I'm gonna just deal with four verses in Genesis chapter one. Deal with four verses here. It says, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void. 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. And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness.

And the first thing I want us to look at is in the beginning, I want to look at God. In the beginning, God. Everything starts with God. You know, and there's so many things it has in the beginning. John 1.1 says, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, the Word was God. And without Him was not anything made that was made, without Him. And that was the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. But in the beginning God, and I'm gonna, you know, you don't have to turn to it, but in Mark chapter one, Mark gospel chapter one, it, over here's the beginning. It says the beginning of the gospel of the Son Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That's the beginning.

And everything God does, he done in the beginning. If there's anything started, God's the one started. If there's anything right, anything true, anything powerful, it's God who did it in the beginning, God. And when we talk about God, we gotta understand who God is. He's not a God, you know, he said, you thought I was altogether one like yourself, but I'm not like you at all. God is above us. It's by him we live, move, and have our being.

And if God is sovereign, God is eternal, God is immutable, God is omnipotent, God is all-mightiful, Time started with God, and time's gonna end with God, but there's gonna be a time before God ever created the Earth, He existed. And after this Earth ceases to be, He'll still be God. And what I love about God being who He is, that He can do what He wants, when He wants, and with whom He will.

And then it said here, in the beginning, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, the gospel, the good news. the blessed news of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll show you another beginning. Look over in 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians, you know, if you've got your phone on your Bible, excuse the phone, you know, your Bible on the phone, you can find these things real easy. But in 1 Thessalonians, if I can get over there myself, It says this. God said, you know, well, I'm in the wrong place. Wrong place. I'm sorry. I'll get there in a minute. Okay. Second Thessalonians. There we are. There we are.

Okay, it says, you know, in verse 10, 2 Thessalonians 2, God with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that perish, and listen to this now, because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. Now, they can believe the truth, but not the love of the truth. There's a difference in knowing the truth and loving the truth. and God shall send them a strong delusion that they might believe a lie and be damned. But look what it says in verse 13, but God, but we are bound to give thanks always to God, brethren, for you, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning, beginning, chosen you unto salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.

So we start out with God. And there's a beginning for us. Our spiritual life begins with God. If we have any hope, it begins with God. If we have a foundation, it's the word of God. If we have any hope, it's God. If we have any understanding of the truth, God brought that truth to us. If we have any light, God gave us the light.

And look what it goes on to say. God created. And you know, here's the thing. He calls us new creations. In Ephesians 4, it says there that He created us in righteousness and true holiness. And the Scriptures tells us that we are new creatures, new creations. God takes a man or a woman, and when He regenerates that person, gives them life, He brings into existence a person who never existed before. When God saves a man, gives him life, and quickens him from the dead, and brings life to him, He brings into a person who never existed before. You know, there's that new man, that new creation. And that's why it's called a new creation. Everything about us becomes new. A new way of looking at God, new way of looking at sin, new way of looking at salvation. Everything becomes new. And that's because God has to create. And only God can create. You know, only God can create life. Only God can create a new life. Only God can give a new heart. Only God can create a new heart. Only God can create a new will. Only God can do that. In the day of His power, His people are made willing. And look at the next thing now. If I can see, and the earth was without form and void. Now watch this. And darkness was up on the face of the deep. That's where we was.

We was deep in sin, Darkness was upon the very depths of our soul. We was born in, David said, I was shaped in iniquity and conceived in sin. And we lived, you know, and I preached the other morning, men love darkness. We were born in darkness. You know, darkness was upon the depth of our very soul, upon our heart, and we couldn't see. I didn't know I was in darkness. I didn't know I had any sin. I didn't know how dark and deep the sin was in me.

And that's what happens, you know. This is one thing that really, really men miss, is if you miss what happened in what's called the garden. Now let's see if I can explain that. What happens in the garden? And when we talk about the garden, we're talking about Adam in the Garden of Eden.

Adam, God created him. and he made man out of the dust of the earth. And Adam stood there as an inanimate object. He was just an inanimate object until God came up to him and breathed in his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul. And God said it's not good for him to be alone, so he made him a woman, put her right beside him. And God had him in paradise, said this belongs to you. You keep it, you dress it, you take care of it.

That's one tree. right in the middle of this garden, the tree of good and evil, the tree of good and evil. And he said, if you eat that fruit, the day you eat that fruit, you're gonna die. You're gonna die. And what he did didn't mean he's gonna die naturally right then, he's gonna die spiritually, he's gonna go into darkness. Well, Satan comes along and preaches the gospel and said, oh, listen, this tree's good to make you wise. It'll make you smart, and it'll make you good, and it looks good, and it tastes good.

So she ate it, and it didn't have any effect on her because the commandment wasn't given to her. It was given to Adam. So Adam, he said, she took that fruit to Adam and said, oh, this didn't hurt me. But when Adam took a bite of that, his eyes was opened.

And you know what the first thing he said? I'm naked. God made him that way. He said, I'm naked. And the first thing he did is he went and got him a fig leaf. Darkness came upon him so greatly and the life of Christ, God's life departed him so greatly that he went and got him a fig leaf and went over here and got behind some bushes, thought he could hide from God.

And God said, Adam, where are you? He didn't know where Adam was. We didn't want Adam to know where he was. And from then on, God took Adam and cast him from that garden. And what he did, we did. When he failed against God, we failed against God. When he sinned against God, we sinned against God. When he was cast out of the garden, we was cast out of the garden. And everything about us, it comes natural to us. We was born in darkness, conceived in darkness, and we live in darkness.

And if men don't know, When you find men in the scriptures, when they found out what they were, Job's asked this question, he said, oh, when God appeared to him, he said, God said, listen, where was you when I created the heavens, when I created the earth? And he come down to Job, and Job said, I've heard about you with the hearing of the ear. My eye sees you, and I bore myself.

When a man sees God, Man don't see sin and then come to Christ. Let's see if I can put it this way. Man doesn't see sin and then goes to Christ. It's when you see Christ, and you see the glory of God, and you see the power of God, and God, when you see the Lord Jesus Christ, that's when you see your sin. You won't see it until you see Christ. Men don't see their sinfulness and then go to Christ.

Adam didn't go to God. Adam didn't get up and say, I'm gonna run to my maker. I'm gonna run to my creator. I'm gonna go and bow down to him. I'm gonna go and worship him. No, he hid. And that's where, you know the safest place to hide from God? Buy a Bible and join a Baptist church. That's the safest place to hide from God. Buy you a Bible, get you a cross hanging around your neck. Get you a picture of Jesus hanging on the wall. and buy your Bible and go join a Baptist church.

That's the safest place to hide from God because there's nobody telling you about your sin. Nobody's telling you about Christ. Nobody's telling you about your relationship with God and your deadness and sin, your darkness and sin, and your depravity.

Man has no ability. That's what he said here. Darkness was upon the face. And it says we without form and void. I mean, we were just empty. Empty, empty. And then look what else it says. In verse three, excuse me, in verse two. And the Spirit of God moved. You know the only way you're gonna get out of that darkness? The only way you can go, anything at all. The Spirit of God coming, moved.

That word bruised. the Spirit of God comes, the Holy Spirit comes. Our Lord said, when he, the Spirit of truth has come, he shall not speak of himself, but he shall speak of me. He'll testify of me. And so, when the Spirit of God comes, that's how the gospel comes. That's how we learn that we're lost. That's everything that we ever learn about God and about Christ, the Holy Spirit has to teach us. And you know, the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, is something that has to be a revelation, you know?

And they asked, our Lord asked his disciples one time, they asked him, said, who do men say that I am? They said, some say you're Simon, some say you're Elijah, some say you're John the Baptist, some say you're Jeremiah, different thing. But he said, who do you say I am? Simon Peter said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. He said, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah.

Flesh and blood did not reveal that unto you, but the Spirit of my Father. Flesh and blood cannot reveal this business to you, only the Spirit of God. And I'll tell you, I think it's in John 14 or 16. He said, when the spirit of truth has come, the spirit of truth has come. The Holy Spirit makes the truth and he brings you the truth and he opened your heart to the truth.

And without the spirit of God, we wouldn't know anything. We wouldn't know nothing. But our Lord Jesus told us, you know, he says, I'm gonna leave you alone. but I'm not gonna leave you alone. You're not gonna be an orphan. You're not gonna be an orphan. I'm gonna send a spirit. I'm gonna send a comforter.

I'm gonna send someone in my place that'll tell you about me, show myself to you, reveal myself to you, make you know who I am, and make you understand what you are, and make you understand that I'm to be worshiped, I'm to be adored, I'm to be glorified, I'm to be honored, And this is one way you can tell if a preacher's preaching the truth. And that's what I said a minute ago.

When he, the spirit of truth, has come, the Holy Ghost, when he has come, he shall not speak of himself. When you get some words where people are speaking in tongues, and they're telling you, you know, you gotta live this way, you gotta be obedient, you gotta do this work, You gotta do this other thing, you gotta do all that. That is not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, when he comes, he speaks of Christ. And you find a preacher that's not preaching Christ, it's because the Holy Spirit has not taught him Christ. He shall not speak of himself. And so you find these people who's got everything under the sun to talk about, when the Holy Spirit, all he's got to talk about what makes us to know is who Christ is, who the Lord Jesus Christ is.

And that's, Christ becomes all in all to us. Christ becomes everything to us. And people say, you need to make Christ the most important person in your life. Listen, Christ is our life. He's not the most important thing in our, He is our life. We have no life without Him. We have no, new life without Him. We don't have a new heart without Him. We don't have spiritual life without Him. And that's why, you know, a preacher that's preaching Christ, he said, the Holy Spirit takes Christ, makes Him known.

Over in Romans 8, 14, it says there that, by this you know you're the sons of God, by the Spirit of God, and the flesh The flesh profits nothing. Our flesh is adding absolutely nothing to our salvation. Nothing, nothing. But the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. That's how we know we're God's children.

I tell our folks all the time that when we're having a service, I'll say, what happens is when you're preaching the gospel, Christ in you answers to Christ in the scriptures. You can tell, you know, if Christ is in you, Holy Spirit's in you, when you're hearing the gospel, you're saying, yeah, that's right, that's right, that's true. Why? Because the Spirit of God in the message is answering to the Spirit of God that's in you, Christ in you.

And so the darkness was just on the face of the deep. And now watch what else he says now. and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. That's why we pray so many times. Lord, cause the gospel to run well. Take the Spirit of God and cause seed to be sowed in a sinner's heart. Thank God, Lord, cause the gospel to run well. May the Holy Ghost come upon us and enable us to preach the gospel.

And that's what happens The Spirit of God takes where that darkness is, that depth it is, in the darkness of the soul, and he comes and he turns on the light. He turns on the light, you know. He turns, you know, puts a, our Lord Jesus Christ is that light. That's the next thing he says. And God said, let there be light. We're sitting there in darkness, And all of a sudden, the light comes on. You know, you're in darkness and you're sitting there and you listen to somebody preach and say, I see it, I see it. It's always been there, but you didn't see it before because God didn't give you eyes.

I remember, I don't know how many times this happened over the years, but I remember years and years ago, we was at a meeting over at Tim James, and this woman really, really got upset She was a Cherokee Indian. And a preacher there asked his wife to get him a cup of coffee before the service started. Have him a cup of coffee before the service started. Well, it upset her that he asked her to get him a cup of coffee.

So she left. She left the meeting. She left the services. And then about halfway through the service, she come back in. And she walked down the aisle, and she She stood up and she said, you know, and she told what happened. And she said, oh, listen, when I was on my way home, God turned on the light. She come back and said, I'm so sorry for what I said, what I done. And she said, God turned on the light.

I see it. I see it. And another instance, there was an old fella. He's dead and gone now. Larry Matthews was his name. He's a little old, bitty, short fella. And when he first started coming, he wanted me to baptize him. Every time I had to come, oh, I want to be baptized, I want to be baptized.

But he hadn't said another gospel long enough. And he had been a Kemalite, so I wouldn't baptize him. And he, I don't know how many times he asked me, and he went to another preacher friend of mine that has to be baptized, he wouldn't baptize him. So he sat and listened to the gospel for a while, and then he left. And his wife said, you know, he's like that fella that, Seven, you know, the unclean spirit left out of me got seven times worse.

But anyway, to make a little story short, I was in a store one time and Larry come up to me and I saw him and was talking to him and he said, I guess I'll just go to hell because I'm not one of God's elect. Man, I started weeping. I started crying. I said, Larry, why in the world would you want to go to hell? Why would you go in the fact that you might go to hell?

I said, it's not a question of being elect, it's a question of listening to the gospel. He come back, he sat there for three years, never said a word. And then one day when I got through preaching, he stood up and said, Donnie, I see it. I see it, I see it.

I said, the light's been turned on, and that's what happened. It takes a long time for that light to come on, but when it comes on, I mean, it opens up. When you're in the darkness, we get up at night and you go along, fellas. fill the wall to find out where you're going, you know. And when you turn on the light, then you see everything. And that's what God does when he turns on the light, you see what you really was. You go in a basement and all these cobwebs and spiders and everything be in there, everything, old rats and everything, you know. You don't know they're there, but you turn on the light and you see all that mess.

And that's the way God does that, when he turns on the light. The light is. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, he's the light of the world. And if we see any light, it's because he, God said in Psalm 36, he said, he said it like this. In my light, you shall see light. Only in my light, you shall see light. And so where we are in the darkest space of the deep, Spirit of God moves on and God turns on the light.

Huh? Oh. What a light it is. Once it comes on, you don't, it never turns it back on. It never turns it back on. It turns on the light. Oh, what a blessed thing. And he said, let there be light. And guess what? He didn't say, I hope it'll be light. I hope I can get some light to these folks. I'd like to get some light to these people.

But he said, and there was light. Oh, I guarantee you, wherever If God's pleased to ever turn on the light for you, you'll thank Him for the rest of your days. You'll bless Him for the rest of your days. So there was light. God sent the light. Oh, we need the light. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I'm the light of the world. I'm the light of the light of men. I light the men that comes into this world. I'm that true light. I'm that true light.

And then another one, it's just, he said, the light shined in darkness, but the darkness didn't comprehend it. You know, a man that's blind, a man that's blind, the lights can be on, but he can't see them. So when does he ever go see the light? Whenever God gives him sight, whenever God takes, moves the darkness from his mind, the darkness of his eyes, And then look what else it says here about it.

And God saw the light, it's good. It's good, the light's good. I love the light, the joy of the light, delight in the light, it's good. God said it's good. Oh my, it's a good light. Oh, that light is so good. It's so wonderful, it's so blessed. Oh, Lord, shine the light, shine the light. Oh, come on, the light. Then God saw the light, that it was good. It was good. And look what else happens now. Then God divided the light from the darkness.

That's what he does. Here we are, we're in our darkness. Like he said, in our darkness, God says, now listen, I'm gonna separate this darkness and I'm gonna Make it light over here. I'm gonna separate the two. He separated us from that darkness and brought in that light. And he separated, you know, and now Paul said it like this. He said, I'm crucified. There's three people crucified on the cross. Paul said, God forbid that I glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, for whom the world is crucified under me, I under the world, crucified with Christ, Crucified under the world and the world crucified under me.

This world, when God gives us the light, this world has nothing for us anymore. This world is not enjoyable. This world is not our home. This world is not what we enjoy. I mean, we have to, people have to make livings. But oh my, this world has never been good to me. But God gave us light, glorious light, blessed light. And I'll tell you, never been to this stuff that happens.

God caused it to happen. And all of our salvation has a creation in it, and God's the one that began it. God's the one that began it. Everything about it, God did. Ben Angus talked about it. He preached a funeral out of this verse of scripture. God, who has saved us, God who had saved us. Not gonna save us, would like to save us, hopes to save us. Will save us if you'll let him or if you'll give him the chance, but he said, God who had saved us.

Called us. That's the same thing we're talking about here at the light. Called us. Called us. My sheep hear my voice. My sheep hear my voice. I know them. I know them. Oh, my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. But he said, God, who has saved us and called us, called us. Eli, Samuel, Samuel. God called on Samuel. He gets up and say, Eli, what do you want? He said, go back and lay down. Samuel, go back and lay down. Samuel, go back. He said, be still, the Lord's speaking to you.

When the Lord calls you, You're gonna hear. People say, boy, I don't hear his voice. I don't either. I don't hear an audible voice, but I hear his voice. We're in the scriptures. I hear his voice in the gospel. But God called us with a holy calling. Since he's a holy God, thrice holy, he can only call you to a holy calling, and he calls us And we become holy because he said we're holy. This here idea, you know, of where it's getting better as we live in this world?

No, there's nothing to that. No, no, no. Never comes a time that we don't need Christ. But he called us with a holy calling. And then he says, you didn't have anything to do with it, not according to your works. You did not have a thing in the world to do with this. Nothing. If man puts his hand to anything Christ did, he destroys it. And he said, he said, he hath saved us, called us, and he hath saved us. And oh, and he calls you here. And then it says, hath, everything's in the past tense. He hath given us eternal life.

Everything, and he hath saved us, called us with the Holy College, And our works, our works had nothing to do with it, never has, never will. Our works will never enter into this business of salvation. Never. God never looked to anybody for anything other than his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ did it all. That little hymn we sang, Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin left a crimson stain. He's the one that worked it. He did it.

Oh, and I tell you, without our works, without anything we ever done, we ain't been bad enough to keep Him from saving us. We ain't been good enough to cause Him to save us. And if He saved us in spite of ourselves and saved us without any work, don't you think He can keep us without any work? If we, oh. Ah, but he has saved us not according to our works. And this, I love this next word, purpose. Saved us on purpose. Let me show you something. Look in Isaiah 46, 9. Look in Isaiah 46, 9. You know, God does things on purpose. Isaiah 46, verse nine, what it says here. Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there's none like me. Listen to this now.

Declaring the end from the beginning, He started right from the start, said, listen, he said, everything from where I start to the end, I've already fixed everything that's gonna happen. I fixed the amount of hairs that's gonna be on your head. I fixed the amount of breaths that you'll take. I fixed when I would cross your path with the gospel. I fixed every, you know, I already know what the end's gonna be.

We used to say, go to the back of the book and find out what the answers are. I've been to the back of the book. I know what the answer is. I read the back. I read the back of the book. I know how it's going to end. The same way it started. God started with Christ, and he saved us by Christ, and we're going to end up with Christ. That's the end. He declared it, and then look what else he says. And from ancient times, there's things that are not yet done. You reckon anything he purposed to be done will not be done? Oh, listen, and my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.

Oh, you know, when we, we predestinated this trip over here, we did, you know, this is the way God does. You know, we was asked to come over, so we bought the tickets, bought the airplane tickets and got on an airplane, and we was predestinated to come from Crossville, Tennessee to New South Wales, Nara, Terraria, and Australia. And this is what God does. He predestinated everything from the beginning of time to the end of time.

He said, the hairs of your head are numbered. And let me show you another nice hair for you. This is what I'm talking about. We cannot exalt our Lord enough. what he says, verse 21. Have you not known, have you not heard, hath it not been told you from the beginning, have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers. And he stretched out the heavens and the curtain and spreads it out as a tent to dwell in.

That God we're talking about, and the one that shined this light and caused the spirit of God to move upon us and separated the light from the darkness, he measures the waters in the palm of his hand. He counts the nations of this bucket, stick your finger in a bucket and get one little drop on it. He said, that's what I count the nations in.

You can worship a God like that. You can't worship a God that, you know, has no hands but your hand, no feet but your feet. bound by your free will, bound by your power, bound by, you know, he has to take a chance. You know, if God gives you an opportunity, you take that chance and maybe he might save you and he might not. You can't worship one like that. But a God sitting on his throne, a God that causes the light to shine out of darkness, God that moved on the spirit of the deep and brought the depth of our souls and turned on the light in there, gave us a new heart, gave us a new will, gave us a new mind, We worship a God like that. We bow to a God like that. We can praise a God like that. We can glorify a God like that. And I tell you, bless his holy name.

I don't want any other God than this one. I want a God that his will is done on this earth. I want a God, the God that his will is done on this earth. I want his will in my life. I want his will in my home. I want His will in my marriage. I want His will in my ministry. I want His will in my preaching. And every believer that's on the face of the earth, that's what they want. They want more than anything for the will of God to be done in their life. And Lord, keep us, keep us, keep us, keep us.

Oh my, amazing grace. How sweet the sound. Shade of red. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. It was grace that taught my heart to fear. Grace, my fears relieved. It was grace that taught my heart to fear. Grace, my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear to how I first believed. Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come. This grace had brought me safe thus far. Grace will lead me home.

And when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Grace, grace, grace, and more grace. That's funny. Zechariah, I've got to stop, I've got to stop. Zechariah, he said they brought the top stone and they put it on the top stone and they said, shouting grace, grace unto it. Foundation started in grace, they got to the top of the building, grace, grace unto it. So everything's by grace. Ain't you grateful that it is? All right, let me give thanks.

Our Father, all blessed Lord Jesus, our great glorious God. How powerful, how infinite, how merciful, how gracious, how patient, how long-suffering, how merciful, merciful, merciful we are to people like us, sinners like us, so in need of you. We long to glorify you, magnify you, bless you and praise you. Long to exalt you in our hearts, in our thoughts, in our minds, in our wills. And Lord, I thank you so much for allowing me to be in this home, to be with these dear saints of God, to be able to say just a few things, few things in this, from your blessed book.

So Lord, bless our time together. Keep us, keep us cleaving, keep us believing. Keep us looking to our Lord Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. God bless this precious home. Bless these dear people. And Lord, I thank you for Angus and Lisa again. for all they've done for us and how they've carried us around and about. Thank you, Lord. Blessed be your holy name. In Christ Jesus, our Lord, I bless you. Amen. Amen.