Well, my manuscript worked pretty
good the other night, so I brought another one. Paul told me, he said, I used
to watch you when in the pulpit. He said, you were always straightening
your nose. He said, I knew you were a carpenter,
and everything had to be just level and square. So he said,
do you still do that? I said, no, I can't see well
enough to see if it's out of level. I have two places that I want
you to mark in your Bibles this morning. If you have a marker,
stick one in Genesis 1, which John just read to you. And then
we'll get to the other one here in a little while in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. Genesis might seem an unlikely
place. to begin a Gospel message. But I assure you, it's not. It's
not. Preaching to His beloved disciples,
He'd already suffered that agonizing prayer in the garden and already
suffered the torment on the cross. He had already been laid in the
tomb and raised victorious from the sleep
of death. And our Lord was walking along
with some of His disciples, and they didn't know who He was.
He didn't reveal Himself to them yet, and they were disappointed.
He was probably talking back and forth like we do. Whine,
whine, whine. And our Lord said, O fools in
slow heart, to believe all that the Scriptures have said. Where did He begin? Beginning
at Moses. Isn't that where He started? At Moses. Isn't that something? He expounded unto them and all
the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Genesis means beginning. I know you can say it means life,
and you can say it means a lot of things, and it does. But simply
it means beginning. There was a beginning to creation. and what we see around us and
what we live in and the air we breathe. There was a beginning
to that and it's recorded here in Genesis chapter 1. But to
fully comprehend the beginning, we're later told that there was
a beginning before the beginning. Have you ever read that? There's
a beginning before the beginning. In Colossians 1, verses 16-18,
He tells us something of the wonder and the majesty and the
eternality and the deity and the glory of God our Savior. Paul often got caught up in that. I do sometimes. You can't help
but get swept into it like a flood. And he would just quit what he
was saying and just start talking about the glory of God. And here's what he says. He's
talking about God having made us meet to be partakers with
enlightened saints, partakers of our inheritance along with
enlightened saints. And that's what we're doing here
tonight. And God's made us meet to be able to do that. Everybody
can't do that. You can't do that until He makes
you meet, gives you the ability to do it, makes you willing,
makes you submissive, And then he goes on and he tells
us something about this majestic Savior. And here's what he says.
He said, for by Him, by Him were all things created that are in
heaven and that are on earth visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers. All, you can't even comprehend
it, can you? All things. were created by Him. But now
watch this. And for Him. For Him. Listen to this next verse. And
He is before all things. There's a beginning before the
beginning. By Him all things consist. That
is, they have their purpose and reason and continuance and preservation. In Him. In Him. And He, this One who is before
all things, is the Head of the Body. He is our Federal Head. who created all things. He's the head of the body of
the church who is the beginning. You see what I'm saying? There's
a beginning before the beginning. And Christ is the beginning.
He's the beginning. Who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things, all things, anything you can
think of, He has the preeminence. A fellow heard me preaching on
this, oh, it's been three or four years back, and he said, I don't think you're doing that
passage justice because you're not glorifying the Father. You're
not glorifying the Spirit. Well, listen to what it says
here. It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.
Isn't that something? John the Apostle began here to
give us, isn't that what they say, the gospel according to
John? Alright, where is John going
to begin this gospel? Is he going to go back to the
manger? No. In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made. In Him was life, and the
life was the life of men. Listen to this. Solomon rejoiced
in this. It's not a New Testament doctrine.
This thing's been around since the beginning. Solomon rejoiced
in this. In Proverbs 8, verse 22, he said,
"...the Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way." Talking
about our Lord. Now listen, "...before His works
of old." Now listen to this, "...before His works of old,
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever
the earth was." When there were no depths, I
was brought forth. When there was no fountains abounding
with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills,
was I brought forth. While as yet He had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the world, when He prepared the heavens, I was there. When He set a compass upon the
face of the deep, Let me skip a verse or two. Then
was I by him, as one brought up with him, and I was daily
his delight, rejoicing always before him. Now you're going
to have a hard time trying to comprehend this, but just rejoice
in it. Rejoicing in the habitable part
of the earth which had not been created yet. This was before
all that. He just told us that. And my
delights were with the sons of men." Do you know that back yonder
in eternity, God Almighty rejoiced with the
sons of men as He's seen them, as we are tonight, preaching
and hearing And nothing or nobody could change
or alter it one hour ago. And here it is being manifested. Who knows how long from here? There's a beginning before the
beginning, and He is the beginning. Oh, beloved. Before ever this
great universe was stretched out as a tent before God, that's
how Isaiah said it. And this tiny planet upon which
he sits was formed. Before ever the light was commanded
to shine out of darkness, before he put an environment in this
world which enables us to live. Whenever the seas were gathered
into their place, as he told Job, he gathered those waters
into one place and commanded the proud waves of those seas,
you can come here, but you can't come any further. Before it was clothed, this earth,
with grass and trees and man created to walk upon
it. God had an eternal purpose in
Christ. And God purposed in Him to save
a people for the glory of His name. And the triune God formed
an everlasting covenant of grace and struck hands. And everything
that God determined to do, He put into the hands of our Savior. Here it is. He describes it over
in Revelations chapter 5 as taking the sealed book. And John wept. Who could possibly be worthy
to take that book and open the seals? There was one found. The Lamb slain. Now this was
before the foundation of the world. There's a beginning before the
beginning. And Christ is the beginning. To this end, the Father appointed
Him as the one mediator between God and man. To this end, He
was appointed the King of Zion. It talks about that old song,
Set My King on My holy hill. To this end, He was appointed
as our great High Priest. To this end, He was made the
Prophet. Everything, let me say that again,
everything which God has determined to communicate
to men, He communicates through His Son. You're not going to learn anything
apart from Him. You can get religion. You can
get all religious and puffed up. Oh my, put degrees on the
wall, you can't communicate God apart from Christ. Apart from Him, there'd be no
reason for creation. Why would you create a world
that you knew was going to fall and you knew was going to burn?
It wouldn't make any sense, would it? Paul said, the earnest expectation
of creation waiteth. This is what's waiting on. This
is what it was formed for. Waiteth upon the manifestation
of the sons of God. There's a beginning before the
beginning, and Christ is the beginning. And you can go on in your theories
and speculations about creation and evolution and how this is
contrary to that and all the proven facts. I'm telling you
upon the foundation of this book, our Savior created this world. Well, how do you... I don't explain
it. I don't explain it. He just says I did it. But why would I want to neglect
what God said and listen to what some idiot, some fallen son of
Adam, pumped up in himself, has to say about creation? You want
to know something about God? Go to God's Word. Let Him be
true in every man of life. He's the beginning. Well, why
do you preachers always make such a big deal out of creation?
I'll tell you why. Because creation is the work
of the Redeemer. Christ is redeemed. Without Him
was not anything made that was made. So you mean creation has
something to do with redemption. That's exactly what I'm saying. There was a river, God said,
that went out of Eden to water His garden. Huge river. Flowed down into His garden.
Watered everything in the garden. The tree of life and the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil. Everything in the garden,
that river, it drank out of that river. That river is God's eternal
purpose of grace. That's what that river is. And
when it left the garden, it had four heads. And it went out,
and it flowed down, and it covered the whole earth. And everything
in God's creation was made to come and drink from that river.
Huh? Those of you who have the ability
to understand the message of the Spirit, you can rejoice in
that. I'll tell you everything in time and eternity. John saw
that river and he said, I know where it comes from. It flows
right out from under the throne of God. It's crystal clear. Crystal clear. He's the beginning before the
beginning. Are you with me so far? I'm not
trying to bore you with a lot of things. I just want you to
see this. I got so excited about my introduction, I thought I'd
just throw the message away. Creation, my friend, is about
redemption and the Redeemer. Now, there are seven things that
I want you to see in the first creation. which are in the same
exact order in the new creation. I'm talking about the spiritual
man. The first is that God is the
beginning of it. In the beginning, God. Any man who gives the testimony
of his experience of grace, he's going to start with God. He ain't
going to start with him, he's going to start with God. In the
beginning, God. Salvations of the Lord. He's
the author. He's the story. He's the fountainhead. None but the Lord could do such
a thing. None but the Lord had a purpose
to do such a thing. And none but the Lord could order
such a thing and preserve it for His glory. Any salvation that begins with
man is not the salvation of God. In II Timothy 1.9, Paul said,
God has saved you and called you. He called you with a holy
calling, not according to your works, but according to His own
purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. Isn't that so? There's nothing
in the salvation of God's elect that God's overlooked, left to
chance, or failed to make provision for. He looked at it and He said,
it's good. It's good. But what are you saying? I'm saying
God saves men on purpose. That's what I'm saying. Didn't
they learn that years ago? Taught it to me. God saves men on purpose. And
that purpose flows like that great river of God in Genesis
2. And in Ephesians 1, 11, and 12, He said, "...in whom also..."
He's talking about the gathering in of all things that's been
put into the stewardship of Christ. And He's gathering all these
things together to Him throughout time and eternity. He's gathering
them and finally that day comes. when all things are going to
be gathered into Him. This is abounding wisdom that
God gives to us, He said. And then He said, in whom also
we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated, according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory."
Now listen, who first took all things, put them in the hands
of Christ, in whom you also trusted when
you heard. In the beginning, God. Secondly,
I find the conditions of the first creation to be the same
as the second. Nothing to work with. Huh? Darkness. I don't have time this
morning, but I can take you to the New Testament and I can show
you all through there where he talks about that darkness. Those
who sat in darkness saw a great light. Don't walk like you Fathers of
Gentiles walked in the vanity of their minds. Darkness in them. Nothing there but darkness. Nothing
out there but chaos. And true saving faith understands
this of both creations. He said in Hebrews 11.3, through
faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word
of God so that the things which are seen were not made of the
things which do appear. There wasn't anything to work
with. God did this of Himself. Paul didn't even know how to
explain it. I don't know how to explain it, but Paul said
this in Acts chapter 17. He said, in Him. That's the only
way you can explain it. In Him we live and move and have
our behavior. Conditions are the same. God
doesn't take the things that He finds in a sinner and uses
them to create a Christian. One man, boy, he was gone. I think he was a Pentecostal.
Boy, he was wound up. He was gone and gone. And God
finds that spark in you. If there's just a spark in you,
He'll find it and fan it until it roars up in a blaze. Find a spark in you. Isaiah said something about,
he gave me beauty for ashes. You know what ashes means? We
eat it, but the fire went out. I know what ashes means. It means
the fire went out. There's none righteous. Preacher, you can't find anybody
righteous. I'm not one to rotate. God did. See, God looked down
from heaven, David said. Looked down on the sons of men,
see if there's any good, any righteous. None. None. Oh, I know some good folks. Yeah, they're good in your eyes. They're not good in His. They're
non-righteous, none that understand it, none that seeketh after God,
and none good. Destruction and misery is in
their ways. In their ways. That's why men
are not convicted. It's natural. Huh? Natural. And even the professed
righteousness that men have, Isaiah said, filthy rags, Oh, but listen to this, if any
man be in Christ, he's a new creature. He's a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. So then the condition is the
same. The source is the same. Thirdly,
I find in the first creation, that which is in the same order
in the second creation, the Spirit of God moving upon the face of
the world. He moves upon the place where
God intends to create. He moves. Where He don't move,
God don't create. That's why you hear these men
praying, asking God to give us His presence and give us His
Spirit. If He don't, I'm just reading
a book to you this morning. I know by experience, by the
Word of God, and by the example of the Genesis creation, that
where God intends to create, He sends first the Spirit of
God to move in the darkness and move in the chaos to prepare
that place to hear the Word of the Lord. He gently but irresistibly works
in the hearts of sinners, making them ready for that day of hearing. Peter said, we are elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, now listen, through the
sanctification of the Spirit, upon true obedience and the sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. There's not going to be any obedience
and there's not going to be any sprinkling apart from the sanctification
of the Spirit. I can't explain the work of the
Spirit except to say that where He moves, God creates, and where
He doesn't, God doesn't. Fourthly, I find the means of
the first creation to be the same as the second. God speaks. You reckon these scientists really
believe that there's a big void of darkness, chaos, ruin, all
this stuff, and out of that, everything you see around you
evolves? I can't even imagine such a thing.
I can't even imagine such a thing. But these men who say these things,
they believe that creation has been here forever. I find the means to be signed.
Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I've got a lot of
Scriptures that are clear on this point, but I want you to
see this one. in the light of what I'm saying to you here this
morning, the light of God's eternal purpose and will. 1 Corinthians
1, verse 21. Very familiar passage. For after that, in the wisdom
of God... Christ is our wisdom, isn't He?
After that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them, they believed. Isn't that something? Please God. Somebody told me
one day, said, you're trying to put God in a box. I'm not
trying to put God in a box. God said it Himself. Not my doctrines,
His. Paul said, God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation, he said to the Thessalonians,
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
When did He do that? From the beginning. whereunto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then James said this, every
good gift, every perfect gift comes down from above, comes
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variance, neither
shadow or turning. And of his own will begat he
us with the word of truth. Now he said, you be careful how
you hear. This is how God regenerated.
You be careful how you hear. And then I want you to see this.
I can't explain this, I just know it so. When God's ambassador
speaks to you, it is by the Apostle's own words as though God He did
beseech you by us. In Luke 10, 16, our Lord said,
who is Himself the Creator and the Beginning, He turned to those
disciples who did not yet fully understand His death and His
resurrection and all those things. But he said, I want you to go
out into these cities where I'm going to go there. I'll be there
in time, but you go on out there and you preach this gospel. You preach this gospel to them.
He that heareth you does what? Heareth me. Oh, you wonder why
preachers pace? You wonder why they've got a
knot in their stomach? That's why. That's why. A preacher, can you give me an
example of this? I could give you all kinds of
examples, but listen to this one over in Ezekiel 37. He took
his prophet out there, this big old valley, and he said, what
do you see out there? Bones. Can them bones live? Oh, Lord God, I don't know. What
do you tell them? Preach to them. Huh? You ever preach to the bones?
Boy, I do. Some of them every week. Dead,
dry bones. Well, what am I going to tell
them? Live. I ain't got no power to give
them life. You tell them to live. You're
speaking for me. I tell you, Liv, not much going
to happen, but if he tells you through me to live, life's going
to be there. I think you'll learn that. I wish I could. I want to. Then he said to the wind, breathe
on the sling. And they rose up a great army. How do you explain that rising? He carried to them in his preaching
the Word of God. Fifteen. I find that both the
spoken Word and the results of it are the same. God said, let
there be light. And there was light. There was
light. I read this to you a few moments
ago. John made this statement concerning our Savior, the Creator.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. He's the light. Where there's
no Christ, there is no light. Let me see if I can begin to
tie all this together with my second text over in 2 Corinthians
4. In 2 Corinthians 4 verse 3, Paul
said, if our gospel be hid, if you're here this morning and
you're not hearing what I'm saying, this is talking about you. If
what I'm saying seems to be nonsense or some man's superstitious ideas,
this is talking about you. It's hid to them that are lost. in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them that believe not." Now watch
this, "...lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should
shine unto them." Christ is the light. He's God
come into the flesh. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. He's all light. There's no darkness
in Him. If a man says, I know God, I
love God, I walk with God, but he walks in darkness, he's a
liar. There ain't no darkness in God. It's all light. Christ is the light. He's God
come into the flesh. And to know Him is to know God,
and to see Him with eyes of faith is eternal life. You pass from
death unto life. And being God, this man Jesus
of Nazareth manifested His salvation to chosen sinners in a way that's
consistent with His character. And that's that light. That's
that light. Forgiving sin by taking that
sin upon Himself and satisfying the justice of God, that God
may be just and justifier. clothing us in a robe of perfect
righteousness by His perfect, unbroken, loving, continual obedience
unto death, even the death of the cross. 2 Corinthians 4-5, we preach not
ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves are servants.
We're just servants. And boys, that's all we are. Now watch this. For God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, when that happened,
back in Genesis chapter 1, has shined in our hearts to give
the light and the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And oh, what a treasure it is. For we've got this treasure in
earthen vessels. But He even did that for His
glory. that the excellency of the power might be of Him, not
of us. When a new creation arises from
the chaos and darkness, nobody's going to say, look what Brother
Darwin did. No, they won't. They'll say,
look what God did with His heirloom. You reckon when Moses held out
that staff and that sea just split down the middle and rose
up. I don't know how deep that thing
was, but it must have towered above them when they crossed.
You reckon anybody said, whoa, look what Moses did? I bet you
not. They said, look what Moses' God
did. We got this in our earthen vessel,
but we have it there. to glow by Him. God said, let there be light,
and there was light. And then, sixthly, the effect
of that light is the same. A clear distinction between darkness
and light. Don't you find that? Boy, I used
to struggle, and I'd look, and I thought, man, there's so much
gray area here. I'd be like, what? The Lord turned
that light on. Oh, gray area left. Darkness
on this side, light on this side. Clear distinction. Clear distinction. And I don't know about you, but
I'm getting a little bit tired of hearing about gray areas.
You're either a believer or you're not. You're either alive or you're
dead. You're either born of God or you're not. You're either
righteous in Christ or you're not. You're either justified
freely by His grace or you're still trying to justify yourself
by your own works. There's no gray areas here. It's
light and darkness. A man was talking to me the other
day and he said, oh, Brother Darwin, he said, lots of people
believe a lot different than you do that are saved. I said,
they do? Oh, yeah. And I said, because
I thought we were all born of the same Spirit, given the same revelation of
Christ. I thought we was all one body,
one Spirit, called in one hope of our calling. I thought we
all had one Lord. One faith, one baptism, one God,
one Father. Always keep going, one, one,
one. He had enough of that gray hair
of his. There's a distinction. There's no reason for believers
to be butting heads. There's no reason for it. Ain't
nothing but pride, that's all that is. In that which God creates, there's
a clear distinction between light and darkness. And then here's
the last thing I want you to see. The end is the same. It's the same. God looks on His
work, not yours. He looks on His work. Some white
believers are being told today that His work is here in the
beginning and then the rest of it's your work. The maddest book I ever read. I was so shocked when I opened
it up and read it. I thought this apostle is mad. It was Apostle Paul when he wrote
the book of Galatians. He was angry. He was hot. And they knew it. He don't look on your words.
He looked on his words. He said believers are His workmanship
created unto good works which God before ordained that they
should walk in. Well, how do I know the difference
between my work and His work? You can't believe unless He enables
you. Now you're going to believe,
He'll believe for you. You're going to believe just as though He
didn't do anything. But you can't believe unless He enables you
to believe. And if He enables you to believe,
that's that good work He's talking about that He ordained, and you're
going to walk in it. You're going to love one another.
Why? Because He ordained it. That's
why. You're going to love one another.
If you're born of Him, He enables you to do what you can't do. He enables us to worship. We're
in here this morning and my heart's lifted up and I'm just, He is
so majestic. He's so wonderful. He's so exalted. He's so eternal. The vastness
of it just overwhelms me. I'm enabled to worship this morning. I don't need a whole band and
a bunch of drums and stuff to work it up. I find it in Him. I never could do that. Never
could. Until God created me. And then
I did it. And I did it as though He wasn't
in it at all. You don't walk in them. You repent. God don't repent for you. You
repent. But you ain't going to repent unless God enables you. The end is the same. Our Lord
said to the church at Thyatira, He that overcometh, now listen
to this, and keepeth My works. You ever read that before? Not
your works, His works. Unto the end, to Him I give power
over the nations. Now let me give you this, and
I'll quit. When God said in Genesis 2-2 that He rested from His work, did He not know that Satan would
beguile the woman? Did that sneak up and take God
by surprise? When He sat there and He looked
on His creation and He said, it's good. And then He rested. Didn't he know what was about
to happen in the garden? Didn't he know Satan was going
to beguile a woman and then the woman was going to come to her
husband and then he's going to feel like, if he don't do this,
I love my wife and I love God, what am I going to do? Didn't
God know what was going on? That would take him by surprise.
Did he not know Cain would violate the worship of God by sticking
carrots and cabbage on the altar instead of the lamb? Did he not know that in a few
short generations that every thought of the imagination of
men was going to be corrupt totally, continually, all the time? Did
he not know that? Did God not foresee the anarchy
of Babylon or the rebellion of Israel or the rejection of Christ
and the thousands and millions today who reject His gospel? Did God not see those things? Well, yes, he saw. Then how could
he rest? Because he took those things
and put them into the hands of our Lord, who first trusted in
Christ. Now, Paul said, you've heard
it. And you trust in Christ. That's
my prayer to God for you this morning. Trust in Him. Cling
to Him. Father, use this message for your own glory. I ask you
for Christ's sake. Amen.