Everything Was Good, Pt. 2

If you’ve ever made a last-minute call to a neighbor to borrow a cup of sugar or searched online for “how to” anything, then you know we all need help from time to time. Pastor Nick Gatzke reveals that God is the one exception! In the beginning, God needed nothing to create the world.

Throughout the first chapter, we see the reality that God is simply speaking and by His voice is bringing things into their existence. Verse two tells us that the earth was formless and void. And this formlessness, this void, is placed in direct contrast to a repeated phrase that is put forward throughout chapter one and that phrase is God said. We see it in verse three and verse six and verse nine, verse 11, verse 14, 20, 24 and 26. There’s formlessness and there’s void, but God said. And it makes clear that He was completely self-generating. He was acting independently of any other in this creation.

Now to create something from existing pieces or materials is impressive. I mean, when you think of the things that humans create, the most beautiful things to you, maybe it’s a form of fine art, maybe it’s a form of music, maybe it’s a form of architecture. For me, one of my favorite things to enjoy in beauty, of course, cars. There are just certain cars that seem to increase in beauty, even as they get older. Some of you are the most creative people I’ve ever met. The things that you can create when given a certain amount of material is impressive. It makes the rest of us sort of stand back and say, wow, that is amazing. And in that, we see that we are reflecting God who is our creator.

But there’s a difference between what we do and what he does, because everything that we create has a baseline of materials that we have to use. But to create something out of nothing, simply by the power of words, this is an ability that no created being has. It only comes from one who is independent of outside influence. This type of power only comes from one that has true sovereignty to do what he wants, how he wants and when he wants.

And we see in verse two that as he is creating that the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the deep. The spirit of God was present in this act of creation. Furthermore, we learn in Colossians 1, verse 16, that Jesus himself is also present and active in this work of creation. So the three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, of one eternal essence, but three persons, all participating in this striking act of taking what was formless and void and designing it and constructing it and giving substance to something where there was nothing.

Another important component of God’s creating act is that he is bringing order out of chaos. I wonder how many of you feel like as you look at the world around you, you might feel like this world is spinning out of control. You might feel like we currently live in a time of chaos. I mean, the European Union is falling apart. There’s war in the Middle East still. We have one of the most contentious elections in recent history knocking on our doorstep. I know people whose marriages are falling apart, who’ve lost their jobs. And there’s a number of good things that happening. Life is moving fast, programs are firing up again. Life is spinning, spinning, spinning. And it feels at times like chaos to us. But what we see here is that God is actually a God of order not a God of chaos.

Now true chaos existed in the cosmos before the world began. And God’s creation displays his propensity for order. Now at this point, we could go one of two ways in our exploration. We could look at each day of creation and we could try to answer all the really hard questions that we have. Are these six literal days or do the days represent an age? Or is there a gap in the middle somewhere? We know that microevolution exists within specific species, but what about evolution from one species to another? How does the idea of intelligent design that we see here in Genesis chapter one? How does that stand up in the current scientific arena? The questions go on and so on and so on and so on. There’s plenty that you can read on all of these subjects and if you have questions about those things.

We’d be happy to commend a number of works to you or a number of people for you to talk to, including ourselves. But there’s another way to take this or to explore it together. And that is, being that the Bible is God’s word, his revelation of himself, I’m choosing to take it on its own terms this morning. And what we see here is that when we take this account on its own terms, the creation account tells us just as much or even more about the creator than it does the different nuances of how he created. One of the things we see that he creates order out of chaos.

Look with me at days one through three. We can divide the creation into these two sort of parts, can’t we? Days one through three, we see form. Days three through six, we see fullness. He creates form in days one through three as he divides light from darkness, sea from sky, and he creates a fertile earth. Progressing forward to days four through six, we see how they match up with one through three as he fills those days or as he provides fullness to the form. Corresponding with day one, day four, he gives lights of day and night, the sun and the moon and the stars. Day five corresponds with day two, creatures of the water and the air to fill the sea and the skies. And day six, certainly corresponds with day three, creatures of the land to fill the earth.

Now there’s order involved here, and this combination of order and the sovereign work that we see in his creation points us to an idea we need to latch onto, and that is, if everything was made by him, then surely everything is controlled by him. And you know what that means for us? What that means is that even when we see a world that we feel like is spinning out of control, there is nothing that is beyond his view, his allowance, or even his participation. In my wildest seasons of life, I can still go to bed at night knowing that my ultimate safety is not found in what I temporarily experienced as chaos in that given day, or even over the course of weeks or months.

But in reality, safety is found in the relationship with the one who allows those experiences to happen, God himself. He’s a majestic creator who brings about perfect order in the midst of chaos. The second thing that we see along those very same lines is that this creation reflects something about who God is. It reflects a number of things actually. The first thing that it reflects is that we see in creation a reflection of God’s glory. Consider with me the most beautiful parts of this creation that you enjoy. For me, it is the mountains, the incredible mountains. For some of you, it’s the expanse of the ocean.

For some of us, it’s the complex beauty of a flower or maybe the simple, soft breeze on your face. It’s no wonder that Romans chapter one, 19 and 20 says, for what can be known about God is plain to people because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that he’s made. So they are without excuse. When you consider the majestic nature of an eagle taking flight or the intricacies of the animal kingdom as animals from different species uniquely rely upon each other in ways that we’re still trying to figure out.

When you consider the curious nature of a shooting star at night or that dreamy thought that comes to your mind as you see clouds move across the sky, we can certainly see God’s glory in these things. And this is why King David wrote in Psalm 19 that the heavens declare the glory of God. And the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. In fact, as Jesus, God’s own son, entered the world, and some would recognize him and many failed to do so, of course creation was gonna point to his glory. I mean, how could it not?

It was for him that this was all created. And so we see in Luke chapter 19 that Jesus is approaching the Mount of Olives and the people are gathering around and some recognize who he is and they say, blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, teacher, rebuke your disciples. And Jesus answers, I tell you the truth, even if these were silent, the very stones would cry out because creation points to the glory of God. And eventually when Jesus is crucified on the cross.

Just days following, do you remember what happened? Upon his crucifixion, the sky turned black. The earth began to shake, creation itself, recognizing the terrible and glorious nature of this sacrifice. God’s own creation could do nothing else but reflect his glory in that moment. Creation reflects something about God. It displays his glory. It also displays his goodness. Did you notice, I’m sure you did, how after every day, God creates something, he looks at what he says, and he says, “‘It was good.'”

This happens because the one who created these things himself is good, friends. We worship a good God and it’s important to be reminded of that because we live in a world now That is saying constantly when anything goes wrong Well, clearly God must not be good or when circumstances don’t line up according to my plan or timing or agenda Well, God must not be good or maybe there’s other people or priorities or activities in this life That are being put forward in your mind is something that might even be better than God But we worship a good God and creation points us to this First Timothy chapter 4 verses 4 & 5 for everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected If it’s to be received with thanksgiving for it was made holy by the Word of God and prayer.

Psalm 100, verses three to five says, know that the Lord, He is God. It is He who made us and we are His. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates for thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name, for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever and His faithfulness to all generations. Creation not only reflects the glory of God, but also the goodness of God. And creation also shows us something about how God works. We see that God reveals himself by his word. From the very beginning of time, God starts a pattern that he has not abandoned.

He speaks and things come into existence and by the words that come out of him and the action that proceeds from them, he reveals who he is. He reveals himself by his word. As time would march on, we would see that he would give his law. He would speak and it would become law for the people of Israel and even became written down so that they would know who he is and how he works and how they are to respond to him. As time continued to march on, we would see that God would empower unique people to be prophets, to speak, to be a mouthpiece for him to his people, to give them his word for a specific season and a specific purpose, God reveals by his word.

And then came along his son, Jesus, fully God and fully man. One who was called the word made flesh and who would ultimately give the greatest revelation of God the father himself. God reveals through his word. And in an ongoing sense, we see that through his written word, the Bible, from way long ago, all the way through the time of Jesus into the early New Testament time, that God revealed who he was for people of all time. And he still speaks and reveals through his word. So God’s creation reflects something about him. It reflects his glory, it reflects his goodness and it reflects to his revealing acts through his word.

Broadly speaking, we would categorize that by saying he is a majestic creator who brings perfect order out of chaos. The third thing that we catch a glimpse of, just a glimpse of that we’ll come back to is that God has a purpose for this creation. And by extension, he has a purpose for you. Two pieces of the account bring this to its conclusion. Look with me at verse 26. We see that in all the things that God says and does, he says that they’re good, but there’s a crowning achievement. Day one is good, day two is good, day three is good, day four is good, day five is good. And we get to day six, starting at verse 26, and he says, let us make man in our image and after our likeness. and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heaven and over the livestock and over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And it concludes in verse 31 that God takes a step back and he looks at his creation, everything that he has created and behold, it was very good. Day one was good, day two was good, day three was good, four was good, five was good. But now that day six happened, now that he puts forward the crowning achievement of his creation, people, this went from good to very good, people.

We’re the purest form of an image bearer of God himself. And we’ll come back to that unique position and purpose next week, but just know this. You are not created without purpose, or to say it positively, you are created with a purpose and that purpose is directly connected to the one who created you. We’ll explore that in the weeks to come. Everything was good, and now everything is very good. And finally, we see chapter two finishes the sequence. Genesis one is poetic in its form, as I mentioned. The symmetry there is intentional and poetic in its nature, and it’s all leading to the pinnacle moment of day seven. God saw everything, it was very good, and on day seven, it says that he rested and he blessed it, and he made it holy. He wasn’t tired. God doesn’t get tired.

But we see that this is the pinnacle of the creation account. He takes up his rule and his reign among the wonderful things that he’s created. You can imagine him in the garden among the wonderful animals that he’s created and even with the wonderful people that he has created. Everything was good. And this rest would be a sign of an eternal rest that he has for his people. Nearness to him, freedom from oppression, godly rest.

He’s a majestic creator who brings perfect order out of chaos. Everything was the way it was supposed to be. Everything, and I mean everything, was good. At least for now. That’s where we came from. That’s who we came from. And next week we’ll explore some of the implications of this good God creating his people and what it means for us. What’s the response that we have out of Genesis chapter 1? It’s very simply to step back and say, wow, the majestic nature of God. to do things that we could never do, to experience things that we could never experience, to know what true goodness is that we have never experienced once in our lives. And I wanna ask you to pray with me as we continue to say, Lord God, you are a majestic King who’s worthy of our praise. Father, we thank you in the midst of a life and so many questions about our origins that you put forward for us. Where we came from and who we came from. Help us to orient accordingly to these things. Lord, that you are a great and mighty King, that you and your core are glorious and good, that you reveal yourself to your people and that you are worthy of our praise. Amen and amen.

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** This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.