This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Genesis 1-6” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 3, 1977.

how a father is certain to understand that if there is a word in the world that gives life, it is your word. A father is the one who gives up his money, it is your word, and they show that it is situated and incarnate. So, Father, in raising Your Word to the understanding of the ways in which Jesus Christ can be respected, and as we would obey our Savior Christ, may we listen attentively and obey Your Word. We pray this for Jesus’ sake. Amen. Now, it’s true that at the turn of the century, biblical interpretations and those who were engaged in it turned into a secret flow.

So secretly, the kind of things that you learned in the seminary, the kind of things that you were taught in the schools of religion, you couldn’t tell your congregation. And one of the reasons why, not the whole reason, but one of the reasons why you couldn’t tell them was because they were just too ignorant to understand. I’m not going to treat you as if you’re ignorant. And I’m not going to allow you to tell yourself, sure, that you can finish. that somehow your mind has always worked best in those years.

Now, I’m not afraid to tell you the things that were said about your Bible. And when I tell you the things that were said about your Bible, I really believe that you can comprehend it and understand it and that you will be all the better for it, period. And that you will know more adequately than ever before why you believe what you believe. Why your Bible is entrusted. You know what they were saying?

They were saying that as Genesis opens up, we have two accounts of creation. Not accounts that were then complementary. Not accounts that were viewing the same event from a different aspect or perspective. to two entirely different towns of our world today. Placed side by side in this picture, representative of various traditions that have been nurtured through the centuries. eventually came to their final form and were recorded, as you have them, in your mind. And therefore, as we start reading in Genesis 2 verse 4, about the generations of the heavens and earth, You can understand that as a different description of how the world started.

This time, man was created before vegetation and before animal life. And that certainly contradicts what we learned from Genesis 1. For Genesis 1, the vegetation came in, was created on the third day. The animal kingdoms later on, but prior to the creation of man on the sixth day.

Now, I am not suggesting to you that this is an easy question or an easy problem, but I am going to assert to you that the Bible does not contradict itself. and that these people who are responsible for this world are not such people, and think that one story, way behind five others, could not in time come to the truth of both of these discussions, and that they will even begin to judge whether or not words are trusted in a text. My task this morning for you is to describe a little more deeply the intention of Genesis 1. The Lord has set the stage for Genesis 2. You might notice as you read through Genesis 1 that there are certain things that are pretty clear.

And it appears, at least to me, that a predominant theme, if not the predominant theme, is time. Time plays the major role in Genesis 1, and very conveniently, Genesis 1 begins by expressing itself in time with the words, in the beginning, over against time, which plays the dominant major role, is place, location, space, which plays the minor role.

And I might suggest to you that that is going to be reversed when we come to Chapter Two. And that will give you a feel, in a sense, of the direction that I’m going. This account of Genesis 1 is specific with regard to time, and that requires an emphasis on the sequence of the days. Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc., up to the seventh day. But it is general with regard to geography, location, and space. The theme is time, if you will. The theme is history. That’s the theme. Time and history in relationship to God. Yes, God. And then. And if you want to be strictly homiletical about it and practical, If you want to talk about things in a very, very practical fashion, you might say that this chapter is a lesson in the use of time and the use of history.

And it’s a lesson taught by God Himself. And God, in teaching this lesson about history and time, is not teaching it as if He was an ivory-powered professor, but as one who is involved in the midst of time. For our God teaches us surely by His Word, but He teaches us also by His example.

In order to teach us about Christ’s youth and history, God has brought Himself within the confines and the dimensions of history. He plays out His role in the days which He Himself is responsible for. And by his consubstantiation, he is naming himself in addition to being ruled by them.

What does this suggest about the relationship between time, history, youth, and God? First of all, it teaches us that God is sovereign over time, for time and history are creatures of God and owe their existence to Him. He is responsible for time. Time does not create God. God is sovereign over time, not only in creating it by indirecting it. God is sovereign over history.

And in looking at this, what we should glean from it is great respect for God’s power. For in speaking of God’s poverty over time, something that we don’t have, our attention is called to God’s power. He makes us fear. He is powerful. This is something very hard to fear, even in the first chapter of the Bible.

With regard to your God, to you He does. This God who is sovereign over time, and apart from time in His essence, is that well sovereign in time, in history? And here being spoke of, you see, is not just merely God’s power, but at the very foundation of the earth, God’s law. For God has brought himself at the very beginning within the dimensions of that which He has created.

And this, even at this point, is speaking of God’s condescension and His covenantal emptying and love of the path of His birth. Genesis 1 can be a message and a lesson on God’s love, as well as His power. It’s great to give this talk to you. It has been great.

But you see, God has in His love submitted Himself to time, to the days for which He is responsible, and to the turning of His creation. This love, already at work in creation, will, in the fullness of time, display itself supremely in Jesus Christ, and God demonstrates that love in the world so much. And it is that we see this bond of love between creation and salvation that enables New Testament writers to see at the very heart of creation the person of Jesus Christ, for it is by a similar act of condescension on God’s part that He Himself becomes incarnate flesh, dwells among us, and performs His mighty work of redemption. And then, from the perspective of redemption, those New Testament saints reflect upon creation itself, and they can see in creation that, yes, Jesus Christ is the one who is at work in God’s creation, and Jesus Christ is the one for whom all things were made.

We and our sins now are given in respect of our creation, not redemption. There’s no difference, no longer a curse left for us. There’s on the other side of the Red Sea that Moses writes about creation. There’s on the other side of your Red Sea that you understand the things that you do. to invite Jesus Christ to be with himself for a moment of time, and offer this to him. But what about time and man, who spoke of coming of God, But what about time and man? We should not allow ourselves to ever think that time, history, is itself as a feature, as something that was created and made by God. We should never allow ourselves to think that time is God. and who serve time as if they were a deity of some sort.

You know, the Egyptians worshipped and served time. They noticed that the Nile River overflows banks every year, so they started worshipping the Nile. The Greeks worshipped time. They observed the seasons, and they thought then that time itself was endless, eternal, if you would. And they began to serve time as if it were a being in their religion, and they deified the aspects of nature and time in a cyclical movement.

We can serve time as if it were an object. We can even take an aspect of time, or one period of time in our life, and glorify it completely out of perspective, and treat it as if we had a life all of its own, and as if we, at all times, actually fall down in front of it.

Do you know what time-line is? the pulse of a movie. You should learn that time is not God. And we should also learn that if this being made of time history, the time is not imminent. Sometimes we think it is, don’t we? Time is running out. We Americans are famous. for viewing time as an enemy and visibly go to extreme lengths to stage time and become incredibly ambitious. What characterizes American life in terms of time is that there is not enough of it. There’s too little time. There’s not enough to get done what I need to get done, and it produces a state of frenzy.

And if he had been God, he would have made the day with four hours in, and a week with at least another day. You know, I think of that poem by Stephen Hinton, the mayor of the Western Tribes. And it’s a story of a soldier, a soldier born, and his family travels across the plains, moving west. And a little child dies in the middle of the desert.

The ground is frozen. And the mayor’s line is, There is no time to grieve now. There is no time. There is only time to waver in the cold winter. I have an ultimate description of American life. And some of us think that there’s too much time. I mean, there’s too much time between here and then. And you develop that, or I would say overdevelop that wonderful characterism that plays with all indications. That day and time is viewed as an enemy, something that is calculated to stand against us.

But positively, out of this chapter, we should learn that time is something that is God-filled, and because it is God-filled, it’s going somewhere. It has direction and a destination within belief itself, as recorded in Genesis 1, creation moves toward its crown towards man, who is God’s image, who in time will come to act with a similar sovereignty like unto God in time. But that action of sovereignty in time by man who gives God’s image will also be tempered by that other aspect, so that that sovereignty will never be unchecked power, but rather it will be something that demonstrates that not only is God a God of power, but a God of law. So that in order for me to be a preacher in God’s image, I must labor with that sovereignty laid upon me by God, but that sovereignty and power must as well be checked by law in my relationship to everything there is.” Because time is not filled, it is moving towards fulfillment. History is moving to culmination and fulfillment. It does happen. It’s a steady thing.

What a beautiful day it is. the day in which all the tongues of the Lord and all the hosts cried to Him, the day in which even the rocks, those rocks that were along the road that went to Jerusalem, that Jesus passed, On Holy Sunday, the rocks and stones dry out, the trees may peel, and even the seeds lift up their leaves in acclamation of the greatness of our God. Celebration of God in the midst of His Holy and All-Holy Moses, praising Him, and God Himself leading the choir.

But because I am God, then it points beyond himself to God himself and to a day that has no end. For you will notice, as I have pointed out to you often, that the Sabbath day, according to you, Chapter 2 of Genesis, is the only day in which that customary conclusion is not offering an evening and morning worth the seventh day of the season. The seventh day is only the beginning. So that time itself falls beyond itself, the state in which you come everlastingly to enjoy the presence of God. That enjoyment will become interrupted.

Time, you, the fact that it is God’s will, you cannot be meaningless, and we cannot allow time, then, to become three to four. We cannot commit ourselves to everything that we are justified to not have to do. It is not a difference. It is not a refusal to do things that God has told us to do. And I’ll allow myself, if you even are present physically, to simply stare at you. Time and your time, the days of your life, are God-given. And you are not living to know them.

But when we use the verse itself and how it was used at the time, it was not fully indicated to me that that was part of the idea. The idea, I thought, was that no less by his action, in use of time. If you want to learn how to live and spend your time, go back to creation and there you will be filled with the things that will build you up in freedom.

And in the Old Testament, wisdom is always associated with the discernment of the creation and the discernment of what is most rare. Psalm 90 says, “…O teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” God Himself, before us, has already numbered His days. The lesson is there, not just in hearing about it, but in observing the God who is at work in time to teach you.

He is providing you an example already of what to do. It’s not as if you appear on the scene of the earth and you sit around on your hands and you say to yourself, I don’t know what to do with my time. I don’t know what to do with my time.” Get a hold of yourself. Look at your God. By His example, He is already taught you what to do. I’m not quite out of that. Sid has to introduce me to the story, into history, and into time. And you see, that’s the problem with songwriting.

Because of sin, death is now a reality, and in our own personal history, because of death, we can be cut short in our lives, at least we can think that, and we can fall short of what we think is fulfillment. Listen to the depressing note of Psalm 90 in this regard. “‘As for the days of our years, they are three, four, and ten, or, if by reason of slain force, we’re getting their strength, labor, and sorrow. For we soon cut off and we fly away,’ and listen to this from the King James, “‘for all our days are passed away in thy lap. We spend our years as the tale is told.

But be assured, doesn’t it come home to you, because God Himself has been at work in that creation from the beginning, and has condescended to the conditions of that creation, that even sin and death is not going to defeat Christ’s fulfillment according to God’s plan? It’s impossible. It can’t happen. God will not abandon His creation, and He certainly will not abandon you.

So that even in this world now, the hope begins to be expressed, O satisfying in the morning, satisfying early with Thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. And then the message comes in the New Testament, Jesus is walking on the road, and He speaks out, the time is fulfilled. And Paul comments that the fullness of time that comes after the law does not remove those who are under the curse of the law. And so now I’m saying, this purpose that is fulfilled and is not destroyed by either sin or death, but Jesus Christ and his identification with the conditions of this world and his people in that world have defeated that sin and overcome that death.

And you are worth it. The labor of your hands is thereby established and in time. Look at it, and prayer is offered at the conclusion of some time. It may appear at the time that Time itself has a history of going wild, and I don’t like it when it’s rendered in a fractious, powerless way.

We all make a decision, and in this time, we are schooled in darkness, and in this time, God is working to bring us to this eternal sacrifice, which we shall do with the ferocity of our hearts. Won’t you be meaning to talk? and to begin with new time and new history and life in Jesus Christ, to offer our thanks to the Lord. Now, Father, can we ask you that finally, hopefully, as we rise, that we might be convinced, convinced again, that your love is worth conserving, and that in that work you have given a splendid example. You have looked to do, my father, in understanding our faith, in understanding what we ought to do. Though man is cowardly and arduous, rather than love, warmth, attitude, temper, and expression of his very nature, our God, we would suffer, of course, at last. There have been reviews that the ravages of sin and death have not been able to defeat the plans of God whose purposes it is. They stand firm. Lord, we ask Thee, We ask you, then, in the names of this, that we would learn to number our days and that we would apply our hearts unto wisdom. In the meantime, what do you say?

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.