Turn with me in your Bibles,
please, to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. This morning
we talked about the last message of the Bible. He showed me a
throne of God and of the Lamb. A clear, crystal, pure river. And it was all about our Lord
Jesus Christ. And if you're thirsty, that's
where you go to get a drink. and drink you may freely do this
evening we're going to talk about the first message the first gospel
message in God's Word and you find it in Genesis chapter 1
verses 1 and 2 It says, 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. Our Lord
said of Himself, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
end, the first and the last, and He's everything in between.
All we need to know and all we want to know as believers is
our Lord Jesus Christ. Why would we want to know anything
else? but him when it comes to spiritual things he is the one
you see he said of himself in the volume of the book it is
written of me in the whole volume Jesus Christ is not the central
theme of scripture he's the only theme of scripture wherever you
go wherever passage you're in you'll find the Lord Jesus Christ
He is there. He is in prophecy. He's in the
Psalms. He's in the history, history
books. He is everywhere throughout the
Bible. He's all through the New Testament. You see, God makes much about
His Son, doesn't He? He's well pleased with Him. He
loves Him. He is satisfied with everything
he did, and so he makes much about his son. We who have sons,
we kind of do the same things, don't we? We make much about
our sons. we provide for them we watch
over them and then when they do those things that we have
taught them to do how pleasing how satisfying that is to us
our God greater than that loves his son and the whole volume
of the book is written about Jesus Christ and here we have
two verses that give us the gospel Let's look at it and see. First
of all, it says, in the beginning, God. I don't care what beginning
you think about. In the beginning, there's God.
go all the way back to the foundations of the world in the beginning
was God in the beginning we read from John chapter 1 Jesus Christ
was the word Jesus Christ himself in the beginning was God the
word God here is an interesting word to some degree because it
says in the Hebrew language it's Elohim that's plural That's plural. In the beginning was the Trinity. In the beginning was God the
Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, all the way back
in the beginning. There is a group of people, a
so-called church, that says that Jesus Christ was a created being
just like the devil, just like Satan, Lucifer. Oh, he was not
a created being. He's eternal. He's God. He always has been. Always will
be. He's the one with whom we have
to do because no man has seen God at any time. There's only
one way as we read in John chapter 1. There's only one way to see
God and that's through the body of Jesus Christ. And thank the
Lord that when He was resurrected, He went to His throne with that
body and when we get to glory, We're going to see God in the
form, in the body of Jesus Christ himself. What a blessing that'll
be. We'll be able to see God. We'll
be able to see God. Elohim. Now, the last part of
that him, or I am, as it may be, we talk about cherubs. But when we want plural, we say
cherubim. We talk about Seraph. But when
we want to say plural, we say Seraphim. When we talk about
God, and we want to talk about the Trinity, we talk about Elohim. And that's His name here. In
the beginning, God. I want you to turn with me to
a few verses. We're going to be looking at
a few verses tonight. So let's start in Isaiah chapter 45. And while you're turning there,
when you go to the verse 26 of chapter 1 of Genesis, you remember
the Lord said, let us make man in our image. The Trinity, God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, yet one as we'll see. Isaiah
45, in Isaiah chapter 45, go down to verse 5. The Lord is speaking and he says,
I am the Lord and there is none else. There is no God beside
me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. There's no God beside me. Go to chapter 46 verse 9. he says 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 from the beginning,
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying,
my counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. Now turn back to 43, Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43 and verse 10 Ye are my witnesses saith the
Lord and my servant servant whom I have chosen That ye may know
and believe me and understand that I am he before me. There was no God formed Neither
shall there be after me. I even I am the Lord and beside
me There is no Savior Only one God. Only one God, and there's
none like Him. None at all like him. Nebuchadnezzar
learned that, didn't he? He went crazy for seven years. Was out there in the fields eating
grass like the cows. His hair had grown long and had
feathered themselves up and looked like eagle's feathers. His fingernails
had grown long and looked like eagle's claws. Seven years he
was out there because he stood up one day at his palace And
looked over all his land and said, look what I have done.
Look what I have made. And God said, we'll show you
who made it. We'll show you who's done it.
And so, in Daniel chapter 4, when he regains his composure,
When he regains his consciousness, when he isn't crazy no more,
what does he talk about? Turn with me to Daniel chapter
4. We read it many, many times, but it's good for us to read
it again. In Daniel chapter 4, verse 34. And at the end of days I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned
unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised And I praise and honor him that
liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and
his kingdom from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. And none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest
thou? Why are you doing this? This
is the God we're talking about. From eternity, He's the one that
the writer of Hebrews said, He is the one with whom we have
to do. What do you do with God? What are you doing with God? Is He Lord and Savior? Is He the Son of the Living God? Is He the Christ? And what do
you do with Him? He is before all things and by
Him all things consist. Look at Colossians chapter 1.
Colossians chapter 1. In the beginning, God. Colossians chapter 1, verse 16. Speaking of Jesus Christ For
by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are
in earth Visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions
or power Principalities or powers all things were created by him
and for him and he is before all things and by him all things
consist It's all held together by our Lord Jesus Christ. One
of these days, He's going to let it go. And this earth will be destroyed
by fire, and then comes the new heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem,
and all those who have believed and trusted Jesus Christ will
be there with Him forever and ever. back to Genesis chapter
1 in the beginning God in the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth in the beginning God created it all and his word
all creation came into existence he spoke and it was done he is
the creator and we are the created we don't often remember that
Well, at least we don't often act that way. He's the creator. We are the created. We're that insignificant little
speck of dust on the balance that Isaiah talks about in Isaiah
chapter 40. When you think about the universe
and all the galaxies of the universe. I was talking with Pam and Brad
about this one time. I think there were some others
there talking with us. But when you think about all
that great vast universe and scientists tell us that it's
even spreading farther and farther out how they know I don't know
but they're telling us it's spreading even farther and farther out
and we live in this vast universe and the earth is just a As a
matter of fact, can't be seen from most places through the
universe. And then, I think you were there
when we were talking, Steve, and then we talked about, and
here's these little people, these little things, created things,
walking around on this earth, how insignificant are we in all
this. And yet, He was mindful of man. Made him a little lower than
the angels. Isn't that something? Oh the grace of our God that
would take such a little insignificant thing like us and make us his
sons and daughters. Why Job Went through trials,
you remember the trials that Job went through? Lost everything,
except a few servants. Had some friends come by, and
they tried to prove to him that all that happened to him was
because of something he had done, which is work salvation. And the Lord finally came to
Job and said, Job, were you there when I made this service? Were
you there when I laid the foundation of this world? Who is he that
darkeneth counsel? Job? I'm going to teach you something. In chapters 38 through 40, God
taught Job who he was. He was sovereign God. He was
the Creator. He is Elohim. He is God, Jehovah. Were you there when I created
all these things? Let me look at it a different
way. Yes, I was. I was in the mind and heart of
God. I was elected before the world was made. The Lamb was
slain before this world was made, before I ever came into existence.
Yes, I was. And that's what the Lord was
teaching Job in that. God created the heaven and the
earth. And then I want you to notice
that it says in verse 2, And the earth was without form, and
void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. I'm not going
to get into theological discussions about a gap theory between verses
1 and 2. I'm not going to try to say that
God created it just this way, although He could have. He can
do all His pleasure. He can do whatever He wants to
do. And there has been nothing wrong with that. But I am going
to say that the earth was without form and void and darkness was
upon the face of the deep. In the gospel we start with God.
That's where it begins. That's where it comes from. Our
sovereign God. And in the gospel when we start
with God we see us. And what do we see? Ruin. We see without form and void
and darkness. That's what we see. We see sin. We see ourselves as vile, wicked
sinners. And that's why Jesus Christ came
to restore us. Because Adam had fallen into
sin. He transgressed the law. He was disobedient. He deliberately
and rebelliously shook his fist in the face of God and said,
I'm going to go ahead and eat. My wife has already eaten. I'm
going to go and eat with her. There's some comparison there
of what the Lord Jesus Christ did. We were in sin. We, his bride, were in awful,
wicked sin. And he came to this earth, into
this wicked, wicked world. He came without sin. perfect,
sinless Son of God, but He took upon Himself our sin. He was made to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. And herein is the Gospel. Adam
deliberately sinned, as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all
be made alive. We're hopelessly ruined. We were
hopelessly without God. We were rebels in the face of
God. We deserve to have this without
form and void and darkness in our lives. But thank the Lord. In His covenant of grace, He
said, though the whole world is ruined, there's some I'm going
to make my own. and the only way I can do that
is that I'll send my son and he will take their sin and die
for them substitute himself for them he will shed his blood for
them that blood will cover their sin and when I see the blood
I'll pass over them what a blessing what a blessing Can you imagine
with me our Lord Jesus there at the cross? They had already abused him in the courtrooms. He had already received the 39
stripes of the cat of nine tails. He had already been buffeted
by the soldiers. He had been mocked by them. They
plaited the crown of thorns and drove it down upon his head and
in his bleeding form they made him carry his cross toward Calvary. On the way somebody else helped
but when they got to the place of the skull They laid that cross
down, they laid our Lord down and they drove nails through
his hands and through his feet. Has anyone seen the sorrow like
my sorrow? There they stood him up, hung
him up to be seen of all men naked before all. And Jesus Christ
did that for one reason. He was made to be sin for us. He took that ruin. He took that
without form and void. He took that darkness. As a matter
of fact, He spent three hours in darkness when God turned the
lights off. And our Savior hung in the darkness. And from that darkness He cries
out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? And when God
had finally finished all His fury and all His wrath upon sin,
who was His Son at that time, He turned the lights back on.
And Jesus Christ said, It's done. All the prophecies are fulfilled. All the sin of my people has
been judged. They deserve death. I took it. They deserve hell. I took it. I went through those things and
by the way when you think about it Paul said we were crucified
with Christ nevertheless we live you see we were made to be that
sin and that ruin with Christ on the cross we were judged worthy
of death and did die with Jesus Christ on the cross we died the death that Jesus
died nevertheless three days later he's alive and nevertheless
we live isn't that the gospel the earth was without form and
void ruined and empty and didn't he empty himself for you and
me The Bible says all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. The soul that sinneth, it
shall die. The wages of sin is death. But I like the next phrase, but
the gift of God is eternal life. through Jesus Christ our Lord. There was darkness. Ungodly souls
live in darkness. They're without the light. The
natural man receiveth not the things of God. They're foolishness
to them. He doesn't understand them. Job
was asked, who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? These people, those in darkness
are the children of the night the Bible speaks of. And they speak of these dark things, the darkest
hour of history I told us about when men crucified the Lord in
three hours of darkness, he was forsaken by God. Dark counsels. Why they say God
loves everybody. What about Cain? Esau? What about Pharaoh? What about all those souls who
have never believed and died and gone to hell? Does God love
everybody? No, He loves His own. He loves
His sheep. That's who He loves. He doesn't
love the goats. He loves his world, his people. He didn't even pray for the world.
I pray not for the world, John 17. They say, well Christ died for
all men. We can take this boyness, this
without form, this darkness and we can mix it up and we can make
it look good. Christ died for all men. Well,
he gave his life for the sheep. He said, Father, I lay down my
life for the sheep. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will no wise cast
out. Oh, let's don't darken this up.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel is that He took our place. It's the gospel of substitution. He took our place. And then it
says in verse 2 of Genesis 1, And the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters. The word moved means brooded. Whenever I think of the word
brood, I think of hens and chicks. And what do hens do when the
storm comes along? They get those chicks in. They protect those
chicks. And they get their brood together.
The Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the waters. The Spirit
of God was brooding upon those that are God's chosen. And the Spirit of God was bringing
them in because of this ruin and because of this emptiness
and because of this darkness. The Spirit of God is moving them
in. And He's still doing it today. He's still affectionately calling
God's sheep. He's the one who called me through
the Word of God. He's the one who called you through
the Word of God. You see, He does the convincing.
He came into the world to reprove the world of sin, righteousness,
and of judgment. Of sin because I... Well, let's
read it here. In John chapter 16. John chapter 16. John 16, when He has come, verse
8, John 16, when He, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter has come,
He will improve the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. Of sin, because they believe
not on Me. Of righteousness, because I go
to My Father and you see Me no more. Of judgment, because the
Prince of this world is judged. He does the convincing. The word
reproof here means convince. He does the convincing. God does
the convincing. I can't do it. You can't do it. Soul winners can't do it. Only
God can. Only God can do the convincing.
And not only does He do the convincing, but He does the work. Brother
Steve read from Romans chapter 8 on Sunday night. God does the work. The Spirit
of God does the work. You don't do the work. I don't
do the work. And if we worked ourselves into
the congregation of God, it wouldn't be worth anything. Because it's not of works, lest
any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. It is God that worketh in you,
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. What happened
when the Spirit of God moved? Creation. Six days of creation
when the Spirit of God moved. Six days is the number of man,
isn't it? The God-man, Jesus Christ, still is creating. It's called a new nature, a new
creation. We are a new creation, created
in Christ Jesus. And then on the seventh day,
He rested. That's the gospel. We rest in
Him. That's where our rest is. We toil and labor in this life
to make money to subsidize ourselves. The Lord allows us strength enough
to do so. The Lord gives us strength enough
to do so. But when it comes to spiritual
things, God expects us to rest. Just trust. Just trust. Trusting Him. That's all we can
do. resting in Him. He's resting
at the throne that we talked about this morning. Our Lord
has done all that was necessary for us at the cross. And He has
done it for a peculiar people, a chosen people, a redeemed people,
a regenerated people, and a people whom He loved. He sat down at the right hand
of his father and he now intercedes and mediates for you and me. And he calls us to rest. Come
unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden. I will give
you rest. Isn't that the gospel story?
Right there in Genesis verses 1 and 2. Oh, I'm so glad that
you could find the Gospel everywhere throughout Scripture, because
it's Jesus Christ. It's all about Him. Heavenly
Father, we thank you tonight for what you have done for us,
teaching us again, anew and afresh, the Gospel. And tonight, May
that be a comfort, a strength. May it give us peace. And may
we just be still and know that you are God. Thank you, Lord, that you are
our creator, but also that you've created a new creation, a new
nature within us. We give you praise and honor
and glory because it is due your name, that name, which is above
every name. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 125 in your hymnal. 125, I think it's Jesus paid
it all. Let's stand and let's sing it
together.