THE FIRST, THE FORMATION, THE FALL: GENESIS 1-6
GENESIS 1-6
JASON GRISSOM
Part of THE WALK—SERMONS
January 19, 2025

THE

Genesis 1:1 ESV
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

GENESIS 1 IS NOT AN

FOR GOD’S EXISTENCE BUT AN .

PROVING GOD’S EXISTENCE ISN’T OUR MINISTRY; IT’S PROMOTING WHO GOD IS.

All persons everywhere have a deep, inner sense that God exists, that they are his creatures, and that he is their Creator. Paul says that even Gentile unbelievers “knew God” but did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.

Romans 1:21 ESV
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Romans 1:25 ESV
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

He says that wicked unbelievers have “exchanged the truth about God for a lie”, implying that they actively or willfully rejected some truth about God’s existence and character that they knew. Paul says that “what can be known about God is plain to them,” and adds that this is “because God has shown it to them”.

Romans 1:19 ESV
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
Yet Scripture also recognizes that some people deny this inner sense of God and even deny that God exists. It is “the fool” who says in his heart, “There is no God”.

Psalm 14:1 ESV
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.

It is the wicked person who first “curses and renounces the LORD” and then in pride repeatedly thinks “there is no God”.

Psalm 10:3–4 ESV
For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the LORD. In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”

These passages indicate both that sin leads people to think irrationally and to deny God’s existence, and that it is someone who is thinking irrationally or who has been deceived who will say, “There is no God.”

Paul also recognizes that sin will cause people to deny their knowledge of God: he speaks of those who “by their wickedness suppress the truth”

Romans 1:18 ESV
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
and says that those who do this are “without excuse” for this denial of God (Rom. 1:20).
Romans 1:20 ESV
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

A series of active verbs indicates that this is a willful suppression of the truth.

Romans 1:23 ESV
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Romans 1:25 ESV
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Romans 1:28 ESV
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

Romans 1:32 ESV
Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

CHRISTIANITY ISN’T A BLIND FAITH. IT’S A BELIEVABLE FAITH BECAUSE OF ITS EVIDENCE.

Hebrews 11:3 ESV
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.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO GIVE UP YOUR INTELLECT TO TRUST THE BIBLE. YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP YOUR PRIDE.

Even Atheism is a belief that must be taken by faith. It is as much religion as science.
By faith Christian’s believe in the virgin birth of the Jesus. By faith atheists believe in the virgin birth of the universe. Choose your miracle.

God has provided enough evidence in this life to convince anyone willing to believe, yet he has also left some ambiguity so as not to compel the unwilling.

Mark Twain had a point when he concluded that it was not the parts of the Bible he did not understand that bothered him—but the parts he did understand!

Author G.K. Chesterton says, “When [you] abandon belief in the Creator, people do not begin to believe in nothing. They begin to believe in anything.”

IF YOU CAN BELIEVE GENESIS 1:1 EVERYTHING ELSE IS SIMPLE.

THE

Colossians 1:16 ESV
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

Isaiah 40:26 ESV
Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.

Nehemiah 9:6 ESV
“You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.

Psalm 19:1 ESV
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Psalm 8:3–4 ESV
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
For every word spoken in human existence there are over 100,000 stars in the universe. In conclusion, there are more stars in the universe than for every word ever spoken by humankind as well as every grain of sand on all the beaches on earth and many many more. - ASTRONOMY.COM

Why would God create such a vast universe? So that he can reinforce the first four words of Genesis, it’s not about us it’s about God.

Genesis 1:1 ESV
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 2:8 ESV
And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.


Genesis 2:9 ESV
And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

I have given you life. I have given you a world full of pleasure — pleasures of taste and sight and sound and smell and feel and nourishment. Only one tree is forbidden to you. And the point of that prohibition is to preserve the pleasures of the world, because if you eat of that one you will be saying to me, “I am smarter than you. I am more authoritative that you. I am wiser than you are. I think I can care for myself better than you care for me. You are not a very good Father. And so I am going to reject you.”

So don’t eat from the tree, because you will be rejecting me and all my good gifts and all my wisdom and all my care. Instead, keep on submitting to my will. Keep on affirming my wisdom. Keep on being thankful for my generosity. Keep on trusting me as a Father and keep on eating these trees as a way of enjoying me. There are ten thousand trees with every imaginable fruit. Just go eat. Be thankful. I have given them to you. See them as expressions of my goodness and savor them that way.

Relationship not chosen is not relationship at all. Relationship chosen is actually real.

Genesis 1:26–27 ESV
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.

God did not create us because He was lonely.

God did not create out of need but nature.

To admit the existence of a need in God is to admit incompleteness in the divine Being. Need is a creature-word and cannot be spoken of the Creator. God has a voluntary relationgto everything He has made, but He has no Necessary relation to anything outside of Himself. His interest in His creatures arises from His sovereign good pleasure, not from any need those creatures can supply nor from any completeness they can Bring to Him who is complete in himself.

Isaiah 43:6–7 ESV
I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

The point of an image is to image. Images are erected to display the original — to point to the original, glorify the original. God made humans in his image so that the world would be filled with reflectors of God — images of God, seven billion statues of God. So that nobody would miss the point of creation. Nobody (unless they were stone blind) could miss the point of humanity, namely, God — knowing, loving, showing God.

God created us to know him and love him and show him. And then he gave us a hint of what he is like — the universe.

The term “image” (ṣelem) is used in the Old Testament for actual forms and shapes of idols. In Ancient cultural kings would have statues of themselves carved out of marble and place throughout their kingdom as a revelation of who they were.

We are made in His image unlike all the other animals. Whatever in his image means in detail, this it means clearly: God is the reality and we are the image. Images are created to set forth the reality. A statue is not the person but a representation of that person. Why did God create man? To show God! He created little images so that they would talk, act, and feel in a way that reveals God. He wants people to look at the way you behave, the way you think, the way you feel, and say, “God must be great, God must be real.” This is your reason for existence.

God didn’t create you as an end in yourself. He’s the end, you’re the means. Bored Christians make really bad images. God is not unhappy about himself. He is infinitely excited about his own glory. We are made in the likeness of God to exhibit his presence on earth.

THE

Genesis 3:1 ESV
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

Genesis 3:4 ESV
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

“You will not surely die.” Isn’t it significant that the first doctrine Satan denies is God’s judgment? Satan’s lie is: Sin isn’t all that serious. You can sin and get away with it. Satan’s question smuggles in the assumption that God’s word is subject to our judgment.

Genesis 3:5 ESV
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Satan counters by “reinterpreting” God’s reason behind the command, smuggling in another dangerous assumption, that we don’t need to obey God unless we understand His reason behind a command.

SATAN CONVINCED EVE THAT HER SIN WOULD DEIFY HER.

How could our first parents fall in such a perfect environment?

ROOT OF ALL DISOBEDIENCE IS UNBELIEF.

Genesis 3:6 ESV
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

1 Timothy 2:14 ESV
and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

ADAM WAS NOT DECEIVED, HE FAILED TO FULFILL HIS DUTY.

Genesis 2:16–17 ESV
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,

but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

ADAM’S PASSIVITY PREVAILS IN THE LIVES OF HIS OFFSPRING TODAY.

ADAM’S OFFSPRING EITHER LORD OVER WOMEN OR LISTLESS TOWARDS THEM.

THE SECOND ADAM’S OFFSPRING ARE CALLED TO LEAD BY LAYING DOWN THEIR LIVES.

We are told that if legislators will only make possible a perfect environment, man will then be able to realize his ideals and heredity will be purified. But man has already been tested under the most favorable conditions and was found wanting. With no evil heredity behind them, our first parents were placed in the fairest imaginable environment, an environment which God Himself pronounced “very good.” Only a single restriction was placed upon their liberty, but they failed and fell. The trouble with man is not external but internal.

What man needs most is not a new berth (place), but a new birth.

There is no such thing as a little sin because there is no little God to sin against.

SIN

Genesis 3:7 ESV
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Genesis 3:16–19 ESV
To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 3:23–24 ESV
therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.


They are now out of The Garden and into the grind.

SIN IS

REACHING

Genesis 4:1–7 ESV
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

FROM THE GARDEN TO OUR GENES.

Genesis 5:5 ESV
Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
Genesis 5:11 ESV
Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died.
Genesis 5:14 ESV
Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died.
Genesis 5:17 ESV
Thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died.
Genesis 5:20 ESV
Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died.
Genesis 5:27 ESV
Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.
Genesis 5:31 ESV
Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died.

Genesis 6:3 ESV
Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”

Genesis 6:5–7 ESV
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

When the Scripture says that God regretted it does not mean that He had second thoughts about creation. This is anthropomorphic language (ascribing human form or attributes to a deity) which is used in Hebrew language to describe God using human language. This Hebrew expression simply means that God grieved over man’s condition. Did God not know that man was going to sin? Of course he did. Knowing something is going to happen does not remove its effect.

Genesis 6:11–13 ESV
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Genesis 6:17 ESV
For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.
SALVATION

Genesis 3:21 ESV
And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
YOU CONTRIBUTE NOTHING TO YOUR SALVATION EXCEPT THE SIN THAT MADE IT NECESSARY.

Genesis 3:15 ESV
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”


Genesis 6:8–9 ESV
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.

Genesis 6:22 ESV
Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

GOD IS NOT

.

Genesis 6:3 ESV
Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”

The geneology reminds us that 1,656 years have elapsed. However, he further demonstrates how long suffering He is by waiting 120 before executing His judgment. During this 120 years God gracious provided a preacher in Noah and a prophecy in Methuselah. The judge stayed man’s punishment in order to provide him salvation.

GOD IS

2 Peter 2:5 ESV
if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

2 Peter 3:9 ESV
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

The gospel can be seen in the original language of Hebrew in the English phrase “in the beginning”. Three English words but only one in Hebrew. Bereshit is compromised of 6 Hebrew letters. Beit (house/body) Resh (Most High) Aleph (sacrifice) Shin (El Shaddai) Yud (finished work) Tav (covenant/cross).

The body of the Most High was a sacrifice to El Shaddai to finish the work of the covenant through the cross.

The gospel can be seen in the list of genealogies in Genesis 5. Adam (man) Seth (appointed) Enosh (mortal) Cainan (Sorrow) Mahalalel (The Blessed God) Jared (shall come down) Enoch (teaching) Methuselah (his death shall bring) Lamech (despairing) Noah (Comfort/rest).

Man is appointed mortal sorrow; The Blessed God shall come down teaching that His death shall bring the despairing comfort.

Psalm 95:7–9 ESV
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

2 Corinthians 6:2 ESV
For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

GOD IS CALLING SINNERS; BE SAVED

.


Matthew 24:36–39 ESV
“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

I SHOULD WALK BY FAITH

Hebrews 11:4–7 ESV
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

I SHOULD WALK BY FAITH NO MATTER MY

Circumstances will not make walking by faith any easier or more difficult. My sight not my surrounding influence my walk of faith.

I SHOULD WALK BY FAITH NO MATTER MY

.

I SHOULD WALK BY FAITH BECAUSE I AM A

OF CHRIST.