Get me back up here in Michigan. I'm driving a car that was imported
from Detroit now. Turn in your Bibles, please,
to Genesis chapter 1. The title of this message is
Creation. the doctrine of divine omission. Several years ago, a gentleman
who is now a pretty regular fellow at the Sequoia Baptist Church
down in Cherokee had been asked or told, had been talking to
Sylvester Crowe, whom many of you know. And Crowe had talked
to him about the gospel, and this man was going to church
at a church nearby, He became interested in what Crow was saying,
and so he came to church on a Wednesday night. I forget where I was in
the Scriptures, but I made the statement, we look and read the
Old Testament, because I've been in the Old Testament for about
seven or eight years now. I'm all the way up to 2 Kings.
And I said, when you read the Old
Testament, realize this, it's the truth. But that's not what the Old Testament
is about. And his eyes got real big. And
he wondered if I was suddenly leaving the Bible for some other
thing. And afterwards he talked to me. He said, what did you
mean that when you read the Scriptures, when you read the Old Testament
and read these things that actually took place, that that's not what
they're about? And I said, well, that's not
what they're about. They're about the Lord Jesus Christ. from Genesis
all the way through Malachi, was the only Bible that Jesus
Christ and the disciples had, and they preached the gospel,
as one fellow said, from kiver to kiver. The story of creation, the six-day work of the Lord
Jesus Christ and resting on the seventh day, is a true story. And we don't know that because
we've studied science books and come up with nuclear half-lives
and things like that. We don't know it because we can
empirically prove it by some carnal evidence. We know it because
God has spoken it and given us faith to believe it. That's the
only reason we know it's true. Hebrews 11, we know that the
earth was formed And we know it by faith. We know by faith. We understand it by faith. This
book is not a science book, this Bible. It has some science in
it. But science is a study which requires theory and proof and
postulation and the presentation of empirical evidence, trial
and error, and usually proof based on getting the same result
after repeating test many times. But science is not a bad thing.
I'm glad for science. I was able to hear John Claude
preach tonight because of science. My hearing is going fast as well
as the rest of my body. And I had one of those tricks
that you have that plugs in your ear that comes right off the
mic and I heard it just as clear as a bell until I knocked it
off and it jerked it out of my ear Scribes around to find it
on the floor. Science can be a good thing.
I once read a book on the five greatest theories or equations ever in
the world. And as I read about them, they
involved hydrodynamics and such, you know, and electricity and
the study of these things. I found that the men who studied
these things, studied them in order to honor God. Almost all
of them, without exception, gave glory to God for discovering
these things, and that they were God's working in this universe,
and they were utterly amazed that God had given them privilege
to see into some of this glorious thing. The greatest theories
that changed the world, pneumatics, electricity, astronomy, and such
were studied and proven in an effort by believers to honor
God and His creation. That was how science came to
be. Later, science became, men thought,
a way to prove the existence of God. That's another failure,
because it can't be done. And today, it's pretty much employed
to prove that God doesn't exist, and that doesn't work either. I saw a show the other morning,
actually, a remarkable show, of a 36-hour operation by two
teams of doctors. One of the doctors, the main
doctor, was a Cuban doctor. It was sponsored, and the money
was given by the United States Army, and it was a full face
transplant. It started here below the collarbones
and to the top of the head, and this young man received a whole
new face with a jaw and the muscles and the nerves of the face. And
he could talk and smile afterwards. And the reporter was talking
to the doctor, and he said it was divine intervention. We've
seen things that we couldn't have expected to have taken place
when we've done this. It's divine intervention. And
the reporter made a telling statement. She says, but you're a scientist. And these two were mutually exclusive.
And he says, was divine intervention. And he was serious. He was serious. Later, science became men thought
many things. This book and the thing it declares,
the things it says about God and His creation, can neither
be proven by scientific endeavor, nor understood
by any means, save that God, in His wondrous grace, gives
a man faith to believe. No other way. I heard one man write a book,
and I've got several in my library. Back when I was young, I liked
to read these things, thought I'd come up with something new
and teach people and encourage people. This fellow wrote a book
to talk about the Bible being true and evolution being false.
It was a whole big book. It was a thick book. But to use
the Bible to attack science is to negate the purpose of this
book. It's just a waste of time to start with. This book is understood,
as I said, by faith and that if God gives it. And this book
has a singular theme. Our brother just talked about
it. a singular theme and a singular message, and it is Christ and
Him crucified, Christ and His finished work on behalf of an
innumerable company of His creatures, which resulted in what is called
in the Scriptures in the New Testament a new creation, a new
creature in Christ. Nothing will suffice. Circumcision
or uncircumcision will not suffice, but a new creature in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now since the Scriptures testify
of Christ, and that's what they're about, our Lord, at the time
when there was only Genesis to Malachi, looked to those who
gave their lives to study the Scriptures, and He said, you
do search the Scriptures, for in them you think you find eternal
life, but they are they which testify of Me, and you will not
come to Me that you might have life. The story of creation is
true. Did God create the heaven and
the earth? Absolutely. I have no doubt. No doubt whatsoever. It's true in itself. But it's
actually about the new creation. This story is about the new creation,
and it's only understood by God giving a man faith to believe
His Word. And that's what we believe. We
believe Christ. And it's the one that's revealed
in this Word. Not another one. Not a fake one. Not one of the many that's talked
about. Not one who can't do anything. The one who's revealed in this
Word. We believe the Christ of God because God has written Him
in His Book. Faith is, though it has an object,
the Lord Jesus Christ, it is subjective in the sense that
it believes what is written. What did God say? If God said
it, that makes it so. Whether I believe it or not,
but that God makes it so. In this story of creation between
Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1 and Genesis chapter 2 and verse 3,
and I know you'll be glad to know I'm not going to try to
be expositional on this tonight and preach all of it. But between
that, there is something about the first six days of creation
and the seventh day of rest. There is something there that
is found in the first six days that is absent in the seventh
day. And that's what I want us to
look at tonight. It's a divine omission. Now I'm going to go
through this book, but I'm not going to read everything. I trust
you'll open the Bible and read it when you get home. But I'm
going to try to touch on some things. The first thing is this,
Genesis 1-1 through 2-2 is the story of the fall and the recovery
of humanity. The fall and the recovery of
man. It is the story of the new creation
and the grace, all the grace, both prevenient and convenient,
that accompanied that great act of God in recovering His fallen
creature. And as in all types and shadows,
there is a built-in insufficiency to declare an entire truth. It's
never full in the Old Testament. But rather, the descriptions
come forth as a shrouded mystery revealed only in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And as I said, I won't try to
be expositional in this, but rather in a sense of an unfolding
disclosure, as is set forth in this passage of Scripture, the
method of God's grace, the method that God sets forth as the manner
in which He recovers His fallen creature. And the very first
thing we see is that all things start one place. In the beginning,
God. In the beginning, God. The first
cause of all things is God. How many things? All things. You say, well, does that mean
don't even ask? People say, well, you're saying,
don't say I'm saying. Here's what the Scripture says,
in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He's
the first cause of all things. In the beginning was the Word.
The Word was with God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him. Nothing was made. that
was not made by Him speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. God
is the Creator, thus He is the Creator in the new creation.
If you didn't have part in the original one, you don't have
part in the second one, or the new creation. But as in most
cases, the new creation is like the new covenant. It's really
the old covenant and the old creation, and the scripture is
declaring how it took place using the creation of the world to
set it forth. Terms like old and new are relative
to time, and they benefit the creature who is bound to the
concept of time. The writer of Hebrews wrote,
For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said,
as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest,
although the works were finished from the foundation of the Word. Some will say you believe in
an eternal salvation. Is there any other kind? Verse 2 is a concise record of
the fall of humanity in a very concise and precise manner. And the earth was without form
and void. That's the fallen man. Darkness was upon the face of
the deep. That's the history of us. That which brought creation into
darkness was Adam's sin and his rebellion against God. He became darkness. But even in that great catastrophe,
creation, falling, being ruined, as it
were, there's a word of hope because we see the presence of
the Spirit of God moving upon darkness. So we begin the glory
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ said, I send you
a comforter. It is necessary that I go away
and I send you a comforter. And He is going to do some things
when He gets here. And He says, and when He has
come, He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. Now if it were to stop there,
preachers could have a ball with those three words, couldn't they?
They could rake you over the cove for going to the movie show
and going dancing and mixed bathing and drinking and chewing and
messing around with folks who do. Because that's surely sin.
And of judgment. They could tell you, keep this
up, you're going to pay someday. There's going to be a big judgment
someday. They could have you over a barrel.
They could talk about righteousness. You've got to be righteous. You've
got to live a life that's holy and righteous. You've got to
do that. Convince men of different ways to do that by not doing
certain things or doing certain things. But the Lord didn't stop
there. He knew we'd come up with something
stupid like that. So He tells us what He meant
when He said the Holy Spirit will convince men of sin, of
righteousness and judgment, of sin, because they believe not
on Me. The mother of all sin is unbelief.
That's what it is. It's not a matter of opinion.
It's rebellion against God. It's disobedience to your Lord
who owns you, lock, stock and barrel, who holds your next breath
in His hand and your next heartbeat also. And He said, this is the
commandment, that you believe on Him whom God has sent. So
if you don't believe, you're not just exercising your will
to not agree. You're spitting in the Lord's
eye and saying, you're not my commander, and you're not the
boss of me, of sin, because you believe not on me, of righteousness,
because I go to my Father. Something took place, you see,
on that cross. And what I did, I've been honored
for, and now I sit at the right hand of the Father on high, ever
living to make intercession for the people. Because the devil
don't run this universe, I punched him in the head and knocked him
down. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide
you into all truth. Why? Because he won't speak of
himself. That's what he said, for he will not speak of himself.
What does that mean? That means if the Spirit comes,
he's not going to cause you to recognize the Spirit. He's not
going to cause you to talk about the Spirit. You're not going
to do that. People talk about Holy Ghost
meetings up where I live. Holy Ghost meetings. It wasn't
to dry in the house and all sorts of things like that. And they
talk about the Spirit making them do things like talking in
tongues and running the back of pews and acting all manner
of foolishness. And they blame it on the Holy
Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes, when He speaks to your
heart, you're going to have something to say, but it's not going to
be about the Holy Spirit. It's going to be about Jesus
Christ. That's what He says. Howbeit, when the Spirit of truth
is come, He will guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak
of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, whatsoever He shall
hear from Christ, shall He speak unto you. He will show you things
to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall
receive of Mine and shall show it unto you. That's the One who
is moving. upon this dark void of humanity. Back in Genesis. The Spirit of
God moved upon the face of the waters. The face of the waters. And then the Spirit of God spoke
in verse 3. It says, And God said, Let there
be light. And there was light. And that's
the first mention of Christ's incarnation. You say, well, see the sun, moon,
and the stars, they're still to come. Now those point to Christ. But this is the first mention
of Christ's incarnation. Let there be light. Doesn't it say also in the very
chapter of John where it says that He's the Word and was God
and was with God? Doesn't it say that He's the
light? There's a light that's coming to the world that lighteth
every man? Men don't know there's light. John had to actually tell
them that the light was on. Now, you don't have to tell anybody
that the light's on, except somebody who can't see. You know, if you
can see, you know the light's on. But if the light's not on,
or the light's on and you can't see it, somebody has to say,
the light's on. And that's what John did. That's what John did.
And note well that he is revealed as the Word by the Word. By the Word of God. This is a
spoken word. You see, the word gospel, our
word gospel means good news. But it not only means good news,
it means good news spoken. It means good news published. It means good news evangelized,
if you will. That's what the original word
means. It means good news brought. God said, communicated, let there
be light. The first gospel preacher was
God Himself. God Himself, Christ and His gospel
is a divine communication from on high and establishes the principle
of how men understand and know and acknowledge by faith what
God has said. You just read it in 1 Corinthians.
The Holy Spirit has given to us that we might know what God
has freely given to us in Jesus Christ. What does the Holy Spirit
teach you? What God has freely given to us in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ is the divine luminary,
and by Him what can be known and understood of God is manifest
only in Him. In verses 4 and 5, we see the
first mention of the word good. The first time the word good. God saw the light that it was
good, and God divided the light from the darkness, and God called
the light day and the darkness night and the evening and the
morning. were the first day, the first mention. We know Scripture
says there's none good but God. The first aspect of God's glory
is His goodness. You know what He said to Moses?
Moses said, Show me your glory. And He said, I'll show you my
glory. I'll make my goodness to pass before you. God is good. Our English word God is just
a derivative of the word good. Because that's the only way they
could come up with some way of describing God. So they come
up with the word God, taken from the word good. God is good. So that's the first concept set
forth. Here's the glory of God in His
goodness. So this is a good thing. And
the first concept also of election of grace. He divides the night
from the day. This is election. These are opposites, day and
night. He made a division. He severed the light from the
day. Our Lord said, Work while it is day, for the night cometh
when no man can work. And there is nothing, nothing
in darkness that can be used in the light. Nothing. There is nothing in the flesh
that can be used in the Spirit. Nothing in the Spirit that can
be used in the flesh. These two are totally continual
and absolutely opposite of each other. And God severed it and
made it so. Paul wrote that Christ has brought
us out of darkness or from darkness to the light. The truth of salvation
is seen in the description of the first day. The day of salvation. And the next five that follow, Remember this, it's not morning
and evening. It's evening and morning. Interesting
way of putting it. We always say morning and evening.
But God says evening and morning because what He's talking about
is coming from darkness to light. That's what He's talking about.
Now, what follows until the new creation of man is a picture
of grace and the preparation of all things made ready by God's
divine predestination for man to use in this new life. And
when you find out that God has saved you, you'll find that you
already have everything you need. It's already been prepared for
you. Verses 6-8, you can read it,
the firmament above and the firmament below. That's water. That's water. And water is put forth in the
Word of God. as doctrine throughout the Scripture,
as that which produces life, that which is necessary to life.
Christ even said, if any man thirsts, let him come to Me and
drink. And drink. I am the water of
life. Isaiah 55. Oh, everyone that
thirsts, come and drink. Come and drink. That's set forth
in Scripture as doctrine, teaching. Remember what Moses said? My
doctrine shall distill as the dew. Shall come down from heaven,
Isaiah 55, God said, My word shall go forth and not return
unto Me void. He said it shall come down and
give life, life to the bud, and then the bud will grow up and
the bread will produce for the eater. Some people look at the
doctrine of Scripture, what our brother was talking about, the
sovereignty of God, the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Savior.
And they say, well, that's dry doctrine. I've heard that many
times, haven't you? Oh, dry doctrine. You will not
find dry attached to God's doctrine. You will find it moist and wet
and damp and rainy. That is God's doctrine. It brings
forth life. So what do we have? Above heaven,
above earth, and down here on earth we have water. Affirmament
above and affirmament below. What is it? It is on the earth
in the preaching of the gospel. And heaven is its source. What
we say we didn't come up with, it came down from heaven. There
is no new creature without the Word preached. There is no new
creature. And this is the second day. And
God says it's good. And it's evening and morning
from light to darkness. Or from darkness to light. Then
in verses 9 through 13, Mark is the third day. And a place
for man to stand and inhabit. The earth was made for man. I
know people like to say, well, Mother Earth, she ain't no mother. She belongs to us. It was made
to be inhabited, it says in Isaiah, it was made for man. It was made
to be lived upon. In fact, the word homo sapien
has its roots in the concept of a man walking on the earth
or looking upward. The word homo sapien has to do,
its roots have to do with looking upward. Looking upward. That's what he was made to do.
Made to walk on this earth and habit this earth and look upward.
The new man is on the earth to look upward to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our whole life is spent, as our brother said, in so many
words, looking to Christ. Looking to Him. That's what it
says in Hebrews chapter 12, doesn't it? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured
the cross in spite of the shame, and is now set down on the right
hand of the Father. Colossians 3 sets your affection on things
above and not on things that are on this earth. Where Christ
is at the right hand of the Father, we are dead and our life is hid
with Christ. And when He is up here, we shall
appear also with Him in glory. The believer walks by faith and
not by sight. What does that mean? He's looking
up. Walking by sight is looking horizontal. And listen, I'm telling
you, it's a painful thing to look horizontal. I'm liable to
come into your view. And what a sad day that would
be. There's nothing here that will last. Only that which is
in glory and eternal will last. Also on this day, the provision
for this new life begins. Grass and herbs are given. starting
to grow on the earth, seed after its kind. And these are typical
and metaphoric terms that are used throughout the Scripture
to represent first man's mortality and his weakness and his frailty.
He told the prophet, cry, and he said, what shall I cry? All
flesh is what? Grass. Like a flower of a field,
the Holy Spirit blows on it and it's melted into nothing. Dries
up and blows away. But remember also, The perfect
man is described in that manner. He grows up like a tender herb. Our Lord. Our Lord. It speaks of after His kind.
Not His kind. Not its kind. It says His kind.
After His kind. That picture is the imputation
of Adam's sin and Christ's righteousness. And also that fruit produced
by according to connection to the vine in John 15. and the
evening and the morning were the third day. In verses 14 through
19, on the fourth day, God put illumination into heavens, the
sun, the moon and the stars. We know the sun represents Christ.
The sun represents God. We are not Baal worshippers.
Christ said He is the sun of righteousness, arising with healing
in His wings. It also says in Isaiah, God is
a sun. The sun. Those are metaphorical
terms. We know the moon is the church.
She receives her light but can make no light of her own. All
she gets is the light from the sun. Stars and luminaries that
even in the darkness, looking through a glass darkness, the
new man is never without light from heaven. Men are gone like
Abel. They are dead and yet they speak.
And how they speak, right through this book. right through this
book. And the evening and the morning
were the fourth day. And in verses 20 through 25, God made every
typical beast that would be useful to the new man. After the fall,
man would consume many kinds of beasts, but the new man lives
on every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And
what is the gospel called? It's the feast of fat things. the fatted calf, the grapes of
Eskol, the wine on the lees well refined. The new man is given
dominion over the beasts of the field and over the earth that
God has made. And what does Christ say? What
does the church say? Worthy is the Lamb that was slain,
that has redeemed us by His blood out of every kindred, nation,
tongue, and people, and has made us kings and priests unto God. I'm talking to a mess of kings
and priests. You kings of Almonte. That's
what you are. Priests of God. God has made
you so. He has given you dominion. The
new creature has dominion. We shall reign with Him forever.
Then after God has graciously prepared all things for His creature,
He makes the creature. It's all prepared now. for the
creature to be made out of the dust of the earth, a new creature,
like one that never existed before, made after the image of Him that
created him, a new kind of creature. God says, let us make man in
our image. Christ says, let us make a new man in My image. The new man is a spiritual man.
He is conformed to the image of Christ who is the image of
the invisible God. The new man, however, cannot
be seen. Sad, isn't it? But not so. Because if we could see it, we
would glory in it. The new man is invisible. The making of a natural woman
from the rib of natural Adam is revealed in chapter 3. But
that's not what it talks about here first. In the new creation,
man and woman created alike and in the same manner. Because in
the new creation, in Christ, there is neither male nor female.
And so it says in chapter 1, male and female made He them. Now what went on in that natural
process is explained in chapter 3. or the latter part of chapter
2 and 3. And Christ is neither male nor
female, but all are one in Him. And God gave the new man everything
that He prepared for him and then told him about it. He told
him, He said, I prepared it for you. I prepared it for you. And
then He said on this sixth day, everything was very good. In
the evening and morning was the sixth day. Then our Lord, it
says in chapter 2, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished,
and all the host in them. And on the seventh day God ended
his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day
from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh
day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from
all his work which he had created, which God created and made. So
the work is finished. It's a finished work. This new
creation. And after it's done, there's
rest. That's what the Sabbath means.
It's Shabbat. It means rest. Christ is our
rest. He is our Sabbath. And when He
had created us anew, He entered into His rest and sat down on
the right hand of the Father. Why? Because the work was finished.
Nothing left to do. Nothing left to do. And we come
to this question. What's different about the seventh
day than the first six? Did you see it? There's no mention of evening
and morning. No mention. It's a day. But no
mention of evening and morning. It's just day. There's no marking of time because
the new man is an eternal being. There is no setting or dawning
of the sun because Christ is the new creature's light. And
He is the light in Christ. He is in heavenly places in Christ. He has entered into rest and
rests eternally in Christ because His work of the new creation
is finished. And there in that eternal state of joy and glory,
there is neither distinction nor necessity nor existing of
an evening and a morning. It's just not necessary any longer. It says in Revelation 22, And He showed me a pure river of
water, water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the
throne of God and of the Lamb, and in the midst of the street
of it, and in either side of the river there were trees of life,
which bear twelve manner of fruits, and yielded a fruit every month.
And the leaves of the trees were the healing of the nations. And
there shall be no more curse but the throne, and the Lamb
of God shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him, and
they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads.
And there shall be no night there. And they shall need no candle,
neither light of the sun, for God giveth them light. And they
shall reign forever and ever. That's what the creation is about.
God bless you.