Genesis chapter 1. The name Genesis
means generation, or how life is generated. Life on earth,
how it was generated. Matthew 1, which, by the way,
we may start looking at the Gospel of Matthew also. I thought of
that first verse in Matthew 1, the generation, the book of the
generation of Jesus Christ. That's the first words in the
Gospel of Matthew. How fitting. He's the beginning
of all things. We may start looking at that
in conjunction with Genesis. I don't know. Maybe Wednesday
night we will look at that first chapter. At any rate, verse 1
says, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And as John 1 says, In the beginning
was the Word. The Word was with God, the Word
was God. All things were created by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. Speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God. In the beginning, God. Now what I hope to do, I hope
we will do in this study of Genesis, is not so much only see our Creator, but see
our Redeemer too. Colossians 1 says, By him were
all things created, and for him, for his glory. To him give all
the prophets witness, beginning with Moses, the books of Moses,
Genesis, Exodus. In the volume of the book, it
is written of the Lord Jesus Christ, who Revelation 1 says,
who is, who was, and is to come. So, in the beginning, God. Now,
in those four short words are all the mysteries of life. In the beginning, God. My, my. This is how we know this
is God's Word. In four words, he can comprehend
it all. In four words. It all begins
there. Four short words. In the beginning,
God. It all began with him who has
no beginning. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. And now we're not going to prove
God or creation. That's not the purpose of this
study. God doesn't need proving. The
heavens declare his glory. The firmament showeth his handiwork.
Day unto day others speech. All these things clearly prove
His power, His Godhead, and all men and women are without excuse. We're just going to declare it.
And God doesn't prove Himself. He reveals Himself. In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth, all things. And the earth,
verse 2, was without form and void. Now some of the old writers
say, and I think a man named Charnock was an old English preacher,
did a study. And some of them say that the
word was is properly translated became. The word or the earth
became without form and void. Arthur Pink believes that something
happened between Genesis 1 and 2, that a large period of time
may have taken place. It's something to do with perhaps
Lucifer and his angels and the earth, and it became without
form and void. I don't know about that, but
at any rate, it's a good picture, this whole These verses, a few
verses, are a very good picture of regeneration. And that's what
we're going to look at. Regeneration. The new birth. And look at this, verse 3. And
so God said, that is verse 2, I'm sorry. The Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters and God said, let there be light. And there was light. In those
first three verses you have the Trinity, God the Father, God
the Spirit, and God the Word, God the Son who is light. These three bear record in heaven,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are
one. One God. Now since God the Father is Spirit,
God the Holy Ghost is Spirit, there is only one person in the
Godhead whom we will ever hear. Who is that? The only begotten
Son, he hath declared him. He is the Word. He spoke. God spoke to the fathers through
the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. And we see God in the person
of the Son. He hath declared him, the fullness
of the Godhead in a body. So he's the only one that we
will ever see, he's light, and he's the only one we will hear.
God spoke through his Son. Now all the mysteries of God,
creation, and salvation are seen in Jesus Christ. Scripture says,
in him dwelleth all the mysteries of wisdom and knowledge. All
the fullness of God dwelleth in him. God said, verse 3, let
there be light. Scripture says, in thy light
shall we see light. Only in light of Christ do we
see the truth. Creation and all things. Recreation. Alright, now look at this. We're
going to look at regeneration here. This is not just about
how God created everything, but God's Word is spirit. We need
to read between the lines and see this spiritual lesson here.
This is about regeneration as well as generation, about recreation
as well as creation. Just as creation is of the Lord,
God created all things, salvation is of the Lord. Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. The earth was without form and
void, or became without form and void. God created man in
his own image, but he fell, didn't he? He became without form and
void, without the image of God, void of the righteousness of
God, void of the wisdom of God, void. He became without form
and Look at Jeremiah chapter 4. Maybe you've never seen this
verse before. Maybe you've read it, like me,
but passed over it. Jeremiah 4, look at this. So man is born dead and trespasses
in sin without form and void. Jeremiah 4, and the prophet Jeremiah
is called the weeping prophet. He preached with tears and with
pain. Verse 19, he said, I'm pained.
My heart, I cannot hold my peace. He's grieving for the house of
Israel. Verse 22, he says, speaking of
God's people, his people, my people, my people is foolish.
They've not known me. They're sottish children. That
means God is their belly. They have no understanding. They
are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form and void, and
the heavens had no light. Jeremiah is talking about the
people. without form and void and the
earth. And there's a verse, where is
it that says, look to the earth. That's in Isaiah 29. They'll
look to the earth and all will be darkness and dimness and anguish. No lights. People that walked
in darkness. Here is condemnation, Scripture
says. Light has come into the world.
But men love darkness rather than light. So the earth, man's
born in sin, he's in the darkness of sin, he's dead, but the Spirit
of God moved on the face of the water. We won't have life, we
won't have life unless the Spirit moves. Why did the Spirit move? God sent Him. God sent the Holy
Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit. It is the
Spirit that quickeneth, our Lord said. We must be born of water
and of the Spirit. Listen to what our Lord said
in John 16 when He speaks of the Holy Spirit. He says, When
He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak of Himself.
Whatsoever He shall hear, that Shall he speak? He will show
you things to come. He shall glorify me." That's
what the Holy Spirit does. He takes the things of Christ.
He said, He'll glorify me. He'll receive of mine and show
it unto you. All things the Father hath are
mine. All things. All things created by Christ,
for Christ, for His glory, for His honor, the people given to
Him. And He says, He'll take the things of mine and show them
unto you. The Holy Spirit. As the Holy
Spirit moved upon the face of the water of the earth, He has
to move on these dark hearts of ours. God sends Him, and He
moves on these dark hearts of ours. And when He does, you'll
see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face. The Spirit of God moved on the
face of the waters and said, Let there be light. And there
was light. It's not a play of words. God
wrote it in the face of the waters. This is the water of His Word.
And if God opens your eyes on every page, you'll see a face. You'll see a face. You'll see
your own ugly face, but if He is gracious, you'll see behind
that a smiling face, a gracious face, a merciful face of the
Lord God in Christ. So God said, look at it, verse
3, let there be light. And there was light. There will
not be light until God says so. In the fullness of time, God
said, let there be light. And all the power is where? in
His Word. In His Word. God didn't move
with His hand, He just spoke with His mouth. God said, the
power of God is in His Word. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. And only when God says, let there
be light, will there be light. And when He says, let there be
light, there will be light. There will be no doubt. There
will be no doubt. You know, doubt is darkness in
it. Doubt is, you know, you have a shadow of a doubt. All right? When the Lord, in whom is no
variables nor shadow of turning. God is light and in Him is no
darkness at all. And when He reveals Himself to
you, there will be no doubt who He is. No doubt. Christ is. No doubt what you are. No doubt
where salvation is. No doubt. We don't know too many
things, but we know that. We know that. This is life eternal,
to know the true God and to know Christ who was sent. And in His
people, when He gives us light, there's no doubt. There's no
darkness. We walk in light even as He is
in light. And in Him is no darkness at
all. Let there be light. And there
was light. There was light. And, you know,
we speak to people all the time about the gospel, and we want
them to see, don't we? We want them to see. Can't you
see? Can't you see? No, not until God says, let there
be light. It was the same with us, wasn't
it? It was the same with every one
of us. And that's why he says, pray, ask, ask, because without
him, you can't do it. You can't do it. Our children
or whoever that may be, we have a great desire that they might
see Christ, but not until he says so in his time. Downstairs,
we've got five young ones. One of them I believe sees, but
the other four have not yet given evidence. And so what's our hope? The Lord will say. And He does
it through men. He does it through men. Oh Lord, be pleased to speak
through Gabe this morning. Be pleased to speak. Alright,
here are some things about light. and Mindy and Melanie and Vicki. Think through them. Here's some
things about light that show us Christ our light. Light, without
light you cannot see. You cannot see anything. A little
bit of light, just a little bit of light will enable you to see.
But if there's no light, you won't see anything. Sight depends
upon light. And I quoted that. Our Lord said,
wrote down, in thy light shall we see light. Unless we see Christ,
we will have no light. The wisdom of this world is foolishness. This world thinks they're enlightened. I remember in the 60s and 70s
generation, we thought we were the enlightened generation. No
generation could have been more in darkness. We thought we were
enlightened. Only as we see Christ shall we
see any light. The entrance of thy word giveth
light. Only in light of his word do
we see anything as it is. Ourself, God, salvation, anything. And here's what the scripture
says. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great
light. The Lord is my light and my salvation. You cannot see without light. And there's one source of light.
Noah's ark is a picture of Christ, isn't it? There was one window
in that ark. One window. One source of light. There was no light in that ark
without that window. It would have been pitch black.
Pitch black. One window. Christ is the light. Light to see things as they truly
are. You know, I remember back in
the seventies we had what's called a black light. Anybody have a
black light? You know, that's how foolish
we were. We thought, well, we see clearly
now, don't we? That just deformed everything,
didn't it? It just made everything just
hallucinate. Oh, how ignorant. If the light
is in the darkness, as Scripture says, how great is that darkness? The religion thinks it sees light.
If it's not the light of Christ, it's not light. It's not light
of Scripture, it's not light. It's black light. Everything's
warped. Everything's perverted. In the
light of God's Word, in the light of Christ, who is the Word made
flesh, we see God's glory. We see God's power. We see God's
beauty. We see God's person. We see a
person, that God is a person, not some abstract spirit. We see Him as a person. How do
we know that? God became a man. That's only how we'll know God.
We won't know God, we won't see God unless we see Him in the
face of Christ. We won't see ourselves for what
we really are. We'll have a warped view of ourselves,
but in light of Christ, in light of His Word, in light of His
beauty, His glory, His holiness, we see ourselves for what we
really are. You know, tell one another. They
comparing themselves with themselves are not wise. You look good.
Well, you look good too. Well, you're a fine man. Well,
you're a fine woman. And so forth. But we don't see
them. But only in God's Word. And when
God became a man, when God opens our eyes to see holiness personified,
what do we think about ourselves? Low thoughts. We'll see self. We'll see sin for what it really
is, against God. We'll see things as they really
are, only in light of God's Word. God's Word tells us, shows us
clearly that the things of this earth are temporal, and the things
that are not seen are eternal. We don't see that unless God
gives us that. And Christ came down here, and
He showed us that. As we said recently in a message
that Christ didn't have any possessions, He was happy. He didn't have
a family per se, a wife or children. He was never alone. So those things we pursue. He
that hath the Son hath life. He had life. In Him was life. True life. We see things as they really
are. We can't walk without light. You can't walk in darkness. You'll stumble. You'll fall in
a pit. Pits and snares. There are pits and snares and
traps. Scripture says, in vain is the
net set in the sight of the bird. God gives us wings. Sets us on
wings of eagles. We'll not fall for that trap.
God gives us eyes. We'll not fall in that pit. Where
do you get it, dear? Light is something that awakens
us. If I ever want to sleep any length
of time, I'll go down in the basement. We have a room down
there with no windows in it. And so I go down there and I
shut the door and put a towel under the door so that absolutely
no light can get in there. And I can sleep like a baby until
the cows come home, whatever that means. And somebody might
have to wake me up. Darkness. Let us not sleep as
do others. What will awaken us? The light. Wake up. Sunlight. You let just
a little light peep through, sunlight that is, and you'll
wake up, won't you? You'll wake up. Oh, my. My, my. He's called the Son of
Righteousness. Warmth. There is warmth in light,
isn't there? Warmth. Listen to this. Oh, I just quoted part of it. Malachi 4, listen to this. Unto
you that fear my name shall the Son of Righteousness arise with
healing in His wings. Warmth. Nighttime, you're cold
at night, aren't you? When you're in darkness, you
feel colder. A little sun. That's all it takes. It will
warm you. And there's healing. There's
healing in light. Light has healing. Sunlight,
that is. Not natural light. I mean, that
is, well, black light. Man's light. Fabricated light. Listen to this. Psalm 130. My soul waiteth for
the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. I say,
more than they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope
in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, with him is plenteous
redemption. All of our doubts and fears and
worries and trouble and guilt and sorrow and grief are all
worse at night, aren't they? In the dead of night, in the
darkness, lying on your bed, everything is worse, isn't it?
You think, when time goes by so much slower, doesn't it? It's
all worse at night in the darkness. But as soon as that sun comes
up, there's hope. There's hope. You can't be too
cast down when the sun comes up. I think of Psalm 42 where
David said, When shall I come before the Lord? He said, I thirst
for thee as a heart panteth after the water brooks. When shall
I come? He said, oh, I'm so downcast. And then the next verse he said,
yet the Lord shall command His loving kindness in the daytime. When the sun comes up, God will
say, let there be light, there's hope. There's hope. There's life in
sunlight. Life. There is no life without
light, is it? Without the Son. He that hath
the Son hath life. And as we say, sunlight is true
light. Not man-made light. If you want
to know the true color of a thing, don't put it under a lamp. Don't put it under a lamp. Take
it out in the light. You ladies ever picked out paint
for your house? I know you don't let your husband
do it. But you pick out paint. You go to that paint store. I've
been there. And in order to really find out
the color, you've got to go to the window, don't you? You've
got to go out and look at it in the natural, that is, God's
sunlight. It will show you its true colors. Silly woman wrote, somebody wrote
a silly song, True Colors. Let your true colors shine through. Men's true color is black. Black. And how you'll see that is in
the light, the true light, sunlight. You'll only see your true colors
in the light of Christ. You'll see His color like rain. All the beauty and glory of God
only in that person, not in yourself, not in anyone else. Light. God saw, verse 4, God saw the
light that it was good. Any doubt who this is speaking
of? God saw the light and said it was good. God looked upon
his Son, the light of the world, and he said, I'm well pleased. He's good. One time they said,
good master. Why callest thou me good? There
is none good but God. He is the good Master. He is
the good Shepherd. He is the good, the only one
that doeth good, that doeth righteousness. God saw the light and it says,
He said it was good and God divided the light from the darkness. God divided the light from the
darkness. God's Word is light and it divides
the light from the darkness. Just as Christ, the Word made
flesh. Listen to Hebrews 4. You know
these verses. The Word of God is quick and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. The joints of the
marrow, discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. God's
Word will divide, separate right from wrong, truth from error,
sheep from the goats. Christ is that Word who divides. He said, suppose ye that I am
come to send peace on the earth? Nay, rather, division. I have come to set a man at variance,
that is, divide him from his father, a woman from her mother,
and so forth. Now Christ unites His people,
but as far as sheep from the goat, He divides. He divides
the light. God divided the light from the
darkness. Verse 5, And God called the light
day, and the darkness He called night. And here's what the Scripture
said in Isaiah 8. Listen to this. I'm going to
have you turn, but I don't want to wear you. Isaiah 8 says this. They shall look unto the earth
and behold trouble and darkness, dimness and anguish. Shall they
be driven into darkness? But Isaiah 60 says the people
that walked in darkness have seen a great light. Rise and
shine, thy light is come. The day spring from on high. He's called the day spring, the
day star. Peter said, we have a sure word
of prophecy where until you do well to take heed, as unto a
light that shineth in a dark place, until the day star, the
day spring, arrives in your heart. Day. His people are even called
the children of the day. The world, the people in the
world are called those that sleep in the night, those that walk
in darkness, children of the night. And Satan himself is called
the prince of the power of the air, the rulers of the darkness
of this world. Well, thank God we're not in
darkness even as others, because God said, let there be light. And the evening and the morning
were the first that. Now, how long did it take God
to create the heaven and the earth and the things that are
in it. How long? Six billion years? Oh, no. Oh, no. Six days. Everything
you will notice as we go through this, the evening and the morning
were the first day. That's a 24-hour period. How
do we know that? How do we know that's so? God says so. That's it. Let the potsherds strive. And I thought about this, though,
in closing. If today is a day of salvation, it will dawn on
you. Christ will arise. And it won't
be a long-time thing. You and I have talked about this,
that when people finally hear the gospel, it's not by degrees.
No, not at all. It's like waking from the dead.
And you'll know. You'll know. They'll know. Let
there be light.