SERMONS

Christ rose from the dead on the third day, according to the Scriptures. But according to the Scriptures, what happened on the “fourth day”? On Sunday, we are going to take up that question and look at Genesis 1:14–19, which tells us that the lights in the heavens were made on the fourth day. And taking our cues from the rest of the Bible, we are going to see what this day of creation tells us about the world and the One who made the world.

For the last week, OBC has hosted the Simeon Trust workshop. And during that time close to a dozen OBC members taught, led small groups, learned, ran sound, prepared food, cleaned up trash, and blessed men from close to 20 churches across Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, and Florida. In short, the work done at OBC this week to study the book of 2 Timothy and to help current and future pastors will bear fruit both now and for generations, even for eternity.

After last week’s sermon, one precocious church member asked if a three-story reading of Genesis 1 suggests a flat earth. In a word, my answer is “no.” (Although, I may say something about the relative flatness of the Dry Land in Gen. 1:10)

Heaven is a place like earth. Have you heard that (sung) before? In some ways, it is exactly right. God made man for the earth, and one day, when death is dead and sin is no more, he will remake the heavens and the earth, so that we spend eternity with him on a glorified earth. At the same time, earth is a place like heaven. Or it should be. God made the world to reflect the glory of heaven, and redemptive history was always aimed to bring God’s image bearers into his heavenly presence. Think Moses, Isaiah, and Paul. Each of them were given visions of heaven—a reflection of what is to come!

Getting into the book of Genesis is like going on a long journey: It’s takes time to get there. Equally, to make sure that we are going in the right direction, it is important to set our compasses the right way. And to do that, we are going to take another week to look at one verse. Genesis 1:2. This verse gives us the condition of the earth before the Lord speaks and it invites us to consider what the Lord is about to say in Genesis 1:3. Even more, when read this verse with the rest of the Bible, it suggests to us that when God speaks “Light” and everything else into existence, he is speaking from the place of his divine throne—namely, from heaven.

Genesis 1:1 is arguably the most important verse in the Bible. As we saw earlier this summer in our series on ontology, The Business of Is-ness, how one reads this verse will largely determine how you understand the rest of the Bible, the rest of history, and the rest of creation—even the rest you are looking for in creation. Indeed, if what you think about God is the most important thing about you (A.W. Tozer), then what you think about God’s creation stands at the top of your thoughts about God. And until December, we are going to plant ourselves in Genesis 1–3 to better understand God’s creation and the covenant he made with Adam in the beginning.