The creation account of the fourth day in Genesis, focusing on the creation of the sun, moon, and stars as "light holders." It distinguishes between general light (OR) and specific light-bearing celestial bodies (MA OR), highlighting God's purpose in establishing these for signs, seasons, days, and years. The message draws parallels between the elements of creation and theological concepts, particularly the distinction between Israel as God's earthly people and the Church as a heavenly body, emphasizing that Christ is the ultimate light and the Church's role as light holders. The sermon concludes by underscoring the divine appointment and placement of these celestial bodies, mirroring Christ's position at God's right hand and the believer's secure anchor in Him.
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I'm here to look at you, Savior, and I go upon them, and they'll be free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. his wonderful fame and the beings of earth will grow strangely deep in the light of its glory and rain his words shall not fail to hear We're living and all will be well.
Then we'll do a... Oh, the words in words doesn't go together with me. Oh, my God. These words don't appear in the comments. We're living and all together. will be well. Then go to a world that is dying. His purpose for they show you to tell.
Turn your hearts upon Jesus. The finest one wonderful day and the peace of earth will gently be in the light of its glorious rain Now shall we look to that?
H.G. McCabe from Greensboro, North Carolina. Shall we turn tonight again to Genesis chapter 1, please? Reading from verse 14 tonight. Genesis chapter 1, verse 14. And God said, 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, and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.
And it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light to the earth. 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, and the evening and the morning were the fourth day. The more night in the will of the Lord, as we look at the fifth day, it will take us on to that period of time that we call the tribulation, that momentous seven years that will run their course between the Lord's coming to the air for his church and his coming to the earth with his church, the set of his kingdom.
Possibly the seven most momentous years that lie ahead for the human race. Then on Friday night, we'll move on into the last day of creation. and there we'll have brought before us the millennial reign of Christ. That wonderful thousand years of peace, prosperity, and blessing. And there should be some very helpful lessons for us to learn from those two days. Tonight we are looking at the work of the fourth day.
And I would like to try and pick up just where I left off last night, looking, first of all, at it from a dispensational standpoint. Then I'd like to say just a few words regarding the literal work of creation on this day, and then we will seek to make the evangelical application of it. Or I feel that an understanding of these basic truths of dispensationalism that we have brought me forth, particularly in these first four days. Now, this is very necessary if we are going to understand our Bible, to distinguish between things that differ and to keep separate those things which God does not want confused in connection with the truths of His Word.
Now, those of you who have been here from the beginning, will remember that in speaking about these six days of reconstruction I pointed out several times that they very clearly fall into two sets of three each. In the first three days we saw God reforming that which had been without form, that which had been a chaotic waste in these first three days he had moved forward in an orderly way bringing order out of that chaos and giving form to that which previously had been formless then we pointed out that in the last three days we would find God filling up that which had been empty for you remember those were the two words that the Spirit of God gave to Moses to describe that chaotic condition of the earth in the second verse of our chapter.
Without form and void are empty. And so we have now reached the first day of the second sight. Remember I suggested that if we were on a blackboard here to put down the numbers one, two, and three in the first column. Then, four, five, and six in the second, we would see a similarity between one and four and two and five and three and six. Now we have progressed far enough in our studies for you to notice that on the first day we have light.
God dealing with the darkness, bringing in light. God was dealing with the waters, placing that firmament that divided them. The third day, he brought the earth into sight. Now we start down the second column, and once again we go to light. But there is a distinction that we don't quite get in our English translation here. when God said, Let there be light. Now the Hebrew word for light is a very simple word.
It's simply, in our letters, O-R. That is the Hebrew word for light. If you're speaking about light in general, any kind of it, you'd talk about OR. But when we come to the day that's before us tonight, the fourth day, you notice he speaks about lights. Now, there's even a greater distinction in the Hebrew. There is, it's a compound word. And before the little word, O-R, light, we have another word with two letters in it also, M-A.
So that the word that is used here for lights on the fourth day, which we read of God-making, ma or. Now, bringing that over into our English, the first is simply light in general. Suppose I were to point to that and say, what is that? You say, well, that's a light. Yes, there's light there. But where is the light? Well, if you're asking a little Israeli boy, and He would answer you in Hebrew. He'd say, why the ore is an Amah ore.
The English boy would say, the American boy would say in English, the light is an alight holder. Now that's what you have here. On the fourth day, the God who had brought light into the scene in day one holders into view. And the sun and the moon and the stars are light holders. That is, through them the light is going to shine on this scene.
Now there are many, many spiritual lessons that we could learn from that. We'll try to bring a few of them in as we progress. little before we get into that thought. You remember that I was emphasizing, and it may have seemed to you I was taking a little too long and maybe putting a little too much emphasis on the fact that in the first two days we had just one element in sight, water. You remember? we tried to imagine that we were in some imaginary spot so that we could watch what was going on in these first three days.
And as we watched, day one, we saw water. That's what the light revealed. Day two, we saw water. That's all. Just one element, water. But you remember at the beginning of day three, that water was brought together into seas. Although as in one place, as far as the bed was concerned, yet there were seas in the plural. This water, instead of just being a mass around the globe, it was now brought together into what you might call orderly body.
of water. And I labored that a little possibly, because I want to impress on you that in the first 11 chapters of your Bible you have God dealing with a human race as a whole. You read those 11 chapters. And particularly until you come to chapter 10 and even then where nations are mentioned I see nothing whatsoever that would indicate that God was dealing in any different way with any of the any part of the human race.
They were all alike. That's Genesis chapter 1 through chapter 11. But on the third day, you remember, as we watched from our imaginary vantage point, We saw something new come into sight, something that we had never seen before. I'm imagining we're away back then. And we saw the land appearing. It had been under the water, but it had not come into appearance. And so on that third day we watched the land appear. And so we had something entirely new.
And we imagined that as we saw that, we would say to ourselves, Well, I never saw that before. And so we had two elements, water and land. And I was pointing out to you, and of course it would have been so much more effective if we had time to turn in our Bible, but when you pass from Genesis 11 to Genesis 12, you have God doing something entirely different, something that's completely new, something he'd never done before. Out of the human race, he is calling a nation to be his.
He does that by selecting a man by the name of Abram. Now Abram was a Chaldean by birth. He came from Ur of the called Es, but God called him, and God gave to him this wonderful promise. There are a lot of phases to that promise, but in keeping with our thought, I'm just mentioning these two. God said to this man, Abram, now I'm going to make of you a great nation, and that nation is going to be my nation. And I'm going to be the God of that nation.
Now God never said that before and or since to any other nation. God never said to the French, you're my nation. God never said to the Americans, you're my nation. God never said to the Chinese, you're my nation. God only said to one little nation out of all the multitudes of earth, they are my people. And while it may be humbling to our American pride, he did not say that to the Americans. He said it to the nation of Israel.
And that's what you get in Genesis chapter 12. So you have something entirely new coming on the scene. Genesis 12 all the way through the other books of your Old Testament all the way through the Gospels now notice carefully and to impress it on you I just want to show you on the chart of Abraham right on through not to the birth of Christ you know where this line goes right to the end of the cross of Christ.
That is the age of Israel. Now, in my course on dispensationalism, I have tried to make that accurate distinction between a dispensation and an age. I'm not going to go into the technicalities of that tonight. But an age is the accurate term for a period of time. A dispensation is the word for the character of that time. Now during this age of Israel, but I hope you get that in your mind. When you are reading from Genesis 12 to Acts chapter 2, you are reading about what?
Israel. And if you are reading about any Gentile nation, it is only as... Does that Gentile nation affect or comes in contact with or influences Israel? Somebody says, Mr. McKay, are you trying to tell me that there's nothing in the Bible between Genesis 12 and Acts 2 for me? No, I'm not trying to tell you that. But I'm going to tell you this. There isn't anything in there that was written directly to you. It was written to Israel. And unless you keep that clear, you will get into all kinds of confusion.
Well, what is there for me then? I'm not an Israelite, I'm a Gentile. What is there for me? There's plenty for me and plenty for you. We used to have a neighbor who kept bees. And we have... around our home, quite a lot of flowers, particularly flowering shrubs. My wife and I both love flowers, and we have set out quite a lot of flowering shrubs in our four and a half acres, particularly the front acres. And you know, our neighbor never once came over and took one of our flowers.
We gave them some. But they never once came into our front lawn and took one of our flowers. Why? They recognized they belonged to us. But you know, their bees came over every day. And they lit on our flowers, and they extracted the nectar, and they went home, and they made honey. And we didn't say a thing. And you know, for almost 50 years, I've been extracting honey. out of Israel's flower garden. The wonderful promises that you'll find between Genesis chapter 12 and Acts chapter 2, I've got all kinds of honey out of them.
In fact, I've got the honey that I was saved through out of them, Isaiah 53 and 5. And many and many a time I've extracted honey from these promises. But I leave the promises right where they belong in Israel's garden. garden. You see? They're not for me. Their sweetness, their strength, their instruction is for me. But I leave them right there. So that you don't lose one thing when you accept what I have told you that from Genesis chapter 12, right on to Acts chapter 2, God is dealing with Israel.
Now here is something, and I must not go into too many details, but here is something that when I saw that, that the dispensation of the law, now in my course, I have divided the age of Israel into two dispensations, because I think that's very clear. The first part is the dispensation of promise. That was from Abram to Moses. they didn't have any written law then the law wasn't given till Moses so you can't talk about the days of Abraham as a dispensation of the law but you can talk about it as the age of Israel but first of all it was promised they were living under God's promises then from Mount Sinai on they were living under the law have you ever wondered why I did for some years.
Have you ever wondered why when a man came to the Lord Jesus and said, Good Master, what shall we do that we may inherit eternal life? Now somebody met you outside or inside the Ireland Street Chapel and said to you, how do you get eternal life? What would you say? You say, well, I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. him we'd have eternal life. That's true. That's what you should tell. Be sure you do. Why then did the Lord Jesus Christ say to the man, What is written in the law? I'll read this now.
Why did he say that? Why did he on two occasions bring him the law when he was asked a question about eternal life? Because they were living under the dispensation of the law. And you see, it was only until the cross of Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ, having by his perfect sinless life, met every claim of the law by meeting that in perfect holiness of life, then dying on the cross of Calvary under the curse of the law for you and me who had broken the law you see the law had to be satisfied and thank God it was in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ so that he becomes the end of the law for righteousness of them that believe now where are we in the fourth day we're not looking out over those turbulent waters we're not looking at the land we've seen those two elements.
Where are we looking in the fourth day? We're looking up, aren't we? And as we look up, there comes into sight something entirely different than we've ever seen before. A third element, the celestial bodies. On the third day, we saw something was earthly. Herb, grass, herbs, and trees. On the earth, on the fourth day, we look up, away from the earth, and we see something that is heavenly. Sun, moon, stars.
What happened on the day of Pentecost? The Lord Jesus Christ had gone up, and the Spirit of God came down. And when the Spirit of God came down the day of Pentecost, something entirely new. Oh, I want you to get this. We're being told today on every hand and they're trying to lead us back into the darkness that God has led us out of. That the church was in the Old Testament. It wasn't. It wasn't. Was the sun, was the moon? Were the stars visible on the third day?
They weren't. Was God occupied with a church from Abraham to Christ? He wasn't, because there wasn't any church. I have that on the best authority in the world, in the universe. I have that on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, on this rock I will build my church. Now every small grade school child here knows. that that is future when you will do something you haven't yet done it but you will do it how with that in our Bible men who believe the Bible can continue to tell us there was a church in the Old Testament is more than I can understand Christ said I will build my church then he hadn't built it it wasn't built in the Old Testament it wasn't during his life it began on the day of Pentecost and on the day of Pentecost something heavenly not earthly now again you've got a tragic mistake
in the thinking of many people regarding the church the church is not a worldly or earthly organization it's a heavenly organism and you've got to look up to see it because it is heavenly in origin it's heavenly in citizenship and thank God it's heavenly in destination everything connect with the church as heaven that's why I'm taking time to see this so that from Acts chapter 2 right on to the book of the revelation God is writing about what Not the nations, oh they're mentioned, not Israel, it's mentioned, but he's writing about the church.
And the book of the Acts gives you approximately the first 30 years of the church's history. And then after that you get those wonderful epistles written to the church, not to Israel, not to the world, but to the church. book of the Revelation where God ties everything together, you have the future, the eternal destiny of Jew, Gentile, and Church of God, brought together in a beautiful way. Read your Bible with that in mind. It'll come to life.
It'll have light on it that you may never have seen before unless these things are familiar to you. I trust they are. So that now on this fourth day, we have how many elements? Three. Water, land, celestial bodies. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and read verse 32, and you'll find the inspired apostle dividing all men into three groups, Jew, Gentile, Church of God. Now they're distinct. one is made out of, the other two. Some are taken out of the Gentiles, put in the church, some are taken out of the Jews, and put in the church.
But the Gentile remains a Gentile, the Jew remains a Jew, and then you have this new company, this heavenly body, the Church of Christ. That is what we learned so simply on this fourth day as this entirely new thing is introduced on the scene. Different from Israel, God's earthly people. And if you and I could just take time tonight to take a look at Israel, as we have it in the Word of God, we'd find a vast difference between what is true of Israel and what is true of the church.
The tragedy today is that Christendom, the church world, has fashioned itself after Israel and not after the New Testament pattern of the church. When we were building our new chapel in Greensboro, naturally we had an architect, and we're very fortunate to have one of the largest of the architectural firms. in the city of Greensboro. They very seldom handled anything at all under a million dollars. Ours was, of course, not anything like that.
But we were very fortunate that one of the partners agreed to take over our little project. And as a result, we benefited from all experiences and the resources of that very fine architectural firm. But naturally, Being around where they were talking about, although I wasn't on the building committee or anything, I know nothing about building. Any little thing I know is about preaching, so I stayed in my slot and let the others take care of the building. But Nashua is around them, the committee, and is around the architect. And you couldn't be around the architect as he's designing a building until, very long, He's talking again and again about the sanctuary.
Now, you can't take an architect and give him a lecture in church too. First of all, you've got to make sure he's safe. Or you're wasting your time. But even then, his business is to build up the building. But the tragedy is that many preachers who ought to know better, they talk about a sanctuary down here on earth. as the place where the Christians meet. Now that's Israel. That's the tabernacle. It had a worldly sanctuary where it told me, if it's in the Hebrews. Our sanctuary is not the meeting place. Our sanctuary is the holiest of all.
You see? You meet down here, you worship up there. And that is why only a born-again believer and the energy of the Spirit of God into the holiest of all can worship. You see, you hear about public worship. A public can't worship. Only those can worship God who are born again. They'll have the Holy Spirit. Well, we could go on and on. But all of this, in German least, will be understood if you see that the age of the church brought in something entirely new Something that's heavenly, and you look away from Israel, and you look away from the nation, and you look up, and you begin to grasp the truth of the church.
It's a wonderful truth. Now, there's so much in connection with this. I've said that these are light holders. All that I can pursue along that line is just to remind you, you that our Lord Jesus Christ and the church and individual Christians are all spoken of as light holders. In other words, one through whom the light is to shine. Christ said, I am the light of the world. In fact, there's a lovely verse in Revelation chapter 21 where while in our authorize it speaks of Christ as being the light.
of that New Jerusalem. It's literally the lamp. And our Lord in that day is going to be the lamp through whom the glory of God will gleam throughout all eternity. And that is the responsibility of the church. Whether you think of it in its entirety or locally, we're to be light holders. And the individual believer is to be a light holder. There's no light in us. There's no light in a local church. The light is in Christ. And when Christ is in the church and shining out through it, that's the purpose of the church.
When Christ is in you and in me and is shining out, we're fulfilling our purpose. And wherever you and I go, we're to shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word light. As I said, we have a tremendous subject before us here on this fourth day. I must draw your attention to the fact that nowhere does it say anything was created on the fourth day. I don't need to go back over again, except just to remind you, I pointed out that which signifies to bring into existence from nothing.
An original creation. There's another word to make out of existing material. Now I would like you to notice, and this is all the time we'll be able to spend on this, I want you to notice that in this tremendous day, there are four things, four words that God uses in connection. with the sun, the moon, and the stars. The first word is let. Verse 14, let there be lights in the firmament. Second word is in verse 16, and God made two great lights.
The third one is in verse 17, and God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. God said, let there be light holders. Here's God's permission, I might say, and God's purpose. God says, now, I want the light that is going to shine upon this earth that I've brought up over the water. I want that light to come from these light holders. That's my purpose. All right? God makes, then, Now, creates, God makes, sun, moon, stars.
And I think I have mentioned that this word make here is a word that not only, as I've said, it's to use existing material, but it is the thought of preparing it for that particular purpose. Again, I refer to this pulpit. This wood from which this pulpit was made could have been made into a lot of different things, couldn't it? But the purpose of the builder of this was to make a pulpit. And so it was made for that purpose.
That is what you have when you have God making on this fourth day the sun, the moon, and the stars. But we come to possibly the most interesting, at least to me, of these three words, and God set them in the firmament. Now the word set here means to put in a place where it can fulfill its intended purpose. Let's go back to our pulpit again. What a handy thing it is. Suppose this was set down the basement. Wouldn't be much use, would it?
Not tonight, anyway. Suppose it were set in one of these rooms. Well, it would just be occupying space. But it was set right here at the front of the platform where it can fulfill its intended purpose. It holds the Bible and the mites and the glass of water and hides the preachers shaking knees. Now that's its purpose you see so it's set right where it should be might be nice that time just to follow this through do you know why we're not all burnt up because the sun is too close because God set it right where it should be do you know why we're not all frozen because God set the sun exactly Do you know why the moon and the stars are there, and we're getting into an area there of tremendous, fascinating interest, to me at least, to think of the stars.
I'd better not start talking about that, because to me, astronomy is one of the most fascinating subjects outside the Bible, and I'm sure the more we would know about it, the more we'd here. But now suppose we went in our Bible to the Epistle of Ephesians, that great church epistle where you have brought before you as possibly nowhere else in the New Testament the truth of the church as the heavenly body of Christ. What will you find? You read, next time you read the Epistle of Ephesians, just keep this in mind. What will you find at the end of chapter 1 you will find God raising his son from the dead that's day 3 isn't it and setting him at his own right hand in heaven as the head of the church there's God setting the son the S-O-N right where he wants him to be at its own right hand in heaven.
Come on over into chapter 2 of Ephesians, and in the first three verses, you will find a description of the utter absolute ruin that characterizes the human race. Isn't that the moon? And where are those who are part of that ruin put? on down a little further about verse 5, verse 6. You find these ones who are part of that ruin not only brought out of death into life, but set in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
You see, that's what God has done with us. That's what he did with his son. He set him up there. Thank God he set us up there too. And we're set Just where God wants us to be. Now, if we were taking time, you would find that the son... Maybe I didn't mention this. I don't want to take for granted that maybe some who haven't been saved too long understand some of these things. They're quite familiar to many of you who've been saved many years. The son in Scripture is a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, we could follow that for some nights. The moon is a lovely type of the church. The stars are beautiful emblems of individual believers. Each one of these truths is distinctly stated in Scripture and then is applied in many, many passages. And we could follow that through. If you read these verses, it's few verses that describe the work of the fourth day, you will find that the sun, the moon, and the stars were for seven different reasons.
There were seven different functions assigned to these celestial bodies, and each one of these is perfectly applicable. to the present time, to Christ, the church, and the individual believers. There is just one thing I'd like to point out, because I'm trying to help any who may be assailed with attacks on the authenticity of Scripture. I just want you to glance in your Bible. In verse 14, we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Five of these purposes mentioned in that one verse. I just want you to notice the last two for days and for years. Now, if I were to ask a young person in our meeting, if I were to ask any of you teenagers, well, what has the sun and the moon to do with days? You'd say, son, why, Mr. McKay, don't you know that our earth rotates on its axis? Once every 24 hours. And that is what gives us days. And that's what gives us day and night. You know that, Mr. McKay, don't you? Yes, I do.
But Moses didn't. And nobody in his day knew it. They all thought the earth was flat. And they hadn't any conception of a globe circling on its axis every 24 hours. Moses didn't know. The people of his day didn't know. God knew. And once again, on the first page of our Bible, God puts the watermark of inspiration. But I'd like to ask you, young folks, another question. What has the sun to do with years? Oh, Mr.
McKay, don't you know that our earth, on its orbit, circles the sun, in a little less than 365 days. Don't you remember that? Yes, I remember that, and I know it, but Moses didn't know it. And nobody in his day knew it, but God knew it. Once again, God stamped the first page of the Bible with a watermark of inspiration, the sun and the moon for days and for years. And you could go on. And on and on. But I just want to close with this.
Isn't it a grand way? That he whom we have looked at on the second day. Going into the dark waters of death and judgment. Holding back that judgment. For now almost 2,000 years. So that men and women might flee for refuge. on the hope set before him. He who went into the dark waters of death came forth on the third day in victorious resurrection that he might provide a solid foundation on which you and I can rest for eternity.
Isn't it grand to watch the one who came out of the dark silent tomb? Where is he now? He's at God's right hand. And I say with one of all, Reach my blessed Savior first. Take him from God's esteem. Prove Jesus bears one spot or same. Then tell me, I'm unclean. Because the one I'm depending on is already back in heaven. And he's spoken of in the great epistle to the Hebrews because he's there ahead of all his own.
Thank God in the morning. As the vessel came to the Greek harbors of old, there were very few of those harbors that could take in an ocean-going vessel. And so the little boat went over the side. And in that boat would not only a couple of sailors to row that boat, but in that boat was the anchor. The anchor attached by that strong cable to the mothership. And they rode that little boat over the bar, on at the harbor, round the bend of the site, and they dropped the anchor inside the harbor.
And then the boat came out. And if you've been standing on the deck of that Greek vessel, and you would have said, what's that little boat? If you could have understood Greek, he'd have said to you, that's the forerunner. That's the forerunner. Thank God our Lord Jesus Christ went in beyond the veil. He's on other sides. And he's dropped the anchor to the throne of God. But thank God the cable.
And if we're studying Hebrews, we'd see that's a double cable. It's God's word and God's oath. And that double cable is reaching all the way down to us. And thank God in the morning for that Greek ship. When the morning morning tide came in, covered the bar to depth enough to take the big boat. The big boat rode in the morning tide into the harbor. Friends, the morning, thank God, is coming. I believe it's very near. And we're going in.
We who are anchored to the throne of God, we're going in in the morning light if we're saved if we're born again if we're indwelt by the spirit of God if we're anchored to a risen, ascended and thrown Christ at God's right hand will you listen please while our brother Hurley brings us a message that I trust will speak to every one of your hearts and The Savior is waiting to enter your heart.
Why don't you let him come in? There's nothing in this world to keep you apart, what is your answer to him? Time after time he has waited before, and now he is waiting. again, to see if you're willing to open your heart, oh, how he wants to come in.
If you'll take one step towards the Savior, my friend, you'll find his arms open wide. Receive him and all of your darkness will end. within your heart he'll abide. Time after time he has waited before and now he is waiting again to see if you're willing Open the door.
Oh, how he wants to come in. Shall we pray? Mr. McCabe's going to lead us in prayer. I trust in the quietness of this closing. We're all here. you