Introduction

Genesis 1:28-31 NKJV  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”  (29)  And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.  (30)  Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.  (31)  Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

• So this is our second sermon on these verses.
  • If you where here last week you know that these verses include the very first three commands to mankind.
    • First: Be Fruitful and multiply.
      • Second: Fill the Earth and subdue it.
      • Third: Have dominion over all the Earth.
    • Now these three commands where given before the command to not eat from the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil…
      • These three commands show us God’s perfect and eternal plan for mankind.
        • What is His plan for us? His plan for us is to be fruitful and multiply, for us to fill the earth and subdue it, and to have dominion over all the earth.
      • I also reminded you of this verse from James last week… keep this verse in the forefront of your mind as we talk about these commands:

James 4:17 ESV  So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

• So, Adam and Eve knew that the were supposed to be fruitful and multiply… if they did not do this, it would be sin…
  • They knew the were supposed to fill the earth and subdue it… so if they refused to fill the earth it would be sin.
    • They knew that they were supposed to have dominion over all the earth… so if they allowed the earth to have dominion over them, then they would be in sin.
• Now last week we talked about that first command… be fruitful and multiply.
  • We talked about the horrors of abortion.
  • We talked about forms of abortion that are not often talked about.
  • And then we talked about having lots of kids…
    • We specifically talked about not living life as a functional atheist.
      • Atheists don’t pray.
      • Atheists don’t believe God has a plan for every child born and unborn.
      • Atheists don’t ask God how many children they have.
      • Atheists have precisely how many children they want, based off of their own desires, and they don’t consider God at all in the equation.
        • I simply want us to not behave like atheists. We do believe in God. We do believe God has a plan for every child born and unborn. We do pray and ask and seek. WE SHOULD HAVE PRECISELY AS MANY CHILDREN GOD WANTS US TO HAVE… not how many WE want to have. Not our will, but Your will be done Lord.
      • Last week we started and adoption fund which now has it’s own bank account, and we have talked to multiple people in the church who are praying about adoption… GOD IS DOING IT.
      • We are going to be a growing church, because we are fruitful and we multiply.
        • Both through births, and through rebirths… that is, people being born again. Thank you JESUS!
    • So we covered in depth the first command, and this Sunday I want to cover the second command today.
      • We are going to talk about filling the earth …

• Alright, point one this morning… the earth is meant to be full of Christians.

Point One – God’s Plan Was to Fill the Earth With His People

Genesis 1:28a NKJV  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth…

• Listen… here is how God designed the earth…
  • He designed the earth, ALL of it, to be filled with His people.
    • Now when God gave these commands, there was no sin.
    • There was no pain, there was no suffering, there was no sorrow, there was no death.
      • There was perfect fellowship between God and man.
  • My grandma Ruthies favorite Hymn was “In The Garden” by Charles Austin Miles…

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

• Whenever I hear this song… I think about how sweet it must have been for Adam and Eve, for them to walk with and talk with God in the Garden.
  • The birds chirping, the flowers gently blowing in the warm breeze, the streams of living water flowing gently by the path…
    • Just walking with and talking with Jesus… all day, every day… not a worry to be had in the world.
• God loved that time in History, and Adam and Eve certainly did too… What a beautiful scene…
  • Now imagine that scene taking place all over the world.
    • People in Hawaii walking and talking with God…
      • People in China, under the beautifully sculpted landscapes… walking and talking with God.
      • People in Hati, and Ghana, and Cuba, and Singapore, and Japan, and Australia, and England… people walking the Swiss Alps with Jesus, and swimming in the Atlantic with Jesus… The Bahamas alive with worship of our King… The Forests of the Korean Peninsula full of God’s people worshiping.
        • There would be no Ukraine or Russia, or any other nation… there would just be the earth, and it would be FULL of God’s people.
        • And at any moment you could turn to your wife and say “Honney, lets go worship God on Antarctica with the penguins”
          • And you wouldn’t have to worry about being to cold, because there would be no pain or suffering… and you wouldn’t have to worry about the journey taking to long, because you would have eternity to make the trip and Jesus would walk with you and talk with you the entire way.
    • You could go anywhere in the world, anywhere in God’s creation, and it would be full of other people worshiping God….
  • How amazing that would be… and this is how God meant it to be… and this is how it will be when Jesus returns… New Jerusalem will be our home, but the gates won’t be closed… we will have access to the whole earth…
• So why is it not that way now? Well, because of sin.
  • Sin separated us from God.

Isaiah 59:2 NKJV  But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.

Micah 3:4 NKJV  Then they will cry to the LORD, But He will not hear them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, Because they have been evil in their deeds.

Jeremiah 5:25 NKJV  Your iniquities have turned these things away, And your sins have withheld good from you.

• Listen, God had so much good in store for us… so much joy, and peace…
  • God did not have suffering, and pain, and death in store for us…
    • He had a life of walking and talking with Him all over the earth…
      • But our sin separated us from those good things and our sin separated us from God.
      • And as we will see in the next coming chapters in Genesis… The direct result of Adam and Eve’s sin is that they were separated from God.

Genesis 3:23-24 NKJV  therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.  (24)  So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

• The perfect vision, the perfect plan of God’s people filling the earth, walking with Him, talking with Him, worshiping Him… it was SHATTERED when man sinned.
  • So, Point one this morning is that God’s plan was to fill the earth with His people.
    • Earth was designed to be a place for God and mankind, a fruitful and multiples mankind, to dwell together in unity.

Psalms 133:1 NKJV  A Song of Ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity!

• Man… how beautiful, how wonderful, how good and pleasant it would have been to live on an earth with billions and billions of believers living together and worshiping together in unity.
  • But sin messed that up… does that mean it is not God’s plan anymore? Of course not, God’s Plan is STILL to fill the earth with His people…
    • That is our second point this morning.

Point Two – God’s Plan is STILL to Fill the Earth with His People

Genesis 1:28a NKJV  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth…

• The question should be asked… if God’s plan was perfect… did man mess up God’s plan?
  • And I think the answer is “No, man did not mess up God’s plan… we are not nearly that powerful…”
  • But I do think it is fair that we changed how it plays out… we maybe postponed it for a few thousand years… which is nothing when compared to eternity.
    • You see I still believe God’s plan is for His people to fill the earth…
    • Consider Abraham for a moment, the man God chose to use to start His people afresh from… look at the promise God gave Abraham…

Genesis 17:2-7 NKJV  And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”  (3)  Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying:  (4)  “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.  (5)  No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.  (6)  I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.  (7)  And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.

Genesis 17:15-16 NKJV  Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.  (16)  And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.”

• So there was this man Abram, and God chose him from all the people of the earth to start a family that would be God’s chosen people.
  • He promises Abram, now called Abraham, and his wife Sarai, now called Sarah, that they would be the mother and father of NATIONS.
    • Not “A Nation” but NATIONS…
• Move on a little farther in Genesis and God doubles down on this promise with Abraham:

Genesis 22:17-18 NKJVa  blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.  (18)  In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

• So here in these promises we see afresh God’s plan for man. The world is going to be FULL of His people. Nations full of His people… Kings from his people… Kingdoms full of His people…
  • We see this language again of the earth being full of God’s people…
    • And from Abrahm would come the line of people we today call “Jews”. The Jewish people, God’s chosen people, came from Abraham…
• But hold on a moment… let’s be honest… let’s be logical…
  • Did Abraham birth NATIONS?
    • Well, there is only ONE Jewish nation in the world, either by majority or rule… that is the Nation of Israel.
  • God promised NATIONS… but there is only one nation…
  • And can we really say that Abrahams descendants number as many as the sand in the sea shore or the stars in the sky?
    • Well there are certainly a lot of Jews… there are approximately 16 million Jews alive today.
      • But is that really as many as God promised? I mean that is only 0.2% of the world… Not two percent… zero point two percent…
      • Is that really what God Promised?
• Well it is, when you considered what Jesus did when He died and rose again. He made a way for us lowly gentiles… that means us non-Jewish people… us non-chosen people… to become chosen… to become a part of Abraham’s family… to become a part of God’s family.

Galatians 3:29 NKJV  And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

• Listen, if you are born again, if you belong to Christ, then you are a child of Abraham… that is what this says, you are Abraham’s seed, an heir of his… and heir to the promise of God.
  • Romans 11 talks about this… we are grafted into the vine of Abraham… meaning we become a part of that lineage.
    • Maybe you have heard the song… and if you are a born again Christian it applies to you:
      • Father Abraham, had many sons, and many sons had father Abraham, I am one of them, and so are you, so let’s all praise the Lord!
• Now if you include Christians as heirs of Abraham, as Children of Abraham… all the sudden things start to make sense.
  • There are about 2.4 Billion Christians in the world, that is a lot more than 16 million… instead of 0.2% that raises up the heirs of Abraham to be 31 percent of the worlds population.
  • There are 15 nations that formerly have Christianity as their national religion.
  • There are 119 nations in the world that the majority of their population is Christian…
    • That is more than HALF of the 195 nations of the world.
• Now most of these reported Christians probably are not born again, and so these numbers are WAY inflated based off of just what people report… but you get the idea that God has been working since Adam and Eve to fulfill His plan of the earth and nations being full of His people.
• It is why in the great commission Jesus says

Matthew 28:19a NKJV  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…

• It’s why in Acts Jesus said this to His disciples:

Acts 1:8b NKJV  …and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

• It is why in Revelation we see people from the whole earth worshiping God…

Revelation 7:9-10 NKJV  After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands,  (10)  and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

• Listen, if your idea of Christianity is IOWA then your vision is far to short sighted… God is a God of the nations.
  • And that is why this verse about the return of Jesus is so concerning…

Luke 18:8b NKJV  …Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

• You see God’s perfect plan is for the earth to be FILLED with His people… Jesus should be able to come to ANY POINT on earth and find faith… even the research labs of Antarctica…
  • So when we read this verse “Will Jesus really find faith on Earth”… man that should challenge us… that should encourage us to be doing more… because I want to be sure that Jesus DOES find faith on this earth wherever He comes… because we were commanded to fill the earth… that brings me to my final point this morning:
    • God’s Plan for YOU is for YOU to Help Fill the Earth With His People!
      • We know that God’s plan WAS for the earth to be full of His people, before there was sin.
        • We know that man messed that up.
      • We know that God’s plan is STILL for the Earth to be full of His people…
      • Now the application of this sermon is the final point. God’s Plan for YOU is for YOU to help Fill the earth with His people.

Point Three – God’s Plan for YOU is for YOU to Help Fill the Earth with His People

Genesis 1:28a NKJV  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth…

Luke 18:8b NKJV  …Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

• When the Son of Man comes to your house… will He find faith there?
  • Will He find a godly Father sacrificially leading His family in devotions, study, and worship?
  • Will He find a godly mother, praying for her children and teaching them the things of God?
  • Will He find a godly husband loving his wife as Christ loved the church… serving her, sacrificing for her, even unto death.
  • Will he find a godly wife, submitting to the biblical headship of her husband… serving Christ as she serves her husband? Helping lead the family as a pair equally yoked?
  • Will the Son of Man, when He returns, find faith in your children, kids who love, and pray, and worship, and study…

Deuteronomy 6:6-10a NKJV  “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.  (7)  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.  (8)  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  (9)  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.  (10)  “So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob…

• You see we are supposed to be taking nations for Jesus, but it starts in the household… how can you lead the nations to Christ when you can’t even lead your family to Christ?
  • Next question… what about in your city…
  • When Jesus returns will He find faith in Cedar Rapids?
    • If not, the only ones we have to blame is ourselves.
      • Y’all I am not OK with how many people go to church… I am not…
      • And I am not just talking about CLC, but I am talking about any Christian Church in Cedar Rapids… I am not comfortable with how many people regular attend church…
      • Because I notice that rush hour traffic in Cedar Rapids is a whole lot worse than Sunday morning traffic…
      • Heck, I notice that the traffic when I pick my kids up from School at 3 o’clock is worse than Sunday morning traffic… why?
        • Because there are more employed people in Cedar Rapids then there are Christians…
        • THAT MEANS WE HAVE WORK TO DO.
  • And some of y’all are doing it… some of you are out there inviting people to Jesus… evangelizing… and inviting people to church…
    • Man I believe that miracles happen in this church… I believe that people that are hurting, and broken, and angry… find healing and deliverance and peace here.
      • I believe that families are restored here.
      • That bodies are healed here.
      • That addictions are broken here.
        • SO WHY WOULD THIS PLACE NOT BE FULL EVERY SUNDAY.
• Because y’all… how can they come if they don’t know… and how can they know if no one tells them…

Romans 10:12-15 NKJV  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.  (13)  For “WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED.”  (14)  How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?  (15)  And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF PEACE, WHO BRING GLAD TIDINGS OF GOOD THINGS!”

• Here is what I want, I want everyone to take at least 5 church cards… (Ushers pass out church cards) and I want you to hand them out before next Sunday…
  • I am SENDING YOU to invite people to church… because you know that the Gospel is preached here every Sunday… so an invitation to church is an invitation to the Gospel.
    • And use it as a catalyst to share your testimony… to preach Jesus… hand them a church card and let the Holy Spirit Lead… but I want to send you out without an excuse this morning.
• And listen, that is Cedar Rapids, that is IA… but we are called to FILL THE EARTH… right… that is why we have missions faith pledges… Let’s go back to that acts verse for a minute…

Acts 1:8b NKJV  …and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

• You see, Jerusalem was the city they where in, Judea was Nation they were in, Samaria was the neighboring nation to the north… and well the ends of the earth are the ends of the earth… In our language Jesus would be saying:
  • Go out into Cedar Rapids, and in all of Iowa and the United States, and to the nations of the world!
• And so as we grow our families in Christ, and grow our communities in Christ… we must also grow the world in Christ…
  • This is what Missions is…
    • Earlier I mentioned that there are 119 nations that are majority Christian… I found by finding a a list of nations ranked by their population of Christians…
    • did you know that Japan is 171st out of 195 of the nations of the world by Christian population, meaning only 24 nations are less Christian than it…
      • If Christ returned and went to Japan He would NOT find faith there… unless He went into one of the very few Christian household there.
      • That is why we sent a church planting team… because God wants us to FILL the earth with his people.
        • Pray for Rebecca yall!
        • And be faithful on your missions faith pledges… that money goes directly to Rebecca and other missionaries around the world to spread the gospel to all nations… that money may support YOU one day as you go out into all the nations.
        • If you haven’t filled one out, you can jump into the mission faith pledge by filling out an MFP form in the back of your seat and putting it in the black offering box in the back at the welcome desk…
• But listen, wherever you are, and whatever your lot is in life… YOU SHOULD BE SPREADING THE GOSPEL… why? Because the second Coman God gave mankind was to FILL the earth…

Genesis 1:28a NKJV  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth…

• So let me wrap this thing up and conclude the message this morning…

Conclusion

Turn On Children’s Class Lamps

• All of this said… I want to leave you with some encouragement this morning…
  • Remember I quoted that song “In the Garden” earlier this morning…
    • I was wrong about it… it’s not about Adam and Eve walking and talking with God in the Garden of Eden.
    • It is in fact about Mary Walking and Talking with Jesus, who she thought was the gardener, in the garden in front of Jesus tomb.
      • The author, Charles Austin Miles, said he had a vision of the garden in front of the tomb, and there marry was… talking to who she thought was the Gardener…
      • Then the Gardener said her name “Mary”
      • And she shouted out RABONAI!… It was Jesus, not dead but alive…
    • Charles said that he was transported to that time… and that he too had a “Rabonai!” moment… and that, like Mary, he was able to walk and talk with the Risen Jesus…
    • When He awoke from his vision Charles found that he was grasping his Bible with all his might… he took a deep breath, put it down in thanksgiving, and immediately wrote “In the garden”.
      • Y’all, you don’t have to wait for heaven to walk with and talk with Jesus… you can start now… THE WORLD can be full of people who stat walking with and talking with Jesus…
• Gospel Call

Aaronic Blessing

“In the Garden” is not about the garden of Eden, but about the garden in front of the Tomb of Christ.