If you would open your Bibles
with me to the Gospel of John. John chapter 1. As you're turning, let me tell
you that earlier this week, Brother Ralph Brown tested positive. He is at home quarantining. We want to remember him in prayer. John chapter 1. We'll read the
first 14 verses. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was
a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a
witness, bear witness of the light that all men through him
might believe. He was not that light but he
was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was
in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew
him not. He came into his own and his
own received him not but as many as received him to them gave
he power to become the sons of God. even to them that believe
on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor the will of
the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And the word was
made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The
glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth." We'll end our reading there. All right, Sean. Okay, if you would turn to song
number 352, Jesus Lover of Massa. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the
tempest still is high. Guide me, O my Savior, guide,
till the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on Thee. Leave, ah leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee All my help from Thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee. I find. Raise the fallen, cheer
the faint, heal the sick and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all on righteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, Make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, Thou fountain art,
Okay, if you would now turn to song number 186, The Church's
One Foundation. The Church's one foundation is Jesus
Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her, and for her life he died. Elect from every nation, yet
one for all the earth, Her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith,
one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food. And to one hope she presses,
with every grace endued. Mid toil and tribulation, and
tumult of life. she waits the consummation of
peace forevermore. Till with the vision glorious
her longing eyes are blessed, and the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath you with
God the three-in-one, and mystic sweet communion with those whose
rest is won. O happy ones and holy, Lord give
us grace that we Let's open our Bibles now to the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter one. I know I'm
just into One week studying this great book, but I am very, very
excited about this study, the many pictures of Christ that
we will see in it. We'll read the first five verses.
That'll be our text this evening. Genesis 1. 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. 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 God called the light day. And the darkness
he called night. And the evening and the morning
were the first day. We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together. Our Father, We bow in your awesome,
holy, majestic presence. We bow with fear and trembling.
We are but creatures of dust, daring to come before the throne
of the thrice holy God. And how thankful we are that
sinful men and women such as we can come before your throne
with boldness because of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We come dressed in his perfect righteousness, his perfect obedience,
become pleading his blood that cleanses us from all sin. Father,
we bow a thankful people. How thankful we are for the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we pray that you'd cause
us to be taken up more and more and more with him and less and
less and less of the trite things of this life. Enable us to set
our affection on things above, not on the things of this earth.
And Father, we pray a special blessing this evening that you
would, by your spirit, enable us to worship you in spirit and
in truth. Father, I pray you'd give us
a word from thee, a word that you have prepared from all of
eternity for your people to hear tonight. Father, I pray that
you would enable me to preach it and that you would enable
your people to hear it. both in the power of thy spirit.
Without thee, we know we can do nothing. We are completely
insufficient. But with the blessing of thy
spirit, we can worship, we can hear, we can believe. Father,
I pray you'd bless us this evening. Father, we pray a blessing for
those who are in times of great difficulty. We pray for Ralph,
Charlotte, we pray for our brother, Aaron, that you continue to be
with him, Barb, And Novi, Father, be with these who need you especially. Others who are going through
difficult times silently, Father, be with them. You know your people. You know the path that we take.
You know the need of each heart. And we pray that you'd meet it
richly according to your goodness and your mercy and your grace.
All these things we ask and we give thanks in that name which
is above every name. In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. once my soul was astray from
the heavenly way and was wretched and vile as could be but my Savior gave me peace from above when
he reached down his hand for me when Christ Jesus reached down
for me when he reached way down I was lost and undone without
God's precious Son when He reached down His hand for me. I was near to despair when He
came to me there and He showed me Then He lifted my feet Gave me
gladness complete When He reached down His hand for me When Christ
Jesus reached down for me way down for me. I was lost and undone without
God's precious son when he reached down his hand for me. Now my heart does rejoice When
I hear His sweet voice In the tempest to Him I then flee There
to lean on His arms Safe, secure from all harm Since He reached
down His hand When Christ Jesus reached down
for me When He reached way down for me I was lost and undone
Without God's precious Son When He reached down His hand I was lost and undone without
God's precious Son when He reached down His hand for me. I have been very excited about
the service this evening. And if that's a taste to come,
we're in for a blessing, aren't we? Alright, open your Bibles
now again with me to Genesis chapter 1. I've titled the message
this evening, Let There Be Light. Now I absolutely love to read
the creation story. I read it often for my own enjoyment. I just enjoy to see God's power
and God's majesty so clearly in this chapter. But if all we
learn from this chapter, Genesis one is that God is the creator. We've missed the greater blessing
in this chapter. Now, absolutely. God created
the heavens and the earth. Now I'll contend for that. These
things that in this world, did not evolve, absolutely cannot
be. God created them. I know that's
so, because the Bible says so. I know that. But this chapter
teaches us something much, much deeper, much more glorious than
just the creation story, if I can say it that way. I mean, you
think of God speaking and creating this whole thing, how glorious
that that is. But there's something more glorious
here. This chapter speaks of Christ. It speaks of salvation in him.
Our Lord said that Moses wrote of Him. Well, when did Moses
begin writing of Christ? Genesis 1. That's when he did.
And I love the way that the Bible begins. It begins with God. In the beginning, God. There's
no attempt to prove that God exists. The Bible just says God
exists. God rules over everything, so
God is to be believed. He's to be bowed to. He's God
over all. The very first sentence of the
Bible introduces us to God. God is the subject of this first
sentence and he's the subject in every other sentence all the
way through the Bible. Now the book of Genesis is called
the book of beginnings and as we go through this chapter in
the coming years and months and years probably, We'll find that
the seed of every great doctrine that we believe in scripture
finds its Genesis, finds its seed in the book of Genesis.
And the doctrine that I want us to look at tonight is the
new man, the new man, the new creation who's born of God. That
new man is the work of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit.
And we find those three, the Godhead, in these first five
verses of the book of Genesis. The first thing I want us to
see is the work of the father. in the creation of the new man.
Verse one, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the
earth. Now the very first verse of the
Bible tells us that God is the first cause of everything. And
we say that God is the first cause, that simply means this,
God is the reason that everything exists. And God is the reason
that everything happens the way that it happens. God is the first
cause of that. But now remember, The picture
here is salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. So God's the first
cause of salvation too. You know, many people in religion
would say God's the first cause of a lot of different things,
you know, but not salvation. No, especially God is the first
cause of salvation. The salvation of sinners happens
by the will of God. It doesn't happen by the will
of man. Man doesn't will salvation. God wills it. Salvation is by
the will of God. Salvation is by the working,
of God, just like creation. Creation did not help God form
itself into the cosmos. No, the cosmos was put in order.
It was created and it was put in order by the will of God.
And it happened when God spoke by his will. When God said, let
it be, it was that happened. That's the will of God being
done, isn't it? Well, the same thing's true in the salvation
of a sinner. Our will is dead. It's spiritually dead. The only thing that it can will
is sin. So our will cannot help God form a safe center. The salvation
of a sinner happens by the will of God, when God wills it to
happen. And salvation happens by the
power of God, when God is pleased to move in power and cause a
sinner to be born again. See, the first cause of all of
that is God. Now verse one tells us that God
created everything. God didn't take things that were
there floating around in space and put them together to make
creation, make the planets and the sun, the moon, the stars
and all these things. God created everything from nothing. There
is an empty vacuum, absolutely empty. And God said, let it come
to be, let it, let it. And it was, he created everything. He did it by his power, unimaginable
hour just to speak and it happened. Well, the same thing's true in
the salvation of a sinner. God never fixes up the flesh.
He never fixes up the old man. He never works on that dead flesh
and turns it into a living spiritual man. God creates a new man. He leaves the flesh alone and
God creates a new man from nothing. A new man who never existed before,
who is the creation of God. The first verse of the Bible
also tells us that God is eternal. He existed, he has no beginning,
he has no ending, he existed before creation. Now since God
is eternal, everything about God is eternal, including the
salvation of his people, it's eternal. God purposed the salvation
of his people long before he ever created anything. Long before
God said let there be light, he had purposed and willed the
salvation of his people. He purposed the salvation of
his people in his son, in his son. They've never not been in
his son. This salvation is eternal. It
was purposed in eternity past in a covenant of grace entered
between the father and the son. Now the father and the son can
never change. So this matter of this covenant of grace, God's
elect being found in Christ is eternal. That's where they've
always been. The father always saw his people
in his son. He gave them to his son to redeem
and that's where he always saw them. And God the Father is the
first cause of their salvation. The first cause. The Father elected
those people. He chose the people that he would
redeem and he chose the Savior who would redeem them. He chose
his son to be the one who would redeem them, who would establish
righteousness for them, who would become a man and shed his blood
to put away their sin. He elected the people and he
elected the Savior. He chose the means to make those
elect righteous. It's through the obedience of
another. through the obedience of his son, because there's nobody
else who could do it. Nobody else could establish righteousness,
but his son. The father chose the time and
the place when that salvation would be applied in time. And
God did all of that. And he had to do all of that
if anybody's going to be saved, because God is the first cause
of everything. Arthur Pink made this statement
and we would do well to remember it. He said, in all of our theology,
we must start with God and work our way down to man. I really
looked at that and thought that is where almost all false religion
goes wrong. It always starts with man and
works its way up to God, doesn't it? If our theology would be
right, we must start with God and work our way down to man.
That's how salvation began. It began in the will and the
purpose of God. All right, next we see the fall
of man. Father elected a people to redeem.
It was his purpose to redeem those people, but they're fallen
in Adam. And verse two gives us a picture
of that. And the earth was without form in void and darkness was
upon the face of the deep. Now something cataclysmic happened
between verse one and verse two. God didn't create something that's,
that's null and void. That was without form and void.
God didn't create something that's full of darkness. Isaiah 45 verse
18 says, he created it not in vain. So he didn't create it
to be empty and void and full of darkness. Something happened
to make God's beautiful creation without form in void. And the
word was there, should have been translated became or to happen,
became. God's creation became without
form in void. God's creation became full of
darkness. Now I don't know what it is that
happened. Something happened between verse
one and two. We know that, but I don't know what it is. And
I'll tell you the reason we don't know what it is. The Bible is
not a history book. The gospel is not a science book.
It's not a geology book to explain what people find in rocks and
so forth. We don't know what happened between
these two verses because scripture doesn't tell us. But I can tell
you what I think happened. And I wouldn't just tell you
what I think if it wasn't based upon other scriptures. I can
tell you what I think happened based upon the rest of the word
of God. I think this is when between
verses one and two is when Lucifer was cast out of heaven. What
a cataclysmic event. God cast Lucifer out of heaven
and he hit the earth. And when he did, sin and evil
came into God's creation and destroyed it, made it void, made
it without form, full of darkness. Look at Isaiah chapter 14. In Luke chapter 18, our Lord
said that he beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. And
it looks like Isaiah 14 tells us what happened to the earth
when that happened, when the Lord saw Satan as lightning fall
from heaven. Isaiah 14 verse 12. How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground which did weaken the nations? He weakened the whole earth.
And thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I
will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also
upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I
will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like
the most high. Yet thou shalt be brought down
to hell to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall look
narrowly upon thee and consider thee saying, is this the man? that made the earth to tremble,
that did shake the kingdoms? Is this the man, when he fell,
made the earth tremble, that made the world as a wilderness,
and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the house of
his prisoners? All the kings of the nations,
even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house, but
thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and
as the raiment of those that are slain. Thrust through with
the sword, that go down to the stones of the pit as a carcass
trodden under feet. It seems like those verses describe
what happened to the earth. Satan was cast, Lucifer was cast
out of heaven, and he hit the ground. And you know, a lot of
people, they want to take things that science had discovered,
things, you know, rock testing, the ages of rocks, they find
dinosaur fossils and these kinds of things and somehow they want
to go to the Bible to prove it or say those things disprove
the Bible. Could be, I think it almost certainly has to, has
to be that dinosaurs lived between these two verses, between verse
1 and verse 2 and then they were destroyed. The scientists say
they test rocks and say they're millions and millions and millions
of years old. probably are. Who cares? Who cares? None of
that contradicts the creation story. None of it contradicts
the creation story. And the creation story is not
given to us to prove those scientific things either. That's not why
the Bible was written. The earth very well could be
trillions of years old. I don't doubt it. I don't care. I don't care how old it is. It
could be trillions of years happened between verses one and verses
two. Could be. A lot of dinosaurs had to live
and die to give us all the petroleum and oil and these kinds of things.
I mean, a lot of magic. But it doesn't matter. That's
the thing. This globe, the ball hanging
in space, could be trillions of years old. But man's time
on it is only 6,000 years, about 6,000 years. I know that from
scripture. See, scripture is not given to
teach us science, to prove or disprove man's science. Scripture
is not given to us to prove, yes, the age of this rock, you
know. Scripture is written to show
us Christ. And these two verses are no different. This is given
to us as a picture of what happened when God created Adam on the
earth. When God created Adam, he created Adam upright. God
didn't create Adam and He didn't create Adam in darkness. He didn't
create Adam to be without form and void. He created Adam upright. Adam must have been some specimen. I mean, wow. I think I was talking
about this quarterback. And this was his, he's some specimen.
You think what Adam looked like. My goodness. I mean, what a man
he must have been. Created by the hand of almighty
God. God did not create him to be
in darkness and sin. God did not create a man who's
void of righteousness, who's void of holiness like we're born.
God created Adam upright. But Adam's problem was the law. That was Adam's problem. God
just gave him one, one rule, one rule to obey, one law. Adam,
I've created, I mean, can you imagine what the Garden of Eden
must look like? God created it. I mean, what those trees must
have looked like, the plains and everything in there. God
said, Adam, have your run of it. It's all yours. Eat of it all. Adam, you dress
it, you take care of it. But there's one tree, that tree
in the middle, the tree, the knowledge of good and evil, Adam,
don't you eat the fruit thereof. And the day you eat it, dying
thou shalt die. Eat of all the rest of them to
your heart's content. And we don't know how long it
took, but for long, Adam ate that fruit. how to make that
fruit. I bet it wasn't long. I bet it
wasn't long. My wife made a statement just
the other day. She said, when did it become
a thing for God's name to be a curse word? This was my answer
to her. The very moment God said, thou
shalt not take my name in vain. I bet it wasn't long when God
said, Adam, don't you eat that tree. He had to eat it. Again,
that's just what I think because that's human nature. It didn't
take long. But however long it was, when
Adam ate that fruit, it happened just exactly like God said. He
died. Spiritually, he died. Now, it
took 900 years for sin to kill his body. That's what a body
God made this man. But eventually, he died physically,
too. And when Adam took that fruit, not only did Adam die,
his whole race died, too. He plunged his whole race into
sin and death in darkness. See, Adam and all of his race
became without form and void. Something happened, didn't it?
It was sin. And that made him become without form and void. And that phrase, without form,
means this. It means vain. It means confusion. God didn't do that. God's not
the author of confusion. He didn't create something that's
confusing. It means empty. It means a waste place, like
a garbage dump. Now that's our nature. That's
what happened to us when Adam sinned. We became without any
form of holiness, godliness or righteousness. We became filled
with the darkness of sin. We became filled with the darkness
of unbelief. It's the darkness that unbelief
is so dark. We cannot see God any more than
a blind man can see a flower. We're in spiritual darkness.
We cannot see God. We're filled with the darkness
of our nature. Nature is just so dark. We cannot
know God. We can't see him and we cannot
know him. No, God didn't create Adam that way. We became that
way by Adam's sin. And I think it's worth pointing
this out. It's not like the sin of another was charged to us. Even though we didn't do it,
we weren't there. That would be unfair. That would not be
right, would it? And God didn't do that. Adam's
sin was charged us because we sinned in Adam. We did sin. We sinned in Adam. Adam was our
representative and when he sinned, we did too. That's how we became
sin. That's how we came to be in this
mess that we're in. We became this. And our sin has
marred God's beautiful creation. You think of the difference between
Adam And me, oh my, that's what sin causes. We became without
form and void. That's the fall of man. But here's
the third thing. The work of God, the Holy Spirit.
Verse two says, and the earth was, became, 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. Now that word move means to flutter.
and hover over. Now you see what's happening
here, don't you? Everything in God's creation was dead. God
didn't create it that way. Something happened that caused
this to be without form and void and full of darkness. Everything
is dead. But God's going to give life.
That's His purpose. And you know when that life began?
When the Holy Spirit fluttered, hovered on the face of the waters.
Everything's in darkness, but God's going to give life. And
you know how that light began? It began when the Holy Spirit
of God fluttered, moved over the waters. And that's how it
is when God saves one of His elect. Now, they're born dead. They're dead in trespasses and
sin. They're not looking for God. They don't know God. They
don't care anything about God. But God's purpose is to give
them life. They're in darkness. They cannot
see. They can't. But God's purpose
is to give them light. And it all starts before they
even know it's happening. It starts when the Holy Spirit
moves over them, when He flutters, when He hovers over them. Another
meaning of this word is broods. He broods over that sinner. He
broods over them. And He begins to give them light
and life. Remember when our Lord was talking
to Nicodemus? And the illustration that the
Lord used was the wind to describe the Holy Spirit. He said, the
wind bloweth where it listeth. Thou hearest the sound thereof,
but you can't tell where it came from, where it's going. So is
the Spirit, he said. So is the Holy Spirit. And so
is everyone that's born of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes
to God's elect, and He begins to move them. He begins to move
them toward Christ, begin to move them toward the gospel.
Could be, like many of us, could be they grew up under the sound
of the gospel. had no interest in it, did you?
Had no interest. Oh, you could quote the ABCs
of it. You knew the tenets, the doctrines
of it. But you had no interest in it.
And I've seen this happen. Can't tell you how many times
I've seen this happen. There's no interest. And that kid gets
to be a teenager. And they can start driving themselves,
you know. And you start seeing them show up on Wednesday night.
Maybe their parents can't come. They drive themselves. Why'd that happen? The Holy Spirit
of God has started to move them, and they don't even know it.
They don't even know it's happening. Not yet, they don't. Maybe it's
someone in false religion, and the Holy Spirit of God comes
and hovers over them, broods over them, and they suddenly
become dissatisfied. They've been perfectly satisfied
in their false religion for years and years and years. Maybe like
Saul of Tarsus, they prospered in it, but suddenly they're dissatisfied. They're just dissatisfied in
trusting what they used to trust before. And they're starting
to seek something. They just think there's something
else. They don't know who they're seeking. They don't know what
they're seeking. They're just seeking and they
don't know why. I do. It's the Holy Spirit of
God hovering over them, moving them to start seeking Christ.
Now again, you see this, don't you? God's the first cause of
everything. God caused all this to happen.
Look at John chapter six. All of salvation from its beginning
to its ending is all of God. And there's never a point that
we can say, ah, here's the point that my flesh contributed to
this. Because the flesh doesn't contribute to it at all. John
6, verse 63. It's the spirit that quickeneth.
The flesh profiteth nothing. The flesh does nothing. The words
that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. But
there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the
beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray
him. And he said, therefore said I unto you that no man can come
unto me except it were given unto him of my father. No man
can believe on Christ until the Holy Spirit of God hovers over
them, moves over them and causes them to start to come to Christ.
No man can believe. No man can repent. No man can
do anything. No man can have any spiritual
life or any spiritual light until God the Holy Spirit comes and
moves over them and gives them life, gives them light and faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how it happens. It's the
work of the Spirit. Right here's the fourth thing. It's the work
of God the Son in this creation of the new man. Verse three.
And God said, let there be light. And there was light. Now there
can't be any doubt that when God said, let there be light,
he meant let Christ, the light of the world, appear. He could
not have possibly meant the sun in the sky. He couldn't have
meant that. The sun is not going to be created till the fourth
day. This is the first day. Well, if it's not the sun, S-U-N
in the sky, who's this light? It has to be Christ, the light
of the world. And this is the light. that the
world must have. This is the light anyone must
have in order to have spiritual life. It's the light that God's
people have now and will have through all of eternity. You
know, in Revelations chapter 22, I just love this. John says
he saw New Jerusalem. He saw it. And he said, this
must have really surprised him. He said, there's no need of the
sun there. That's you in. There's no need of the sun. That's
you in to give light. He said, the lamb. is the light
of it. The very same light in Genesis
1-3. Let there be light. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
something else that strikes me, verse 4 says, God saw that the
light was good. Well that has to be Christ, doesn't
it? Has to be. This is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the righteousness and the goodness of His people. Now when God created
the world, all He did was speak. What? Let there be light. And
there was light. Let the firmament appear, let
the dry land appear, let the animals appear, let all these
things. God spoke and it was so. But when it came to saving
his people from their sin, when it came to the redemption of
his people, God didn't just speak. He sent his son. He said, let
there be light. He sent his son into this world to pay the redemption
price for his people. God just spoke when it came to
creation. When it came time, to redeem his people from their
sin, God got busy, if I can say it that way, and he sent his
son into this world to get the job done, to take on this work
of the redemption of his people. And that's what he did. See,
all of this is a picture of what happens when God saves and regenerates
a sinner. That sinner's dead. He's without
form, he's void, he's filled with darkness, and Holy Spirit
comes and broods over him. starts to move him. And in God's
time, God says, let there be light. And there's light. Suddenly you see what you couldn't
see before. Suddenly you believe what you
could never make yourself believe before. Suddenly you love what
you either used to hate or could care less about. Suddenly you
love it. You might not know that exact
moment that it happened, but there's gonna come a time in
the life of a believer, they're gonna realize, I believe what
I used to not believe. I love what I used to hate. My
soul hangs upon this that I didn't used to know anything about.
How'd that happen? God said, let there be light.
Suddenly, that sinner is alive. He's spiritually alive. Now light
is necessary for life. You can't have life without light,
can you? Well, now he has it. because God said, let there be
light. The Lord Jesus Christ has appeared to him. We read
that in John 1, 4 to open the service. In him was life, and
the life was the light of men. That's how God's people have
spiritual light. Christ is shown to them. Look at John chapter
nine. See, now that sinner, he was
in darkness and he could not see. He could not see. Now he
sees. Now he has life and he sees.
How'd that happen? Well, look here, John chapter
nine, the Savior tells us, verse five. He says, as long as I am in the
world, I am the light of the world. I just bet you, in most
of y'all's mind, I bet this verse went through your mind at some
point while I'm preaching. Christ, I am the light of the world.
You say, yep, that has to be the light that he's talking about.
I am the light of the world. Well, I read this verse for us
to see this. When did the Savior say that?
When did he say, I am the light of the world? When he brought
him that blind man that could not see, and the Lord made that
ointment and put it on the clay, miry clay, and put it on his
eyes and told him to go wash and you'll see. This blind man
saw. And this is what the Savior's
saying. I'm the light of the world. I'm the one who makes
the blind see. The spiritually blind see when
the Savior appears And now they see. And that's what he does
for all of his people. When the Holy Spirit reveals
Christ to our hearts, now we see. Now we see. And you know
what we see? You know what God's people see
when Christ appears? They see Christ. And that's all
they see. It's just like the disciples
on the Mount of Transfiguration. When God spoke, they fell down,
were so afraid, they looked up and they saw Jesus That's why
we see Christ only. We see Christ as our only hope.
We see Christ as our only redemption, our only righteousness, our only
sanctification. We see Him as our all. Now we
see, once we see Christ, we see, now we see, now we understand
how it is that God saves sinners. It's all in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That light is necessary for us to see, and now we see. Now it
used to be, maybe we sat under the sound of the gospel, the
light shined in the darkness, didn't it? And the gospel is
being preached, the light's shining in the darkness. And the darkness
comprehended it not. And now that sinner sees and
understands, loves the gospel because they love Christ. So
they're gonna love the gospel of Christ. How'd that happen? God said, let there be light.
And there was light. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
four. I'm not making too much of this. God gave this to us
as a picture of what happens when God saves a sinner. 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. Verse 6, 2 Corinthians 4, 6. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. God used the same creative power
to give life to his people. in the hearts of his people that
he did to create the world from nothing. You think of that. Same
power. And this life is a brand new
life. It's a brand new man who never
existed before. Never. God didn't take the flesh
and fix it up now. It's a brand new man. Here in
a few months we're gonna have a brand new baby girl, never
existed before. Same thing happens when God causes
wanted his children to be born. It's a new nature that never
existed before. Now here's why the theory of
evolution is so evil. Besides that it's wrong, besides
that it contradicts scripture, that makes it evil, but there's
more to it than that. The theory of evolution says
that man developed from some sort of algae, some sort of pond
scum, and developed into some sort of creature, and that creature,
that life form, just kept growing. It kept getting better and better
and better. It kept becoming a higher and higher and higher
level of life until it finally turned into a man. That's what
they say. Now since the creation story
is a picture of salvation, that makes the theory of evolution
blasphemous. When God saves a sinner, God
doesn't slow Make that flesh better and better and better
and better in a higher and higher, higher, higher life form until
it's righteous. No, God doesn't do that. That
which is born of the flesh is flesh. The only thing it can
ever be is sinful, dead flesh and nothing good can ever come
of it. Nothing. Even God doesn't work with it.
Even God doesn't. He creates a brand new being. Look at 2 Corinthians 5 verse
7. That's what God does. He makes his people to be a brand
new creature. Verse 17, 2 Corinthians 5. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. That word is also translated
creation. He's a brand new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. See, that new creature didn't
slowly evolve from the flesh, did it? That new creature suddenly
appeared. God said, let there be light.
and there was light in the heart of his people. And God saw that
the light was good. You know, that's the way that
God sees all of his people. He sees all of his people in
Christ. He sees them as good. Now that
can only be the work of God, can it? That's the work of God.
All right, now here's the last thing I want us to see. Not only
is God the first cause of everything, But fifthly, God made all the
difference. Verse four, and God saw the light that it was good.
And God divided the light from the darkness and God called the
light day and the darkness he called night and the evening
and the morning were the first day. Now God divided the light
from the darkness. He made a separation point and
where there's light, there can't be darkness. It can't be. So
how did God make the difference? Well, God made the difference
when He said, let there be light. God made the difference. And that's
such a beautiful picture of what happens to God's people when
God makes them a new creature in Christ. You ever seen those
pictures from space that the astronauts take and they're way
off here and you see the globe, you know, up here. And it's just
always beautiful, isn't it? Have you ever noticed this? See
that globe? bright blue, just the water and the sun and the
continents and things. It's just brilliant bright blue.
What's the other half? Utter darkness. There's that
ball in space. Half of it's light, half of it's
in darkness. And there's a clear distinction
between the two, isn't there? That's the life of the believer
on this earth. There's always going to be light,
and darkness in the same person. Two distinct opposite natures. The believer's always gonna have
that old nature of darkness and sin and unbelief and a new nature
of light and life. And those opposites are gonna
live in the same body. Light and darkness, holiness
and sin. And the difference is God. God made all the difference.
If God left us alone, we'd be all darkness. That's the way
we came into the world, isn't it? Without form, void, all darkness. And God said, let there be light.
And God clearly divided the light from the darkness. And listen,
the darkness can't make itself light. Only God can do that. Only God can say, let there be
light. There's nothing a sinner can do to make himself holy or
righteous. Not one blessed thing. Only God
can do that. But here's some good news too.
The light can't make itself darkness. The darkness can't make itself
light, and the light cannot make itself darkness. What has been
made righteous by Christ can never be unrighteous, never. Even though we still have that
old sinful nature, it's so black and ugly and dark and dead, and
all we can do is sin, and we just, when we look at ourselves,
when we look at what we do, Even when we look at what we do for
God. Even when we look at what we do in God's service for His
kingdom. If we've got any sense at all, it'll depress us. Because
we can't do anything but sin. But don't despair. Even though
that's true, we can't make ourselves unrighteous. See, we didn't make
ourselves righteous, we can't make ourselves unrighteous. We
can't make ourselves unrighteous if Christ made us righteous.
The light can never be made darkness. And God's the one who made the
difference. He's the one who made the difference between the
light and the darkness, between the saved and the lost. And that
makes the salvation of God's elect sure. The salvation of
God's people is just as sure as the light appearing when God
said let there be light. It's just as sure as the firmament
appearing when God said let the firmament appear. It's just as
sure because it all happens by the will and the power of Almighty
God. Isn't that wonderful? That is good news. Now you know
why I was excited and why I'm excited for the rest of this
study. I hope that's been a good start. All right, let's bow in
prayer together. Our Father, how we thank you
for this time that you've given to us to look into your word.
that you've enabled us, at least in some measure, to see Christ
our Savior. Father, I beg of you that you
take your word as it's been preached and cause it to bring glory to
your precious name. Cause it to take root in the
hearts of your people and give life and faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ. Cause it to comfort and strengthen
the hearts of your people to go back out into the world and
continue on on the journey that you've called us to take. Father,
we pray you take this word as it's been preached and show us
your glory. It's in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For his sake and the glory of his name, we pray. Amen. All right. If after we sing a
song, if some of you men would set up the three tables we got
out here in the vestibule for our dinner on Sunday. So we got
a place to set the food. I'd appreciate it. All right, Sean. Turn, if you would, to
song number 50, Fairest Lord Jesus. 50. Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of
all nature, O Thou of God and man the Son, will I honor thou my soul's glory,
joy, and crown. Fair are the meadows, fairer
still the woodlands, robed in the blooming garb of spring. Jesus is pure, who makes the
woeful heart to sing. Fair is the sunshine, fairer
still the moonlight, and all the twinkling starry poles. Jesus shines brighter, Jesus
shines purer than all the angels heaven can boast. Beautiful Savior, Lord of the
nations, Son of God and Son of Man. Praise adoration, now and forevermore
be thine.