The God Who Created: A Sermon on Genesis 1:1

Let’s pray:  “Holy Trinity, You are the God of creation.  You are the only God who has created.  There is no God like you in all that is.  You alone are Eternally Self-Existent.  There is no god besides you or that will emerge after You.  You alone are the God who created without evolution.  You created the heavens and the earth.  You created in six days.  You alone have the power of being in Yourself.  No god could speak and have it be.  You are not like the co-called gods of the world who are really nothing or demons in disguise.  May we glory You and honor You and praise You for speaking Your creation into being.  May people more and more submit to the Scriptures and say, “Truly God created without evolution in six days.”  Amen.”

Genesis 1:1:  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

          The Apostles Creed affirms the true understanding of God the Father saying, God the Father Almighty is the Maker of heaven and earth.  This verse is a summary verse that explains the six days of creation.  This encompasses all of creation which was done by God alone.  The Psalmist joyfully wrote of the creation.  We speak joyfully of God’s creation.  The God of the creation is the God of the Christian Bible.  Creation is general revelation and Scripture is special revelation.  We know what God did and how He did it because of Genesis.  Genesis is a book, and it was written by Moses.  Some think that the first chapter or so of Genesis was written by God Himself but may suggest to you that Moses wrote it.  Genesis is, indeed, a book of Moses.  It is within the Torah and the Torah is in the whole of the Old Testament.  It pleased God to create, and so God created the heavens and the earth. 

          If the God of the Christian Bible is not the God of creation evolution could have a way of getting into our thinking.  But if indeed the God of the Christian Bible is the God of creation, we know that evolution was never used.  Man-made theories try to usurp the sacred text, and insert false understandings upon the text.  It is essentially putting the interpreters’ understanding upon the text.  Hence it is a definite case of eisegesis.  We must flee from eisegesis and flee to the actuality of Scripture.  If we succumb to depraved imaginations we dishonor God and honor sinful understandings of the text. 

          Does God leave us without a description of what He created and how He created and why He created?  No, He plainly tells us what, how and why He created.  The “what” of His creation are the things He created, like water, animals and so on.  The “how” He created was through, by, from and because of the Son of God.  God did not create from a standpoint of chaos, or confusion.  He is not a God of chaos and confusion.  Why would God create from chaos and confusion when He never uses them in His Word?  His Word is never to bring such things.  He does all things in truth and goodness and holiness and righteousness.  He does not know how to do something in evil and unrighteousness.  He created from His truth according to His altogether good pleasure.  The “why” of God’s creation is not because He was in need of a creation but because He was pleased to create, and that His creation might enjoy Him and glorify Him forever.  God did not consult His creation before making that.  No, He accomplishes His good pleasure according to doing what is right and good. 

          The Hebrew Bible and the totality of holy Scripture (both Old and New Testaments) supports the true and valid assumption of God’s real existence.  The Hebrew phraseology, “in the beginning” refers that it was, indeed, God who was in the beginning, not the big bang, not aliens, not self-creation but God Himself.  God was in the beginning.  He existed from everlasting to everlasting; there was never a time God did not exist.  Meaning comes from God and meaning is found in God.  It is God Who created; this is why meaning is from Him and of Him.  It pleased the God, Who is God, Who is the LORD, Who is Sovereign to speak into existence the creation.  The same phraseology of “in the beginning” is found in John 1:  “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God.”  John refers to the eternality of God the Word.  God the Word is the Second Person of the Trinity.  God the Word is sufficient, true and good.  The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament, and the God of the New Testament is the God of the Old Testament.  God created in goodness, indeed, it was very good.  The God Who is and Who was and Who will be is not merely a god, or some god made with human hands.  Rather God is God not made with human hands.  Man loves to manufacture God in his own image.  Man seeks to usurp God but it is God Who creates and it was pleasing to God to create man in His image.  “In the beginning” was God, not man.  Who was in the beginning?  God.  “In the beginning” was God, not Satan.  Who was in the beginning?  God.  “In the beginning” was Elohim, not Allah.  It is God Who created all creation as very good even man himself.  God the Son is the central focus of the book of Genesis.  It is indeed clear to say that the Holy Trinity is throughout the pages of Scripture, it is, indeed, a plethora of Trinitarian texts.  Surely it is the Father Who creates, the Son Who Redeems, and the Spirit Who Regenerates and Convicts.  Yet all Three Persons are Creator.  The Father created; the Son created; the Spirit created.  All the Persons created in goodness and perfection.  God by His sovereign act of creation demonstrates through general revelation of His actual existence and all creation speaks of His matchless majesty.  God reveals Himself in creation as the divine Creator but not as Redeemer.  God is only seen in special revelation, that is, His divine Word, His Sacred Word, of being a gracious, loving and plenteous in mercy; a Being, Who is revealed in Three distinct Persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit; one in being and three in person.  And Matthew 18:16:  “…BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED.”  Is it not the Father, the Son and the Spirit Who witnessed creation, and is not this fact confirmed by the testimony of Scripture?  And how much more is the witness of God then the witness of man?  Doth not the Scriptures support people supporting every fact by two or three witnesses?  God is, indeed, self-attesting and the witness of His own work of creation.  God is good; His creation is good; God is true; His creation is real.  The God Who exists from everlasting to everlasting, the only true God of Scripture, is Truth itself, must be believed, and if believed, God is glorified to the praise of His mercy, and if rejected God is still glorified to the praise of His justice.  Some are made vessels of honor and others vessels dishonor.  The former is the realization and awakening of life through God the Son, the very Author of creation itself, and the latter, the horrifying second death, that is, eternal separation from God in the wrathfulness of God in perfect justice done to them. 

          Nor do we ever see disorder and chaos in His blessed text of divine Scriptures.  We see, once again, in Scripture that God is not a God of confusion, chaos and disorder.  Rather God is a God of order and clarity.  This is seen in creation (general revelation) and Scripture (special revelation).  The Genesis account is not merely a fable story but real history, actual truth, which Moses wrote.  The God of creation is not only the God of Moses but of Jesus Christ also.  The word God stated in Genesis 1:1 is not the God of pluralism and inclusivism, that is, of this fallen world but of the God of truth and exclusivity (as revealed to us in His word).  The word God is Elohim, which indicates a plurality, but this does not mean His message is in a plural fashion, but rather to show significance to God.  The God of Genesis is the true God; the real God; the God of Christianity.  God is eternal; He existed before the created angels; He existed before His creation; He existed before the universe; He existed before the stars; He existed before the planets; He existed before the earth; He existed before man.  God asked:  “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?  Tell Me, if you have understanding…” (Job 38:4 NASB). He not only existed before creation but He always was, is and will always be.  The God of the Bible is not the God of this fallen world, that is, He is not evil, and when God created the universe, the earth and man, He created everything good.  Even the angels were created good; God Who is good created what is good.  Somewhere in this verse, “In the beginning God created the heaven…” the angels:  “…while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?”  (Job 38:7 NIV).  God performed His creative act of His planned actions.  Were not “all things” preordained?  “…also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will…”  (Ephesians 1:11 NASB).  God voluntarily choose to create and choose what His creation would be.  God did not create because He was lonely, nor did He create because He needed something outside of Himself; God surely needs nothing outside Himself, and created unto His glory and magnification.  Doth not God have this right?  He has the right to create, and so He did.  Every living thing was made by a perfect God.  God is sinless and He is absolutely perfect.  God created out of nothing.  God needed no help from His creation nor His creatures.  He needed no advice.  He needed no human ingenuity.  No, He needed nothing.  God did what pleased Him.  God alone is eternal and transcendent.  People like to say God is transcendent and people assume He is not eminent, but God is both transcendent and He is near.  God the Son became man, and God is near in the Incarnation.  God also showed Himself in the Garden of Eden.  It was, indeed, God the Son who walked in the Garden.  The whole of Genesis is centered upon Him, and why should we doubt that it was Him in the Garden?  May I suggest to you that you must go to the Son for life!  This was a taste of God’s nearness to man, and it was God who sought out man not man who sought out God. 

          “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  He is not finite but infinite.  God is not part of His creation.  He is both all-knowing and all-powerful.  He is omnipresent.  People are not all-knowing, all-powerful and omnipresent neither are animals nor insects.  God is perfect and sinless.  God alone has the ability to create, man does not.  God is sufficient, man is insufficient.  God is life and He provides life.  It is God alone Who can create, man cannot create in the same way God can.  Man is not God.  God become man in Jesus Christ, that is, God the Son became man.  God the Father and God the Spirit did not enter humanity the way God the Son did.  God the Son from the will and cooperation of and with God the Father became man in the person of Jesus Christ (the God-man, Who is the Incarnate One).  It was by the Spirit of God.  God is loving, compassionate, having abundant mercies, lovingkindness, graciousness, benevolentness, wrathfulness upon His enemies, judgment upon sin, patient, longsuffering, and forgiveness; this is the God of creation revealed in none other place, then the Scriptures of special revelation.

          Let’s turn to the word “…created.”  The biblical cosmogony is unique and special because of it’s rarity of theme in the absolute origin of the universe.  Modern naturalism and paganism do not mention a creation account as the biblical story.  The creation account begins with the space, time and matter universe already in existence.  God created out of nothing.  There was nothing that was there that God worked from.  He purposefully and voluntarily created out of nothing.  Nothing was there when He created.  It was simply nothing.  But God choose to create out of nothing, which He could do, and which He did.  He created ex nihilo.  Nothing evolved into something.  There was not a big bang but rather God spoke and it was.  Nemesius of Emesa wrote concerning God creating out of nothing:  “Even if it is granted that the God of all things followed an order [in the creation], He is shown to be God and Creator and to have brought all things into being out of nothing.”  (Louth, ACCOS, Old Testament I, 2).

          The special creation of God in His creation is only found in the unique record in the Old Testament.  The creation account is of the space, time, and matter continuum.  The space is the heaven.  The “in the beginning” is time.  The matter is the earth.  The universe created is the tri-universe.  The God Who created it is Elohim, which is the uni-plural name.  It denotes His majesty.  There is no other god but the God of Israel.  God Himself is truth, and He is the basis for all sound and logical knowledge.  Matthew Henry says, The author and cause of this great work—GOD. The Hebrew word is Elohim, which bespeaks, [1.] The power of God the Creator. El signifies the strong God; and what less than almighty strength could bring all things out of nothing? [2.] The plurality of persons in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This plural name of God, in Hebrew, which speaks of him as many though he is one, was to the Gentiles perhaps a savour of death unto death, hardening them in their idolatry; but it is to us a savour of life unto life, confirming our faith in the doctrine of the Trinity, which, though but darkly intimated in the Old Testament, is clearly revealed in the New. The Son of God, the eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father, was with him when he made the world (Prov. viii. 30), nay, we are often told that the world was made by him, and nothing made without him, John i. 3, 10; Eph. iii. 9; Col. i. 16; Heb. 1. 2. O what high thoughts should this form in our minds of that great God whom we draw nigh to in religious worship, and that great Mediator in whose name we draw nigh!”

          Let’s understand everything created was good.  When God created, He alone can create, and the word for create, is a special word that belongs to God alone.  Nothing exists apart from God’s creative activity.  He alone has the power to create; and there is no such thing as self-creation, it is an absurdity.  The darkness had to be only because it was God Who created it to glorify and magnify Himself.  God orders a formless and empty world.  God is not the author of disorder.  This is summary verse of the six days of God’s creation.  God created but He never had a beginning like His creation; He creation had a beginning but He never did.  The word create here in Genesis 1:1 is only used of God, and it is never used of man.  It is a special word that God used of Himself regarding what He did unto goodness and mercy.  The threefold meaning of the verse is to identity the Creator Himself, the origin of the world, and to show the work of God in general revelation recorded in special revelation.  The God Who created is sufficient, and in time He has sent His only begotten Son, Who is sufficient, and God the Father sent His Son to redeem man Who is lost and in sin.  God is sufficient to create and God is sufficient to create; for God is the Gospel.  God sent His Son to save His people.  God the Son created, as did God the Father, as did God the Spirit.  All three persons created, and God the Trinity accomplished a Trinitarian work of creation and salvation and providence.  The Trinity is not only seen in creation but also in the resurrection of Jesus and salvation is accomplished by the Trinity and providence is done by the Trinity.  God has sent His Beloved Son to die for His people, and so His people may believe on Him Who the Father has sent.

          The Christ who created in Colossians 1:15-17:  “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him.  He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”  (NASB). 

          First, Christ is the image of the invisible God.  He said to Philip that since you have seen me you have seen the Father.  Jesus said I and the Father are one.  This clearly indicates that Christ is of the same substance as the Father.  Both the Father and the Son are equally divine; co-equal, co-eternal, co-essential and co-existing.  Christ has preeminence over His creation.  He did not simply exist before creation.  No, God the Son existed from everlasting to everlasting.  The God-man is eternally self-existent.  He is ontologically God.  This fits perfectly with Genesis 1:1.  Christ taught and referred to Moses.  He knew of Moses’ writings and submitted to them as Scripture.  He is the Messiah of Moses and He is also the Creator of Moses.  Christ did not teach from confusion or disorder.  Rather Christ taught clearly and He spoke the truth.  And Christ is the Incarnate Truth, and as He is the Incarnate Truth, He spoke the truth.  Pilate asked, “What is truth?”  Truth was standing before Him.  God spoke His truth and what wasn’t came to be.  What angel could say I created “all things” as the Son can say?  The Son is the only Son of the Father, and if He is the only Son, He alone is the dispenser of all graces.  The Trinity made the world, and since He made the world by His Son, and sent a Savior to save those fallen in Adam, and sent His Spirit to apply the work of Christ to His people, how much then does this show that God has a specific purpose for this planet?  Malachi 2:10, “…Has not one God created us?”  We are to have God-centered theology.  He created to glorify Himself not to glorify and exalt man.  Isaiah 43:7, “Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made."

          God created in six days of creation.  The seventh day is when God rested.  What God of the world (and by this, I do not mean they are literally God) created as the God of the Christian Bible?  Isaiah 42:5, “Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it…”   Isaiah 45:18, “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 none else.” 

          Matthew 19:4, “And He answered and said, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE…” Here is a verse that speaks to Christ who created and testifies to the reality of God creating them male and female.  We have the sinless Son of God and the sinless Son of Man who says God made man male and female.  1 Corinthians 11:9, “for indeed man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake.”  1 Timothy 2:13, “For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.”  We turn to the love of Christ:  God created all things yet there is nothing in creation that can separate God’s people from the love of Christ (Romans 8:39).  Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  The purpose of God in creating us means it is for good works that we walk in them.  We are not saved by good works but for good works.  Ephesians 4:24, “and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”  We are made in righteousness and holiness of the truth when we are made Christians.  Christians put on the new self; Colossians 3:10, “and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him…”  1 Timothy 4:4, “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude…”  Everything God created was good, and God’s ways are to make us thankful. 

          How many of us believe we were created by God to do good works?  How many of us believe that when God created he had us in mind?  Before time was, God had His people in mind, that is, to elect unto holiness.  Before time was God purposed to send Christ and to die for His people.  God purposed that we are to do good works and it was prepared for His people to do so.  How many people turn to creation and worship the creature rather then the Creator?  It is because of sin that people turn to the creature rather then the Creator. 

          When people pollute the earth, is it a sin against God?  It is a sin indeed but many have put it aside as “no big deal” but all people will be held accountable regarding their sin.  If someone polluted the earth and they do not repent, they will be judged, but a person who has sinned must repent.  The God of creation is not a sinner.  He is holy, just, righteous and good.  Who in creation is good besides God Himself?  Angels have fallen and man has fallen.  Angels cannot repent but man is commanded to repent.  So this means man must repent, and if man rejects repentance, he has rejected God’s divine remedy that is necessary for sanctification.  Those who do not repent will perish.  God created everything good, and what God has designed for man who is in sin, is nothing less then repentance. 

          The God who commands repentance is the same God who created.  The God who sent Christ as Savior is the same God who created.  The God who commanded love is the same God who created.  The God who created and knows all things is the same God who made the heavens and the earth.  The God who is: is the God who created.  No one can escape the fact that the God of goodness is the God who created.  May I suggest to you that God is not the God of the big bang!  He is the God who created out of nothing.  The God who created out of nothing is the God who is worthy of worship.  Thus worship, serve and praise the God who created.  Do not worship the God who is not the God of the Christian Bible.  Turn to Him; submit to Him; give yourself to Him; believe that He sent His Son as a divine Redeemer to redeem His people.  Thus love the God Who has created. 

          The God of creation is not the God of Islam.  The God of creation is not the God of Mormonism.  The God of creation is not the God of Jehovah’s Witnesses, nor is He the God of Scientology; nor is He the God of Theistic Evolution; nor is He the God of chance; nor is He the God of Freemasonry or Romanism.  Thus surrender to the God who is the Holy Trinity.  Will the God of creation have your allegiance?  Will you you’re your rebellion in sin, and will you believe His command of belief, love and repentance?  How many in the world merely believe that God exists and yet have the faith of demons?  How many really believe God and submit to the Christian Bible as His holy, matchless Word?  It is in the matchless Word of God that we find the God of creation. 

          Matthew Henry wrote, “The foundation of all religion being laid in our relation to God as our Creator, it was fit that the book of divine revelations which was intended to be the guide, support, and rule, of religion in the world, should begin, as it does, with a plain and full account of the creation of the world—in answer to that first enquiry of a good conscience, "Where is God my Maker?"…”  Acts 17:24, “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands…”  Again Matthew Henry, “The world is a great house, consisting of upper and lower stories, the structure stately and magnificent, uniform and convenient, and every room well and wisely furnished. It is the visible part of the creation that Moses here designs to account for; therefore he mentions not the creation of angels. But as the earth h as not only its surface adorned with grass and flowers, but also its bowels enriched with metals and precious stones (which partake more of its solid nature and more valuable, though the creation of them is not mentioned here), so the heavens are not only beautified to our eye with glorious lamps which garnish its outside, of whose creation we here read, but they are within replenished with glorious beings, out of our sight, more celestial, and more surpassing them in worth and excellency than the gold or sapphires surpass the lilies of the field.”

          The world is the place where God’s creation is.  Moses does not specifically mention the creation of angels.  The earth is filled with grass and flowers and metals and precious stones.  God made all these wonderful things and they were and are beautiful and good.  Let’s marvel and honor the God Who created. 

Let’s pray:  Lord of creation; Lord of heaven and earth, we bow before Thee and prostrate ourselves before Thee and worship Thee as the true God of the Christian Bible; the God Who created, and we honor You and praise You.  We submit ourselves to You and ask that You would have our minds exalt You.  Thank You for creation of heaven and earth.  Thank You for creating us, and to have Your creation bring You glory.”  Amen.