I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Genesis, chapter
1. Genesis, chapter 1. Let's ask our Lord's blessing. Our Father, we ask this evening,
Lord, would you move upon us, empower Give us an understanding
heart, ears to hear, eyes to see, to the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen. I've heard that the opening lines
of a piece of literature, of a book, of an article, should
be so stated as to set forth the theme or the message of the
entirety of the book. And in no other book, save God's
Word, is this more true. The book of Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, was penned by a man named Moses. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
concerning Moses, He wrote of me. That truth set forth by the Lord
Himself ought to give us a good understanding and basis for the
entirety of God's Word. Moses wrote of me, I quote this
scripture so many times, the two on the road to Emmaus, beginning
with Moses and the prophets and in all the scriptures The Lord
expounded unto those two on the road to Emmaus those things concerning
Himself. So whenever we look into God's
Word, we are looking for the glory of God in the face of the
Lord Jesus Christ. If we hear anything other than
that, we've missed it. We've missed the message. We
may set forth some truth, but we've missed the gospel. Now
you can set forth truth. I told you about the story of
Noah. I can give you all the facts
about Noah and never preach the gospel to you unless we see deliverance
for Noah. A man who in his own heart was
wicked, non-righteous, not one. And God looked upon Noah in grace. Put him in an ark. Ark was Christ.
There's the gospel. Deliverance from the bondage
of sin by the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in the first
five verses of the book of Genesis, This message right here, it's
the story of creation is what it is. And it's the absolute
truth. This is the story of the beginning
of the story. I mean, you go through the whole
chapter into the next chapter. It's the story of the creation
of this earth and the heavens. That's what it is. But in the
message of the creation is the gospel. And if we miss the gospel,
We've missed it. We've missed it. The gospel of
God's grace. That's what the Spirit of God
is going to bless. So now let's just look. Let's just look at
these first five verses. And may the Lord give us eyes
to see the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we see Him,
I'm telling you, our hearts rejoice. If we don't see Christ, we don't
see it. God's Word begins this way. In the beginning. In the beginning of time, God
created the heaven and the earth. Now, it has to be the beginning
of time because eternity has no beginning. There is no beginning
with forever. So in the beginning of time,
God We know who is the author of
all things. It is God Almighty. Here is the
absolute sovereign. Here is wisdom himself speaking
into existence that which was not. God in the beginning created,
made out of nothing. He made the heaven and the earth
out of nothing. He spoke it into existence. Listen
to this, Hebrews 11.3, Through faith we understand that the
worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which
are seen were not made of things which do appear. What were they
made out of? Nothing. Nothing. God created the heaven and the
earth. Before the creation of the heaven
and the earth, before time began, there was God. The self-existent I am. And the scripture says, in verse
2, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was
upon the face of the deep. Now, some say, and I believe
according to the scriptures, that they're right. I've read
this and I've looked it up and I've looked at the words, Between verse 1 and verse 2,
something happened. Something happened. God, in the
beginning, created the heaven and the earth. And verse 2, and
the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the
face of the deep. Now, the scripture declares,
and the earth was without form and void. Now the word was is
a key word because that word is the same word that we find
in Genesis 19.26 concerning Lot's wife. You remember when Lot,
his wife, daughters, they were taken out before the Lord sent
these two angels into Sodom. And these angels went to Lot's
house. Just Lot. Just Lot. Justified man. And these angels said, look,
we got to get you out of here. Judgment's not going to come
on this city till you and your family is out of here. So they
took Lot and his wife and his daughters and let them out. And
you remember what happened. God told them, said, you go out
and don't turn around and look. but his wife turned around. And
here's what Scripture says concerning his wife. But his wife looked
back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. Now, the word was, and the word
was, I mean, and the earth was without form, and the word became,
and she became a pillar of salt. Same word. Same word. So the
word was here, means became. So here's what the scripture
says. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and
the earth became without form. Void, darkness was upon the face
of the deep. So between verse 1 and verse
2, there was a change in the earth. And it was a change that
took place before man was ever here. Man's not going to be created
until chapter 2 in the scriptures here. So something happened. The earth was without form. It became void. Without form. It became, and
I'm using words that are definitions of these words right here. It
became a waste place. A worthless, indistinguishable
void. A vast collection of indescribably
confused emptiness. Shapeless chaos. That's what
the world became. And darkness was upon the face
of the deep. What? Darkness was upon this
formless void. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth, and the earth became without form. And the Spirit of God, the Scripture
says, moved upon the face of the water. That word moved right
there. It's the word that is like a
hen that broods over the eggs. It's kind of hovering over and
watching over and moving. The word is the Spirit of God
brooded over the face of this confusion. Now here's what the
Word reveals, that it was requiring the power of God's Spirit, the
Holy Spirit of God, to sustain and to render stable the disorderly
heap of confusion. Here was a world, an earth, that
was without form, and it was void, it was emptiness, it was
nothing but utter confusion and the Spirit of God brooded over
it, sustained it. The Almighty God
who eternally purposed to have a people, with Him, for Himself. They were chosen in Christ, marked
from before the foundation of the world. And here God has made
the earth, and the earth became without form, and it was void. And these people have never been
created yet. And Almighty God has everlastingly
loved them. And He's going to keep them! All that the Father has given
him are going to come to Christ. So what happens in this formless
void that the earth has become, the Spirit of God broods over
it and renders stability where the Scripture reveals there's
instability. God Almighty must maintain order
in the midst of disorder, that His people might be born and
saved. He's going to create them. And
He's already seen the fall. He knows they're going to fall.
He's already told Adam, in the day you eat, you're going to
die. God knows this. God Almighty
knows this. But He maintains stability. So whatever happened, between
verse 1 and verse 2 that rendered the earth without form and void. We're not told. We don't know
what it is. I'm speculating. I'm speculating. Was it the effect
of Satan's expulsion out of heaven? When the Lord said in Luke 10,
18, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. The Lord revealed
in John 12, 31 the place of Satan's abode. He says, now is the judgment
of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. Was it Satan? I don't speak with
any certainty right here. I don't dare speculate with any
assuredness, but I just wonder. Something happened, and I know
just enough, about Satan's rebellion against God. And Satan was cast
out of heaven, and a third of the angels were with him. And
this earth became the abode of Lucifer. But between 1 and 2,
the earth was without form, and it was void. And the Spirit of
God moved upon the face of the deep. And the Scripture declares
that likewise, Almighty God made man. Now here's the picture in
the creation revelation of these Scriptures. The Lord, Genesis
2-7, says the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, and man became a living soul. There was man. He was created in the image of
God. God created the heaven and the
earth. Two things here that God has made. God created the heaven
and the earth, and God made man, formed man out of the dust and
breathed into it, and that man was alive. And the Lord set bounds
upon man. He told Adam, of every tree of
the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. You know what happened. Adam, in absolute disobedience,
did exactly what God told him not to do. Adam disobeyed God. You remember when Satan came
to Eve? Who did God tell don't eat the fruit? He told Adam. He told Adam. Don't eat the fruit. Satan came to Eve and beguiled
her. He told her concerning her eating
the forbidden fruit. In Genesis 3-4, he said, you
shall not surely die. You won't die. Genesis 3-6 reveals
something. Amazing to me. I was reading
this last night. It says, and when the woman saw
that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the
eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of
the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband
with her, and he did eat. You know, nothing was said concerning
mankind dying. when Eve ate. Nothing said. Didn't say it. It said she took
the fruit and did eat. and gave also unto her husband
with her, and he did eat, and the next words in Scripture was
this, and the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that
they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made
themselves aprons." Adam, by one man's disobedience. One man's disobedience. God told
Adam, in the day you eat, you're going to die. Adam was the only created man. God made Adam out of the dust. Made a living soul. And everybody
else came from Adam. Adam was the representative.
Adam disobeyed. Adam ate of the fruit that was
forbidden. And as soon as Adam ate, mankind
was without form, and void, and waste, and unstable. Here is man, set forth in the
creation. God made the heaven and earth.
God made man. The earth became without form
and void, the absence of light, the absence of knowledge of God
on man's part. And now man, like that void without
form earth, he's dead in trespasses and sin. And if left in that
state, he's going to die and eternally perish. Oh, but for those that God has
everlastingly loved. The Spirit of God moved and brooded
upon the face of the waters. I think about how long the Lord
brooded over me. When I was just coming up, you
know, going through life, thinking everything was just great and
I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that. No knowledge
of God, no interest in God, no nothing for God. I didn't care,
I just didn't care. Dead, void, without form, waste,
unstable, and Almighty God by His Spirit brooded hovered over,
watched over, kept and directed. I never knew what was happening
and here's the Spirit of God brooding over this earth before
God's ever created anything. No trees, no man, no animals,
no fish, no nothing. It's just void and the Spirit
of God broods over. God watches over His people,
keeping them until the time of love was come. And the Lord,
whoever purposed to show mercy to His elect, who orders all
things by the word of His power, assured that His elect are going
to be brought to Himself and kept until He's pleased to call
them by His Spirit, who moves like the wind sovereignly, blessing
the gospel. Oh, how long has God brooded
over this entire world? How long? I brought this up before. Listen. Mom, I'm sorry I use
you for example too many times, I'm sure, but I think about my
mother's family. You listen to me. My mama came
from a little old town in South Louisiana. Just a little French
town, Plosheville, Louisiana. And how many generations and
generations and generations go back. We're all raised in false
Roman Catholicism. Just a religion that has their
thumb on everybody in fear. You leave this church and you're
going to hell. That's right. You leave the Catholic
Church and you're going to hell. There's no two ways about it. How many years and years and
years did the Spirit of God brood over that formless void? And in time, God was pleased,
as far as I know, to call one out of all of her
brothers and sisters. And I would be born in time And
I think the miracle of God's grace, how Almighty God would
show mercy, long-suffering, the Scripture says, to Osward, to
his people. Not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. Who was Peter talking to when
he wrote that? Listen to 1 Peter 1, 1 and 2.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, elect. According
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. The Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters. And when it pleased God, Almighty God, in verse 3, said,
let there be light. And there was light. God Almighty,
in His infinite mercy, who does as He will in the army
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, when it pleased
Him to speak in regenerating grace, He imparted the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4, 6 says, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let there be light. Nowhere else do we ever find
anyone but Almighty God as being the initiator of the impartation
of light. God said, let there be light. He speaks to the objects of His
mercy. When they're just going in this
formless void of darkness, and the Spirit of God broods upon
them. And God, when it pleases Him, He says, live. Live. And He gives them a new heart.
And He gives them a new mind. He gives them eyes to see and
ears to hear. And they see. They see. I see. I perceive. And He imparts the
very life of Christ in them. Christ in you. Let there be light in you. The
Lord said, I am the light of the world. And God, in verse
4, saw the light. He saw that light that was set
up from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the world
was. That's what Proverbs 8.23 says. And He saw the light. He saw Christ and His people. And He saw that it was good.
Not good, but God. Here's the fullness of the truth.
Whenever the Lord said concerning Moses, had you believed Moses,
you would believe me, for he wrote of me. I'm the light of
the world, that's what the Lord says. Let there be light, and
there was light. In regenerating grace, Almighty
God sets forth the glory of himself to his people. And he never loses
sight of the light of Christ in his people. This is the beautiful
part. God said, let there be light.
There was light. God saw the light that it was
good. God saw the light. I want to tell you something.
Whenever the Lord gives us spiritual light to behold the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to tell you something. We're
going to see Him. We're going to see ourselves. That's what we're going to see.
You remember the story of the man that was healed of his blindness
and the Lord healed him and he said, what do you see? And he
said, I see trees. No, I see men as trees walking.
He couldn't see clearly. And then the Lord touched him
and a man could see all men clearly. He saw himself clearly. and he saw the person of the
God-man clearly. He sees other men as he is. I am like other men. He sees
men clearly. I'll tell you what a believer
sees when God gives him light. He sees the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ and he sees himself. And he knows that in himself
there's no good thing. He knows that there's two natures
in a believer. You listen to this. God, verse
4, saw the light that it was good and God divided the light
from the darkness. God divided. He caused a distinguishing
difference between two things. That's what that word divided
means. God caused there to be a difference. A difference between
what? The light from the darkness. When God saves a man, saves a
woman, quickens them by His Holy Spirit, let me tell you what
they know. They know that there's a difference
between light and darkness. Spiritual light, spiritual darkness. A believer knows that there's
two principles within. Before there was only one principle,
before conversion, and that was darkness. And you know what? When there's only darkness there,
there's no battle going on, no confusion whatsoever. Man is
just dead. There's no fighting. But I'll
tell you what, when that new man, when God says, let there
be light, And God Almighty imparts light and He sees the light like
He sees the blood. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. He sees the light. And He divided the light from
the darkness and made a division. There's a new man, there's an
old man there. That new man believes God. That
new man loves God. He does it, well I can't. You
can't see that new man that the Scripture declares to be there
as being without sin. I just... I know it's so. And I cannot see that man without
sin in me. All I can see is the inconsistency. God Almighty sees the light. That's what He said. And I'm
so glad. And God saw the light. That it
was good. Lord, thank You for that. I'm
glad you see it, I don't. Lord, I'm glad you behold him
because I'm struggling. God put a difference between
the light and the darkness. The Apostle Paul says, I find
then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with
me. Paul struggled to see it too.
I'm glad the Spirit of God had him right there. I'm glad the
Spirit of God, I thank God for Romans 7. You want a real encouragement,
go home and read Romans 7 again. Romans chapter 7. A believer
knows that light and darkness have no communion. A believer
knows that God's put a division between them. Children of light,
they have no desire to fellowship with the deceitfulness of darkness.
You just don't want it. I just don't want it. I don't
want to hear a false gospel. Don't tell me about a false God. Don't tell me about a God that
just makes me sick. It just makes me mad. I just don't want to hear it.
I don't want to hear it. I don't want to go where it's going to
be. I don't want to go there. I don't want to listen to you.
There's a division. You know, and a believer, may
be groaning under the burden of the presence of sin, and we
all do, but you take heart. God sees the light. The Lord
has seen that which he has given, and all of the gloominess of
our soul cannot conceal the light of Christ from the eye of God. For that I'm saying. And verse
5 in closing, God called the light day. and the darkness he
called night, and the evening and the morning were the first
day." Now here, Almighty God has set forth again. Here's the
message of these first five verses right here. God created man innocent,
fellowshiped with him, talked with him. Man disobeyed God. and fell in darkness, unbelief. And the scripture says the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the void, formless void. And whenever it pleased God,
God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God
saw and maintained that which He had done. It was good. And
God divided, He told, and gave His people the knowledge of this. And God called the light, day. The darkness, night. Evening,
morning, first day. Here again, in this last verse,
the Lord reveals again those two natures. There's two natures
in a believer. One of the natures is called
day. And the other nature, night. Two natures, two men. Day, night. Paul says in Romans 7, 18, I
know that in me there dwelleth No good thing. But though these
two natures, darkness and light, day and night, reside in God's
people. And you that know Him, you know
what I'm saying. I'm telling you, you do know what I'm saying.
You see the presence of sin and you love the Lord. You see rebellion
in your heart and you long to obey Him. You want to obey Him. But though those two natures,
darkness and light, reside in God's people, Listen to what
God refers to them as. They're called by the name that
God has given to the light. They're called by that. There's
two natures in them, day and night. But listen to what God
has to say about them. 1 Thessalonians, and the reason
is because he sees the light. God said, lest there be light,
God saw the light. It was good. Listen to this,
1 Thessalonians 5, 5. Ye are the children of light and the
children of the day. We are not of the night nor of
darkness. And there's an old man in me
that I know is still there. And God says, this is what you're
called. What's your name? My name's Jacob. Huckster, liar, cheat. And God
told him, he said, no more. Your name is Israel. You're a
prince with God. And you look at the rest of the
life of Jacob and tell me what Jacob did and how he acted. And you go back, and this is
the only thing you can say, God saw the light. Lord bless the
word to our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen. Okay, Gary.