Genesis chapter 1 and we'll read from the first verse. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God said let there be light and there was light and God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so. And God called the firmament heaven, and the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters called he seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind, and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, And it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his 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 fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind. And it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind. And God saw that it was good. And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them, and God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed. To you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat. And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. May God add his blessing to this reading of his holy and precious word. I would like to take as my text this evening the 31st verse of this first chapter in the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 31, where we read these words, and God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." Now, these words bring, of course, to a conclusion Moses' great account of the creation. This account of the creation, of course, dominates exclusively this great first chapter in the Word of God. And it's very evident from this particular chapter that the way in which our maker created the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that in them is, was in fact by a series of mighty acts. A series of mighty acts which in fact lasted some six days in all. In other words, he created as it were through steps and through stages. There is a progressive element, an element of development here in this particular account of the creation. And here in the 31st verse of this first chapter, we come to the end of the sixth day. The creation was now complete. It was now finished. God had made the heavens and the earth and the sea. He had made the sun and the moon and the stars. He'd made the birds of the air, the fishes of the sea, all the beasts of the forest and the field. And he had made man also, who is the crown and the pinnacle of God's creation. And having done so, what the Lord God now does is this. He surveys and he evaluates the work of his hands. And this was his verdict. And behold, it was very good. Now these words here in the 31st verse of this first chapter do not simply refer to the work of creation which took place on the sixth day. These words, this verdict if you like, apply to the totality, to the entirety of God's creation. It was this, in all its entirety, which was very good, we read. And indeed this phrase, very good, is in fact an interesting phrase. Let us take the word good itself. The word means pleasing or pleasant. It is sometimes used in the Old Testament of a woman. It's used to describe Rebecca. She was a fair woman. There was a beauty about her. There was something very pleasing, something very pleasant about her. This is the term that is translated good here. And in fact this is the seventh time that Moses uses this term good or fair or pleasant here in this first chapter. But the interesting thing about this seventh occasion is this. That whereas before, we read this, and God saw that it was good as He evaluated each step and stage of the great process of creation, here, as He surveys the entirety and the totality of the works of His hands, He says this, that it was very good. There was something remarkably good about it. And therefore we see God's delight, His approval, His satisfaction in the work of His fingers and of His hands. And there is this superlative idea, we could translate this phrase in this way, and God saw that it was exceedingly good, or God saw that it was exceedingly pleasant. And so what we have here is an emphasis by God himself upon the goodness of his creation, upon the essential excellence of his creation, upon indeed the perfection of his creation. There was nothing that was not good in this creation which came from his hand. It was characterized in all its entirety by an absolute perfection. Now we know of course that it was not long before sin entered into the world. and death by sin. As sin entered into the world, so it took with it a great train of catastrophic consequences. And we know this from the early chapters of Genesis, that this creation, which God himself pronounced to be very good, exceedingly wonderful and perfect in and of itself, was now Mars. Cursed is the ground for thy sake, says the Lord unto Adam. And from this point onwards, of course, there is this reflection of evil upon the creation itself. It was not that the creation itself in its entirety was evil, but rather the reflection of evil coming down from man, the crown of God's creation, was upon the face of nature and upon the face of creation itself. That's why we have nature red in tooth and claw. That's why there is this destructive, this ferocious element within creation as well as still an essential and remarkable goodness about it. This is why there were thorns and there were thistles. This is why there are catastrophes within creation and within nature itself. And the Apostle Paul, writing to the Romans, seizes upon this point. He says this, that the creature was subjected to vanity. That is to say, the entire creation was subjected to futility. There is now this bondage of corruption. Death has invaded because sin has invaded the universe. and therefore that which was originally exceedingly good is now marred and spoiled and is not characterized by the perfection which it had as it came from the hand of God. Nevertheless, I believe it to be true to say that in spite of this intrusion of sin, in spite of the cursing of the ground by its maker itself, there was still and there still is a fundamental goodness about the creation which God has made. Listen again to what verse 31 says, and God saw everything that he had made. And behold, it was very good. Yes, it is now spoilt, it is now Mars. And that perfection is gone, but nevertheless, though man has fallen from a great height, there is still an essential goodness, not a perfection, but a remarkable goodness that characterizes the whole of creation itself. And this evening, I want us to consider the various aspects of God's creation and see the essential goodness and excellence that still pertains there in these realms. What was it then to which God was referring? What was it to which Moses was referring? When we read in verse 31, And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Well, obviously, one of the first things is the creation of space and matter and time. And this then is my first point. I want us to consider the fact that God, when he created the heavens and the earth and the sea, he created initially space and matter and time. Look at the first verse of this great chapter. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. You have here, I believe, the creation of space and matter. In other words, you have here, I believe, the creation of the raw material out of which God was to fashion the entire cosmos during the space of some six days. The raw matter, the raw material out of which he was to make all things. Now notice however the condition of the earth at this early stage. It's there in the first part of verse 2, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. We can see that what we have here is not a cosmos at this stage. There in verse 31 it's a cosmos, a wonderful well-ordered cosmos, characterized by perfection, order, design, a most wonderful contrivance. But here, in the second verse, in the early stages of this week, we read this, that the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. What does that mean? It means this. That there was, if you like, an emptiness. There was a desolation. There was a darkness, which characterized the whole of the creation at this stage. It was not a cosmos, it was still a chaos. It was not habitable, it was utterly uninhabitable. But what was to happen in the remainder of this week of creation was this, that a wonderful shaping process would occur. And God would take this chaos that he'd made there at the beginning and he would mold it and make it and fashion it into a wonderful cosmos throughout the course of some six days. Now notice then the various steps and stages in this shaping process that God undertook. The first, if you like, is the creation of light. Notice that light was created there on the first day. God said, let there be light. He gave his fiat and it was so. He made the light, he created the light. So the creation of light was an absolute essential for the shaping process, for the making of the cosmos upon which man himself was to dwell. And then the second thing that we notice is the creation of the firmament, this expanse. What exactly was it? It was probably the sky, the heavens, and probably included the atmosphere. It was this that God created there on the second day. And then on the third day you'll notice there is this separation of the dry land from the waters that had dominated this chaos from the beginning. Let the dry land appear. And so you have the appearance through the mighty fiat of God of the great masses, the great land masses and the great continents. And so what God is doing here is he's molding and making, fashioning and shaping this which he had made in the beginning. But it's not, you notice, until the fourth day that you have the creation of the heavenly bodies themselves. Notice verse 16. And God made two great lights. The greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. You have here, of course, the creation of the sun and the moon and the stars. you now have a solar system in place. You have with this the creation of time. So we see then in the first place that we have the creation of space and matter and time during the first four days of this creation week. Now then, my good friends, I want to ask you, do you ever reflect upon the wonder of this solar system which God has made? Do you ever reflect upon the wonder of the sun, that greater light that rules the day? Upon the wonder of the moon, that lesser light that rules the night? This sun is the very center of the solar system, situated at a distance of some 93 million miles. And it is the gravitational center of the solar system. It is around this that the planets revolve. It is around this that planet Earth revolves. What a wonderful thing it is, how utterly indispensable to life it is, this source of heat, this source of life. And the planet Earth, the scientists will tell you, is placed, is situated in the temperate zone of this solar system. If it were much closer, if it were any further away, life would be impossible as we know it. Yes, he made this greater light to rule the day, the sun, but he also made this lesser light, to rule the night. He made the moon. The moon, our nearest satellite, some 232,000 miles away. And what a wonderful thing it is, and how we tend to take these things for granted. The waning, the waxing moon, which gives us light during the night. What an amazing phenomenon it is, and it accompanies us as we revolve around the sun so it revolves around the earth. And do you ever consider the mighty, mighty mechanisms which God put and placed here in this solar system? Once every 24 hours, planet Earth revolving upon its own axis, tilted slightly at an angle of 23 and a third degrees, revolving once every 24 hours, rotating, revolving around the sun once every 365 days. These are things which man takes for granted. He gets up in the morning, he knows the sun will rise, he goes to bed at night, he knows the sun will set. But how men take for granted the work of God's fingers. But they are, my good friends, mighty, mighty mechanisms which God has put there and placed there through the laws of his own hand. Now the prophet Jeremiah speaks very interestingly and wonderfully of these mechanisms. He speaks in fact of the ordinances of God. He speaks of the ordinance of the moon, the ordinance of the stars. God himself speaks of my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night. Do you ever think of that? The wonderful reliability of this mechanism which God has made. The reliability, the dependability, the predictability is such that we know, we can predict precisely when the sun will rise in the morning and when the sun will set at night. It is God's covenant, His covenant of the day and His covenant of the night. And here too we see His essential goodness, that though the creation is indeed marred and spoiled, it is still characterized by a wonderful goodness on the part of God and shares some of His own goodness as He gives it to us. But notice also the reference to the stars. I love this reference to the stars. There in verse 16 we read, And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. It's almost presented as an aside. It's almost presented as a fact of little significance. But when we consider the billions and billions of stars which God, in fact, made and brought into being, we realize the stupendous import of this particular statement. Did you know, for instance, that within our galaxy, within the galaxy of the Milky Way, there are some 100,000 million stars in our galaxy alone? And did you know that God has created at least 1,000 million galaxies? the vastness of it all, the staggering immensity of God's creation. It is truly phenomenal, and the heavens declare the glory of God, says the Word of God. And the firmament showeth his handiwork, day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night showeth forth knowledge. My good friends, we live in a universe that is most fearfully and wonderfully made, and it declares the glory of God. The glory of creation is none other than the glory of the Creator Himself. space, matter, and time, and the energy of light. But secondly, I want us to consider the creation of plant life. It's there in verse 12, and the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind, and God saw that it was good. Now this occurred, of course, on the third day. The Lord had already said, let the dry land appear. That was crucial, fundamental, that there should be dry land in order for the appearance of vegetation. So what the Creator now does is this. He now adorns this dry land created also on the third day. He adorns this dry land with plants and with trees. Plants that contain seeds, trees that contain fruits. Now notice those words, it's a very important phrase. Those words with regard to the plants and the trees, whose seed was in itself. Why is that significant? It's significant for this reason that God is not merely creating, he is providing for the continuation of this creation. He's providing even within the creation itself for its preservation. And one of the wonderful things about creation, and you see this not only in plant life, but also in animal life, not only there, but also in human life, is the marvellous successfulness of it all. This has never ever fizzled out, and it never will, because it comes from the hand of God, and it is most fearfully and wonderfully made, whose seed was in itself. But let me tell you something about the astonishing variety of God's creation. We have a God who loves variety. We have a God who loves diversity. He loves beauty. He hasn't created a dull, monotonous cosmos. He has decked it and adorned it with great beauty, diversity, teeming with life, teeming with interest, full of color. Let me tell you how many different kinds of plants they tell us exist. Approximately half a million. This almost inconceivable number, different kinds of plants, each one of them inevitably an idea in the mind of God from eternity. Now why did God create such diversity? Why did he create such variety? Well, he was providing for the needs, for the necessities of his creatures. He was providing for the animal creation that was shortly to come. He was providing for the human creation that shortly was to come. Providing for your needs and for my needs. Do you ever think of the whole issue of food? No doubt? Like me, you give thanks for your daily bread, but in addition to giving thanks for your daily bread, do you ever think and reflect and meditate upon your daily bread, that this is a wonderful provision, an ongoing constant provision, which comes from the hand of your creator? There are apparently some approximately six billion souls in the world today. That is a phenomenal number. But you see, such is the fertility of this planet, such the fecundity and fruitfulness of this planet, that it is easily able to sustain the enormous amount of food which you and I eat, which the whole cosmos devours each and every day. This is truly a most remarkable thing, but it is part of the wonder of God's creation. And so he was therefore providing for the needs and the necessities of his creation. He was providing for our daily bread. But in addition to that, and this also is a very wonderful thing, he was not merely providing for our needs and our necessities, he was also providing, I believe, for our enjoyments. Do you ever think of this, my good friends? Look at verse 9 in chapter 2. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for foods. He was providing for our enjoyment, for our pleasure, for our recreation. Do you ever reflect upon the wonder of flavor? Do you ever reflect upon the wonder of taste? You see, God is a spirit. He's not physical. He's not corporeal. He doesn't have a body as you and I have. And yet, with that wonderful omniscience, He knows precisely what the flavor, what the savor of each fruit and vegetable is going to be. With unerring skill, he makes it and fashions it and decks the earth with it all, so that you and I might not only have our necessities provided for, we might also actually enjoy those things that we need. Just think of the great variety, again, which God has created in this area. The great variety of vegetables, the potato, the carrot, the bean, the pea, the cabbage, the cauliflower, the lettuce. We could go on and on. Each and every one of them an idea in the mind of God from eternity. And He made it. He spoke. And it was done. Or take the wonderful variety of fruits which God has made. Do you ever think of this? The apple, the banana, the orange, the lemon, the grapefruit, the lime, the peach, the pear, the plum, the blackberry, the raspberry, the strawberry, and many, many others which I don't have time to mention, this wonderful variety, this amazing, astonishing diversity which comes from the hand of our Maker. Now it's very interesting that here there is in fact no mention of the eating of meat, and this I believe to be very significant. There was, I believe, no meat eaten at this particular stage, for the eating of meat implies the death of the animal. But this was prior to the entrance of sin and therefore prior to the entrance of death. And both the animal creation and the human creation are shut up, as it were, unto the provision which God has made in the plant realm, in the realm that we are considering. But even here we see the wonderful foresight, the wonderful forethought, the wonderful provision of God in this sense. Now we eat meat. And what a wonderful flavor it has. And again we see the wonderful skill and wisdom of the Creator in knowing precisely what that flavor, the attractiveness of the savor, would be unto man who has a body such as we. And then take, my good friends, the whole issue of beauty. You see, it wasn't merely good for food, it was pleasant to the sight. There is a wonderful beauty still about God's creation, even though it's marred, even though it's spoiled, even though it's lost its original perfection, there is still a wonderful beauty about it. Do you ever thank God for the beautiful blueness of the sky? Do you ever thank God for the beautiful greenness of nature, the greens and the browns, the whites of the clouds, the beautiful blueness? of the heavens. Or have you ever stopped to examine a rose? Where I come from, there are many beautiful roses in our land. Ever stopped to consider the beauty of its fragrance? The beauty of its form? The texture of its petals? This is most fearfully and wonderfully made, and it declares the glory of its maker, why man cannot even make a blade of grass, but the great God of heaven has decked the whole planet with wonderful plants, with wonderful vegetables, with trees and with flowers, to adorn it, to beautify these things are pleasant to the sight, says the Word of God. And that's why the Lord Jesus Christ says, Consider the lilies of the field. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed. like one of these. We see in the delicate flowers that God has made the glory of creation and the glory of the great creator. But then thirdly, we have now, we come now to the creation of animal life. Look at verse 21. And God created great whales. and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it was good." We've reached now the fifth day. There is this element of advance and progression and development. There are steps, there are stages here throughout this week. On the fifth day you have the birds of the air, you have the fishes of the sea. And then look at verse 25. In verse 25 we read this, And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind. And God saw that it was good. God has just filled the earth, he's just filled the planet with vegetation, with plant life. Now he brings in this next step, animal life. And notice what the word of God says here, that each was made after his kind. Now that is a very important phrase in this first chapter of Genesis. It occurs some ten times, after its kind, after his kind. What does that mean? Well, this is sometimes referred to as the doctrine of the stability of kinds. What it means is this, that there is a genetic stability about what God made. Like begets like. You don't have cats begetting dogs. You don't have horses begetting porpoises. No, no, there is this stability of kinds. It's not a chaos, it's a cosmos. And it is most fearfully and wonderfully ordered. Each is after its own kind, and science has in fact shown that it's via the exceedingly complex DNA molecule, this double helix, that God has given this blueprint, this code of life, this genetic information program. It's via this DNA molecule, which in itself is so wonderfully structured. It's in this way that God has created, and in this way that he's ensured this stability of kinds, each after its own kind. But then consider again the astonishing variety of animal life. If the plant realm shows, I think, some half a million different kinds of life, different kinds of vegetation which God has made, it's interesting to note that the animal world produces some two million different kinds of species. Again, it shows us God's love for variety, His love for diversity. Now let me just select a few of those. Take the horse. Have you ever looked carefully at a horse, my good friends? How fearfully and wonderfully made the horse is, how crucial for man, especially prior to this 20th century. Its exceeding strength, its agility, its speed, its marvellous footwork, its tameableness, the way in which God was providing for man, providing for man's travel and his travel needs. Or think of the cow, what a wonderful creature the cow is. So docile, essentially. Yielding milk day after day in tremendous profusion. Milk which will feed man himself and nourish him. Or take the dog, sometimes described as man's best friend. Where does that friendliness come from? I speak of certain dogs. Where does that affability come from? Where does that loyalty come from? That friendliness? that loyalty that becomes an aggressiveness at times. You see, God has put and placed in each of these animals these instincts, these characteristics, these traits, which mark each one out. Each is after its own kind. And consider some of the striking, marvelous instincts which God has put in certain animals. I was reading just recently of the salmon. Did you know that the salmon after hatching in a stream or a river, then goes out to sea, generally the Pacific Ocean, and spends some five years abroad at sea. But then, after some five years, it has this unerring instinct to return to its very birthplace. And it finds, with unerring skill, the very river, the very stream where it was hatched. Back it goes, jumping over rocks, ascending even waterfalls, in order to find that particular birthplace. Why is it so? It is because God made it so! And it is most fearfully and wonderfully made. Or take the grunion fish, which I understand visits the shores of California each year. The grunion fish is the most remarkable fish for this reason. The way in which its eggs hatch, what happens is this. with this amazing instinct the grunion fish knows about the tides. And it comes in on one of the two high tides each month, lays its eggs in the sand and then retreats back into the sea. Some two weeks later another high tide comes, just in time for the eggs to hatch and to swim back out into the sea. How do they know how to do this? My good friends, it's the instincts that God put in them. And they are therefore most fearfully and wonderfully made. Or take the golden plover. The golden plover, a very interesting bird, it nests apparently in northern Alaska. And having nested in northern Alaska and brought its young into the world, it then decides to fly some two and a half thousand miles due south straight to the Hawaiian Islands, leaving its children behind. However, You need not fear, because before long the children follow. The young birds follow. The parents have gone ahead. The young birds follow. They go unerringly straight to the Hawaiian islands. Man cannot fathom this. God's ways are past finding out, but these are some of the instincts which God has put into his creation. These are not rational creatures. This isn't even the highest form of God's creation. But nevertheless, they have these wonderful instincts. There is this wild wisdom about them. because God put it there. Now, my good friends, you begin to see something of the wonder of God's creation, how we all tend to take it for granted, how we tend to go through life preoccupied with our own business, forgetting the work of God's fingers, forgetting the work of God's hands, but you see something of the wonder of what He has made, something of the glory of creation, something of the glory of the Creator. It's here. It's there between the lines, here, in this first chapter of Genesis. But look fourthly at the creation of human life. Look at verse 26. And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Notice that man was created last of all, And this, of course, is highly significant. Man is the most important, the most significant of God's creation. There's a sense in which all that had preceded this point was a preparation for man himself. Everything else was preparatory to this point, and for man himself. And what the Creator was doing, therefore, for you and for me, He was creating a home, He was creating a habitat for us. He was taking this cosmos, taking this chaos that we find there in the second verse, turning it into a wonderful cosmos, taking away the chaotic, unstructured, disorganized elements, and molding them and fashioning them. He made it, he fashioned it, and he furnished it, and he did so for man himself essentially. Now let me illustrate briefly by way of contrast the remarkable suitability of this planet. Think of the moon, this near satellite of ours. You will know that back in 1969, man landed on the moon. Man had this wonderful opportunity of actually walking on the moon. Ah yes, but man could not live upon the moon. It isn't a home for man. It isn't a habitat for man. Let me tell you why. There's no water there. There's no atmosphere there. There's no vegetation there, there are no animals there, there's no food there whatsoever. The force of gravity is not adjusted to man's structure. It's far too light. The sky itself would not be blue precisely because there's no atmosphere. The sky would be black even during the daytime. Man went to the moon, he walked upon the moon, but he could not live there. It's no habitat for man. And that shows us by way of contrast the wonderful provision which God has made upon that planet which those men were able to look down upon, this living planet, this third planet from the sun, planet Earth, the planet that stands out from all the other planets. Now then, what exactly were the characteristics of this man that God had made? Well, let me deal briefly with his body. Man's body, my good friends, is a divine masterpiece. The eye alone is a divine masterpiece. The human ear is a divine masterpiece. The human hand, a divine masterpiece. The human heart, which never stops beating until death, a divine masterpiece. Man's body alone is fearfully and wonderfully made. Ah yes, but that isn't all. The most important thing about man is this, that he is made in God's image, after God's likeness, made in God's similitude. What does that mean? Notice verse 26, and God said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air. It is this dominion, this dominion is part of the image of God. He is God's vice-regent here upon earth. He is the Lord of creation under God himself. He has dominion over the animal creation. And one of the reasons why he has this dominion is this, because he's characterized by rationality, the mind of man, man's intellect, man's intelligence. It's this that sets him apart from the animal world, fearfully and wonderfully made, though that is. Listen to the great Blaise Pascal. He once said this, man is but a reed, and the weakest in all nature, but he is a reed that thinks. He's able to think. He has this power of thoughts. He has this capacity for language. He's able to speak. He's able to learn languages. Ah yes, and not merely able to speak with one another, able to speak to his maker also. He's made with a rational soul. And another aspect of this image of God surely is the creativity of man. The sheer inventiveness of man. Now compare and contrast man again with the animal world at this point. I often point out to the students that cows never ever build a civilization. They are fearfully and wonderfully made. I love the beef, I love the milk, I'm grateful for the leather. They are fearfully and wonderfully made and structured, but they're not rational creatures, they have no creativity. It's the same bovine stupidity year after year. And Emil Brunner once spoke of the changeless beehive. The beehive never ever changes, it's always the same. But with man there is this inventiveness, this capacity to advance and to grow and to produce a civilization. There is, you see, this God-likeness, this God-relatedness about man. He's made a little lower than the angels. He's the crown and the pinnacle of God's creation. And that's why man has this mandate to subdue the earth. And in the advance of civilization, marred though it is by sin, in the advance of civilization, that's what you see. You see man subduing the earth. The problem is, my dear friends, that though he subdues the earth, he cannot subdue himself. He cannot subdue his own heart. He cannot subdue his own passions and lusts and drives. He can subdue the earth, he can split the atom, he can go to the moon, but he cannot control himself because he's a sinner in rebel, in rebellion against God. And so once again we're reminded that this image of God is Mars. But nevertheless, there is still a remarkable dignity about man, still a remarkable nobility about man. He is still the highest of God's creatures. And that image can and is, can be and is restored in Christ himself. Listen to the way in which the great William Shakespeare described man himself. He said this, what a piece of work is a man. How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world! My dear friends, man is both the glory and the scandal of the universe, made in God's image, fallen into sin, a rebel against his maker. Now then, one of the interesting features about this particular passage, this first chapter, is in my view the sobriety of the account. There is in the account here a remarkable restraint, a remarkable reserve, a note of understatement rather than overstatement. I'm tempted almost to speak of the modesty of God as he describes this creation of his. Just think, as we have done in part, of the astonishing detail that lies here between the lines. the astonishing variety of the plant world, the astonishing variety of the animal kingdom, the amazing profusion, the amazing proliferation of human life. You see, there is this glorious fullness about God's creation, this wonderful lavishness, this wonderful profusion, this wonderful extravagance, if you like, on the part of God. And in a sense, what you have in the creation of the universe is a divine extravaganza. which comes from the hand of God. And that's why the psalmist, thinking of this, says, In wisdom hast thou made them all, the earth is full of thy riches. And that's why the great John Calvin says, man was rich before he was born. Because of the wonderful care and provision, foresight and forces, and doing wonders. These mechanisms which he has made, these organisms that he has created, and which he sustains. Do you not see what a great intellect he is? What a glorious being he must be. So glorious in wisdom, goodness and power. Let me put it this way, what a marvellous astronomer God is, what a marvellous physicist God is, what a marvellous chemist God is, what a marvellous meteorologist God is, what a marvellous geologist God is, what a marvellous agriculturalist God is, what a marvellous botanist He is, what a marvellous zoologist He is, what a marvellous biologist He is, and the whole earth is full of His glory. and is most fearfully and wonderfully made. And all that man does in his pursuits of science and knowledge, rightly so called, is to think God's thoughts after Him. But let me emphasize the role of Christ in this. The Word of God tells us this, all things were made by Him. And without him was not anything made that was made. In other words, this same Jesus who came down from heaven, this same Jesus that was born there in Bethlehem, this same Jesus that was laid in a manger, the carpenter's son, and who laboured as a carpenter himself, this same Jesus is none other than the mighty maker of the universe. By him, we read, by him were all things created. Yes, and by him do all things consist and cohere and hold together. He's the maker, he's the sustainer of the universe. Just think of his ministry, we needn't be surprised at this. Think of his ministry, what displays of omniscience, what displays of omnipotence he manifested continually throughout those three years or so. It's this same Jesus, this same blessed second person of the Godhead who made it, who fashioned it, who furnished it, and who sustains it. But let me ask the question, why did God create the universe? I have no hesitation in saying that the great reason why he did so was that he might display his perfections, that he might display his attributes, that he might display his excellences, that he might display his wisdom, display his power, display his goodness, manifest unto other creatures what kind of being he himself was. You see, as the great Jonathan Edwards once put it in a remarkable treatise of his, if God had not created the universe, then there is a sense in which these wonderful attributes of his, these wonderful excellences and perfections of his would have lain forever dormant, unexerted, unexercised, unable to be acknowledged by any creature outside of God himself. And so God spake and it was done. He gave the commandment and it came forth. He made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that's in them is. Why? that he might display his perfections, that he might display his glory, and there's also another reason why he did it. He wanted, he desired to display his perfections in a way that was even more wonderful than that through creation itself, namely through redemption, through the redemption of the man who though made in God's image was going to fall into sin. My dear friends, Do you not see something of the glory of creation? As you think of the creation of matter, of space and of time, of the sun and the moon and the stars and all the heavenly hosts, as you think of the creation of the plant realm, as you think of the creation of the animal realm, As you think of the creation of man, and as you think of the fact that it was very good, there was this perfection about it, that even though this creation is now marred and spoiled through sin and through the entrance of death, nevertheless, can you not see the remnants and the relics and the remains of this glory of creation? as we have considered it here tonight. And do you not see something of the glory of redemption also? Because it was in this way that God sent forth his Son. It was for this purpose to redeem mankind. To save those who, though they could subdue the earth, could not subdue themselves and their own sinful hearts. My good friends, let me encourage to open your eyes and to open your hearts, and to open your mouths about the great fact of creation, to speak much more than we do about our Creator and about our Maker, and to say with a hymn writer, O Lord my God, when I, in awesome wonder, consider all the works thy hand hath made, I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Amen.