Creation of the Heavens and the Earth

“The Unashamed God”

Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Genesis 5:1: “When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them.”

Genesis 2:24: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh”.

Psalm 33:6: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made”.

Prov.3:19: “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens”.

Hebrews 2:11: “For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers [or sisters]”.

Hebrews 11:1-3: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made of things that are visible”.

Intro— “The Unashamed God”, that is my subject. The purpose of my message: to show the growing impact of denying God’s purpose in making humankind male and female; we will look particularly at transgenderism and same sex attraction in our society today and what our response to this should be – to show we are not ashamed of our Creator God or His own word = Holy Scripture.

1. I should add: I have been asked to speak on this subject.
2. But I also want to say: we must feel utter compassion for those who have been involved in this. Let there be no moralizing or pointing the finger.
3. I wrote a book 25 years ago Is God for the Homosexual?  (The homosexual community applauded the way I showed compassion for those with gay proclivity – I never moralized or made them feel guilty for their temptation)
4. The sin is not the proclivity; it is giving into the temptation that is sin.

1. Jonathan Edwards taught us that the task of every generation is to discover in which direction the Sovereign Redeemer is moving, then move in that direction.
2. I would add that the task of every generation is also to discover the current stigma by which the believer’s faith is tested.
3. We must accept and go where the battle is; where the battle rages the loyalty of the soldier is proved.
4. The word stigma – a pure Greek word – means offense; in Hellenistic literature a stigma was like a tattoo on the body, usually given to runaway slaves so they could be marked.
   1. Sometimes the stigma comes down to one word: embarrassment.
   1. Q: Are you willing to be embarrassed because of the way your friends might perceive you?
5. We must not be ashamed of the  stigma  – to be marked and identified. E.g.:
6. First century: is Jesus of Nazareth the true Messiah of Israel?
7. First and second century: Jesus is Lord vs. Caesar is Lord
8. Fourth century: is Jesus the God-man?
9. Sixteenth century: justification by faith alone apart from works
10. Twentieth century: an attack on creation: creation vs. evolution;
11. The issue was creation ex nihilo – out of nothing – even after the Big Bang theory became popular.
12. Matter is not eternal; there was a time when nothing existed in the entire universe – not even a spec of dust – = but God. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen.1:1).

1. God’s creation of the universe. 
2. The universe was created by the word of God. “ And God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light’” –  Gen.1:1,3.
3. Hebrews 11:3: “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God”.
4. He did not say, “By science we understand” or “by intelligence”…
5. He did not say, “By consensus  of  great minds we understand”
6. He said, “By faith we understand”.
7. Faith is the  conviction [assurance] of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
8. What makes faith faith is that we do not always have empirical evidence for what we affirm; it is  reliance on the faithfulness of Holy Scripture.
9. There  are two world views of faith:
10. The secular-atheist view: I believe it when I  see it. That was the kind of reasoning of those who crucified Jesus: “Come down from the cross so we can see and believe” – Mark 15:32.

(2) The problem is, if you see and then believe such “belief” is not faith.

(3)The biblical view:  faith is relying solely on God’s word with no empirical evidence but entirely because we  have been persuaded by the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit; by faith we understand.

(4)The latter of course makes no sense to the secular atheist.

• As a consequence as followers of Jesus Christ we are prepared to look like fools to the world; that’s the stigma.
• The stigma therefore is a part of the package when we believe in God’s creation of the heavens and the earth.
• According to St Augustine humankind should be seen in four stages:
• Man was created posse pecare – “able to sin”
• After the Fall man became non posse non pecare – “not able not to sin”
• we must remember that all of us are a part of a fallen race; we are not born as Adam was created before the Fall but as Adam became after the Fall
• After regeneration we are posse non pecare – “able not to sin”
• After glorification in heaven non posse pecare – “not able to sin” when God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes…

• And yet Paul says all this is clearly revealed: “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are  without excuse” (Rom.1:19-20).
• King David said: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the  sky above  proclaims his handiwork” (Psa.19:1).
• The creation of the heavens is seen in several spheres. Paul implies three heavens:
• First  heaven: the clouds, the sky
• Second heaven: the planets, the stars.
• The third heaven: God’s dwelling place. 
• Paul said he was taken up to the “third heaven” – 2  Cor.12:2.                       
• But let us not forget that Peter said “we are waiting for new heavens  and a new  earth in which righteousness dwells” 2 Pet.3:13.
• Why do we believe this? It is because it is by faith that we understand; that is where we get understanding; it is where we get wisdom.
• The Apostles’ Creed = probably 2^nd century — begins with these words: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth”.
• John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God.
• All things were made by Him; without Him was not anything made that was made.
  • The Word was made flesh
  • The Creator God was made man – just like us;
  • And  yet He with the Father He said, let us make humankind male and female—Jesus was present in creation
    • Never forget: an attack on this is an attack on our Lord Jesus Christ
    • He is not ashamed of us; let us not be ashamed of Him.

3.The twenty-first century however is met with a different kind of attack on creation: 

*it is “transgenderism”; even more sinister than an attack on creation generally: a satanic attack on God’s design; 

*His making humankind Male and Female is under attack: male and female God created us.

a. “Transgender” is an umbrella term for people who identify with a different gender from the one they were assigned at birth.

(1) Some say “ I was born in the wrong body”; this assumes the pre-existence of the soul; only Christ pre-existed; the Word was made flesh: “You have prepared for me a body” (Heb.10:5).

(2) Some want to claim that they were born in the body of the sex opposite to which they claim they truly belong.

• It is sometimes diagnosed as “gender dysphooria” (dysphooria = state of depression or dissatisfaction)
  • The term “transsexual” refers more specifically to someone who has had medical intervention

b. It is when one’s education teaches that a child doesn’t really have a sex, but that he or she was merely “assigned” a gender at birth.

• He or she may therefore choose their own “gender identity”.
  • If he or she chooses one that is the opposite of their actual biology, then they should be allowed to choose a new name and dress as the opposite sex.
  • You might think that there are few things more self-evident than the fact that human beings are divided into two distinct types—male and female.

*Females have XX chromosomes, female hormones, breasts, ovaries, wombs, vaginas.

*Males have XY chromosomes, male hormones, testes, penises.

(4) But now we are being told that gender is simply a social construct, the product of a biased society; gender has no biological basis at all, that gender roles are being forced upon  people; gender is fluid.

•  Parents are told they must comply with this new identity.
  • The doctor prescribes puberty blockers. Once the child, possibly now a young teenager, decides to go forward, they will be given hormone treatments of the sex he or she is not, to help them into the sex they want to be.
  • There is nothing left but to remove the biological parts remaining of his or her biological sex and try via plastic surgery to make the parts of the opposite sex.
• What is seldom reported is that puberty blockers, hormone treatments and sex realignment surgery, almost invariably, eventually do irreparable harm, despite what the trans activists say.
  • We know this from so many of those who have gone through these treatments and then realize that it was all a great big horrible mistake   
    • So many sooner or later become very, very angry at those psychologists, doctors and surgeons who made them into a different “sex” (so called).
    • They were not told that by that taking puberty blockers this would have immensely serious bad side effects;
    • They were not told that taking hormones of the opposite sex does lifelong damage to one’s body that is irreversible
    • They were not told how traumatic sex reassignment surgery really is, the damage of which can never be repaired.
    • We must SYMPATHIZE from our hearts with those who have been so involved.

b. The original pronouncement in Genesis 1:27 and 5:2: Male and female created He  them; such is therefore found not only twice in Genesis but our Lord Jesus Christ affirmed this in Matthew 19:4-6:

“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they were no longer two but one flesh. ‘That therefore what  God has joined together , let not man separate’.

• Never in my lifetime have I known such a vehement, vitriolic and vicious hostility toward the God of the Bible.
  • It can be summed up this way: the spirit of the age in these last days comes to this: anti-God of Jesus Christ and of creation.
    • What we face is not merely an attack on creation generally;
    • It is an attack on the belief that God chose to make man of two genders—male and female.
    • Q: who assigns gender? God Himself. 
      • Take John the Baptist for example: the angel said to Zechariah, “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John” (Lk.1:13). 
      • As Paul said, speaking to Athenian philosophers, shows that creation and someone being born is no accident:

“He Himself gives to all mankind  life and breath and everything, and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him” (Acts 17:25-27).

• In Genesis 1 you see pairs of different but complimentary things made to work together: *heaven and earth, sea and land, 

*God and humanity; 

*it is part of the brilliance of God’s  diverse creation; things are made to unite and generate more and more life and beauty through their relationships. 

*As Tom Wright [possibly the leading biblical scholar of our generation – I studied with him at Oxford] points out, the creation and uniting of male and female at the end of Genesis 2 is the climax of all this:

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (Gen.2:24).

• This means that male and female have unique, non-interchangeable glories – they each see and do things that the other cannot. 

*Sex and sexual attraction were not born in Hollywood but in the mind of our Creator God. 

*Sexual intercourse was created by God to be a way to bring together these strengths and glories within a life-long covenant of marriage. 

*Marriage is the most intense place where this union of male and female takes place in human life. 

*Male and female reshape, learn from, and work together. 

• Therefore, in one of the great ironies of late modern times, when we celebrate variety and diversity in so many other cultural sectors, our generation is trying to leave out the ultimate unity in variety and diversity by same sex marriage.

• Without understanding this vision, the sexual prohibitions in the Bible make no sense.  

*Homosexuality does not honor the need for this rich diversity of perspective and gendered humanity in sexual relationships.

*Same-sex relationships not only cannot provide for each spouse, 

*they cannot provide children with a deep connection to each half of humanity through a parent of each gender.

• Why else is this subject important?
• Our very faith in God is at stake; either the Bible is true or it isn’t;
  • Holy Scripture is God’ s integrity put on the line.
  • Psalm 138:2 –in Hebrew it reads: “You have magnified your word above all your name.”
  • Only two weeks ago a British Court in a transgender case handed down this verdict: belief in the Bible, particularly with regard to human kind being created male and female is “incompatible with human dignity”.
• We need to face the damage that is being done to society and families in particular — generally that can be traced to the resentment people feel toward God’s making humankind male and female.
  • We must believe God’s word not merely because it is vindicated but because of the inner testimony of the Spirit; it is something we would die for.
  • That said, we can see how science, medicine and society vindicate God’s word; in a recent study, the largest ever into this difficult topic, was conducted by an international group of scientists, as reported in Science magazine of August 2019: conclusion: there is  “no Gay gene” – to the dismay of those hoping for there being a gay gene;
    • Those who have sought to change genders have been shown to be wrong again and again and again
    • I grant: there are exceptions; we are born in a fallen world: and yet the exceptions are exceedingly rare.
    • Not only that; evidence is turning up almost every day showing that most of those who changed genders themselves so very often regret their decision as a horrible, horrible mistake.
• What was generally perceived as unthinkable only twenty years ago, then – namely same-sex marriage – is now something taken for granted.
  • What has resulted from same-sex marriage is ever-increasingly seen as resulting in psychological damage in those who have been brought up by same sex parents rather than a mother and a father.

• And the results are just beginning to come in; this includes those who have chosen suicide . . . to living.

• One authority has given their opinion that trans-genderism will surely be the gateway to social and legal acceptance of pedophilia.

• Consider this statement from Brittany Klein – a woman brought up by same sex parents –  in a recent book called The New Normal: 

“Same sex parenting is a kind of child abuse not even named yet” (p.137).

1. Same sex parenting is a phenomenon that has emerged almost overnight with the general approval of same sex marriage by many governments and many parts of the church.
   1. Research on those brought up by same sex marriage couples is barely beginning to emerge.
      1. Twenty years ago same sex marriage was disapproved by society in America and Britain.
      1. President Barack Obama was officially against same sex marriage during his first term of office, but that changed during his second term.

b. Many denominations in America have approved of same sex marriage while the Church of England is perceived as moving rapidly in this direction.

1. It is safe to say that fifty or sixty years ago the offense of the day was with regard to upholding creation  ex nihilo; today it is upholding the biblical pattern that a child should be brought up by a mother and a father—just as the Bible teaches.
2. I repeat: every generation has its stigma by which the believer’s faith is tested.
3. So today the issue connected to Creation has emerged; it connects to God the Creator as found in Gen.1:27 “male and female created He them”.
4. The offense today is not only an attack on biblical marriage and the family; it targets God’s own purpose and clear intention that humankind be of two sexes: male and female.
5. The issue today is whether these two sexes are by God’s intention and purpose or by mere accident.  The truth is:
6. God created humans  as male and female for with a two-fold purpose: (a) of their leaving father and mother and becoming man and wife – “one flesh” and, secondly, (b) in order to have children.
7. That is why God made mankind male and female. 
8. If you ask, What is the cause of gender dysphoria? Answer is, as I said, we are born in a fallen world and yet less than .1 per cent of the population are born with gender dysphoria: fewer than 1 in 10,000 natal adult males and 1 in 30,000 natal adult females meet the criteria for gender dysphoria (The New Normal, p.39).
9. But as stalwart believers we must nevertheless show compassion
10. Gal.6:1 is always relevant…even if we cannot restore we remain compassionate. But embrace the stigma.

II. Embracing the stigma.

1. No one knows for  sure who said it first, but it is a valid observation:

“If I profess, with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity. Where the battle rages the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-field besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches  at that one point.”

1. Unless we want to avoid the stigma that is attached to the Name of Christ, you and I are called to uphold the fundamental doctrine of God’s creation of the heavens and the earth.
2. We all know about  the stigma of the Cross; but there is another stigma we must accept, namely, upholding God’s purpose of creating humankind “male and female” – the purpose being that they may bear children.
3. Never for get also that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit.
4. Hebrews 2:11 talks about Jesus not being ashamed of us.

1.The question is: is it possible to do that which would nonetheless cause God to be ashamed of us?

2.Answer: yes. Why? Because the God of the Bible is a jealous God.

a. How can we make God ashamed of us? By avoiding the stigma that goes with bearing the Name of His Son.

• The Name of the Son and the Name of His Father are at stake.
• Never forget that Jesus never – ever – apologized for the God of the OT; after all the God the OT is His Father.
• The issue of Creation touches both the Father and the Son:
• In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
• Jesus Christ is Creator as God is Creator.

“All things were made by Him” = that is the Word that became flesh – John 1:2, 14.

“He is before all things; by Him all things consist” – Col 1:16

b. Yes; every generation has its stigma by which the believer’s faith is tested.

• One of the most crucial issues today  – if not the most crucial – is the issue of gender, what is true marriage, the general acceptance of same sex marriage and the matter of children growing up without a father and a mother in hundreds of thousands of homes – and the consequences of this.
• What was regarded as horrifying and unacceptable as recently as ten or fifteen years ago is now not only accepted but has become to be regarded by some as the norm: (e.g.):
• Gay marriage
• Same sex practice by those in the ministry
• Same sex practice by those in the church without anything said from the pulpit
• Sadly hetero-sex practice before marriage is seldom mentioned from the pulpit as well
• The issue: whether we will accept and defend the plain teaching of Holy Scripture.

1. The fear of man is a snare.

2. The reason ancient Israel missed her Messiah is put by a question Jesus put to the Pharisees = John 5:44.

3. WE MUST THANK GOD for those who – have a proclivity to be gay – 

            a. Have not only resisted the temptation to give into temptation

b. They have taken the lead in speaking against  the practice of gay sex.

4. We must equally thank God for heterosexual men and women who have determined to remain celibate until they are married.

5. If we succumb to the fear of man – being ashamed of the stigma – we are following the fatal error of ancient Israel.

            a. Do not do that.

            b. Do not be afraid of the stigma of our day

            `c. Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters

d. “If you are ashamed of me I will be ashamed of you” (Mark 8:36ff)

1. If we are ashamed of the offense of our day we will make God ashamed of us.
2. Early church: unashamed of the cross. 1 Cor.2:2.
3. The cross made no sense: God’s ways never seem to make sense—that is, at first.

III. Creation of Heaven.

1. Revelation 21:1-4…

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned  for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away’”.

B. It will be worth it all when we see Jesus; life’s trials we seem so small when we see Him.

C .In the meantime we have been called to suffer:

1.1 Thess.3:3…

2. Philippians 1:30

3. James1:2

4. Paul: Colossians 1:24…”I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church.

a. There is a quota – so much suffering allocated to the church

b. God is looking for those who will suffer for Christ and not complain

                  c. There is space available; most of us complain.

      5. Acts 5:41…

D. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones used to say to me that we are re-living the period of the Judges:

            1.Israel had no king; every one did what was right in their own eyes

2. We need King Jesus to rule over us; then we will do what is right in His eyes.

Conclusion

Jesus, and shall it ever be

A mortal man, ashamed of Thee?

Ashamed of Thee, whom angels praise

Whose glories shine through endless days?

Ashamed of Jesus! That dear friend

On whom my hopes of heaven depend

No; when I blush,  be this my shame!

That I no more revere His Name.

Till then – nor is my boasting vain

Till then I boast a Savior slain;

And, O, may this my glory be,

That Christ is not ashamed of me!

******

Chosen not for good in me

Wakened up from wrath to flee!

Hidden in the savior’s side

By the Spirit sanctified

Teach me Lord on earth to show

By my love how much I owe