All right, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1,
we'll be looking at verses 1 through 5 this morning. The title of the message is,
The Great Darkness and the Great Light. The Great Darkness and
the Great Light. Now, in these first four verses
of our Bible, We are given the very first act of God in time, which was the creation of heaven
and earth. Now, the creation of the world
was in the beginning, not the beginning of God. This was not
the beginning of God. God had always been. God always was. Before He began to create, there
was God. Happy. God was always perfectly
happy in Himself, in the glories of His own person. He Himself
dwelt alone. and was content in need of nothing. And yet here we see that God
Himself from eternity created time. God was not beginning here. This
was just His first revelation, His first action by which He
would reveal Himself. And He created. God alone existed. And yet now in His power, He
reveals to us the greatness of His power in the beginning God
created. You know, man has created nothing.
We make a lot of things, but we don't create anything. In
fact, you guys build engines. But I'll tell you, you don't
create them. You take parts that are already
in existence and you put them together, you create nothing
that wasn't already there before. God created all things. He created heaven. For the purpose
God created heaven was that His holy angels should worship Him
there. And God made the earth so that
man should inhabit it. But yet, something happens here
in verse 2. Something strange. Something
mysterious. Something we are given very little
understanding concerning this thing. But in verse 2 it says,
"...and the earth was without form and void, and
darkness was upon the face of the deep." We know that God is perfect and
that all God creates is good. Heaven was good. We read nothing
about the corruption of heaven. We read nothing about His throne
where He sits and dwells. We read nothing of its corruption.
But we read that the earth, the earth was without form. It was chaotic. It was empty. In other words, there was nothing
inhabiting the earth. It was empty of any inhabitation. And there was darkness that covered
even the very core of the earth. From everything was covered in
darkness. This may be the time that Satan
fell from heaven. where we're not given this specifically.
But we know that all things God makes is good and perfect. And yet here we have a world
that is chaotic and out of order. And we know this, that in that
time somewhere before the creation of man, we know that Satan fell
from heaven. And yet this, all this, was not
outside of the will of God. This was all part of His divine
purpose. There is nothing that God does
outside of His own will. God does all things after the
counsel, not of you, not of me. God does all things after the
counsel of His own will. I'll tell you, I need counsel
on a lot of things. I don't know very much. God needs counsel
from nobody but Himself. God took counsel with no one
to create. He did it because He would. And He did it for His own glory.
I believe there are Four times in Ephesians chapter 1 where
we read that it was according for the praise of the glory of
His grace. We read that four times in that
first chapter. That He chose us according for
the praise of the glory of His grace. He chose us according
to His own sovereign will for His own glory. He sent Christ. to redeem us
for His own glory. He sent the Holy Spirit to reveal
Himself for His own glory. And He keeps us and saves us
and brings us to Himself for His own glory. Now, in case you
missed it, God does all things for His own glory. All things. And this is no accident. The
will of God. Why? Why would God begin creation
in such a way? Well, God purposed the void,
emptiness, and darkness of this earth, we know, for His own glory.
Why? How will He manifest His glory?
By filling it with all that's beautiful and holy. That's how
God manifests His glory. By taking something that is rotten and creating something that's
beautiful. To put order to chaos, light to darkness, formlessness,
with foundation. That's what God does. Therefore,
to set chaos in order, God the Holy Spirit moved on the face
of the deep. The waters of the deep were full
of darkness and uninhabitable. And yet God purposed that He
would create man in His own image. And man could not inhabit such
a world. He could not inhabit such a place. So God the Holy Spirit moved
on the waters and light was revealed by God out of darkness. And God said, let there be light. And guess what? There was light. There was light. Is that a surprise? Is that a surprise? No. God who said, let there be light,
there was light and the darkness had no choice but to flee because
God divided the light and the darkness. This does not have reference
to the sun or the moon. Those were not created until
the fourth day. What is it talking about? What light? God said, let there
be light, and there was light, but what's the light? It's not
the sun, not the moon, not the stars. What is it? The light
is understanding. The light is the revelation of
God Himself in whom dwells no darkness at all. The light is wisdom. The light
is righteousness. The light is a person. The light
of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. He said that. He said, I am the light of the world. That light that shone at the
first day is the same light that shone in Jerusalem. The same
light was crucified. And now the light has risen into
heaven. He is Jesus Christ the light. So then, all God began to do
in creation, from His first actions in time, God shows us His purpose
of grace. He shows us His purpose of grace
to save His people from their sins. How? By the light. By the light. If you will, go
over with me to Isaiah chapter 41. Isaiah chapter 41, verse
4. The Scripture says, Who hath
wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning?
I the Lord, the first and the last, I am He. What did He do from the beginning?
Call the generations that were not. That's what He did. Look down in verse 26. Who hath declared from the beginning
that we may know, and before time that we may say, He is righteous,
yea, there is none that showeth, yea, there is none that declareth,
yea, there is none that heareth your words." Talking about the
false prophets. God created. He's the first. He declared the end. From the
beginning. Go to Isaiah 46. Isaiah 46, verse
9. Remember the former things of
old. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and
the earth was without form and void, and darkness covered the
face of the deep. And the Holy Spirit moved upon
the face of the waters, and God said, Let there be light. And
there was light. Remember. Remember the former
things of old. For I am God and there is none
else. I am God and there is none like me. Declaring the end at the beginning. Declaring the end when? From
the beginning. You see, God declares His salvation
here. This is about Christ. This is about His salvation.
First of all, the earth. Let us see this, that the earth
that was without form, void, and dark is a picture of man
by nature. Is a picture of all of us, void,
formless, and dark. This is who we are by nature. Our father Adam was our federal
head. That's a very important word,
federal head. It just simply means he was our
representative. He was the representative of
every human being, of every man, woman, boy and girl. He represented
us. People hate this. They say, well,
that's not fair. Doesn't matter what we think. God says he's a representative
man. And he did represent us. And you're a fool if you think
you could do better than Adam. Adam was a holy man. He was a
man created in the image of God. And he fell. And when he did, he represented
all of us and plunged us into spiritual death. You see, man is not born a moral
creature with good and evil intentions. No, he is dead in sins. And all he can do is sin. That's it. All man can do is sin. How great then is the death of our human depravity. How great is that darkness? When God says that we are with,
we are void. How empty is empty? How empty? And that's the first
thing I want us to see. The greatness of our void. This
is the experience of every one of us by nature. to try to fill
our hearts and satisfy our flesh. I'll tell you, there's no depths
to which a man would go, not go to satisfy his conscience. Man is empty and he's hollow
and he's always trying to fill his life with some kind of peace.
He's always trying to find that next best thing. That next greatest
adventure. If I could just have this, then
I'll be happy. For a while. And then you say,
if I could just have this. And then, If I can just have
this, and then if I could just have this, I'll be happy. You see, always filling, always
filling with a sin, pleasing the flesh, and never is the flesh
satisfied. The anthem of this world truly
is, I can't get no satisfaction. That's true. That man had never
said a truer thing in all of his life. The world will not satisfy you. It will not. And man still tries
to fill it. Listen to the words of the preacher.
Vanity of vanity. All is empty. There is nothing in this world
that can fill the void that is in your heart. Nothing. We all are going to the same
place, the grave. Every one of us are going to
the grave. Every one of us. You young people, I'm telling
you, time moves and it doesn't stop. And you won't realize it
until you're old. You can't recognize it now. I
didn't. Heard it a hundred million times.
Still, ignorant was I. I was so ignorant. Always waiting
for that next best thing. And when it came, I was always
looking to fill it with something else. And always heard this. Empty. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. All is vexation of the soul. You know the only thing then
that can fill that void is this. Absolute. Perfect. Righteous. The only way that a man could
be satisfied is to have peace with God. That's the only thing
that satisfies, that fills the void. Our nature is so dark and
empty of any good, of any righteousness. You know, I could take a vessel
And I could put a lid on it. But I tell you, there's still
something in there. There's still some atoms and
there's still molecules. There's air. There's whatever
is in there. There's things bouncing around
in there. I don't see them, but they're there. Man's not like that. Man's absolutely
devoid of any goodness. Little baby of Annie's, how precious
and sweet. That little baby is empty of
any goodness. That baby is unrighteous. That
baby is a sinner. That baby is dead in trespasses
and sins. Empty of anything to please God. Empty. Devoid of any righteousness. Man is also without form. The nature of man is like a blob
of mud. You ever try to nail mud to the
wall? Kind of a futile effort, isn't
it? Have you ever tried to witness to a lost man? Seems like a futile
effort, doesn't it? Why? Because they're without
form. There's no foundation they stand
on. There's no truth they believe
in. Their truth moves. And you can't pin them down with
anything. Same with us. That's our nature. Without form, it moves from one
doctrine to the next. It moved from one church to the
next. It's never satisfied with just the preaching of the gospel.
It's got to have something else. There's got to be a greater truth.
No, there's only truth. And everything else is a lie. That's not what a natural man
believes. He believes everybody has truth. Well, you have your
truth and I have my truth. But if our truths are opposed
to one another, one of us is lying. And that's the truth. That's
the truth. But you won't pin them down with
that. You wouldn't pin me down with it. When I was lost, I was
without form. I was a blob. I just kind of
went where everybody wanted me to go. I had no foundation, nothing
to stand on. Trying to convince other men
by our education and academic knowledge is foolishness. It's
foolishness. They have no foundation. And
until God, the Holy Spirit, comes and creates in us and lets us
see the foundation of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, we will know
no truth. He is the truth. Let God be true. Every man, including me, be a
liar. Christ is the truth. And we rest
on the foundation that God has laid. But the natural man is without
form. It's impossible for him to have
any understanding of the gospel. There is none righteous. No,
not one. There's none that understand
it. There's none that seeketh after God. They are all together
become unprofitable. So, who does that exclude? You? Me? That includes us all. That is our nature. That is our
nature. And number, and the next one,
number three, the great darkness. And darkness was upon the face
of the abyss. In other words, darkness was
all around, darkness was all within, and darkness was even
at the core of the earth. There was no light. No light. And when man is born into this
world, he has no light. Has no light. The darkness of our depravity. How blind is that blindness? Can you measure how blind the
natural man is? Can you measure the darkness
that can be felt? Men are born in darkness and
hate the light. The light. Jesus said, men love
darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. What does
light do? Well, light reveals. Have you
ever seen when you open up a cabinet and it's dark and there are cockroaches
in it? What happens? They run from the
light. And that's exactly what we are
by nature. We run like a cockroach from
the light. Hating it. Despising it. Man is so spiritually blind that
he can't see that he's dead. He thinks everything's alright. He thinks surely God's given
him just enough light so he can make his decision For Jesus. I've got just enough understanding
on my own. You know, with your help, Jesus,
and my little understanding, we can have it all. No. Dark. Dark with no light. How far is that? Why do men suppose? What do men
suppose to be the greatest of sinners? Let me prove this. Men are so twisted and so darkened
in their mind that they would think that someone like Adolf
Hitler would be the worst sinner. Or Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer,
these murderers, these pedophiles, these adulterers, these Horrible
men. That man that just killed those
children. People think, and they're saying
such horrible things about that man. He was evil. He was full
of darkness. They think them to be the greatest
sinners. They're wrong. You know who confessed
to be the greatest of sinners? The Apostle Paul. He said in 1 Timothy 1, verse
15, that he was the chief of sinners. What does that mean? He was the chief of sinners.
He said, of whom I am right now chief. You see, it's not those
who are openly rebellious against God who are the most defiled.
It is the most religious men who are the most defiled. You
see, we've got it backwards. Everybody's exalting religious
men. Oh, look at that religious man in his robes! Oh, how beautiful
was that service! Oh, look at the ceremony that
we had today, wasn't it? Isn't it great? I'm talking about the Pope. That
man is anti-Christ. Joel Osteen. Antichrist! And anyone else who preaches
free will works religion is Antichrist. They're the worst among us. But you won't convince man of
that. You won't convince this world
of that. The one who are self-righteous. Paul said, if anybody had anything
to boast about, I more. He said, I was born of the stock
of Israel, a Pharisee. You couldn't blame me for anything
that you saw in me. I dare you try to find one thing
that you saw in me as a Pharisee that you could blame me of. You
couldn't. But friends, the self-righteous
man is the worst of sinners. And yet man is so dark he can't
see that. He's so blind. Go on in our text, "...and the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." You see,
man, because he is empty of righteousness and full of sin, because man
by nature is without form and no foundation, because man's
heart is darkened and blind, He cannot see or know his need
of salvation unless the Holy Spirit move on him. Unless God does something for
you, unless God himself comes, you will die in your sin. Do you see how at the beginning
God shuts everybody up? Do you see how God shuts us up
to any hope of ourselves? At the beginning. Where's the hope? Where's the
salvation? It rests with God's own sovereignty. God who sees all things, sees
that man cannot save himself. That everything man does is wicked. Have you been convinced of this?
Have you seen that this is speaking about you? See, because I'm not talking about
the person next to you. I am talking about you, and I'm
talking about me. This is us. This is not the people
down the street. This is not the people on the
market. This is our nature! This is my nature! I'm convinced
of that. And the only way a man can be
convinced of it is if the Holy Spirit moves on him. Moves on
him. Has God revealed to you the greatness
of His perfections? God don't require your best.
He requires perfection. If you have no hope, then I'm going to give you a
message of hope. The Holy Spirit only moves on the dark Voidless
and formless man. If you've got anything, He's
not moved on you. If you've got nothing, you've
got hope. You've got hope. And what does God say upon this
worthless earth? He said, let there be light. God said. God said. This is the Word of God from
the beginning. God said, let there be life,
and who is the light? It is Christ. Go to John chapter
1. Go to John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word.
It's Christ. 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. In Him was life. And the life was the light of
man. In Him dwells all life. What is life but light? Jesus Christ is life. He is the full revelation of
God to all who sit in darkness. That's good news to me. That's good news. Because in
myself, But God said, God said, let there
be light. And friends, one day, God said
that to my heart. God said that and created in
me a new creation full of light. What is light? It's life. It's
being born again of the Spirit of God. Life is understanding
the wisdom of God. How that God can be just and
justify the ungodly. I know that now. I know that
not just by my head, but by experience. I have light. I have life. I
have Christ. Jesus Christ is the light and
by Him we see the full justice of God against the abyss of our
sins. However dark my sins were, that's how far the light had
to go. stricken, smitten, afflicted
God. He was wounded for our transgressions. His soul was crushed for our
iniquities. He himself was made sin for us
who knew no sin. How great was His darkness? His darkness was my darkness. But now, He's finished. And God says, let there be light.
Righteousness, holiness, perfection is in the light. It's in Christ. Believe on Christ! And God shall
give you the light of life. Understanding. Everyone that cometh to the light will be exposed. Good. I need that. As I tell you, I
really don't know how wicked I am yet. I don't know how far He had to
come to get me. But however far that was, He
did it. It's finished. God said, let
there be light. And Christ is my light. He dispels the darkness, the
voidness. He is my foundation. He's my
foundation by which I'm going to stand before a holy God and
be accepted. I'm going to be accepted. You know the word waters here?
I'll give you a description. urine. The Holy Spirit moved upon the
stench of my soul. And He saved me. You believe on Christ, you have
the same experience. And know this, God just didn't
say that. Today, in 2013, He said that
on the first day! He declared He would save us
on the first day. Was there any hope of Him not
saving us? Was there any hope that the light would not shine
out of darkness to reveal His precious Son? Nope. There was no chance. That's how sure my foundation
is. That's how sure your foundation
is if you're in Christ. Fall on it. Fall on it and be broken. Or it'll fall on you and crush
you to powder. Are you a child of light? Notice this, that God divided
the darkness from the light. I have two natures. I have the
one that I was born with. Dark, voidless, empty, pathetic,
stench-filled nature. I still got that. But I have a new nature that
reigns over the old. Are you a child of light? Then
let us walk as children of light." We should walk as children of
light, shouldn't we? Shouldn't we be an example of
what Christ has done for us? I was reading this morning about
four questions, and I can only remember one of them. It said, if God were to forgive
like you, how much would you be forgiven? If God loved like you, How much
would you be loved? God, help us. God, give us grace
to walk as He's made us to be. Children of light. May God, the precious Holy Spirit,
move on us and touch us with His grace. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.