Our second Bible reading is from Genesis 1 verse 1 through chapter 2 verse 3. 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 water 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. Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, 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. And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with its seed and its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I've given them every green plant for food. And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it, God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Lord God, we are so grateful for your word. Lord, your word is powerful. You create the world through your word. You give new life through your word. You convict us of sin through your word. You show us the glory of Jesus through your word. And so we pray that you would do that here today, that you would help us to have the humility to put ourselves under your word and to receive it and to be changed by it. And we ask this for your glory in Jesus' name, amen. Friends, let me invite you to please be seated and as you do so to keep your bulletins or your Bibles open to that passage there from Genesis 1 and 2. Many of you I know are familiar with the famous opening words from the Westminster Shorter Catechism. What is the chief end of man answer? To glorify God and enjoy him forever. That's a magnificent answer to what it is that we as human beings have been created to do. And I hope as you were listening to that reading from Genesis this morning that you're doing just that as it was being read. That you are glorifying God. That you are enjoying God. Because that's what Genesis 1 is meant to do in our lives. It's meant to reveal God to us in His splendor and His majesty, in His power and His wisdom, so that we will stand in awe of Him and worship Him and truly enjoy Him in all of His glory. Now, we read Genesis 1 and 2 here this morning because we're beginning a new sermon series today, which will ultimately, over an extended period of time, we'll be working through the whole book of Genesis, all 50 chapters of this book. My hope is that between now and the summer, we'll get through the first 25 chapters, which will take us up through the life and the death of Abraham, and then, Lord willing, sometime in the fall, we'll come back and try to fit in those second 25 chapters here of this amazing book. And if you never studied Genesis before, it truly is an amazing book. And it's also a very important book. Because of course, it's the very first book of the whole Bible. And so in some ways, it's kind of like the opening chapter of one big book, such that if you skip the opening chapter, it's going to be hard to make sense of everything else that comes after it. And that's what Genesis is like for the rest of the Bible. It's foundational. It's literally the book of beginnings, or the book of origins. That's what the word Genesis itself means. It means beginning. And of course, the way that chapter 1 here of Genesis starts, that's how it notes itself in the beginning, the Genesis. So in other words, here's the origin of it all, says Genesis. Here's the origin of the universe. Here's the origin of human beings. Here's the origin of sin. Here's the origin of the people who would ultimately become the people of Israel. And therefore, it's also quite critically the origin of the promises of God that would ultimately be fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Genesis is the book of origins. And therefore, it truly is foundational in every way. It's foundational for understanding the Old Testament and God's dealings with Israel. It's foundational for understanding the New Testament and the ministry of Jesus, and really it's foundational for understanding the world and the universe and why things are the way they are. And so we need Genesis, and particularly the opening chapters of Genesis, in order to make sense of anything. Now, as we get into Genesis here, it's good to remind ourselves that Genesis doesn't just come at the very beginning of the Bible. But Genesis also comes at the very beginning of what's known as the Pentateuch, which is the first five books of the Bible, all of which were written, for the most part, by Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And these first five books, they were given to Israel at a time when Israel had come out of Egypt and they were wandering through the wilderness, which they did for 40 years, and they were getting ready to head into the promised land. And so one of the original purposes of the Pentateuch was to help Israel understand who they were and where they came from and therefore how they should live now moving forward. And friends, it's always important to keep that original audience in mind when we're studying any book of the Bible. Because otherwise, we won't really understand why the book was written. And therefore, we'll miss what the purpose of it really is and what it means for us, ultimately, today. And so in the case of Genesis, again, it was written by Moses to the initial generations of Israelites who'd been brought out of Egypt by the hand of God. And it was written with purposes that were pastoral and theological and historical and worshipful. So for example, one of the main points that Moses wants them to see is that this God who rescued them from Egypt isn't just some territorial regional God, but he's actually the God who created everything. That's the God who has set his love on them. And therefore, they can trust God. Because this Creator God, He's in control of all of history. And so, no matter the sin and evil that may come, God is providentially ordering everything to carry out His plan to ultimately bring salvation to the whole world. That's really the driving theme of Genesis. God is providentially ordering everything to carry out His plan to ultimately bring salvation to the whole world. And therefore, you see, it also has massive implications for us as well. The aim is that you and I would also worship this God. The aim is that we would trust Him, that we would follow Him, that we would love Him with all that we are. And so friends, that's my prayer for us this morning. I pray we will do just that. I pray that we will worship the one true living God. Okay, so let's dig in to this opening section of Genesis. We're looking here this morning at Genesis 1, 1 to 2, 3. It covers the whole seven days of God's creating work. Some of you may remember that I preached through Genesis 1 to 3 a few years ago in a series that we called our Why Series. And we called it that because, again, these opening chapters of Genesis, they answer so many of those fundamental why questions that we have about life. And so we spent something like eight weeks digging through the details of the first three chapters of Genesis. This time around, however, I'm going to do more of a big picture through these opening chapters. So we'll take this week and next week to look through Genesis 1 through three. If you do want some more of those details that we're not going to cover these couple of weeks as we look at it this time, let me encourage you to jump on the website. You can find a number of those sermons there if that would be of help to you. But let me begin today by trying to answer five questions in order to help us get our bearings with all that's going on here in this passage. And then after those five questions, I want to give you two foundational building blocks that are absolutely essential to all of life and all of Christianity. Okay, so first, five questions to help us get our bearings here. These will be relatively brief. These are just your standard journalistic investigative kind of questions. When, who, what, how, and why? Okay, so question number one, when? And the answer, of course, there is verse one, in the beginning. That's the win, in the beginning. And that means, of course, that the world hasn't always existed. Matter hasn't always existed. Which further means that it wasn't necessary. And it isn't necessary. There was life and existence before the world ever existed. This world has not always existed and it need not have ever existed. It has a beginning. And Genesis 1 is telling us about that beginning. Now, maybe you would have liked a, you know, kind of more of a specific time stamp put upon this, you know, that it was created in this year, on this date, at this time. But church, that's not what God saw fit to give us. He simply told us that it happened in the beginning. And so we should humbly receive it as just that. Question two, who? Well, again, verse one, the answer there is the very next word, God. In the beginning, God. Okay, so the main actor here, the one who's the point of it all, who's before it all, who's responsible for it all is God. The implication of which is that while Genesis may be the book of beginnings, the book of origins, the one origin, however, it's not telling us about is God. Because God has no beginning. God stands over it all. God stands outside of it all. God was there in the beginning because he existed before the beginning, and indeed has existed for all of eternity. Psalm 90, which was also written by Moses, puts this beautifully. Okay, so God has no beginning and He has no end. That kind of boggles our mind just to try to grasp that. But God is eternal. God stands outside of time. Time is all that you and I know, but it's not true of God. God isn't subject to time like you and I are. In the beginning, God is indicating to us that God has no beginning. Again, He's eternal. Now, it's also important we make the case here that this eternal God is a triune God. He is Father, He is Son, He is Holy Spirit. Which means, maybe if you're new to Christianity, that doesn't mean that there are three gods. There's only one God, but that one God is three persons. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, you know, we might quite reasonably ask, did Moses know that about God when he wrote this? Did Moses know that God was triune? Well, I would say probably not, you know, with the same depth that you and I know it today with the whole Bible before us. But even here in Genesis 1, there are indications that point us to the Trinity. For example, if we look to the New Testament, John 1 tells us that Jesus the Son is God and that He was there in the beginning as the Word through which the world was created. And then not only that, but if you look at verse 2, The ESV rightly capitalizes Spirit there. Do you see that? So the Spirit of God, meaning the Holy Spirit, was there in the beginning, hovering, creating the world. And so we should certainly emphasize that the eternal God there in the beginning is also the triune God. Okay, question three. What? Well, let's keep reading verse one. In the beginning, God, what? Created the heavens and the earth. So God is the creator. He made it. The world is his design. It's his creation. He created it. He did it in this little phrase, the heavens and the earth. And that's a shorthand way of saying that God created everything. Everything that exists, it owes its existence to God. Now, it's easy to just read this first verse and quickly move on. I mean, it's very short. It's only seven words in the Hebrew. And yet, do you see just how much is packed into this first verse? I mean, so much is packed in here, and how important it is, and really how stunning it is. You know, there's a personal being, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who's existed for eternity, and He has created everything. He's given a beginning to that which did not previously exist. That's absolutely amazing if you try to get your mind around it. It's absolutely foundational for everything else. So question four, how? How did God create everything in the beginning? Well, what Genesis 1 tells us is that God did it by speaking. He did it by speaking. It's amazing, isn't it? He simply spoke and He created the world. Hebrews 11 verse 3, by faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. Meaning God wasn't a sculptor of some pre-existing matter. No, there was nothing. And then he spoke, and there was something. Let me say it again, there was nothing. There was nothing. And God spoke, and there was something, everything. That is the beginning of the universe. And friends, the way that Genesis 1 lays this out for us, I mean, it's really quite wonderful. So if you look at verse 1, verse 1 is the initial summary statement of everything that follows here in this passage. And again, it's exactly seven words in the Hebrew. Verse 2, verse 2 is actually 14 words in the Hebrew, and that's intentional, seven words in verse 1, 14 words in verse 2. Verse 2 seems to be the initial act of creation. And then from verse 3 onwards, with each successive day, is the subsequent creating action of how God forms and fills everything. Does that make sense? Okay, again, verse 1, initial summary statement of everything. Verse 2, it's the initial act of creation, and then verse 3 onwards, that's the subsequent creating action of how God forms and He fills everything. So, look at verse 2. In God's initial creating action, 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. Again, that seems to be a description of the initial state of the earth after God first creates it by His Word. And this description of it being without form and void is to say that initially it was unproductive and it was uninhabitable. And there's actually only one other time in the Old Testament in which the Hebrew phrase that we have here translated as without form and void is used, and that's in Jeremiah 4.23, which is describing what the land of Judah will be like after God's judgment upon it. And the point there in Jeremiah is that the land is no longer going to be a place inhabited and fruitful for God's people. And I think that's what's going on here in Genesis 1, that before we get into the specific days of creation, the land, the earth, is simply unproductive. It's uninhabitable. And therefore, of course, the description of darkness being over the face of the deep, that only adds to that sense of a world that's not yet ready for living beings. But then notice how the drama of creation begins to unfold. The anticipation builds as we're told at the end of verse 2 that the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. There's this sense of expectancy now as we're ushered into the drama of what God is about to do. Namely, that God is about to give form to that which is currently formless. And He's about to fill that which is described as a void. And he does that here with the days of creation. So days 1 to 3, verses 3 to 13, that's God forming the world. And then days 4 to 6, verses 14 to 31, that's God filling the world. Again, days 1 to 3, God forming the world. Days 4 to 6 is God filling the world. Okay, so day 1, God forms light and darkness. And now this isn't the sun yet, but it's light of some sort. And then it's day four, say day one and day four, they correspond with each other. It's day four that God then specifically fills that with the sun and the moon and the stars which radiate the light that he's created in day one. Day two, God forms the expanse of sky and the waters on earth. And then day five, he fills the sky with birds and he fills the sea with sea creatures. Day three, God forms the land with the vegetation. And then day six, he fills it with land animals and creatures of every kind, including human beings to live on the earth. And so it's an orderly process of forming and filling that addresses the without form and void of verse 2. You might think of it as a piece of art. In days 1 to 3, God is first prepping the canvas, as it were. And then in days 4 to 6, he's adorning that canvas with all the beautiful things that he's creating. And friends, the main point here is that he does all of this. Simply by speaking. He simply speaks it into existence. I mean, that of course is the refrain throughout each of these days, right? God said, and it was so. God said, and it was so. God said, and it was so. Friends, God speaks, and mountain ranges come into existence. God speaks and whales are formed in the sea. God speaks and there's a man and a woman. That's the power of God. He speaks and the world is created. That's the how. And then the final question, why? Why? Why does God do all of this? Because understand, God didn't have to do this. He didn't have to create. So why did he do it? Well, that question, I think, is answered in day seven. Look at chapter two, which gives us a summary conclusion to God's creating work. Chapter two, verse one. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. You can hear there that day seven is unique compared to the first six days. The first six days are marked by a repeated pattern of God speaking, something then coming into existence, God declaring that it's good, and then the note that there was evening and morning, the nth day. But you don't have that here with day seven. Day seven is unique. And it doesn't have the same kind of beginning and end as the other days do. And in fact, it almost seems to be like a day that never ends. It's a day that just keeps going. It's a day of completion. It's a day of blessing. It's a day of rest. It is, in fact, a day, I think we could say, of enjoyment in which God the Creator is glorified for His creating work. I mean, after all, think about it. Why would God need to rest? You know, creating the world was as easy as speaking a word. So this isn't the kind of rest that's needed because he's tired. It's not that God is just kind of worn out after a long week of work. Now, as the commentator Derek Kidner puts it, this isn't the rest of inactivity. Rather, it's the rest of achievement. In other words, it's the rest that's enjoyed when something is done, when something's completed and it's good. That's why I say this is the rest of enjoyment, because Day 7 is God's satisfaction and delight in seeing this amazing world that He's created. And so what does God do? He sets the day apart. He makes it holy. Because this is what it was all about. It was for His glory. That's why He created in the beginning, so that He'd be glorified and enjoyed as the creator of the world. And so God creates in six days, repeatedly declaring how good it all is, and then He rests satisfied with His amazing finished work. So, with all of that then, the when, the who, the what, the how, the why, Let me give you two foundational building blocks on which everything in your life needs to be built. And that's not hyperbole. These are two foundational building blocks on which everything in your life and my life needs to be built. For some of you who are at the church retreat this past year, we were playing the game Jenga. Do you know that game? It's the game where you have all these blocks and you try to get them all stacked up and you try to pull the block out. Your goal is not to pull the block out and then everything falls over. You want to keep that tower upright. So you're very careful about which little log you're going to pull out of that. So you will never pull the bottom piece out. You're not going to pull that very foundational piece out. Because once you pull that foundational piece out, that whole Jenga tower is going to collapse. Well, that's kind of what we have here. If you remove these two building blocks that I'm about to give you, everything will come crashing down. Okay, so these are two foundational truths, two foundational realities that are key if you're going to think and live well in this world. And they're key if you're gonna truly glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The first one is this. It's all about God. Okay, that's the first key building block for your life. It is all about God. Church, the focus here is all on God. He's the main subject of every verse. And so you ask, well, what's the fundamental reality to everything in life? The answer to that is, in the beginning, God. And so if you remove God, then what you're doing is you're removing the essential piece on which everything else is built. All of life is from God, and without God, all of life falls apart. And that includes your life. And again, what we learn here about God, it's spectacular. He's all-powerful, He's omnipotent. Again, He creates the world merely by speaking. In fact, one of my favorite verses in this section is verse 16. Verse 16, we're told that God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. I don't know how you read that, but I read that and it almost sounds like the stars are an afterthought there, you know? Oh yeah, and God made the stars too. The amazing stars that you see in the sky and you marvel at, that's just an afterthought. God did it like that. He's all powerful. And not only that, but he's transcendent, we would say. Meaning he's distinct from his creation. And that's absolutely critical. It's critical we don't lump God in with His creation. He's separate from it. He stands outside of it. He's the creator. We are the creation. And therefore, critically, what Genesis 1 is telling us about God is that He's the only God. There are no other gods. He has no rivals. Now, when we get to Genesis 3 next week, we'll see that there are rebels against God. But friends, there are no rivals to God. There is no other God. And listen, you have to think about how significant that would have been to the Israelites to whom Moses originally wrote this. You know what I mean? Imagine just how significant this passage would have been to the Israelites who were about to enter into the land of Canaan where they were about to encounter all of the false gods of the Canaanites. Or think about how significant this would have been for them as they looked back and they remembered all of the so-called gods of the Egyptians. Do you see what Moses is doing? Moses is making it very clear here that there is only one God. And in fact, what's really striking about Genesis 1 isn't just what it says, but what it doesn't say. You know, many ancient religions, they had their own accounts of how they believed the world came into existence. And under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I think Moses, he actually seems to have some of those in mind when he writes this. Because what he's doing is he's completely undercutting those false myths. It's like Moses is poking his finger into the eyes of the so-called ancient gods and showing just how untrue they really are. Let me give you just one quick example. These false accounts, these false myths from some of the cultures in the ancient Near East, they almost always involve some sort of tale of one god warring with another god over who would rule the creation. And often there would be some great battle between these warring gods, and then one of the gods would be killed, and out of the carcass of that dead god, the world would be formed. They were accounts of violence and destruction and war. That was how the world was created, according to many of the ancient myths. And then these different warring gods, who themselves would many times have genealogies, noting where that particular god came from. They weren't gods in the beginning. They had genealogies and origins. These gods would also be attached to elements of their creation. And so you have the god of the clouds. You have the god of the water, the god of the sun, and everything else. But you see, as you look at Genesis 1, there's nothing even remotely like that here. It's just God. One God. A God with no beginning. A God with no rivals. A God who just peacefully, calmly speaks the world into existence. A God who's not part of His creation, but who's above His creation. And so whereas the Egyptians and the Canaanites, they worship things like the sun and the moon, Moses is clear that the sun and moon are merely God's creation. And in fact, Moses doesn't even bother to name the sun and the moon here. He just refers to them as the greater light and the lesser light. Because that's how insignificant they are compared to God himself. And so you see the implied question is why would you worship those things? Why would you fear those things? Why would you be superstitious about those things? And friends, the same is true for us as well. It's true for all the false gods that our culture today presents to us. Why would we worship these things that are nothing compared to the God who transcends all that He has created? Brothers and sisters, nothing is more important than God. We must grasp that God is ultimate. This God, the one, true, living, triune God, it's all about Him. He is the focus. Because if you miss that key piece, the key building block, you're going to get everything else mixed up. All of life is from God, and without God, all of life falls apart. And then the second key building block that we must have in place is that human beings are the pinnacle of God's very good creation. Human beings are the pinnacle of God's very good creation. Friends, God's creation here is so good, isn't it? I mean, it's so good. There's complexity to it, and yet there's simplicity to it. There's symmetry to it. I mean, it's amazingly good. And that's what God wants us to understand over and over again. He tells us, it is good. And therefore, you see, the very creation itself, it displays something to us of God's own beauty. It displays something to us of God's own wisdom and His own goodness. I mean, in all of this here, it's all good. There's clearly order and purpose and design. There are intricacies and interdependencies. You know, things are separate and yet related. Five times it says God separates these things. Ten times it says God made things according to their kinds. So He categorized, He named, He distinguished, and He has purposes in all of it. There's also a repeated pattern of two-ness throughout this chapter. You know, pairs which complement each other. So you've got the earth and the sky, the land, the sea, the moon, the sun, the light, the darkness, male, female. I mean, clearly in God's design there's two-ness written into His creation order. And it's all good! God is pleased with what he's created. There's beauty and life and reproduction and expansiveness, big and small, from the littlest ants to the furthest star. And it's all just staggering and beautiful and amazing. But the pinnacle of it all, you see, the climactic moment of it all, is the creation of male and female, the creation of a man and a woman. Can I just read this part of the creation account to you again? I'm not actually asking for permission, I'm going to do it, but I just want you to follow along here. I want you to listen and hear the way that the text shifts at this point in creation. The way it slows down with day six and with the creation of human beings. The way it shifts to God, notice speaking in the first person, as well as the way it now narrows in and the extra detail and emphasis that's put upon the creation of human beings here in day six. So follow along starting at verse 26. Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. Interesting that there's a plurality there, our likeness. and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, 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. And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. into every beast of the earth, into every bird of the heavens, into everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made. And behold, it was not just good, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day. It is an amazing account. And it's so important because if we get it wrong, it's going to skew so much of our understanding of who we really are. We need to understand that we are not at the center of God's creation. It's not about us. And yet, at the same time, we're not just like the vegetation or the animals or anything else. Only human beings are made in the image of God. So friends, if you're struggling with your identity, if you're someone who's trying to find your place in this world, these two things here about human beings are critical for you if you're going to understand who you really are. You are a creature, which means you are not God. You are not God. And so you do not have the ability to determine for yourself who you are or why you exist because you're not God, you are a creature who has been created by God. And yet at the same time, you're not just any creature. You're not just another animal in God's creation. When God created you, He made you in His image. That's just absolutely foundational and fundamental to understanding your identity. And so there are so many important implications of this truth that we are made in God's image. Let me just kind of rattle off a handful of them to get you thinking more about this. Many implications of the fact of the imago dei, that we're made in the image of God. One implication is that you and I are meant to reflect and resemble God as those made in His image. And this will come through in a variety of ways, from our ability to reason, to our ability to make moral judgments, to our capacity for language and understanding. We are to reflect and resemble God. Another obvious implication, at least I hope it's obvious, is that it means human beings have inherent worth and dignity. It means that human life is sacred. And that includes every human being, no matter who they are, or where they're from, or what they look like, or the struggles they have. Every human being has inherent worth and dignity and is to be respected because all of us are made in God's image. And again, you have to understand how shocking in some ways and how counter-cultural this would have been for the Israelites to hear because in the ancient world, it was only kings and pharaohs who were considered to be in the image of the gods. And so it was only the kings and the pharaohs who had ultimate worth and dignity. And yet here's Moses declaring that Adam and Eve, and by implication, every human being has been made in the image of God, has that imago dei. And therefore, every human being matters. Another implication is the importance of male and female. There's a distinction between men and women. They're both made in God's image. They're of equal worth and dignity. And yet God clearly makes them different. He makes a male and he makes a female. Such that in the difference, there's complementarity. They complement each other. The most obvious revealer of that, of course, is in the physical anatomy that they have. And it's so that they can ultimately obey God here when he says, be fruitful and multiply. A man cannot be fruitful and multiply without a woman, and a woman cannot be fruitful and multiply without a man. Both are made in God's image, but they're made different so they can complement each other. And therefore, another implication is that your physical body matters. Your body's not just an accident. It's not to be discarded or diminished or hated or abused. It's part of our identity. And so God didn't create a difference, as we sometimes hear today, between biological sex and gender. No, those two things are tied together. Why? Because again, your body matters. It's important to who God has created you to be, male or female, based on one's biological sex. Similarly, another implication is the relationality that's implied here. God himself is relational. He's the eternal triune God, existing forever in relationship between three distinct persons who are yet all one God. And so similarly, as those made in his image, it's fitting that he creates male and female. Thus, one, they're of equal worth and dignity, just like the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of all are all of equal worth and dignity, and yet there's distinction. So they can be together in relationship. Again, it's interesting that God says, let us, there's plurality there, let us make man, and then he makes a multiplicity of persons. And so there's a relationship that reflects the relationship within the triune God himself. Here's another implication. We have purpose to our lives. You know, the fact that we have a creator means that we've been created for something. Our lives aren't accidents. They have meaning, and God is the one who has determined that meaning. And that's something that He's created us for, that it's to glorify Him, it's to obey Him, it's to represent Him in this world. One of the things that means is that we as human beings get the great privilege of carrying out God's work in this world. Or to use the language of someone like J.R.R. Tolkien or Dorothy Sayers, we're to be sub-creators. God is the creator, but under Him, He calls us to be sub-creators. And so while this is God's world, it belongs to Him, nonetheless, as those who bear His image, we're given dominion over the world. Meaning we're to be vicegerents, we're representative rulers of God in this world. And so just as God created the world and He brought life into existence, well, similarly, we are to be fruitful and to multiply, to bring life into existence. We're to reproduce, we're to procreate. And that's just as God filled and formed his initial creation, so too we are to subdue the earth and bring it into submission so that it's increasingly inhabitable for human beings. And then we're to fill it with more human beings made in God's image. And so we too, we have a forming and filling work to do like God. And therefore another implication is that we're to care for the world. We're not to abuse it or treat it haphazardly. It's God's creation. He's entrusted it to us to care for it. And yet at the same time, another implication is that God has given us the world for our use and for our enjoyment. We're meant to put the earth's resources to use for the betterment of humanity. We've been given dominion over the world. and we're to enjoy the world. The material world, it isn't evil. It's to be used and enjoyed in the ways that God has prescribed for His glory. Okay, so there's many implications that we could run through as we think through what God has done here. Do you see how critical all of these things are to reflect on? A good biblical anthropology is very much needed in our world today. Okay, so in the confusion of our day, let me encourage you to keep coming back to Genesis 1 and 2, because this is what human beings have been created to be like. This is what we've been created to be like by a wise, powerful, good, loving God, the very pinnacle of God's creation made in the very image of God himself. Well, friends, as we close this morning, Perhaps you might find it helpful to consider what it is that you are in awe of. You know, what amazes you? Consider what it is that fills you with wonder and awe and joy. Do you see that Genesis 1 is intended to bring us to a place of awe before God? It's showing us His beauty and majesty and glory so that we would worship God. So that we'd glorify God. So that we would enjoy God forever. Listen, if Genesis 1 has only ever been for you a chapter of deep frustration and confusion and perhaps conflict If all you've ever experienced with Genesis 1 are disagreements about how old the earth may or may not be, can I suggest to you that I think you've missed the point? Because friends, as it was for those Israelites in the wilderness who first heard this, the point is to bring us to a place of awe, to a place of worship, to a place of wonder and obedience and trust in this eternal, transcendent, omnipotent God who's created everything. But I can promise you when Moses gave this to the Israelites in the wilderness, they didn't start arguing about how old the earth was. They were brought to a place of worship to know that this is our God. Do you see how powerful He is? Do you see how good He is? Do you see how transcendent He is? How creative He is? Worship Him. And so for her to be brought to that place of worship this morning, what it's gonna mean for you and I at this stage in God's unfolding plan of salvation is that we must worship Jesus. And we must stand in awe of Jesus. You know, it's quite revealing actually how many allusions to Genesis 1 there are in reference to the person and work of Jesus. I already mentioned how John 1 echoes Genesis 1, referring to Jesus. It says, in the beginning was the Word, that's Jesus, 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 anything made that was made. Colossians 1 as well. It's about Jesus being the creator from Genesis 1, Colossians 1. By Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth. All things were created through Jesus and for Jesus. Okay, so Jesus is the one who is God in the beginning. And just like God could speak and create the world, Jesus could speak and he could calm a storm. That Jesus could speak a word and He could raise the dead. And yet amazingly, though as God the Son, He's eternal and outside of time, He nonetheless entered into time. He actually took on our human flesh. He became for us the perfect image of God that we failed to be. The perfect image of God. Because all of us, we've sinned against our Creator, we've rebelled against Him, but not Jesus. Jesus lived the perfect life that human beings were meant to live. Living in obedience to God and perfectly reflecting the glory of God. And yet He died in our place for our sins so that we could be forgiven of our sin and so that we could begin to live once again in perfect fellowship with our Creator. And friends, it's through Jesus that we ourselves, everyone who puts their faith in Him, have been recreated. We have been recreated. 2 Corinthians 4, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So in other words, the very same power of God to create the world, who spoke, let there be light, has now recreated us, shining in our hearts so that we can now see His magnificent glory in Jesus. And friends, this is our God. He is glorious and He is wonderful. Would you worship Him? Would you stand in awe of Him? Would you glorify Him? Would you enjoy God? It's why you were created. It's what Genesis 1 is all about. So Lord, we do praise you. We worship you. Lord, we are grateful for your goodness, for your power, your majesty, your transcendence, all that you are. You deserve all the praise and all the glory. There's no one like you. Lord, would you help us to enjoy you? That we can know you, we can have a personal relationship with you. Would you help us to delight in you? That you would be our supreme delight above all else. And Lord, would you speak your powerful, creating word into our hearts and our lives this morning? Would you open our eyes that we might see all of your magnificent glory shining in the face of our Savior Jesus? Help us to love and worship Him with all that we are. And we ask this in His name.