We're going to read verses 14
through 19 tonight. The title of my message is The
World and the Elect. Genesis chapter 1 beginning with
verse 14. And God said, let there be lights
in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night.
Let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for
years. and let them be for lights in
the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth. And it
was so. God made two great lights, the
greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the
night, and he made the stars also. God set them in the firmament
of heaven to give light upon the earth and to rule over the
day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness.
And God saw that it was good in the evening and the morning
for the fourth day. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, mighty,
sovereign, and glorious, holy, perfect, and pure, we come into
your presence seeking your help for this time of need. We've
gathered to worship you. We know our flesh fights against
it. I pray our spirit will subdue our flesh, that your spirit will
subdue our flesh, And we might fix our hearts and minds upon
that which is worthwhile, even Jesus Christ, our Lord. We pray
for those of our company who are sick. We remember especially
Wayne, to watch over him and those who attend to him. Father,
we pray also for Robert and for Peggy Lambert, for Ethel. We
ask, Lord, you'd be with them and comfort them in these times.
They would love to be here. And we know, Lord, It is your
will and according to your plan that they be where they are.
We bow to your wisdom and we pray your peace and comfort upon
them. I pray for ourselves tonight
as we gather here. We pray the Holy Spirit will
take the words of Christ and reveal them unto us. Teach us
thy way, O Lord. Cause us to walk in thy statutes.
Lead us in the paths of righteousness for Christ's name's sake. And
help us to look to Him alone. I pray in Christ's name, Amen. Now on the fourth day of creation
as we just read, God created the sun, the moon, and set them
in place in the firmament. The planets of our solar system
were also created this time and set in their elliptical orbits
around the sun. And all the heavenly bodies that
are included under the term lights As the greater light, the sun,
was designated to rule the day, the lesser light, the moon, was
said to rule the night. The rule was limited to that
of provision, for they provide light, but they are nonetheless
said to rule, and to use that word in some way points to the
sovereignty of God in these things. These, along with the placement
of stars in the constellations, are said to be placed because
they were for things that have to do with time. They are temporal
things, this sun, this moon, and these stars. They were said to be for seasons,
and days, and time, and years. Says that in verses 14 and 18. This reveals that they were placed
for human history. They were there for mankind,
a place for human history, which is the realm in which our Lord
executed His work of salvation, which He had purposed before
the foundation of the world and accomplished on Calvary's tree
some 2,000 years ago. The truth is also declared that
these lights were put into the firmament to give light upon
the earth. to give light upon the earth.
It says that in verse 15 and verse 17. And since the earth
was made for man or mankind, these lights were for his benefit.
And we see in this passage the repeated theme that began in
the second or in the first record of creation in verses 1 through
5 of chapter 1. That is the theme of darkness
and light. evening and morning, and the division of light from
darkness, which pictures the election of God unto salvation."
Twice in our passage here, he speaks of dividing the light
from the darkness. Scripture says, the people who
dwelt in darkness have seen a great light. Christ said of himself, I am
the light of the world. John said, this is the record
that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. And it
is said of the elect of God that they were once darkness, but
now are light. These terms are throughout scripture,
not only in the Old Testament, but surely here in the beginning
and all the way through the New Testament. The word of God is
described as light. being spirit and life, the bringer
of life and the understanding of things to the simple. It's
called a light to our path and a lamp to our feet. For those
who have been born from above, regenerated by the spirit through
the preached word, the message revealed in the creation of the
sun and the moon is of true spiritual import. For these are the things
that the disciples and our Lord preach from. before the New Testament
was ever written. He who created these things rules
over them and they will continue. Seasons, years, and days, and
times will continue until they have served their purpose and
their purpose once fulfilled will be the end of time. The end of time. These things
are not eternal. We put a lot of confidence in
things we can touch, taste, and feel, but none of those things
are eternal. They are temporal and will pass
away when our Lord comes again. They are temporal and their significance,
though essential to the physical world, teach spiritual truths
that can only be received and understood by those whom God
has given faith by His sovereign grace. The sun and moon typify
the Lord and his work of salvation upon the earth, as all things
do in this great book. Darkness and light typify many
things. They typify the old and the new
covenants. They typify the spirit and the
flesh. They typify the lie and the truth. They typify damnation and they
typify salvation. The greater light is said to
be the sun and it rules the day. This declares that the sovereignty
of God and the salvation of sinners, he rules the day. We find in
scripture that term often repeated, on that day, on the day. Find it all the way through the
Old Testament. Our Lord speaks of that day, that day on Calvary. That's the day he speaks of.
On that day our God, God incarnate, hung in agonies and blood on
the cross of Calvary. And while he was there, nailed
to the cross, His flesh torn all up, the crown of thorns placed
hard down upon his head. His face bruised from the strikes
of Roman soldiers, the spittle of those who hatred dripping
from his chin, his beard having been plucked out by those who
hated him. What was he doing there on that
cross? We know that he was dying in the room instead of his people,
we know that. But there was something else
going on there too. He was ruling this world. The one who made
the stars and the sun and the moon will soon prove that he's
able to cut off the sun, cut the light out, the light that
lights this world, this world and this natural world. On that
day when God incarnate hung there in agony and blood, he was ruling
and reigning with absolute sway over things. As men gathered
spittle in their mouth to spit upon him, he gave them power
to do so. As they drew back their fist and hit him in the face,
he gave them power to do so. As they took the lash and lashed
his body, he gave them power to do so. He was giving them
breath as they were doing this. He was keeping their heart beating
as they were doing this. This was all because this was
a voluntary thing our Lord did. He didn't come to earth to be
a world leader. He didn't come to earth to die
as a martyr. He didn't come to earth to be
an example for people to follow. He came to earth to die. That
was why he came to earth. He came here to die, to be crucified. And on that day, on that day,
his power was of such magnitude that he shut down the ruler of
the day, the sun, for three hours while his father dealt with him
after our iniquities laid stripes on our sin and visit our transgression
with the rod of justice as our sins have been laid on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And on that day, as in every
other day, the ruler of all ruled the ruler of the day. The Son
was said to be the ruler of the day. And it's light, men say,
will not go out for a long time. It went out for three hours one
time I know of. It went out. The Son was cut
off. God and His Son. are pictured
in scripture by the Son. Metaphorically, the Son is often
used to point to our God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Hebrews 1, when it says the effulgence of God's glory, the
outshining of God's glory, that sets Christ forth as a Son. Look
over at Psalm 84. Use your Bibles now. We're going
to look at some scriptures. Now, Psalm 84, verse 11, it says,
for the Lord God is a son, a son and a shield. The Lord will give
grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold
from them that walk uprightly. The Lord is a son. That's how he's described. The
same type of language is used throughout the scripture. Look
over at Isaiah chapter 60. Isaiah chapter 60. Verse 19 and 20, it says, the
sun shall be no more thy light by day, nor brightness shall
the moon give unto thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an
everlasting light, thy God, thy glory. Thy sun shall no more
go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord
shall be thine everlasting light, and days of thy mourning shall
be ended. when the promise in Malachi,
a lady called me the other night and was reading the book of Malachi
and she was just amazed at some of the things it said, because
it really set forth the end of Jewish religion as it was known. Our Lord spoke, not again for
400 years, but before he shut the voice from heaven down, and
never spoke to a prophet or a father for 400 years. Before he did
that, he made a promise, and that was a promise that there
was a man named John the Baptist who was gonna come along someday
who would be like Elijah. Some say he was Elijah, reincarnated,
if you will. He was Elijah. Our Lord said
that. If you believe this about John,
you believe that he's Elijah. He promised that that messenger
would come with a message about another messenger, the messenger
of the covenant, who would suddenly appear in his temple. And here's
how that messenger is described in chapter four of Malachi in
verse two. It says, but unto you that fear
my name, and when we read those words, that means reverence his
name, revere his name, love his name. But unto you that fear
my name shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings,
and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves in the stall. That's talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ rising from the grave in new power, giving life
and light. Our Lord is described in another
way in the Gospel of Luke. In Luke chapter one, In verse 78, this is Zacharias prophesying
concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the
tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring, the day spring
from on high has visited us. What is the day spring from on
high? What springs forth the day? The sun. The sun. So our Lord is compared
to the day spring. That same kind of language is
used in 2 Peter chapter 1. In 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter declaring
that he had actually seen some things that other men had never
seen. He, James, and John had seen the light of the sun, light
brighter than the sun, shining on the Lord Jesus Christ on the
Mount of Transfiguration. He had actually seen Moses and
Elijah come back from across time and stand with the Lord
Jesus Christ as the law and the prophets and give witness to
the death what he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But he says, we have a more sure
word of prophecy in verse 19. A more sure word of prophecy.
And he's talking about the Bible that's in your lap. That right
there is more sure than if you had stood on the Mount of Transfiguration
and saw our Lord transfigured, for His light shone brighter
than the noonday sun, and His robes were white and glistering
and whiter than any fuller could make them. This prophecy is what
you hold in your hand. We also have a more sure word
of prophecy than actually seeing our Lord, whereunto you do well
that you take heed as a light that shineth in a dark place
until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. That's the Son. That's the Lord
Jesus Christ by His Spirit. Over in Revelation chapter two, Revelation chapter two, in verse 28, It says, and I will
give them the morning star. What is the morning star? It's
the sun. It's the sun. The sun is what we see shining
every day. It says of the Lord Jesus Christ,
our God, our God out of Zion has shined. has shined. The same language is used in
Psalm 50 and also in Ezekiel chapter 43. You see, God is our
light. God is our light. Christ is our
light. The Word of God is our light.
He is our Son, the Son of Righteousness. The seventh day when creation
was finished, there was no mentioning of an evening and a morning.
because the work was finished, and that picture's the work of
salvation being finished. There's no more sun and moon
for you. In your spirit there is only one light, and that is
God Almighty, God resting in the glory of His finished work.
The stars and the planets are mentioned in this passage, are
included in what is described as lesser lights. They are in
the heavens at all times, but only visible at night in the
darkness. In their manifold way, they provide
light so that total darkness is never the case. But in scripture,
men and women of renown are sometimes called stars. Sometimes nations
are described as stars. Satan himself was described as
a star when scripture says, I saw a star fallen from heaven. It
was when Satan was cast out. And God has used men and women
and nations to guard and keep and proclaim his glory and salvation. But they're just little bitty
lights. They're little bitty lights as far as man perceives
and when do they disappear? They disappear altogether when
the sun rises. It's still daylight out there
and the stars aren't out yet. Why? Because there's a greater
light in the sky that dims their light. It doesn't actually dim
it, but it is so bright that they are dimmed by comparison.
Soon the sun will go down behind the horizon and we won't be able
to see the stars at night. They're still there. They're
not going away. They don't disappear. The sun
is simply brighter. They have glory, these stars.
I was watching a movie the other day about Australia and on the
outback, and at night there are no lights from cities. And the sky is magnificent with
stars. Looks like you could reach up
and touch them and grab a handful. They're so great. But you know
what happens to all that glory? When dawn breaks, you can't see
a one of them. Not that they're not there. Not
that they don't provide light. But by comparison to glory, the
glory of the sun, they disappear. And that's the description of
the old covenant being a lesser light whose glory disappears
in the light of the new covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at
the analogy Paul uses in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 concerning law and
grace, concerning the law and the gospel. Many men at the time
he wrote 2 Corinthians were still seeking to be under the law.
And he said the law can't do anything for you. The law's administration
is not good. The law's administration will
hurt you. The law will kill you. but they
wouldn't hear. But he makes a comparison between
these two covenants, between the gospel and the grace of God. He says this in chapter two.
Oh, that's first Corinthians. Let me get over to second Corinthians. Second Corinthians chapter three. He says in verse five, not that
we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves,
but our sufficiencies of God, who also made us able ministers
of the new covenant or the New Testament, not of the letter,
which is the law, but of the spirit, which is Christ Jesus.
For the letter killeth. Now that's pretty plain, isn't
it? The law killeth, but the spirit giveth life. What you wanna sign up for? The
law killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. But if the ministration
of death, the law is called the ministration of death, it administers
death. It's written in graven in stones,
was glorious so that the children of God could not steadfastly
behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance,
which glory was to be done away with. It's not only ministration
of death, God's gonna do away with the law. How shall not the
ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious, or more glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, if the law was glory, if the lesser lights are glorious,
and they are, if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness
exceed in glory, exceed in glory. And that's just a picture of
what we're talking about here, these lesser lights and these
greater lights. The lesser lights are there,
they provide light. Not a great amount, but they
do provide light. But when the great glory of the
sun arises, no light you can see. That is here with the law. The law was a light. God called
it a light unto our path and a lamp unto our feet. God called
His statutes light. No doubt there was life there,
but it was a dim light. It was like the stars. It was
a dim light. There was a whole lot of them.
There was a whole lot of things that were light back there. The
law, when the law was given, it condemned what was going on
down at the bottom of that mountain. When the law was given, it administered
death. It showed men that they deserved
death. It showed men that because of their transgression, they
were already on death row. They were already in the electric
chair. The switch was about to be pulled because the law, that's
what it does. But then there was more to the
law than that. There was this thing called the ceremony. Where
there was a brazen altar. And the priest took a lamb and
cut his throat and skinned him and burned him on that brazen
altar. Why? As an atonement for sin. To show that sin had been put
away. Because a sweet smelling savor rose up to God. And throughout
scripture, that sweet smelling savor is Christ on the cross.
In the gospel we preach. You had different ceremonies.
You had the sin offering and the peace offering, and all of
these pointed to the work of Christ. So you had the Lord saying,
see these lesser lights. They're there. They're beautiful.
They teach us something. They teach us that the law was
added for transgression, therefore being born in transgression must
die before the law. But there's hope. in an atonement
that God might be appeased in some way. And all these lambs
and bullocks and turtledoves and kid goats were slain and
their blood was shed. No sin was ever put away. There
was a light there though. It was a dim light. It was a
shrouded light. It was a light that said something's
going to happen out here. All this is pointing to something.
We know that when the priest went on the Day of Atonement,
he went in there and offered blood for himself and all the
people of Israel, and God was appeased for a year. But it was
also a reminder that at the end of that year, they're going to
have to be done again because sin had not been remitted. But
it was a light. What was it speaking of? It was
speaking of Him who was to come. who was the light of the world,
who would hang on a rugged cross and die in the room instead of
his people and actually put away sin and remit sin. Oh, those old lesser lights.
That's why I love to preach out of the Old Testament. They're
lesser lights, but boy, they poured to that great light, the
Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel we preach is a ministration
of life and spirit not a ministration of death, but it'll tell you
the truth about you. It'll tell you if you seek to be righteous
by God's law, that ministration is your death. It'll kill you. It'll kill you. The light of
God, the sun, brighter than those great lights. The moon is also
described here as the lesser of the two great lights. The
moon pictures and typifies many things. First it pictures the
church. Why so? Because if you were able
to look at the moon in any time other than night
time you would see that it's just a desolate gray ball of
dust. There's nothing to it. It doesn't
even spin on axis. It orbits the sun, or orbits
the earth, and orbits the sun as the earth orbits the sun,
but it doesn't turn on its axis. It stays. This part faces the
sun and waits for the sun to shine for it to get light. This
part is dark. It's called the dark side of
the moon. I remember in scientific or science
fiction books when I was a kid, I was kind of a fiend for them,
I loved them. often talked about the dark side of the moon. They
talk about it. I just read recently that China
has sent a rocket ship and one of those things that would drive
around on surface to the moon, to the dark side of the moon
rather than the light side of the moon. The moon is light and
darkness. The moon is light and darkness.
But the moon pictures and typifies this. It pictures the church. It is a light. a light that rules
in darkness. For our Lord said, He has made
us unto our God, kings and priests, and we will rule with Him. So
the church rules in this dark world. But you see, it's light. It's not its own. It's derived
light. The light we see in the moon
is a reflection of the sun's light. It's all it is. are reflections
of the sun's light. It's light is derived and it's
a mere reflection of the light of the sun. The church is a light
in a dark world, but it's light is not its own. It's light is
a reflection of Christ, the light of the world. Christ in the world,
all us poor church members wouldn't have no light at all. Wouldn't
be no light to us. The moon is both darkness and
light. As I said, it's a desolate orb
saved for the light of the sun, but even as the sun lights upon
it, a part of it lies in darkness called the dark side of the moon.
This is true of every believer in every member of the body of
Christ, the church. While they remain upon the earth,
they are spirit. Every believer, light. And they
are flesh. They're darkness. The light of Christ is their
spirit. The flesh is the dark side of the moon. Void of light,
light, never receiving the light of the sun of righteousness. This is how things are described
in the word of God. Our Lord, when he spoke to Nicodemus
in John chapter three, he said this about this light
and darkness in the church. this flesh and the spirit that
is in every man, every man born of God. John chapter three and
verse six, he says this, that which is born of the flesh is
flesh, and that which is born of the
spirit is spirit. And those are two entirely different
things. God doesn't get somehow, dig
down deep in you and find a spark of divinity and create a spirit
within you. God gives you his spirit and that spirit is upon
you and rules you from then on. But it has nothing to do with
the flesh. This is where we mistake ourselves.
When we try to mortify the deeds of the flesh, we don't seek the
spirit to do it, unfortunately, as we should. We don't seek Christ
to do it. The first thing we do is try
to fix our own problems. And where do we go to fix them?
Ourselves. And how does that turn out? It
never ends up well. It always ends up badly. The
flesh and the spirit. The flesh and the spirit do not
reside together. Paul said that to the Roman church
in Romans chapter eight, verses five through 10. He says, for
they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For
to be carnally minded or fleshly minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. But the carnal mind, natural
man, the fleshly man is enmity. It doesn't say it's at enmity,
he says it's enmity. Whatever enmity is, that is the
vengeful, murderous hatred is what enmity is. That's what our
natural mind is against God. For it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be, so that being the case, then
they that are in the flesh cannot please God. And listen very carefully,
nothing you do and nothing I do in the power of our own flesh
will ever please God, no matter how kind, how gentle, how tender,
how philanthropic, how altruistic it might be, it will never please
God. Because they that are in the
flesh mind the things of the flesh and they that are in the
spirit. So they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But
he says, but you're not in the flesh. He's talking to his children.
Oh, there's that dark side of the moon in us. He said, but
you're not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so be that
the spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
spirit of Christ, he's none of his, he's none of his. And if
Christ be in you, excuse me, the body is dead because of sin,
but the spirit is life because of righteousness. And then Paul
again, writing to the Galatian church about the same things,
said this about the flesh and the spirit. Galatians chapter
five, verse 16 and 17, this I say, then walk in the spirit. And
ye shall not. Now that's just as plain as it
can be. You walk in the spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust
of the flesh. You shall not. That don't mean
you might not stick your toes in it or reach your finger out
to taste it, take a taste, but you will not dwell there. And
it simply means this also, that the spirit does nothing by the
flesh, and the flesh does nothing by the spirit, nothing whatsoever.
And he says in verse 17, because the flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit lusteth against the flesh. And these
are contrary to one another, so that you cannot do the things
you would. You cannot go into the flesh
like you would and you can't go into the spirit like you would
sadly to say because they're always a fight going on always
a fight the moon with light on one side
and dark on the other pictures our flesh and our spirit and
finally sometimes there's a celestial phenomenon called a lunar eclipse
that takes place when the earth's orbit brings it in a straight
line between the sun and the moon the scripture describes
that time in several places as the moon is turned to blood the
moon is turned to blood this is described thusly because in
a lunar eclipse the sun appears as red or a light shade of red
this is a picture of the church believers, you and I, when the
world gets between us and the sun. When the cares of the world and
the lusts of the world get between us and Christ. Though there is
a different revelation of light, here's the joy, there is still
light. And that light is described as blood. The moon, it doesn't say the moon
looks like blood, it said the moon is turned to blood. And what a picture this is of
the sure salvation of the church, the security of the church. Though
the world may sometimes bring darkness to the life of the believer,
he is always under the blood of the Substitute. That light
will never go out. When the world assaults the church,
her light remains and that light is revealed in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So the Lord said on the fourth
day, as he began the fourth day, let there be lights in the firmament
of the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be
for signs and for seasons and for days and years. Let there
be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon
the earth, and it was so. God made two great lights, the
greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the
night, and he made the stars also. God set them in the firmament
of the heaven to give light upon the earth and to rule over the
day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness.
God saw that it was good, and the evening and the morning were
the fourth day. Father, bless us to our understanding.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen.