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 day, called
the light day, and the darkness he called night. And the evening
and the morning were the first day." Now, there's no doubt in my mind that
this first chapter here in the book of Genesis reveals to us
the physical creation of God. He made the heavens, He made
the earth, He made the stars, the moon, the sun, the grass,
and the trees, and the whales, and the creeping creatures of
this earth. He created all things. And I
don't want to undervalue the physical creation. God created
all these things, and all of these things are for His glory.
It's very important for us to believe in God who created the
physical universe. And the same God that created
that upholds this. We saw this last week. He upholds
this creation, and he shall destroy this creation. That is, he'll
burn it up with fire unquenchable. And in the same God that upholds
this creation will change this creation. He'll make it new.
We, according to His promises, look for a new heaven and a new
earth. So the physical aspect here of
this creation is very important. We can learn a lot from it. But
I think this morning that the physical creation, is a beautiful
picture, and is meant to be a beautiful picture, of the spiritual creation. When God took an hand to create
this old creation, He had in mind to give us a picture of
how He creates in the spiritual realm, in the spiritual world. In Genesis 1-1 here it says,
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And
in Ephesians 2.10, he said, we are His workmanship created in
Christ Jesus. So God is still created. He created
physically 6,000 years ago. Now He's created new creatures
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's no doubt in my mind
that if we can see in the Old Testament If the Spirit of God
this morning would be pleased to open our hearts, we can see
Jesus Christ and salvation by Him revealed in God's work in
all creation. I say that because the New Testament
tells us plainly that in the volume of the book, it speaks
of Jesus Christ. He said, search the Scriptures,
didn't he? These are they which testify of Me. Does Genesis chapter
1 testify of Jesus Christ and that salvation that's in Him?
If we can see it, it's here. And that's what I want to see
this morning, as important as the old creation is. I think
that you and I can see in this old creation the way in which
God takes an hand in the spiritual realm of creation. First of all,
let's look at this. When it says here in verse 1
that He created the heavens and the earth, and immediately we're
told here in verse 2 that this earth was without farm, and void,
and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Now here, we're
told, is the place where the Lord began to form the old earth. Out of this mass void, out of
this emptiness, this desolation, He takes to form the old creation. And that's where we want to begin.
That's where God began to create this earth and heaven. So when
we come here to see and compare this to the new creation, here's
where we must begin. We don't begin with a beautiful
earth and say God began to create. No, when God began to create,
what did He create out of? What was the earth when He began
to form it and shape it? Well, we're told right here,
it was without form and void and darkness was upon the face
of the deep. So what does this tell us here?
First of all, this tells us about the heart of the unregenerate
person. When God comes to an individual,
to an unbeliever, to an unregenerate man, What state does he find
that man in? What's that man's condition?
Before God takes in hand to make him new, what condition does
he find that creature in? Well, here he's described, isn't
he? Here he's described, and he's described as in the same
state as this earth was when God farmed it, before God put
His hand, before the Holy Spirit hovered upon it to begin His
work in creation. And it said there for a year
that it was without farm, and that simply means it was desolate. It was vain, it was good for
nothing, it was worthless. Is that not an apt description
of the unregenerate heart? Does not the scripture tell us
that we in and of ourselves are unprofitable? We're all going
out of the way, we're all together become unprofitable to God. That describes the heart of the
unregenerate man. The unregenerate heart cannot
love God. It cannot know God. It cannot serve God. It cannot
worship God. As far as holiness is concerned,
it is worthless. Just as this world was without
form, it was desolate, it was worth nothing. There's where
we find the heart of an unregenerate man. When we come to the New
Testament and the one who knows the heart, the Lord Jesus Himself
said this about the heart. Listen. He said, From within,
out of the heart of a man, proceeds evil thoughts. Not good thoughts
now, but evil thoughts. Adulteries and fornications,
not purity, not holiness, but adulteries and fornications. Out of the heart proceeds murders,
not love, but murder. Out of the heart, he says, proceeds
thefts, not giving, not generosity, but theft. Out of the heart proceeds
covetousness, not contentment, but covetousness. Out of the
heart proceeds wickedness, not justice, but wickedness. Out of the heart proceeds deceit,
not truth, not sincerity, but deceit. Out of the heart proceeds
lasciviousness, not cleanliness, not holiness. Out of the heart
proceeds not evil eye, not a good eye. Isn't this terrible? And
he goes on to say, "...out of man's heart proceeds blasphemy."
In other words, his thoughts towards God are not right. He
has wrong, debasing thoughts of God. Out of his heart proceeds
pride, not meekness. Out of his heart proceeds foolishness,
not wisdom, not understanding. All of these things come from
within the man, and they defile the man. What is the heart, brothers
and sisters? It's a worthless thing. It's
a desolate thing. It's an unprofitable thing. Not
one good thing has ever been produced from the heart of an
unsaved individual. It's without form and void. Void
means to be empty or vacant. It's very akin to this word that
we just saw here, but it deals with a little bit more. It doesn't
mean that it's completely vacant. There's something in it, but
we just saw what was in it. But the heart is empty and vacant
concerning God and the things that belong to God. You'll find
the heart full of these evil things. But you find the heart
of an unregenerate man, you won't find one good thing in it. It's
vacant, it's empty to all that's good. Is there any true faith
in God there? Not any, it's empty. Is there
any true love for God there? Not at all, it's empty. Is there
any true hope towards God there? Not at all, it's empty. Is there
any felt need? Is there any desires? Is there
any longing after holiness, sir? Not at all. Is there one single
act of obedience in the unregenerate heart? Is there one ounce in
it of anything that pleases God? No, it's completely empty. It's vacant of all that's good. When God looked down from heaven
upon the children of men and saw their hearts, what did He
say about it? There's not a single good thing
that's in the heart of an individual. Not one thing. It's full of evil, but it's devoid
of anything that's good. Now that's where God found the
earth, without farm and boy. And when He comes to a sinner,
that's where He finds him. His heart's deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked. Now somebody's going to say,
Bruce, you'll never convince me that my heart's that bad.
You just ain't going to tell me. You may tell me, but I ain't
going to believe it. My heart's not that bad. Well, who told
you your heart wasn't that bad? Well, my heart tells me that.
Huh? I told a young lady yesterday,
I said, a man trusting his own heart is a fool. I didn't say
that, but God said that, didn't he? You'll never convince me
my heart is this bad. Well, why won't you believe your
heart's this bad? Well, look at her text. Look
at this. The earth was without form and
void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. There's why. You won't believe
it, see. There's darkness upon the face
of the deep. Your heart's that bad, you see.
Our hearts are that bad by nature. But we can't see it. Why? Because the darkness has blinded
our eyes. If you and I could have hovered
over this dark water here, the deep waters, and looked down
in it, what would we have saw? Darkness. As deep as you'd have
went down, it was utter darkness. Not one ray of light at all was
in that darkness. It was total darkness. The unsaved
cannot know themselves. They cannot know their sinfulness.
They cannot know their danger before God, that eternal danger
they stand in every moment of time. They cannot know it because
the darkness is upon the face of their heart, and that darkness
has blinded their minds. Jeremiah said the heart is deceitful
above everything. and desperately wicked. And then
he says this, who can know it? Who can know it? The heart deceives itself by
denying its sinful condition. Oh, the heart says, I don't love
God as I should, but I don't hate Him either. The heart says,
I'm not perfect as I ought to be, but I'm not all that bad.
The heart says, I'm not following the Lord Jesus as I should, but
I'm not fleeing from Him. See what the heart won't admit?
The heart will not admit it's utter ruin. It's deceitful above
all things. And what it deceives us about
is its condition. And it will not own its condition
because it cannot see its condition. Because like these waters that
were so dark, darkness is upon the face of our hearts. That's
our problem. The world is darkness, the scripture
says. The world is in darkness. The
world walks in darkness. And the world loves darkness. If you're here this morning,
dear soul, listen to me, if you're here this morning and you know
anything at all about yourself, I mean about your sin before
God, if you've got any felt need this morning in your soul of
being saved from your sins, you know anything about your need
of life eternal, If you've got any understanding this morning
about these things, I tell you, you didn't get that light by
nature. The Lord Jesus Christ has given
you that light. Whatever degree of light you
have, He's given it to you. And may He move this morning
upon you to give you more light. that men and women go unconcerned
headlong towards death and eternity and never give a second thought
about it. They'll sin against God all day. They'll walk, as
it were, over hell on thin ice while they play because they
do not know the danger they're in. At just any moment, the weight
could plunge them through that thin ice down to eternal misery
and ruin. But yet they play, and they skip
across the eyes. And you know why? Darkness is
upon the face of the deep. Now that's so. That's so. Therefore,
in the light of that, look back at our text again in verse 2. Now look at this. Look here in
verse 2, the last part of it. Here's our greatest need. And
until this takes place, the darkness will remain upon the face of
the deep. Here, look at this. Here's the
first divine action that was taken in the formation and the
shaping of this old world. What was it? The Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters. What was the face of this water?
It was darkness. It was darkness. The Spirit of
God moved upon the face of the darkness. He knows what our need
is. The Spirit of God knows where
we're at. Darkness was upon the face of
the deep. So where did the Spirit move?
Right upon the face of that darkness. Darkness was upon the face, so
He moved upon the face. Oh, blessed Holy Spirit, He knows
where we're at, doesn't He? In spiritual darkness is where
we are. A darkness so thick it can be
felt. A darkness so powerful we can't
escape from. A darkness so blinding we cannot
know we're even in it until we have light to see it. Oh, blessed Holy Spirit, what
would we be without Him? The first act of God, when He
got ready to farm this world, was to send the Holy Spirit to
hover over these waters. And in the new birth, in the
new creation, that's the first thing that must take place. The
Holy Spirit must come. Some have implied that we spend
too much time preaching on men's sinful condition. They say men
already know they're sinners. I know there is a sense in which
men and women have legal convictions. They know sometimes that they
lied or they did something wrong and they feel guilty about it.
And I know there is a degree in which men say, yes, we're
all sinners. But brothers and sisters, there's
a vast difference. There's an immeasurable difference
in what a man may know about himself by nature. That's what
he'll know and feel and see when the Holy Spirit moves upon his
heart. There's a vast difference there. I knew something about
me being a sinner too. But when He moved upon my heart,
Oh, it was all different then, but I became a real sinner then.
A sinner is a precious thing. The Holy Spirit made him so.
That is, the Holy Spirit revealed what a sinner he is. Darkness
is upon the face of a man's heart, and he cannot see the desolation
and the ruin that's there until the Spirit of truth gives him
light to see. Now, he cannot. He cannot. If he does, if you and I, if
it's enough for you and I to tell people they're sinners,
and of their danger before God, if that's enough, if they can
know that without the Spirit showing them, then what use is
it that the Spirit even comes? See, we don't need the Holy Ghost
today, do we? We've got all these tricks in
our church, you see. But a man will never know his
danger before God and the condition of his heart until the blessed
Holy Spirit comes and convicts him of sin and righteousness
and judgment to God. I tell you this morning that
I am utterly helpless to do anything to help anybody here this morning.
I plead that before you and I plead that with God. Oh, Holy Spirit,
if you don't come this morning, If you don't come this morning
and move upon our hearts, then everything else is vain. We'll
know nothing. We'll leave here as ignorant
as we were when we came. We need the blessed Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of Jesus Christ. If this world sees itself as
it really is already, without the work of the Spirit, then
let me ask this question. Why is it not fleeing to the
Lord Jesus Christ? You say every man knows he's
a sinner, why isn't he praying to the Savior then? He doesn't
know it. You can be sick and ready to
die, but if you don't know it, you don't want the doctor. But
boy, let the blood begin to flow. Begin to pass some blood. What
do we do? Boy, we head for the doctor,
don't we? I need some help. As long as
the man's healthy or thinks he is, he's not going to the expense
and the time and the effort to go to a doctor just to find out
he's healthy. But boy, let the pain set in. Then he runs. They that are whole need not
a physician. Is there anybody whole? No. There is not a just man upon
this earth that doeth good and sinneth not. But the problem
is we don't know it, see. We don't know it. We don't know
it. And if the Spirit does not come
and teach us of our corruption within, our danger before God,
We'll never know it. Now you hold that right there
and look with me right quickly in Ephesians chapter 4. Turn
right quickly to Ephesians chapter 4 and look at this. This is what I'm saying. Come
over here to the New Testament and this is the way the Apostle
says it. Look at Ephesians chapter 4, look in verse 17. Ephesians 4.17, This I say therefore,
and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their minds, the emptiness
of their minds, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their heart, who being past filling have given
themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with
greediness. But you have not so learned Christ. You've learned Christ. How did
you learn about Him? When so many more does not know
Him. How did you learn about Him? Verse 21. If so be that
you have heard Him, and you've been taught by Him, as the truth
is in Jesus, that you put off concerning the farmer life, the
farmer conversation, the old man, the old nature. What about
our old nature? What does the Lord Jesus teach
us? When the Holy Spirit moves upon the waters, what does He
teach us about our old nature? That it is corrupt, according to the deceitful lie. I tell you, I tell you, I thought
when the Lord first saved me, I thought, boy, things are going
to get better for me here on out. He's forgiven me all my
sins, and I'll never sin again. I'm clear of my guilt, and man,
I'll never feel it again. And it wasn't long, it wasn't
long, till I realized there was still this old corruptible man
in me. And he's there now. The judge
is a new man. Look back over to our text again.
Thirdly, look at this. Look in verse 3. Look at this. I don't know how, I don't know
if we were there, if we could have been there and seen this,
The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. If we
could have saw that, we no doubt would have not have seen the
Holy Spirit. You can't see Him. But I wonder if these waters
became troubled. As He hovered over them, if they
became troubled. I don't know if they did or not.
But I know there is a sense that it's happened to me and probably
some of you too. When the Holy Spirit first began to come upon
you and deal with you, You became so confused. Remember that? You
didn't understand anything, but you got troubled. You didn't
understand much about what you was troubled about, but you got
troubled. I think there's some people that come here occasionally. They're troubled. They don't
know much about what's troubled, but they're troubled. They're
troubled in their soul. Oh, I'm so troubled. I don't
understand what it's all about, but I'm troubled. Well, here's
what we need to take place. In Genesis 1, verse 3, the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, Let
there be light. And there was light. That's what
we need. Oh, Spirit of God, come and trouble
us, but don't leave us troubled. Don't leave us troubled. Shine
into our troubled hearts. Give us light. You ever wonder
why the first thing that was given in this new creation, this
old creation, was light? The very first thing was light. You know why that was? There's
no light apart from light. If you take away the light, the
natural light out of our universe, you might as well go ahead and
take all the vegetation out of it, all the trees, God has so
formed this world that we live in, you take away the natural
sun, it's light and warmth, and it dies. And you take away the
natural sun, wouldn't it be a dark place to live? It'd be despairing
to live, wouldn't it? Solomon said, it's sweet to see
the light. It's a wonderful thing, he said, for the eyes to behold
the Son. And it is, naturally, ain't it?
But you know something, brothers and sisters? What this natural
life is to the natural creation, that is, it's essential to life,
The Lord Jesus Christ is to the spiritual world. He's its light and its life. And you know when you come to
the New Testament, you can't hardly separate those two things.
Light and life. They just go together. Christ
is called the light of life. He is light. I am the light of
the world, he said. He that followeth me shall never
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. He is the light. When John came
preaching, they said, John, are you the light? He said, no, I
ain't the light. I come by witness of the light,
though, he said. He's the true light. Christ is the true light. The light of every man that cometh
into this world. Every man. Darkness in the scripture
represents to us death and sin and ignorance and misery. But
light is Christ and life and joy and peace. I am life eternal. And he that heareth my words,
and believeth on me, that sent me." What does he have? He has
light. He that hath the sun hath light. He is that light. What
does light do? It enables us to see, doesn't
it? If it's dark, you can't see.
You can't make out objects. But when the light shines, you
can make out objects. You can see how far away they
are in their shapes. That's what light does. Spiritual
life enables us to discern, to recognize, to know, to understand. At the same time, life lets us
recognize our misery and see it for what it is. It lets us see something else.
It lets us see ourselves in Christ, saved from our misery. I tell
you, I want to be in Christ, but you know something? I want
light to see that I'm in Him. I want to be in Him and I want
to know that I'm in Him. We know that the Son of God hath
come and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him. There's
light in it. There's light. Christ is the
light that comes to our hearts. And boy, when He comes, He brings
life with Him. And then, in that light, we see that we have life
in Him. I want you to look with me over
in the passage of Scripture. I think I remember where it is.
I think it's over in Isaiah chapter 60. Isaiah chapter 60. Light does two things. In the sense that we're speaking
of it this morning, it brings life. It is life. But it also
shows us that we have life. Look here what he says in chapter
60 and verse 19. Look at these two things. These
are wonderful things. Chapter 60 and verse 19 of Isaiah. The sun shall be no more thy
light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto
thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and
thy God thy glory." He said, I'm going to be your light to
show you. That's what that first verse means there, verse 19.
I'm going to be a light unto your feet. I'm going to be your
light by day. You're going to see some things.
That's what he said, I'll be a light unto you. Now look at
verse 20. The sun shall no more go down,
thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw
itself, for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and
the days of thy morning shall be ended. He said in verse 19,
I'm going to be a light to show you. And what's he going to show
you? I'm going to show you this. I
am your light. I am your light. See what light does? Light is
Christ. Light is what this light is. He that hath the sun hath light. But he said, I'm going to be
a light to show you that I'm your light. And I want to know
both of those, don't you? I want to know Christ is in me.
I tell you, there have been times that he's been there and I didn't
realize it. There have been some times when my understanding was
so dark and my faith so weak, I thought for sure, I'm without
Christ. I'm without Him. But was I? Why, no. I just needed
light to see Him. In thy light we shall see light. Look back over at our text again.
First thing the Lord says, let there be light. Oh may God come
this morning and say to some heart, let there be Christ in
that heart. Let Christ be in that heart.
I want to give you three things quickly concerning this light
here in our text. God said, let there be light,
and there was light. Three things about this. First
of all, notice it was instant. It was instant. Let there be
light. Our commentators tell us that
this literally reads in the Hebrews, God said, Light be, and light
was. That's how quick it was. Light
be, and light was. In other words, it was a gradual
process. It wasn't a thing that took three
or four hours. When God said, let there be light,
there was light. That instantaneous. Now, brothers
and sisters, I know, I know that when a man is born again, that
he's just an infant. And he learns how to suck the
milk, he learns how to crawl, then he learns how to walk, and
he grows in grace and knowledge. And that's a process. All of
our long days will be growing in grace and knowledge of our
Lord and Savior. And I know there is a sense which coming to Christ
is a process. God convicting us of sins and
bringing us to Christ, whether it takes Him a long time or a
short time, there's a process in that. I realize that. That
woman with an issue of blood, she didn't get to Christ immediately,
did she? She pressed her way through the crowd. A process
in some effect. But you know the new birth is
not a process. It happens instantaneously. At
one moment, a man is dead in trespasses and sin, and the very
next instant, he's made alive. Coming to know the Lord Jesus
Christ better is a process. We know Him as we pray. We know Him as we read His Word. We know Him as we listen to His
ministers. But knowing the Lord Jesus Christ
happens instantly. Here we are sitting, one instant,
we don't know Him. Our hearts are in darkness and
ignorance, and then the very next moment, Christ is revealed
to the understanding. Now, ain't that so? Paul was
on the Damascus road, proud, Pharisee. And he was knocked
down off of his horse, and the light shined upon him, and he
said, he said, who are they? He said, I'm Jesus. That quick. I'm Jesus. Mary was there at
the tomb of the Lord. She was trying to get his body
to take him and bury it in another tomb. And her heart was filled
with so much sorrow and darkness. She was so sad. And the Master
was standing behind her, and he spoke one word, and immediately
revealed himself to her, and gone was the darkness. Oh Lord
Jesus, Master, she said this. This process, this business of
God giving us life, it's not a process. It's instantaneous. I love that passage of Scripture
in the Old Testament. where it said the people that
walked in darkness saw a great light, and they that dwelled
in the land of the shadow of death, they seen a great light.
And you come over to the New Testament, and the Holy Spirit
quotes that verse of Scripture, and He changes it just a little
bit, and I love this. Over in the Old Testament, they
walked in darkness. And they dwelt in the shadow
of death, the land of the shadow of death. But he comes with a
New Testament, and when the Lord Jesus went preaching in those
regions, the Spirit said to fulfill that which was written, the people
that sat in darkness. Isaiah didn't say they sat, he
said they walked. But what they did, they got so
discouraged, their darkness was so great, finally they just sat
down. They couldn't see how to walk
any longer. There they sat in the darkness.
And those that sat in the regions and shadows of death, there they
sat. And the Scripture says this, light has sprung up. Ain't that wonderful? That's
the way it is. Do you hear where the darkness
is? And suddenly there's light. Oh, brothers and sisters, ain't
that a wonderful thing about God's salvation? These other
religions, they put you in these classes to teach you, you know.
And you go after two or three years, then you can be accepted
within. They taught you all these things
and tried to make you better. Oh, that's not God's way. He
comes to you in your darkness, in your utter lostness. And he
says, light be, and light is, and you're saved, and you're
made new, and you're free, and you know the Lord. That's wonderful,
isn't it? Instantaneous. Light was instantaneous. And secondly, notice about this
light, notice this. This light was irresistible.
And God said, let there be light, and there was light. But Bruce,
what about this darkness? This was an awful darkness. And
it was upon the face of the deep. And if you'd have went down in
that depth, you'd have thought, well, there's no way light can
penetrate this darkness. This darkness could resist any
light. No, no, no, brothers and sisters.
No. I tell you, a poor sinner may
resist what I would call the common motions of the Holy Spirit.
The general call of the Holy Spirit. A sinner may resist that. But I tell you, when the Holy
Spirit comes to work effectually, and He says, Let there be, there
shall be. Well, don't that just bless your
soul? I tell you, if there's anybody
here this morning that has any more trouble with darkness in
their mind than I do, I pity you. There's days that I go,
I read and I can't get anything out of the Bible. I read a verse
20 times and still don't know anything about what it says.
And I walk in darkness. Many days of my life I walk in
darkness. And my comfort of that is this.
I know my Lord and Savior has power to penetrate this darkness
of my mind and give me light. He can speak one word to me,
just one word to my mind, and the darkness is gone. And you
know something I found? This darkness of my mind cannot
resist His light either. When He speaks, let there be.
There must be. I will have mercy. I will have
mercy. Mercy when it comes by the power
of God is irresistible. And your rebellion and your sin
and the darkness of your understanding cannot resist mercy when God
is pleased to show you mercy. Everything falls before it. The
darkness is gone, and mercy is shown. Turn us again, O God. Cause Thy face to shine upon
us, and we shall be saved. I was reading, oh, I can't think of the guy's
name now, Charles Finney. I wish I could never think of
that man's name again. He said, God's got no control
over about what goes on in the heart of the saved. He said,
that's all up to us. He said, God has given us power
to deliver ourselves. In other words, if we're in darkness,
we can command the light. If we need something spiritually,
all we have to do is just bring it on. We've got the power. David
said, Lord, cause your face to shine. David, why don't you cause
it to? I don't have the power to. And
when he withholds his face, oh, I'm in darkness. But if he's
pleased to shine his face, my darkness cannot resist his light.
Charles Perkins said this. He said, Oh, how glorious is
God when we think of him as being irresistible in aiding us and
saving us. I could not worship a little
God, he said. But when I think of my great
God as looking down upon the blackness and darkness of the
human nature and saying, let there be light, and light comes
at once, oh, he said, I magnify the God of all grace for that.
And I praise his holy name. Irresistible. Irresistible. And lastly, I'll close with this.
Light comes unaided by the darkness. Did you notice that? Let there
be light, and there was light. Darkness never made itself light.
And it didn't aid the light in coming. It didn't help the light
to shine. All that darkness did was to
give place. It never aided it there. Is there anything in the old
nature that can assist in the work of salvation? No. Can a
clean thing come out of an unclean thing? Can a bad tree produce
any fruit at all? Not at all. Does darkness aid
the light, or only seek to resist the light if it can? In me, in
my flesh, dwells no good thing. It cannot do good, and it cannot
aid in doing good. God saw the light, and what did
He say about the light? It's good. He didn't say that
about the darkness, though, did He? When the light came, it came
unaided by the darkness. And God separated those two,
one from another. And He looked at the light and
He said, the light's good. But He separated from the darkness.
Why? The darkness is still there.
Brothers and sisters, you and I have within us today light
and darkness. We have these two natures. We
have a new nature created in the image of Christ, and we still
have this old nature. And this old nature can never
aid the new nature in doing anything. That's why God has separated
them, and He tells us to put off the one and put on the other.
And God still today looks at this new nature, and He says,
that's good. That's light. That's light. Did
you ever notice that last verse there that I read to you? It
said, this was the evening and the morning were the first days.
And that's sort of strange, ain't it? If you and I count days,
we'll say this morning and the evening were the first day. We
got up this morning, the first day of the week. It was morning,
and we'll come back tonight. But when the Lord began to create,
He said the evening and the morning were the first. You know why?
Darkness was before light. That which was bad was before
that which was good. And that tells us something about
these new creatures, doesn't it? When we come into this world,
it's not morning, it's night. These old creatures, these old
natures that we have, it's darkness. And then, secondly, comes light. And it's so in our experience,
isn't it? Right now we're living in the
days of darkness. But you know something, the darkness will
soon be past, and we'll go in then to that eternal day. That's
the Lord's way of doing things. And God looked upon the light
and said, it is good. You know what's good. You know
what's good. Whatever God does. That's good. Let there be light and so the
light. And He looks upon your new creature that He created
in the image of Christ. Now you think about this today.
You go home and think about this. The Lord never takes His eye
off of that new creature. He looks upon that new creature,
His work, that He's begun in your heart. And He says, that's
so good. And you know why? It's His work.
And he sees his Son in you. He's predestinated you to be
conformed to the image of his Son, and he looks upon his Son
in you. And someday he's going to have
you in heaven, and you're going to look just like Christ. You're
going to look just like him. It don't yet appear what you
shall be, but when He appears, you're going to be just like
Him, because you're going to see Him as He is. And every day
of your life, though you see nothing in yourself but sin and
wretchedness, God sees His work, and He says, And everything that flows out
of that creature is good and acceptable in the sight of God,
because it's His Word. It's His Word. God bless His
Word. Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven,
we thank You for this precious Word. Forgive us of our ramblings. Forgive us of our being so scattered. O Lord, as we consider ourselves
this morning, we realize But even handling these precious
truths, everything we touch, there is iniquity in it. Forgive
us, therefore, of the iniquity of the holy things, and bless this word this morning
in spite of us, the weakness of the poor vessel. Interpret
this precious truth to the hearts of those gathered here today.
You are a great God. You are a sovereign God. And
we bow to worship you. We adore you. The more you show
us of yourself, Lord, the more we love you and the more we believe
you. Grant us today to think upon
what we have heard this morning. Grant us that this may be a day
of worship. Grant us tonight energy, opportunity,
a desire to return again, to seek your face, and be at unity
one with another, for Christ's sake. Amen.