The God Who Made All

Introduction

The start of a new year is always a time for reflection and this year is no exception.

Many people are eager to leave 2020 behind, and many are anxious about what 2021 has in store. When the world shifts and shakes around us, our hope in Christ remains an anchor and refuge for our souls.

Today we begin a new series from the book of Genesis: Revisiting Faith in a Pandemic. In these turbulent days, we need to revisit the foundations of our faith.  Over the next several weeks, we will be encouraged together to trust in our sovereign Creator.

Nothing about our present circumstances catches God by surprise. Our souls can be sustained by the sovereign God who ordains, governs, and reigns over all things to accomplish his wise and good purposes for those who trust in him.

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.

For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.

We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God.

—A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: HarperCollins, 1978), 1.

Genesis 1 tells us about the God Who Made All Things. I want you to see three things in particular about our Creator: His Preexistence, His Power, and His Purpose. I pray that you may grasp these firmly in your mind and heart today. Knowing the truth about God provides stability.

1. God is Preexistent - 1:1

He was before anything

Let’s reflect on these first ten words for a moment. What do they tell us about creation?

God created. Creation owes itself not to chance and impersonal forces, but to God.

God created in the beginning. God created time. He’s pre-existent, eternal. Matter is not, matter will come later.

God created the heavens and the earth. So all we see, all there is, all that exists owes itself to God.

God’s not embarrassed by the biblical worldview. He doesn’t bury this account deep within Israel’s history because he’s timid and apprehensive. This might be hard for my people to accept. “I’ll introduce it later, soften the edges a bit. Make it compatible for them.” God doesn’t do this. He boldly and confidently leads with the doctrine of creation.  If you want answers to some of the most pressing questions in life - look no further than the first words of the Bible.  

And there’s an enormous amount of theology contained in those first ten words! There is no Christianity without creation! That the Bible begins with creation establishes who God is and the entire God-world relationship. It helps establish the proper interpretation and place of human beings in the world. It teaches the goodness of the world and thus what eventually goes wrong with it. But the beginning of history also points to the end of history. Creation, fall, redemption, to new creation. It points us forward to our everlasting hope as Christians. It’s hugely important, especially in today’s skeptical age.

Illustration - Isn’t it wonderful when someone you trust has been through your situation before?

Before any of the circumstances you face appeared, God was here.

He is the source of everything

This is clearly asserted in Gen 1.1. But not just here. Listen to the universal statement in John’s gospel: “Through Him (i.e., Christ) all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3).   

Similarly, John writes in Revelation 4:11, “For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Acts 4:24 speaks of God as the “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them.” The inclusion of heaven and earth and everything in them indicates that God created the entire universe.

The creation of the entire universe includes the creation of an unseen, spiritual realm of existence. In addition to creating the visible, tangible, physical universe, God created the angels and other kinds of heavenly beings. He also created heaven as a place where his presence is especially evident. 

This is explicitly stated in both the Old and New Testaments. In the book of Nehemiah, Ezra prays, “You are the Lord, you alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host” (Nehemiah 9:6). The host of heaven refers to the angels and other heavenly creatures, since Ezra says that they engage in the activity of worshiping God – the same term “host” is used to speak of angels who worship God in Ps. 103:21 and 148:2).

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul specifies that in Christ “all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible” (Col. 1:16). Here, the creation of invisible heavenly beings is also explicitly affirmed.

So, God is the creator of all things, the physical as well as the spiritual.

God created time

Physics tells us that time is a property resulting from the existence of matter. The succession of moments one after another which is dependent on the existence or a material substance. Accordingly, time exists when matter exists. But God is not matter; God, in fact, created matter. Before that, God was simply existing. Since there was no matter, and because God does not change, time had no existence and therefore no meaning and no relation to Him. This is why he can say in verse 1, “in the beginning” … He created the beginning.

So what does this mean? Well, it means that God is not bound by time like human beings. God’s existence is independent of time. Not only did he create the reality in which we live … not only did he create you and me … he actually created the space-time continuum that we exist in. How amazing is our God!

Recall

Psalm 90:2 NKJV

Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

Or recall

Revelation 1:8 NKJV

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Or how about

Psalm 102:26–27 NKJV

They will perish, but You will endure; Yes, they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will change them, And they will be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will have no end.

These verses show that God is eternal. And, in contrast, it also shows that universe is not eternal. The universe had a beginning. It’s temporal.

This strikes a blow to our Darwinian friends who look for a time-space answer to the problem of beginnings. God has no beginning and, so, has not time-space limitations. They are, in a very real sense, looking in the wrong place. 

So, God not only created the universe, he created the time-space continuum that the universe is found in.

2. God is Powerful - 1:2-25

He creates from nothing

God created the universe ex nihilo; that’s Latin for “out of nothing.” “In the beginning, God created.” Not “when God began to create.” In other words, God created without the use of pre-existing materials. He didn’t merely stumble across some cosmic play-dough and refashion or shape that which already was. He merely spoke and things came into existence.

Listen to what the Word of God has to say about creating the universe out of nothing …

Hebrews 11:3 NKJV

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

Romans 4:17 NKJV

(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;

Psalm 33:6–9 NKJV

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.

And because God created the entire universe out of nothing there is no matter in the universe that is eternal. All that we see all came into existence when God created it. There was a time when it—matter—did not exist. Take Psalm 90:2, for example,

Psalm 90:2 NKJV

Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

Creation ex nihilo strikes a blow to naturalism which suggests that in the beginning matter existed, and through a random, blind, purposeless series of events we get our world. But the Bible says, “in the beginning” … not “matter created,” … but “God created!”

He creates with a word

What’s one of the common refrains of Gen 1.1-2.3? “And God said…”  

Ten times in the Genesis account we find those words, “And God said….” The point is unmistakable - God calls things into existence by his word.

God literally spoke the universe into existence by His word and created something where there was nothing before. God spoke, and it was done. God’s Word is necessary for salvation, as we learned in the first class, but it’s also the means to life, as we know it. And so we see that God’s word brings life both spiritually and physically. 

Hebrews 11:3 NKJV

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

Consider for a moment the power of God’s word! The picture is not of God sweating, toiling, laboring for years if not millennia to create. He merely speaks, and it is so. It may take us more than a decade widen the I-10, but in a nano-second God speaks galaxies into existence. 

There is unbridled power when God chooses to speak. 

We speak, and our words trail right off into the air. How many mornings do they pass right through my son’s ears, without any change. How often do my wife’s words sadly pass through my ears without any change. 

But not so with God.  His word is effectual. It creates. The world doesn’t just turn at God’s command, the world literally hangs on God’s word.  

The picture is not one of trial and error, like some crazed inventor scratching his head. God’s word is powerful (it creates), and perfect (it creates exactly what he intended them to create).

So, God created everything by his word.

When you are weak, He is strong.

3. God is Purposeful - 1:26-31

Man is created to reflect God’s image, rule over creation, and reproduce godly children.

His purpose for man is good and generous

God Created Adam and Eve

Though distinct as male and female, as distinct sexes with distinct roles, Adam and Eve first share something that makes them both equal and qualitatively different from the rest of creation. What is it? They’re made in the image of God. 

Genesis 1:27 NKJV

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

The special creation of Adam and Eve shows that we may appear like the rest of creation with respect to our physical bodies, nonetheless we are very different. We’re not merely grown up animals. We are uniquely “in God’s image.” What does that mean? Three things. We image God (1) in our essence/nature; (2) functionally; (3) relationally.

First, in our essence or nature man uniquely is found to be intellectual, rational, moral, and spiritual. Beavers aren’t building altars to beaver gods and bowing down to them. Elephants, though highly sophisticated socially (even have their own form of burial), they don’t write books and build libraries to contain their growing knowledge. It’s not that we possess the image of God to a different degree than other animals - it’s a matter of kind. Mankind in our essence, who we are, are uniquely made in God’s image. 

Second, functionally we image God in that we are meant to rule. Gen 1.28 mankind is commanded to multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. We’re to rule over it, the Bible says in Gen 1.29. Not as tyrants who destroy it for their own advantage, but as those who’re given a stewardship to “tend and to keep it” Gen 2.15.  We’re God’s vice-regents, exercising his good authority over what he has made and declared to be good. In this rule, functionally, we’re meant to image God.

Thirdly, we image God relationally. We were created to have relationships with one another, but most fundamentally, to God. I joked about the beaver earlier, but it’s simply the case that animals don’t fashion idols or build temples in an effort to commune with something outside of them. We do because were were uniquely made to be in relationship with God, even though sin has severed that relationship and perverted our worship.  

Practically, it’s because we made in his image that human life is sacred. It has value. We’re not like dogs. We don’t choose to simply put another human being “down” when it can’t function well, or because we’ve lost our utility. We’ve “found” euthanasia only because we’ve first “lost” what it means to be made uniquely in God’s image.

But because we’re made in his image, true knowledge of God isn’t some pipe-dream, it’s possible. We’re not blindly groping about in the dark, into the unknown. Is there a God or gods? Could I ever know anything about him, or her, or it? Because God has made us, and made us to be in relationship to him and all he’s made, and it’s orderly and good, we can know much about the world, and even about him. The biblical account of creation grounds our ability to know true things about God. Critically important.

The Universe God Created was “Very Good” 

What’s the constant refrain of Gen 1? And God saw that what He had done was “good” (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). Then at the end of the six days of creation, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). God delighted in the creation that he had made, just as he had purposed to do. 

Though sin has marred this material world, even to the point that creation groans (Rom 8.22), the material world is still good in God’s sight and should be seen as “good” by us as well. This knowledge will free us from a false asceticism; that is, the belief that the use and enjoyment of God’s material blessings is wrong. For Paul says that those who “forbid marriage” and “order [people] to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth” (1 Tim. 4:1-3) are giving heed to the “doctrines of demons.” 

One author put it like this, “whereas God could have created air filtration machines, he instead chose to create trees. Whereas God could have chosen to cast creation in black and white, he instead chose to paint from a vast pallet of colors.” (Doctrine, 88). He gives both water and wine. Bread and cheese. Breathtaking sunsets and harvest moons. God’s not stingy. He’s not some scrooge. He’s not tight-fisted… Creation teaches us he’s a wonderfully good God who’s open-handed with his people. He’s pro-pleasure, pro our joy. His good gifts are for our gratification, so that we might give him praise and thanks.  

That’s the logic of

1 Timothy 4:4–5 NKJV

For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

God Created the Universe to Show His Glory

Both mankind and the universe were created for the glory of God. Psalm 19 states, “The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.”

The song of the living creatures in Revelation 4 shows that God’s creation is to give praise and glory to its creator. The creatures sing, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you have created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

We are designed, created even, to glorify God for his creation. That’s why God can say in

Isaiah 43:6 NKJV

I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth—

He designed it all so that he could bring glory to his name.

But it’s important to understand that God did not need to create to bring him glory. He is, by himself, already infinitely glorious. God desired to create the universe to demonstrate his excellence. He created it to take delight in his creation and creating powers. 

So, God created the universe to show off his glory.

Conclusion

Face your year with these truths about God: He is eternal, preexistent. He is powerful. All that he does is purposeful. Trust him.

Application Questions

How would you answer someone who said that the early chapters of Genesis are religious myth?

Can a belief in God as Creator co-exist with a belief in random mutations and natural selection? Why/why not?

If God is the source of all things, is He the cause of evil? Why/why not?

Does our being created in the image of God provide a biblical basis for “self-esteem”? Why/why not?

How can you see God’s goodness in your life?

Newsletter:

Revisiting Faith in a Pandemic

Many people are eager to leave 2020 behind, and many are anxious about what 2021 has in store. When the world shifts and shakes around us, our hope in Christ remains an anchor and refuge for our souls.

Tomorrow we will begin a new sermon series on Genesis 1-5. In these turbulent days, we need to revisit the foundations of our faith. Over the next several weeks, we will be encouraged together to trust in our sovereign Creator.

Nothing about our present circumstances catches God by surprise. Our souls can be sustained by the sovereign God who ordains, governs, and reigns over all things to accomplish his wise and good purposes for those who trust in him.

If you are able, join us this Sunday. For those unable to physically gather, services are streamed live on our website, Facebook, and YouTube.