There is a God, and You Are Not Him

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There is a God, and You Are Not Him

May 3, 2021

Today, we describe timeless Christian truths laid out to us in the very first chapter of the bible. Those of all ages, even young children can understand some of the great realities laid out in the bible. For one, there is a God, and God created ex nihilo (out of nothing). He made mankind in his own image, having dominion over the earth and he created them with two genders, male and female. Our culture would war against the bible, even starting in chapter one! Enjoy our conversation about God's holiness and sovereignty on display, even in the very first chapter of the bible

Key Texts: Genesis 1

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Transcript

(music) Well, welcome to the For The King podcast. We have a very, very special guest today. Longtime listener.

Longtime listener, supporter of the podcast. Friend. Friend.

No cousin. Cousin. Cousin.

Cousin. Family. Familial bloodlines.

Intercrossing, intermingling. Yeah, so welcome, Essek. Hi.

Welcome to the podcast. What do you do for a living? I recently have been kind of starting to get in front of God now. That's good.

Very good. We have a young convert to the faith right in front of our eyes. Nice.

You gotta follow Jesus the rest of your life. That's right. Awesome.

So we actually just had a cool little Bible study where we got together after church with Essek. Essek actually got to join us today and we talked about Genesis chapter one. So we thought we'd do a little podcast, let Essek come on and read some of the verses for us.

And we're just going to go through a very simple topic about God's sovereignty, one of his attributes, and the uniqueness of God. Just how sovereign and ultimately how holy he is, how set apart he is. From us humans in Genesis chapter one already from the very beginning of the Bible, we get this creator creation distinction from the Gego.

And we're going to talk about that today. That sound good everybody? No, I'm not going no further than chapter one in Genesis. No further.

Right. No further. And if we go further, you guys should unsubscribe and stop listening to the podcast.

So we're going to be faithful to our word. Okay. All right.

So Essek, can you get into the text for us today and can you read verses one through three? One through three? Yeah. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

The spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, let there be light and there is light. There it is.

Okay. There it is. So yeah, like Rocky already said, you just see this awesome arena right here where God is just creating.

And like Essek was saying in our Bible study, God just says and it happens, right? He just says it and it happens. What's the fancy word for that? God creates X, nihilo. X nihilo.

Very, that is Latin X meaning out, right? Leave like exit, right? You leave out the nihilo, meaning nothing out of nothing. God doesn't need anything to create. So we need tools.

We need wood, materials, stone. If we want to create anything, we need something to begin with. Even the famous Miller Urie experiment that took amino acids in a vial and gave like electrical charges into the vial to create proteins.

They even needed to start with something and based on their research, that's where we get a lot of people saying that creation or animals or us could be created out of nothing just by nature without a God, that experiment. But even that experiment needed beginning materials to even do something like that. So I don't know.

That's just an application of X nihilo that God is the only one ever to make something out of nothing, to just literally not have any materials or any starting point to just make something. Right. And that's a part by God is holy.

Exactly. What's up? It's still on. Oh, yeah.

So so, Essek, God can create light. Can you create light? No. No, exactly.

Not God. I mean, we can make flashlights that kind of like that, like, not like what he not exactly not like just out of nothing. Right.

That ultimately derives what you need to make a flashlight. You much of batteries, plastic batteries, maybe even a little light bulb. Yeah, exactly.

What is he called? Like the little things that will push down. Oh, you need it. Probably a little spring.

Sorry, the little springs. Yeah, the batteries touch. Yeah, because you have to push the button.

Yeah. So we need we need all that to make light. God needs nothing.

God could just say, let there be let there be a flashlight. Let it happen. And you can say, let there be a guitar right now.

And it would happen. Exactly. Guitar there.

Yeah, we would have to spend time. God could have created a world full of just guitars if he wanted to. He could just made a guitar world.

But he didn't. He didn't. We're finding out here in Genesis one what he actually made.

Yeah. So what we learned from Genesis chapter one is there's two fundamental principles of the world. One, there is a God and two, you are not him.

Yeah, not him. Right. So Essex not God.

I'm not God. Rocky's not God. God is God.

And we are his creation. Oh, mom's not God. Yep, exactly.

No moms are not God. Definitely. Does your mom create you? Yes, but she didn't tell everything else.

Well, actually God created you in the womb. I mean, your mom obviously was like the instrument. Yeah, but God created me.

But even though I know she made, I know God made me, but she also is a part of that, not just God. Like she had to live. Exactly.

So God's the only one that can make anything. You good? Yeah. Oh, okay.

I thought you had something else to say. No, wait for you. Yeah.

So there's this creature distinction. What's up? I hope you guys can still feel us because there's a blender in the background. Oh, they can definitely hear us.

Yeah, it's not that loud. I can just cut it out too. So yeah, in Essex, read verse three where it says, "And God said that there'd be light, and there was light." So God can create light out of nothing, obviously.

Like we were just talking about. Exactly. What am I gonna do? But that is the first verse that goes on to the six day creation event where God each day says, "Let there be something," and he continues to create something.

And at the culmination of his creating events, Jesus burp. Yeah. Nice.

God says this. Can you read verses 26 and 27 for me? I'm gonna find it. 14, 15.

So right now we're gonna see the creature creator distinction with the high point being the creature of mankind. 26 and 27? Yes. Okay.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the seas, over the boards of the earth, and over the cattle over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created men in his own image. And the image of God, he created him male and female.

He created them. Nice. Thank you.

Good job. We are not talking about Adam and Eve because it mentions that he created female and woman, but some of that's in chapter two. Adam and Eve, we kind of start learning about that in chapter two.

Yeah. So what you see in Genesis chapter one, see you already broke your rule. You said we're not going past chapter one, that's it.

So you broke it. You broke it. You did.

No. Way past chapter one. No, but what happens is in chapter one, you kind of get this broad overview of these huge cosmic events, everything that God's doing that he's making.

And in chapter two, you kind of get a zoom in. So that is talking about Adam and Eve, but it's zooming in on Adam and Eve in chapter two. So it's kind of like a cut scene.

So you see the huge overview that's happening and then the scene cuts, and then you get to actually witness what happens in verse 27. But you're definitely right. We do see that later on in chapter two.

So that's definitely a really good observation. Yeah. Yeah.

So yeah, like Rocky said, we see there's the creature distinct completely from the Creator and God gave Adam and Eve dominion over what they created. So Essek, do you remember what dominion means? No. It's like you're the king.

You're the ruler over it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

You are set on top of it, right? He's giving them possession of it. So God is ultimately the ruler over it all, but it was his will. It pleased him to give us dominion over the earth.

So that's what we were originally supposed to do. And we still see kind of remnants of that still in our lives, how mankind makes big powers. They make bridges and stuff like that.

But animal husbandry. Animal husbandry, but it's been distorted by sin and by the fall. It has.

We now feed our cattle grain rather than grass. That's right. Grass fed beef.

That's right. That's right. You're just saying stuff.

Well, we don't. You're right. You're right.

We don't feed them the grass. They choose to eat the grass because that's what they have to eat. Yeah.

That's how it should be. We didn't have grain then. So if you could choose what you were to eat, what would you eat? If you could choose that all the time, you don't know.

What'd you eat? Grass chocolate cake. I like I said that could make you stick to your stomach. Like I said, all your, all your today.

I don't know. Like chocolate cake. You like almonds.

You know, like I said, what did you bring that up earlier? I don't remember that. You said the only milk you would drink is chocolate milk. Yeah, I know.

Okay. Yeah. So you like chocolate milk.

Yeah. I'm just not a big fan of like, just plain chocolate ice cream and cake. Yeah.

It's not a big fan of those. So even that kind of shows how you're distinct from the animals. Exactly.

You're different from them because they just eat the grass, eat these vegetation. There's other animals. You eat them.

You eat them. You eat them. And you eat some grass and lettuce and stuff like that too.

Right. So you have to make what we call an omnivore. You ever heard that one before? No.

Have you ever heard of herbivore? Yes. No, it's not a meat eater. That's a carnivore.

Yeah. So then what's a herbivore? An animal that just eats plants. Exactly.

So then what do you think an omnivore is? Someone that eats plants and meat. Yes, both. Exactly.

Nice. So that's a, I mean, there are other animals that do that, but yeah, God gave us a dominion for us to, we get to eat the plants and he gives us the animals too. He doesn't really open up the whole animal thing until Genesis chapter eight.

Yeah. But initially we... That's going past chapter one. That's way past chapter one.

Yeah. We promised. We promised you wouldn't go there.

We've done it twice. But, you know, Jesus says forgive seven times seven. So I think we're okay.

We should be better at being... We should be better at making our yeses yes and our nos nos. That's right. So yeah, well, there's one other thing I want to highlight about this chapter.

We get a glimpse into God's holiness, just how different he is, that he creates things, ex nie, hello, out of nothing. That's pretty unique. And although he gives us things to be in his own image to kind of like create things, we can kind of do that.

But again, we need things to start with. That's part of the made in God's image that we create, that we build up, that we have dominion over kind of thing. But we also see the great war that our culture has against Christianity because it says that he made them male and female.

And for that, you will be persecuted in the coming years. Yeah. Just to think that God made man and woman.

He didn't make all this extra stuff. There's some people that say that they're neither. They're not a man or a woman.

They're just their own little thing. There's plenty of weird people like that in our culture. Yeah.

And people will now fight against Christianity because of already teachings we have coming out in the very first chapter. And also that there is a God. Oh, sorry.

What? I'm going to read this little thing that I have in the Bible. It's called God did it. How did this wonderful world and which we live come to be? God Almighty, the great creator made the heavens and the earth.

Many people who think they are wise have tried to figure out other ways that the world could have been made. But I would rather believe God wouldn't you. The Bible tells us that he made the world out of nothing and that he hold it on nothing.

Who but God Almighty could do that. That's really good. So yeah, that's a really good word.

And when we see something like that, we should trust God instead of man, just like you were reading. So when somebody comes up and says, actually, Essek, there's not only male and female, but there's a hundred other genders. Who do we trust them or do we trust God? We trust God because he only says that there's no man female.

That's right. Yeah, exactly. So when somebody comes up and says, that's only for humans, like, I bet.

No, it's also animals. Yeah, it's also for animals, but there are some animals that are like jellyfish. Yeah, jellyfish.

There's no male and female. They reproduce on their own. Like you said, that's specifically for us.

So yeah, that's really good. So when somebody else comes up and says, Essek, actually, modern day science teaches us that actually, the world's been 14 billion years old in the making, and that there actually wasn't a literal six day creation that we're just, you know, we've evolved from animals. Do we trust them or do we trust what God said? We trust God because the earth is not even a million years old.

It's only 6,000 years old or just a couple thousand years older than that. Yeah. It's not even a million years old.

That's right. Yep. And there's been scientists who have proven that too.

So there's scientists who disagree with them, but there's been other scientists who have proven that. Rocky's actually an environmental scientist. So if you guys have questions on that, ask Rocky and he can help you figure that out.

Yeah, what is an environmental scientist? Do what? What is an environmental scientist? They do a lot of different things. It depends on the job. I could do EPA regulation compliance things for companies or I could work at, I could go do field samples to test certain things.

So yeah, a lot of different things. But yeah, most of these stuff with the environment and making sure the environment is taken care of. And again, the reason any motivation I have for a Christian actually comes from what we just read that God gave us the whole earth to have dominion over, which means that we're supposed to be good stewards.

That we're supposed to rule over it. Does a king, do you think a good king just uses up all of his resources at once and uses them in a poor manner or do you think that a wise king would be efficient with his kingdom and use things well in a regulated manner and doesn't just kill something for no reason or you see what I'm saying? Yeah, I don't know if I explained that right. I think he would do the right thing and not just kill someone for no reason.

Like this place a long time ago would kill them and brothers. Exactly. So the name, but they could do that and God told Jonah to do that and he did it.

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, an environmental scientist would be somebody who takes just takes care of the earth and tries to help be a good steward over it. So yeah, because God gave it to us to have dominion over.

Okay, well, we kind of walked through this chapter. We saw that God is the creator and that there is a God. The Bible doesn't start off saying there might be a God.

Let me prove to you why there is a God and then walk through why it makes more sense for there to be a God than there has to be a God. From the very beginning, the Bible just presupposes. The word presuppose just means that you don't have to prove it.

It's already known. Like, for instance, do you think you exist? Yes, you don't have to prove that. You don't have to prove that you're just here.

Yeah, we're talking right now and you can see everyone's bodies. Exactly. Now, once you get older, you might have to deal with something called solipsism or arguments about brain and the vat problems that you don't exist.

But I think it's pretty safe and I agree with you to presuppose that you exist. So the Bible just starts off presupposing that there is a God. So we also learned that there just is a God and that God created everything and created us in His image and gave this creation to us to have to mean it over to replicate ourselves to multiply and reproduce and then rule over the earth with wisdom like God was.

Yeah, the fourth word in Genesis is God. It is. It's the fourth word.

It's right there. Boom. God doesn't say this is why there's a God.

It just says in the beginning, God did this. God created the heavens and the earth. Yep.

God did it and that's that. Do you know what the fool says? No, I don't even know what a fool is. A fool is somebody who is foolish, which means that they do unwise things.

So I don't know what a fool would say. A fool says in his heart, there is no God. That's what the fool says.

But the wise man says God created the heavens and the earth. Yeah. That's what the wise man says.

So you can't say that. I think you know what you need to do now. You can't say that God didn't collate it because how should we be here if He didn't collate it? Exactly.

The foolish people, they think probably that no one came here and I don't know what they think because I don't know how else we would be here if someone didn't collate this. That's called the cosmological argument for the existence of God. Very good.

That's like a smart kid. Yeah. It doesn't make sense.

You could say, "Oh, you know, I come from mommy and daddy and then mom and dad come from their mommy and daddy. Boom. All the way back, back, back, back, back, back." But eventually there's what? Who started the first human? Well, then you would have to say.

God. X, Y, and Z. Yeah. You have to try your best to figure it out.

But really, the only satisfactory answer is God. So we agree with you. And babies don't know this.

You have to learn it as you grow up. You can't just know something when you're born. You gotta learn it as you grow up.

Yeah. It has to be revealed to you. We actually just had a discussion about that in Romans 10, where Paul talks about how it has to be taught.

You have to teach somebody. About who God is. You don't just intuitively know what God is like.

But you do intuitively know, "Oh, it seems like there's a God." But to know what he's like, you have to read this. Oh, no, no. Okay.

Are we good? Say the whole thing. When some of your Bibles is highlighted in the color so that you know when God is talking. I mean, Jesus is talking.

But actually the whole Bible is Jesus talking, not just like what's highlighted in the word. It's not just that that Jesus is talking. Like here I went to Luke.

Let me just read something that it says. And said, "His soul went at super time to say to those who were in "Vided come for all things on now way." That's in red. But then down here it says, "Now great." Moltitude.

"Now great multitudes went with no him, and he turned and said to them." Nice. But that was in black. And then the other thing I read was in red.

But actually the thing I just read in black should also be in red because the whole thing is Jesus talking, not just what it says. Yeah. All the Bible is Jesus's words.

Yeah. Do you guys have anything to say? No. That was very good.

We agree with you. Good job. The Holy Spirit carried along men that wrote the Bible.

But the Holy Spirit is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God. Triune God.

Jesus Christ isn't the Holy Spirit. They're distinct persons. Sorry, distinct persons, same essence, same God.

Yeah. But we cleared that up. Yeah, that was good.

Cool. Yeah, this has been a really fun episode. This has been awesome.

Thanks for joining us, Essek. Yeah, thank you so much. This is the For the King podcast.

I'm not always going to be on there, so you might see me sometimes. I'm going to be popping in and out every time. Why? Because I'm not always going to church with them.

I'm going to church with my mom and dad. They're actually my cousins. So sometimes I go to church with them, not always.

Yeah, he'll be popping in and out. All right, this is the For the King podcast. Thanks for listening.

Tune in next week. I don't know if I'll get one out this Wednesday. I'm about to finish up school, so I'll be doing more episodes this summer, hopefully that are continuing to be good content that's well thought out and encouraging.

And you guys can learn something and take something away. So as always, solely day of Gloria to God alone be the glory and Jesus is the King. And we hope you enjoy.

Goodbye. Goodbye. Jesus

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