And The Spirit Of God Moved Upon The Face Of The Waters

[Posted by permission. Chippenham Old Baptist Chapel.]

Sermon preached at Old Baptist Chapel, Chippenham by Mr. G. D. Buss on Lord’s Day Morning, 26th August, 2018

“And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”—Genesis 1:2

Dear friends, you have just sung that “God moves.” (Hymn 320). And when God moves, something is always done. It was so in this chapter. Every time the dear Spirit moved, and God spoke, something came to pass. It is very trying and troubling to God’s people when He does not seem to move and when He seems to be silent. Those periods are very trying to a living child of God. It is then they feel at a loss, and rather like God’s servant Jacob in Isaiah 40: “Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?” But the good prophet, inspired by the Holy Ghost, knowing Genesis 1, went on: “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding.” Oh, dear friends, may you be enabled for a few moments this Sabbath morning to look up and see the almighty power, skill, wonder and mercy of the God of our text who is able to move. And, as we sung at the close of that well-known hymn:

“God is his own interpreter, 

And He will make it plain.”

W. Cowper.

Those of you here who are waiting for the Lord to do just that, wait on Him still. The God of our text still moves, as I will tell you, God willing, in a moment.

“And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Now, I do not need to tell you that this is history. It is not an allegory, it is not a metaphor and it is not a parable. This is the account from God’s own mouth of how He formed the earth in which you and I are living; how He formed us as His creatures, and how, above all, He gave to you and I a never-dying soul; an immortal soul that must live in eternity. In one sense, friends, you are already in eternity. Time is only a bubble floating on the sea of eternity. You know what a bubble is. It is there for a moment, and then suddenly it goes.

“Only this frail and fleeting breath 

Preserves me from the jaws of death; 

Soon as it fails, at once I’m gone, 

And plunged into a world unknown.”

J. Newton

You say, I am not ready for that yet. Dear friend, I hope you will be ready, and may it be your daily desire to be ready. “Therefore, be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”

To return to this chapter. This chapter is the historical account given by the Holy Ghost of the creation of the world. There are three things I would say in the context as we come to our text in a more specific way.

Firstly, all three Persons of the glorious Trinity: the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, were engaged in this work. Our text particularly speaks of the Spirit of God. But, in John 1 we read:” In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” There He is speaking of the second Person of the Trinity: The Holy Son of God, and, the very first verse of Scripture: “In the beginning God.” God the Father created the heaven and the earth. We know this is so, because when man was created, these three Persons, in one indivisible Godhead, said: “Let us” – not ‘Let I’ – “Let us make man in our image.” Three Persons were speaking there about this amazing act of forming man; creating him.

And, why are you created? Do you know why that is? I will tell you why you are created. ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.’ That is the chief end of man. You say, ‘But men do not live like that.’ No. And nor do you, and nor do I, left to ourselves. In this day of human rights that seems to be so prevalent, the whole idea is that we live to ourselves. We must have a ‘good life,’ here below as they call it. We must get as much money as we can, have as much leisure as we can and have as much freedom as we can to do what we want, and be our own masters. That is what the devil told Adam and Eve. “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” What a deceiver he was!

Well, dear friends, that has not altered God’s mind in the matter. While we are living contrary to the honour and glory of God here below, we are living in rebellion. And God hates rebellion. It is offensive to Him. Rebellion is an affront to His holy Person. Those of you who are parents bringing up children; you know it is not pleasant when your children rebel against you, is it? You feel affronted by it. Well, how much more affronted does the perfect Father in heaven feel by the rebellion of His creatures, who say: “We will not have this Man to reign over us!” It is a solemn thing to be a rebel. But, the wonderful thing is, and it is a wonderful thing; that those who are convinced of their sin of rebellion (and every child of God will come to that place in one way or another), they then come into another beautiful word in Psalm 68, speaking about the blessings of the gospel: “Yea, for the rebellious also.” If the gospel touches your heart, it will slay your rebellion. You will long to be Christ’s and you will long to live to His honour and to His glory. May God slay the rebellion in our hearts and bring us to His dear feet, as clay in the hands of the Potter, seeking no other will but His, no other honour than His, seeking to do what He would have us do! No wonder good men used to say: ‘Save me from myself; that rebellious self!’ I had not thought to speak like that this morning, but there it is. I hope the Lord may be guiding our thoughts as we try and speak.

Firstly then, it is the creation by the three Persons of the undivided Godhead that we have here being performed. This is their work and it is very good.

The second thing that we must notice is that God did not need to buy the materials. If you or I were going to build a house, we would have to get the bricks, the cement, the wood and various other things. God did not have to do that. He just spoke, and it was done. That is what creation really is. It is creating something out of nothing. “For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” No man has ever been able to do that, nor will he, either. No man can ever be really a true creator. I know there are some people who are called ‘creative.’ They have active minds and can use their talents in a very creative way. I do not deny that. But they cannot create. They cannot say: ‘Let it be,’ and it will be. They need something to work with and something to work on. Our Lord did not need that. “He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” You look at the vast universe. You can see the stars, innumerable in the heavens. The more you gaze up, the more you can see. Look at the wonders of this earth in which we are found. Although it is marred by sin on every hand, yet there is still so much that speaks of the handiwork of our God. Friends, how humbled we should be that this great God should do what He has done and done it without expense on His behalf!

But, the third thing is: oh, wonder of wonders!

“How wondrous are the works of God, 

Displayed through all the world abroad! 

Immensely great! immensely small!

Yet one strange work exceeds them all!”

What is it?

“Almighty God” (the God of our text) “sighed human breath! 

The Lord of life experienced death!

How it was done we can’t discuss, 

But this we know, ’twas done for us.”

J. Hart

Good Joseph Hart could say that. And happy is that one here this morning who can say with him: “This we know, ’twas done for us.”

That is the greatest work God has done or ever will do: this that was done in and through the Person of His dear Son. That work eclipses all other works. Indeed, all creation will come to its end when heaven and earth pass away. But that blessed work of the dear Redeemer will never pass away, never fail, never fade and never come to nothing.

Let us come back to our text. “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” The first thing I want you to notice is that when the Lord created the earth it was “without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” He willed it into existence. And when it first came forth from His creating hand it was without mountains, hills and valleys. It was empty. It was dark. In the mysterious purposes of God, it also appears that a great depth of water covered it. We then read: “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” God looked on this newly created universe. He looked on this part of it especially, and He began to work. “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

So, we must ascribe the honour and glory of creation to the God who gave it. The evolutionists would deny it, and the atheists would deny it. But, the Word of God says very clearly: “In the beginning God.” Those of you who believe this is so, will sometimes look on this created world in which we live and see so much of God in it, and that should quicken your thoughts.

Think of Psalm 121 for a moment. “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.” There you are: a poor, helpless traveller in life’s journey. Look around you, dear friend! See what this great God has done! The mountains, the valleys, the trees, the birds, the beasts, the crops, the flowers; your God has created them all! And, if He can do that, cannot He help you, a poor, weak helpless worm that you feel to be? Look to the horizon for a moment and see where heaven and earth meet. Does that not remind you of something else? Is there not a Person in whom divinity and humanity meet: our Lord Jesus Christ? “Emmanuel…God with us.” The very One who lived on the face of this earth; the One who lay down His life “a ransom for many.” Lift up your eyes to the hills. Look “unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” In your journey, consider Him. It may be a rough journey. It may be a thorny journey. It may be a wearisome journey but consider Him. “Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” Yes, our Creator lived on this earth in His holy humanity, and His creatures nailed Him to the cross. But, blessed be God, at the right hand of His Father, He now sits with the very sinners whose sins nailed Him to the cross, and He still intercedes. And you and I nailed Him there, sinner. The nails were our sins, and the thorns were our curse. May the Lord give you a little understanding of these things. “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” If the Holy Ghost moves in your heart, you will see creation in the light I have just hinted at.

Secondly, the creation of this world is a picture. I told you it is not an allegory, a metaphor or a parable before us, it is not. Yet, on the other hand, there is a message in it that is metaphoric. The description given of the earth before the Spirit began to move is a description of your heart and mine, if grace does not touch it. It is without form. It is void. It is dark. There is no faith there. There is no repentance there. There is no hope there. There is no love there. There is no Christ there! It is full of unbelief. It is full of self-righteousness. It is full of lust. It is full of corruption. It is full of this world. Spiritually speaking, it is “without form.” It is “void.” It is empty. And friends, what an empty life is a Christ-less life! I do wish we would think more about that. We see sinners around us living Christ-less lives, going down to the grave with Christ-less lives. What a solemn eternity awaits them, and us, if we live a Christ-less life! If your heart and soul remains in this state, like this earth: “without form, and void,” and darkness on the face on it, a solemn eternity awaits you. But, just listen to what Paul had to say writing to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 4: “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” There Paul speaks of the Spirit of God moving on the face of the waters of an unregenerate heart; shedding light where there was darkness, life where there was death and wisdom where there was ignorance. And that will begin to make a profound change in the heart and the life of that sinner. Sinner, you need the Lord to do that: the Spirit of God to move on the face of the waters of your heart, and bring under His holy control that being that you are, and not leave you to perish in your sins. “The Spirit of God moved.” He moves in conviction of sin. He moves when He teaches the soul to begin to pray for mercy. He moves when He creates that aching void that the world can never fill. He moves when that sinner begins to cry out:

“Give me Christ, or else I die.”

W. Hammond

He moves. Friends, has He moved in your heart? Can some of you look back to the day, the period when He began to move? Things were not the same after that. You became, in measure, spiritually minded. The things that this world cannot give you, you longed for! You wanted Christ, and nothing less would do. It is a wonderful thing. And it is a wonderful thing when, as the Pastor preaches, he begins to see the Spirit of God moving in one and another. We see the change that grace has made. Nothing rejoices our heart more. And nothing depresses us more when we don’t see the change. “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” The world loses its hold. Those idols of the heart are left. The House of God becomes precious. The Word of God is read. The people of God become your best companions. Above all, it is:

“Give me Christ, or else I die.” 7

W. Hammond

“And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Has He created in your heart that that was not there before? A feeling heart, a praying heart, a repenting heart, a longing heart, a heart that must have Christ, above all else. Did it change your very manner of life? Did it change your companions? Did it change the way you spent your time? Did it change the way you spent your money? How did it change when the Spirit of God began to move upon the face of the waters”?

Thirdly. We may look at the “waters” in another sense as the ordinances of God’s House. It is a wonderful thing when the Spirit of God moves on them. We are Baptists. I hope we don’t forget that. That is the name we bear because we believe it is Scriptural. It is a wonderful thing when we look at the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ: how the Holy Ghost was there. John, in obedience to the Saviour’s command, administered that ordinance to the dear Saviour. “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” We read that as our Lord came up out of the waters, there was a voice from heaven. “Thou art My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Then the Holy Ghost, like a dove, descended upon the dear Saviour and “abode upon Him.” What a wonderful thing! The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters of Jordan that day. It is a wonderful thing when those ordinances become precious to God’s people. Some of you sit around His table and you take the emblems. It is a mercy when the Spirit of God moves. I remember the last ordinance that our late friend Mr Harry Salkeld partook. As he left the pew in which he was sitting, he said: ‘I have never seen it so clearly before, nor enjoyed the ordinance so sweetly as I have this night.’ He never sat down again after that. The Spirit of God moved, you see. He made it precious, He made it real and He made it a living reality. It was not just a mere routine or mere traditional observance. The Spirit of God was there.

“And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” There are other waters, are there not? There are waters of affliction, waters of temptation, waters of disappointment, waters of discouragement, waters of opposition and waters when we wonder where the scene will end. You say, ‘In what way do we need the Spirit of God to move upon those?’ To sanctify them: that is what we need.

It is a solemn thing to come into a trouble, go through it and come out of it and not be better for it. I know our first reaction is: ‘Lord, get me out of it!’ That is natural, but that is not spiritual. Friends, the way to look at our troubles is like this: “Lord, do sanctify them. May they fall out ’rather unto the furtherance of the gospel’”. Some of you can testify how that on a bed of affliction, or in some deep disappointment or discouragement the Spirit of the Lord did move. A blessing came out of it that you would not have had from anywhere else, but where He came and moved upon the face of those waters. There may be some here this Sabbath morning and the water is overwhelming your poor soul. The billows are rising, and the winds are roaring. But He who once stood up in the ship on the lake of Galilee and commanded a calm, can do just the same now. He shows His authority over those waters that are overwhelming your soul. Remember what was said of Him: “All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me.” All of them! He knows. And what has He said? “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” Oh, dear friends! How we need the Spirit of God to move on the face of our waters! Dread, above all things, an unsanctified path. It is not a thing to be thankful for. It is something to be deeply concerned about. If the Holy Ghost is not sanctifying your path, what evidence have you, or I, that we are in the way of faith that leadeth to life everlasting? Oh, that we might know that sanctifying path!

Many years ago, in the Church at Coventry, there was a godly young man who came into a very deep trouble. One of the things that concerned him most of all was that he felt his trouble was not being sanctified to him. He was in the Church, and he was called to pray at the Prayer Meetings. At one Prayer Meeting when he was asked to pray, he poured out his heart before the Lord. After the meeting, another of the members went out after him, and said: ‘John, how that trouble has been sanctified to you!’ It came out in his prayers, you see.

And that is the value of the Prayer Meeting. Do not despise it. When God’s people are moved by the Spirit to pour out their heart, who can tell how one and another may find an echo in their own heart? They may say: ‘Yes. This is something I can understand, and I can enter into.’ We need the Spirit of God to move “upon the face of the waters” of our Prayer Meetings more and more. There are more things wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. But, oh for sanctification! That means, for our troubles to do us good. “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” The waters of tribulation.

Then, dear friends, there is that last enemy: the water of death. It is spoken of as a river in many places in God’s Holy Word. There is a question asked in the Jeremiah 12. I wonder how many of us could answer it, this Sabbath morning? “How wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?” The swelling of Jordan was a well-known phenomenon which took place every year. When the snows melted in Mounts Lebanon and Hermon they went down to the River Jordan and it overflowed its banks. You could not then cross it unaided. It was too deep to even wade across. “The swelling of Jordan.” Here is a question then; as death is before you and before me (none of us know how soon), “How wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?” Every living child of God here this Sabbath morning is exercised about that. It is not something that they can face without a thought. They want to be right. They want to be ready. They want to be real. They do not want to be left in that solemn, awesome moment without some witness of the Holy Ghost in their heart that it will be well; that it is well.

So how we need the Spirit of God to move upon the face of the waters! What a difference it makes! I have seen it, friends, in the death bed of one and another here and elsewhere who have died in the faith. I have seen the difference that it can make. Before the Lord came with power, they were in the dark and in great fear. But then the Lord whispered some sweet promise in their heart, and they crossed the river, the Spirit of God moving upon it, making a way for them. When good John Bunyan’s Christian came to the river of death, he was nonplussed at first. He saw a man called ‘Vain-hope’, who had a ferry boat. ‘Vain- hope’ was ferrying people across the river quite merrily. They paid him the fare, and he earned his money. That is how Ignorance got across. But Christian knew that that was not the way across. It had to be passaged properly. He had to step out into its waters and walk through it. And the poor man got out of his depth. Hopeful, who was with him, had great difficulty in keeping Christian’s head above the water. But then the Lord spoke. They are well known words; you read it in the first part of The Pilgrim’s Progress in the last chapter. Christian tells Hopeful that he has heard the Lord tell him: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.” Christian then found his feet on good ground, and so passed through the river, and up into the Celestial City. What a mercy it will be when you and I come to the end of our days if the Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters!

Now, look at our text another way. How many here this Sabbath morning long for the work of the Holy Spirit? You read Psalm 51. David had been in a very low place in more than one way, but in three successive verses he longs for the work of the Spirit. “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free spirit.” Friends, he was longing for our text to be fulfilled in his heart. Perhaps one of you says: ‘Ah! But if you only knew what my heart is like, it seems almost presumptuous to pray for it!’ Good Anne Steele felt a little bit like that.

What a question!

“Dear Lord, and shall Thy Spirit rest 

In such a wretched heart as mine?”

Unworthy dwelling! glorious Guest! 

Favour astonishing, divine!”

A. Steele

But, friends, the dear Spirit does not wait until the heart is worthy of its reception. He knows it would never make itself worthy of His reception. He finds it in its raw state; “without form, and void.” Darkness is upon it. So, however much you may feel to be just like that this morning, that is no hindrance to the Holy Spirit. Your wisdom then is to ask. The dear Saviour gives you the most wonderful encouragement when He says: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” However much they may feel to be without form and feel to be void and feel to be dark, He will be asked. And that is the first moving of the dear Spirit. That is how He begins the work in the hearts of His dear children: by creating that solemn sense of the absence of God and the longing for the Lord to come and fill up the vacuum with His own, dear self. Is there one this morning, perhaps for the very first time in their life, who feels there is an aching void that the world can never fill? Then, plead this word. The blessed Spirit, that did such great things in creating the earth, does even greater things in regenerating sinners. That is a far greater work; it is more lasting.

“And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” And from that moment, God began to speak. That is when God begins to work. The Spirit moves, then God speaks. His voice is heard. “My sheep hear My voice,” says the dear Saviour, “and I know them, and they follow Me.”

And God said: “Let there be light: and there was light.” God created it. He commanded it. And, when He does that in your heart, dear friends, a light will flood in showing what you really are. That will be inescapable. A holy accuracy, penetrating the hidden recesses of your heart, soul and mind; exposing exactly what you are in God’s sight! But what a mercy if then He shows you the remedy for it. There is One who says: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.” How we long for the dear Saviour to come as the Light of the world! This accompanies the work of the Spirit. Life and light go together. John 1 tells us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” The light in the sinner’s heart is the life of God in the soul. “Let there be light: and there was light.” And, in your dark path this Sabbath morning: that dark path we were singing of in our hymn just now (320), if God speaks and gives light upon it, then you will begin to understand a little of what He is about. You may say like poor Job: “Oh that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to His seat!” But Job did find good ground when he said: “But He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” “For He performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with Him.” Not just some such things: “many such things.” Yes. “But He is in one mind, and who can turn Him? and what His soul desireth, even that He doeth.”

So, it is a word to sinners and to saints this morning. It is a word to sinners, because we are all “without form, and void” and dark by nature. We need that changed by the Spirit of God. May that be an awakening word to some of you. It is also a word to those in whom the work of grace has begun, because we need it to be carried on, don’t we? We need the Lord still to move. We open the page of God’s Word: ‘Lord, move upon it.’ We sing His worthy praises: ‘Lord, move in those praises.’ We come to hear the Word of God: ‘Lord, move in the ministry, and among the hearts of Thy dear saints.’ “The Spirit of God moved.”

Then, one final thing to notice this Sabbath morning: how careful we should be (and we are not careful enough about it), not to grieve the Spirit or to quench Him. For, if He ceases to move in a Church or congregation, “Ichabod” will soon be written over the door. “The glory is departed.” We should lay that to heart more than we do. “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.” “Quench not the Spirit.” Friends, if the Lord ceases to move in Old Baptist Chapel, we might just as well shut the doors now. It is solemn! Oh, may He not depart! May He continue with us. May that word spoken so many generations later still be ours, as declared in Haggai 2: “According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so My spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.” May we see the fruits of the Spirit, both in the pulpit and in the pew, and in our lives. May it yet be known, even here, that the Spirit of God is still moving, in regenerating, in sanctifying and preparing for all God’s will, and at last for Himself.

Amen.