We turn in the Word of God to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. 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. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so. And God called the firmament heaven, and the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters called he seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind, and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. And God said, 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 them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. And it was so. 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. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. And God said, 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 God created great whales and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth after his kind. And it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and God saw that it was good. 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. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. 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. And God said, behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree and the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat. And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made. And behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. This is God's inspired and perfect word. May he bless it to our hearts this evening. The text that we consider is verses one and two. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. 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." Beloved congregation, in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. There are 31,102 verses in the King James Version of the Bible. Of all of those verses, this verse is first. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. In the remaining 31,101 verses in the Bible, God will reveal many important truths. But the very first truth that He reveals at the very beginning of His Word is this truth, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. God Himself has identified this great truth of creation as fundamental and as so significant that it must lead all the rest of the truths of Scripture in the beginning. God created the heaven and the earth. The significance of this first verse of the Bible is evident in the fact that our Reformed confessions make a clear and decisive confession of creation. We did that tonight in the Apostles' Creed, which was written about 200 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In that Apostles' Creed, we said together, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, calling to mind Genesis 1 verse 1, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The Nicene Creed, written in 325, about 300 years after the death and resurrection of Christ, we confess the very same thing. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. Very similar to the Apostles' Creed. In the Belgic Confession, there is a lengthy article involving or regarding God's creation. In the Heidelberg Catechism, there are Lord's Days that deal with this truth of creation. In our Reformed Confessions, we confess, Genesis 1, verse 1, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The significance of this first verse of the Bible can also be seen in the controversial nature of this verse. It could be argued that Genesis 1 verse 1 is the most controversial verse in the entire Bible. That's evident from the fact that of the 7 billion or so people on the earth today, 2 point something billion profess to be Christians. which means that the great majority of human beings on the earth do not believe that there is this God who created the heavens and the earth. And even among the 2 point something billion who profess to be Christians, many of them by this date in history have abandoned the clear teaching of Genesis 1 verse 1 so that they also would deny that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The controversial nature of this verse is evident in the fact that the majority opinion of human beings on the earth regarding origins is that all things were made by chance, in a big bang, according to the theory of evolution, so that most of the world, certainly the educated world, would deny that in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. This is a controversial text, and no wonder it's controversial. No wonder Satan sets his sights on Genesis 1 verse 1. It is the first of all of the great truths regarding God. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. So significant is the truth of creation that when you and I arrive in heaven, one of the things we will praise God for is creation. When you go to heaven and you join the church of all ages surrounding the throne of God in heaven, one of the reasons you will praise Him, in fact, a prominent reason you will praise Him, is for His work of creation. We read of that at the end of the Bible in Revelation 4, verse 11. In Revelation 4, John has a vision of what's happening in heaven. He sees in heaven a throne, and on that throne sits Jehovah God. He sees the way the people are arranged around God. They're not sitting in pews like we do in church, but they're surrounding Jehovah God all around that throne. And the elders there represent the entire church of the Old and New Testament. And the entire church of the Lord Jesus Christ are taking off the crowns that He has graciously given them. and they are casting them at the feet of Jehovah God, and this is what they are saying, verse 11, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. When you and I go to heaven, one of the prominent reasons that we will praise God is this, that in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And this truth of creation warms the heart of the redeemed child of God. The applications of this truth are almost endless. The truth of God's power and glory is on display in creation. The truth of God's providence and His continuing upholding of all things that He has created is on display in the truth of creation. The truth of God's care of your life and mine because we too are His creatures is on display in the truth of creation. The truth of our redemption is on display because the God who called things that are not as though they were has also called into my heart and yours life where there was none. He made that life where there was only death just as at the beginning He made the light where there was none and the firmament where there was none before. The God who calls all things that are not as though they were is the God who has redeemed us by that call. The applications of this truth of creation are almost endless, and therefore this truth is dear and precious to the children of God. And so, this evening, We confess our belief in this great truth from Genesis 1, verses 1 and 2, under the theme, God created the heaven and the earth. All three points are the same. God created, God created, God created. But the emphasis in each point is different. In the first point, we emphasize God created. And there we look at the creator of all things. The second point is God created, and there we look at His great work of making all things. And then the third point is God created! And there we see a few of the applications of this truth of creation to us. God created the heaven and the earth. God created, God created, and God created. Genesis 1 verse 1 introduces us to God. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. By that introduction to God at the very beginning, we learn that God is the main character of Genesis 1 verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The verse is about God. It has to do with God. God is the main character of the first verse of the Bible. And we are familiar with this concept of a main character. In literature, the main character is the person that the story is about. The story talks about that main character. The story tells the history of that main character. The story shows what that main character did. In Genesis 1 verse 1, God is the main character. And by introducing God as the main character in Genesis 1 verse 1, God shows us that He is the main character also in the entire chapter. Not only in the first verse, but through the entire first chapter. God said, let there be light. God said, let there be a firmament. He's the main character in Genesis 1. And He's the main character in the entire book of Genesis. And He's the main character throughout the entire Bible. At the very beginning of the Bible, we are introduced to the main character of the Bible, who is God and God alone. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. What is true of the Bible is true also of your life and of mine. The main character in your life is God. What deep truth. The main character in your life and mine is not you, and it is not me. The purpose of your story, the purpose of your life, is not your happiness, or your pleasure, or mine. Thank God, thank God that He makes us happy, that He gives us true spiritual pleasure, but that's not the main point of our life. That's a gift of God's grace to us. The main point of our life is to glorify God. The main character in our lives is Jehovah God. And isn't that the solution to so much of our discontent? As we look around at what we have find that we're not happy with exactly the way God has ordered things, and then we remember, but the main point of my life is not me. The main character in my life is God. Isn't this the solution to so much of our depression and of our sorrow, as we consider that the adverse circumstances of our lives and the great difficulty, as heavy as they may be, are not the main point after all, but Jehovah God is. He's the main character in your life. Our story, so to speak, is about Him and is to His glory. And this will be of great consolation to us in the days of the Antichrist, because when Antichrist comes, He is going to try to be the main character. and it will seem that he succeeds. Everything will seem to be about Antichrist. All of the churches in the world, that is the false churches, will be worshiping Antichrist and encouraging society to worship Antichrist. In our lives, as we confess the truth, Antichrist's chains will be prominent and Antichrist's prisons and dungeons will be prominent. So that as we look around us, sitting in the jail that Antichrist has put us in, waiting for the execution that Antichrist has sentenced us to, we will think it looks like it's all about Antichrist. And then sitting in that jail, you and I will remember Genesis 1 verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. From the very beginning, God has been the main character. Antichrist has never been the main character. Strive as he might to be so. Antichrist is a footnote, a footnote in the story and the history of the glory of God. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Hang on to this verse. Tuck that verse away deep in your heart. and take it out in those moments when you need encouragement and comfort regarding all of these troubles that we face. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The second thing that we learn about God from this first verse of the Bible is that God is triune. The fact that God is triune is decisively taught by Genesis 1 verse 1 and strikingly taught by Genesis 1 verse 1. The fact that God is triune means that He is one being, there's only one God, but within this one being there are three persons who are all divine. Three persons in one being. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one only eternal God. That's the truth of the Trinity. Three persons, tri, and one being, unity, triunity, or shortened, trinity. God is a triune God. Now that word triune, or that word trinity, is not found anywhere in the Bible. That's a word that men have invented in order to express the truth. It's a good word. It's okay to use that word. The Word of God clearly teaches that God is triune. For example, in the baptism formula, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The Bible teaches that God is triune. So that even though the word Trinity is not found in the Bible, the truth certainly is. And in Genesis 1 verse 1, the truth of the Trinity is decisively taught in a striking way. The way that works in Genesis 1 verse 1 is that the Hebrew grammar, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the Hebrew grammar of Genesis 1 verse 1 is impossible. It does not work. the Hebrew rules of grammar break down in the very first verse of the Bible. Now imagine being a seminary student, and spending four years of your life in seminary, studying the Hebrew language, learning all of the vocabulary, studying the grammar textbooks, and finally feeling that you have a mastery of the Hebrew language, and you open your Bible to the very first verse, and it doesn't work. The rules of grammar are broken in the very first verse. But those broken rules of grammar are exactly where the truth of the Trinity is taught. So let's see how that works. The word for God in Genesis 1 verse 1, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, is this in Hebrew. Elohim. You've probably heard that word, that Hebrew name for God before. Elohim. In the Hebrew language, when they want to make a word plural, they add an i-m to the end. In English, we add an s to the end. So, to make the name God plural, we would say gods. Well, that's what's happened here in Genesis 1, verse 1. The name for God is Elohim, and you hear that i-m at the end. It's a plural subject. We could say it this way. In the beginning, gods. created the heaven and the earth. But now the problem is that the verb created in verse 1 is a singular verb. Now in English that doesn't matter. Our subject and our verb don't have to agree in number. We can use the same verb for a plural subject or a singular subject. So we could say, God created, that works. Or we could say, God's created, and grammatically that works. We don't have to match the number of subject and verb, but in the Hebrew they do. The subject is plural, Elohim, God's. The verb is singular, created. Those two things cannot go together. Those two things don't match together. At the very beginning of the Bible, the Hebrew grammar breaks down. But God does that in order to teach us that this God who created is a triune God. There's only one of them. There are not multiple gods. There's only one God. So that our translation in the beginning, God created is correct. There's only one God. And that's evident from the singular verb created. But this one God who created in person is more than one. There are, in fact, three, which is indicated by that plural subject, gods. The truth of the Trinity is strikingly and decisively indicated right here at the beginning of the Bible. And if someone says, wait a minute, you have put way too much weight on that little point of Hebrew grammar, then we can find that the three persons of the Trinity are actually named here at the beginning. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Who do we find in verse 2? The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. There's the third person. And who do we find in verse 3? And God said, we find a Word. And we learn from John 1 verse 1 that the Word that God spoke at the beginning is not just something, but someone. in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." That's the second person of the Trinity. So that in these first three verses, the three persons are even named. The truth of the Trinity is decisively and strikingly taught, right at the very beginning of the Bible. And that's significant for us, because the truth of the Trinity is the foundation of what we call the Covenant. and all of our covenant life with God, all of our life of fellowship with God. God is a covenant God exactly because He's triune. God lives in fellowship as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit because He is triune. And that means at the very beginning of the Bible, we come face to face with the truth of God's covenant fellowship with His people. This God, who Himself is triune and lives in fellowship, will also establish that covenant fellowship with us in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And that truth of the covenant which is the relationship that God establishes with us, has all kinds of implications for our earthly life. Every relationship in the earth, whether it is marriage, or parents and children, or brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. All of these relationships in the lives of God's people trace back to this truth of the covenant, that God has fellowship with us. And so He establishes fellowship among us as a picture of the fellowship that we have with Him. What huge implications! What huge practical benefit! There is for us in our life, from the very first verse, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And then the third thing we learn about God from this first verse is that God is eternal. He is eternal. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. There's a very important time word there, beginning. And that time word, beginning, refers to when an event is initiated. So we say the church service began at 5 p.m. That was the initiation of the church service. When God says in verse 1, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, He is saying the whole universe began and was initiated by this act of God. But now step back from that truth a minute and see that if God is the one who in the beginning made the heaven and the earth, that means God was also there before the beginning. If He hadn't been there before the beginning, then there could never have been a beginning. There would never have been an initiation or a creation of all things. The fact that God made a beginning and made all things in the beginning shows that our God is eternal. He is not touched by the passing of time the way we are touched by the passing of time. He is not subject to the rolling by of the ages as we are subject to the rolling by of the years and the ages. Our God is an eternal God. And that too is of great comfort for The child of God. Because you and I have a past. Another time word. You and I have a past. And as we look at our past, we are ashamed of some of the things we find in that past. But God is not subject to the passing of time. We cannot go back and change what has happened. But God is back there in our past, covering our sins in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you and I have a future. We don't know what that future holds. We cannot impact that future really in any significant way. But God is already there in our future. This God who can be there before in the beginning. and who will bring all things to the final end and goal, is also the God who, so to speak, is already there in the future years that He has mapped out for us so that we need not fear anything that is coming in our lives. All of this, from in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Well, that's the truth about God. God created. Now let's see the truth about this creation. God created. That word created refers to the first great work that God has performed. God has great works that He performs. One of those great works that He performs is our salvation through Jesus Christ. But the first of His great works is the work of creation. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. That word created means that God made something that had not been there yet. The phrase we use to describe that is, out of nothing. God created out of nothing. Or sometimes you might see the Latin version of it, ex nihilo. Ex nihilo. That means out of nothing. God made all things out of nothing. There wasn't anything there. There was no stuff, no matter. There wasn't even this small, tiny dot. of potentiality, as the Big Bang Theory teaches today. There was nothing, and out of nothing, God made the heaven and the earth. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. That means that we don't put our trust in anything. or in any substance, because all of that substance depends for its existence upon Jehovah God. He made it out of nothing and He now sustains it by His power. Our trust is in God alone. But that word created also indicates that when God made everything, He made it according to a plan, a very specific plan. Because that word created can have the sense of dividing off from something else. And the idea of dividing off from something else is not that there was some matter there, and then God came and divided off what He wanted for this universe from something else. But rather the idea is that God in His mind, or in His eternal decree and eternal counsel, had a plan for how everything would unfold. And in the beginning, He divided off the actual substance of that thing from the plan that was in His mind. So that God's creation was not a matter of whim, a matter of a hasty decision, but creation was a matter of creating exactly according to plan. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth with the end in mind and with the goal of all things that He would bring about. That's Revelation 4 verse 11 as well. That confession that we will make in heaven. Thou hast created all things and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. There is a goal in creation because creation is according to God's plan. We also learn regarding this great creative work of God that God's work of creation was to make everything that we see, the heaven and the earth, it's all comprehensive. The earth is the home where we live. This entire home is made by God. The heaven is the home of the angels and will be our home when our earthly sojourn is finished. That heaven, too, was made by God. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, all things. And now we come to the intriguing description of this creation in verse 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. Verse 2 is describing what the creation looked like the moment after God made it in verse 1. Verse 2 is describing something that happened on day 1, just as verse 1 is. Verses 1 and 2 are day 1 of the creation. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And now verse 2 describes what it looked like the moment after it was created. It 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. The explanation of verse 2 that is current in the Protestant Reformed churches is an explanation that personally I disagree with. And this is one of those areas within Reformed doctrine that we are allowed to have disagreements. There are some places where we are not allowed to have disagreements. For example, in the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Nobody is allowed to get up and say, I have a disagreement with justification by faith alone. That's creedal, that's confessional for us. Our confessions settle that matter. But we are allowed to have a disagreement in how we explain what the creation looked like the moment after it was created. Let me give the the common and popular explanation within the PRC and within most Reformed churches who hold to the doctrine of creation. The common explanation goes this way, that a moment after that initial work of creation, it was chaos. Everything was in a great mishmash. All of it was mixed together. Because at that first moment of day one, God made all the stuff that he would later order in six days into an orderly, harmonious cosmos and universe. So in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and that moment after it was all mixed together, it was a great mishmash. After all, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. It's a dark, watery, sludgy soup. And this is the explanation in our commentaries written by our men in most of our sermons on Genesis 1, 1 and 2, a chaos. And then what God would do is take that chaos and on the subsequent six days give order to it. Let there be light. And now He takes out of this chaos light. And then day two, let there be affirmament. And He takes out of this chaos affirmament. And then day three, let the dry land appear. And He takes out of this chaos dry land. I wonder whether that is the proper explanation of verse 2, though, for these reasons. First, God is simply not a God of chaos. Nowhere in the Bible is He ever described as a God of chaos. In His being, He's a God of order. He's Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. There's no chaos there. There's no confusion of persons there. In His work, He's a God of order. In His work of creation, for example, day one, light, day two, firmament, day three, dry land and plants. And so orderly is He that you can even make a chart to represent the last three days of creation. Day four, sun, moon, and stars, corresponding to day one, light. Day five, fish and birds, corresponding to day two, the firmament and the waters. Day six, animals and man, corresponding to day three, dry land and plants. God is orderly, very orderly in the way He creates. God is orderly when He speaks. He gives ten commandments. Ten! Not eleven, not nine, but ten commandments. He speaks a full complement, and complete number of commandments. God commands His church to be orderly. 1 Corinthians 14, 40. Let all things be done decently and in order. Everywhere in the Bible, God is a God of order. How can it be then that the very first thing God did in creation is make a chaos, a mishmash, a dark, sludgy soup? In the second place, There are other passages in the Bible that teach that God's work of creation on the six days was not a matter of bringing order out of chaos, bringing order out of disorder, but that God's work on the six days was bringing into existence things that were not in existence. Romans 4 verse 17. Romans 4 verse 17 is describing our salvation, but it describes our salvation by referring back to how God created. And this is what we read in Romans 4 verse 17, that He is the God which calleth things that are not, or which be not, as though they were. God calls things that don't exist as if they do exist. And when He calls them to exist, it was so. Let there be light. And there was light. Let there be affirmament. And there was affirmament. Romans 4.17 looks back on creation not as God's work of calling into order things that were disorderly, but as God's work of calling into existence things that didn't exist. There wasn't light. And God made light for the first time. There wasn't a firmament. Not even all the atoms and the molecules that would later become a firmament. There wasn't any of that. And God made the firmament. He created all these things out of nothing. And then John 1, verse 3. John 1 is a commentary on Genesis 1. But John 1 is a commentary which shows the heart of Genesis 1. And the heart of Genesis 1 is the Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In John 1, verse 3, we read, all things were made by Him. That is, made by this Word. And the idea of making there is not ordering. The idea of making is creating, giving existence to something that did not have existence. Well, how are we to explain verse two then if it's not the case that God made some chaotic mishmash and then ordered it on the next six days of creation? The proper explanation is this, that in the first place, the moment after, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, the creation was water. Water, just water, not chaos. Just water. Normal, ordinary, plain water. That's evident from the fact that verse 2 refers to the deep. Darkness was upon the face of the deep. And that word deep does not refer to some sludge or soup. That word deep refers to an ocean, a great, vast ocean. It was a vast expanse of water, but it was just water. And then the end of verse 2, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And that word waters is the normal biblical word for water. The kind of water that falls from the sky in rain. The kind of water that's found in our lakes and ponds and oceans. It's just plain water. Now it's dark. There's no light there. It's deep. It's an ocean of water. There's something maybe even ominous about it. But it's not chaos. It's a vast expanse of water. And it has a surface. A face. Darkness was upon the face or the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the surface or the face of the waters. The moment after Genesis 1 verse 1. The creation of God was this vast expanse of water. Now in the second place regarding what the creation was like, that moment after verse one, that water was unbroken by any masses of land. Today, the oceans are broken by great tracts of land. But in that moment after the beginning of creation on day one, It was unbroken by any tracts of land. The earth was without form and void. Without form and void there does not mean chaos. When the Bible uses those words elsewhere, it doesn't use them to mean chaos. Without form and void just means empty. For example, Deuteronomy 32 verse 10, we won't take the time to look that up right now, but Deuteronomy 32 verse 10 and Isaiah 34 verse 11, both of those words describe the desert. Or both of those verses describe the desert. And these words are used to describe the desert. It's a waste, howling wilderness. Well, the desert isn't chaotic. The desert is just empty. That's what characterizes the desert. There's nothing there. Nothing grows there. No homes are there. It's the desert. And so also here, the earth was without form and void doesn't mean it's all mixed together. It means there's nothing there. It's empty. There's this vast, unbroken expanse of water. And then the second part of the verse, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, is usually explained this way, that the Spirit of God was hovering over those waters and shaking over those waters the way a hen might brood over her young. And the reason that explanation is given is because that word moved, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, moved means rapid movement, back and forth movement, very quickly. The way a hen will flutter her wings rapidly in the care of her young. And so the idea is that the Spirit somehow on this chaos was brooding like a hen And even the explanation goes, infusing into the creation powers that God would then organize in these next six days. And again, I think that's not the right explanation of verse 2. In the first place, because the Holy Spirit is not a chicken. And in the second place, because this is not the natural reading of that verse. The natural reading of that verse indicates something else. So what is the second part of verse 2 indicating? The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. To understand that, in the first place, we need to know who the Spirit is. Who is the Spirit? The third person of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But as to His identity in the Trinity, He is the Breath of God. Spirit means breath. And we even use the word spirit in our English language to mean breath. Our English word respiration has in the middle of it the word spirit. Respiration. What's respiration? Well, it's breathing. Because spirit means breath. The third person of the Trinity is a person but He's a personal breath. Think of it this way. The Father breathes to the Son the Spirit. And the Son breathes in the Spirit and returns that breath to the Father. The Spirit is the breath of God. John 20, verse 22. Jesus is about to give His disciples their commission to go out and preach. And as He does so, He breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Spirit. Receive ye the Spirit. The Spirit of God is the breath of God. Now he's personal. It's hard for us to understand because our breath is impersonal. Our breath isn't a someone, it's just a something. But the breath of God is personal, it's a breath of love. It's not just a something, but a someone. The Spirit of God is the breath of God. And now children, imagine in your minds, taking a glass of water filled all the way to the brim, until you cannot add one more drop, and then hold it to your mouth, and breathe on it. What's going to happen to the surface of that water? It's going to ripple. There will be waves in it. And that's what happened that moment after creation. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. God's breath came forth from Him and coming forth from Him made that water leap. All of the ripples of God's breath were on that original creation. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. So what? Why do we make such a big point of all of this? Because making that point, we can make an important connection that we will miss if we take the other explanation of verse two. And this is the point. The Spirit of God, the breath of God, moved upon the face of the waters, and what happened next? What's the very next thing that happened? And God said a word of God came out of the mouth of God into that creation. God said, let there be light. And there was light. How did the Word of God get from the mouth of God into the creation? Why? It was carried on the breath of God. The breath of God carries forth the Word of God. The Spirit of God carries forth the Word of God. God wasn't just exhaling onto the creation without purpose. but it was to carry forth His Word. Let there be light. And there was light. That's how it is for us. Our Word is carried forth by our breath. Without breath, there's no Word. And so it is with God. The Spirit of God carries forth the Word of God. Let's test that. Is that true in the Bible, that the Spirit of God carries forth the Word of God? It is. In 2 Timothy 3, 16, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And that word, inspiration of God, is literally God-breathed. All Scripture is God-breathed. The Word of God, Scripture, is carried forth by the breath of God. Or 2 Peter 1.21, holy men of God spake, the Word of God, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, the breath of God. The breath of God carries forth the Word of God. Even in the Incarnation, Luke 1.35, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and therefore that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Even in the Incarnation, the Spirit of God carried forth the Word of God, the eternal Word of God into the womb, of the Virgin Mary, the Spirit of God, carries forth the Word of God. And that's what happens in a true worship service. The reason that that Word comes into your heart and moves you, and warms you, and makes you thrill to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is because that Spirit of God in your heart is carrying forth that Word of God and applying it to you and to me. The breath of God carries forth the Word of God. Now we're almost out of time for applications, so let us make a few of them in the third point. In the first place, this gives us encouragement and comfort as we work with those who need to hear the Word of God. Sometimes parents can despair as they teach and teach and teach their children and bring them the Word and find, I cannot reach my child's heart. Or the office bearers despair as they try and try to make contact with the wayward member. When we understand that the Spirit of God carries forth the Word of God, then we can be encouraged that it's not up to us and our ingenuity and our smarts and our cleverness to try to get the Word to that person that we're concerned about. We bring the Word as a servant, but then rely on God, whose Spirit carries forth His Word. And rely on Him with this confidence, that all who belong to Him shall be moved by that Spirit indeed, because that Spirit is sovereign. That Spirit is irresistible, and in the hearts of all of God's elect children, that Spirit shall bring forth fruit. A second application of this truth is that our salvation is accomplished the way God created in the beginning. God calls the things that are not as though they were. And what about your heart? What about mine? What was in that heart by nature? What do we have from our parents? Death, corruption, filth. But the Word of God carried forth by the Spirit of God is powerful to call life where there was none. on the basis of the cross of our Lord who died that this life might be ours. The Spirit of God carrying forth the Word of God is our salvation. And then there is in the third place this comfort and this application of this truth of creation. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth and that includes that little patch of earth where your body is going to be laid. when you die and where mine is going to be laid. That little patch of earth. That earth goes through all kinds of changes through the centuries and through the millennia. But there's that little patch of earth wherever it is that will hold your body and that will hold mine. And that patch of earth has been watched over by Jehovah God from the beginning, who in the beginning made that little piece of earth. And in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He returns, God will know where every patch of earth is for all of His people that He made in the beginning. He will know where all our bodies are, and He will call to us, arise from that earth that I made, arise from that earth. And behold what I do, I make a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells and where you will live with me at home forever." What a truth. What a glorious doctrine to begin all the doctrines of the Word of God. In the beginning, God created. the heaven and the earth. Amen. Our Father, which art in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy Word to us this evening. Carry it into our hearts by Thy Spirit and apply it that we may live and rejoice before Thee, the great Creator and our Redeemer in Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. We turn in our Psalters now to number 404, Psalter number 404. Psalm 148 goes through the whole creation and calls first the heaven and all of its inhabitants to praise God, and then the earth and all of its inhabitants to praise God. For the sake of time, we'll just sing 1 in 5, 1 in 5 of 404. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave his grace, and ever proudly for his place. The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. Amen.