Jesus and Genesis #1

Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Thanks for joining us as we continue teaching God's people God's Word. Don begins a new message today, so without further delay, let's join him right now in the Truth Pulpit. There's an aspect or there is a perspective toward Genesis that I want to bring out to you that's going to influence the way we understand all of these questions of history and of origin.

It's just very, very critical and it's so essential to right and proper thinking. Obviously in a room like this and the place where we minister and all of that with the ministry just on the other side of the river that many of you are employed by or have affinity with, I realize that in some ways I sing to the choir, to many of you, but it is very important for us to ground our thinking properly about the way that we should think about all of these things, and Andrew did a brilliant job of pointing us in this direction. But I want it to be clear in your mind the sequence of thought, the way that we think about all of these things, so that we have a firm worldview that is unshakeable and is grounded on the highest authority of them all. As Christians, whatever we think about anything, whatever topic that we consider, we always start with this question, what did the Lord say? What does the Lord say? What does the Lord Jesus Christ say about this either in his own teaching or through the word that he authenticated and authorized in the Old and the New Testaments?

You see, this is the fundamental starting point for all Christian thinking. We trust Jesus Christ not only for the forgiveness of our sins, well we do that for sure, and we rest in his finished work on the cross as being that perfect atonement that can reconcile us fully, completely, and instantly to God. We trust him for that, but we trust him for more than that as well, it's not limited to that. We trust Jesus Christ to tell us the truth about the world around us. We trust Christ to give us the right and accurate perspective on the way that things really are. Jesus Christ is our final authority about the world around us, about the history of the world, about the future of the world, about the condition of our souls, everything that is essential to understanding life and viewing the world rightly. He is our final authority, and as we've taught in the past, our belief in the authority of Scripture is grounded in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ authenticated the Old Testament with his testimony, he authorized and prepared the way for the preparation of the New Testament when he commissioned the apostles to their work. And so everything is grounded in the authority of Christ. He is our final authority for conflicting truth claims, and we look to him and we rely exclusively and finally on him to have the proper perspective and to know what the truth is. We're undaunted by the accusations of science against things because science is not our final authority. We're not intimidated by the fact that we don't know everything individually, collectively, we realize our gaps in our knowledge, not every one of us, and in fact only one of us in this room, has the ability to speak with authority on matters of geology and those sorts of things. We realize that we don't have direct personal knowledge or the experience or the study to be able to speak with authority from our own perspective and understanding.

We know something better. We know Christ, and we know that he always tells us the truth from a perspective of full divine omniscience, and so we can rely on him for things that we don't know directly for ourselves. And so what I want to do this evening is I want to take a look at what I've titled Jesus and Genesis. Jesus and Genesis, if you want a title for the message tonight, and I want us to see the book of Genesis through the eyes of Jesus. We want to see it through the perspective of who Christ is and what he said, and we're going to do this in four basic points here this evening that we'll go through rather quickly. First of all, I want to just remind you by way of laying the groundwork and laying a foundation for what we have to say here. We want to just remind ourselves, first of all, first point tonight, of the authority of Jesus Christ, the authority of Jesus Christ. And I make no apologies for going back to such a fundamental basic point. You know, the repetition of these things is essential for our protection as a church.

The repetition is essential for the protection of your soul, that we never stray from these things so far that we think that we have outgrown them, or that we tire of them, or that we no longer have need of these things. The apostle Peter said, as long as I'm with you in the flesh, I will stir you up. Actually, it may have been Jude.

Second Peter or Jude, one of the two, I will stir you up by way of reminder of the things that I taught you while I was with you. Fundamental to Christianity is the authority of Jesus Christ. This is absolute, this is absolute fundamental bedrock essentials for us to always keep clear in our thinking. Jesus said in John 13, verse 13, you call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. You see, when we talk about Christ, yes, we love him, we embrace him as our savior from sin, as the one who sacrificed himself that we might be reconciled to God, and the wrath of God turned away from our guilty souls. But we remember that this Jesus Christ is God in human flesh, and he is Lord over all. He has divine omniscience, he knows everything, and he never lies. And so when he speaks, he tells us the truth, and we believe him implicitly, and we build our life, and we build our worldview exclusively on what Christ says.

We do not question him. If someone contradicts Christ, we always 100% of the time believe Christ and not the human critic. Turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1 as we just look at a couple of passages to remind us of this fundamental point. We're building an approach to thought, a proper way to think from primary principles and to work them through all the way to the end, and to do that in the context of what we believe about the testimony from the book of Genesis, written some 3500 years ago at the human hand of Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The authority of Jesus Christ, Ephesians chapter 1 beginning in verse 18, where the Apostle Paul is praying, and he says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe? These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. What is the nature of this place, of this position that Christ holds in the heavenly places? What is the nature of his role in the universe? What can we say about the Lord Jesus Christ? Verse 21, he is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the one to come. There you have a definitive, clear statement about the nature of Christ and of his authority.

He stands alone in authority. He stands above all earthly rule, above all earthly authority, above all earthly knowledge, above all power, above all dominion, seen and unseen, Christ is supreme over all. He is Lord over all. And as Christians, our submission, oh this is so very important, our submission to Christ is not only his lordship over things of morality and the way that we should live, our submission to Christ is in the realm of thought and thinking, in the realm of what we consider to be true, in the realm in which we know the way things really are. We rely on what Jesus Christ tells us, what he has said in his word, because he is Lord over all.

He is Lord over thought. And so our responsibility as Christians is to think to the greatest extent possible like Christ thinks, to believe what Christ taught, to follow him not only in obedience of life action, but as scripture says, to love him with all of our minds, which means that we bring our minds into harmony with what Christ said, with what he taught, and we let that be the mind which animates us. Scripture says we have the mind of Christ, it has been revealed in his word, and we want to bring every thought captive into obedience to him. We are obedient not only in our actions, but we are obedient to him in our thinking, because he is Lord over all.

Turn to a parallel passage, if you would, a couple of books to the right in your New Testament to the book of Colossians. Colossians chapter 1 verse 15, speaking of Christ, says that he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. In other words, he holds the preeminent rank in all of creation. He is first in all of creation.

For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together. He is preeminent. He is Lord.

He is teacher. He is master. And though I belabor the point this evening, I do so without apology. That means that he is Lord over the way that we think. And therefore our responsibility as Christians is to study God's words so that we understand the way that our Lord Jesus Christ thinks and then to agree with him in everything that he said, to not stand apart from him, to have areas of our thought and worldview that is separate from him, distinct and independent of him, or, God forbid, to have elements of our thought and elements of our worldview that are in conflict and in opposition to him.

A distinct and critical part of your sanctification and growth in Christ is to have a mind that is like him's and to have a mind that is in submission to what he said and taught. Now, something very important here. I think everything's important that I'm going to say tonight.

Or I wouldn't have put it in my notes. We understand something very basic and very important. Let me put it this way. The lordship of Jesus Christ is the starting presupposition of all of the rest of our thought. That is the cornerstone for us. That is the primary principle. That is the principle upon which we base everything else. That is our starting presupposition, is that Jesus Christ is Lord. And we have no fear of being wrong in that presupposition. We're not afraid that we might be mistaken there because Christ objectively, really, and truly is Lord. And as we base our life and our thinking on that preeminent basic principle, we know that we have built on a foundation that cannot be shaken.

We know that. We're not afraid of being wrong. Now, as we go through life, as we deal with the secular world, as we deal with secular philosophies, as some of you go to school and face contradicting philosophies to that, we understand something and we freely acknowledge something very important. We realize, we understand, we acknowledge that the lordship of Jesus Christ is not the world's starting presupposition. They start from something else. They start from whether they've consciously thought of this or not.

They start from a presupposition of the reliability of their own reason, or the preeminence of science, or the fact that there is no absolute truth at all and so why are we even fussing over such a thing? Whatever their starting presupposition is, we realize that it's not ours. We realize that they start from a different point in thought and that they would not recognize that as a valid place upon which to base all of your thinking. We understand that. We freely acknowledge it.

We embrace that difference. And what we do in that great conflict of philosophies is we assert our presupposition over against theirs. I understand you reject the lordship of Christ, we would say to the critic, to the false philosophies of men. We understand that you disagree with that, but we assert it all the same. There is no common ground in our presuppositions here. We believe we base upon the presupposition of the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and rather than apologize for that or seek common ground with a philosophy that has no common ground with that, we call them to repent of their rejection of the lordship of Christ. We call them out of the world and say, come over here to this correct presupposition for your thought, otherwise you're going to be hopelessly and miserably lost. And so our starting point is the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is our presupposition.

It is well grounded. It is revealed in scripture. And let's say this as well. And that assertion is certified by the testimony of the Holy Spirit Himself, whose ministry it is to glorify the Lord Jesus. And the Holy Spirit bears witness when that presupposition is asserted that yes, that is true.

And so this isn't the assertion of a man. This is the assertion of Christ, borne witness to by His own Holy Spirit to be the right and true way to think, revealed in scripture and affirmed by the Spirit who inspired the scriptures. So that's the starting point, the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that's the big, broad principle.

Let's narrow it down a little bit. Let's take that one step further and ask this question. Where does Christ's authority lead us as we consider truth claims, as we consider considerations of the origin of the world, for example? Well, the authority of Christ leads us to a second consideration here. It leads us to the authority of the Old Testament, the authority of the Old Testament.

Now, I'll state this ever so briefly. Jesus Christ, who is Lord, who is the ultimate authority, Jesus Christ knew the Old Testament. And He declared the Old Testament to be true and authoritative.

And He stated it generally, and He stated it specifically. Look at the book of Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, beginning in verse 17.

As we glance back at the Sermon on the Mount, which we finished teaching a few months ago, we cast a glance back here to familiar ground that we've covered in the past. Jesus Christ, speaking on His own authority, looks back to the Old Testament and says this, Matthew 5, 17. Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. The law has an enduring authority that can never be violated. Jesus says that is true to the smallest letter, the smallest stroke.

If we were speaking about it in English terms, we would say every I is dotted and every T is crossed to that level of specificity. The law of God is authoritative, the law and prophets are true, they are to be believed, and everything that they said will be fulfilled without exception. That's Christ's view of the Old Testament.

That's high, that's lofty. In Luke chapter 24 verse 44, Luke 24 verse 44, you don't need to turn there, He said in a more general statement, all things which are written about Me and the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be what? Fulfilled. It all has to be fulfilled because it is all the Word of God, it is given by inspiration of God, it is inerrant, it is infallible, it must be fulfilled because it is all true and God will accomplish everything that He wrote in the Old Testament. And so, with that very brief overview, we see that Jesus Christ asserted the authority of the Old Testament broadly and He stated it in detail, every stroke, every letter would be fulfilled. Christ, in other words, viewed the Old Testament as completely authoritative and as completely trustworthy and that everything that it said was true, everything that it affirmed was true, everything that it predicted would be fulfilled without exception.

So, let's back up and take a breath. Let's catch our breath because we're talking about some pretty broad principles here of great eternal significance and consequence. Jesus Christ is the ultimate authority. There's no higher authority than Him. There's no Supreme Court above Christ, He is the Supreme Court, so to speak.

The Supreme Court, not of the United States, but of the universe. The highest authority in the universe is Christ. We believe that, we submit to that, we affirm that. As we come and we consider this Old Testament that we hold in our hands, we say, as it were, we say, Oh Christ, what should I believe about the Old Testament? You are my teacher and you are my Lord.

You are the authority over my thought life. Because of your position, because of your trustworthiness, I know that you are God in human flesh and that you cannot lie. It is impossible for God to lie. And so, Oh Christ, I come to you and I say, What should I believe about the Old Testament? And Christ in His Word has told us, It'll all be fulfilled. It is all to be believed. Christ says, I did not come to abolish it, but to fulfill it.

All will be accomplished. Take it on my authority. You can trust the Old Testament. In John 10, verse 35, he said, The Scriptures cannot be broken. They cannot tell us a lie.

They cannot mislead us. We have that on the authority of Christ. And so, in our ultimate authority in the Lord Jesus Christ, He looks at the Old Testament and He tells us to believe it, to accept it, to follow it, either in its precepts or to follow the Old Testament as it points to the fulfillment of certain things in Himself and in His earthly ministry as it's revealed in the New Testament. Old Testament, true, authoritative, to be believed.

Okay? So the authority of Christ establishes for us in general the authority of the Old Testament. Now, see what we're doing? Well, let me give you point number three and it'll be even more clear. Point number three is Jesus and Genesis.

Jesus and Genesis. And I want you to follow the way that we're thinking here this evening. You start with the first principle, the authority of Christ. You ask a more general question, what about the authority of the Old Testament? And you see it affirmed. Then you get more specific.

You go from the broadest and you start to work your way down to more specific details. Okay, I believe in the authority of Christ. I believe now the authority of the Old Testament, but let me get more specific. What about the authority of Genesis? You say to yourself as you work at the way through, as you work from broad principles down to greater detail, what about Genesis? Does our Lord have anything to say to us about the authority of Genesis and the trustworthiness and the reliability of the first book in the Bible? Well, if you've never looked at this before, it might surprise you to realize how much of the book of Genesis itself Jesus quoted during the course of his teaching ministry. This is very, very powerful as we go from the broad authority of Christ to the Old Testament, and now we apply this and look for this in Genesis.

Here's what you would expect if what we've been saying so far is true. If Christ is truly authoritative, and if he truly affirmed the authority of the Old Testament, then you would expect something in his teaching ministry. You would expect that at any time that he refers to, let's put it this way, if Christ ever quoted from the book of Genesis, you would expect him to do so in a positive way that reinforced the truthfulness of what he said, because he's made the general statement that everything in the law and the prophets must be fulfilled. And so if our principles are correct, if our presuppositions are right and we're following them through, if the general is true, then we would expect the specifics to bear that out.

I'll show you what I mean by that. As you read through the four New Testament Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, very good, when you look at the four Gospels, you will find that in the teaching of Jesus, at various different times in his teaching ministry, you can find an almost comprehensive review of the history of Genesis in the teaching of Jesus. Now we're going to go through this really quickly, and we're going to bounce around the four Gospels, but there's a method to our madness here. What we're going to do over the next 10 or 15 minutes is, while we're bouncing from Gospel to Gospel in a way that seems haphazard, what we're actually doing is, we're doing a chronological review of Genesis, chapters 1 through 50, in what we are looking at. And so that's what we're going to do, and we're going to see how Jesus touched on every critical point of the book of Genesis, and affirmed it at every point. So first of all, Jesus in Genesis.

Now we're going to go through this really quickly, and so try to stay with me if you can. First of all, we see that Jesus affirmed the Genesis account of creation that is found in the first two chapters of Genesis. Go to the Gospel of Mark chapter 10.

Mark chapter 10. Beginning in verse 6. Mark 10, verse 6. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.

For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh, so they are no longer two, but one flesh. Jesus looks back, points to the creation account in the first two chapters of Genesis, and says, this is what happened. And he builds theology for his day and for all future days based on the factual historical accuracy and reality of what was recorded in Genesis 1 and 2. Jesus affirmed the creation in Genesis 1 and 2. You can only get to the scientific objections to creation.

You can only get to worldly scientific theories of evolution or theistic evolution or things like that. You can only get to those by stepping over Jesus and ignoring what he says. And for the biblical Christian submitted to the lordship of Christ in his mind as well as in his conduct, that is unthinkable.

You can't go there. You say, but science, blah, blah, blah. To which I say, but Jesus, blah, blah, blah. Jesus spoke and affirmed this. And he is my Lord.

He is my teacher. I don't care how many PhDs argue against the presupposition because the presupposition of the authority of Christ is correct and that which contradicts his word is false by definition. Well, friend, thank you for joining us today on The Truth Pulpit, and I just want to let you know of a companion resource that is available to add to this series. The book is titled Foundations in the Book of Genesis, A Geologist's Perspective. It's by Dr. Andrew Snelling, and you can find that book at our website, thetruthpulpit.com.

Again, the book is Foundations in the Book of Genesis, A Geologist's Perspective, available on our website, thetruthpulpit.com. I highly commend it to you. Thank you for being with us. Join us next time as we continue teaching God's people God's word right here on The Truth Pulpit. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's word.