Okay, let's begin with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you this morning for our Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you for the fact that you have been faithful to not only send him, but Father, to make us aware of our need of him, to show us our sinfulness, Father, our rebellion against you, in countless areas. And Father, to show us clearly by the work of Your Spirit the necessity of fleeing to Jesus Christ for the salvation He purchased on the cross. We thank You for His resurrection and that we are saved by a living Savior and serve Him, Father. And through Him, we serve You. Father, we ask that You would make these things real to us as we study, as we look at Him, as the light of the world. In Jesus' name, Amen. I believe it was last week that we started looking at the Lord Jesus Christ as the light of the world, trying to develop a more thorough, a greater breadth. I love that phrase that's attributed to the wisdom of Solomon. He had breadth knowledge like the sand of the seashore. And I just think, oh man, you know, like the sand goes and goes and goes and goes and the seashore goes and goes. And that was what his knowledge, his wisdom was like. And that's what we should be seeking out, our knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, our understanding of him being like the breadth of the seashore. Well, We were looking last time as we ended up at the different ways to really be dark, I'm sorry, to really be blind. And, you know, there's a blindness of just being where there's no light, you can't see. There's the blindness of being where there's light everywhere and your eyes don't function correctly. And then the last one that I find at least some reference to in scripture is a blindness of the mind, which is interesting. And I think that that's the one we're most often dealing with when we're dealing with unbelievers. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ talked about how he would speak in parables. So that seeing they wouldn't really see and hearing they wouldn't really hear. They saw what he did. They had the same information. But something in their minds kept them from understanding these things. Go over to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We've been here several times of late. Second Corinthians four and verses five and six. And I want to I want to drop back to verse three. And even if our gospel is veiled. It is veiled to those who are perishing. In whose case. So now we're looking at perishing people to whom the gospel is veiled, covered up, can't get there. This explains this to us. In whose case the God of this world, Jesus Christ said, the God of this world, the ruler of this world is coming. It's a reference to Satan. He's well presented in scripture as the ruler of this world, always though understand that that means the ruler of this false system that he has designed doesn't mean that he's a ruler of the mountains and the rivers and the world creation, but this world system that is set up in opposition to God. That's what he rules. But at any rate, Even if our gospel is veiled, it's veiled to those who are perishing. In whose case, the God of this world, now notice what it says, has blinded the minds. It's not an I problem. It's a mind problem. How many people have you dealt with, who because of what they believe to be true, that isn't true, have a blinded mind? You deal with this all the time. It's not that they can't hear you. It's not that they can't read John 3 16. They can. But they have a blinded mind. OK. And you know I was thinking of an illustration of this in the material world because we have the other two. And for that I go to Proverbs 23, and this is a classic passage on drunkenness and alcoholism. I'd like to have every one of our young people have this memorized. You know, there's such an attraction to drunkenness, drugs, and it's not only the damage that comes directly from those things. It's the damage that comes indirectly. All the things that you end up doing that you wouldn't normally do, and the trouble you can get in. Well, okay. But it says this. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? What does that mean? Of course the wounds have a cause, but the person who is wounded doesn't know what the cause was. You don't know whether they fell down, whether somebody hit them, whether, you know. Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long over wine, those who go to taste mixed wine, do not look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly, at the last it bites like a viper, I'm sorry, bites like a serpent and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things. You got that? Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perverse things. I think about that. The strange things your mind is seeing, you know, if you've ever been with anybody or around anybody that's doing this, the things they're seeing aren't really there. It's something. It's certainly not their eyes that are doing that. It's their mind that's doing that. Their eyes are showing them exactly everything that your eyes are showing you, but in the transmission into their minds. You ever been around somebody like that? They're screaming about snakes and they're, you know, terrified. And if you didn't see the terror they're going through, it's almost funny because there's no snakes, you know, there's that now there's nothing there that like that, but there is to them. And I think about that's a that's a mind that's been blinded. In other words, in the in the physical sense, it's a mind that isn't working correctly. Okay. Well, I wanted to get that get that covered. And by the way, I better read the rest of this. Your eyes will see strange things and your mind will utter perverse things. My dad wasn't saved till he was about 28 years old. And I just remember this while I say something about his life as an unbeliever. He grew up with a Christian, his dad died when he was like one years old. And I grew up with a great Christian mom. And so he had instilled in him certain standards and so forth, even though he wasn't saved until later on. But I remember him just saying one day to me about being drunk and being horrified at the things he said, even as an unbeliever, at the things he said while he was drunk. He was just disgusted with himself for, even as an unbeliever, and you just see that all the time, the things that And really, you know, there's, of course, you realize that with drinking, there's a continuum. There's, I mean, I believe that the reason that it's so popular at, say, at a cocktail party is because it loosens people up. And, you know, they're not all the way, but it gives, people are naturally, not everyone is comfortable around people. You know, we all know that. Okay. And therefore, this kind of takes away some of the inhibitions and some of the things and people talk more freely. But the more that you have, the stupider the conversation gets and the more ridiculous and the more outlandish and, you know, so it gets really out of control. Okay. So then he says, after this, and your mind will utter perverse things. And I think it's interesting, your mind will. of those things, okay, and you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, everything's moving, or like one who lies down on the top of a mast, okay, the dizziness and so forth, and then just a final quotation, they struck me, but I did not become ill. They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? And then the sad, sad words, I will seek another drink. Okay, in other words, it's, it's, Tomorrow, that phrase, tomorrow will be the same as today, only more so. In other words, we're going to up the ante every day. All right. Now, I want to switch gears here in this study, and I want to go back to 2 Corinthians again in Chapter 4, and I want to read this passage again. Starting in verse three to get down to the verses. Verse six especially. And verse four. At any rate. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving. You know, think of the words from Scripture. Satan who deceives the whole world so that what people think is not true, but they count it as true and therefore are blinded in their minds. Okay. Goes on and it says, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they might not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not, Paul says, preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus' sake. Now here we go. Verse 6, For God who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. What this seems to imply is that there is a parallel between the work of God in the original creation. Now stick with me here. between the work of God in the original creation and the work of God in saving an individual. And it makes sense that it would be this way, because we know that we have the creation, back there in Genesis chapter 1, and what are we called as new believers? New creatures. What's the word creature mean? A created one. And scripture says, you are a new creation. So you've got a creation by God there, and in salvation, or in the new birth, you also have another creation. And the steps are so incredibly similar that it's amazing. And God alludes, or states this, what he says, For God, who said light shall shine out of darkness that takes us back to Genesis one. So before we go back there, go over to. Galatians, Chapter six, verse 15. Paul has been talking here about. the false teaching that was going on and that he was addressing in this letter. You couldn't be saved. The false teaching was couldn't be saved unless you've been circumcised. And of course, that's not true. But he says this. Verse 15, for neither is circumcision anything. Nor uncircumcision. What does Paul say? In the church, it doesn't matter whether you're circumcised or not circumcised. It has nothing to do with where you are with the Lord. Whereas in the Old Testament, as a Jew, it was extremely important. Alright, I don't mean that you were saved by that, but it was still a necessity that you be obedient and do that. But here he says for neither is circumcision anything or uncircumcision. But what a new creation uses that word creation. OK. All right. And then Second Corinthians chapter five verse 17. Therefore, if any man is in Christ. Baptism of the Holy Spirit, when you put your faith in Christ, places you in Christ. Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new what? Creature. A created one. Okay, so there's this parallel between Old Testament creation, the material world, and the spiritual creation of a new creature or creation in Christ. Alright, so now we go back to Genesis chapter 1. And remember the thing that I'm always saying is that the material is because of the spiritual. Okay, remember that there are lessons God, God designed it all and his theme in designing, in designing the material world is to teach us about the spiritual world. So he says things about the ocean and what that represents. And he says things again and again. There's just hundreds of allusions in scripture to the material world that then are related directly to the spiritual world. And then there's very many, many more where you just can see it. But anyway, we start off in verse one. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And this is this verse two and the earth was formless and void. And darkness was over the surface of the deep formless and void in the Hebrew. A piece of a wasteland. OK. We might say a mess. OK. Can you think of a better description of you and I in our unsafe condition than formless, void, and darkness? We're in the dark. In fact, it's worse than that. It's worse than us being in the dark. Scripture says we were darkness. You get the difference? It's one thing to be in the darkness. But scripture says you and I as unbelievers are darkness. Okay? We're darkness itself. Which is to say what? I'm the problem. Okay. It's not that I got surrounded by darkness. I am the darkness. Okay. All right. Let's look at John chapter 12 verse 46. All right. He says, I have come as light into the world that everyone who believes in me, Jesus Christ is speaking, that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness. That's the one that speaks of in darkness. But then let's go to Acts 26 and verse 13 where Paul is giving his testimony before Agrippa in his trial as he moves up the chain of command to stand ultimately before Caesar because he appealed to Caesar because the Jews were going to have a mock trial and put him to death. So as a Roman citizen, he had the right to appeal to Caesar. So he appealed to Caesar. There's a number of chapters devoted to this in the book of Acts to this string of events because of his appeal to Caesar. All right. And so Acts chapter 26 and verse 13, he says this. He's testifying now. He's trying to explain why he is the way he is and what has he been doing. OK. So he starts at the beginning and he says, after he talked about how the things that he did to the Jews, he says, At midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven brighter than the sun shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me in the Hebrew dialect. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goats. Farming implement to prod the animals. And I said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. I think that's so interesting. Is Jesus the head of the body? Jesus is in heaven when this happens. He said, you're persecuting me. You persecute my arm or my leg or my shoulder or I'm the head. You're persecuting me. All right. Then he says this. But arise and stand on your feet for this purpose, I have appeared to you to appoint you a minister and a witness, not only to the things which you have seen, in other words, right there today, but also to the things in which I will appear to you. delivering you from the Jewish people and from Gentile and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me. Then go to Ephesians chapter five Verse 8. Ephesians 5.8 For you were formerly darkness. Not even in the dark, even though we were. But you were darkness. I, as an unbeliever, was darkness. For you were formerly darkness, but now, what does it say? You are light in the Lord. You were darkness. Now you are light in the Lord. Live your life as children of light. All right, now back to Genesis one. So we see the parallel there. Darkest, you know, Jimmer, I remember years ago thinking, how can how can Genesis one start off this way? You're I don't know, it bothered me even as a younger person. that God created the heavens and the earth, verse 1, and where did He ever create anything that was not good? And it's a mess. It's a waste. It's void. Kind of an interesting thing to think about. At any rate, and the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, The next thing it says, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. So, in this darkness, the Spirit of God was moving. By the way, it's interesting. The marginal reading, at least in New American Standard, is hovering. It's used of a bird even incubating, which I kind of like, you know. incubating, in other words, bringing its preparatory to birth. Okay. Wasn't that our condition? Formless, void, still in the dark. How does God begin the whole thing? By the Holy Spirit beginning to incubate us. to work in us what only the Holy Spirit can work, which is an understanding of our own sinfulness, an understanding of God's provision of a Savior in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And all of those things are things that remove the blindness of the mind so that you can see the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ. John, chapter 16, starting in verse six. Remember here in these chapters where this is the upper room, the time of the Last Supper. Shortly, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to go out into the garden. and pray the prayer, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but Thou wilt. Then he's going to leave there and he's going to be met by Judas with all this hundreds of soldiers and people who come to arrest him. But Arate, it says here in verse 5, But now I am going to him, who sent Me, and none of you asked Me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart." Because he's going to leave. And then he says this, "'But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper," that's the Holy Spirit, "'shall not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you.' And He, when He comes, They are going to be about, as believers should be about, witnessing and giving the gospel to those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, that have absolute necessity to have the Spirit at work, to convince people of these three things. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin. It's a huge area. There's lots of people that don't think they're sinners. They just think they've done a good job and they're good people and everybody around them tells them that. You know, I'm fascinated by how powerful people so often end up surrounded by people who are afraid of them and therefore will not tell them the truth. And so they live in this vacuum of truth because no matter what they say, everybody goes, yeah, oh boy, that's a great idea. Do it. Who's going to tell Saddam Hussein he's an idiot? You're going to die if you do that. Who's going to tell Nebuchadnezzar, other than Daniel, by the way? It's just so rare. I read that book on communism and so forth, and Russia. You can see that there's this fear. You just don't ever want to be seen as a person who's rocking the boat or doing anything out of the ordinary. You're going to be marked as a troublemaker and then you're going to be dead. Well, OK. And he when he comes will convict the world concerning sin. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. We can preach the words or proclaim the words, the word of God, but it takes the Holy Spirit to show a person. And, you know, it's interesting to me that it seems very clear to me the Holy Spirit is never done doing that. Because the more you grow in Christ, the more you are amazed at the wickedness of your own heart, and your rebellion against God. Okay, you will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness. It's not only sin, but it's that there is a righteousness that is demanded of you. Okay, there's a perfect standard, by the way, the Old Testament law, there's a perfect standard that you and I have to measure up to and cannot. Concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and then the third one is judgment. Which says, there is coming for all humanity a judgment. And it's going to be based on sin, righteousness, and of course, the result of that, judgment. And so it says this, Concerning sin, Jesus Christ says, because they do not believe in Me. In other words, then it's the major issue. They have to see it. If you don't believe in Christ, then you're accountable for those sins. And you need to be shown that you're a sinner. Concerning righteousness, I love this, because I go to the Father. He's the perfect standard of righteousness as He walks this earth. Because I go to the Father, now the Holy Spirit will be the one who will convict people of concerning the standards of righteousness. And then concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. In other words, and the whole thinking is this. If you're a part of Satan's system, and Scripture teaches you are, and the head of that system is judged, then you can be sure you will be judged ultimately also. Okay. All right. Go to 1 Peter 1, verses 1 and 2. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who reside as aliens scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, notice, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit at work when we're in the dark. First of all, God says, chosen. Then the work of the Holy Spirit sanctifying us. What's the word? Sanctify. Setting us apart. And then, finally, faith in Christ that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood. Okay. Back to Genesis 1. So we have, and the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. What a great picture of our condition. And the Spirit of God, God's grace, the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Verse 3, Then God said, Let there be light. And there was light. And you think about, who's the light? Jesus Christ. So you have the sense of God said, let there be light, first of all, by sending His Son. But then, secondly, as far as each one of us is concerned, there had to be that light dawning in our darkness when we were brought to see the reality of who Jesus Christ is. And could no longer ignore Him. Could no longer say, yeah, yeah, You know, that's what some people think, but not me. What a wonderful thing when God, I think of this old term, grabs you by your stacking swivel and gets your attention. Holy Spirit at work, where you cannot ignore Jesus Christ, where you would be so terrified to be moving away from Him, knowing He's the only answer and that If you were to die this moment, I think back when I was a little kid, and this all of a sudden became very, very clear to me. And I thought, if I die right now, I don't know Jesus Christ. And I'm not ready. And as a little kid, my heart was pumping fast. But I was so terrified. I told this story. I called down. I needed to talk to my dad. My dad wasn't home. I called down. My mom said, wait a minute. And I thought, I don't have a minute. Whatever you're doing, it's not important. I'd say that. And so my mom came up and talked to me about this. I was up in bed when this just so real. OK. So there has to be that. Let there be light. That all of a sudden, this is not some peripheral issue. This is THE issue. To me, that's the difference. There are lots of people you talk to who say, oh yeah, yeah, I know. I guess that's important. I say, I don't know where you're at. If you don't understand that this is THE issue, there is no other issue. You can do everything else wrong in life and get this one right, And do fine. This is the issue. This is the issue for your children and your children's children. This is the issue for the people that you work with. There is no other issue. Do you understand what I mean by that? Oh, yeah, there are. There's all kinds of things. But they all are resolved by this issue ultimately. So God said, let there be light. I just love that. All right. And I'm going to have to hurry here. Let me take you to the next one here in Genesis. God said, let there be light. The first thing we see is what does God say? Verse 4, And God saw that the light was good. We looked in Ephesians and it says, You were darkness, now you're light in the Lord. Remember we saw that? He went from being darkness through faith in Christ to being light in the Lord. And the characteristic of the light is good. God, in other words, you can be sure of this if you have been born again through faith in Christ. The fruit of the light is what? That which is good. You're going to have immediate production. God looked, said, let there be light. And then he said, that's good. Same thing happens with a believer. The work of God in a believer's life is that out of that believer is going to come that which is good. I don't mean that he's not going to have a battle with his sin nature, don't get me wrong here, but there will be for the first time in his entire life the production of that which God considers good doesn't matter that you think it's good or somebody else does. The issue is what does God say. And he says there's none who does good. No not one. Speaking of all the loss. And finally when believers are born again they produce what God says is good. That's the issue. All right. And then. Notice the next thing. Verse 4. And God separated the light from the darkness. It's the next thing that happens. The next thing that happens is a separation as a result of being taken out of Adam and placed into Christ. You've been taken out of darkness and placed into the light. And then there's that physical thing where, you know, Peter talks about it. The people that you used to carouse with and party with and do all those sinful things with, you're not doing those things anymore. And so as a result of that, they speak ill of you, which the Scripture says for which they will be held accountable. But there's a separation. In Corinthians, I don't have time to do all these verses, God says, come out from among them and be separate. So we have this wonderful picture. Dark. Confusion. Holy Spirit at work. Let there be light. Come to see who Jesus Christ is and put your faith in Him. Result in your life that which is good. And then the separation. Come out from among them and be separate. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for these great things that you have built into what you've done through Jesus Christ and the creation that mirror our own story as those who have been born again through faith in Christ. We thank you for it in Jesus name. Amen.