If you wish to follow along,
turn back to Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter one. Before I read, let me say that
most of professing Christianity faces the scripture and reads
the scripture and attempts to understand the scripture with
the natural mind. Now we must understand it with
our minds But there is a mind that we have by nature that is
fallen and cannot, yea, will not bow to the clear, plain revelation
of God. And most of the time, we even
as believers, because we still have that old mind to contend
with, and it's easier to try to understand the scriptures
through a way that makes us feel comfortable with what we think
we know is real all around us. In other words, we try to make
it fit in everything we think. And there's a danger there. There's
a danger there. All right, let's begin. You can
follow along as I read. Genesis chapter one, I'll just
read the first five verses. In the beginning, God created
the heaven Singular. And the earth. Singular. Not the planets. The heaven and
the earth. And the earth was without form.
It does not say the earth became without form. It said it was
when he made it. This is all one statement. Now
you understand, I hope you understand later why I'm saying some of
these things. There's a lot of false ideas. Things that I've
even thought may be true, but after I begin to study this and
pray to God, show me what you say here. And help me not to
try to feed into it what I think. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and
void. That is when God created it. Isn't that what that's saying?
Any child reads that knows that's what that's saying. Darkness,
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. It does not say God created this
light. It does not say God created this
light. It said, let there be, let there
be where? On the earth, this light. I'm gonna get ahead of,
God is light. and in him is no darkness at
all. God said let there be light and
there was light. That's why you read differently
on the fourth day of when the universe, the rest of the universe,
or we should say the universe was created and all of the planets
and the stars and the sun and the moon It says in God made
those things. That's right, exactly. But the
first statement says, God said, let there be light. There was
light. Right here where he's talking
about, where that earth was. God saw the light, that it was
good. God divided the light from the
darkness. God called the light, capital
letter now, day. In the darkness, he called what?
Night. And the evening, and the morning. Now you know what that means.
The evening, and the morning, but there were not even any stars,
or sun, or moon. Think about it, don't try to
make all this fit. If you've ever read some of the commentaries,
they say these first few verses is where God created, actually,
the sun, the moon, the stars, all of the planets, all of this,
but there was such this fog that existed that the light could
not shine through, that on the fourth day, he said, or made
these lights, and they say that actually means when the light
began to come through. This says there was no firmament in this
first evening and morning. There was not this big fog, there
was nothing but what? An earth in the empty vacuum
of space, in total darkness, fully covered with water. And
God said, let there be light. And there was light. Is that
what it says? That's what it says. Now God
begins where all things begin, with himself. with himself. In the beginning, when was that?
It was right here. It was right here, not the beginning
of God, but the beginning of what? Space and Earth. Space and Earth, that's what
it means. In the beginning, God created,
created, and the scripture goes on to tell us he did this merely
by his voice. Not all of the now visible universe
was created here. What we see now, okay, what we
see out there, telescopes where you can see with your eyes, you
look up, you see all of those lights twinkling. Now, Joe, whether
that one light is actually a universe, or not a universe, but a galaxy,
and you think it's one star, it doesn't matter what it is,
okay? It doesn't matter what it was.
That was not created here. That was not created till the
fourth evening and morning. That's what this book says. You
say there was light without the sun? Oh, there is the light. And there was time even before
the planet began to circle the sun and rotate. Why? So that's not the natural
order. That is what God says happened.
This is the way God said I did it. Let us bow down to his word
and not worry about trying to make it all fit. This is the
problem with most so-called Christians, or many I should say, maybe not
most, but many so-called Christians in this day, they're trying to
make science and the Bible fit together. And it's error. You will always
find yourself disbelieving God when you try to make science,
man's science, and scripture fit. In this first beginning, there
was nothing but empty space and earth only. Covered, fully covered
with water. Go on and read it, that's what
it says. Now it is amazing though, isn't it amazing how some of
the so-called evolutionists say the earth began fully covered
with water. They are right about that. But it was not created
out of something exploding and this mass finally cooling down. This earth was created by God
in the beginning in empty space and hung there in absolute darkness. Why do I know that's so? Because
that's what God says. I believe him. Not before I believe
him and nothing else by his grace. Thank you, this is the beginning
of space and earth, no galaxies, no stars, no sun, no moon. Because he made those on the
fourth day. Isn't that amazing? As a matter
of fact, he even calls plants to be, to come into existence,
fully formed and mature and ready and able to sprout forth their
seeds before the first speck of daylight from the sun ever
shone on the face of the earth. How do I know that's the way
it was? Because God's word says so. Well, that is so archaic. I don't care what it is. I believe
God. And one day God will be vindicated
before all humanity. And he'll say, I told you this
plainly in my word. And you refused, you either refused
to believe what I said, or you tried to mix what I say with
what you say. God did this by his word, as
I said. In the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God, and the word was God. Everything
that was created was created by who? That word. Him. If it was created, he created
it. He created it. Colossians puts
it this way. It's what Paul says. Colossians
chapter one. You know the passage, but let
me read it. Colossians chapter one. Just
two verses. For by him, go back and look,
it's talking about Jesus Christ. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth. Whether you can see
it or you can't see it, visible or invisible, whether they be
thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, and this includes
even after the fall, Even after the fall, this still is true
about him. Thrones, dominions, principalities,
or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And he is before, that is in
front of, superior to all of the meanings of the word before.
Not just one meaning, all the meanings of the word before.
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist,
or that is they are held together. Then, God reveals the state of
that first sovereign fiat. The earth was created, and here's
what the Hebrew says, to lie waste. It doesn't say it became
waste. I used to think, and many teach
this, that there's a gap between verse one and verse two, and
that gap could have been eons of time. And they say because
the earth was made, or no, became void. That's not what it says.
Even here they say, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the
earth, and the earth was without, not became. Was, when it was
created, that's the whole phrase. You see? It is intellectual dishonesty. Because men are trapped, because
if you've got a gap between verse one and verse two, you could
have got a gap anywhere. If you got a gap between verse
one and two, who's to say there's not a gap between the first part
of verse two and the second part of verse two, Joe? But why do we do that? Because
we still are trying to give credence to somehow this earth's a whole
lot older than what this book declares. I will take God's word over carbon
dating anytime. Anytime as I could tell you this
when God did create he created everything mature The plants were mature ready
to but a spring forth with fruit seeds right and that what it
says Adam and Eve were told right away not not after 2030 and not
after you mature further right away have kids Does that know
what it says? So this earth was created mature
I don't know what all that means, but I know that's the way it
was. Because this book, this first chapter, second chapter
as well, bears it all out. Thus saith the Lord. If this
earth is just 6,000 years old, I don't give a flip. Because
that don't matter. Because nowhere does God tell
you, if thou believest that the earth is 6,000 years old, thou
shalt be saved. Now does it but it says you better
believe the light I'm saying I am declaring to
you that this first light is Jesus Christ himself It's Jesus Christ there and it's
not created light God is light eternal but the earth when it
was made was in this space and of absolute darkness. And the
light shone in when God said, let there be light. Bless God
there was light. And not even a star or a sun
existed. Thus saith the Lord. So the earth was created to lie
waste, desolate of surface features. You'll see that as it goes on.
Desolate of surface features. Not created then laid waste,
but created to lay waste. That's what it says. Somebody
said, but why'd he do it that way? Because he wanted to. And this was all literal. But
I'm telling you, it's also prophetic. Because God had already decreed
that man would fall into absolute, total darkness. and it would
take the spirit of God to flutter, brood over the face of that dark
water. Where nothing is habitable. Nothing
can be seen. The spirit of God will brood
upon that water and when God says let there be light, bless
God, there will be light. Jesus Christ was as a lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. God's letting us know right here,
this is the way I do things. This is the way I do things.
The waters were so deep that no foot could even walk there
on. Joe, it was the face of the what? Deep. I don't know how
deep that is, but Mason, it was deep. And it was dark. And in the beginning, there was
no light here. so deep that no foot could walk through. In other
words, without form and void, in darkness. Darkness was upon
the very face. Think of it. The face, because
that's what we think about. How do you, when you think of
someone, what do you generally think of? What their hand looked
like? Now, on occasion, you might find some weirdo that's got some
really big hand. Now, we think about someone, what do we think
about? Their face. We relate that face to who? Them. Right? That's what we look at, that's
what we think of. When I think of my wife, I think of her face.
And darkness is upon our faces by nature. We can't see. And it takes this, I love that
old Hebrew, the spirit of God to flutter like a bird. When
it's got little chicks in the nest, or even the eggs in the
nest, if you ever watch it, and that bird will get over that
and it'll start fluttering and fluffing itself out. Then once
it do, it settles down over top of that. And then is when God
says, let there be light. And thank God he's God. There
will be light. Christ created space and uninhabitable
planet in total darkness. That's what this says. And it
is really that simple. It's really that simple. No gaps,
no convulsions, no catastrophes. As I said, this is literal, but
it is still prophetic. God would honor his son even
at the first evening and morning. Because his son has preeminence
over how many things? A-L-L. A-L-L. All things. Created, Christ created
space. This uninhabitable planet in
total darkness, then God the Spirit moved on the top edge
of the waters. There is never any light in anything
other than God himself. Not true light. Somebody says,
where's that light at today? We can't see it by nature. The light shined in the darkness,
John said in John chapter one, right? The light shineth in the
darkness. It does. He's not talking about
the light of the sun, S-U-N. He's talking about the light
of the sun, S-O-N. And what happens, the darkness
does what? Comprehendeth it not. And I'm
just throwing this out there. Maybe that's the dark matter
they say we can't see. I don't know. I don't know. Huh? There's something
out there, even they admit, that's those who mock God. It's out there, but we can't
see it. Well, what about that? Isn't that amazing? No, again, I say, there is never
any light in anything other than God himself. And there's never
any light where darkness was until God says, let there be
light. Now, you know the passage, 2
Corinthians. Let's just read it, and look
at how the apostle Paul actually writes this, 2 Corinthians chapter
four. Therefore, 2 Corinthians chapter
four verse one, therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we
have received mercy, we faint not. Why, because it's easy to.
Remember, the Apostle Paul lived in a very enlightened age. Did
he not? There was a lot of knowledge
floating around. Philosophy was at a peak at this
time. Some of these, like Aristotle,
Plato, some of these men, very wise, knowledgeable men in the
things of men. but nobody knows the things of
God but the Spirit of God. Why? Because once Adam fell,
we were plunged into this total darkness to stay until God says
let there be light. That's why Paul said we faint
not. But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. Not walking
in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully. We're
not trying to make it all fit. We're not trying to introduce
it to the natural man so that the natural man can understand
it. He cannot understand by nature. Therefore, let's not try to make
it understandable. God's not telling us how he created
the world. He's telling us that he created
the world. He's not explaining how he did
it. He's telling us that he did it. Not handling the world of
God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth. What truth? This
book. At that time, it was Old Testament
scriptures. The truth, commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God, not in their
own sight. You see, we tell the truth because
it doesn't matter what men think about the truth. They just need
to hear the truth. Because if they never hear the truth, they
gonna know nothing but what? Lie. But if our gospel be hid,
and it is. But if our gospel be hid, what,
the gospel hid? That's what he says, isn't it?
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are what?
Lost, not reprobate, but lost. That included even the elect.
Because the elect were just as lost as the reprobate are lost. Not in those that are damned,
but just what? Lost. Why? Because when Adam
fell, we all became lost. We found ourselves then in that
we can see the light of the S-U-N, but we can't anymore see the
light of the S-O-N. Look, in whom the God of this
world, he's talking about Satan, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which, what? Are great theologians. No, just believe not. Believe
this book. You see, believe not, lest the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, there he's saying Christ is the light, is he not? Should
shine, should shine under them. But they're blinded to it in
the gospel message. But look, for we preach not ourselves,
but Jesus Christ the Lord. and ourselves, your servants,
for Jesus' sake, for, he said, I'm gonna give you an explanation
here, for God, who commanded the light not to exist, the light
has existed as long as God existed, as long as the S-O-N has existed,
and that's eternal. There never was a time when it
was not. God, who commanded the light to shine what? Out, the
light was there! He created this in total darkness. And when he said, let there be
light, There's light. He didn't command
the light to exist. God don't command himself to
exist, he just exists. He says I am. I am. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, now here's what it takes. That same
kind of act is what Paul's saying. To get rid of this blindness
we have to the gospel of Jesus Christ. For God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness hath shined not into, This is
what most of so-called Christianity, well, the light of the gospel's
got to come into you. No, it says to shine where? In. God's got to come there into
your dark heart first. And then begin to shine forth
in his glory for you ever to see his son's glory in his son's
face in the gospel. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light Here's real light, folks. Not that that that you
see out this window right here. No, sir, that is real light.
But that's not the light he's talking about here. To give light
of the knowledge of the glory of God, where? In the face. In the face of Jesus Christ. God's spirit was present on the
face of the deep, and he shone forth the light of Christ anywhere
and everywhere there was light. And Joe, I have no idea what
that glory was back then. If I say anything, after that,
it's nothing but human speculation, and that's it. That's it. Christ was this first light.
He's this first light. This first night light was not
exploding stellar gases. There is light from exploding
stellar gases, but that's not that first evening morning light. Why? Because the book says so.
The book says that there were no exploding stellar gases until
the evening morning of the fourth day. Whose word do we believe? Our thoughts about the matter
or God's word about the matter? God's word about the matter.
God's word does not explain, it declares. God's not explaining to us how
he did everything, he's declaring that he did everything. One wrote
this, and I've changed some of the its, so I want you to keep
up with what the it was. It must be remembered that theology
is not philosophy. Theology does not assume to discover
truth. or to reconcile what it teaches
with truth, as true with all other truths. Theology's purpose
is to simply state what God has revealed in his word and to vindicate
those statements as far as possible from misconceptions and objections. And that's a pretty good statement.
Charles Hodge wrote that. That's a pretty good statement. We've had that on our website
for years and years, and I never really got what he really meant
until just the past few weeks when I've been studying this.
And it dawned on me, I see what he's talking about now. Well,
see, what we try to do is take that chapter one and make it
all fit with everything else we think to be true. And we end up watering down God's
word. Isn't that amazing? The light. I'm talking about
original, intrinsic, separate, distinct light. The light, God
saw that it was good. We ain't talking about exploding
stellar gases. We're talking about a light that
God said was good. Good. This original, intrinsic,
separate, distinct, God saw it was good, and totally distinguished
the light from the darkness. Isn't that what we read in verse
four? Right? 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. I don't, I can't explain, it's
just a fact. But there's some things that
let us know. You ever heard the old phrase, well that's as different
as night and day. God gives us, even still today,
a little glimpse of what he meant by this, because we see at night,
what? Darkness. Darkness. And then during the evening,
or during the morning, what happens? this earth begins to turn, the
sun begins to shine all this light. And we see that there's
a distinction between that. We look up at the face of the
moon, and when it's in a certain place, there's part of it looks
like it's missing, right? There may be a half moon, a quarter
moon, not always a full moon. But here's the point, that's
not the light. That's not the light. The light
is the creator. The creator is our redeemer. Our redeemer is God's son. God's
son is God. God's son is God. And God named
these two distinct states. One he called day. The other
he called what? Night. Night. This is not the
revolving of the earth, folks. It wasn't revolving yet. It was
just hanging there in the empty vacuum of space, covered with
water. And the Spirit of God was there,
and light was there, and darkness was there. And God said there's
a difference between the light and the darkness, between the
night and between the day. And doesn't Paul even come along
and hint at that when he says there are people who are children
of the night? Now we know that humanity, usually
when people like to party the most is on Friday evenings or
Saturday evenings or Sunday evenings and we even call it the nightlife. Because we generally, not absolute,
Mason would generally practice those things at night. We like
to practice them at night. But Paul said you are children
of the day. Now is he talking about the difference
between the, in the 24 hours of the earth revolving and the
sunlight? No! And you know it has nothing
to do with that. That said, remember the phrase,
as different as night and day? Creation and evolution are absolute,
total differences. When you try to demand that there's
a gap between verse one and verse two, you're trying to be a deistic
evolutionist. Because it could have been billions
of years that other things happened. No sir. When did, Paul you read
it, when did Satan sin? In the beginning. So this first
day is when he sinned. You know what it says? There
wasn't a beginning before the beginning or the beginning couldn't
be the beginning. Right? I figure my little three
year old granddaughter understand that. Here it is. But let me tell you something,
divine evolution is nothing but a fraud perpetrated upon unsuspecting
Christians in our day. And the reason all this is, listen,
if you can say God's word doesn't really mean what it says, then
nobody really knows who God is. And we can just be what we want,
live like we want, believe what we want, whatever. And that is
what the scripture calls it, every man did what was right
in his own eyes. And that is condemned of God. It got Israel
in all kinds of trouble. And it gets us. even here in
all kinds of trouble when we try to do it that way. But if
I go into society and talk like this, tell them the truth. If
they mock you, hate you, then knock the dust off your feet
and go your own way. Don't argue with them about it.
We're not here to argue, debate, we're here to declare. And the
reason people hate creation in a six day timeframe. All of the
universe in a six day timeframe is because they hate Jesus Christ
and he did it in a six day timeframe. Light's come into the world.
Everybody talking about the sun, S-U-N? S-O-N. Light has come into the world
and men loved darkness, not more than light. rather than light,
and that's what I am by nature. The same God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness has shined in my heart. Oh, thank
God for it. This is why, you know, different
as night and day, free grace versus free will. There are people
that think, well, it really don't matter. It's two totally different
religions, folks. And either, listen, either one
of them is dead right, and one of them's dead wrong, or they're
both dead wrong. But they can't both be dead right. They both
cannot honor God in Christ. Because they are as different
as night and day. What about inspired revelation
versus human reason? We're in another day of human,
we've got all this science, we've got telescopes, yeah, and they
don't work right. We gotta send up things to fix
what we realize, oh, we got this figured out, spend millions,
billions maybe of dollars, send that up there and realize, uh-oh,
it's out of focus. Wow. How do you really know it's in
focus now? Come on. Because everything we touch,
we defile. And most of this stuff, now I'm
not saying all of them. I'm not saying every scientist
is lost. There are some who believe God. And I'm enthralled when
I look at some of these pictures of things that are out there.
But here's the glory of it. My Redeemer made all that. And
in a six day span, Joe. He made it all and on the seventh
day, he didn't say, I'm tired, he said, I'm done. He didn't say I'm tired, now
I gotta rest. He said I'm done, therefore I will rest. Now who
is the true rester? The true Sabbath? It's the Creator,
right? He is our rest in the person
of his Son. Here's the thing about different
is night versus day. Jesus as our personal Savior,
or Jesus is God. That's as different as night
and day. Now sadly, most people really
don't have an idea who God is because men preachers are lying
to them all the time about who God really is. I understand that,
but God is God. If he could create this universe
in six days, and do it for his own glory. And even after it
failed, he still, it all consists, being held together by him. Joe,
he could deal with my puny little will, my heart, my mind. Don't
you think so? If he could kick Satan out of
heaven, and then now Satan has to have permission for him to,
for Satan has to have permission to spit. You think God can't
deal with this piece of clay that's formed from the dust of
the earth? Listen, hear what the Psalm says
about light. Turn to the first one, Psalm
chapter 27, the 27th Psalm. But before I read it, I'll make
a statement. Psalm 27. Hear what the scriptures In particular,
a couple Psalms that say about light. And remember, we talk
about light. Most places in the scripture, not everywhere, but
most places in the scripture is not talking about the electromagnetic
radiation that comes in infrared, visible, and ultraviolet explosions
of stellar gases. I got that off the internet.
That's not how smart I am. That's what they call it. But
that's not the light. Look at what it says, Psalm 27,
verse one. The Lord doesn't just give me
light. Yes, he does give light. But
it's more than that. The Lord is my light. Do you see it? And my salvation. He doesn't
just give me salvation, though he does. He is my salvation. Whom shall I fear? If the Lord
is light and salvation to me, who do I have to fear? Well,
someone may hurt me. They can't unless God gives them
say-so. And if God gives them say-so, you will not stop it.
I don't care what you do. If God gives them say-so, just
like he gave the devil say-so over Job, but he only gave him
so much say-so, didn't he? And the devil couldn't go any
further than what God gave him say so. And the devil hurt that
man severely. And that man bragged about himself
before his three companions, his three miserable comforters.
He bragged about himself. And so would you and I, if we're
put in that spot. We'll start defending our own
righteousness before these false accusers. You know we would.
But he said this, though he slay me, Not just even, notice Job
has not said, oh God, let so and so, though he slay me, yet
will I trust him. Now it takes a God-given light,
through a God-given faith, and a God-ordained gospel to be that
way. Look at 36, Psalm 36. Almost
done. Psalm 36, verse nine. For with thee is the fountain
of life in thy light. You see it? In thy light shall
we see light. Somebody say, I don't understand
that. If you're a believer, you may not understand it, but you
have some idea what the psalmist was talking about. Because as I've already said,
1 John 1 and 5, John put it this way, God is light. And in him is no darkness at
all. My question I have to ask myself,
is Christ my light? That's my message, darkness and
light. We all have darkness. We all
have darkness. We all are darkness. Oh God,
in the person of your son, be light unto me. Father, help us. We're surrounded by so much knowledge
and wisdom, but we know you've made foolish the wisdom of this
world. Help us, God, we're such faulty creatures, so easily swayed
with every wind of doctrine and cunning craftiness. Establish
us in thy truth, Lord, for Christ's name, amen.