>> 1. What is the difference between creating or making something?

>> 2. How did God create the world and all the things in it? GEN 1:3,6,9,14,20,24,26, all tell us, "God said, let..." and it was so.

>> 3. What was special about how God created Man" GEN 1:26-27 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.

>> 4. Was man created out of nothing like the earth, all the animals, and the trees? GEN 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

>>Man was made from the very lowest substance--and the very highest substance.

>>Man was not only created in the very image of God, but God set him in a very kingly station. GEN 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

>>God placed man in the same place where King Pharaoh put Joseph. GEN 41:40-41 Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.

41 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.

42 And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;

43 And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.

>>The first commandment God gave man was to keep His Sabbath Day holy. GEN 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

>>To understand the glory and dignity of the Sabbath we learn it was necessary for man's good. MAR 2:27-28 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

>>God may well have called all creation into being at an instant---but He demonstrated His will to distribute our work over six days to be followed by a day of repose.

>>This day of repose was to rest from all labour--and to be set aside as holy unto the Lord, not to do our own pleasure but to honour the Lord. ISA 58:13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

>>Man was formed, not for seven days toil a week, but six--not merely for secular pursuits but for the honour of God.

>>Adam was assigned his work to do in the Garden of Eden; he was not to be idle. GEN 2:15-16 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

>>If man would be submissive to God's rightful place in the first chariot he would bow to the authority of God's Word and honour His right to decide what is right or wrong. GEN 2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

>>How did God chose to prove man to see that he was submissive to ride in the second chariot? GEN 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

>>God told Adam he would not only loose his right to ride in that second chariot, but he would die if he ate of that forbidden tree.

>>This was because his disobedience was not only slighting God's will, but it was slighting the authority of His Word! MAT 5:18-19 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

God often uses His smallest creatures to remind us of what He has spoken to us. MAT 26:73-75 And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee. [Then Peter began to use the speech of the world!]

74 Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew.

75 And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.

>>Has it ever entered your mind that when you hear a dog bark it should remind us of what God has spoken to us?

>>God uses every one of His creatures to bring to our remembrance what He has commanded us--see how he uses His servants as His watchmen. JER 6:16-17 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

>>What was the enemy that must cause God's watchmen to blow the trumpet? ISA 58:1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

>>So now how should the barking of a dog remind us of God's warning against walking in sin? ISA 56:10 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.

>>Have you ever heard of a dog being called a watchdog? Does not a good watchdog bark to give warning of danger approaching?

>>All these watchmen are God's servants to cause us to remember the authority of His Word.

>>Think of how God the Father exaulted His dear Son for his reverence for the authority of His Word. PHI 2:8-11 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

>>Now after Jesus Christ has been so exalted for such obedience, stop and think about PSA 138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

>>Take notice how THE WORD is to be glorified in the gospel! JOH 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

>>Through the Holy Spirit's inspiration, the Deity of our Saviour is the very key with which this fourth gospel is opened.

>>This divine relationship unveils the glory He had before the world began. Jesus said in JOH 17:4-5 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

>>The gospel of John does not begin with Jesus as the Son of David, nor as the Son of Man, but as the eternal Son of God.

>>This fourth Gospel takes us back into eternity, before the creation to show that the eternal Son of God had no beginning, He is co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

>>"In the beginning was the Word," a word is an expression--by words we express ourselves.

>>The Word of God, then is Deity expressing itself in audible terms!

>>"And the Word was God", teaches us that THE WORD OF GOD is not only the revealer of God, but God revealed! THE WORD was from eternity, and throughout all eternity ever remains to be none other than God Himself.

>>"The same was in the beginning with God," assures us that not only was our Saviour the One through whom, and by whom, the Deity expresses Himself in audible terms, but He was co-eternal and co-equal with The Father and the Holy Spirit.

>>"All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made," teaches us the authority of THE WORD! PSA 33:6-7 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.

>>This expression, "By the Word of the Lord," clearly implies that the Lord spoke through the Lord Jesus Christ when He said, "Let there be light[and] Let there be a firmament...[and] Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear...[and] Let the earth bring forth grass...[and] Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years...[and] Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven...[and] Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind...[and] 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," GEN 1:3-26.

>>The Word of God tells us that all creation was spoken into being by the Lord Jesus Christ. EPH 3:8-10 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;

9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

>>Stop to consider that a word is a medium of manifestation.

>>You have a thought which is unknown to others, but when you cloth that thought with words it is revealed.

>>Words make unseen thoughts objective , i.e., the ambitions, designs, goals or intentions, motives and purposes or reasons of unknown and unseen thoughts are revealed by words.

>>As THE WORD, Christ has made manifest the invisible God.

>>The Lord Jesus Christ is designated as the Word because He is God's medium of manifesting Himself, i.e., it is through Christ that God speaks unto us. HEB 1:1-2 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

>>Christ spoke of Himself as God's Spokesman in REV 1:8, "I am Alpha and Omega," which means, "I am God's Alphabet. I spell out Deity, I utter all God has to say." Never think God speaks outside His Word.

>>This is what we see in the testimony of JOH 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

>>This word "declared," means to tell out. It is the same in the original as we find in ACT 15:14, and 21:19 Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. ACT 21:19 And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.

>>Christ is the One who has made the mysterious God known--He is the express image of His person in our human nature. ROM 16:25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.