The Spirit and Creation

We are in a study on Wednesday nights on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. What the Bible teaches about the Holy Spirit, we began with a brief introduction to our study and kind of went through the ground where we will be covering. And then we saw that the Holy Spirit is a person. We saw that the Holy Spirit is God. He is a real person and he is fully God, just as much God as the Father and the Son are. Tonight, having looked at more of his person, tonight we begin to look at his ministry. And we are going to begin with his ministry in creation, then we will look at his ministry and giving us the Bible, then his ministry to unsave people, then his ministry to believers. And there is a lot to cover there, so we will spend a good bit of time there. We will begin talking about the ministry of the Holy Spirit tonight by talking about his ministry in creation. Good place to start at the beginning and that is actually where we will start tonight in Genesis chapter 1 at the very beginning. Let me say a few other words about the introduction though, before we jump into the passages that we will look at tonight. The work of creation is generally ascribed to God in general terms without distinguishing the persons in the Godhead as to what they did. It is not like, okay, God did this part of creation and God the Father did and God the Son did this part and God the Holy Spirit did that part. There is no indication of that in the scriptures and really no clear indication of the different roles they played, although we will see a few hints tonight about exactly what the Holy Spirit is. But generally the Bible describes creation to God, God created. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the New Testament the emphasis is on Christ's role in creation. The New Testament obviously is fulfilling all the Old Testament information looking forward to Christ and so you would expect that in the New Testament that the emphasis would be on Christ's role. Just look at a couple verses on the screen that emphasized that familiar passage. John 1 in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Obviously later on you find that the Word in verse 14 is Christ. So he was with God in the beginning through him all things were made. Without him nothing was made that has been made. And then also in Hebrews 1 the emphasis again is on Christ's role in creation. In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times in various ways but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed air of all things and through whom also he made the universe. You can see actually the role both of God the Father and God the Son in both of those passages. It was for the root Christ that God created all things. So the emphasis here is on Christ but the Bible also makes it clear that the Holy Spirit had a role. The Holy Spirit was involved in creation and we're going to look at some of those passages and then some of the particular ministries that he may have done and carried out in creation. First of all, passages mentioning the Spirit's work in creation. Let's look first of all Genesis 1 verses 1 and 2. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Now we're all familiar with verse 1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth that's one of the most familiar verses in the Bible. But you may not be as familiar with verse 2 which introduces the ministry of the Holy Spirit in creation. Let me go back and give you an overview of this passage and what all is being talked about here. Verses 1 and 2 serve as an introduction to chapters 1 and 2 and the story of creation. Verses 1 and 2 basically are a summary statement of creation. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Just a general blanket statement. Now verse 2 begins to tell us a little bit more detail and the rest of chapters 1 and 2 go into quite a bit more detail. Chapter 1 ends with the creation of man and then chapter 2 goes back and picks that up and gives us more detail about how that happens. So there's kind of like the layers of an onion, you're peeling off layers and getting deeper into what you're talking about here is what's happening in chapters 1 and 2. Got this blanket statement and then you begin to get more detail. Now notice verse 2 as a part of that blanket statement says the earth was formless and empty. When God spoke the world into existence at that moment it was unformed and it was unfilled. It was not formed yet and it was not filled with anything yet. That's just describing the world as it popped into existence from the mouth of God as he spoke it into existence. It was unformed and unfilled and then what you have in the rest of chapter 1 the six days of creation are how the earth was formed and filled. So it starts just as a glob of matter in a sense and then God begins to form it, shape it and fill it. The first three days have basically to do with God forming the earth. He separates light from darkness, he separates waters that will be above in the firmament from waters on the earth and he separates waters from dry ground so he's forming. He's forming the earth and then days 4 through 6 have basically to fill the earth. He fills it with vegetation, he fills it with animals and he fills it with mankind. Only two of them but he tells them to be fruitful, multiply and what. Fill the earth. Right, I figured everybody knew that. Some people take that very literally. Think it's their job to fill the earth but anyway that's what God told Adam and Eve to do. Notice verse 2 also says that darkness was over the surface of the deep. Now that's not a moral statement. There have been some who believe in the gap theory for instance who have taken this as a moral statement that it was not that somehow the world had been damaged. It was dark, it was evil and it's something had happened and they go into all this elaborate explanation of you know this must have been after Satan fell and there may have been millions of years of life and death and now God's judged the earth. Nothing of the kind is implied there. The statement is simply God creates the world. He hasn't yet formed it and filled it. He does that in the six days of creation and darkness is there because light hasn't been created yet. That's all he's talking about. Verse 3 is when light's created so it's dark because light hasn't been created yet. So when there's no light obviously it's going to be dark. So that's all that statement means light has not yet been created. And then it says the spirit of God was hovering over the waters and that's a beautiful picture. God creates the father evidently is involved in speaking into existence the world but the Holy Spirit is hovering over it. And I believe that indicates that the Holy Spirit is going to be doing the work of forming and filling. He's going to be actually beautifying this globe that God has spoken into existence. The only other time this word hovering is used in the Old Testament. It's only used one other time. And one of the ways we know what the ancient words mean is by their uses in other places in their context. Because that's the way we know what ancient Hebrew words meant, ancient Greek words meant. You compare what they meant and how they were used in other contexts. Well the only other place this is used is in Deuteronomy 32 verse 11. And we put that verse on the screen for you too. It's an interesting passage. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft. What is describing there, what Moses is describing is the eagle teaching its young to fly. It stirs up the nests, actually begins to push them out of the nest. And then as they begin to flap their little wings and begin to learn how to fly, the eagle hovers over them. The mother eagle hovers over them and when they fail and start falling, she swoops under them, catches them on her wings and carries them aloft. It's a beautiful picture but it's the same idea of the Holy Spirit. God creates the world and the Holy Spirit is just hovering over his creation. Just waiting for the moment when he will do his work of forming and filling the earth. It's a beautiful picture and it highlights the role of the Holy Spirit in forming and filling the earth in creation. Okay, there's a lot in Genesis 1. It's not our intent to get into all the stuff about creation but just the fact that the Holy Spirit does have a significant role here. It's very clear and it's a beautiful role in its picture of him hovering over the creation to begin to do his masterpiece. Any comments or questions about Genesis 1.1.2? Yes, Walt? The focus of the first part of this chapter is on the earth but in verse 14 he talks about let there be lights in the vault that's got to separate day from night, let them surf. The sun and the moon are made. I think all of the universe was spoken into existence by God exactly when all the universe was made probably is on that fourth day because it also says he made the stars on that day. So I don't think everything was in existence yet and the light that was created was not the light of the sun. It was some supernatural light that existed until the sun and other suns and galaxies were in place. Good question. Any others? All right, let's go to the next passage in Job and Psalms. Those two poetic books mention creation a lot. So look at Job 26, verse 13. By his breath the skies became fair. His hand pierced the gliding serpent. He says, I don't see the word spirit or Holy Spirit in there. What does that have to do with the Holy Spirit? Do you remember what we talked about last time? I know it's been two weeks and I don't forget things often for two days. So maybe you've forgotten. But remember we talked about the Hebrew word, the Old Testament is written in Hebrew. The Hebrew word for spirit can also be translated in a couple of other ways. Remember what they are? Breath and wind. Breath and wind. So the Hebrew word can mean all three. And so sometimes it's a little difficult to distinguish when translators were taking the Hebrew text and translating in English. Sometimes it's a little difficult to tell whether or not the word should be translated as spirit or breath. Because in this verse it could be either. It could mean that God breathes out or speaks and the skies become fair or it can mean that his spirit by his spirit, the skies become fair. So it's not real clear whether or not this is talking about the Holy Spirit. But if it is, it could well be a reference to the Holy Spirit. And if it is, it's talking about the Holy Spirit doing kind of the same thing we saw in Genesis chapter one. And that is garnishing, beautifying the creation. You see the word became fair, two words became fair at the end of that first section of verse 13. By his breath the skies became fair. Some translations have the word garnish. He garnished the heavens. Okay. The idea of the word here, the Hebrew word literally means to become bright. And the picture that you have in mind here is of the sky becoming bright. And it's like God blowing away the storm clouds after a serious storm and the sky breaks open and you have this beautiful blue sunny sky. That's garnishing the heavens. That's causing the skies to become fair is the way the NIV has translated it. So blowing away the clouds after a storm making the sky bright and clear, the emphasis here is on the beauty of God's creation. And if it is a reference to the Holy Spirit, then the idea is that the Holy Spirit is involved in beautifying. God speaks things into existence. And then it's like the Holy Spirit kind of dresses it up and polishes it and makes it look really nice, really neat. And so here you have this beautiful blue sky stunning clarity of the sky after a storm. You ever get that sense? I hope you really look and enjoy the creation around us that God has given us. It's a reflection of His glory. It really is. And so I hope that you take some time not only to smell the roses but to see the beautiful sky after a storm. You know when the cloud just kind of break up and the sun pops through and the sky is just a beautiful blue. It's like it's being dressed up and that's what's being talked about here. So again, it obviously God is doing this, whether it is His spoken word, doing it, His breath or His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, still in either sense it's God doing this work. All right, another one in Job, Job 33 verse 4. Anybody have a question about what we just looked at there in Job 26? When he said what, John, I'm sorry. Yes, yes, he looked at it and it was good. And at the end of the six days it says he looked at it and saw that it was very good, very good. And you almost get a sense of God's pleasure in His perfect work. And, boy, there's so much to think about there. Isn't there, as His image bearers, we should be able to look at what He's given us to do and do it in a way that glorifies Him. We can look back on and say it was good. That was good. That was very good. Of course, we were sinners and we have attempted to mess things up. But God did look at all of His creations. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. It's great. Very good. I love that. Pardon me? So it's beautiful to have had Him on your life. Yes, in the sense that he's a separate person from God, the Father, and God, the Son. So they come and go together. They're not necessarily always... It's difficult to say they're in the same place. They go somewhere from one place to another because they're all three spirit beings until Christ takes on a human body. So they're omnipresent. They're always everywhere at the same time. Yes. Yeah, they were waiting for the spirit. Now, it's not that the spirit did not have a minister in the Old Testament because he did. In fact, we're going to spend the whole lesson on the Spirit's ministry and the Old Testament a little bit later on. So the Holy Spirit was very active in the Old Testament, even with people, in doing them with power and some other things that I want to kind of hold on to until we get to that point. But in the New Testament, they were waiting for a special manifestation of the power of the Spirit and the baptism of the Spirit which would place them into the body of Christ, the church, which was just getting started in Acts. So that's what they were waiting for. It was not the fact that the Holy Spirit had never shown up. It's that they were waiting for a different level or manifestation of His power. The Holy Spirit separated from... Oh, no, they were always inseparable in the sense that... In the sense that they are all three... I'm not present. Everywhere present at the same time. So they don't leave each other's presence. In the New Testament, Christ takes on a human body and that changes things. So He has a visible, physical presence that's limited to one location. And so the Holy Spirit was with Him at all times, but Christ is limited to a particular location. Good thinking. All right, Job 33 verse 4. This is Elihu speaking and he says, the Spirit of God has made me the breath of the Almighty gives me life. And here you see reference to the Holy Spirit in that poetic parallelism in Good Hebrew poetry. Same thing is being said in the next section of the verse, this time the word is translated breath. The Spirit of God is the breath of the Almighty who gives me life. Now, this passage refers to the Holy Spirit's work in creating man in giving life. There are other passages where this is also referenced back in chapter 27 verse 3, as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils. So the breath of God or the Spirit of God gives us life. Now what do you think that's referring to? When did the breath of God or the Holy Spirit of God give us life? Adam, exactly, Genesis 2.7. God made man from the dust of the ground and then breathed into him and he became a living soul. And what we're seeing here is that was a work of the Holy Spirit. So again, God creates the Holy Spirit kind of does the finishing job and garnishes it up and breathes life into it. We'll come back to that a little bit later. Any question there before we look at a couple of passages and Psalms? It's the same Hebrew word, so it can mean both. So God breathed into him and he became a living soul. So it's God breathing and he becomes a living soul, a living being. So you could say, you could say, yeah, it's the man's spirit within him, but that's not the way it's really said in the text. So you can make a case for that on the basis of the word. Yeah, the word itself. Okay, Psalm 336. Let's look at this one. By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. This is another one of those passages where it's difficult to know whether or not this is just the breath of God which would reference the spoken word of God or is this spirit? Is it the Holy Spirit being referenced here? It's a little difficult to know for sure, but if the Holy Spirit is in view here, it's talking about his work in creating the heavens, the starry host, which we know he was involved in in Genesis chapter 1. But let's go on to Psalm 104 30 because Psalm 130 is clearer. Psalm 104, verse 30, a great chapter about the awesome power of God. And verse 30 says, when you send your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the ground. Here it is clearly understood to be the Holy Spirit because this is not God breathing out. This is God sending, sending his spirit. Now if you go back and get the whole flow of thought of the chapter, this becomes very powerful. In Psalm 104, this is a Psalm that is a hymn to the creative, majestic power of God. And it begins in verse 1 with an overall statement, praise the Lord, my soul. Lord, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty. And the rest of the chapter tells why. And it's all about creation. Okay, where is God's majesty and splendor and greatness seen in his creation? Let me just kind of outline it for you. In verses 2 through 4, he made the heavens. In verses 5 through 9, he made the earth. It talks about its foundations and then it talks about its boundaries. The boundaries between land and water, for instance. So that's verses 5 through 9, verses 10 through 18, he made all the life on the earth, the plant life and animal life. So God is great in his creation because he has made the heavens. He's made the earth. He's made the plant and animal life on the earth. And then verses 19 to 23, he made the orderly cycles of life that are controlled by the sun and moon. And interesting how he talks about that in verses 19 to 23, he talks about there are certain things that happen in darkness, like with the animal kingdom that God made that cycle of life to fit that part of the day or night and vice versa with the day. All of that is a part of God's creative order. That's verses 19 to 23. Then verses 24 to 26, God made marine life. He talks about the life in the seas. And then in verses 27 to 30, he providentially provides for all that he has made. So he's leading up to all of this that God has made. God made the heavens. He made the earth. He made the plant and animal life. He made the cycles of seasons and sun and dark and light and dark and day and night. And he made marine life in the oceans. And then he provides for all of that. Verse 27 says, all creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up. When you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. So God providing for his creation, taking care of it. And in the context of all of that, God created all of these things and then providentially cares for all of his creation. It's in that context that verse 30 happens. When you send your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the ground. So all of this creative majesty, power of God is now summarized in this statement. When you send your spirit, they were created. So the Holy Spirit is the agent of creation in this chapter. He's the one who's done the work of creation. But also the end of verse 30, he renews the face of the ground, which shows God's care and tending over his creation in the seasons. He renews the ground. That's springtime. Doesn't that sound good? God renews the earth. God brings it back to life. And that's not just natural processes. That's God's providence in tending his creation. He brings it back to life. So when your spirit is sent out, then all of this is created and also the face of the ground is renewed. So the Holy Spirit is involved in both of those activities. One other passage I want to look at, unless you have questions about Psalm 104. Tommy? I have a thing to say in all that change is for the self-inventing, redoing the words and all that change in the right. Yes. Yes. You know, with creation, everything is perfect. With man sin, now there's a blight on creation. But God is still sovereignly tending his creation. And it dies in the wintertime and he brings it back to life. That constant renewal is a beautiful thing to see. But sin, what man sin has done and the resultant curse upon nature is that it has clouded to some degree the beauty that God built into creation, which leads me to ask, can you imagine what it would be like if sin hadn't messed things up? I mean, what we're looking at now is in some sense of the word a blighted creation. It's still pretty great, isn't it? It's still pretty majestic. Just think of what it would have been like in the Garden of Eden. Think of what it would be like in the Millennium. You know, that's going to be great. Make you kind of realize, hey, if I never get to see the Grand Canyon this side of the Millennium, it'll look better than anyway. There won't be any litter. It'll look great. Just like God intended it to look, okay? All right, the other passage is Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40 verses 12 through 14. Another tremendous passage on the greatness of God. And it's in that context that we're going to see what he says in verses 12 to 14. Verse 10, for instance, talks about the sovereign Lord, the greatness of God. He says, see the sovereign Lord comes with power and he rules with a mighty arm. See his reward is with him and his recompense accompanies him. And since he is such a mighty God, verse 11, we can trust him to care for us. He tends his flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart. He gently leads those that have young. Well, what a beautiful compliment those two verses are. Not a contrast, but a beautiful compliment of, in a sense, two sides of God's nature. Sovereign power, great in verse 12. And then in verse, I understand, then in verse 11, he's tenderly folding us to his chest and caring for us as his little lambs. That gathers his lambs in his arms. I mean, these are the sovereign arms of the Almighty God, but he gathers us in his arms. That's a beautiful picture. In verse 12, he says, who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? Think about that. Who has taken all the waters of the earth, all the oceans of the earth, and can see them there in the hollow of his hand? Or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens. I don't have all the facts before me. I've shared things like this before in other messages. The greatness of the universe, the size of it, the number of zeros you have to put behind ten to begin to even understand our galaxy and billions of other galaxies beyond us, and God measures it all between his thumb and his little finger, just like that, breadth of his hand. That's how great he is. Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? In verse 13, who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord? Now, some translations there say mind, but the word is best translated Spirit. Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor, whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him? Who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge, or showed him the path of understanding? In the midst of all that section about the greatness of God, you have that question, who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord? The Spirit is involved in all that's being talked about there, the sovereign work of God, the arm of God, the greatness of God in measuring out his creation and being so much bigger than it all, the Holy Spirit is involved in that planning and management of the creation. And this majestic picture of the greatness of God continues all the way through the end of the chapter. Isaiah 40 is one of those mountain peak chapters in the Bible. It's worth spending some time on, sometime. Just read it, let it soak in. Okay, another mention of the Holy Spirit involved in creation and superintending it, managing it, overseeing it. All right, those are the passages. This quickly summarized the particular ministries of the Spirit and creation. Okay, we've looked at the passages, now let's pull the information together that we glean from those passages. This is called systematic theology. Okay, for those of you who want to be theologians, this is what we're doing. We're doing systematic theology. We're taking the scriptures and what they say about a particular topic, then we're gleaning the information from that and putting it together. That's systematic theology. And that's one of my great loves. Spelt in love with it in the early 70s, in Bible college, and just thrilled me to see how the scriptures come together. Anyway, what are four things that these passages teach the Holy Spirit does? Number one, the Holy Spirit is involved in creation in giving life. He breathes into. He gives life. It's a basic work of the Spirit. In fact, it's also a basic work of the Spirit in salvation, isn't it? It's the Holy Spirit, as we'll see later, when we talk about his ministries further, it's the Holy Spirit that regenerates us. We're born again, Titus 3.5, by the washing of the Spirit, the renewing of the Holy Spirit, the washing of rebirth, the regeneration, and renewing the Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit is the one who gives life. We have to be Jesus said, born of the water and of the Spirit. Lesson of persons born of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So, the Holy Spirit gives new life. And that's what he does in creation, too. Again, if you can separate out the parts of creation, and again, this is a little tenuous, not sure you can come down dogmatically on this. But it's like the Father planned it all. Jesus actually created it through Christ. Nothing was... All things were created. Nothing was created. It wasn't created by him. But then the Holy Spirit finishes it up, dresses it up, breathes life into the man that was made, breathes life into God's creation. So, he gives life to man, animals, plants. He instills the life into it. Is what the Scripture seemed to be saying. Secondly, he's involved in giving order to the creation. The waters, the heavens, how they move, the management of the earth, the dressing up of the beautifying of the clouds and the sky. Again, I don't want to get too dogmatic here. I don't know that you can say this with great certainty, but it's like the Father speaks in the Holy Spirit is there just beautifying it, finishing the work on the canvas, if you will. It's not like God did anything wrong that needed to be corrected, but it's like Genesis 1, it was still formeless and void, and then the Holy Spirit has given the responsibility to kind of dress it up. So he gives order. Thirdly, he gives beauty. As beauty to the creation, again, he makes the sky fair. He garnishes the heavens. He declares God's glory through what he does in dressing up the creation. And then fourthly, the Holy Spirit is involved in creation by preserving God's creation. We saw that in Psalm 104 where he renews the life of the ground, gives new life to the ground. So the Holy Spirit is involved in that. Now usually, again, the emphasis of the New Testament is that's associated with the work of Christ. Christ is preserving his creation. Again, look on the screen. A couple of verses that tells that Hebrews 1, 3, the Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. And then talking about his salvation and ascension back to heaven. But he sustains all things. The Son does that. In the Colossians 1, 17, he is before all things and in him, all things hold together. He is the force that manages and sustains and holds together God's creation. Now that is attributed to Christ in the New Testament in Psalm 104, 30. It is attributed to the Holy Spirit, which once again reminds us that all three persons in the Trinity are involved in creation and it is not always possible to parcel out who did what. They are all involved and that is about the best we can say. They are all involved. They all are active in the work of creation. All right. Any questions about the Holy Spirit's role in creation? Yes. Speaking in the action, he breathes. Yes. Man's creation is very different than the rest of creation. In fact, even a different Hebrew word is used in Genesis 2 of God forming man, shaping him, took the clay of the ground and shaped him like a potter would a vessel of clay and then breathed into him the breath of life. It is very different from the rest of animal creation. From the animal creation, the rest of creation. Did you get that? Don't accuse me of being an evolutionist. Any other questions? Good questions tonight, John. I think it is possible to see it this way. But God initiated everything in creation. He is the one that planned it all. It was through Christ that God actually spoke things into existence of Christ, was involved in the actual work of creation and then the Holy Spirit put the finishing touches on it. That is if there is to be any separation of duties, that is the way I would see it. But it is not possible to separate those duties in every passage. Some passages just emphasize God's work, meaning the Father in the beginning God created. Some passages, particularly in New Testament, do emphasize the Son's work that He created all things. And then other passages involve the Holy Spirit, it is a little difficult to tell. But they were all involved. And so Paul can focus upon Christ's work in creation. Everything was created by Him. Yeah, it was. The Holy Spirit was involved too and God, the Father was involved too, but there wasn't anything created that didn't involve Christ. He created all things. Okay. Anything else? All right. Let's pray and we'll be done. Father, thank you for the opportunity to be with your people tonight, to rejoice with the flock and the body of believers here. Thank you, Father, for your word, what a matchless treasure it is, what an amazing book it is to describe your work. And we know we're just touching the surface, Lord. We can't really understand all that you've done. But we thank you that what we can understand, we can revel in. We can marvel at your majesty and your greatness and your power. What help us as we walk out of this building tonight, to rather than complain about the weather or what it's going to be like, to look around us and see the beauty that you've built into your creation. And even in winter time, to look at how you renew the face of the ground, we look forward to that time. And we pray, Father, that you'll help us to rejoice in your greatness, the majesty of your power in Jesus' name, amen.