...this morning to the first
chapter of the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 1. Let me read those first five verses. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and
void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters. And 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 God called the light Day,
and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning
were the first day. Now, this is a literal and accurate
account or description of God's first day of work in the creation
of the world. Accurate account. If we believe God, then we have
no problem. with creation, how it came about. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. It didn't just happen. It just
did not evolve through some progressive means, but it was instantaneous. God created the heavens and the
earth. I don't want to speak to you
this morning concerning the first creation,
but I want to direct your attention to the second creation. If any man be in Christ, He's
a new creation. So there's a first creation,
and there's a second creation. Every person who is saved by
the grace of God is a new creation. Every single solitary person that knows God in Christ has been born of the Spirit of
God, has been born from above, and is a new creation. That's
what we want to talk about, new creation, new creature in Christ
Jesus. Notice here in these verses that I read unto
you, it gives us the state of the world at that time. It says that the world was without
form and void. Such is the state of the human
heart by nature. By nature, all of us are dead in trespasses and in
sins. By nature, that's the way we
are. And it come about because of the consequences of
the first Adam, who was our representative, who sinned against God and fell
from his high and lofty state. So the state of the world, the
Scripture say, is without form and void. And I think that the
first creation is typical of the second creation. The human
heart is without form and void. And it says darkness was upon
the face of the earth, and again Such is the state of the human
heart. Every human heart you think of,
this is a tremendous state. Every human heart, till God the
Holy Spirit visits that heart, as for spiritual things, In the
realm of the Spirit, the human heart is like the world was,
without form and void and darkness. It was upon the face of the deep. The human heart is in a state
of disorder. and chaos. That's the true picture
of you and I by nature. Prior to light, prior to being
visited by God, there's no thought whatsoever in the human heart
of faith or love or obedience or truth. None whatsoever. It's a place, spiritually that is, not naturally,
it's a place spiritually of a confused mass of dead sinfulness. That's our picture. He said,
and the earth was without form and void, that's the way we are,
and darkness was upon the face of the deep. It was utterly void, empty. And Paul confirms the emptiness
and the darkness and the confusion and the nothingness and the hopelessness
of the human heart when he said, that he had searched his own
heart. And he said, as a result of his search, a thorough search through and
through, he said, there is no good thing in the human heart. There's nothing good in the flesh. There is no light in the flesh.
Darkness dwells there. He said, literally, I know in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Dark, dark, dark is the whole
of humanity. Every single solitary member
of Adam's race by nature is in darkness. The whole world, whether
it be the scientists, the educators, the statesmen, the politicians,
those that have been reared and raised to be ungodly and unholy,
those that practice sin without any remorse, those that are full
of evil and wickedness, the educators and the scientists
and all depraved humankind. If you could take them one by
one, You could say there's no light in them. If you rolled
them all up together and made one out of the whole, there's
not a spark of spiritual light in any of them or in all of them
put together. That's the state and condition
of Adam's fallen race. Not a spark of light. not a flicker
of light, like the flicker of a candle, not a flicker of light
in their dark souls. And if there is a flicker of
light in them, it's because it came from above. If there's a flicker of light
in any of us, gathered here this morning. It's because it came
from above. It's because God said, let there
be light. If we have any light this morning,
it's the result of what God said, let there be light. We're like
unto this world. without form or void, empty,
utterly empty, and darkness prevails. If you can form a picture of
that state as to the world, then you can form a picture as to
the state of what you and I are by nature. Not a flicker of light
in us, and there'll be no light in us, until God visits us and
says to our souls, let there be light. That's how hopeless
and helpless humankind is. I want you to notice that the
first action in connection with the formation and shaping of
this world was this. It says that the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters. If the Spirit of God had not
moved upon the face of the waters, upon the face of the deep, they would be as He hath described them. darkness,
without shape or without form. But God moved. God, the Holy
Spirit, moved upon the face of the waters. And the secret work
of the Holy Spirit of God in our lives begins in the human
heart. Now, we cannot say for sure when
the Spirit moves and how the Spirit moves, but we can say
for sure that if there's ever any light in our souls, it's
because the Spirit of God moved upon our souls, just as the Spirit
of God moved here in connection with the shaping of the first
creation. If this is how it happened in
the first creation, this is the way it's going to happen in the
second creation. It's got to be of God. The Bible
says there in the third chapter of the book of Genesis, when
I said that the Holy Spirit begins in the human heart, I said we
can't say for sure how or when. And I base that upon the third
chapter of the book of John, where it says, "...the wind bloweth,
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof." The wind
blows, and you hear the sound of the wind, but cannot tell
whence it cometh, or you cannot tell The Spirit of God in moving on
our hearts is like that. Well, so is everyone that's born
to the Spirit, in the hearts, in the soul, in the minds of
the people of God. the chosen people of God, the
elect people of God. The Spirit works mysteriously
and silently, but He works effectually in the hearts of His chosen people. He mysteriously quickens the
dead heart, and He excites the emotions and the desires of that
dead heart. God said, Let there be light,
and there was light. Now, when we're saved, that's
how we're saved. We're saved because we have light,
because our emotions and our affections and our desires are
moved, and they're only moved by God. God looked upon the darkness
and determined that He would transform the shapeless chaos
of the world and make it into a fair and lovely world. That's what God determined. And
He said, Let there be light. and instantaneous, right now,
there was light. Light be. Light was. And that's the way it happened.
God's, it seems to me, that God's plan for sustaining animal life and for sustaining
vegetable life, rendered light necessary. Without light, vegetable
life and animal life cannot survive. Light is essential to life. There's very few operations,
and I tried to think of some and I thought of one. There's
very few operations which can be carried on in the world at
all without some degree of light. And I'm sure, I'm sure, absolutely
sure that no soul or no heart can be saved without spiritual
light. Now, I was trying to think of
some operations. in this world that could grow
and have vitality without light. And the only thing I could think
of was growing mushrooms. I don't know that you have to
have light to grow mushrooms. They grow them in a dark place. But that's the only operation
that I know of that you can say they didn't have light. Well,
light is essential, isn't it? What would we do without light?
Got to have light. If a man doesn't have light in
a spiritual sense, he cannot perceive he has lost the state
before God if he doesn't have light. That's the reason why
that there are so many multiplied millions of people living right
now at this time who do not have the slightest indication of who
they are. That is, they don't know that
they're sinners. They don't know that they're
lost before God. They have some indication that
They're not any worse than other people. They have that light,
that indication that they can conclude, well, I'm no worse
than others are. And what wrong I have done, and
they certainly use the word wrong rather than say sin, but they
say what wrong I have done certainly is not that of offensive, certainly
God somehow can take care of that and show mercy. He's a God
of mercy. But they don't understand what
sin is and who sin is against. This principle of sin is against
God Himself. And a man who has no light does
not know what his lost estate is, neither does he know the
exceeding sinfulness of sin. And the consequence of the sinfulness
of his sin is because he has no light. And he will never understand
or perceive his lost estate by nature until he has light. Light is necessary for life. He must have light, or light,
as to who he is, what his condition is, and the darkness in which
he lives. He's got to have that. And light
must come. And the preacher can't give light. And mother or father can't give
life. Educators can't give life. Ceremonies can't give life. We have multiplied millions of people
this morning in places that they meet to worship who think they
can be educated into life. You can't be educated into the
light of God. Because those who are trying
to educate you have no light. And they cannot convey light
when they have no light. And even if they had light, they
cannot convey that light. Only God can convey light. Multiplied millions of people
today believe, and their hope, the only hope they've got, is
that they've obeyed some form of doctrine, that they have lended themselves
to some ceremony, religious or otherwise. There's a whole community
of people who believe that their baptism saves them. that they
get light from baptism. Some believe that they get light
from observing certain ordinances of the church, like the Lord's
Supper. They partake of that. Well, just as educators cannot
convey light, baptism or the Lord's Supper or other religious
ceremonies cannot convey light. If they could convey light, then
there's no need of life and light. If they can do it, but they can't
do it, because the first creation is typical of the second creation. And God must visit our helpless
and hopeless souls and say to us, Let there be light. I cannot convey light. Light does not proceed from my
Word. I have prayed many and many a time. I have prayed for the conversion
of people, conversion of members of my own family. members of
your family, and some of you I have prayed for this morning,
that you be converted. Prayer in itself is nothing. Prayer is something in that it
connects us with God. But prayer alone in itself cannot
convey light. I can pray, I can pray till my
lips and throat is dry, that you might be converted. But unless God says, Let there
be light in his soul. Man will never be converted.
God's got to say it. You say you make it hard. I'm
not making it hard. I'm just telling you exactly
the way it is. Let me read something to you
here in the book of Thessalonians, chapter 1, I believe. Let me read this. 1 Thessalonians, chapter
1. Listen to what it says. It says, verse 3, Well, first he says, we give
thanks to God always for you all, that is, these brethren
and sisters of the Church of the Thessalonians. We thank God. We give thanks to God always
for you, making mention of you in all of our prayers, remembering
without seizing your work of faith and your labor of love
and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of
God and our Father. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God, your election of God, for our gospel came not
unto you in word only, Now, see, I say the ordinances of the church
can't convey light. Baptism has nothing to do with
light, or the Lord's Supper, or ceremonies, or works that
you perform in order to gain God's favor and attention. They
cannot convey light. The preacher cannot convey light. He cannot bring about light to
your dead soul. He can't do it. For our gospel
came not unto you in word. I've preached the biggest part
of my life in word, in word only. There must be God the Holy Spirit
accompanying that word. to make that Word effectual, not unto you in Word only. It just didn't. That is, you
could read about it. You can read the Bible. You can read the entire account of the four Gospels. You could read what John said,
Matthew said, Mark said, Luke said. You could read all of that
in word only. You could see pictures of the
wounds of the Lord Jesus Christ. You could see pictures of the
blood streaming down His shoulder and His back and His head and
the wound in His side. But unless that is accompanied
with the power of God, you will not have a spark of light, not
one spark of light. Well, listen, for our gospel
came not unto you in word only, but also in power. The Word has
got to be accompanied with the power of the Spirit before its
effectual. God's got to give you light to
find out who you are. No man will ever be saved until
he finds out that he's a sinner. Now, he can discover that by
the light. They are two Facts that cannot
be argued as to what the light dispenses. And the first thing
the light brings unto a dead man's soul is that he finds out who he is,
and secondly, he finds out that he can't save himself. And when he finds that out, he'll
start moving in the right direction. But he'll never be saved until
he finds out he's lost. When he finds out he's lost in
the first Adam and saved in the second Adam, progress is being
made. But he's got to find that out.
He's got to find that out. Got to do it no other way. One of the first operations of
the Spirit of God in a man's heart is to give light enough
to see he has lost the stage and to understand or perceive
that he cannot save himself, but he must look elsewhere in
order to be saved. Now, I ask you this question and direct it at myself as well. Have you light enough to look
to him, the Lord Jesus Christ, Have you light enough to look
to Him and to be saved? Leaving all your vain boasting
and all your hopes in yourself and having Him as your all and
in all. Have you that light that you
can look to Him and Him alone? to be saved, and renounce all
your efforts and your so-called good deeds,
renounce them all, cast them aside, and look to Him and to Him alone. I myself have come to this conclusion. I have no right to believe myself
to be a new creature in Christ Jesus at all unless I have received
light enough to know these two indisputable truths, that I am
lost in Adam and saved in the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you that
light? Have you that light? It's a divine
work. To have that light is the result
of a divine work. God must do that work. God must
turn the light on in our souls, or it'll never be turned on.
It doesn't make any difference if we go to church every service. Every service never misses service
all of our lives. If we believe that we can work
our way into that light, there's not a spark of light or light
in us. It's God. He's got to create
that light. Just as He looked upon this world
without form or without shape, and the darkness prevailed, He said, I'll change this awful
thing and make it a fireplace to live and to look. And He said,
let there be light. And all at once there was light. And there was blooms and flowers
and blossoms and loveliness everywhere. Light's got to come from Him.
It's a divine work, a work of God. And I've told you that I've
bowed my heart and I've bowed my soul and I've bowed my knees
before God many and many and many and many a time for the
conversion of a soul. And I said that prayer has power
because it connects us, it links us to God. But prayer in itself
has none. This light is a work of God and
God alone. Only God can bring about this
light. Our prayers can do nothing until
God says, let there be light. You can talk of free will if
you want to. And you can believe whatever
your creature ability can do, as far as I'm concerned. But
your free will and your natural creature ability can do nothing
for you but plunge you deeper and deeper into the recesses
of darkness. It's only as God says, let there
be light. Can we have any comfort and consolation? God must say it. We're shut up
to the sovereignty of God, aren't we? People don't like to believe
that God's sovereign on the throne, doing what He wants to do, when
He wants to do it, how He wants to do it, and to whom He wants
to do it to. Men don't believe that. That's
not fair. Everybody's got to have a chance.
This business of being a new creation in Christ Jesus is not
by chance. It's by the grace of God. And
it comes from God. And God alone must do it, or
it will never be done. Ah, listen. This divine work
is wrought by God himself. Now, God did not, there in the
beginning, sit in solemn silence and create the light, but he
spoke. He spoke. He wasn't there with
his head down. in the solemnity of silence and
create light. He didn't do that. He spoke and
said, Let there be light. And there was light. And He speaks through the Word
to us. If I preach my own light, In my own word, there'll be no
light that goes with it. I've got to preach Christ and
Him crucified. It's been said that one sermon
full of Christ is worth a hundred thousand sermons where He's left
out. Far better to preach one. Now
listen, you can take a dead corpse, and the undertaker does. I stayed
with an undertaker one time, and he insisted that I go down
into his basement and see where he works. I didn't
want to go. But he was good enough to furnish
me a place to sleep that night, and I felt obligated to him to
go down and at least look it over. And he showed me these
places. And the things that he used,
the straps that he used to hold the corpse up, and the table
and the hoses and all that, I had no interest whatsoever in it. But I drew this conclusion, that
he could wash that corpse as long as he wanted to, and he could make that corpse
clean. He could clean him all over,
his feet and his hands and his fingernails. Did you ever notice
a corpse as it lays in the funeral parlor is generally their hands
are manicured. There's no grease or dirt under
the fingernails because the undertaker takes care that the corpse be
clean for viewing. You can wash that corpse and
make that corpse clean. But you can't wash life into
the corpse. You can't wash life into it. It's a dead body, void of life. You cannot wash life into the
corpse. God must say to the corpse, We're
walking dead men, dead in trespasses and in sin. Oh, you can dress up a dead man
and put flowers on his chest, but you can't make that dead
corpse live. Only God can do that. Regeneration,
that's what I'm talking about. Regeneration is not of the will
of man. Let there be light, and there
was light. Regeneration is not of the will
of man, or of blood, or the will of the flesh, but by the power
and energy of the Holy Ghost of God. That's where it lies.
Now, if you desire to be saved this morning, if there's somebody
here, young or old, if you desire to be saved by the grace of God,
and you look to Him and to Him alone, That desire and that look
came from God, because He gave you light. It didn't come from
you. It came from God. You see, if
your soul—this morning, listen to me now—if your soul longs
after light, if your soul desires light, then I conclude it has some light
already. If you long to be saved, if you
long to have light, there's a possibility that you already have it. There's a possibility that you
already have it. If you desire to be saved by
the grace of God and you've renounced all efforts of your own and turned
your back on your efforts and your righteousness and deeds
of the law, if you've done all that and you desire to be saved
by Christ alone, it looks to me like you have light, because light comes. in order
that you might perceive that there's no hope in yourself.
If you'd renounce everything in yourself, pertaining to yourself
and about yourself, and desire to be saved by the nailed, scarred hands
of the Lord Jesus Christ, it looks to me like you already
have life. See, it's an instant thing. Now,
it didn't take God three days, four days, five days, or six
days to create the world. It didn't take Him that long. It was done just like this. God
said, Let there be light, and there was light. And the first
creation is typical of the second creation. And when you're saved, you're
saved in an instant. It's not going to take God 40
years to save you. If He gives you light, then you
know who you are. And if He gives you light, you'll
renounce what you are and renounce yourself and trust in Him and
Him alone. He says, I might say, if he says. If he
says this morning, to your soul, like thee, if he says that, if
you've had these inklings and desires and hopes to be saved
by the grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, it's because You have life over here in the book of 2 Corinthians chapter
5. Let me read this. Listen to this now. If our gospel
be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. They've got no life. God has bypassed them. They haven't got any light and
they're lost. If the gospel is hid, in whom
the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not, listen to this now, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Now, let me ask you this question.
Has God commanded the light to shine out of darkness? Has it
shined in your heart to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? Do you know who Christ is? Do you know what He accomplished? if you know who He is, if you
know that when He finished the work that the Father gave Him
to do, He accomplished redemption by His doing, by His suffering,
and by His dying, by His paying the debt that I hold as a sinner. and trust my soul to him, then
the light of the glory of God has shined in the face of Jesus
Christ into my heart. Oh, listen. If he says this morning to your
soul, let light be. No matter how dark The sinner's
mind is. He'll act instantaneous. He'll feel some emotions and affections
in his heart, and his heart will begin to melt. Has God set to motion your emotions
and affections? As your heart becomes sensitive
to Him, can you say in your very soul, He loved me and gave Himself
for me? If you can say that yourself
in your soul, He loved me. He loved me. and gave Himself
fully. It's because that the Light,
who God commanded the Light to shine out of darkness, has shined
into your hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God help you. God help me. I have Light, and
I have Life. because of the sovereign disposal
of God. And he's made me the recipient
of life and light. Without God doing that, I wouldn't have a spark of light
in my soul. So I praise him and thank him
this morning. that God gave me grace in Christ
before the world was. And in His time, He came in the
person of His Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, and He said unto
my soul, Let there be light. And the light shined into my
heart, and Jesus Christ became altogether lovely to me. And in my heart I was able to
say, He only is my rock and my salvation. He only. He is my all and all. Has God done that for you? If He hadn't done that for you,
there's not a spark of life and light in you. And you can't make
God do anything about it. We're in His hands. We're shut
up to God. That's all there are to it. Let's
stand. We'll be dismissed. Meet again
this evening. If it doesn't come six inches
of snow,