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Sunday 26 March 2017

KNOWING GOD, THE TRANSCENDENT CREATOR OF ALL THINGS

Rev. Canon George Sinclair
by Rev. Canon George Sinclair                           
 Pastor of the Church of the Messiah, Ottawa, ON.
 www.messiahchurch.ca 

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Podcast of CFRA broadcast on Sunday, March 26th,  2017:

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Broadcast Notes:

This is a shortened version of a longer sermon that I gave at Church of the Messiah in Ottawa. You can go to their website for the full sermon. It was part of a series of Sermons on the first eleven chapters of Genesis entitled, "God: Creator And Sustainer Of All Things".



Knowing God,

The Transcendent Creator Of All Things

Genesis 1:1-2:3   -English Standard Version (ESV)

The Creation of the World

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

And God said, “Let there be an expanse[a] in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made[b] the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven.[c] And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth,[d] and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants[e] yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons,[f] and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds[g] fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make man[h] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

The Seventh Day, God Rests


Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

Footnotes:

1.      Genesis 1:6 Or a canopy; also verses 7, 8, 14, 15, 17, 20
2.     Genesis 1:7 Or fashioned; also verse 16
3.     Genesis 1:8 Or Sky; also verses 9, 14, 15, 17, 20, 26, 28, 30; 2:1
4.     Genesis 1:10 Or Land; also verses 11, 12, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30; 2:1
5.     Genesis 1:11 Or small plants; also verses 12, 29
6.     Genesis 1:14 Or appointed times
7.     Genesis 1:20 Or flying things; see Leviticus 11:19–20
8.    Genesis 1:26 The Hebrew word for man (adam) is the generic term for mankind and becomes the proper name Adam
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1. God does not need a process or a timeline to create. He speaks, and what He wills is created, with all of its heights and depths, fine-tuned intricacy and "back-story".

2. Mere matter and energy will never create life - or a home.

3. The choice: "Matter, pure chance, and cause-and-effect accounts for life, and the intricate, fine-tuned universe" OR "God designed and created life and the intricate, fine-tuned universe".

4. The uncreated God created all things, visible and invisible, out of nothing.

5. God did not make creation like a stage set. He made creation with real height and depth and with a vast back story.

6. The biblical doctrine of creation means that we cannot know when God created. We can only begin to map creations heights and depths and explore its back story.

7. Image-bearer, know your Creator, the one, transcendent, omnipotent and good God who made the cosmos for your home.

8. Every claimant to be a rival to God is unmasked as a fraud.

9. Only God can create, so only He can re-create.

10. On the seventh day of creation, God said that His work was finished. On the Cross, God, the Son of God, said "It is finished". This is the Gospel.

Rev. Canon George Sinclair
Church of the Messiah
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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:


Sunday 19 March 2017

'GOD CREATED ALL THINGS' or 'PURE CHANCE CREATED ALL THINGS'

Rev. Canon George Sinclair
by Rev. Canon George Sinclair                           
 Pastor of the Church of the Messiah, Ottawa, ON.
 www.messiahchurch.ca 

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Podcast of CFRA broadcast on Sunday, March 19th,  2017:

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Broadcast Notes:


This is a shortened version of a longer sermon that I gave at Church of the Messiah in Ottawa. You can go to their website for the full sermon. It was part of a series of Sermons on the first eleven chapters of Genesis entitled, "God: Creator And Sustainer Of All Things".


"God Created All Things"
OR
"Pure Chance Created All Things"


Genesis 1:1 (ESV)
The Creation of the World
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

John 1:1-4  (ESV)
The Word Became Flesh
1 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 was not any thing made that was made. In him was life,[a] and the life was the light of men.
Footnotes:
  1. John 1:4 Or was not any thing made. That which has been made was life in him
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1. The uncreated God created all things, visible and invisible, out of nothing.

2. God did not make creation like a stage set. He made creation with real height and depth and with a vast backstory.

3. The biblical doctrine of creation means that we cannot know when God created. We can only begin to map creations heights and depths and explore its back story.
Thomas Nagel, "Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False. Published by Oxford University Press, 2012.
"Whatever one may think about the possibility of a designer, the prevailing doctrine—that the appearance of life from dead matter and its evolution through accidental mutation and natural selection to its present forms has involved nothing but the operation of physical law—cannot be regarded as unassailable. It is an assumption governing the scientific project rather than a well-confirmed scientific hypothesis.”

"But for a long time, I have found the materialist account of how we and our fellow organisms came to exist hard to believe, including the standard version of how the evolutionary process works. The more details we learn about the chemical basis of life and the intricacy of the genetic code, the more unbelievable the standard historical account becomes.”

4. The choice is not between science and faith. The choice is between two beliefs.

5. The choice. Matter, pure chance, and "cause and effect" account for life and the intricate, fine-tuned universe. OR God designed and created life and the intricate, fine-tuned universe.

6. Only the Creator and Sustainer of all things can be a saving substitute for His fallen image bearers.

7. In the Gospel, salvation is also a restoration; a being brought back to our true home.

Rev. Canon George Sinclair
Church of the Messiah
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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link: