A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock, where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand. and covers me there with his
hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, he taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up, and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. With numberless blessings each
moment He crowns, And filled with His fullness divine. I sing in my rapture, O glory
to God, For such a Redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love and covers me there with His hand. and covers me there with his
hand. When clothed in his brightness
transported, I rise to meet him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love, I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my soul in
the cleft of the rock That shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. Thank you. Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter
2. 1 Timothy 2. I exhort therefore that first
of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of
thanks be made for all men. for kings and for all that are
in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in
all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved
and to come under the knowledge of the truth. For there is one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Where into I am ordained a preacher
and an apostle, I speak the truth in Christ and lie not, a teacher
of the Gentiles in faith and verity. I will therefore that
men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and
doubting. In like manner also, that women
adorn themselves in the modest apparel, with a shamefacedness
and sobriety, not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or
costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with
good works. Let the woman learn in silence,
with all subjection, but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to
usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam
was first formed, then Eve, And Adam was not deceived, but the
woman being deceived was in transgression. Notwithstanding, she shall be
saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity
and holiness with sobriety. Let's pray. Father, we come again
this morning thankful for our time together. And Lord, as always,
we're thankful that you've given us a place to come to. Lord,
and you have provided for us. and you've supported us and Lord,
you've supported our pastor and we ask that you continue to do
so in giving him the time he needs to study. And Lord, we
ask that you give him the support that he needs while he studies
so he can bring the word that you would have him to bring to
us. Lord, we ask that you just continue to be with him in all
things and we continue to be thankful that you've sent him
here. And Lord, we ask that you continue to watch over the congregation,
both here and anywhere else, Lord, where the true and one
and only gospels preached. And Lord, we ask that you just
continue, if it be your will, to have this church grow. And
if it be to have this church stay exactly the way it is, Lord,
we ask that we be accepting of that, if it be your will. And
Lord, we just ask that you watch over us during the week when
we're not together. Lord, we ask that you just always watch
over and care for us in Christ's name. Our second hymn will be 224,
I know whom I have believed. 224. O not why God's wondrous grace
to me he hath made known, nor why unworthy Christ in love redeemed
me for his own. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not how this saving faith
to me he did impart, nor how believing in his word brought
peace within my heart. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. Show not how the Spirit moves,
convincing men of sin, revealing Jesus through the Word, creating
faith in Him. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not what of good or ill
may be reserved for me. of weary ways or golden days
before His face I see. But I know whom I have believed
in and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've
committed unto Him against that day. I know not when my Lord
may come at night or noonday fair, Nor if I walk the vale
with Him or meet Him in the air. But I know my heavy leaving and
am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. Thank you. Good encouraging hymns. I enjoyed
them. Okay, brethren, let's go to Genesis
chapter one. Genesis chapter one, I want to
look at verses three through five. That means that we'll be
talking about the first day of creation. Now if I were to try
and summarize what this day, this day, this first day of creation
is about, if I were to summarize that to you after studying this
word, I would say that this is about the preeminence of Christ. This day one is about showing
us the preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ in all things. This Jesus, our Lord and Savior,
is first in everything. He is our Creator. He is the Word of God. He is
the light of God. He is the light of his people.
He is the one who reveals to us. He's the revealer of God
to his people. By him we know our God. And this day one is to show us
the preeminence of Christ, our mediator, the God-man mediator. we see in this day manifested
before all creation, the brilliance and the glory of God. Now, in verse 1, Genesis 1-1,
we read, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And we talked last week some
about this. We talked about what this means. We talked about what happened
between verse one and verse two that brought this earth into
darkness, that made this earth void and without form and being
in darkness. And I confess to you, I think
you would agree, but I confess to you that I see this. I look at those verses, verse
1 and 2, and I confess I see through a glass darkly. And that word darkly means it's
obscure to me. It's hidden from me. I don't
understand. I don't see it fully or understand all that the Lord
is communicating to us there. That word obscurity means it's
a riddle. It's an enigma. It's a puzzle.
It's a puzzle that I can't figure out completely. And we can try
to figure out what happened. We can look at the words used. We can look at grammar to help
explain to us what those words might mean in that context. We
can look at other scriptures and what the Lord tells us about
his creation in the word. And we can bring our reason to
bear and try and explain what we think this word is saying. But in verse three, we read,
and God said, let there be light. And there was light. It may be obscure before then,
but once God brings light into the picture, once he brings light
to shine upon this earth, think about this, from that verse on,
everything begins to unpack quickly. Suddenly, there's light that
shows us what God has done. After that verse, it all becomes
clearer and clearer and more clear to us what God has done
in his creation. He explains it. And Genesis,
right, we saw that Genesis covers about the first 2,400 years of
our history. But then it gets more detailed
and more detailed. So from that light, things just
get clearer. And things become more understandable
to us. And so that light, which the
Lord speaks of here, it's not one of the, let's say, light
holders. What's a light holder? That's
the sun. That's the stars. the moon, which is a reflection
of light. God said, let there be light.
He brings light in. And it's not one of the light
holders that we're familiar with. It's not some physical light
that we understand today. And we know what light is. We
know what the sun is. And we understand light and darkness
based on the sun and what we see with light bulbs and things
of that nature. But none of that was created. That was created on day four. And we can try to reason. I read
a lot about this, and I didn't see any good explanation as to
what this light is. And we can try to reason, well,
what is this? Could this be dark matter or
something like that? No, no, there's no good reasonable
explanation for what this is. So why did God on day one, why
did he bring this light to bear in creation? Why is this the
very first thing that God brings forth? I'll tell you what this is. This
light is Christ. This light is Christ. And He
is manifesting to His creation that God is light. He is manifest to us in the beginning
of days that this light here comes forth as a mediator between
God and men, between God and His creation. Everything God
does This light came first. This light was brought forth
first. And then everything from that
point becomes clearer and clearer. And from that point, we begin
to learn of our God and to know Him who created us. That light
brings revelation. That light makes everything clear
to us. And you might say, come on. We
know that the Son of God is eternal. and that the Son of God created
all things, and He's upholding all things by the word of His
power. How can this be a manifestation
of Christ the mediator, this light that God brings forth?
How can that be Christ? Well, it's Christ, and I would
explain it in the same way that God was manifest in the flesh. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. How can this be Christ? How can this show forth the preeminence
of Christ to his creation? How is this Christ? In the same
way, God was manifest. The eternal Son of God was manifest
in the flesh, brethren. Truly, without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. Our God is wonderful, wonderful. And so when we see this light
in the understanding and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we see this light can only be Christ. This is Christ. shining
unto this world, upon this world, upon his creation. And that interpretation
aligns with scripture. That's exactly what we see in
scripture. And that's the hope that our
God has given us. We who are sinners, we that are
creatures, we that have everything to do with the God who created
us, we know, we've been taught that our God deals with us through
a mediator. through a mediator, and that
mediator is Christ, the Son of God, come in the flesh to do
for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He is the revealer
of God. His word teaches us of God. He shows us and manifests the
true and living God to us. And so this light here is a manifestation
of the brilliance of the glory of God. You could say this is
an express image that declares to us that God is light. Let's see some scriptures. The
Apostle John tells us in 1st John, go to 1st John, chapter
1, verse 5. I'm going to read verse 1 to
you as well while we're there. Christ manifests. He reveals
to us God. And so in verse 1, 1 John 1,
1, that which was from the beginning. I'll give you a moment. John
1.1, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and
our hands have handled of the word of life. Now verse 5, this
then is the message which we have heard of him in declaring
to you that God is light. And in him is no darkness at
all. And so our God is manifesting
to us right at the beginning of creation that God is light. And who manifests to us who God
is? Who shows us who God is? Who
tells us the true and living God? Who does that? The Lord
Jesus Christ. This light here is preeminent
in creation. it's brought forth first. This
light is preeminent in creation and that's exactly what the scriptures
declare to us concerning Christ the mediator. It says in Colossians
117, he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Verse 18, and he is the head
of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. And so God is showing us the
preeminence of Christ. He's preeminent. creation. He's preeminent in the salvation
of his people. Christ is preeminent in the old
creation. Christ is preeminent in the new
creation. He's first in the old, first
in the new, and just as Paul said in Colossians 3 11, Christ
is all and in all. Christ is preeminent. God is
making us to see and to behold His preeminent Son, His preeminent
salvation. He's making Him first in all
that we understand and know about our God in creation. The heaven and the earth are
said to be created by God in verse one. And in verse two,
we see them lying in complete darkness. And we know God is
there, for we know the word of God teaches us that the word
of God created all things. Nothing is created. Nothing exists
except by the word of God. And God who made all things is
invisible to us. We don't know him, we don't see
him, we don't understand him. Christ told the woman at the
well in John chapter 4 that God is a spirit and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And we're fleshly. We don't see the things of the
spirit in that manner. Therefore, God manifests. He gives light. And we see that
pictured here in verse 3 when this light comes bursting upon
the scene. Then we have a revelation that
God is light. God is making known to his creation,
right in the beginning, he's making us to know that God is
light. And this light is how we see
him by faith, in the same way that Moses saw him who is invisible,
by faith. That's what Hebrews 11, 27 says,
by faith. Moses saw him, who is invisible. God who is invisible, we see
by faith. This is that light of faith. This is the revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ unto us, showing us, revealing to
us the invisible God, making us to know our God. And all he
does is make him more and more known to his people, always and
only through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the mediator between God
and men. Christ is the revealer. That's
how we know and worship God. And so God is eternal. The Son
of God is eternal. But this light speaks to the
preeminence of Christ as the God-man mediator, the Son of
God as the Savior, the Christ, the God-man mediator between
God and his people. Christ who is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, Colossians
1 15. And Christ is given to manifest
to us, to reveal to us Him who is invisible. And it's by Christ
that we know and worship the all-glorious, all-wonderful,
all-mighty, holy, righteous, just God. It's through the Lord
Jesus Christ. God is a spirit and He's unknowable
to us except by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what's pictured
here in God bringing forth, manifesting this light. Because we can't
explain this light any other way. It's not a physical light.
Our reason doesn't get it. But in Christ, then we understand
it. Then we know this is our God
revealing himself to us in a mediator. He's spirit, but God is light. And he's making us to see that
light in the light of Christ. Now, the apostles, they make
this connection constantly. in scripture. They constantly
show us and speak of the Lord Jesus Christ, describing him
as the light of men. We don't know God. When we look
at physical lights, light bulbs and the sun and stars, that doesn't
explain God to us. We have reason, we have the light
of reason, but that doesn't explain God to us. We know him through
the spiritual light, which is given to us by Christ. And so as we go through this
study, as we look at the scriptures, notice how they show us that
Christ is light. He is the light of God and by
him, we know God and in him, we are saved and accepted and
received of our God and taught by our God. and have life and
fellowship in our God. It's through Christ. And they
always hearken back to this light of creation. This light of creation. For example, 2 Corinthians 4,
6, 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."
Christ is the preeminent one. He is the Savior. He is the mediator
whom God has given and revealed to us, and through Him, He reveals
God to us and makes us to know Him. and reconciles us to him. So I've titled this, The Light
of Men, The Light of Men. And so first we see Christ in
view. You might recall from the last
message when we were looking at creation, we read Psalm 33,
verse six, and we see the Trinity of God in creation. It says,
by the word of the Lord, by the Word, the Son of God, of the
Lord God the Father, were the heavens made, and all the host
of them by the breath, the Spirit of His mouth. So you see the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost all meticulously involved
in creation. all doing their part, just as
they do in salvation, each one doing their part because they're
all in perfect agreement, oneness with each other, to do for us
according to the will of God, Almighty God. And so they show
us our God, our Father, the Son, and the Spirit. They show us
Christ. our mediator between God and
men. Now, what our God is doing is He's showing us the preeminence
of Christ. He's showing us that everything
He does is to set forth Christ first in our hearts. Let me read
for you in Philippians chapter two, verses nine through 11,
where it says, wherefore, because the Son obediently did the will
of the Father, in laying down his life for the life of his
people, to put away their sins, and to obtain forgiveness for
them. Because Christ did that faithfully according to the will
of his Father, God also hath highly exalted him, the Mediator,
Jesus Christ the Mediator, and given him a name which is above
every name. that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and
things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's how
it's going to be in that great and final day of judgment. And
God is showing us that's been purposed right from the very
beginning. In the very beginning of creation,
God is testifying to us that very will and purpose in bringing
forth this light which shows us and pictures Christ by whom
God deals with us and reveals himself to us, making us to know
him. And so Christ is preeminently
brought into view in this creation, in creation, in this light. When God said, let there be light,
and there was light. That was the first thing the
Lord did. It's to show us the preeminence of Christ and how
He reveals Himself to us. Here's the created world. It's
void of life. It's formless. It's lying in
darkness. And the first thing he does is
call forth this light into the world. And there was light arisen
upon darkness. Now turn over to Isaiah 60. As I said, we see this throughout
the scriptures. Look at Isaiah 60, the first
three verses, one through three. This passage in Isaiah 60, it's
speaking of the salvation of sinners who are bound in darkness.
We're dead in trespasses and sins. We're shut up in a prison
of sin and death and we can't save ourselves or set ourselves
free. But notice how we are reminded
again of that first day of creation. Let's read it. Arise, verse one. Arise, shine, for thy light is
come. and the glory of the Lord is
risen upon thee. Think back, that world lay formless,
void, having no life, in darkness. Arise, shine, for thy light is
come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold,
the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the
people. But the Lord shall arise upon
thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee, and the Gentiles
shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy
rising. And that same word was declared
and promised to us there on day one. when God brought forth the
light, shining upon that darkness, covering the whole earth, so
that all the earth saw that light, or stood before that glorious
light of our God. You know, when we consider fallen
man, and we see how he's described in the scriptures, how is he
described? How are we described? in darkness,
loving darkness, hating the light, afraid of the light, won't come
into the light because we don't want to be rebuked for our sin.
We don't want to be taught and straightened out by the Lord.
By nature, we hate the light. We don't want to come into the
light. And John 3.19 says, for example, this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world. But men love darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. Yet God brings that
light to whom He will. He shines that light upon whom
He will and makes that one in darkness to come out of darkness
into the light. Praise and glory be to God. Isaiah
49.9 Our Savior's work is done, where he says that thou, you
did the work, O Lord, that thou mayest say to the prisoners,
go forth, and to them that are in darkness, show yourselves,
show yourselves. So we see constantly this comparison
that we, just like the earth, That was formed and created back
there. What was without form, void and darkness was upon it.
That's us by nature. We're that dark one. We're brought
into the light. And so the very first thing God
does is bring that light to bear on the earth. Day one, God said,
let there be light. And there was light. And so from
the very beginning, God purposed to glorify the sun in his mediatorial
role reconciling God, holy God, and sinful man, that we might
know the God who created us, the God who made us, that we
might know Him and understand how that He delivered us out
of darkness. He makes this known in our hearts.
God, what you're saying back here in creation, that's what
you did to me. What you did in the old creation,
that's what you do in the new creation. You shine that glorious
light of Jesus Christ in my heart. Now, let's just look at a few
more further proofs. Many of us know by now, you've
probably heard this at some point, that when God said, let there
be light, we always say, oh, that's the Son. He's the Word
of God. And that rejoices our hearts.
Most of us have heard that by now. Turn over to John 1. Let's
see John 1 in verses 1 through 3. This is the Gospel of John 1.
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 anything made that was made. So Genesis
1.1. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. That's speaking of the word of
God. That's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, witnessed immediately
in creation. But don't stop there. Verses
4 and 5, John 1, 4 and 5, in him was life, and the life was
the light of men. That earth, being void and formless
and in darkness, had no life. on it, in it, no life whatsoever. And the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not." And so John is pointing
us back to that day, that first day of creation, when there was
nothing but darkness and no life on it. And yet God brought forth
that light and shone upon it gloriously. making us to see
the light of God. God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God
saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from
the darkness. And so when John says the darkness
comprehended it not, We have an understanding of what he's
saying there, is that this problem that I've got, this sin in my
own heart, this darkness, I see it in my heart. So that when
the Lord of Glory was manifest in the flesh, the Son of God
came in the flesh, doing things that no man had ever done, and
speaking words of wisdom that they've never heard before, they
looked at him They didn't even see Jesus in Jesus. They looked
at him and said, who's this? Who does this guy think he is?
How can he do these things? I don't know, but he's not the
Christ. He can't possibly be the Christ. They didn't comprehend him. They
were blind. they could not hear him, they
would not hear him, they would not come to Christ that they
might have life. And so we see in man and in our
own hearts until Almighty God overcame our blindness and our
darkness, we too were in darkness just like this earth lay in darkness,
couldn't break itself out of that darkness, had no clue of
light until God manifest the light and brought it forth. And
so back there where it says God saw the light, that it was good,
and God divided the light from the darkness. When it says God
saw the light, he saw his glory, the majesty, of his wisdom in
his son who was brought forth to be the mediator of his people."
When he beheld that light, he words it in a way that isn't
worded anywhere else in this chapter. It says, and God saw
the light and it was good. He beheld that light, the light
of his son, and it was beautiful to him. That word is translated
good? Well, it's translated twice,
beautiful. It's used to describe the beauty
of Queen Esther and the beauty of Bathsheba. It's beautiful. God beholds his son and says,
that's beautiful. My saving son, the mediator who
reconciles my people to me and makes them to know me, the true
and living God, he makes me known to the people. And he's beautiful,
he's good, and God's satisfied. What God is saying is I'm satisfied
with this, with my purpose, that I purpose for the earth that
my people should know me as the Savior, as the God of love, as
the God of light, as the God of glory. They'll know this in
Christ, in Christ. And I'm satisfied, well pleased. It's good to me. It's good. And the creation in
that day, when that light came forth, it comprehended it not. It didn't understand. And that's
why it says there at the end, and God divided the light from
the darkness. Because the darkness just was
sitting there dumbfound, didn't know what to do in the presence
of that light. God came and divided it. And
we see there in the same way how men look at Christ, and don't
know anything, don't understand what they're looking at, don't
comprehend it until Christ comes and removes that veil that's
on our heart and mind by nature and takes away that blindness
so that that darkness is now exposed to the light and divided
by him, taken away by him who removes the blindness of that
veil. You know, John the apostle isn't
the only one who speaks like this. Listen to Christ, what
He says in John 8, 12 when He says, I am the light of the world. What is this light back here?
It's not the sun. It's not a light bulb. It's not
another star. What is this light? I am the
light of the world. That light is the light of the
world, which is Jesus Christ. That's the light that was manifested
on day one. And he said, he that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. That light is Christ. And this is the purpose of God.
He's showing us from the very, very beginning that the whole
purpose for this creation is that we might know Him, whom
God has sent, His Son, Jesus Christ, manifesting Him as the
Christ, the God-man mediator that we might know and worship
and glorify God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
1. Hebrews chapter 1 again the first three verses typically
in the beginning of things isn't it talking about the beginning
of things the Lord Jesus Christ Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds, who, being the brightness of his glory and the express
image of his person, Manifested in this light right from the
beginning, seen more clearly by us when God was manifested
in the flesh. And upholding all things by the
word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins, sat
down on the right hand of the majesty on high. God is showing
us over and over repeatedly that all the fullness of the Godhead
dwells bodily in Christ. That He's everything. He's made
Christ everything to us. That we would know Him and worship
Him and worship our God in and through Christ, who was sent
of the Father to come and put away our sins, who came to willingly
and obediently did all the will of the Father to accomplish this
very task, this very will and purpose of God. James tells us
of God in James 1 17, he said, every good gift Yeah, you can go there if you
want. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and
cometh down from the father of lights. The father of lights,
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. And so God the father is light,
God the son is light, and he, as John says in John 1, 9, he
is the true light. I didn't know anything about
this light back there. How do we describe it? Where do we see
it? Christ is the true light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world. That world could sustain life.
That's probably, I'd say that's why God did that, where on, what
was it, day three, when he raised up the land and brought forth
plants. And they lived without a sun. because they had the light, the
true light of the world. He who upholds all things by
the word of his power. He doesn't need the sun. He doesn't
need the things that we think God needs. All things are held
up and sustained by Him who is God and does all things as He
pleases and has all power and all life in Himself. And so from
the very outset of creation, we see God's will and purpose
to save His people. to glorify his son, to reveal
him who reveals God to us, and by whom we worship God in spirit
and in truth. Peter telling us 1 Peter 2, 9,
but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy
nation, a peculiar people. You're a peculiar people who
know and believe and trust the Lord Jesus Christ is God. He is the light. He's the true
light. He's the sustainer. He's my creator. He's the one
by whom I know and may approach unto God and him in perfect righteousness. That ye should show forth the
praise of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. It goes all the way back there
in creation. He's been telling us this since the foundation
of the world, that we were in darkness, but he has called us
into light, the light of his son, who teaches us and shows
us all things. So on day one, we see a marvelous
light. We ask, I mean, have you ever
asked, why did God bring forth this light? What is this light
for? Why do we need this light? That's what the natural man thinks.
What are you talking about? What purpose does this light
serve? It shows us Christ. That's what it serves. It's the
light by whom we know the true and living God, because God purposed
to be gracious to us, to bring light and life to his people,
to make us to know with true wisdom and true spiritual understanding
who God is and how a man is justified by God and is through the Son
of God. And so God is making this known
to us by the coming of his Son. Christ is this first light spoken
of here in the beginning of creation. God is revealing to us that he
is the light of his people. He's the one sustaining us. Do
we have laws and rules by which to explain why life exists? No,
no. It's all by the will and purpose
of our God, the Son of God, the God-man mediator who sustains
and upholds all things. Otherwise, God would have wiped
us out when we fell in sin. But it's all according to his
purpose. It's hard for us to imagine that light comes from
anything else but what we see and know physically, with the
sun and the stars and light bulbs and electricity and neon gas
and various lights that man discovers. It's hard for us to understand
light coming from anywhere else, but truly Christ is all the light
that we require. This sun could go away and we'd
be fine in the light of Christ. And that's something that we
will understand in that eternal glorious day. Look at Revelation
21. Revelation 21 and verse 23. Revelation
21, verse 23. and the city. The city of God
is the people of God. The city had no need of the sun,
neither of the moon to shine in it. How is this possible? Well, because the glory of God
did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof. Why do I know
that this light is Christ? Because the Lamb is the light
thereof. It's testifying to us from the
very beginning the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world. That One who takes away that
darkness and brings us into the light and the knowledge of our
glorious God and Savior. He doesn't just give light to
men, He is the very light of men. He is our light by whom
we know God. He's the glory of God. He is
the salvation of sinners from darkness and brings us into the
kingdom of light. He takes us from the kingdom
of darkness and brings us into the kingdom of light. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He's the
one that gives light to know He's the Savior. He's the servant
of God. He's the salvation whom God has
provided. Lord save me. Lord, from the
very beginning you purposed to save your people from darkness.
Take me, Lord, out of darkness and show me the grace, the glory,
the power, the love of my God who created me, who made me for
his own purpose, for his glory. Lord, let me know you. and we
know him through the Lord Jesus Christ. All who believe on him
are delivered from their sins, are delivered from condemnation,
and have light and life, all that they need in the Lamb of
God who was slain to take away the sin of the world. In Genesis
1-5 it says, God called the light day, and the darkness he called
night, and the evening and the morning were the first day. This
salvation day is the Lamb of God who delivers us out of bondage,
out of darkness, out of death, that we might know the true and
living God. I pray the Lord show you that
same comforting, glorious word in the face of Jesus Christ.
Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Our gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your glorious power,
for doing all things, not according to what we think or how we think
it should be, not according to the wisdom of man or physical
things, but Lord, you're all glorious. And you show us here
in the very beginning, the preeminence of your son and how that nothing
is done except through your son. and by your son. And Lord, we
thank you for this light, which makes all the things of our God
more and more clear to us. And how you patiently and in
wisdom deliver us from darkness and from death. How you lead
us in the way of righteousness and teach us things by teaching
us Christ by showing us that the very light is the lamb that
by him we know all things Lord thank you thank you for sending
him thank you for his obedience and laying down his life thank
you Lord Jesus for your love and faithfulness even when we
were in death and darkness and knew nothing and were in rebellion
Lord, thank you for this salvation. Help us to see you more and more
by this same light, the light of men, which is Christ. Lord, we thank you. We pray for
our brethren who are sick. We pray for those who are struggling
and weak. who are weak and in darkness
or trouble, Lord, that you would bless them, heal them. We thank
you for hearing our prayers concerning our brother Scott, for healing
his body. Lord, thank you. Truly, Lord,
we thank you for that. And we glory in your name for
your kindness, for your love, your patience, doing for us what
we don't deserve. But we thank you so much for
your love. And we glory in you. Keep us ever being a thankful
people. It's in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
we pray this, amen. Let's all stand and sing 472
Heavenly Sunlight 472 Looking at sunlight all of my
journey, over the mountains, through the deep vale. Jesus
has said, I'll never forsake thee, promise divine that never
can fail. Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight,
flooding my soul with glory divine. Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, singing
his praises, Jesus is mine. Shadows around me, shadows above
me, never conceal my Savior and God. He is the light, in Him
is no darkness, ever I'm walking close to His side. Heavenly sunlight,
heavenly sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine. Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, Singing
His praises, Jesus is mine. In the bright sunlight ever rejoicing,
Pressing my way to mansions above, Singing His praises, gladly I'm
walking, Walking in sunlight, sunlight of love. Heavenly sunlight,
heavenly sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine. Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, singing
His praises, Jesus is mine. Thank you.