Download... May 15, 2011. Sunday Morning Service. Bro. Dave Goble.
TEXT: GENESIS 1:1-5
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Most who have read the bible, are familiar with these scriptures. We can be instructed by going back to the beginning that “God created the heaven and the earth”,..told to us in God’s word. There is so much to be learned from these verses that begin God's word including the gospel,.. at least for those who love God.
Br D Goble confessed his tendencies like many of us, when sometimes he can pick up a book, reading it although he doesn’t always “get it,” in spite of his attempts. He then relayed how recently, of his current “meditations,” his observations of God’s amazing universe, in particular, our solar system, with the heavenly bodies we see both in the day and at night. It caused his mind to consider and be instructed, of the physics of these first five verses (and some of the others) of this chapter in Genesis.
Scientists and others are really interested in studying the stars, ..speculating on it’s origins, etc., yet the greatest facts and lessons to ponder is written right here in God’s word, where we can be instructed by it. It is so simple, poetic, and scientific, that you and I can not really understand all the details of it, although we can “kinda” get a ‘concept’ of it. You might think “well somebody certainly should be able to grasp it,” ...but it continues to confound even the “smartest” people. Yet we can draw instruction from it, how God has set the order of all things, even unto this day. How He can teach us how we need to live, receive admonitions and warnings, and stay “true”, to make our heavenly goal. We will have a little bit of all this, ...this morning. A little bit of physics, a little bit more about the gospel, and many things that are useful for the saints, (God’s children).
God created light and darkness out of nothing. And also out of nothing, God created... something. The light was the something that He created. The darkness was the nothing that was there before He created. Before the earth was, or formed, before the substance,... all was a void.. or emptiness. “ The spirit of God was upon the face of the deep. And "the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” We still want the spirit of God to move upon the face of the waters of humanity. And in that,.. we are part of it, so we also want individually, the spirit of God to move upon each of us. There will come a day when we will be glad if we have allowed the spirit of God to move upon us. Not the spirit of a particular preacher, philosopher, entertainer, etc., but only of God Himself. To early have considered, God important enough, to have moved upon “the waters” of our spirit,.. when we have finally taken our last breath.
Genesis 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. The greatest light (the sun) for the day, and the lesser light (the moon and stars) for the night. God set all this in motion. He created everything in the universe; animals, all living matter, man and woman. So whether we have a deep faith, or none,.. whether we live like a heathen does, or like a saint would, ..we are All the creation of God. There are many lessons we can learn from all of this.
One of the things we can learn about all this, is that God is a God of relationships. He Created relationships,..between a man and a woman,..between the animals and the plants, one with another and with each other. A relationship,.. between the sun, moon, and planets around which they orbit or rotate. So God is a God of relationships, from which He is trying to teach us something about. The relationships between husband, wife, children and parents, and all of the planets.. with the sun, moon, and stars. Ultimately all of these creations are to revolve around God. He is to be the center of Everything! So the question this morning is, “Who are ‘You’ orbiting, ...who are you revolving around?” You ‘are’ in a relationship, whether you know it or not, or whether you like it or not,... with God. Whether you acknowledge it or not, He has created you, and all other life, from which He is the center. By your choices spiritually, who are you orbiting?
Genesis 1:26,27 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. God created man in His own image. God created a relationship with humanity and Himself. We will do well when we remember that all things will work out, when we allow God to be the center of where we “orbit." It “will work out” with marriages, children with parents, between churches, society, and etc., ‘if’’ we Allow (or choose) God to be the center. Then our life will be “in order,” and everything else in relationships,.. with each other. God did not intend humanity to be in subjection to the animals. That is not how God ordered it. We do need to have respect though, for God’s creations. Br Goble said “I have great respect for God’s creation, when in the ocean.. while it is moving, upon a high mountain, in ‘the wild’, etc., of it’s dangers,.. or one might lose their life.” Yet it all works well when we acknowledge our Creator. It all works... in order.
We should not “see” this as... “who gets to abuse who.” Because that is not the relationship God created. He does not create relationships for abuse. The abuse.. is a perversion of Satan, to take a healthy relationship, and pervert it,..and call it an acceptable relationship. He created a relationship for a man and woman, and only ‘after’ “the fall” was there the potential for conversion.. to a perverted relationship. That was Never in God’s intentions or design. There is no true debate in that God made mankind the highest of His creations. Bro Goble pointed out, when for instance you go to Glacier Park, and you find yourself suddenly in the presence of a grizzly bear, it is 'only healthy' to have a great respect for that danger. Having that respect doesn’t mean that I place myself in subjection to the animal kingdom. There is a proper relationship and order, in All that God has created. It all hinges on who, or what, you “allow” yourself to orbit (or rotate) around. For if we allow our-self to “orbit" around anything out of Gods order,.. we open our-self up to a precarious situation, spiritually.
The physics here in Genesis can help us. We’re designed by and in the image of our Creator, for an intended relationship that revolves (“orbits”) around God’s spirit. With that thought, let us go back to our text (Genesis 1:1-5) and work also in verse 16. This is where it specifically deals with the creation of the “heavenly bodies,” that are what we see,.. and consider them as what is being attempted, to be communicated, as the thought for this morning.
Thank the Lord when we get up everyday there is usually that great big yellow ball of light in the morning, and a little bit of life that still exists. Praise God for All creation, and the things He has allowed that still work! Even if people have perverted relationships, at least,.. those gifts of the elements still work, as man cannot take ‘that’ away.
Genesis 1: 1-5,16
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
We are designed to have a relationship with all creation. Consider the heavenly bodies,..in which we are so blessed. With that great light,.. of the sun. Men are trying to “define” so many things,..yet they cannot take away what God has set in place. Scientists have determined and theorized so many “facts” on which everything is considered. Yet as Bro Goble pointed out, those scientific “discoveries” take nothing away from God’s word. God’s word was never meant to be a.. bit by bit.. instruction of how everything came about, other than the most important ...“God created.” To think otherwise is to struggle, because man does not have the mind of God. Man’s mind and language, is so little, and limited, when considering God’s great unlimited and eternal one. To think we can understand any “steps” God took to achieve our surrounding creations, is futile, because we are the creation from the Creator! For anyone to say otherwise,... is tantamount to foolishness. All of our learned “intellect” and communications, have to be processed through one another,.. who are again so limited!
It is this accepted understanding, that gives us peace! We accept that God is the Author and Creator of all! It is enough for us to say,..”He did it!” And these scriptures are being used this morning, to learn a little bit about these spiritual relationships, that we need to pay attention to. The sun’s gravity is so powerful, that it holds all the “planets” massively (all the way out to Saturn, and beyond) in orbit.. around it. In Bro Goble’s studies regarding also Jupiter, he found it is of course, the largest “planet,” the ‘gas’ planet (or what it is believed.) If one could go to Jupiter, there is not anything to “stand upon”. There is so much atmospheric activity going on (storms and the like) that “boggles” the mind of the greatness of God’s mind. How wondrous and beyond our comprehension,..are all these creations! And,..the relationships between all of it, that keeps everything working in the order He set it to. Jupiter has a massive electromagnetic field, that holds other satellites in it’s orbit. All kept in order, as part of God’s design! The question is, “Who are you orbiting,.. this morning?”
It is God who has set all this magnificence in it’s designated order, and it to remain so, at His command. It is only people who do not keep their proper “orbit” that God has set them in. It is only people who disobey causing them to fall out of their proper orbit/order. So again the question is,”Who are you orbiting?” God wants all to return to the proper design He has created for them!
Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. We know this is the prophecy of Jesus, for everyone in humanity has “gone astray.” Every man, woman, boy, and girl has gone astray, and not stayed in their proper “orbit.” So God sent His Son, a “revelation” of Himself in human flesh, that we might be returned to our proper “orbit,” revolving around God, resurrected, and changed! This morning you don’t have to keep going astray! If your “orbit” has been “astray” or altered, you can have it returned to it’s proper revolution around God. Apparently from time to time there are “heavenly bodies” (comets asteroids, debris,) that if big enough can knock “out” another heavenly body, change it’s revolution,.. or “orbital path.” People are like that upon their life’s path of spirituality, ...when they are exposed to so much “space junk,” ...they are thrown off the orbital course in life God has designed for their benefit.
This calls to mind the “stories” some of us have heard about the prediction that some comet, asteroid, etc., will one day propel against the earth to it’s destruction. Well,.. Faith knows that God has all of this under control. What happens will not ever conflict with what He has told us in His word. God has spiritually designed us to “orbit” Jesus! Too many people though, have allowed “space junk” to knock them off the course, or orbit, that God has designed for them. People,.. going astray. We live in the latter days, when there is not enough time to waste on this happening. You get “hit” hard enough, perverse enough, it can knock you off your “orbit” forever! We don’t have the strength, time, energy to allow that to happen. And we don’t Have to, because God has sent His Son to return us to a right “orbit!” If you allow yourself to be careless, or unconcerned, you will be “hit” with obstacles that will place you where there is no “light, heat, or breath” to keep you from a final spiritual death.
Too many are way.. far away.. from the Son of Righteousness! Just as the literal sun is only a small “dot” relative to the universe, many souls are like that spiritually,..way out there in the “solar system,” far from the sun/Son of Righteousness! Some of you, when you leave here, will go back to your everyday “routine” ...and still be so far away from the Son of Righteousness. God wants you to move closer in,.. to the Son. Where you can be attracted to it’s light, gravity, and nuclear energy! Returned,.. to the proper “orbit” He has designed for you! Who are you orbiting?
Malachi 4: 1-2 1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. There is coming a day when no one will be able to say “I didn’t know, my “orbit” was far from the center, so I was not aware.” There is coming a day if we know “that,”.. when that excuse will not be accepted, and that day is ‘now.’ Verse 2...God has promised to all that actually “fear His name” to cover them with the healing of His wings, and to give us all that we need. All those having gone astray, those with perverse relationships, can be returned and restored to a right relationship, to become healthy by the wings of the Sun of righteousness! Who are you orbiting?
Revelations 22: 21-24 22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. How glad and wondrous to be“orbiting” around the Lamb! For He is the light of the temple! He is the heat and illumination! Who are you orbiting,..revolving around this morning? We were all designed to revolve around Christ!
Revelations 4:4-9 4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. 5 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. 6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. 7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. 8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, LORD God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. 9 And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, This is a spiritual and “cosmic’ revelation of what John the apostle was given. Verse 9 A constant cry of “holy, holy, holy,” in all in their proper order. Verses 6 & 8 These creatures had eyes before and behind them, seeing seals being opened, vials being poured out. These worshiped the Creator, (Verse 5) From their center was the throne of power. They all teach the “same” things.
In the realm of royalty, all function basically in the same manner of respect. For example with a monarch, you must approach them, “face first.” Such a great respect was required to be shown. When you left, you had to do so with your face toward them. If not complying, often you would lose your life, for this ultimate show of disrespect. Spiritually we must have our eyes toward God, also always “seeing behind” it. What comes from the throne is power transmitted from God. We must always be oriented towards His center. We as the Church, must evolve around the Creator.
Bro Goble used as an example 4 brethren, (who he had come up front), to be “placed” in a circle, having them walking in that circle, always facing the center. If one says,”I’m not still in that orbit,..something was allowed to “knock” that one off from it. He also illustrated with these “volunteers,” one standing outside, desiring to be restored to that “observed” circle of unity. There is a way to “let him in.” This is not about letting up on holiness,..just the mercy of God, saving that one Out of their sins. A religious “worldly orbit” will generate a false fellowship of destruction, because they are not facing the center,..or “The Sun.” The orbit God puts in place spiritually,.. will get bigger when all in that “circled orbit,”... keep their eyes on Christ. Revelations 4:4 The four and twenty elders facing the throne. Are you You facing the throne? How would you like someone facing away from you,..while you are talking to them? God wants your attention, in the “orbit” He has designed for you. Face God! Don’t turn your back on Him!
Revelations 6:13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
Revelations 8:10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; These stars were big enough when falling to cause a great impacting of damage. When a star “dies,..they fall out of their orbit causing great damage to the earth. When stars fall from “celestial places,” terrible repercussions result. You're not simply changing churches, fellowships, etc. Falling from God’s designed “orbit” for you,..causes spiritual damage to result.
Exodus 37:6-9 6 And he made the mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half was the length thereof, and one cubit and a half the breadth thereof. 7 And he made two cherubim of gold, beaten out of one piece made he them, on the two ends of the mercy seat; 8 One cherub on the end on this side, and another cherub on the other end on that side: out of the mercy seat made he the cherubim on the two ends thereof. 9 And the cherubim spread out their wings on high, and covered with their wings over the mercy seat, with their faces one to another; even to the mercy seatward were the faces of the cherubim. Verse 9 “Lord always help us to ‘orient’ our faces toward one another!” Many claim it, but one that truly is facing Christ, is easy to discern. For it is facing Christ, that truly “fills” you with a powerful influence! It will not be a projecting” of an argumentative, troublesome, and/or a prideful righteousness, while still claiming to evolve around the Sun of righteousness. Don’t let your “experience” be incindental. That’s not a fanatical concern, it is a healthy one,..the way God set it to be. If healthy spiritually,..you won’t hold back anything,..you won’t say,”it’s too hard.” Of all God’s creations, people have the most trouble staying in subjection, facing The Creator. All people are meant to be “celestial” spiritually, and not fallen to earth, and only terrestrial.
Will you allow God to keep you “orbiting” around Him,..or instead choose an earthly goal or person to “orbit”.. or center around ?
The above scriptural message is a picture of one that is orbiting in a right relationship with Jesus! This is the message that keeps us around, that puts us where we belong in the orbit of Christ. It is the message that keeps order in a spiritual universe!
"Who are you “orbiting?”
