Creation Ordinances

1Introducing: An Ordinance

• Name some ordinances you know:
  • Believers are to observe two important ordinances with their church family.
  • Baptism
  • Communion

2Ordinance: Definition (Look in Websters – command, precept, etc.)

• As Believers, the ordinance of God would be referred to as His command.
• Name some typical things that Believers would consider to fit in this category:
  • Prayer
  • Bible reading
  • God’s ordinances reach far deeper into the life of man than he realizes.

3God’s Four Creation Ordinances

4Marriage/ Procreation

• Obedience to the Creator is rendered by His creation beginning life together.
• Not biological necessity.
• Not uncontrollable “heat / emotion”.
• An act of the will, not out-of-control.
• Monogamous marriages are act of the will.
• The moral will of God is that His creature would enter into a human-divine cooperative in the process of filling the earth. (Covenant)
• Marriage is the only framework where this human-divine cooperative may occur.
• “A man shall leave, cleave, and become one flesh.”
• This command is not presented as an option under Creation Ordinance.
• “Alternate lifestyles” is a contradiction under Creation Ordinance – no room for alternates. (Homosexuality)
• This Ordinance is the closest thing given to humankind to mirror the Image.
• 1+1+1=1 (Trinity)
• 1+1=1 (Marriage)
• There is no more emphasis/importance upon one person than the other – they have become one person – equal.
• This “value” also mirrors the Trinity.
• Both Image-Bearers find their value, not in each other, but in the Image.
• Human understanding of this kind of relationship was God ordained.
• Human relationships are God’s plan.
• Humankind did not have to observe any part of creation to understand his relationship with other Image-Bearers. (Animals did not teach them how to procreate)
• God Himself – not creation, best defines unity.
• Unity is best celebrated in the physical union of humankind – this represents the totality of the relationship.
• Geographical Distribution.
• Humankind is responsible to “fill” the earth. (Genesis 1: 26-28)
• Note the great distress of God over the breaking of this one ordinance: Illustration of Babel.

• Question: What was the great crime?

• Question: What was the punishment?

• Question: How did this punishment serve the will of the Creator?

• Have Dominion & Subdue the earth.
• Humankind is responsible to develop nature. (Develop what God had already declared perfect!)
• His toil was his personal stamp upon the garden that God had given to him.
• The Image-Bearer was to develop what was already perfect.
• The Image-Bearer entered into a human-divine cooperative in order to complete God’s full intention for the earth.
• His enjoyment was to be found in what the Image had provided for him.
• He was to enoy, write poems about, sing songs about, rearrange, and work in this great gift of creation.
• His work in the garden would extend the
• glory of God into the realm of humanity.

5Creation Sabbath

• This day was set apart as Adam’s first day of life!
• This day was declared as central in the life of the Image-Bearer.
• This day was NOT set-aside.
• The Sabbath was made for man, not the other way around. Mark 2:27
  • This day is universal to all Image-Bearers (Regenerate & Unregenerate).
• The point of the Sabbath:
  • All other nations would toil and labor, but God’s blessings lay with those who rested on this day.

  • Question: What do you think other nations would think about those “lazy Israelites”?

  • Question: What was God’s great beef with those Israelites in Amos’ day?

  • Sabbath Rest does not necessarily mean not to labor! (Remember the third Ordinance?)
  • Does not mean to cease all activity.
  • (Is this possible?) IE: The Jews walking on the sidewalk in the new city when we biked through – kept walking the right distance…over and over!
  • Keep Sabbath central: do a different “kind” of activity.
  • We need not go anywhere else,
  • We need not sample any fabrication of this world,
  • To experience all this life has to offer.

6Genesis: Creation Ordinances

7(God’s Purposes for Humankind)

• Bad news for “couch-potatoes” – What will heaven be like?

• Question
• Understand

• Was the garden in which Adam lived perfect?

• Why did Adam have to work in the garden?

• Interesting
• Note

• What does this great importance placed on the creation around us tell us about how we should treat this world?

• Interesting
• Note
• As His Image-Bearers, we represent God through physical means.

• As His Church, how do we best represent Christ?

• Baptism

8Lord’s Supper

• (Both physical means)
• Interesting
• Note
• Man’s mind, will, emotions, behavior, pleasure…
• All that defines humankind is wrapped up in God’s Creation Ordinances.
• God’s commands provide us with all that we need to fully experience His gift of Life.