this week I am beginning a new series. I'm beginning a new series on the book of Genesis. So if you're a visitor, you're here at the beginning. Literally. If you're your Bibles, turn to page 1. Otherwise, the text is in your bulletin. Here the word of God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. God saw that the light was good and 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. Let me pray. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would come now and you would forgive the sins of the one who teaches for their many. I pray that you would open our eyes that we may see the gospel in our ears that we may hear in our hearts. I pray that this morning that you would in fact intervene into our lives, into the chaos in which we exist, and that you would grant us freedom of the gospel. We praise you and we thank you. Amen. Just about ten years ago, I had been in the army for four years. And about ten years ago, I got out of the army and went to Florida State. And it was very interesting when I got to Florida State, you see, because I had been in the army for quite a while. You know, my head, I was still bald, not that I've grown my hair out much since then. But I got to Florida State. And it was just a very interesting dynamic to be a former sergeant in the army and to have a roommate who was seventeen years old. You see, I had a roommate who was seventeen years old and his name was Scooter. The only thing that Scooter and I had in common at the time was that my whole head was shaved and the right half of his head was shaved. Scooter was pretty funny guy and we ended up being best friends, Scooter and I did. And it was very great to live with Scooter because Scooter was the most excitable person you'd ever met in your life. He still is. He's married now. I'd like to see how that's going. He's very excitable and yet he had the biggest heart of anyone who I've ever known. And so after a freshman year of college, Scooter and I had become best friends and I remember him coming home from class one day and saying, Come, you're not going to believe the ministry opportunity that I have. I've never been so excited in my life. And I said, tell me about it. Scooter, what are you going on? And he said, I'm going to spend the summer in Waco, Texas working for Habitat for Humanity. He said, I'm going to pour my whole life into building homes for the poor. And I said, like, are you going to have a specific job? And he said, yeah, I have the best job of all. You see, because I'm going to be the one who coordinates all the people who come and it's going to be youth groups from all over the country. And so all these youth groups are going to come and you know how motivated kids are. And the most exciting time, and I'm going to coordinate them. And I just can't wait to get there. And so, you know, a couple of weeks later, I put Scooter on a bus and he left and we waved and everyone hugged. And it was the funniest thing in the world. I still have to think about it. Two weeks later, I got a postcard in the mail. And the postcard had one line on it that, dear Tommy, I'm stuck in the wilderness with the grumbling Israelite. I don't pray. Love Scooter. Now, why do you laugh? You see, you laugh because everyone knows the reputation of the Israelites. The Israelites, God, had delivered them. If you remember the story, maybe you're not familiar with the story. The nation of Israel was captive in the land of Egypt. They were in bondage and they were in oppression in the land of Egypt. And God came to them and he said, I promise you I'm going to deliver you from your bondage and oppression. And he said, what's more, I promise you that I'm going to get you from Egypt out of your bondage and oppression all the way over here into the promised land, into Canaan. That was the gospel to the Israelites. The gospel to them was God intervening in their lives and saying, I promise you I'm going to get you out of oppression in bondage and I'm going to get you into the promised land. I'm going to take care of you. That's my promise. Guess what? That's the gospel to you too. The gospel to you too is that God will deliver you from your oppression and your bondage and your sin and he promises you he's going to finish the job. He promises you that he's going to get you to the promised land. He promises that he's going to that you will end up in heaven. Now what was the problem with the Israelites and problem you have? The wilderness. You see, it's one thing to say, beautiful, I've been delivered from Egypt, I've been delivered from my bondage. I've been freed from everything that held its grasp on me. But now what? I still have to live life. The Israelites' problem is God delivered them from their bondage and then they placed them flat in the middle of the wilderness. And the wilderness was not a good place. The wilderness was a very hard place. In fact, they walked around in circles for 40 years. And instead of believing that God was going to finish the job, what did they do? They said, God's not going to finish the job, so I need to take care of myself. I need to do things for myself. If this God is not going to get me into the promised land, I better come up with my own gods. And they have the exact same gods that you and I have. Their gods were money, their gods were sex, their gods were security, all these things. And they spent all this time grappling and the reason God left them in the wilderness, he said, what I'm waiting for is for you to simply look up to me and acknowledge the fact that I promised you I would get in promise. Now the question is, where does Genesis fit into all this? Why am I preaching through the book of Genesis? And why am I talking about Israel when I'm preaching through Genesis? And the answer is quite simple. It's that the book of Genesis was probably written during the time of Israel's wandering in the wilderness. And the book of Genesis has one purpose primarily. It's this. It's to remind Israel of the gospel. Let me say that again. The book of Genesis has one primary purpose. It's to remind Israel of the gospel. And guess who else? You and me. The book of Genesis was written to remind you and me of the gospel. The book of Genesis was written so that when you're sitting in the wilderness, you read the book of Genesis, and hopefully you can gain some hope from there. You can figure out what it means to live in the wilderness and you can figure out what it means to understand the promise of God that he's going to finish the job. That's the gospel for them. There are two things we're going to look at this morning. Just so you know, many people want to know, like, man, you're going to preach your Genesis. That's going to take like eight years, right? I'm going to start at Genesis 1, and I'm just going to preach Genesis until Christmas, which basically hopefully we'll get through the first three chapters. So I'm going to preach Genesis from now until Christmas, and then in the fall, I'll preach something from one of the gospels. So the two things I want to notice this morning, what is important about Genesis 1? Genesis 1, 1 through 5 is among the most important passages in all the Bible, not just because we see that God created everything. We tend to just blow past this. I mean, my guess is, many of you have tried to read through the Bible before. You say, okay, I'm going to read straight through the Bible, and you started Genesis 1, and so you've all probably read Genesis 1, 1 through 5 at least. You probably got bogged down somewhere in numbers, my guess is, two things I want to notice this morning, it's simply this. It's our chaos in God's intervention. There's so much stuff from the first five verses of Genesis you can not imagine, and the only two things I want to point out this morning simply is our chaos in God's intervention. Look at verses 1 through 2. Verse 1 and 2 says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Now if you're not careful, you can miss the fact that something huge has happened between verse 1 and verse 2 and the book of Genesis. Something immense, something of the most grand imaginable cosmic proportions has happened between Genesis 1, 1, and Genesis 1 and 2, and what is that? Basically what we see here is it says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's great. Why all of a sudden does it say the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters? Now a cursory reading would lead you to believe that God created some inert matter, and then he just sort of formed it, but that's not what this says, at least not in Hebrew. You see in Hebrew what you've got here, you can't understand any of this, unless you understand formless and empty and dark. Why does Moses start the whole Bible with the fact that the earth was formless and empty and dark? There's three words you need to remember. They're all in Hebrew, I usually don't use Hebrew or Greek in sermons, but these are fun. Formless and empty, the words in Hebrew were this, Tohu Vobohu. Moses was a poet as well. So Moses said, now the earth was Tohu Vobohu, and he says in darkness, Vahoshek covered the face of the earth. Now why is that so important? First of all the words Tohu and Vobohu are nouns. If you look at this, it says, now the earth was formless and empty. That would lead you to believe that these words are adjectives, but it's just sort of describing the general form of the earth. Tohu Vobohu, every place else in the Bible means this. Tohu means a desert. Vohu wasteland. So he says, now the earth was a desert. Now the earth was a wasteland. Now there are also two other terms that are used interchangeably in the Old Testament for desert and wasteland, and guess what those are? Oppression and bondage. So now Moses starts out the whole Bible by saying, now the earth was a desert in a wasteland. Now the earth was a place of bondage and oppression. Why would he do that? What happened? And frankly, it's a mystery. You don't need to spend a lot of time thinking, was everything good and then how did everything sort of go to hell on a hand basket? The Bible doesn't tell us, but what it does start out is saying that now the earth was a desert and a wasteland. The earth was a place of bondage and oppression. And Vohoshak, it makes it even worse. Darkness is more than darkness. It's sort of that creepy darkness. It's that creepy darkness that I've been experiencing for the past month is I walk our new puppy at two o'clock in the morning. You know how you're out and it's dark and you hear every single thing. As a matter of fact, a couple weeks ago I was so shocked in the city as I was out in the backyard walking Gracie and I'm always afraid anyway. I'm looking all around me and we heard this. Coming through the bushes in the back of our house in Gracie and I were both cowering behind the stairs and looked out. And the biggest possum that I've ever seen in my life walked out into my backyard. That's off topic. But nonetheless, it's this creepy kind of darkness and you've all experienced it. It's the kind of darkness where you're walking down a street at night and it's not lighted and you start walking a little faster and you look behind you and you're sure someone's behind you so you walk a little faster and before you know it, you're almost at a dead run because you're afraid of it. So Moses has set the stage here. He says, now the earth was a desert and a wasteland. Please bondage and impression. The earth was covered with this sort of creepy darkness. And in a word that you could summarize all this, the word that they would summarize it which was chaos. Now, why was this important to the Israelite? Because as they're sitting around the campfire, hearing this story for the first time, what do they say? That's my life. You have just articulated my life. My life is a desert and it's a wasteland. It's a place of bondage and it's a place of oppression. I feel that I live in this sort of spiritual funk and this darkness. That was my experience. That's why it's important to you. Because that's your experience too. Your experience, generally speaking, is that of chaos. Some of you are sitting out here and you can immediately identify when I say that your life is one of chaos. You can sit out there and you can say, you know, you're feeling this sort of creepy spiritual darkness. You feel like maybe you're in debt or maybe you're about to lose your job or maybe you've just broken up with a spouse or maybe you're in the midst of a divorce. Maybe something's going on and you can identify with that. Or if you're like me, one of the community groups is reading through the Ragmuffin Gospel and the quote where Manning says, I love and I hate, I'm good and I'm bad. I feel bad about feeling good. And he says, Aristotle says, I'm a rational animal but I find that I'm an angel with an incredible capacity for beer. You see, your whole life is this paradox. You know, you want to be good but you're really bad. All these things, you can identify with that. So when I say, when I stand up in front of you and say, how this communicates your life, you can immediately identify with that. You can say, yep, my life is chaos. My life is sort of covered with this creepy darkness. Now some of you might be saying, I didn't need, I'm in control, my life is good, I have a good job, I have a good spouse, I have all these things and we're fine. Guess what, your life is still chaos. You just don't know it, you're in denial. Some Jews and John 8 came to Jesus one time. And Jesus had just preached this beautiful sermon and he said, I tell you, you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free. And it's really a funny story. The Gospel writers had a great sense of humor because the two Jews walk up to them and they said, what are you talking about? We've never been slaves to anyone. Now remember, they have been in Egypt, they have been in the wilderness, they've been in Babylonian exile and now they were under the oppression of the Romans. And these guys have the hoods but walk up to Jesus and say we've never been in slavery to anybody. In Jesus, of course, in beautiful fashion says, alright guys, I tell you the truth. And whenever Jesus says, I tell you the truth, you know, you need to buckle your sleep out. He says, I tell you the truth, whoever sins is a slave. You see Jesus takes it from the outside to the inside and he says, okay, so let's say your outer world is in control, you've got control, you have a good job, everything is fine. But Jesus says, you've still got the problem of bondage and oppression if you sin. Because if you sin, you are a slave to sin, Jesus says. And you've hurt me preach on this many times that many of us are slaves. You say, you know, I'm going to be free from Jesus. I'm not going to be under his rule. But unknowingly, what do you put yourself under the rule of? You become ruled by money. You become ruled by finances. You become ruled by your sexuality. You become ruled by all these things. And Jesus says, even if you don't think there's chaos outside, let me, I tell you the truth, there's chaos inside. That's your problem. Now is there any hope? That's the big question. Is there any hope for Israel? Is there any hope for you? Is there any hope for them? Is there any hope for us? And the answer, thankfully, is yes. There's hope for clarity in the chaos and there's hope from freedom. And it's this, it's the intervention of God. Look at verses three through five. In verse one and two, he says, now the earth was formless and empty and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Now look at verse three, this is so beautiful. And God said, let there be light. God saw that the light was good and separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called the light. And there was evening and there was morning the first day. How does God intervene into the original chaos? How does God intervene into the original primeval chaos of the world? Simply this, with the power of his word. God looks at the original chaos and he says, light. And it's done. It's sort of like if you ever came to my house around 515 on any given day, we put baby gates in the kitchen. So in the kitchen, you'll have a barking dog, a screaming baby, and a four year old in the three year old in the middle of a cat fight. And there's just all this screaming and confusion. And I come down and within about, Judy's been listening to it for eight hours. I come down and after about eight minutes, I'd say, hey. And everyone is quiet. I said there. Now, how was your day? That's what God did to the original creation. It was his primeval primordial chaos, a desert in a wasteland in this creepy darkness. And God simply said, and creation was lit. He intervened. It was a one time act. He did it. Now, how would this give hope to the Israelites? Because they did the same thing for them in their bondage and their oppression in their creepy darkness in Egypt. God intervened into their lives through the power of his word through a man. Let me say that again. He intervened into original creation with the power of his word. He intervened into Israel's life with the power of his word through a man that was Moses. Remember the story? They were in bondage. Pharaoh was having to make bricks without straw. It was terrible. They oppressed and they killed them. They killed the babies. That's why Moses was put in the straw thing and on the river. All these things were terrible. And God intervenes. If you have your vitals, let me read Exodus 3, 7 through 10 really quickly. Remember Moses is out in the desert walking around and he sees this burning bush. It sort of harkens to him. And he walks over to the burning bush. The bush says, take your shoes off. This is Holy Grave. And then the following is what God says in verse 7. The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. The home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Parasites, Hivites and Jebisites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me and I have seen the way the Egyptians are pressing them. So now I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. God intervened in the life of the Israelites in Egypt through the power of his word as mediated through Moses. Remember, if you've never read the story, I know you've seen the movie and it's the most beautiful movie, the Ten Commandments, because there are so many laughable parts in it. If you remember the part, remember Moses, Charles and Hesting goes out in the wilderness for a long time and it's all about all the dancing girls and the sheep and everything. And God calls him to come back to deliver Israel from Egypt and you'll Brenner is on the throne. And there's this beautiful scene where all these people are standing in line to talk to Pharaoh. If you remember that. And every person that comes up to Pharaoh brings him a beautiful gift. They bring him cloth or they bring him jewels or they bring him oil or wine. And you see this ragged shepherd standing in line with his rod and every time he just steps up and he steps up. And he gets Moses, finally gets in front of Pharaoh, your Brenner and your Brenner says, Moses, what gift is it that you bring? And now here's the beautiful line, Charles and Hesting says, thus say it's the Lord God, let my people go. And you'll Brenner, that wouldn't count on that when you see the God intervened in Israel and in Egypt through the power of his work. And what does he do? He eventually brings plagues upon them through Moses, remember Moses speaks plagues upon them to the point where what does Egypt eventually do? They should get out of here, leave, leave our country here, take all of our stuff with you, just get out, anything you could do to get out of here. So we see that God intervened in the original chaos with the power of his word. He intervened in Israel with the power of his word through a man. Now, what does that have to do with you? Has everything to do with you? You see because he intervenes into the chaos of your life with the power of his word who is a man. He intervenes into your life through the power of his word the same way. He intervenes into your chaos, into your situation, into your slavery, your bondage and oppression through the power of his word. It doesn't change except instead of being through a man, it is a man. The man's name? Jesus. Do you have your Bibles? Again, you can turn to John 1. John is writing this gospel and he wants to tell people what it means to understand what Jesus has done. And the first three words of John 1 say what? In the beginning, hmm, that should sound familiar. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning through him all things were made without him nothing was made. In him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood. You see, your great hope is this and my great hope. It's that the same God who spoke order into the original chaos and the same God who delivered Israel from Egypt is the same God who delivers you from your sin. And it ought to encourage you because you have as much hope of ordering your own chaos and taking care of your own bondage and your own sin as the original chaos had of ordering itself. It takes a direct intervention of God. Now, there's a crucial difference you've got to realize between what happened at the original chaos and what happens in the person of Jesus for you. For God to intervene into the original chaos, it cost nothing. Think about that. The earth is chaotic, it's foremost and void, it's a desert and a wasteland and God speaks light into it. He orders that chaos with one swoop, cost nothing. Now, your chaos and my chaos, your sin, your bondage, my sin and my bondage, God does the same thing except instead of costing nothing, it costs them everything, it costs them the life of his son. You see, that's the gospel. The gospel is the same in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament and the gospel is this that you and I are more broken and screwed up than we ever could imagine. And that God is in the business of intervening into the chaos that is our lives. Whether you're addicted to something, whether you have problems, all these things, God's promise is that I am the one who intervenes and I'm the one who I'm going to finish it. And the beautiful thing is that when God became a man and the person of Jesus, he bound himself to make sure that happens. There's a great line in the book knowing God by J.I. Packer where he says before, when God first created man and man fell, God could have just judged everyone and he could have just destroyed man and it would have been the end of things and it would have been okay. But when God took on human form in the person of Jesus, when his intervening word actually became a man and intervened into our lives, God bound his happiness up with your happiness. That there is a sense in which God now will not be completely and utterly happy although he is perfect until you are completely and utterly happy. Now what is it that is going to make you completely and utterly happy? It's getting to the promised land, it's finishing the race, it's coming to the end of all time and having God look at you and say well done my good and faithful servant. In the reason he will say well done my good and faithful servant is not because of anything that you have done. He will say well done, Jesus did everything for you, good job and God has bound himself to you, that's the gospel. That's what we're going to be looking at for the rest of this time in Genesis is simply that. It's the same story over and over again. We had new members class yesterday and I told people that it's pretty easy to preach because it's the same story over and over again. I'm screwed up, God intervenes. That's it, that's the gospel. Think on those things as you go through the week. Let me pray. Lord Jesus, we praise you and we thank you that you are the one who intervenes into our life. That just as original chaos was hopeless and helpless and Israel was hopeless and helpless, that I am hopeless and helpless outside of your intervening grace. We praise you and we thank you and your name and then. Every week at Grace Seattle.