Begins by emphasizing the importance of understanding the Bible in its proper context, likening misinterpretations to a blurred photograph. It then delves into Genesis 1:1-5, explaining that God's creation was initially perfect, but verse 2 describes a chaotic state, using the Hebrew words "Tohu" (without form) and "Bohu" (void). The examples highlight the work of the Spirit of God moving upon the waters and God's creative power through His Word, which brings order (cosmos) out of chaos. The sermon connects this to God's plan for humanity, from creation to the future millennial reign, and also to the individual's need for regeneration through the Word and Spirit, beginning with God's declaration, "Let there be light."
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like Burlington more all the time I've been preaching 45 years and I think that's the first time that they told me to keep going they told me often to get stopped but and tried various ways but none of them have worked. And I'm too old to learn any new tricks, so it looks as though we just have to keep on going. But as I said this morning, I do want to be considered of you. I hope you'll be able to come. Naturally, in a connected series like this, it's those who are able to be out to all the services that are going to derive the greatest amount of benefit.
And so I do want to be considered of you. I know that the days are full for you, and if you're able to come out each night, we certainly don't want to keep you any longer than is reasonable. And so far as the subject is concerned, one could just speak on these verses that we have before us, and the chart on the subject, we could speak on it well over a month. So there will be no use of trying to get through all the material, but we'll just look to the Lord to guide us in that, which would be the most profitable. We'll read the first five verses, please, in your Bible. Genesis chapter 1, beginning at verse 1, and reading the first five verses.
In the beginning, God created the heavens 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.
Now, as I mentioned this morning, there undoubtedly will be many things that you will notice on the chart that we'll not refer to for lack of time. There will be other things that I will say that I'll not make myself quite clear regarding, and other questions will come into your mind. So that each night at the rear of the chapel, you will find a box. Now, if you'd like to write Now, pertain to any subjects that we are referring to, we'll take those out each night. Now, I'll take them out tonight, and tomorrow night, we'll answer the questions that have been placed in there today.
That will be at the beginning of the service. We were noticing this morning, and I don't want to spend too much time recapitulating, but some of you are not able to be with us this morning, possibly. to just pick up the thread of the studies once again. If you've ever taken a picture with your camera of something that you particularly wanted, and then you sent the film off to be developed, back they came, and you looked, first of all, at that particular print, that one that you had a special interest in, And to your horror, well, you knew what it was, but that's about all.
It just wasn't clear at all. And there's no possibility going back and retaking it. There you are, thoroughly disappointed. Now, what was wrong? There wasn't anything wrong with a camera. There wasn't anything wrong with the object that you took a picture of. But you just didn't take time. to get it in the proper focus. And as a result, it was all blurred. And anyone who hadn't seen the original object might get a wrong impression altogether of what it was like. Now I believe that that occurs many times in connection with our Bible.
I hear many strange prophetic ideas today that are supposed to come out of the Bible. Well, they're out of the Bible all right, they're not in it. And the reason I believe that people have these confused notions is they just haven't taken time to get the truth of God into proper focus. Many people act with a Bible, just about like we did when we were boys and we got a chance to go to the old swimming hole. You know, some of us are so prehistoric that we can... remember when you didn't have a beautiful swimming pool heated, filtered, all the rest, to swim in.
Back in those prehistoric days when some of us were young, you swam wherever there was water. And it wasn't the best. It would have turned many a modern pediatrician, white hair, to think of what we swallowed. Well, we survived. We got through it all right. Sometimes y'all must have cut a hole to get in. But you know how we used to go? Well, you'd run, and then you'd just dive in. That was it. Your idea was to get in the water and enjoy it for a while. Now, a lot of people, tragically, come to the Bible like that. They never think of what part of the Bible they're reading. They never think to whom it was written, what it was written about, when it was written.
They just dive right into it. They extract something, and they say, well, this is in the Bible. Yes, it was in the Bible, but you got it all out of focus, and as a result, they get many blurred ideas regarding the truth of God. Now, that is why I'm taking time. Today and tomorrow night's messages will primarily be to get this subject into focus. very interesting studies ahead of us this week in the will of the Lord. Very important. We're going to look at just what the church is.
We're going to look at the coming of Christ. We're going to look at the Great Tribulation. We're going to look at the Millennial Reign of Christ, just to mention a few things. But now if we start right in here, in our first day of studies, if we start right in with those, many of us will end up with a picture that's entirely out of focus. But if we take time and get these things in their proper focus as the Word of God gives them, then we are going to see things so much clearer.
I believe that much that I'm saying now will make it possible for me to say much less when I get to these important subjects that are particularly prophetic in nature. Now you remember that we noticed that our chart begins here in the past eternity. It concludes in a future eternity. In between we have then what we call time. And the chart was designed by a brother who's now home with the Lord by the name of A.E. Booth. It was designed for the purpose of helping us to understand how God is dealing with mankind during time.
From its beginning, right on to its conclusion. From a past eternity to a prospective one. So that we might understand that God is working not in a haphazard way but God is working according to his eternal plan and purpose and that purpose is moving forward according to the overruling and the ordering of Almighty God now when I understand that is going to help me tremendously to understand where I fit in the consequences to me if I don't find my proper place in God's plan.
But if I do find my proper place, then the blessings that are mine now and will be mine for all eternity. Now that's the thought then in the chart. And it's based, as we pointed out, on the six creatorial We have in Genesis chapter 1. We saw that in verse 1 of Genesis we have the original creation which I believe and am prepared to prove was perfect in every respect. But in verse 2 we have a chaotic scene, a condition that was not, I say quite dogmatically, It was not the original condition of the earth as that earth came from the hand of the Creator God.
But we read in verse 2 there, the earth was without form and void. Now that verb was, could be, and I believe should be here, translated, became. It doesn't always have that significance, but I believe in this connection it does. The thought is that that which is perfect in verse 1, as created by God, it became without form and void. It was enveloped with the waters. It was enshrouded in darkness.
And there it laid a scene of devastation and death. Everything was dark, except for this one ray of hope. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Let me just take a minute to tell you about that word moved there. When I come across a new translation of the Bible, and there's so many of them today that it keeps one going to examine them there are certain key verses that I look at to see whether I want anything at all to do with that well I looked at one recently and I read these opening verses and the translators had so completely missed the thought in verse 2 that I haven't bothered to look at that The word move here is a very interesting word.
Let me just give you three thoughts in connection with it. In Deuteronomy chapter 32 it is translated fluttereth, and it's used of a mother eagle fluttering over her young. There they are in the nest. high up there on the side of the mountain. It's time for them to begin to fly. And so, as they have no urge whatsoever to leave that friendly and comfortable nest, she edges them out, tips them out.
And you can just imagine that little eaglet slaughtering desperately for the first time discovering it as wings, but not knowing what to do with them. fluttering around there desperately and the mother eaglet just simply spreads her broad pinions out swoops underneath and the little eaglet is airborne from under two then it gets tipped off and tries again and in that way the mother is teaching the little eaglet to fly but now that's the word the spirit of God used you get the picture here's the eagle the mother eagle she doesn't tip that eagle out and fly off and leave it does she she flutters over it why because she's concerned above it keep that word in mind the spirit of God was concerned about this.
And he's concerned about you. And the only hope there is for you of ever being in heaven is because the Spirit of God is concerned about you. But then if we go on to the prophet Jeremiah, we read about a man who's had a vision of God, God's holiness, and he's shaking. That's the same word. He's shaking. Fun. He's been convicted of the holiness of God. But here, our good translators, gave us the word move.
The Spirit of God moved. Now I believe that here we have in a little nutshell, and I'm trying amongst other things to show you why the book of has been called the seed plot of the Bible. How many tremendous truths we have noticed already in seed form in these few verses that we have read. Now here, in seed form, as I might say, we have the work of the Spirit of God. He's concerned about you and your condition. I hope you are.
He wants to convict you of your unholiness in contrast to the holiness of God. And he wants to convert you by moving into your life and accomplishing that great miracle of regeneration. So that is what we have in verse 2. But we come to verse 3. and we have God speaking and God said ten times you will find that in this first chapter the ten commandments of creation God said how does God work in whatever sphere you want to think of God works through his word his spirit the word brings the message of god to you and the spirit of god energizes with his almighty power that word of god and
so we have beginning here in verse 3 the third thought as we're pointing out this morning we have these three semicircles here And they remind us, first of all, of creation, God's perfect work, chaos because of sin, but cosmos or order that God is going to bring out of that chaos. If we took time to look a little more closely at this description of this chaos, condition, I think it would be profitable.
Just to draw the attention of some in a previous series of meetings, I said to them one time, what do you know about Tohu? Well, they looked at me as though I had suddenly gone off my rocker. And they were sure when I said, what do you know about Bohu? They thought, now, we never expect it. Brother Makeda starts speaking in tongues, but what he's talking about, we have the least idea in the world, so I let them stew on them. I said, you come back tomorrow night, and I'll tell you about Tohu and Bohu. Well, I don't think they came back to hear about Tohu and Bohu.
I think they came back to see if I recovered my sanity. I was speaking in tongues. I was simply giving them the two Hebrew words, that the Spirit of God has used here to describe this chaotic condition. And let me very simply tell you what the two words mean because it's important. The first one, translated here, without form. That's just what it means. If you can possibly conceive of something that has absolutely no form, No, I can't. I've sat, I don't know how long, and tried with my mind to conceive of something that has absolutely no form, no shape, no order whatsoever.
I can't do it. That's what the word means. Total disorder, everything out of its place, no form to it whatsoever. And, of course, I think there's no form. has no beauty, and no usefulness. The other word is empty, void. So you see what a problem we have with our feeble little minds to comprehend what this condition was like. No form whatsoever, absolutely empty. That was the condition that we have in verse 2.
And the Spirit of God moves in. The Word of God speaks ten times in this chapter. We will hear this refrain, and God said. The psalmist summed it all up when he said, he spake, and it was done. He commanded and stood fast. That is the power of the Word of God. And so we see God bringing cosmos here, which we're talking a little about this morning, as being order or arrangement, and therefore beauty and harmony.
God out of a scene such as we have looked at in verse 2 is going to bring order and beauty and harmony. When you and I get to the sixth day in our studies, what are we going to see? We're going to see a lovely landscape filled with beautiful flowers and fruits. We're going to see on that landscape a man, a perfect man with his bride. completely.
That was the end, the consummation of the creitorial work of God. As God moved from day one to day two and three and four and five and six, that is what he had before him and that is the consummation of his work in creation. Now you will notice that each one of these days on the chart is used to represent a dispensation. I'm not going to take time to go into anything like a thorough explanation of the dispensations.
I have done that in the course I mentioned this morning, which we will have with us tomorrow night if you'd like to get one. But in each one of these dispensations, God is moving forward toward a goal. What is that goal? Now we've seen God's goal in creation. That's already taken place. That was in Eden's garden. What is God's goal in his dispensational dealings from the fall of man to the present and on into the future?
Eventually, there will be another perfect landscape. All the weeds, all the briars, all the thorns, all the fissils will be gone. And this earth will once again be restored to its pristine glory and beauty, so far as the natural world is concerned. And who will be in that scene? A man. A perfect man. What man? The God man. The man Christ Jesus.
The last Adam. Who will be with him? His bride. And who is his bride? His church. Those who have been born again through faith in him. Those who are members of his body will be with him in that fair scene. What will they be doing? He'll be reigning, and she will be reigning with him. That is what we call the millennial reign of Christ on the earth. That is what we will see pictured when we come to the sixth day That is God's goal, my friends.
Man may fail, he does. Under every test, he fails. God's purposes march forward. There are those who tell us today there will be no millennial reign of Christ. They are wrong. Absolutely wrong because the Bible declares in thousands of times, thousands of verses, there will be a millennial reign of Christ. I'll have a lot to say about that when we come to the study of the sixth day. That's God's goal. That's God's purpose. You see, He brought order and beauty and harmony in the natural creation in six days of Reconstruction.
He's going to bring order and beauty and harmony to this poor world in six dispensational days, to use that expression. But what about us? We too have had a fall. Yes, we too are Tohu and Bohu. you and I in the eyes of a holy God are without form and empty that's what man is he's been devastated and destroyed by sin everything's out of place that's why the world is such a disturbed place today that is why human lives are so completely destroyed, and human hearts are so dissatisfied, and everything is in the turmoil that's all around us.
I'm not surprised at conditions in the world. I'm saddened by them, but I'm not surprised. They're just exactly what the Bible said they would be. Why? Because man has had a fall. Just as there was a catastrophe. catastrophe in connection with the material earth. There was a catastrophe in connection with the human race. And in Genesis chapter 3, we read of that catastrophe. We call it the fall of man. I know it's ridiculed in many circles today, that doesn't matter one day.
There are millions of proofs of the fall of man right here in America. America alone. You just have to look at Americans and you can see we belong to a fallen race. You just have to look in your own heart and you see the effects of the fall there. What's the hope for man? The same as for creation. The same as for the earth as a whole, the Spirit of God and the Word of God. And where the Word of God comes in, and the Spirit of God empowers that Word, a miracle took place.
Forty-seven years ago I walked into a little building like this, the first time I'd been in one for several years. I'm ashamed to say a Christian lady told me afterwards, she said, Harold, when you walked into there I thought there's the hardest sinner that's been through these doors for many a long year I'm ashamed of that but that's what sin did to me but before that meeting had progressed very far God was speaking to me and the Spirit of God was backing up that word and as a result I came out of that service 47 years ago, a new creature in Christ Jesus.
And thank God's been getting better all the time. That is the hope for creation, for the earth, and for the individual. How does God begin? God begins by saying, let there be light. how much we could talk about that. What I'd like to do in these studies is just to very briefly look at the literal thing just enough to give us some pegs that we can hang some spiritual thoughts on. Then I'd like to look at it dispensationally to talk a little to you about that period of time that is represented by that day we're studying.
And then I'd like to close each study looking at it evangelically, just what God can do and will do for the individual that allows him to do it. And so we have God saying, let there be light. And maybe you know that for years. This was scoffed at in scientific circles. light three days before the sun was created well the trouble is people just don't read their Bibles nowhere in the Bible does it say that the sun was created on the fourth day nowhere it said it was made and we'll talk about that we get to the fourth day but before I say anything more about that I want to show you in what an orderly way God works in the first suppose we had suppose we had a blackboard here and we put down day one, two,
three then we moved over here and we put day four, five, six so we've got three rows of two days, one, four, two, five, three, Now we would put down what God did in each one of these days. You do that when you get home. And you'll see there's a distinct correspondence between 1, 4, 2, 5, 3, 6.
One, two, and three, God is forming. In days four, five, and six, he's filling. Now, that's the way God works. You see, the first thing, as we saw, that was wrong, there was no form. Everything was out of its place. And so in the first three days, God puts things where they should be. Now that's the way he does with a human life. When you come to the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, he puts things in the right place.
You see, that's why you're not saved. Things aren't in the right place. You've got what we could call a throne in your heart. And from that throne, the orders go out to your life. And your whole life is dictated by the orders that come out of your heart. And who's on the throne of your heart? You are, if you're not saved. You are. That's the whole trouble. And the trouble with you being on the throne is because you are sinful. Therefore, it's really sin that is dictating your life.
That's why you think what you do, say what you do, go where you do, act as you do because sin is on the throne of your heart. Then you come to the Lord Jesus Christ. You open your heart, Christ comes in. Who's in control of the thoughts now, Christ? Who's in control of the mouth now, Christ? Who's in control of the feet now, Christ? Who's in control of hands now, Christ? And a totally disordered life becomes an orderly life. But that isn't all God wants.
He not only puts things in the right place, in the last three days, he filled up. He filled the firmament. He filled the waters. He filled the earth. He filled everything up. with what was suitable for it. And when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, he not only forms you anew as a new creature in Christ Jesus, but he fills you. He fills you with life abundant because we shall see that this whole work of creation here can be summed up in three words, light, Life and likeness.
And when God got through, there was a man in his image and after his likeness. When God gets through with his work, with his people, he's going to have us in the likeness of his son. And it all begins with light. It goes on to life. And then there comes lightness. What was the first thing? Suppose it had been possible for you and me to be somewhere out there watching what's going on in Genesis chapter 1. And suddenly the light comes.
Now, I'm not going to take time to talk very much about light. Because frankly, I don't know very much about it. And I don't know anybody that does. Why you say we all know about light, all right, you go ahead and tell us what it is. Dr. Stein, the vice president of DuPont, who holds doctorates in philosophy and science and laws, says we can talk about some of the qualities and characteristics of light But we don't know what light is.
Well, if Dr. Stein, in his position, doesn't know what light is, I don't know, so far as when that show thing is concerned. So the love of scoffing that there has been, at Genesis 1 and 3, has merely betrayed the ignorance of those who have done the scoffing. There's no question in my mind whatsoever. What this light was, it was light from the sun. The sun was undoubtedly part of the original creation. But here was that blanket of darkness. But now God permits the light to shine through, not in all the clarity that it will later on the fourth day, but nevertheless it shines through.
Just as in that first dispensation, after the fall of man, God gave light. I can do no more than to mention the three kinds of light that man had to begin with. He had the light of creation. All he had to do was look around at creation, realize there was a God. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament show this handiwork. They have the light of conscience, and within them there was that which we call conscience. I devoted a whole chapter in my course on dispensationalism to discussing conscience because in almost 50 years I've only come across two or three books on conscience anywhere.
But they're the light of conscience and they're the light of prophecy. Or it wasn't the light of prophecy you and I have now, but God lit the little lamp of prophecy in the Garden of Eden. And there was the promise given of the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent. And that tiny little flicker of hope was lit by God in the Garden of Eden. So they had light. But let's go back to that supposition that somewhere out there, you and I were at a vantage point where we could watch what's going on here.
Now the light begins to filter through the darkness. What's the first thing you would see? The scene of total ruin. Absolute chaos. No form and no filling. And if you and I were out there somewhere in the universe and we saw that sight, wouldn't we have said something like this? terrible ruin that is. That's hopeless. That's what happens when the light of God shines into your heart. You see yourself totally ruined.
My, when God allowed the light of his word to shine into my heart that night that I referred to, and I saw little of my corruption, the terrible condition When a Christian man came to me after, I said to him, Can you tell me, sir, how I can get my sins forgiven? That's the one thing I'm interested in. Yes. Did you ever see yourself as God sees you? Well, now you never will be able fully. But when you come to the word of God, God's description of the human race.
What is it? Utter, absolute, total, relative. Man doesn't need a little better rehabilitating. Man needs total regeneration. It reminds me of the old couple sitting in their old-fashioned home. She busy at something. possibly knitting. He reading the Bible. And he stopped, took off his glasses, and said, Mother, if this book is true, we're lost.
Put his glasses back. He read on some more. Mother, if this book is true, we can be saved. and he read a little more mother this book is true and I am saying it yes that's what can take place when the word of God as light shines into your heart the first thing it reveals is total corruption absolute ruin then you see a cross and on that cross you see a man bruised, battered broken bearing the judgment of God and the light of God's word reveals to you it was for you there's a little window in Isaiah chapter 53 it's called the fifth verse I looked through that
window 47 years ago a year ago or less I stood at Calvary in Palestine and I looked at what may be the place where Christ died it was thrilling but I'd already been there 47 years before that I had looked through the window of Isaiah 53 and 5 And I saw Calvary. For I read there he was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquities, the chastisement of my pieces upon him, and with his stripes, I am healed.
God said, let there be light. There was light. That's the first thing about God. I think there are about five here. And God saw the light that it was good. First time you read good in the Bible. And the only thing God sees as good is what he creates. You see, there's nothing good in you. It never will be until he puts something in. And God saw the light that it was good. Then what happened? And God divided the light from the darkness.
There was still darkness, but there was light. But God put a division between the two. The devil has been trying ever since to break down that dividing line. But God still divides the light from the darkness. One side of the cross, there's light. The other side, there's darkness. from the light side of the cross a man went to paradise from the dark side of the cross another man went to hell what side of the cross are you on tonight 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 His children, children of light, and children of the day, and he's called the unsaved children of darkness and of the night.
This is the first step, I say without any fear of contradiction, the first step for anyone in getting saved is to get a sight of unsaved. as God sees them with a light streaming into their heart and soul. And then what a wonderful thing it is when the light comes in. The wise man said it's a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the light. Isn't it wonderful to be in the light? Rather than the darkness, groping on, not knowing where you're going, and then to realize there's the outer darkness.
What a terrible expression of the outer darkness. Out there, beyond all love, all life, all hope, all God, all happiness, all heaven. If I didn't know, I was in the light tonight, you know that I do right in this meeting I would bow my hand I would say Lord Jesus come into my heart come into my heart right now maybe you'd like to do that let's just all quietly silently bow in the presence of God those of you who know the Lord you'd be lifting your heart silently to him that If there are those here who are still in the darkness, and God has spoken to them, that right now they will open their heart and let the Lord Jesus come in.
Maybe one such is saying, well, how do I open my heart? You open your heart by saying, I will, because you know up until now you've been saying, I won't. I won't. I won't trust Christ. Tonight say, I will. And the light will dawn upon you, my friend. You won't need to be told it. And you'll be walking in the light henceforth. Father, bless thy precious word. We thy people have enjoyed a good day today. enjoying the privilege of Christian fellowship and studying thy word together.
As we think of thy great work in creation, as we think of thy great work in redemption, and thy great work in regeneration, we pray, Father, that we who are here tonight may not only lead further instructed in the things of God, Some may leave tonight with the joy of God in their hearts for the first time. May thy blessing be upon us. May thy spirit continue to operate. May thy voice be heard even in the silent hours of the coming night. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. I'll always be glad to speak with any of you. The conclusion of any of these services, I'm a little reluctant about that because since my brain tumor surgery, I'm handicapped. I am totally deaf on the one side. I'm partially blind. Makes me just a little difficult for me to talk with people personally. That's why I may not be as outgoing as I formerly was. I feel just a little embarrassed because of those handicaps. Nevertheless, I'd be only too happy to speak with you at any time.
There are others here that can answer your questions and point you to Christ. And I have here a booklet that through these many years, particularly years when we were holding evangelistic campaigns throughout the country, And to the goodness of God, seeing many saved, we gave away thousands of this little booklet, God's Way of Salvation. I'm reminded at this minute, now just take a minute of your time, I'm reminded of a young wife who came to me at the conclusion of a meeting.