God. Real. Right.

This message is the second on the way through the Sermon on the Mount. The text is Matthew 5:13-16. It was recorded while I served as interim pastor at Glen Meadows Baptist Church in San Angelo, TX.
(Yes. The final messages from James are still forthcoming!)
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KJV:
And God said…

Comments:
At this point in the text, God has created a world which has no form and is empty though He is pervasively present in it. So the next thing He does is make clear that His presence will not be secretive. The activity with which He will give shape to the formless and content to the void is revelatory–it is speech. This point, though it may seem strained with a reading of nothing but Genesis 1, is undoubtedly a portion of this event as it is recognized throughout the Old Testament. Psalm 19 is one of the best examples. Creation language deliberately marks the first six verses of that Psalm, a poem about how God reveals Himself first through the creation, then through the law, then through individual lives. Another way of saying it is that without God’s revelation, all is formless and void.
It is important to point out that this reading is not allegorical. If the scripture were not all inspired by the same God, it could be characterized as reader response theory. But since God inspires all the scriptures, including later passages’ readings of earlier passages, it is perfectly legitimate to point out what the passage comes to mean throughout Hebrew history in scripture.

Expanded Paraphrase:
So God began to give form to the world by speaking–

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