Would you now please open your Bibles and turn with me to the very first page of the Bible, Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter one, verses one through 25. We are beginning a new expository preaching series on the book of Genesis. We begin with Genesis chapter one, verse one. Hear now the word of God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The 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. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning the first day. And God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters. And 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. And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning the second day. And God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called seas. And God saw that it was good. And 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. The 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. And there was evening, and there was morning, the third day. And 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. And let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good, and there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said, let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. So 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. And God blessed them saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let birds multiply on the earth. And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. And 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. And 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. Thus far the reading of God's word. Let us pray. Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant us that we may in such a way hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of eternal life, which you have given us in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. So I'm beginning a new series on the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. It is the foundation for not only understanding the rest of the Bible, but for understanding the biblical worldview. The book of Genesis itself divides into two main sections. The first 11 chapters are dealing with the time from creation up to Abraham. And then Genesis 12 through 50, the second half, deals with God's covenant with Abraham and with Jesus. that covenant as repeated with Abraham's son, Isaac, and with Isaac's son, Jacob, all the way down to the point where the people of Israel go down to Egypt. And then you turn to the next book of the Bible, which is the book of Exodus, and you have the story of the people coming up out of Egypt. through Moses. The book of Genesis then has these two major sections, up until Abraham and then Abraham until Egypt. And I'm going to divide this series into those two parts. So we're going to begin with Genesis 1 through 11. I anticipate it'll take maybe five or six months to do that. Then we will take a break. I'll do another sermon series on some other book of the Bible. I'm not sure yet what that will be. And then we'll return back to the second half of Genesis after that. The reason why I want to do this series on Genesis is because this gives us the unfolding structure for the entire history of redemption and the entire structure of the Bible and a biblical worldview. One of the key things to understand about the book of Genesis, and it's easy to miss this if you're not really paying attention to it, is that the book of Genesis was written by Moses. It was written by Moses. Now, of course, he did rely upon oral tradition. I'm sure that he had heard stories passed down from generation to generation about what happened to Adam and Eve and all of the early fathers, the early patriarchs before Abraham, such as Noah and so on. So he relied upon oral tradition, but Moses is the one that compiled the book of Genesis. Moses is the one who wrote this book, even though he did rely upon previous memories and traditions. And that helps us then to understand something very significant, which is the setting of this book. Every book of the Bible has a setting, a historical context in which it was written. We just did the book of Galatians and we talked about the historical context in which that letter was written. It had to do with the fact that Paul had just finished his first missionary journey in which he went to the Gentiles and brought the gospel to the various cities of the Gentiles in Asia Minor. And then afterwards, the Judaizers came in and began to call into question Paul's gospel, and to say that he had not taught them the right gospel, and now Paul was responding to them and helping the Galatian Christians, these baby Christians, to understand that they are justified, they are forgiven and righteous in the sight of God, only by faith in Christ, and not by being circumcised and keeping So there's a historical context to the book. Well, there's also a historical context to the book of Genesis. That is, we should think of this book as being Moses' instruction to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai, or perhaps in the time after that. The setting of the book of Genesis is the book of Exodus. Go back, go to Exodus chapter 19, and you'll see this key statement here. This is after they've come up out of Egypt, they've crossed the Red Sea. It says in Exodus 19, verse one, on the third new moon, after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped before the mountain. And Moses went up to God, And the Lord called to Moses out of the mountain saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel. Moses is the prophet. He is the one that God used, God raised him up to be the prophet through whom God would reveal his covenant with Israel. You keep reading on in Exodus 19, 20, 21, you have this covenant that God is making with the people of Israel. And in making that covenant, the covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, God refers back to some of the things in Genesis. He refers back to, for example, the creation account that we just read. For example, in the fourth commandment that was revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, in Exodus 20 verse 11, it says, in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. alluding back to this very passage. And so we could assume that either right there at Mount Sinai, or perhaps in the 40 years afterwards as they were wandering in the wilderness, Moses had communicated to them not only the creation account in Genesis chapter one, but the entire story of the book of Genesis. For example, there are references to Abraham during the time of Moses. This is like 400 years later, right? This is a long time after Abraham. Abraham has been dead for a long time. But when Moses comes to the people, what does Moses say to the people? The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God that you know about, that we've told you about in these stories in the book of Genesis. He is the one who is now coming to redeem you from your slavery in Egypt. and to bring you out of the land of Egypt to this mountain where you are now going to become my people because of this covenant that God is making with Israel. In the ancient Near East, at this time, there were these covenants that were made between a king who is like the ruler of an empire and kings who are subordinate to him, like a vice-regent. These are called vassals. The great king is called the suzerain, and the subordinate king is a vassal, someone that the great king has conquered, and now he's making a covenant with that subordinate king. And in that structure, it's called the suzerainty treaty structure, there are several parts to these covenants. One of which is the preamble at the beginning of the covenant, where the one who is making the covenant reveals who he is. If you look at some of these ancient treaties, it'll say, I, the great sun god, Supiluliuma, make this covenant with you, the subordinate king. Well, we have the same thing here in the Bible itself. Moses uses the same language and the same covenant structure to reveal God's covenant with Israel. There is a preamble to this covenant. Who is this God who is making this covenant with His people? There's also a historical prologue in which the great king reviews the history of the previous relationships that he had with that subordinate king. Maybe his father had had some dealings with the subordinate king's father. And so he gives the historical context leading up to this event of the making of the treaty, of the suzerainty treaty. So also then, in the book of Genesis, we have not only the preamble telling us who this God is, who is making a covenant with Israel, we also have the historical prologue. How did Israel get to this place? How did Israel get to this point in time where they are redeemed out of Egypt and they're standing before God at Mount Sinai and they're hearing God speak to them from the mountain and saying, I am the Lord your God. Here is the covenant that I'm making with you. How did they get there? What is the historical precedent that led up to that? Well, the book of Genesis tells us that. The book of Genesis is the historical prologue to the covenant making at Mount Sinai. And so we're reading then, we're reading in the book of Genesis and especially Genesis chapter one, we're reading the preamble of the covenant and we're reading the historical prologue of the covenant that God is making with Israel at Mount Sinai. So just as we have to look at, in the book of Galatians, the historical context of what's going on, what led to, what was the occasion for this letter that Paul wrote to these Christians in Asia Minor, so also we need to look at the historical context and setting of the book of Genesis. It's very easy to miss that because when you read the book of Genesis, you're not immediately thinking about Israel at Sinai. You're just looking at the words on the page and thinking about, oh, this is about creation and then it talks about Adam and so on. And it's easy to miss who is saying these words and when is he saying them. It's Moses who is saying these words and he's saying them to Israel at Mount Sinai. That changes the whole significance. It colors our interpretation of what is happening here in Genesis chapter one. when God came to Moses, remember at the burning bush, which actually was at Mount Sinai, before they had come up out of Egypt. So before, when they're still in Egypt, they're still in bondage, when Moses was a shepherd out in the wilderness, he saw God in the burning bush, and that was at Mount Sinai. And God said to Moses, one day you're gonna come back to this place, but with all the people, and they're gonna worship me at this mountain. When God came to Israel, when God came to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus chapter three, Moses asked, Who are you, Lord, and what shall I say to the people when I go back to them and tell them who it is that sent me? And God said, you shall say to the people, I am who I am. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so the book of Genesis is fleshing that out. The book of Genesis is expanding upon that basic question that not only Moses had, but that the people had. Who is this God who has come down to save us? Who is this God who with his mighty power and through those awesome miracles of judgment upon the Egyptians, turning the waters of the Nile into blood, killing all of the firstborn of the sons of Egypt, even the firstborn of Pharaoh himself. Who is this God who is doing this mighty work of judgment and these miracles, who is parting the Red Sea, who is coming to us in the form of this pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night? That pillar of fire and that pillar of cloud was a representation of God's own presence. It wasn't literally God because God is not a created thing, but it was God revealing himself in a created form for the people to see. It was God's own presence with them to guide them through, not only to guide them through the waters of the Red Sea, but also to protect them in their wilderness wanderings and to give them guidance through the wilderness, leading them ultimately to the promised land. Who is this God? This God is, according to the book of Genesis, which is the preamble and the historical prologue of the covenant that God is making through Moses with Israel, this God is the God who, in the beginning, created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, God. Israel, listen up. You wanna know who this God is who has come to save you and to redeem you and who is present with you in the pillar of cloud and fire, who is loving you and protecting you and giving you assurance and giving you hope and leading you to a great and glorious destiny in the land? Who is this God? He is the creator of the heavens and the earth. in the beginning, even before the beginning, God was. This is a foundational truth that Israel needs to know. Unlike all of the false gods of the surrounding peoples, the gods of the Egyptians and the gods of the Canaanites, this God is eternal. And this God stands outside of space and time as the creator of space and time. In the beginning was God. From everlasting to everlasting, He is God. Of course, as we read further in the Bible, as the unfolding revelation of who God is continues throughout scripture, and we come to the New Testament, we find out that this God is a triune God. He is named the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Even in Genesis 1, there are hints of the triune nature of this God. For example, the reference to the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters in verse 2. And furthermore, the reference is there to the fact that how did God create? He created by His Word. God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And we know from the Gospel of John that that Word that was in the beginning is a person. That Word is the second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of the Father. The triune nature of God is only hinted at in veiled form here in Genesis 1, but is fully brought out as progressive revelation unfolds and shows us more and more about who this God is. This God is unlike any other God that you've ever heard. If you have seen the gods of the nations, if you've seen the way that the nations around Israel worship their gods, or if you've read any of their myths about their gods, their gods are finite. Their gods are not eternal. Their gods are not the creator. Their gods are actually created themselves. They may be more powerful than ordinary creatures, but they are not this God who, in the beginning, created the heavens and the earth. That means there was a time when the physical creation did not exist. And all that existed was God Himself, the triune God, existing forever in the blessedness. of God's own eternal fullness of life and communion within the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But God then, in the beginning, created. He caused the heavens and the earth to spring into existence out of nothing. Notice as well that the text says, in the beginning, God created not just the earth, but the heavens and the earth. In the biblical worldview, the physical creation has two parts to it. One part is called heaven, and the other part is called earth. Heaven refers to the invisible realm of God's glory and the angels. Earth refers to the visible realm. the visible realm that is then going to be explained here in the rest of the chapter. The visible realm is the earth that was without form and void, and then the rest of the chapter, Genesis 1 verse 2 and following, talks about how that earth, that visible realm, which was chaotic and without form, and didn't have any creatures living in it, was then formed and made into an orderly created realm for the creatures to dwell in it. Everything that happens then from verses three on is happening at the level of the Earth, that is the visible realm. Therefore, the term Earth, as it's used in verse one, must not be equated with the dry land or with the planet Earth, but it must be understood to refer to the entire visible creation, including all of the things that we see there, light and darkness, the stars, The solar system, the sun and the moon, all of that belongs to the earth in biblical terminology. Notice as well that there is another usage of the word heaven, just as the word earth can be used in that broader sense to refer to the entire visible creation, but also can be used to refer to the place where we dwell, the planet earth. So also the word heaven can be used in two senses. In verse one, heaven there is the invisible realm of God and his angels. But then later on in the text, it'll talk about, in day two, how God created this expanse to separate the waters above from the waters below, and he called the expanse heaven. So here is that second meaning of the word heaven. That is within the earth, in that broadest sense of the physical visible world within the earth, there is also a subdivision parallel to that big macro division of the invisible and the visible. There's also a subdivision within the visible realm of a visible heaven and a visible earth. The visible heaven we call the sky. It even says later on that God put the, he created the birds to fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. And he also put the luminaries, the lights, in the expanse of the heavens. So in those verses, that's verse 20 and verse 14, referring to the birds and to the lights, the word heaven is used there in that secondary sense to refer to the visible heaven, that is the sky and the atmosphere. In the beginning then, when God created the heavens and the earth, he created the world from the very beginning to have a heavenly orientation. And that the visible earthly creation that we can see with our eyes is only part, it's only half of the creation that God made. There's an entire world that we currently cannot see. that is called heaven, which is where God dwells with his angels. Now there are moments throughout the story of the Bible where heaven opens up and breaks into the story and we see angelic power, we see the glory of God coming into the picture in a visible way. For example, think back again to the burning bush. When the burning bush was, on fire, but not being consumed, it was clearly something more than just ordinary fire. It was the glory of God. It even says that the angel of the Lord was in there, and the angel of the Lord spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. Whenever you see heaven, whenever heaven is opened up, there are always angels present there. The glory cloud that also accompanied Israel, the cloud of fire and the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day, was also a visible representation of heaven. It was heaven opening up for a moment where they could see heaven coming down to earth. That same cloud of glory came down upon the mountain at Mount Sinai. And when Moses and the 70 elders went with him up into the mountain, it says they saw God. They saw God dwelling there in that heavenly realm. Heaven is the place that we always see referred to throughout the Bible when someone like a prophet sees God seated upon his throne and all the angels of God, the cherubim and the seraphim, worshiping God and honoring him. That is the invisible realm of God's glory. We should assume then that when it says in the beginning God created the heavens, that that includes the creation of the angels. And you might say, well, how do we know that? Well, if you look later on in Genesis chapter two, when it refers back to the completion of the story of the creation week, it says, thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the hosts of them. The hosts of the earth would be the animals, the living creatures, man himself, right? What's the host of heaven? The host of heaven is the angels. and later on in the Bible in Nehemiah chapter nine, verse six, and elsewhere, the Bible refers back to the creation of heaven and earth as the creation of the heaven where God dwells with his heavenly hosts. Nehemiah 9.6 makes that clear. And Paul in Colossians 1 verse 16 also says that through Christ God created all things in heaven and on earth, things visible and things invisible. So he's interpreting the word heaven there in Genesis 1.1 as the invisible realm of God and the angels. Now the wonderful thing is that as we keep reading in this chapter, chapter one, and we look at the six days of creation, we see that God is creating this physical world, both the heavens and the earth, to be his temple. The world is God's temple. For example, we see the reference there to the Spirit of God. So in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The 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. The Spirit of God is pictured here as hovering like a bird. over the waters that are still formless and void. The Spirit of God in the Old Testament is closely identified with that glory cloud that followed Israel in the wilderness. For example, in Isaiah chapter 63, Isaiah is looking back upon this time period when Israel came up out of Egypt, and Isaiah 63 verses 10 through 14 refers to that glory cloud as the Spirit, as the Holy Spirit. He's referring back to the time when the days of old, when Moses led the people and brought them up out of the sea. It says, where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit? That's Isaiah 63 verse 11. Isaiah 63, 11 refers to that glory cloud, the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day, as the Holy Spirit. Thus, we should understand the reference here to the Spirit of God hovering over the face, over the surface of the waters, as that visible glory cloud that already we saw as being created at the beginning. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Under the word heavens there, the spirit of God was present there, but now we also see that same spirit of God hovering over the surface of the earth, which is formless and void, and doing so for the purpose of bringing order and structure to that second visible component of creation in order to make it into a glorious temple for God to dwell by his spirit. Now we have to be a little bit careful here because the word spirit clearly refers to two different things. Sometimes it refers to that physical glory cloud, which is created, but it's an expression and a manifestation, almost like a sacrament, of God himself, of God's own presence. Now, technically, the Spirit of God is not created. The Spirit of God is the third person of the Trinity, as we said a moment earlier. The Spirit of God is eternal and uncreated. But when we're referring to the Spirit in this biblical theological sense as identifying with the glory cloud, then the Spirit must be understood as something physical. That's why it's described as hovering over the surface of the waters, as if it has some kind of physical form, hovering over the waters. So again, we have to clearly distinguish and say that the spirit of God in the sense of the third person of the Trinity is not a created thing and does not have a physical body or a physical shape. But God in a sacramental form reveals his presence in this physical form as like a bird that is hovering over the earth. That is used again later on in the book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 32, And verse 11, we have Isaiah 63, verse 11, identifying the glory cloud with the spirit. But we have Deuteronomy 32, verse 11, referring to that same experience of Israel being cared for by God. And he says, like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters or hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them and burying them in its pinions, the Lord alone guided them, referring to the people as they came up out of Egypt. no foreign God was with them. That language there in Deuteronomy 32, 11, that God is picturing himself like an eagle that is fluttering or hovering over its young, that verb, to hover, is the exact same verb that is used here in Genesis 1, verse 2, when it says the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. In fact, these are the only two places in the entire Hebrew Bible where that word occurs. And so it seems significant then, does it not, that God created the whole world to be this Two-fold world that has both a visible and an invisible realm to it. And even the visible realm is being hovered over by the spirit of the invisible realm in order to turn that visible creation into a glorious temple where God dwells in the midst of his creation. Just like later on, after they built the tabernacle, it says the glory of God came and filled the tabernacle. Later on, after that, when Solomon built the temple, a more permanent structure, again, the glory of God, the glory cloud came and filled the temple, and God was dwelling in the midst of his people. Remember, this whole story is being given to Israel at Mount Sinai. And they have seen the glory of God coming down upon the mountain. They've seen God himself come to be with them and to dwell among them and to make his covenant with them. And now they're being reminded and instructed that this is a continuation of God's purposes for creation from the very beginning. And then as you go through the various six days of creation, days one through three is forming the formless, and days 4-6 is filling the void. Remember it says that the earth was without form. It didn't have structure and order to it. In days 1-3 he creates form. Separating the light from the darkness. Separating the waters above from the waters below. Separating the waters that are outside of the land from the land itself, which is called the earth in that second sense. Then after forming the various realms, then in days four through six we have the filling of those realms. They were void, that is nothing was dwelling in them, but now in days four through six the various realms that are now formed are filled with the rulers of each realm. God creates the lights and the heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon, and the stars, in order to fill and to govern and to rule over the first realm that was created on day one, which is the realm of darkness and light. On day five, he creates the birds and the fish. The birds rule over and the fish rule over their realms. That is the waters above the expanse and the waters below that were created on day two. And then on day six, he brings forth the living creatures, including man, to dwell upon the earth, which was formed on day three. Days one through three then is the forming of the realms, and days four through six is the filling of the realms. This is all pictured then under the concept of the creation of a cosmic temple for God to dwell in his creation. What are the lessons we can learn from this creation? Let's imagine ourselves as being like Israel at Mount Sinai and we're going to catechism class. What can we learn from Genesis chapter one? We learn that Israel at Sinai has now been called out of bondage in Egypt. They've been formed into God's people. They're being given an explanation of who it is that they are. They're being called to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, set apart to God from the rest of the world around them. They're being called to experience the fulfillment of what God had intended for creation from the beginning. Why did God make the world? Why did God create all these things? Why? He created the world to be the theater of His glory. He created the world to be His cosmic temple in which He would dwell and bring glory to Himself through His creatures. As the creator of all things, God is the Lord and owner of all things, and we are simply living in God's world. Isn't that an amazing thought? Israel at Mount Sinai, what God is doing with you right now is he is redeeming this creation through you. He is bringing about this cosmic renewal. He is bringing about the goal that he had originally intended at creation. That's why there's such a huge emphasis in the book of Exodus on the detailed architectural plans for the tabernacle. You might think, why so much emphasis on that? Chapter after chapter, first giving the plans and all the dimensions of each piece of furniture, and then telling us again that they did it. Telling us that they made everything according to the plan. That tabernacle is a picture of this cosmic temple that God is making. It has two main compartments. It has the Holy of Holies, which is heaven, and it has the outer sanctuary, which is the earth. It even has a sea, which is that laver of water before you go in. It has stars. It even has angels woven into the fabric of the curtains in the tabernacle, reminding us that this is heaven where God dwells with his angels. God is the creator and owner of all things. And redemption then, redemption of course being what God is doing to redeem his creation and his fallen creatures, even though they have sinned against him. Redemption is God bringing about his original purpose for creation from the beginning. And that's why when we turn to the end of the Bible, In Revelation chapter 21, we are given this clear picture of what heaven is going to be like using the language of Genesis 1. Revelation 21, verse one. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, here's the key, behold, The dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. This is foundational for understanding the biblical worldview, or the biblical story. That is, we have creation here in Genesis 1, then we'll see in a few chapters in Genesis 3, we have the fall of man, where it seems as though God's purposes for creation have come to an end, but in reality they have not. And then we have redemption, which is that God is making a way to redeem His creation, to redeem fallen man, in order to bring about the fulfillment of His purpose for creation. The Bible has a four-fold movement. Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation. Creation is where we're at now. But we even see here in creation already the potential for what God is wanting to do, what God is seeking to create. What He's trying to do is to make this whole world into a theater for His glory. It seems to have all been thwarted and fallen into total disaster when Adam sinned and listened to the temptations of the devil. But yet God had a plan, even from the very beginning. Even before Adam sinned, He knew that He had a plan to redeem this creation through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what Christ does. He comes in the fullness of time as the true obedient Adam. Where the first Adam sinned and disobeyed and listened to the deception of Satan, Christ as the second Adam obeyed. He defeats the serpent. He passes the test when he too is tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. He says, not my will, but your will be done, O Heavenly Father. And he goes to the cross. in order to bear our sin upon himself, to take away the guilt of our sin by enduring the punishment that we deserve for our sin. And then he rose again on the third day as the beginning, as the inauguration of the new creation. That's an astounding thought to think about. That already in history, we are living in a world in which new creation has already started. Isn't that amazing? Jesus of Nazareth, who really lived and walked upon this earth, 2,000 years ago, he rose again from the dead. And it was observed and witnessed by the apostles and many others. It was testified by the truth of God's word and the Holy Spirit confirmed it by miracles, confirming the reality of the resurrection of Christ. And so already within this very world in which we live, new creation has started. It's only a seed, but it has already started. and we are a part of it. We are also, by faith in Christ, we are united to Him. And we have the wonderful hope that one day Christ will come back and take us all to be with himself, and he will purge this world of all sin and evil, and he will glorify our bodies, and he will glorify this whole creation to be a cosmic temple to the Lord forever and ever. That is the biblical worldview. And you cannot understand the rest of the Bible without fully understanding the depth of what is found here in Genesis chapter one. I think in our own personal experience as Christians. We get so bogged down by our own personal problems and the things going on in our lives, we get distracted, we lose our focus, or we get concerned about things that are going on in the world around us, all of the political division and chaos and horrible things happening in the world around us, and we lose sight, we forget that God is in control. He created this world, He is redeeming it, and He's gonna bring it to that new creation at the end. And it's already begun in the resurrection of Christ. It's just a matter of time before it is finally fulfilled when Christ returns. Let us remember as we go about our lives, let us remember that we are part of a story that's much bigger than ourselves. Even your own personal salvation, as important as that is for you as an individual to Get right with God, to know God and to be saved and to have the forgiveness of sins and to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, to change you and to give you a new heart. Even that, as wonderful as it is, is only a part of something much bigger that God is doing in this world. He is doing an awesome cosmic work that is headed towards this glorious goal of cosmic renewal. And so that gives us hope, doesn't it? Just think about Israel in the wilderness. They often also had the same problem, right? They grumbled and complained. They got tired of the manna, the same old food every day. They complained that there wasn't enough water. It was hard living in the wilderness. It was hard being there, waiting for God to fulfill his promise and to bring them into the promised land. But they had the presence of the Holy Spirit in the form of that glory cloud to remind them. Remember, every time that they were camping somewhere, the cloud was there. And then the cloud would rise up and move forward and say, okay, now here's the next stage on your journey. The cloud guided them through the wilderness. So also we, as Christians, we live in that same pilgrim way. We live in that same pilgrim life. Life in the wilderness is hard. There's all kinds of struggles in this wilderness. There's wild animals out there, there's hunger and thirst and heat and it's tough, it's tough living in the wilderness. But we have this wonderful presence of God himself, the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. to be that pillar of fire by night and pillar of cloud by day, to guide us, to assure us that God is with us, that He is present among us, and that He will sustain us. He will preserve us through the wilderness. The Israelites found that out too, right? Every time they complained, God provided. He gave them water from the rock. He gave them manna from heaven. Their shoes didn't even wear out. God loved them and cared for them all along the way, even though it was hard, and even though they lost sight of the big picture. The Lord is also with us. He is helping us. When we come together for church on the Lord's Day, that's a moment for us to regain our sense of spiritual perspective. to lift up our eyes from the dreary, ordinary world around us and all the struggles of this life and to think about, wow, we're going to heaven. We're pilgrims on the road to the heavenly Zion. And it's gonna happen, it's assured because of the resurrection of Christ. So take heart, believers, take heart in your walk with the Lord. Take heart that He is with you. He is going to use all of your trials and tribulations and difficulties and hardships for your good, to sanctify you, to draw you closer to Him, to give you hope and to strengthen you as you walk with Him day by day. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, how we thank you for your amazing power and grace. We thank you for your power as the creator and Lord of all things. And we thank you that that gives us confidence and hope that you will bring about the fullness of your purpose for creation one day. And even now, you have already begun that through the resurrection of Christ. Thank you, Lord, for giving us the Holy Spirit to dwell within us as the down payment of that future inheritance that awaits us. Help us then to live with our eyes lifted up, lifted up from the things of this passing world to see the greater purposes that you are accomplishing and that you will accomplish. It is an absolute certainty that you will fulfill your promise. And so we look to you. in humble hope and in faith. This we pray in Jesus' name, amen.