This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. Amen. Well, we're going to read together Genesis chapter 1, followed by John chapter 1. So let's read the Word of God together. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, let there be light and there was light. God saw that the light was good and separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called light. And there was evening and there was morning one day. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Amen. That's the word of the Lord. Alright, here's my introduction to Genesis chapter 1 and verse 2. We'll start moving faster as soon as we get past verse 3. All right, we'll cover verse three this afternoon. And I realize that it seems like we're moving a little on the slow side, but I wanna remind you that the profundity and the depth of what we see unfolding in these opening words of Genesis are really so amazing, and they give us a perspective, they give us a worldview, they give us a foundation, they give us lenses by which to look at the world. And so, week before last, I think Genesis 1-1, we expounded that verse, and we see in that opening verse, in a sense, sort of an umbrella statement, a summary statement that describes for us God's first creative act, and it describes it for us in its absolute and utter totality. Now what's amazing about Genesis 1.1 is its simplicity on the one hand, you actually have only seven words in the Hebrew text, seven words that give us one of the most glorious declarations. And as I've said before, the minute that you embrace Genesis 1.1 as truth, everything else is a piece of cake. Right? Once you say, I believe in the God who created the heavens and the earth, period, then, for instance, the resurrection is a no-brainer. All right? So, we see this utterly awesome statement in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and by the way, I mean awesome in its truest sense of that word. That brings us now to verse 2. Verse 2 begins with the earth. The earth was first formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. As we begin verse 2, we actually see the condition of the earth after God's initial creative act. And so that initial creative act, of course, encompasses heaven and earth, which is a figure of speech for what? everything. So God creates everything. He creates the entire cosmos and heaven and earth, everything that is a created thing. He created it in that initial act and now the focus moves from that which is utterly vast and immense to now the earth. Moses is going to tell us, as it were, as God's reporter of things that only God knows, that there were three terms that describe the condition or the state of the earth after that initial creative act of one-one. Now, what's interesting to note is that what is happening is that the focus goes from the broadest, most comprehensive statement now to the earth. And what's fascinating about that is that the earth, ha-aretz, can also just simply mean the land. Now, what's gonna happen in the book of Genesis throughout is that the theme of land and blessing are gonna go right together. It's gonna be what God actually gives to his people, blessing through seed and land. And so what we're seeing in this opening verse of Genesis is that God himself is actually preparing this world and in particular, the land as it were, as a good, gift for his people. Now, the text tells us the earth was formless and void. Does anybody remember the fun little Hebrew expression? Tohu vabohu, right? Right, Jason? Yes, and it's like hodgepodge. I mean, it's supposed to sound funny. The words go together. Now, the term bohu, which is used only three times in the Old Testament, is always used with tohu. That's tohu, by the way, not tofu. Tofu is a direct result of the fall. Only... Only fallen people could come up with tofu, all right? Okay, but tohu goes with bohu. Now, tohu is used 20 times, and sometimes it stands on its own, but these two words, which actually sound very similar to us because they are, go together. Now, the idea of tohu is formlessness. So the picture that we have of the earth after this awesome first creative act is a world that is, as it were, an uninhabited wasteland. That's the picture of the original creation. It is an uninhabited and, by the way, uninhabitable wasteland. The next word, bohu, actually just means, like we have it translated, void, or in a sense, empty. So both of the words work together to describe for us this idea that the world, as God initially creates it, was on the one hand uninhabited, uninhabitable, and in fact inhospitable, and completely, as it were, empty. All right? This expression, tohu vabohu, is used in two other passages in the Bible. I wanna read those to you because they come into play with something that we're gonna look at in a moment. Let me just read this. You can jot this down and look at it later. It's Jeremiah 4, 23 to 28. And in particular, verse 23, Jeremiah says, I looked on the earth and behold, it was formless and void, and to the heavens, and they had no light. So there's our phrase, formless and void. And what Jeremiah is doing is Jeremiah is actually looking, as it were, on the judgment of God that has come upon the earth. Now what's interesting is that as Jeremiah contemplates God's judgment that's come upon the earth, he describes it as formless and void. In other words, what Jeremiah sees is a reversal of creation in judgment, or if you prefer, an uncreating of creation, a desolation and a destabilization of the created order. Another text is in Isaiah chapter 45 and verse 18. And it says, for thus says the Lord who created the heavens, He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there is no one Now what's interesting about this text is that Isaiah tells us that God did not create the world to be tohu vabohu, a waste place, formless and void, but rather he created it to be inhabited. Now, there's a particular view that we'll consider in a moment that looks at these passages and says, aha, see, something must have happened between verse one and verse two, but I would actually submit to you that the point here is that as God makes this initial creative act of one-one, the point is, is that his creative purpose was never to actually allow the world to remain an uninhabited waste place, but rather he creates it not to be formless and void, rather he creates it to be a habitation, a home for us. And so, uninhabited, uninhabitable, inhospitable, formless and void, waste place, empty. Next description of the initial creative event. Darkness covered the face of the deep. In the Bible, as we'll see this afternoon, sometimes darkness is used as a metaphor for evil or for sin or for death. But here, that's not what's being communicated. What's being communicated here is the original state of nature, which by the way, God himself will name the darkness night. We're gonna find out that when you start naming things, in particular, when God starts naming things, it's actually a demonstration of his dominion over his creation. Only those that have dominion have the ability to name. And so God actually names the darkness night. And so darkness is actually just simply a part of God's creation, tells us in Isaiah 45, seven, that he is the one creating both light and darkness. Now to be sure, as you read your Bible and you go through, darkness begins to take on this spiritual metaphor, but here it's just reflective of the state in which God originally made the world. The darkness covered the face of the deep. The deep would be actually just a part of the earth. It may refer to the seas. It may refer to subterranean waters. It may refer to both. And again, oftentimes in the Bible, the deep is a threat to God's people. Read the Psalms, oftentimes the idea of the depths or the deep is something that's scary that God's people need to be delivered from, but just as with darkness, this is simply just a part of God's original creation. Now, to be sure, These two descriptions, formless and void, darkness covers the face of the deep, both of these aspects of the original creation are in fact a little scary for us, not God. I have always had a fear of being in the ocean and not being able to see anything around me but ocean. Anybody ever like have a little fear of Ingrid? Ingrid's afraid of everything. So, you know, fear of grasshoppers, you know, spider webs, feral cats, oh, obviously not feral cats, or you wouldn't have 10,000 of them in your backyard. Now, I'm afraid of that, okay? You know what's even scarier to me than being in the ocean and being able to only see ocean? Having it be dark. That just seems terrifying to me, right? Just seems absolutely terrifying. Well, there's a reason why that kind of stuff is scary to us. And it's because you weren't meant to be there. Okay? That's why it's scary. Now, there are no people at this point in time, and so the original state of creation is scary, not only because it's uninhabited, but it's also uninhabitable, and it is inhospitable. It's not framed up yet for our habitation. And so these pictures, formlessness, void, darkness, deep, are going to become attached to things like sin and judgment and death from which we need to be saved. But those metaphors take on significance only after we have come to the planet. All right? So when you think about it, Wastelessness, void, emptiness, darkness, the deep. These are all things from which we need to be saved. And so, as you think about the new heavens and the new earth, guess what? No darkness and no deeps. In other words, the new creation for which we eagerly await is absolutely, utterly complete. It is complete in its full, as it were, salvific benefits for God's people. No deeps, no night. And so at this stage of creation, though, these things are represented. And now what God is going to do is we have this formlessness and void, and we have this darkness covering the deep, and there's a group of people, and they've been around for a long time, and they said, you know, as you look at this, verse 1 and verse 2, it seems that in verse 1, God created everything orderly, But something happens between verse 1 and verse 2. So, for instance, if you had an old Schofield reference Bible, you would see this here, in this place, and then in the Isaiah passage. And the idea goes something like this. God creates, and it's really good. But between verses one and two, God actually brings judgment on the earth because then the earth goes into a state of chaos and the event that brings about the chaos as a result of God's judgment is the fall of Satan. And so, the formlessness and void is this chaotic state after God's judgment, and then Genesis 1-2 describes a completely different condition of the earth than was in 1-1. The problem is that the text actually gives us no sense whatsoever that there's anything that happens between verse one verse 2. And furthermore, there's nothing in the text to indicate that God looked at his initial creation in any other terms than just simply that which is good. There's no sense of chaos, there's no sense of judgment. It is just simply the state into which God brought the world into existence. The other texts, Jeremiah and Isaiah, don't support the idea that somehow there was a fall of Satan and that we have creation, destruction, or judgment, and then recreation. I know that because of the third description. Formlessness and void. Darkness covers the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God is hovering over the surface of the waters. Instead of having some kind of earth that has been subject to the judgment of God in which there's now utter chaos, rather what we have is we have an initial creation over which the Holy Spirit himself is brooding. He's brooding over the formlessness and the void. He's brooding over the darkness. And I would say that there are good men that hold this as sometimes called the gap theory or the creation. judgment, recreation theory, but I would suggest that it's actually just implausible grammatically and theologically. The original state does become a picture for us of where we don't want to be. Darkness, deep, so forth, but that's not the way that God originally created it. So let's look at the third descriptive phrase now. The Spirit of God, the Ruach Elohim, hovered over the surface of the waters. Now, it's interesting because some commentators have a very, very, very hard time believing that the Holy Spirit would be mentioned so early in the Bible. Well, let's face it, Genesis 1-2 is pretty early in the Bible, all right? But they have such a hard time. And of course, the Hebrew word ruach can mean spirit or breath or wind, just like the Greek word pneuma can mean spirit, breath, wind. And so here, you have people say, well, what's brooding over the surface of the waters is God's mighty wind. or God's mighty breath, or one German scholar that I'm particularly not fond of says, this is God's mighty storm. And so they had this incredibly difficult time to actually think that the God of the Bible, who actually wrote the Bible, ultimately, how many authors are there in the 66 books of the Bible? There's one author of the 66 books, ultimately, and they find it somehow utterly amazing that His Spirit, which inspired all 66 books, might make His way into the second verse. The Spirit of God, mentioned in 1-2, is none other than the Holy Spirit. Let's be clear about this. The Holy Spirit, i.e. the third person of the Blessed Trinity. Alright? And what is he doing? He's hovering. This word is absolutely fascinating because it's not just like hovering, you know, like some alien spacecraft hovers, all right? The idea is actually depicted for us in the book of Deuteronomy, only other place where the word is used. So look over at Deuteronomy chapter 32. I love the way the Bible fits together. Deuteronomy chapter 32. Now, Moses is preaching his final sermon to the second generation that's about to go into the promised land. So there's a lot of history that's being articulated and repeated for their sake. And in chapter 32, which is called the Song of Moses, It says, let's just start reading at verse nine. It says, for the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the allotment of his inheritance. For he found him in a desert land and in the howling waste of a wilderness. Do you know what Hebrew phrase is used here in howling waste? Bohu. You think it's an accident? I don't. He encircled him, that is God encircled his people, Jacob. He cared for him. He guarded him as the pupil or the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest that hovers over its young. There's our word, hovers over its young. He spreads his wings and caught them and he carried them on his pinions. Now what's exciting about the Deuteronomy 32 passage is that the picture is God has his people, and here they are. He finds them in the wilderness. Now in the Bible, is the wilderness a safe place to be? No, you don't wanna be in the wilderness. You wanna get out of the wilderness because the wilderness is scary. So we're taking a bus, right, Vic? We're taking a bus up through Jordan and we're looking over what would have been the region of the Moabites and where the children of Israel would have passed through, and there is absolutely, utterly, and completely nothing. I felt a little sympathy for the children of Israel in all of their grumbling. You know what, if you'd had to live out here and travel around, you might have been a little upset about it too. And so here is this picture of wilderness, wasteland, absolute nothingness, and the picture God's conveying here is, when I found my people, they were in this wilderness, this waste place, and in fact, that waste place was a threat to them. But do you know what God did? He protected his people, he preserved his people, and he prepared his people, how? By hovering over them just like an eagle would its young. And so he took care of them in the wilderness. He was preparing them for something greater. I think that the parallel actually is quite striking. So here at creation, here is this formlessness, this void, this darkness, and what do you have? You have the Spirit of God hovering over the creation tenderly as that which is to be protected and preserved and prepared for something greater. And so God is actually exercising His dominion over the formlessness and the void and the darkness by His brooding or hovering spirit and so God through his spirit is brooding over all of the earth in its preformed state preparing the way for God's creative word it is it is no mistake it's no accident that you go from the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters to then immediately and then God said because what the Holy Spirit is doing is the Holy Spirit is, as it were, preparing that primordial creation for God's now creative, ordering, powerful word, which we'll get to this afternoon, all right? And so Victor Hamilton says, yes, There is formlessness there, a foreboding darkness, but all is kept in check and under control by the Spirit of God. And so far from being some chaotic mess, God is sovereignly hovering over His creation by His Spirit, preparing it, for our habitation. Once we get to day one, we're gonna start taking a day at a time, which means a few verses at a time, all right? You're gonna think we're losing balance, we're going so fast, all right? But we're gonna look at each day at a time. What is amazing And I hope to bring this out as repeatedly as I can remember. What is amazing is that what God is doing in this creation is he's making it good for us. What he's doing is he's demonstrating his goodness in the creation for his glory for sure, but for us. And so, I mean, just think about, we'll get to trees in a little while, but just think about this. How many apple trees can you get from one apple? However many seeds are in the apple. Think about that. Now, God could have made it that one tree just produced one tree, right? He could have done it that way. Think of his overflowing, super abundant goodness. How many apples can you get? How many apple trees can you get from one apple? As many seeds as are in the apple. That is a God. who has kindness and benevolence and tenderness in mind as he begins to order this habitation for his people. Now, as we think about this wonderful text, we are brought face to face with the fact that the Holy Spirit plays a huge role in creation. In fact, right out of the gates, we have God creating everything, and then we have the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God Himself is playing a significant role in the creation. The third person of the Blessed Trinity is right there at the beginning. And so, throughout the rest of the Old Testament, by the way, the Spirit of God is seen to be, as it were, the executor of creation. He's the one, as it were, that is executing the power of God's creative word. And so Job says, the Spirit of God has made me, and it's the breath of the Almighty that gives me life. The psalmist celebrates, he says, Oh Lord, how many are your works? In wisdom you made them all. The earth is full of your possessions. They all wait for you to give them their food in due season. You give to them, they gather it up, you open your hand, they're satisfied with good. You hide your face, they're dismayed. You take away their spirit, they expire and return to dust. You send forth your spirit and they are created. You renew the face of the ground. Let the glory of the Lord endure forever. Let God be glad in all of his works." And so the Spirit of God, says Sinclair Ferguson, is the executive of the powerful presence of God in the governing of the created order. There's one thing that I want to point out. We'll see it more later. There's actually a marvelous parallel between what God does in creation and what God does in giving instructions for building the tabernacle. The parallels are astonishing, but one parallel that deserves special mention is the fact that the Spirit of God was active in both by exerting His wisdom and His power. Even in Exodus chapter 31 and verse 5, it is the Holy Spirit of God that empowers those that work on the tabernacle by giving them the wisdom and the ability to do as God had commanded. And so think of it this way, the Holy Spirit himself is the grand architect and artisan of God's creation. Second. It's the Spirit's presence at the very beginning of the creation that provides, as it were, the missing link to the first person plural, us, in Genesis 1, 26 and 27. So if you don't have the Spirit of God mentioned in verse two, and you get down to the end of the first chapter, and you hear God saying, let us make man in our image according to our likeness, do you know the question that seems to come to mind? Does he have a mouse in his pocket? Who's he talking to? Let us? And so there's all kinds of fancy ways to try to explain the first person plural, but you know what? The mention of the Spirit of God in verse two, by the time you get to the end of the first chapter and God is now talking in first person plural, it begins to indicate to us that there is in fact plurality within the Godhead. And as we'll see this afternoon, it is God's creative word that is bringing about the creation. And so I would submit to you that creation is actually gloriously Trinitarian. Now, did you pay attention when you sang these words? I highly recommend paying attention to the words. when you sing them. He says, or she says, Margaret Clarkson in 339, he who in creation's dawning brooded on the lifeless deep, still across our nature's darkness moves to wake our souls from sleep. moves to stir, to draw, to quicken, thrusts us through with a sense of sin, brings to birth and seals and fills us, saving advocate within. There is something that is absolutely glorious about seeing the Spirit of God right here at the very beginning because it is His presence at the beginning of creation and His work at the beginning of creation that provides for us a long-range picture of what He is going to do in other creative acts. This same spirit who's hovering over the face of the waters is actually going to be, in fact, the very same spirit who is continuing to bring about God's creative power in the lives and hearts of his people, in new birth and in new creation. And so as you think about Genesis 1-2, you're not just supposed to think about the Holy Spirit somehow hovering over this primordial mass of Tohu Vobohu, you're also supposed to think of the Holy Spirit of whom it is said, moreover, I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and I will put my... within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinances. The very same Spirit of God who was the executive of God's creative power at the original creation is the very same Spirit of God who in regeneration comes and takes that heart of stone out and puts in its place a heart of flesh and then takes up residency within you to make you new. And so, that was Ezekiel 36. Guess what follows Ezekiel 36? It's not hard. It's simple math. I double-checked to make sure I was right. 37 comes after 36. And guess what you have in 37? You've got the valley of dry bones. And then you have God telling Ezekiel, he says to me, prophesy to the breath. Interesting, what other word could we use for breath there? Spirit prophesy to the spirit prophesy son of man say to the spirit that says the Lord God come from the four winds Oh spirit and breathe on these slain and they came to life That very same chapter God says I'll put my spirit within you and you will come to life The picture that we have in Genesis 1-2 is not just a glorious cosmic picture of God's creative power, it is also a glorious microcosmic picture of what happens to us. Wasteless, void. Darkness and the spirit of God begins to do what? Begins to work in such a way that Jesus could say to Nicodemus I tell you unless you are born again You will not see the kingdom of heaven. How can a man be born when he's old? I tell you unless you were born of the spirit and of water You will not see the kingdom of God that which is flesh is flesh, but that which is spirit is spirit And that's why I say to you, you must be born again. So the creative, as it were, the re-creative power of God's Spirit. And so Paul says, he saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. This afternoon, we're gonna see, and God said, let there be light, and there was light. And there is a dynamic connection between these two verses, obviously so. But stop and think. The very same thing that happens on this universal grand cosmic scale happened to you when the Spirit of God hovered over your darkness and hovered over your tohu vabohu. And as he hovered over, what was he doing? He was preparing, preparing your heart for the creative, creative word of the living God. And so we sing it, don't we? Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night, thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed thee. So we have three parallel clauses here in verse two which describe for us the original creation before God's creative word begins to give form to the formless and to fill in the emptiness. We see the Holy Spirit powerfully at work preparing the creative word of God to come to bring the form and the beauty and the fullness to the creation. And it is that same spirit, brothers and sisters, that hovered over creation, that hovers over our darkness and brings life and light. He's the same spirit that takes out our heart of stone and makes us new. He is the spirit who is not only the creator, but the spirit who is the re-creator of our hearts. And so, some of you are here today and you actually are sitting in darkness. You're sitting in darkness. You are fast bound in sin and nature's night. You don't see, you think you see, but you don't see. You think that you're an authority on all things religious and you've not come to grips yet with the fact that your thoughts are the ramblings of a fool. And God says to you today, I can take you out of that darkness. I can redeem you from the formlessness and void of nature's night. I can make you new. I can give you life. And so I tell you all today, You must be born again. Let's pray. Father, how we thank you for Genesis 1-2, and we thank you for the blessed Holy Spirit, who is the Lord and giver of life. May he give life even today. Spirit of God brewed over dark hearts, and prepare for the creative word and how we ask that there would be light. For the glory of our Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.