of your handout, and it addresses this set of words that's used about the image and likeness of God. Now, it is possible to focus on and emphasize nuances of difference between image and likeness. However, one of the things that I think becomes apparent as we go through Genesis, even the passage we're looking at now, And as we proceed even into places where the being made in the image of God is referenced in the New Testament, that the words are used more or less synonymously. And so that's the indication I think we're intended to bring here. The words are used together, and we still have the question, okay, if they're used synonymously, what does he mean? Well, we can take a look at that too.

Let's make this statement, what is similar in character to God in mankind is the image and likeness of God. What is similar in character to God is the image and likeness of God. Alright, so far so good. That creation in the image and likeness of God refers to the original state of creation.

That is, as you look at human beings around you, that is not precisely like Adam and Eve were created in the garden. Why? Because there's something that's happened since then and it's called the fall. We'll study that in Genesis chapter 3. So the image and likeness of God that is in man ever since that time when Adam sinned has been marred. Genesis 3 will give us some more insights into that.

That image has been marred. It does not mean it's been eradicated. It does not mean it's no longer there, but that image has been marred. Human beings do not have the image and likeness of God in them that Adam and Eve did. It has been marred since the original creation. And the fourth point, even though that image and likeness has been marred, it does, though marred, remain.

And that's one of the things we'll see as we go through the book of Revelation. There is a call for people to respect the image and likeness of God, even though marked, in other human beings. We'll see that when we get to Genesis, especially chapter 9. Now, what are the aspects of the image and likeness of God in mankind?

As we go through this, it is a personal likeness. One of the things we pointed out last week, God is a personal being. It doesn't mean he's a human being, but he is personal as opposed to non-personal. He has characteristics of personality. He's not just a thing. He is not just some indistinct emanation that's distributed non-personally throughout the creation. He is a personal being. Further, he is a spiritual being, and we'll look at that in further detail shortly as to what that means.

In that same way, we are spiritual beings. You think about it, while there are all kinds of creations here on planet Earth that God made, this is one specific creation, human beings, that have a spiritual aspect to them as a significant part of their aspect. spiritual beings. Human beings have that in common with God. God created, and we'll talk about that more at a later point, God created another set of spiritual beings, and that's the angels. They are also spiritual beings that God created. But this is one aspect in which we, as human beings, bear the image and likeness of God. We're spiritual beings.

Next, God is a moral being, and we also are created to be moral beings. That is God's intent. God is a moral being, and that's a big distinction to make because in the pagan world, the gods were amoral or immoral. One god would trick another. One god would lie to another. One god would kill another. Morality was not the issue. With the God of Scripture, morality matters because God is a moral being. There is right and wrong. There is truth and false.

Furthermore, it's an interpersonal image and likeness. Notice, let us create man in our image. There is an interpersonal relationship between the members of the Trinity, of the Godhead, And in that same character, there is an interpersonal relationship between us. Even as they were created, there was an interpersonal relationship between the first man and the first woman. So we are interpersonal beings as God is.

It is an authority image and likeness. We're going to see this shortly where he gives mankind an assignment of authority. God can do so, why? because he is also one who has authority. He has authority to give. By his authority, things were brought into being, created of nothing. And finally, it's a creative image and likeness. And this is an important distinction. God can bring things into existence that did not exist before.

Human beings have to work to reform what already exists. We don't create out of nothing. At least I don't. I haven't seen anybody yet that does. What we do is we take the material that God has created and reform it. But we have in that sense, as God actually did form things out of what originally was brought into existence, form things into something else.

We'll see that where man was created from the dust of the ground. So we have that likeness. Now, if that's the case, if these are things that are the ways in which man was created like God, what's the difference? How does man differ from God if we are created in God's image? Well, we have a few things. God isn't physical. Except as we point out here with our opening slide, except as Christ was born, now he didn't cease being deity, but except as Christ was born and then had and still has a human body.

God is also eternally righteous by character. He is fundamentally righteous. He has always been righteous. He is righteous now. He ever will be righteous by character. There is no possibility that he will be otherwise. Man was created innocent, but that's not the same as righteousness. Innocent, but with the capacity to choose otherwise.

Mankind was created in the context of a time-based universe. God is not subject to time. It's funny as you go through various classes in physics and chemistry and biology and other classes on top of that, you find time is a key element. Time is a key aspect of the formulas that you have to work with. Time is a key aspect of things as they get measured. And God is not subject to those limitations of time. If we need to create something, The question is going to be, how long will it take? When God created something, it was no question of how long will it take. You need to create all the animals that are in the whole planet plus mankind. Oh, I'll do that in a day. No problem. Because there's other things that have to take place too.

God is not limited by time. He's not in the time tunnel that we are. God is also infinite in character. We would say, well, man is creative. We have creative capacity to reform what God has already made. God has no problem in creating, bringing things into existence and reforming things however he wishes. There's no limitation to his capacity. We have a limit to our capacity. Okay. There's another point of division here. and that is that human beings were made by God. Here's God who is spiritual entirely.

We're made by God to have a communication with and a part in the spiritual realm. A created being, we also are made by God to have an existence in the physical realm, both. So human beings stand, if you will, between these two realms, the spiritual realm and the physical realm. You have also in your handout superimposed on here, in the same way that we have five senses in the physical realm, there is also, scripture says, the analog or a comparative sense in the spiritual realm.

Let's talk about what we mean by that. We have in the body, the five senses. We can see, we can hear, we can touch, we can smell, we can taste. Occasionally we wish we couldn't, right? But, so we have these five senses in the physical realm and those get carried out using our bodies.

But what's interesting is scripture has a comparison to each one of those in the spiritual realm. If you go through, for example, the New Testament, Paul says, the eyes of your heart having been opened, seeing in the spiritual realm. He says, whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Hearing in the spiritual realm. We, as human beings, have all those same five senses in the spiritual realm. Okay, here's another comparison to be brought out from this passage.

God is Spirit. Animals, however, are created with a body and a soul of varying capacities. Human beings, however, are in a different place. Human beings have body, soul, and spirit, all three. And that puts us in a place of having a relationship with the physical realm, including the animals, and having a basis of relationship with God. Because like God, we have the spiritual realm as well.

1 Thessalonians 5 and the 1 Thessalonians elective they'll be getting there shortly. Body, soul and spirit. There are other passages but that's certainly a key one. And those scripture passages are not on your handout so if you want to take those down that's fine.

But the point being mankind was created to be able to address both the physical realm and the spiritual realm. We are hybrid beings and uniquely that way. Now, you may be surprised, but we have a supplement for you. Okay? Matter of fact, there are two of them. These are a couple of supplements that Hal put out over a dozen years ago. And one of them concerns questions about animals and man and what's the difference. And you can feel free to take advantage of those. Those are in the cabinet to the right as you exit this room. And so there are two of those of that kind.

Now, going into verse 28. He said, God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Now, one of the things you want to look at this, do we have some kids in this room? Ah, yes! Kids in the room. Okay? Now, get this. If your parents tell you to eat your fruits and vegetables and multiply, there's the verse. Okay? Be fruitful and multiply. So learn your multiplication. Okay? You got that, Luke? Alright. Good. Getting serious here.

What did happen, God immediately speaks to the humans. Did you notice that? No training time. God doesn't say, okay, you got your Hebrew lessons. Those are going to go on for the next three years and then I'm going to tell you some things. No. He creates man with the immediate and instant capacity to understand what He says. He immediately tells them to be fruitful and multiply.

He tells them to fill the earth and to subdue it. And then three things. to rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Now, some have said that this directive from God to fill the earth and subdue and rule over it is responsible for this world's ecological woes. Ever heard that? I have. The directive, however, was given to mankind before there was sin. and it was given before the ground had been cursed as a result of sin.

Now, as we go into this next passage here, Then God said, Behold, I have given every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed, and it shall be food for you. Now, as you look at this passage, you may be aware of this rather famous painting by Michelangelo. It's the idea of God, you know, creating Adam and giving him life and all those kinds of things. But if God gave them food, perhaps Michelangelo should have done this.

Okay? Behold, I have given you green plant for food. Okay? Here's the broccoli. Okay. We'll forgive him for not doing that. The animals and plants, this passage indicates, of the original earth were entirely vegetarian. OK? Vegetarian. As we go through Genesis, we'll find that there will be, a couple of times, there will be some evident biological and ecological changes. We'll make note of those. But the initial earth, vegetarian, was the standard and the mode and command of God.

Now, as we get to verse 31, God saw all that he made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Now, prior to this, we've seen the phrase, it was good. God said it was good. And notice that God was the one who was able to make that evaluation. That also, by the way, says he's personal. A non-personal God can't make those kind of evaluations. but he can say it's good and he can make a distinction between good and not good. Now we see a unique statement, it was very good. So using this little illustration perhaps that we'd have this painting more like this. God said it was very good, thumbs up. Sorry about that.

So now we've covered all six of the creation days. And one of the things we find as we go through this is there is this Genesis 1 pattern. Earlier last week, we looked at the pattern of the creation days, and we saw this pattern. The sixth day, this Genesis 131, has this distinction. God saw that it was good? No, God saw and said that it was very good. A huge distinction there. Now, so the creative activity of this week ends here, the sixth day.

But I'd like to ask and answer a few questions. How should we view the tension between the supposed findings of science and the biblical record? How do you resolve those? How do you deal with it? You see, even if you don't major in science, even if you don't go on to a great study of it, you're going to run into it. You're going to run into it on TV documentaries. You're going to run into it when you go down to the museum. You're going to run into it in books and magazines. You're going to encounter this tension. Well, as it happens, I encountered this tension when I started majoring in geology. because I went with the assumption, well, of course, what they're going to teach me is the established scientific truth.

And so I just have to adjust the Bible to fit. And so that's the approach that I took and began going through the various courses that taught me all sorts of things about geology, including significantly the history of the earth. While doing so, I started to discover something. that there are a great number of pieces of information that are presented. But what is often not recognized, and it's not put in these terms, is you are also with these so-called scientific facts going to be presented with assumptions that cannot be checked out. Unverifiable presuppositions is the term. That I ended up finding out. was the key insight for all the different challenges that the world presents to scripture.

One of the things that I was told repeatedly until it was like, okay, I've heard it enough. The present is the key to the past. I was told that repeatedly. I was told that as we're going down the Grand Canyon and trying to come back out with snow and smooth bottom boots. But the present is the key to the past.

But the question that I began to have, especially as I'm walking through these millions of years, has anybody ever been back to the past to check that out? I've got these instructors and they've got all these degrees. Has any of them been back to that time to check out and make sure that that little dictum was valid?

And the answer is no. As far as I can tell, any of the professors that I ever had only lived a few decades compared to this. So no, they hadn't. Not a one had been there. Not a single one. All they could verify was the present and maybe the last few decades. That was all.

I went through a number of geology and paleontology classes in the classroom, in the laboratory, and in field courses. I traveled throughout the western U.S. in great part taking field geology classes and traveling through a number of different states. I even made personal trips outside of what was required because I wanted to check this out and find out what was true. I wrote letters and made phone calls and read lots of books far beyond what was required because I wanted good answers. I even called up a scientist who'd been a nominee for a Nobel Prize to get his input on this.

And the bottom line with all this is that I never found, nor was I ever presented with, an undeniable fact that contradicts what's in this book. Never have. But what I did find was assumptions that contradicted that book. Assumptions that could never be checked out, never verified, never proven. What I came to is that I would actually rather believe the only one that was actually there. The God who revealed this truth for our benefit. He was there. He was the one who could verify it. I'd rather believe him.

Now after checking out all the data, and looking at fossils, and talking to people, and writing letters, and reading books, traveling around the Western US, looking at different formations and fossils, this is what I believe. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Certainly there's lots of data, information that you can investigate, and by all means, I'd invite you to do so. But in the end, the unverifiable presuppositions, the unprovable assumptions are going to be what conflicts with that book, not the facts.

Now, where are we headed from here? We have today our study and finishing up Genesis chapter 1. We're going to make a rather exceptional study towards the end of the book of Genesis next week. Why? Because it's a passage that relates particularly to Christmas. Then we'll come back to start in chapter 2. And then in January we're going to have three weeks on the last half of the Chapter 2 of Genesis.

And the reason is because that addresses and begins to surface a number of issues that have to do with maleness and femaleness. What's a man? Biblically. What's a woman? Biblically. What is marriage? What's God's intent for families and for extended families? What does God have in mind? So we'll take a look at that the first three weeks in January. All right.

But then, when we look at this, we say, well, why are we going through all this stuff on creation? And one of the things that becomes clear, God made this physical world to testify at least in part to his character, to his existence, to his eternal power and deity. And God revealed these things to us because He loves us, because He cares about us, and because He wanted us to have fellowship with Him. That's why we're originally made in God's image, because like the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit had fellowship in eternity past, He made us for fellowship with Him. That's why. We see God's intent from the very beginning. God made us to have personal relationship In fact, I'll go this far, intimate relationship with him from the very beginning. That's what he had in mind. That was his intent. Even when Adam sinned and the image and likeness of God and mankind was marred, tainted, and stained, even at that time, he had in mind that we be restored to that intimate fellowship with him.

Not just for a while. Not just for a while we're here. Although certainly that. But forever. Eternity. What's revealed here in this book that we're studying goes beyond this account in the past. And it continues on into the new heavens and new earth. Forever. For eternity. But it has relevance right now because he didn't say Later on, after you're done here, then we'll have fellowship. No, He intended it now. Right now.

And that's why He sent the Lord. And that's why we even have something to observe this time of year. So that He might restore us to fellowship with Him. That Christ, through His death and burial and resurrection, might bring us relationship with the Lord and life in Him. So that we might behold the Lord and grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Intimate fellowship. Intimate knowledge with Him. Growing in Him.

That's why we're studying this. Not just to have something in our head. Not just to have something to argue with the geology instructor about. Not just to satisfy our curiosity, although it certainly can do all that. But so that we might know Him. in the power of His resurrection.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank You. You've revealed these things for us, not just to satisfy curiosity and not just because it's something to poke in our head, but You've revealed it because You, from the very beginning, had in mind that we would have relationship and fellowship with You. And we pray during this time, and yes, it's a busy time of year, We pray during this time that our hearts and minds would be drawn to that intimate fellowship with you. We would recognize that the birth of your dear son is about our birth in relationship with you and our fellowship with you. We thank you, Lord, for what you've done, for your son whom you've sent. In Jesus' name, amen.