16 Exploring Faith: The Wisdom of God's Creation

by Jeff Fry

Darwin Park Community Church - Lichfield, UK

I.       Intro

A.   Review

1.     We had communion last week and so we talked about the centrality of the gospel from 1 Corinthians 15:1-3 .

2.     Paul said that the gospel was three verbs: died (for our sins), buried, and resurrected.

a)    "died for our sins" = Jesus literally was crucified on the cross in our place.  We deserved to be put on a cross and crucified to pay for our own sins but Christ went instead in our place

b)    "buried" = Jesus was laid in a tomb, the rock was rolled in front of it, and it was guarded by Roman soldiers.

c)     "resurrected" = on the third day of his death Jesus resurrected to sit at the right hand of God according to the Old Testament Scriptures.  This showed that God's hand was upon Jesus' death.

3.     This gospel was of first importance because it is the only thing that "saves" a person.

a)    let me ask you: why do we need to be saved?  what do we need to be save from?

(1)  ^NIV 1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

(2)  If we haven't embraced Christ as Lord and Saviour then the penalty of sin stills sits on us meaning the wrath of God will fall upon us on the day of judgment.  God can't just wink at sin.

B.   This Week: God's created everything: so what?

1.     Do you want to be wise?

2.     Then You must know a bit more about the implications of God's creation

II.    We must be wise and live according to God's created order

A.   State

1.     The Apostles Creed states "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth"

2.     Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth …"

3.     These are important truths, especially in these days.  It means we didn't come about by chance like science would like to assert.

4.     The doctrine of creation is important because often the origins of something will give a clue as to the fundamental nature or principle of a thing - ie. in this case the world's fundamental nature or how it works.

a)    therefore, the better we understand creation of the world, the better we will understand how the world works

5.     Read  Genesis 1:1-3

6.     Taking a look at the passage

a)    What does verse 1 describe?

b)    What does verse 2 describe?

c)     what does "formless and empty" mean?  what would that look like?

d)    What starts to happen in verse 3?

e)     How is the earth different now in Genesis 1:31 after all the creating from Genesis 1:2 - "formless and empty"?

7.     The earth starts out "formless and empty" in verse 2 and by verse 31 it is a highly ordered planet with night and day, water and land and sky, plants and trees, seasons, days and years, sun and moon, fish and birds, animals according to their kind on dry land, and finally man and woman who are to look after all the creation. 

a)    while in its initial form the "heavens and earth" may have been formless and empty, by the end of God's creative period He had created an ordered and structured universe

b)    and in fact because of this order and structure to the universe we can do science.

(1)  e.g. the law of gravity

(2)  leading scientist of the Human Genome project, Francis Collins, said, "Science is climbing the mountiain of knowledge by amassing more and more knowledge each day.  But when we finally reach the top of it, I think we will find the theologians have been sitting there at the top for some time." ('The Language of God'  by Francis Collins).

(3) We were also given moral laws by God which are instructions to us about how to live God's way in the moral realm (e.g. The Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:1-17).

c)     Jesus now holds all things together

(1)  Of Christ Colossians 1:16-7 says, "For by Him all things were created : things in heaven and on earth …  He is before all things and in Him all things hold together"

(2)  Christ is the sustainer of the universe

8.     It was very good (Genesis 1:31)

a)    "good" = fit for purpose (God's creation was not random)

9.     Now man and woman have responsibility as stewards of this ordered creation.

a)    steward = to take care of the creation and we are responsible to use its resources well

b)    man and woman given this unique role

10. As stewards we are to follow God's instructions for using and cultivating the world

a)    This is the way of wisdom

b)    God's created order was wise

(1)  Jeremiah 10:12 says, "But God made the earth by his power, he founded the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his understanding."

(2)  Proverbs 3:19 says, "By wisdom the LORD laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place;"

(3)  In Genesis 1:31 after God was done creating on the last day he said that "it was very good". 

(a)    "good" = fit for purpose

(b)   God purposely created the world in the way He did.

(c)    This has incredible ramifications for the way we live.

11. We can be wise and follow God's created order or we can be foolish and do our own thing against God's way.

a)    In Genesis chapter 1 & 2 God gives his wise instructions to Adam and Eve:

(1)  the man was to work the garden of Eden and take care of it

(2)  the man was free to eat of any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or else you will die said God (Genesis 2:15)

(3)  be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28), fill the earth

(4)  subdue the earth and rule over it (Genesis 1:28)

(5)  the man is to leave his parents and cleave to his wife (Genesis 2:24)

b)    The man and woman ate of this tree and true to God's word there were negative consequences

(1)  spiritual death and separation from God

(2)  physical death entered

(3)  sin entered the human race

(4)  they felt ashamed

(5)  they hid from God

(6)  fear entered their hearts

(7)  even anger, depression soon entered into relationships

12. There are moral absolutes because creation has a fixed order

a)    God is our creator / we are the creation

b)    The way of wisdom would be to recognize that we live in a world of order and structure which is God's order and structure.  Therefore it is wisdom to obey his instructions/absolutes for getting along in the world.

c)     God is not trying to be a killjoy through giving us moral absolutes.  Just the opposite - He says if you follow my way it will go well with you - you will have joy.

d)    The 10 commandments - e.g. "do not kill"

e)     "leave and cleave" (Genesis 2:24)

B.   Illustrate

1.     We can see today in which our world is unwisely moving in directions contrary to God's created order - what ones do you see?

a)    Same-sex marriages becoming legal in more states in America & civil unions legalized in England not long ago.

(1)  Biology 101: God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve!

(2)  To be fruitful requires the coming together of a female and a male and so if we are to carry out God's mandate to fill the earth and multiply then this is His clue to us that same sex marriages are not His will.

b)    Science as God

(1)  "… to restore science to its rightful place " - Barak Hussein Obama, Inaugural address, January 2009  

(a)    makes one wonder what Obama's idea of "rightful place" is

(b)   if its to sacrifice embryos in the name of science then that would be a mistake - to break one of God's absolutes just to make scientific advancement as if science is our saviour.

(2)  Richard Dawkins and his assertion that God was not the author of creation, but instead that after a  was and that we should throw off God's ways and live as if natural selection is the truth.

C.   Apply

1.     Where are you falling into a worldly mentality of living?

2.     What are of your life must you change in order to bring it into line with God's created order?

3.  Men are you taking spiritual leadership in your family (Ephesians 5:21-31)?  This means becoming loving and sacrificial servants toward your wife and children.  It does not mean lording it over them as if you were a dictator.  This is not chauvinism.  Christ is the example.  The headship of the man in the family as servant, sacrificial leader is God's order and good way for a Godly family.

III.  Conclusion

A.   Jesus Christ is the apex of wisdom. And the wisest choice you can make is to follow Him.  The most foolish choice you can make would be to reject Jesus as your saviour.

B.   Remember last week we learned that it was a firm trust in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus that saves us from sin and it was Jesus who was sent by God to show us God's way.

C.   Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me".