PRAYER WELCOME SING: Angels from the realms of glory (vs 1) Angels from the realms of glory wing your flight o'er all the Ye, who sang creation's story now proclaim Messiah's Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King. 1. CREATION OF THE WORLD Our natural starting point is God’s marvelous, miraculous work of creation, for which He deserves all glory. After creating After creating all things in six days, God finished with the crowning glory, the creation of man, the first Adam. We read from Genesis 1:26-31: Then 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, and 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. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. 2. ADAM AND EVE Imagine the sorrow God felt watching the temptation of the serpent, and the falling into sin of Adam and Eve. He could have prevented it but He chose to give Adam and Eve free will – He wanted willing obedience from them. And when they failed they deserved death. Our comfort is that even this act of disobedience was not unforeseen by God, and He
My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.” SING: Hymn 80: 2, 3, 4 2. Give to the Lord of lords renown; the King of with glory crown. His mercies ever shall endure, when lords and kings are known no more. 3. He built the earth, He spread the sky, and fixed the starry lights on high. Wonders of grace to God belong; repeat His mercies in your song. 4. He fills the sun with morning light; He bids the moon direct the night. His mercies ever shall endure, when sun and moon shall shine no more. 4. ABRAHAM In the first 11 chapters of Genesis we are continually confronted with the sin of mankind and the judgement of God. We read of the fall into sin of Adam and Eve, the murderous sin of Cain, the wickedness of man that led to the flood. Even after the flood, the story of the tower of Babel shows that the heart of man still puts himself in the centre, disregarding God. Thanks be to God that chapter 12 of Genesis begins the story of salvation history, ultimately centered in Christ. God builds a community of covenant people beginning with Abraham, and through him, all the families on earth will receive blessing. While the world is in confusion, God is quietly, secretly, undramatically working out His purpose. God’s plan for all the families of the earth is linked to His blessing of one man, and onwards through the generations to David. We look even further through David’s family tree to one called Joseph who was betrothed to Mary, who gave birth to her first born son in Bethlehem in the days of Caesar Augustus. The purposes of the tests and trials suffered by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph may not always have been clear to them, but God required simple faith, from them and from us. And that means just this: God speaks, man believes. Faith is trust that relies on God without having His reasons unfolded to us. God’s promises to be their God were their certainty, their source of peace and security. We who live in the New Testament are blessed to see that God’s promises all came true. We read in Genesis 12:1-7: Now the LORD had said to