God Said …

Introduction

I readily recognize that my primary task as your evangelist is to instruct you in God’s Word, to help you to understand what the will of God is for your life, and then to urge you into obedience to that word. But secondarily, I’ve taken it upon myself to also instruct you in Alabama history and geography.

You’re welcome. Are you familiar with the town of Walnut Grove, Alabama? I want to talk to you about Walnut Grove. If you don’t know Walnut Grove, it’s real, it’s right next to Susan Moore, Alabama, which are both suburbs of the metropolis of Altoona. And I tell you about Walnut Grove because when I was growing up as a young child, that’s where my grandparents lived. I only knew my mom’s dad. My dad’s mom and dad had passed away prior to me coming on this planet. And so I only knew my grandpa and then uh his second wife, my granny Hazel, and they lived, had a farm in Walnut Grove, Alabama. And Walnut Grove is in the northeast part of the state, about 45 minutes from where I grew up, in Longview, Alabama.

And we would often, usually on the weekends, when my dad was off, we would make sojourns to visit the grandparents. That’s kind of a normal thing. And we’d go visit them on the farm. And it seems like in my memory, more times than not, when we would visit the grandparents on their farm in Walnut Grove, that I would have done something that got me in trouble. And I remember so many of those drives home, that 45-minute drive home in the evening, with us getting in the car, and my dad saying, You’re getting a spanking when you get home. That makes for a pleasant ride home, doesn’t it? 45 minutes of anticipation based upon what dad had said. Usually I would do two things, hoping that I could erase my dad’s anger.

Number one is I would try to behave extra nice. I was the best kid in those 45 minutes, hoping that that good would erase the bad that I had done. If I didn’t have that in me, if I didn’t think that would work, then I would go to plan B. And plan B was fake being asleep. Even my dad surely couldn’t beat a sleeping child.

And sometimes, not always, sometimes when we would get home and pull into that carport, dad would say again, you remember you’re getting a spanking. Sometimes, whether my tactics worked, or dad just forgot, or was feeling charitable, he wouldn’t say anything when we got home. And my older brother, who was always wanting to help out, would remind Dad. Didn’t you say something about Kenneth getting a spanking when we got home? We recognize the power of words, don’t we? The words of our parents. And we understand that sometimes not just the power of those words, but the anticipation of the fulfillment of those words. This morning I want to talk to you about words and the most powerful of words. And they are the most powerful of words because of their source.

1. The Power of God’s Word in His Creative Works

This morning I want to talk to you about the words of God. Will you go with me to Genesis chapter 1? Genesis chapter 1. And we’re going to talk about what God said and the power of God’s word. We’re going to talk about that in basically two areas of life. Genesis chapter 1 and then in John chapter 1. Let’s start in Genesis chapter 1. You’re familiar with this text, I’m sure, where it says, in the beginning, in the beginning, Genesis 1 verse 1, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Before we read any further, I want you in the best imagination that you can to try to picture that.

I know that’s virtually impossible, but try to picture the world before God proceeds. It was without form and void. And darkness was on the face of the deep. Picture that darkness. Picture that chaos. That absence of life. The next verse, and the verses that continue this chapter, all the way into chapter two, really, will be God inserting himself into that darkness, inserting himself into that chaos. And the very next words are, then God said. But before we get to what God said and the results of what God said, picture life or the absence of life before God said anything. At least as we’re reading that, there should be some anticipation in that darkness, in that without form and void. It should build within us some anticipation as to what is God going to do to fix that.

How will God remedy that darkness? That lack of form, that void that is there. We don’t know how much time transpires between verses 1 and 2 and verse 3, where God said. But there’s anticipation there, isn’t there? There’s certainly anticipation as we read the story, but I’m going to argue to you this morning that I believe there was anticipation in real time. That creation itself was anxious for something to happen. Hold your finger there and go to the New Testament to Romans chapter 8. The apostle Paul speaking by inspiration of creation, creation that now is flawed and cursed. And he’ll speak of it with some personification terms. And speak of it at almost as if this creation is human and can think and act and be anxious.

Notice what he says, Romans 8, starting in verse 19. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know, look at verse 22. We know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pains together until now. So he’s saying, Paul is saying now in this cursed flaw of creation, that it’s longing and groaning and crying out for God to do something. I would argue that that’s the way it was in Genesis chapter 1, when it was darkness, was out form and void, that it’s that creation was kind of crying out for something to be done, that that anxiety was there, that it needed light, that it needed form, it needed order, and it was just crying out for it in anticipation.

But nothing happened, and nothing would happen until God spoke. That speaks to the power of God’s word, doesn’t it? And so we see the power of God’s word in his creative words. That nothing happened until God spoke. Again, that reinforces in our mind the absolute power of the word of God, that nothing could happen until God spoke. And when God spoke, it brought life. Notice there, go back with me to Genesis chapter 1 and skip down to verse 26. Then God said, and by the way, nine times in this text, nine times, if I counted right, we’ll find the words God said. Eight of those times, it’s in regard to his creative power. God said, and something was created. Chapter 1, verse 26, again, God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, 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. Verse 7 of chapter 2 adds to that.

And man became a living being.

Nothing happened until he spoke, but when he spoke, he could bring life into existence. And when he spoke, he brought order. Out of that chaos that existed in verses 1 and 2, darkness without form and void, when God spoke, you think of it, in those days of creation, that’s what we’re witnessing, isn’t it? We’re witnessing order being brought. We’re seeing light and that light being separated, and we’re seeing the firmaments being separated, and we’re seeing the planets being formed, and we’re seeing even in the creation of man that man now has dominion over the rest of the creation. All of this is about God bringing order to this chaos. And God’s word could do that. Again, look at Genesis 1 and in verse 2.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. There was that darkness, that chaos, but then God said. Chapter 1, verse 31. God saw everything that he made, and indeed it was very good. God’s power in his creative work is seen in that it brings life and it brings order, and it brings meaning and purpose to what he has created. God did this. God said and exerted his creative power to bring about meaning.

2. The Power of God’s Word in His Redemptive Works

All of this is now bringing meaning out of that darkness, out of that void, out of that disorder and chaos. And all of that was possible. Just because God had not spoken. Now let’s go to John chapter one in the New Testament. As good Bible students, you recognize the repetition of language from Genesis 1 to the introduction of John’s gospel in John chapter 1. And what we’re going to see in John chapter 1, that just as the power of God’s word was seen in his creative works, the power of God’s word is seen in his redemptive works. That again, just as the Old Testament we postulated began with that anxious anticipation. Because there was darkness over the face of the earth, it was without form and void.

Something needs to be done to fix this. That is replicated and multiplied, we would argue in the New Testament era.

Waiting. Waiting for the Messiah. Simeon, if you look at Luke’s gospel, Simeon spoke of that. This old man who was so honored, he said, to be able to witness the coming of the new Messiah spoke of that anxious messianic anticipation of how much they were waiting and longing for that. The closest thing we can compare that to is maybe the birth of a child in our family. When you find out that you’re expecting, you have nine months of waiting. Anticipation.

Sometimes for mothers, they were anticipating this, maybe before they even got married. The desire to be a mother and have a child. And I can tell you this grandparents were expecting this long before nine months. The anticipation of the birth of that child. And as we’re waiting, and we’re waiting, and all of those family members, extended family members and friends, are waiting for that text or that phone call that says, it’s time, we’re on the way to the hospital. That’s the way multiplied and amplified the Jewish nation was when we turned the page into the first century. They were waiting for that Messiah. And that anticipation was for the same reason the creation was anticipating. Because when we get to John chapter one, the earth again is covered in darkness.

And again, it’s without form. And it’s void. Not in the physical sense in Genesis chapter 1, but in a spiritual sense. The earth was dark. There was no order. There was no meaning to life. Generation after generation, and history had taught them what it’s taught us. That we’re a mess as a people. And left to our own devices, all we’re going to do is mess it up more and make it dark. And again, nothing happened until God spoke. Are you with me there in John chapter 1? As John begins his gospel famously, in the beginning was the word. And the word was with God. And the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. Skip down to verse 14. And the word, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, into an equally dark and chaotic world. God spoke again. Jesus is introduced to us as the Word of God speaking. Of God saying, Let there be light.

And again, none of this would happen. Could happen apart from God once again inserting himself into the darkness and the chaos of creation. And once again, God’s word brought life. In him was life, and life was the light of man. Verse 9 would say in John’s gospel, John verse 1, John chapter 1, verse 9, this was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. The very first words of God as he entered inserted himself into creation, let there be light. And now Jesus again, the word of God inserted again into the darkness and the chaos of creation, let there be light. And this light was the life of man. God created life in Genesis chapter 1, and God is recreating life in John chapter 1.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. Again, God’s word is going to bring order to life.

In Revelation chapter 21 and other places, we read about the new heavens and the new earth that God has a new order to things, a new creation, a new meaning and a new purpose to life, to bring order. And Jesus would say to his apostles and to us, I came to bring peace. Peace I give you, not peace as the world would give you, but I give you peace. Peace is order. The opposite of chaos and conflict. And Jesus brought that order. And Jesus, God’s word brings meaning to life. In John chapter 10. And in verse 10, Jesus Himself would say, the thief does not come except to steal and to kill and destroy. But I, speaking of Himself, Jesus says, I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.

3. That Same Power Can Be Seen in Your Life

So you see, he didn’t just bring life, he brought meaning to that life. So God’s word, so powerful, nothing happened in creation until God said. God’s word is so powerful that in the darkness and the chaos of sin and death, nothing happened until God said and sent his word, his son, to bring life and to bring order, and to bring meaning. And the application is the power of God’s word, the power of God’s word that was demonstrated in his creative work, the power of God’s word that was demonstrated in his redemptive work, that same power can be seen in your life. He can give you life.

And give it order. Give it peace. And give it meaning. Jesus would say this in John chapter 10. We notice there in John 10, verse 10, the thief comes to steal and to kill and destroy. But he says, I’m not the thief. I came to bring life and bring it more abundantly. Speaking of himself as the shepherd, contrasted to the thief, he would go on to say this in John 10 verse 27. My sheep, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

Conclusion

And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. God spoke in creation. And brought life, order, and meaning. God spoke in the first century and sending his word and brought life, order, and meaning. And God is speaking now. But Jesus is saying, Are you my sheep? Will you hear my voice? Because if you’ll hear my voice, I can bring you life and order and meaning. That’s our appeal. That’s his appeal. And his invitation this morning. Will you let him speak? Will you hear his voice? And the power of God’s word, the same power that was unleashed on this dark, empty world, in creation and in the incarnation, that same unlimited power can be unleashed into the darkness and the void that is your life.

That’s how much power he has. But just like in creation, and just like in the first century, nothing will happen unless we let God speak in our lives. Are you his sheep? Will you hear his voice this morning? Can we help you to have him insert himself into your life and to give it order and meaning this morning? Will you together come as we stand and sing?