Genesis 1:24-31

[0:00] All right, so we're going to finish Genesis chapter 1 and touch on, very briefly, day 7 with God resting. And then being Palm Sunday, we'll finish up with communion and just see what the Lord wants to do.

[0:16] So let's read verses 24 through 31. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after his kind.

[0:31] And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth after his kind and the cattle after their kind and everything that creeps 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 creeps upon the earth.

[0:54] 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 moves upon the earth.

[1:15] And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree and the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed.

[1:26] 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 creeps upon the earth wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat and it was so.

[1:40] And God saw everything that he made and behold it was very good and the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Father, we thank you for your word. We ask you just to anoint it, Lord. To anoint, Lord, not only your word but our hearts.

[1:53] Lord, to receive it. To be soft and to be open, Lord. Give us ears to hear what the Spirit would say to us this morning, Lord. Help us to cover only what you have, Lord. It'd be your words, it'd be your message.

[2:04] I always thank you for this awesome account of creation as we finish it up, Lord. What a blessing it's been to us, Lord, as we've seen you in the very midst of it. And in Jesus' name, amen.

[2:14] All right, so we've been covering creation. We have the, we've done day one, two, three, four, and five, right? It's been a big blessing. Day one, heaven and earth, dark and light, night and day created.

[2:25] We noticed how it was morning, it was evening and morning of the first day. God starts with dark and then he goes to light. Day two, the firmament of the heavens were created. How there's waters beneath and waters above and the space in between.

[2:39] Day three, God brought the dry land out of the sea and he then established earth and sea and then he brought forth all of plant life. Day four, the sun, moon, and stars, which were given for signs, for seasons, for days and years.

[2:52] Day five, the sea creatures and the birds and everything that flew in the sky. And then day six, where we are now will be the land animals and man and food he creates as well.

[3:03] It took a while to actually find a slide that looked like, because unfortunately, this is how the world thinks of creation. And even the church, you look up creation and it's all Sunday school material.

[3:16] There's very little that is outside of like Answers in Genesis or Creation Institute that are specifically focused on that. Even the church as a whole, unfortunately, looks at it more as a children's tale.

[3:28] But as we've seen, it's much more than that. It's God's revelation of himself that he wants us to know about himself in creation. So, as we've said, we will touch on all of these things.

[3:42] I don't know how in depth we'll get into them. I really want to finish this chapter and get through day six. So, verses 24 and 25, God creates living creatures. Those that are land animals, specifically.

[3:53] Verse 26 through 28 is the image and the commission. It is God's creating of man. Verse 29 through 30, food. It's good. Food is good.

[4:04] And then everything is very good. Verse 31. So, picking up in verse 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after his kind.

[4:18] And it was so. God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps upon the earth after his kind. And God saw that it was so. Right off in these two verses, there's something that God wants to drum into our brains.

[4:32] He wants us to know. He keeps repeating the phrase over and over and over. And it's after his kind. That God has specifically created his creation to propagate after their kind.

[4:43] But he also mentions kind of three categories. He says, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, creeping things, and beasts.

[4:54] So, you have all these varying pictures of life here. And they all have a different meaning. If you remember last time, I said that when God created, in verse 20, God said in day 5, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature.

[5:09] I said that word moving means the same thing as to creep, to creep on the ground. I was wrong. It's the same word. It means swarm, which God uses in relation to creeping things that swarm.

[5:20] But I had those two things wrong. The point is that God uses all kinds of creeps. So, I just had my creeps mixed up. So, the word for living, where God says the living creature.

[5:33] Living just means that which is alive. It's not dead. It's still in life. It's something that's in life. Plants can be living using this word for living. But then where he differentiates and says the living creature, that word, almost everywhere else in scripture, is used for soul.

[5:48] When it says soul. So, if you look in like Psalm 56, 13, the psalmist says, For thou hast delivered my soul from death. Will not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?

[5:59] That's the same word that's being used in Genesis for creature. Saying, thou will deliver my soul. For thou hast delivered my creature from death? Well, it just means, soul means that of a higher life.

[6:11] It's higher than plants. But it's also of this world. So, God is differentiating between the life that's in plants and the life that's in animals or other beings of his creation. He did the same thing back in verse 20, where we just looked at, briefly, the every moving creature.

[6:28] The word there meaning soul or life. And so, what differentiates between plants and animals? Well, if you ask people today, nothing. It's all life. It's all part of Mother Nature.

[6:38] It's all part of this planet. And it's all... Well, God clearly differentiates. And I was trying to think of it and put it in a very succinct definition of that which is plants and that which is not.

[6:49] That's alive. And so, I think the animal kingdom or creatures or those that have a soul are those... And when I say soul, I don't mean soul like we say it. We refer to it as the eternal part of man, the essence of man.

[7:02] We're going to see in chapter 2, in verse 7, where God breathes into Adam the breath of life. That's something beyond just a living creature. That is the word used here in verse 24.

[7:15] So, I think it's that which can make meaningful, intentional decisions. Right? That an animal can make a meaningful and intentional decision.

[7:26] They can determine the direction they're going to go. Plants can't. They don't make any meaningful decisions. You know, the tree out there isn't making a meaningful decision. It's just growing as God has created it to. But it's in life.

[7:38] It's alive in the sense that it's in life. But it's not alive in the sense that these animals are. And so, God's differentiating. And he also uses another word here because he's bringing forth a living creature after his kind.

[7:50] That which is alive that has a higher sense of a soul than... Or not a soul... Of life than the plants. But then he also says, and the cattle and the creeping thing.

[8:00] What are those? Well, cattle just means like it's a large, kind of like a domesticated beast. What we would think of as cattle is usually referred to in scripture as, you know, an ox or a donkey or something of that nature.

[8:15] And then he says the creeping things. And that's things that they move rapidly or they're small. It can be used about lizards or reptiles. It's like, okay. It's really interesting, but who cares and what's the point?

[8:27] Well, because God created all these things. He had a purpose for them. And there's nothing in creation God doesn't have a purpose for. Like, I don't know what the purpose of mosquitoes are. And now we're after the fall. So, creation has changed after the fall.

[8:41] But the curse has entered in, right? But there's a reason. And when you look at the things that God has created, even now after the fall and after the flood, that are in their natural habitats as God has placed them there and man takes them out, well, a lot of times, you know, you see that those things run amok.

[8:59] You know, we have katsu here in the south, a plant that was not native to this area. There's other animals and creatures that when they're taken out of where God placed them in their purpose, they no longer function like it would seem like they were intended.

[9:13] But God has a purpose. And God also has this idea that in his mind and in his heart, all of these things, when he first created them, all of their fulfillment and all of what they would be used for was already in his heart.

[9:26] However, if you look at Leviticus, and I'm actually going to turn to Leviticus. We're going to turn to a couple places. We're going to turn to Leviticus 11. So, God has created all of these creatures.

[9:41] And then, over a thousand years later, he's handing out the law to his people Israel. Leviticus chapter 11 gives a purpose for the land animals, for the sea creatures, for the insects, for the rodents, for the reptiles.

[9:55] God lays it all out, what they're for. In verse 3 of Leviticus 11, he says, Whatever parts the hoof and its cloven-footed and chews the cud among the beasts, that shall you eat.

[10:09] And that word for beast there is the same one in Genesis that's used for cattle. So, he's giving a purpose to these creatures that he's created. He's saying those that have a cloven hoof and they chew the cud, in other words, the way they process their food specifically.

[10:22] Verse 9, he talks about sea creatures. These shall you eat of all that are in the waters, whatsoever has fins and scales in the waters, and the seas and the rivers. Them shall you eat, and all that have not fins and scales in the seas and the rivers, and all that move in the water.

[10:37] And of every living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you. So, here when God created, back in day 5, the fish and the sea creatures, some of them have scales, some didn't. And Adam's going to come on the scene here very shortly, and he might look at them, and I don't know if God revealed to him what the purpose was eventually.

[10:55] But this was in God's heart when he created these things, that there would be this purpose and this differentiating, this dividing, as we've seen God divide light and dark night and day, God continues to divide as we progress through this book, where now he's saying, this is a purpose for you in my creation.

[11:15] Verse 21 talks about insects, and then verse 29 talks about the things that creep, creeping things that creep upon the ground.

[11:25] That word there is swarm, which was the one that was having to do with the fish and the water. So, it's saying the creeping things that swarm upon the earth, the weasel, the mouse, the tortoise after his kind, you don't get to eat those under the law.

[11:39] So, again, very interesting, but what's the point of all that? That's really neat. God has a purpose for all this. But, you know, God has a purpose for us, too. And he says in Romans 8.28 that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose.

[11:55] And that means the things in our life right now that God is doing or has done that I look at, and I think I know the purpose for it. I think I know what it's for. You know, and when God first created all of these things, there was no thought of sin entering the world.

[12:07] And there's definitely no thought of, like, a further use or law differentiating how to use these creatures. Yet, that was in God's heart. And it's the same with us. He puts these things in his heart that he's doing in our lives that we can't see how they're going to work out.

[12:21] And then he tells us this. Just like the creation, he says in Ephesians 2.10, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus under good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.

[12:32] So God's essentially saying, I have things I've created in the beginning that are for you later that you have not yet got to. That's encouraging. All of these things in my life currently are working together.

[12:44] And then God's also telling me that there's a future plan for them that I might not even know about yet. And all right there, here he's created all of these animals and all of these things. And it's like, well, this is great, but so what?

[12:55] But then as you look through the rest of Scripture, as we let Scripture commentate on itself, oh, God's got a plan for all of these things. And we're eventually going to see, as we round out today's message, a plan for a specific animal that he's just created right now.

[13:08] But we won't look into that at the moment. So right now, the world's completely created. We've got everything we need, a fully functioning ecosystem. What's not yet been created?

[13:20] Good! Because today, humans are bad. Humans are evil. They are the problem on this planet. If we get rid of humans, the world will be wonderful.

[13:32] So let me ask you a question. Tell me what comes to your mind. The whole world's been created. We have birds and trees and plants and we have fish and water. We have the whole ecosystem. Man is not created.

[13:45] And it's perfect. What comes to your mind? The thought about that, that planet, without man on it. What's the point?

[13:56] What's the point? Like, you think, yes! Here we've got this fully functioning creation and man's not created. Then what's the point? Who cares?

[14:07] Who cares that the water cycle's going, the ecosystem's going, and the oceans are up, and the tides? Who really cares? Man's not created. This world was created for man.

[14:20] Why? To display God's glory and display His handiwork so that we could know God and enjoy fellowship with Him. I can read all of this, but Romans, you can read it on yourself.

[14:30] Romans chapter 8, 19 through 23 tells us that the creation is waiting for the manifestations, the revealing of the sons of God. And it tells us, a little further down there, that we know the whole creation groans and travails together in pain together until now.

[14:46] Yes, because of humans. So it's saying creation, just like us, is groaning under what?

[15:03] Man being on the planet? No. It's under sin. Man is the cause of the problems on this planet, but man's also the solution.

[15:15] Corinthians tells us in chapter 15, verse 21, For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

[15:28] So God has determined that through man would also come redemption. So we're the hope of this planet. Man is the hope of creation, because through man, through the second Adam, through Jesus, would come redemption.

[15:41] We're going to use this phrase a lot as we continue through and see the fall and subsequent what happens to the fall. But we gain more in Christ than we ever lose in Adam.

[15:54] And that's what this scripture here is telling us. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Even Adam gained more in Christ than he lost in the garden. And someday we're going to be with him in glory, and he's going to tell us all what it was like before he fell.

[16:09] What was that like in perfection? What was it like in the beginning of creation? What was it like just eating herbs? You know, did they really taste like fake? Were they really fulfilling?

[16:22] But he's also going to tell us, Oh yeah, but, I mean, as bad as that moment was when I fell. The weight of all of that. The separation. Can I tell you the understanding of God's redemption?

[16:34] And the love that I could have never experienced if I had not? And then for all of eternity, he's going to be with the second Adam, just like we are. So what a picture of God's creation.

[16:46] Right before man's made. The world's perfect, so it seems. And yet, God's like, no. I made all this for a purpose. And it's for man. In verse 25, And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps upon the earth after his kind.

[17:02] God made every kind of creep for a reason. And God saw that it was good. It was good. But it wasn't finished. And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness.

[17:19] 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 creeps upon the earth. God created man in his own image.

[17:31] And the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. There's a lot of jumping back and forth between singular and plural there. He creates him, and he creates them.

[17:42] It's a singular and it's plural. God says, Let us, but it's one God. What is all this? Well, the word there in the Hebrew for God is Elohim. It's used other times as judges or lowercase gods.

[17:55] It's just a plural form of the word God. And so all along where we've been looking in Genesis where it says in the beginning God, in the beginning Elohim, it's multiple parts in one. So in the beginning God.

[18:08] You think, well, how can God be three in one? I don't know, but he is. In Revelation, it tells us that there are beasts, the seraphim, that stand before the, not beasts, but creatures, that stand before the throne that have four faces.

[18:19] The face of a man, the face of an eagle, the face of a lion, and then the face of an ox. And they face four different ways. And yet everywhere in Scripture, face, the word face always is referred to as meaning like a person.

[18:32] Like face to face. It's not just an abstract, like a mask. And so here there's these faces. Well, it seemed like that means there's four personalities attached to them. So here's another being that God has created that has multiple parts, multiple personalities, or multiple entities in one body.

[18:51] We're called what? The body of Christ. There's a lot of us. A lot of entities in one body. But the Lord looks at us and says, I see a body functioning with his different parts.

[19:04] And so God said, Elohim, plural, let us make. That word make means to produce by labor. It doesn't mean God's working hard. It just means that God has put something into this, something that required his thought, his care, that he's put into this.

[19:20] Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So here we come upon these words, image and likeness. Well, they kind of seem redundant, and they are, but they're a little different.

[19:33] Image, meaning appearance. It's used in Scripture whenever you see, like, in the Old Testament, an idol. That's that same word for image. And then likeness is similarity.

[19:44] So the difference would be that the image is more the form of it, like an idol. And the likeness is more, what's it like? Similarity. Funny thing is, the word image is in the masculine, and the word likeness is in the feminine.

[20:00] It's male and female together. And then you think God splits, eventually, Adam. He splits Eve out of Adam, right? Male and female. What are men more interested in?

[20:11] You know? It's like, ooh, look at that car. Look at that thing. Look at it. It's just, ugh. And then, you know, the woman's like, but what's it like? But what's it like? Who cares what's it like?

[20:22] You know? My girls name their cars. Right? You know, they're like, oh, this is what my car's name is. Name your car. I don't name my car. They give it a personality. They want to know what's it like.

[20:33] Where guys are just like, whoa, I don't care what it's like. It's just cool. And so then the Lord, he goes on to say that he's going to make, in verse 27, we're going to come back to image.

[20:45] But in verse 27, where he says, God created man singular in his own image. In the image God created he, him, male and female, created he, them. And so in chapter 2, we're going to get a much more in-depth look at this process of when God creates Eve, taking her out of man.

[21:06] Is that, the thing I don't know yet that I've been trying to figure out is, is that all happening on day 6? Is chapter 2, when God talks about creating Eve or making Eve out of Adam, and Adam's naming all the animals, did this happen on day 6?

[21:19] So the thought is, creation is completed on day 7. Like, he rests. Is it after that that then he takes woman out of man? That's not an act of creation? That that's just, you know, man's already created, and so God sees woman as just part of that?

[21:35] Or is this all happening on day 6? I don't know. But it's interesting, God had Adam name all these animals before Eve was created. In the day where we have all this gender dysphoria, which is ridiculous, right?

[21:47] Adam was the only man who truly had his feminine side. He had the whole thing intact. God takes it out, but thank the Lord he had him, you know, name the animals first, or else it would be like, big animal, spotted animal, striped animal, right?

[22:04] I'm not good with coming up with names. That's not my area. So the Lord knows, and he's got this thing all planned out. But we're going to look at that word image. God said, let us make man in our image.

[22:14] So how is man different than the animals? How are we in God's image? Well, man has three parts just like God does, right? God's a trinity, the Elohim, the three parts. Well, we are told in Thessalonians that we also have three parts.

[22:29] In chapter 5, I'm not going to turn there, verse 23, we're told, Paul says, May the Lord now sanctify you wholly, spirit, soul, and body. He reverses it, spirit, soul, and body. Right now in our fallen state, we are body, soul, and spirit.

[22:42] And our body and our soul is what rules over our decision-making process. And our spirit's mostly dead, right? Until the Lord revives that. We also have a personality, a morality, and a spirituality that makes us distinct from the animal kingdom.

[22:58] Now, your animals, your pets may have personality. But I don't think they have morality. I hope not. Because if they do, then they're just flat-out wicked, the things they choose to do. And they definitely don't have spirituality.

[23:11] I've never seen my cat pray. You know, I've not seen her cry out to God in anguish over her sin, either. So, man has these parts.

[23:23] And Jesus, in Luke 20, he gives us a picture of that. Verse 24, it's when they are talking about, should you pay taxes to Caesar or not?

[23:34] They're trying to trap Jesus. Because if he said no, they can be like, aha, we've got a rebel. And if they said yes, they say, oh, you can't follow him, you Jews. He's for Rome. So, Jesus said, show me a penny.

[23:44] Whose image and superscription has it? What's the picture on it, guys? They answered and said, Caesar's. He said unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and to God the things which be God's.

[23:56] Whose image is on this coin? Caesar's. Whose image is on you? God's. And God puts a high value on that, very high value on that image. In Genesis 9, verse 6, this is after the flood.

[24:12] And he's telling Noah. He says, Noah, whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. He makes this for man and beast. For in the image of God made he him.

[24:25] So, God looks at us and he sees an image reflected. He sees his image. Well, wait a minute. How am I the image of God? Well, just like we looked at those two pictures there. The image, the form, and then the likeness.

[24:36] It doesn't mean that God's got fingers and hands and bodies. But for whatever reason, God chose the best way for him to relate with us, with his creation that he created.

[24:46] This creation he wanted to have a relationship with, with man, was through a body. And even when Jesus came, he said, Sacrifice an offering you've not, you know, required of me, but a body have you prepared for me.

[24:57] And so, God sees this image of himself, this stamp, and he puts a very high value on it. Where unfortunately today, man, because we've totally rejected the idea that God's our creator, there's no value left.

[25:13] And unfortunately, it's given the rise to abortion, because we don't value human life. And it's also given rise to this idea that somebody has more value than somebody else, based on their outward appearance, their image of what they look like, instead of being able to see within each of them.

[25:28] God doesn't see our outward appearance. He says, I don't look on the outward. I look on the inward. He sees a soul. That's all he sees. He doesn't see your body. He doesn't care. He cares about your body in the sense that it's you.

[25:40] He doesn't care about your body that, you know, 41, I'm not 19 anymore. Things, you know, I work out hard and nothing happens. That's not what God, God's not worried about that.

[25:52] You know, that's just part of the natural process. One, in his creation, and two, as a result of sin. But what he sees is the inward man of the heart. And what he wants is that image to be reflected, not in our bodies, but in our hearts.

[26:07] And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 49, he says, As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Well, that's good news. That's good news, because as a son of Adam, through Adam all have died.

[26:20] Death is entered the world through sin. Well, I'm separated from God now. How can I then bear the image of God? Well, that's through Christ that we can do that. And he says, as we've borne the image of the earthly, well, then through that one man, again, that second Adam.

[26:35] God chose, and we're going to see this more, again, as we continue on. God chose that all of life should come through one person. The animals he created at least two. Right? Possibly multiple.

[26:47] But with Adam, and with the life that he breathed into him, it was to come through one person. He didn't make multiple people and breathe into them. And it's the same in Jesus.

[26:58] When we are born again, it's through one person. And that life we have is through Christ. It's not like he then again breathes into us and gives us a new life that is independent of ourself now, like he did with Adam.

[27:09] Breathe into us and like, oh, I have life again. I have the breath of God in me. No, he does it through Christ. And as we then enter into that life, it's still one life that we partake of.

[27:19] And it's Jesus' life. We don't get it apart from him. Like, I hate to spoil it, but, not spoil it, but burst anyone's bubble. But like, you're never going to be perfect. For all of eternity, you're going to be there because you're in Christ.

[27:30] That's the only reason we're there. It's not like we get to heaven like, whew, sin's washed away and all those problems. Wonderful. I can be my own person, do my own thing. Like, we're there because we're in Christ for all of eternity.

[27:41] All of eternity, he bears the scars and bears the marks of suffering in his body. And all of eternity, he's going to have a body like we're going to have, a new body. But God himself will take upon himself a body so that he can relate with us and we can be one in him.

[27:55] So how do we maintain this image? How do we, you know, get this image? 2 Corinthians 3.18. Paul is talking about where Moses, when he went up on the mount, he came down and his face was veiled because the glory that was being revealed faded.

[28:12] And he was talking, and he says that Israel to this day, when they read the Old Testament, the veil is upon their heart. And before that, though, he was talking about how that Christ is our sufficiency who makes us able ministers in the new covenant.

[28:23] Not of the law, but of the Spirit, because the Spirit gives life. And so he's comparing, saying that now there's an ability to come to the Word. The whole point in this chapter is he's talking about the Word, that we can come to it with an open face.

[28:36] We don't have any veil anymore. And when we do, this amazing thing happens. We all, with an open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

[28:51] And so, though in Adam we lost bearing God's image in the way God originally designed us to and intended us to, man, in Christ we gain it back so much more. And then with an open face, we look as in a mirror.

[29:06] And you see, when you look in a mirror, you see a reflection. But the mirror we look into is the Word. And when we look into it, there's no veil anymore. Our faces are open completely. And then it says that God's glory changes us more and more into His image.

[29:19] So as we see Christ in the Word, and we look into the Word, we don't even have to try. He just does it. He's just forming us more into His image, more and more and more. And so God's desire for us is not just to come back into relationship with Him, but that that relationship restores and produces more than what Adams ever did with Him.

[29:42] And so where God said, then, let us make man in our image and after our likeness. That which looks like Him in appearance and that which is like or similar to.

[29:56] And again, it's not so much the outward appearance we're talking about, but it's the whole creation. Remember before Adam and Eve fell, the physical was like the least emphasized thing.

[30:09] It wasn't until after the fall they right away recognized the physical and that became the top. So you can see the flip from spirit, soul, body. All of a sudden, totally flipped and body became first as the spirit died.

[30:23] But then He says this. He's just created this world, this world we established that is not meant to be without man because there's no purpose otherwise. He says, 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 creeps upon the earth.

[30:44] So God created man in his own image. And 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.

[30:58] And have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. And so God now extends this blessing. We looked at the first time that blessing, the word was ever used, was in verse 22 of chapter 1.

[31:12] God blessed the creatures of the sky and of the sea. But we saw that blessing means to be fruitful, to multiply, and to fill. But He adds something here to man's blessing, and it is also to subdue the earth.

[31:29] It's unfortunate that King James, in the way it translates the word there, replenish, in verse 28, the exact same word over in chapter 1, where God says to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters.

[31:47] It's the same word. It just means to fill up. It can also be used to refill, but it's primarily used to fill up. And so here it makes sense at the beginning of creation, God is saying to fill up. Because people will take that word, and they'll say, well, see, that there is a prior creation that fell.

[32:03] And so we can fit in evolution because we can say, well, there is this big, long lead-up of evolution, death and life, and death and life. And then God had to recreate, and Adam and Eve had to replenish.

[32:15] That's not what it means. It just means fill. Unfortunately, it was translated that way. So before we look at what it means to have dominion or to subdue, what is man's purpose as God puts him in this creation, this new creation?

[32:27] We're going to look at gender, very briefly. God created him, but then God created them, and he created them male and female. He created them. The dominion is not just for man, because Eve was in man, even if, like we said, after day seven, Eve is brought out of man.

[32:44] The blessing is still for her. But he specifically says, and God blessed them, and told them to have dominion and to subdue it. But God created them male and female for a purpose.

[32:55] And I like this quote. I thought it kind of encapsulated just where we find ourselves today. It is vain to wonder if men or women are superior to the other. A man is absolutely superior at being a man.

[33:07] A woman is absolutely superior at being a woman. But when a man tries to be a woman, or a woman tries to be a man, you have something inferior. And that's the world we live in, folks.

[33:19] That's what it is. God created something perfect. He created something, at the beginning of his creation, he created male and female. Perfect roles. Perfectly complementary. They both were given the same blessing at this point.

[33:30] Under the curse, under the fall, their roles will shift a little. And that's for God, that's for their protection, and for their relationship with God to flourish.

[33:42] It's not a punishment, like, because you sinned, this shall happen. No, God's responding to their sin. But he's responding to it, that within the curse, there's a blessing. The curse is the sin.

[33:53] God brings the blessing. So a woman is totally superior to man, at being a woman, and vice versa. But this idea of dominion, what is this dominion?

[34:05] What is it to dominate or have dominion over? It means to rule by subjection, or to, the word subdue means to keep underfoot. So subdue means, like, when they would conquer a king, they would put their foot on his neck.

[34:19] They'd have him lay down and put their foot on his neck, saying, You are in subjection to me. Dominion is to rule. But it also has to be given by authority. So the dominion here that Adam and Eve have, they don't take it to themselves.

[34:31] It's something that comes by way of authority. And that authority is God. So we see a picture of that in 1 Chronicles 22, 18. Is not the Lord your God with you? And has he not given you rest on every side?

[34:43] And this is David speaking to the people. For he has given the inhabitants of the land into mine hand, and the land is subdued before David, before the Lord, before his people.

[34:55] God brings a subjection. God tells Adam and Eve, subdue. Well, then they can go and subdue. Because God gave them the authority to do that. There's a Narnia quote in here that I could bring out.

[35:07] And it's just where they say that Narnia was not a country for man, but it was a country for man to rule over. Well, earth is a country for man. And it's also meant for man to rule over. And those areas where you still see today, after the fall, man taking dominion and man subduing the earth with wisdom and with thought, good comes from it.

[35:27] We call it civilization. We call it home. We call it work. You know, we call it roads. We call it clean drinking water. Right? That is man taking creation into hand as he was meant to, and to subdue it, to rule over and have dominion.

[35:41] This was God's plan for his creation. Just let it go. You do nothing with it. Again, one, there's no purpose. You lose all purpose if man's not involved in the creation God made for him. And two, creation is not meant to rule itself.

[35:55] Before the curse, creation was not meant to be without man's hand. So how much more after the curse? Well, I'm just going to let it all go back to Mother Nature. I don't know who she is.

[36:05] She's not in my Bible. So I'm just going to stick with God the Father. We have the same privilege in Christ. Again, we gain more in Jesus than we ever lose in Adam. Well, you know, Adam had dominion over creation.

[36:17] Yeah, well, we have dominion over more than that. In Jesus, Paul tells us in Ephesians 1.22, he's put all things under Jesus' feet. This is speaking of Christ.

[36:28] He's put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church. There is nothing that is not under Christ now. And it's beyond just the creation.

[36:39] He's put all, I mean, the creation as we see it, I'm sorry. As we've been looking at the world, the earth, we're talking the spiritual creation as well. The spiritual realm is under Christ. And he's done the same for us.

[36:53] He tells us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, 2 Corinthians 10, 4-5, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

[37:06] And then what? Bringing into subjection, captivity, every thought to the obedience of Christ. That's the authority we have in Christ. Just as we have authority through Adam, we have dominion over creation, we don't have to apologize for doing what God's called us to do in this world.

[37:22] And we also don't have to apologize when doing what God has called us to do in the spiritual world. You have authority, spiritually, that the world doesn't have. And there'll be situations we'll get into where you may not be the authority, like hierarchically in the system of the world, but where the authority is yours spiritually, and God wants you to take it in a person's life or in a situation.

[37:46] And you don't have to be ashamed of that. I get ashamed. I confess. There's times where I know the Lord's like, pray. I'm like, I don't want to pray. I don't want to pray for that person. They're going to think I'm a nut. But you know what?

[37:57] Who cares? They have no authority. There is an authority at this time that God wants me to pray against, and it's the authority in the spiritual realm. It's those weapons of our warfare.

[38:08] I mean, it's the things we're fighting against. It's the enemy. And God's like, hey, I want to take authority here, and you're the means by which I want to do it. So pray. Jesus said to the apostles when he sent the 70 out in Luke 10, verse 17 through 20, he sent them out to preach the gospel of the kingdom, to cast out demons and heal the sick, and they all returned with joy.

[38:30] They were so excited. And they wanted to tell Jesus all about how, like, the devils weren't subjected to us. We did have authority. We cast out demons. And he said, he responds and just says, I beheld Satan falling as lightning from heaven.

[38:46] He's like, well done, guys. Well done. He couldn't stand before you. And he says, you are going to have that authority to tread down the enemy. He says, notwithstanding, don't rejoice in that, but rejoice instead in this, because your names are written in heaven.

[39:02] You know, guys, the authority you have isn't just for this world. Like, you have the authority to walk into heaven, to go before the throne with boldness, because we are in Christ, the second Adam.

[39:15] We can go before him, and we can, with authority, say, I belong here. That's crazy. That's crazy. Yes, we have authority in this world, but we have a much greater blessing than just here.

[39:31] Paul tells us that there's a problem, though, in Romans 7, 23. He says, I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind that's bringing me into captivity, subjecting me, bringing dominion over me into this law of sin, which is in my members.

[39:48] I can't get out of it. It's like I have something that's keeping me down. And he said, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Who's going to deliver me from that which is taking authority over me through sin?

[40:01] Oh, I thank my God, through Jesus Christ, my Lord. And again, then we looked at that verse in Corinthians, that we have the authority to cast down imaginations in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

[40:13] Man, this week was rough for me with studying. I mean, studying was good. I love studying. But I just felt really, I don't know, edgy, apprehensive, agitated, just like felt, I don't know.

[40:25] And I prayed a bunch. I'm like, Lord, just take this. And sometimes it's hard when like the Lord chooses not to remove whatever he's doing there. And he's like, no, I'm going to leave that. And trust me in that. I have authority.

[40:37] I have dominion here. It's going to be good. You know, walk through this valley of the shadow of death. I'm with you. We say it all the time in our house. You know, when something's going on and we pray, we're like, Lord, lead us beside the still waters.

[40:50] You know, make us light on green pastures. You know, but Lord, if you choose to prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies, go for it. That's not what I'd want to eat. You know, when it's like, there's the enemy.

[41:01] It's like, let's go get him. Lord's like, let's sit down and have breakfast instead. Like, Lord, but the enemy, he's right there. He's like, yeah, just sit down. You know, be refreshed.

[41:11] And when sheep don't eat unless they're comfortable, you know, they won't do that. And so as the shepherd, he's like, in the presence of your enemies, I'm going to give you peace. I'm going to give you rest.

[41:23] And so God has created this perfect world for man. He's put man in it to care for it. He's put man in it to have dominion over it. And he's put man in it essentially to make it function. It's not going to click. It's not going to go without man as the engineer here.

[41:37] And then he's blessed them, man and woman. And we're going to see eventually how they come about. But at this time, this synopsis, he's saying he blessed them. He said, be fruitful and multiply. God's blessings are always fruitful, always multiplication.

[41:49] And then to have dominion. We have not said much about evolution through this whole process of creation. You know, what is the wheat to the chaff? Well, why focus on the lie when you have the truth?

[42:01] You know, I don't want to listen to some dude's made up story about whatever when it's not true. You know, what's the point? But we do have a quote here. This guy, I can't remember his name is.

[42:13] His last name is Johnson. He's considered like the father of the modern intelligent design movement. He was from the 80s. And he really started pushing this. It is said that there would be at least 40 different stages of evolution required to form a single eye.

[42:27] What possible benefit could there be to the first 39 stages? I got an eye. It's just amazing. It doesn't do anything. It's like the earth without man. It's pointless. It's like, great.

[42:38] The mathematician D.S. Ullman argues it was highly improbable for the eye to evolve by the accumulation of small mutations because the number of mutations must be so large and the time available was not nearly long enough for them to appear.

[42:52] So like mathematically impossible. Evolution today is dead mathematically. It is dead. Because of the technology we have and what we understand, you know, compared to what Darwin was working with, nobody would come up with evolution today.

[43:05] But that's not the issue today. The issue is this. Evolutionists, whoever this guy is, Ernest Mayer commented, somehow or other, by adjusting these figures, we will come out all right.

[43:17] We are comforted by the fact that evolution has occurred. And so Den Johnson observes to the evolutionists, Darwinianism to them is not a theory that can be open to being refuted, but it's a fact that they just go about to prove.

[43:32] So for the evolutionists, it's like, well, evolution is a fact. I don't need to prove it. I already know it's a fact. I just need to figure out how now it works. How does this thing work? I'm going to go out about figuring that out. We approach it, unfortunately, many times as believers from thinking, well, I can prove to you it's not true.

[43:47] They don't care about that. They've already decided it's true because it's something that what? Replaces God. Rejected God. And lastly, to suppose that such a random event could reconstruct even a single complex organ like a liver or kidney is about as reasonable as to suppose that an improved watch can be designed by throwing an old one against the wall.

[44:09] I like that. It's a little twist on people like, oh, if you take all the parts of a watch, put it in a box and shake it up long enough, will a watch come out? No, it won't. I like this one. You even start with a watch.

[44:20] You know, chuck it against the wall. Yeah, right? It's like they say, you put a mouse in a blender. You got all the parts of the mouse. How long do you leave it before it becomes a mouse again?

[44:31] It just stinks. And so does evolution. That's why we haven't looked much at it at all. We're not going to touch too much. We'll read through this. And you can do it in your own digging. You can write down 1 Timothy 4, 1 through 3.

[44:46] Genesis 9, 3. Acts 10, 12 through 15. Regarding food. But God says in verse 29, Behold, I've given you every green herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed.

[45:05] To you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and everything that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life, I've given every green herb for meat. And it was so.

[45:17] So God establishes food. He's creating food. He said, this is what you're going to eat. Adam sows everything else. They're going to eat the herb that is bearing seed, and the fruit of the trees.

[45:28] And again, as we looked at before, trees are not alive in the way that the creatures are. So they do not die. It's not death when a seed repropagates itself. Because a seed must die to create or grow another plant.

[45:41] But this all changes after the fall. And God's going to tell Noah in Genesis 9 that everything that's alive, every moving creature, the thing that's not the plant, the animal, is for your food.

[45:55] And then we're going to be told in Acts, Peter gets told the same thing. Don't call anything unclean that I've called clean. It's all for you. Then we're also told that that reference in Timothy is talking about that in the last times, in the end times, there'll be doctrines of demons.

[46:09] Forbidding to marry? Boy, are we in that today. And forbidding to eat meat. And this is not an argument on whether you should only eat meat or plants or what the nutritional value is. The point is, God created these things to be enjoyed.

[46:22] He created them for a purpose. Just as we looked at all creation. Look at that, and what does the world do? They try and undo everything God does. No, no, no, this creation is not for man.

[46:33] It's just meant to be special by itself. Man needs to go. Well, no, God said it was for man. And well, no, no, no, no. Originally, and you hear this a lot, unfortunately, we were originally designed to eat just plants.

[46:44] We were. Yup. Yup, we were also designed to live forever. You know, this is a totally different system after the fall, okay? That's just not going to happen anymore, guys. I can't go back to before the fall.

[46:56] What are the only things that come out of the fall? Men, women, marriage. Marriage, that institution, and the dominion that God gives, because God will give it again to Noah. So as we wrap up, as we close, we're not going to look at day seven.

[47:14] That's going to, it perfectly lines up for Easter next week, looking at Christ as our rest and the rest. But there remains a rest for us to the people of God. For he that has entered into his rest, he also shall cease from his own works as God did from his.

[47:27] How did God cease from his own works? Again, we're not going to get into it, but look into some of those words on your own and what they mean. Finished, and when he rested, to cease, desist, consume, finish.

[47:42] It is finished. In the same way that God rested from his works, we rest from ours. And on that Sabbath day, we remember what Jesus did, the rest, the work that was finished for us.

[47:54] We don't have to figure this out anymore. He did it. We're going to take communion, remembering that rest. But I wanted to end with just, what does Jesus look like? Right? What's the image?

[48:05] What did Jesus look like? Well, he said in Matthew 11, 29, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. You want to know what I'm like? I'm meek, I'm lowly in heart, you shall find rest under your souls.

[48:16] He's meek, he's lowly in heart, and like we looked at, when with an open face we come to the Lord, and we look into his word, we're changed into his image. Philippians tells us in chapter 2, verse 5, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God.

[48:33] But he made of himself no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

[48:48] Wherefore God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that the name of Jesus every need should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.

[49:00] And so Jesus, what did he look like? He humbled himself. He decided to look like us. He took on the image of sinful man so we could take on the image of the new life in Christ.

[49:11] And then, why? Why would he do that? Because of the exaltation that came. It's so far outside this world, isn't it? This world can give us nothing. It's so temporary. When we humble ourselves in the Lord, the exaltation that comes is not like, ha ha, I'm a big man.

[49:24] But it's like, I'm exalted into Christ's presence. Again, I have that authority now to go into the presence of the Lord, washed in the blood. Because Jesus has dominion that every knee should bow. We briefly said that on day six, God created all the animals.

[49:38] And there's one particular animal I wanted to look at. And in, I think it's Matthew 21 is the triumphal entry where Jesus rides in to town.

[49:50] And they all throw down their cloaks and they cut down the palm branches and they shout, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And Jesus rides in on a colt, the foal of a donkey, it says.

[50:05] It had never been ridden before. And so Jesus is riding into town on this donkey. And I was thinking of when that donkey was created. Well, not that donkey, but it's great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grand donkey. Right?

[50:16] Created, right? Fresh comes forth, freshly created, looking around at that world and like, wow. Maybe it sees a cat. Maybe it sees some bird. You know? Maybe it sees a dog.

[50:26] It's like, ah, that's cool. And then it looks and it sees a horse. And it's like, oh, oh, shoot. I thought it was pretty cool until I saw the horse. You know, scripture talks a lot about horse.

[50:39] Horses prepared for the day of battle. The safety is of the Lord. You know? If you cannot run with the footmen, how should we keep up with the horses? Yeah. Nobody talks about donkeys. Nobody's like, yes, blessed is the man who's like the donkey.

[50:52] Nobody. That's not in the Bible. So you think of that donkey. He is one of the only two animals in scripture to speak. The serpent and the donkey speaks to Balaam. But he gets whooped on first.

[51:03] You know? He doesn't, he's not believed. Nobody believes the donkey. It's this humble, lowly donkey. But then you think, you know, and even in the end, in Revelation, Jesus comes back.

[51:14] What's he riding? His white donkey? Now he's riding his white horse. You know? But right in the middle of that, old creation, new creation, here's Jesus, the creator, who created all this.

[51:27] And what does he ride in on? A donkey. This little donkey. Little did he know way back when he was created what he was going to be called for. And little did he know when God created him with a cross on his back that it was because Jesus was going to ride in on him.

[51:42] And whenever God looks down at a donkey from above, what does he see? What are we to take up daily? And so when the Lord looks down on us, now we are in Christ, he sees the cross.

[51:56] And he says, hey, I want to ride on you. Like, oh, Lord, I don't know if I can carry you. He's like, hey, my yoke is easy. My burden's light. I've created you for a purpose. It doesn't matter whether you're a donkey, whether you're a horse.

[52:09] And there are things that God has for us that we don't even know of yet. And unfortunately, sometimes we have to go through a fall before we realize God's goodness and grace and what all he wants to restore to us.

[52:22] I recognize I'm a donkey, Lord, but, you know, I've got on my back the cross of Jesus. And, Lord, what authority do I have that I'm not taking up in my own life, in the spiritual world, over sin, over this walk?

[52:37] Am I letting other people dictate to me who I should be? Father, we thank you so much for just the pictures, Lord.

[52:50] Lord, I feel like, Lord, thank you for your word. I feel like as a commentary, Lord, it's just so amazing how it comments, other parts of the scripture comment on, another part of scripture, Lord.

[53:02] Now, if I took a commentary something man had written and read it, well, you get, he only has so many points, but in scripture, Lord, it never ends. There's always one more picture and one more verse and one more thing to see.

[53:14] Lord, even as I was teaching today, just that, some of the stuff you were bringing out, Lord, I had not seen that before. Lord, so Lord, just thank you, Lord. You know, you are the bread of life, Lord.

[53:24] You know what we need. You know what we need to sustain us, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for allowing your body, a created body.

[53:34] You didn't even get Adam's perfect body. You got a fallen body that you took on yourself. And then you hung on a tree. It was meant, Lord, to be something beautiful that you put in your garden, a tree of life.

[53:50] Lord, and I guess it really was a tree of life for us, Lord, a different tree. Thank you for that, Lord. And so, Lord, as we go our way today, just thank you for these pictures as we finish up your beautiful creation story, Lord, as we've seen you bring light out of darkness, as we've seen, Lord, the Spirit of God hovering over the water, having a plan and a purpose in what seemed like, chaos to us, Lord.

[54:12] And then we see your creation and each one of those things, Lord, as it was created, you already knew what was in your heart, Lord, how it would be used, Lord, after the fall. The lambs, that would be for sacrifice.

[54:27] Clean animals and unclean animals. And then, Lord, the humble donkey, that right at the beginning, Lord, you put that little stripe on him, Lord, that cross, and he bore that all the way up until that day you rode in.

[54:41] And so, Lord, the things you put on us that we wonder, why is this there? Why is this like that? To recognize, Lord, that it has a purpose, that you have foreordained, Lord, good works for us.

[54:53] Before the foundation of the world, Lord, before that creation, it was already in your heart, the good works that you had for each of us. And Lord, to trust you to bring those about. We thank you for the authority we have.

[55:06] Lord, not authority to name it, claim it, not authority to go out and conquer the world, but the authority to come boldly before the throne of grace. That we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

[55:19] Love you, Jesus. Just thank you for these sweet times with you. In Jesus' name, Amen.