Sunday, February 12, 2023 AM
THE GOSPEL OUR FOUNDATION: The Plan of Redemption
Mike Teel, Pastor
FOCAL PASSAGE:
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. —Genesis 1:1-5
A
BEGINNING
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. —Genesis 1:1
1. In the
…
–As we have already observed, the original condition of this primary creation was vastly different from the state in which we view it in the next verse.
–No sinful rebel there to challenge the supremacy of God?
2. So too the beginning of this
history.
–God created man and vastly different was the original state from that which he subsequently fell.
–Made in the image and likeness of God, provided with a helpmate, placed in a small garden of delights, given dominion over all the lower order of creation, “blessed” by His Maker, bidden to be fruitful and multiply and replenish (Means to make full or complete again) the earth and included in that which God pronounced “very good.”
COMES BY CHOICE
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, —Genesis 1:2b
–Genesis 1:2 (translated) … After a passage of time the earth was chaotic and disorganized, sin acted upon the surface of the deep.
1. FROM
TO CORRUPTION
–Some fearful catastrophe occurred.
–We have assigned it to the fall of Satan as a result of his attempt to overrule God.
–Sin had dared to raise its horrid head against God, and with sin came death and all its accompanying evils.
2. SAME
FOR MANKIND!
–No less tragic is that which happened to the first man.
–Like the original earth before him, Adam remained not in his primitive (innocent) state.
–Again a dreadful catastrophe occurred – this one much more documented by God.
–Unspeakably tragic was this, but the truth of it is verified in all of our hearts as descendants of Adam.
3. NOTICE THE
PORTRAYED
–In order there was the heaven and the earth; then a earth without a heaven – covered in darkness and death buried under the deep barren, restless waters.
–What a picture of man’s condition, as one fallen away from God?
HERE’S
2c and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. —Genesis 1:2c
2c And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. —Genesis 1:2c (KJV)
1. GOD’S
MOVES
–God did not abandon the primitive earth, which had become ruined.
–Why should He take note or give attention to that which was now a desolate waste?
–This is where Sovereign MERCY intervened.
–He purposed to resurrect it, restore it, replenish it and reclaim it!
2. GOD’S MERCY
TO US
–The analogy holds true in the spiritual realm also.
–When Adam rebelled against his maker, he deserved nothing more than God’s unsparing judgment at His hands, and if God was inclined to have any further involvement or regard for mankind, it was due to His sovereign mercy and nothing else.
–But God would not leave man to the doom he deserved.
–God had designs, intentions of Grace toward him.
SEQUENCE OF GOD’S
ACTIVITY
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, —Genesis 1:3-4a
1. AND
SAID …
–First the activity of the Holy Spirt and now the Spoken Word.
–No less than ten times in this chapter do we read, “and God said …”
–God might have refashioned and refurnished the earth without saying a word or speaking at all, but He did not.
–He plainly stated from the beginning, that His purpose was to be worked out and His counsels accomplished by the Word.
2. TWO
STEPS
–In the work of the new creation these two are inseparably joined together – the activity of the –Spirit and the ministry of the Word of God.
–It is by these two works that men in Christ become a new Creation.
–The initial step toward this was the entrance of light into the darkness.
–The entrance of sin has blinded the eyes of man’s heart and has darkened his understanding.
THE
OF LIGHT FROM THE DARK
4b and he separated the light from the darkness. —Genesis 1:4b
1. LET THE
BEGIN
–What occurs next seems natural to us. He separates the light from the darkness.
14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? —II Corinthians 6:14
12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. —Hebrews 4:12
–This most likely is not a figurative expression but, as many believe, a statement of literal fact.
–Man is a tripartite or triune being, made up of “spirit and soul and body”.
2. THE WORK OF
–But in the work of regeneration, the Word of God “pierces even to the dividing of the soul and Spirit, and the spirit is rescued from the lower level to which it has fallen, being brought back again into communion with God.
–The “spirit” being that part of man which is capable of communion with God is light; the “soul” when not dominated and regulated by the spirit is in darkness, hence, in that part of the six days’ work of restoration which alludes to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, we read, And God divided light from darkness.”
–Which will only be made possible by the future redemptive work of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary.
LIVE IT OUT
–I hope you have come to realize apart from Jesus we are helpless and hopeless.
–Jesus has provided for us the opportunity of reconnecting with God because of the destruction in our lives.
–If you know Jesus, take time to thank him for redeeming you from the emptiness and chaos of life you knew before.
–If you do not know Jesus, ask him to begin the redemptive work in your life. Ask him to speak light into your life.