We want to begin a study in the
book of Genesis, commencing today, and before we
turn there, there are two verses in the
New Testament that I would like to turn
to.
First of all, in 2 Timothy, chapter 3,
that we want to read, 2 Timothy 3,
16 and 17.
All scripture is inspired by God and profitable
for teaching.
Now, when we read this verse, we must
remember that when that verse was written by
Paul, the New Testament was not yet compiled.
Many books of the New Testament were not
even written.
And mostly what was known as scripture in
those days was the Old Testament.
And that was what Paul had in mind.
Of course, today we include the New Testament
also under that verse.
But I find among many believers, generally, there
is an ignorance of many things in the
Old Testament.
And yet the word of God says, all
scripture, which means that there is no portion
of scripture which is not inspired by God.
And I remember as a young Christian myself,
many years ago, I felt that one way
that I would show my respect for God
was by getting to know his word.
I mean, if your father wrote a letter
to you of, say, 25 pages, you would
certainly be disrespecting your father if you didn't
read it carefully.
If you just read one or two pages
and tossed it aside, I don't think there's
any better way of showing disrespect for your
father.
I believe that one way we show respect
for God is by taking his word seriously.
All scripture is inspired by God.
That means God has given us his word.
And I show my respect for him by
taking pains to understand what he has revealed
in his word.
And it is profitable for teaching, that's what
we do in the church, use the entire
scripture for teaching.
For reproof, that is to rebuke.
God's word rebukes us and corrects us when
we are going astray.
And for training in righteousness, that teaches us
that we don't become righteous overnight.
We have to go through a training course
to become righteous.
And if you are really seeking to understand
righteousness as Christlikeness, then we realize we've got
a long way to go, and that through
God's word we can be trained in life
situations to be righteous so that the man
of God may be adequate, complete, perfect, equipped
for every good work, meaning equipped to do
everything God wants us to do.
So if I neglect some portion of scripture,
in that measure I shall be incomplete, imperfect,
inadequate, and not fully equipped for every good
work.
Because all scripture has been given for this
purpose.
And one of the burdens I've had through
the years for the church here is that
as the years go by, if the Lord
tarries, that we shall be able to go
through the scriptures so thoroughly that we shall
know the scriptures as God intends us to
know them.
And yet not in a theoretical, intellectual, academic
way, but rather in the way that God
intends us to know the scriptures.
And this is the reason why we have
these Bible studies.
The other verse in Matthew 19 is in
Matthew 19 and verse 4.
When the Pharisees came to Jesus and tested
him, verse 3, and said, Is it lawful
for a man to divorce his wife for
any cause?
He answered, Haven't you read that he who
created them from the beginning made them male
and female?
For this cause shall a man leave father
and mother and flee to his wife.
And that's from Genesis chapter 2 that Jesus
quoted.
That means Jesus had studied Genesis.
He knew what verse from Genesis to quote
to answer these people.
So we are following in the footsteps of
Jesus when we study Genesis.
And then they said to him, verse 7,
Why then did Moses command to give her
a certificate of divorce and divorce her?
He said to them, Because of your hardness
of heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your
wives, but from the beginning it has not
been this way.
Notice that phrase, from the beginning.
That means before Moses.
That means God permitted something in Moses' time,
but if you want to know what God's
perfect will was and is, you have to
go beyond Moses to Genesis chapter 1 and
2 to understand God's perfect will for man.
That's why it's very important.
Those two chapters, particularly of Genesis, are very
important because it is the only two chapters
in the Bible where there is no sin,
where sin has not come.
You finally come to it again in the
last two chapters of the Bible where there's
no sin, Revelation 21 and 22.
But those are the only four chapters in
the whole Bible.
Genesis' first two chapters, Revelation 21 and 22,
the last two chapters in which there is
no sin.
So we need to understand God's perfect will.
We need to go back and understand from
the beginning, He said to you, God's will
for man was not that.
In other words, in Matthew 22, when Jesus
was speaking to the Sadducees, they asked a
question concerning the resurrection.
In Matthew 22, He replied them, saying in
verse 29, You are mistaken, not understanding the
Scriptures or the power of God.
Brothers and sisters, there are two things we
need to know, the Scripture and the power
of God.
We have seen groups that study the Scripture,
but do not know the endowments with the
power of the Holy Spirit.
We have seen groups that emphasize the baptism
in the Holy Spirit, but not the intensive
study of the Scriptures.
But Jesus said that if we do not
understand the Scriptures and the power of God,
we will be mistaken.
It's a very important verse.
In order not to be mistaken, we must
know the Scriptures, and we must know the
mighty power of God through the Holy Spirit.
That is a balanced Christian, one who has
received the endowment of the Holy Spirit's power,
and who knows the Word of God.
May God help us to be that.
This is the reason why we study God's
Word like this.
And that is an introduction.
We go back now to Genesis chapter 1
and verse 1.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and
the earth.
Notice that the Word of God begins with
a wonderful phrase, In the beginning, God.
We can say that's like saying, put God
first in everything.
Your office work, let it be with these
four words, In the beginning, God.
Your home life, In the beginning, God.
Your personal life, your finances, every area of
life, your eating, drinking, your sexual life, every
part of life, church life, In the beginning,
God.
That's the way it has to be.
That means God is put in his rightful
place.
And that's why the Scriptures begin with those
words.
And sin is when, in the beginning, it's
not God.
It's something else.
That is idolatry.
Anything other than that is idolatry.
In the beginning, God.
In every area of your life, children, what's
the first thing they must be taught?
In the beginning, God.
We can apply that to every area of
life in general.
But the other thing I want you to
notice in this verse is that the Word
of God does not try to prove the
existence of God.
One would think that, according to human cleverness,
there are atheists in the world.
We need to somehow prove to them that
God exists.
And that we should sort of begin with
a paragraph saying, let's see, there are stars,
there are so many things, there must be
a God.
Nothing of that.
The existence of God is not understood by
reasoning.
It is not by the intellect that we
understand God.
It is in the spirit.
And that doesn't come by proof.
It doesn't come by argument.
It doesn't come by logic.
It comes by revelation.
And that is why the Bible does not
attempt to prove the existence of God or
to speak about how God was always there
or try to explain it in any way.
Nothing of the sort.
In the beginning, God.
Of course, there is another verse of Scripture
which, in terms of time, is even previous
to Genesis 1 verse 1 because Genesis 1
is dealing with the creation of the heavens
and the earth.
But we can say that John 1 verse
1, if you turn there, in terms of
time, goes back even beyond Genesis 1 verse
1 because John 1 verse 1 reads like
this.
In the beginning was the Word.
And that also should be true in our
life.
That in the beginning, the Lord Jesus Christ,
taking the first place in every area of
life, and the Word was with God and
the Word was God.
Now, this is relating to a time which
was even before the beginning of Genesis 1
verse 1, even before the creation of the
heavens and the earth, way back in eternity
past, God existed.
And we are told in John 1 verse
1, the Word, referring to the Lord Jesus
Christ, was with God, meaning that He was
another person with God, and He was God,
speaking of His deity from all eternity, and
also speaking of the fact that there is
more than one person in the Godhead.
And this is something that doesn't come out
very clearly in the English translation in Genesis
1 verse 1, but the Old Testament was
written in the Hebrew language.
And in the Hebrew language, there is a
word called El, E-L, from which we
get the word Israel, and many other words
that end with L in the Old Testament.
It means God.
But there is a word for God which
is the plural of El, and that is
Elohim, E-L-O-H-I-M, like
Cherub, Cherubim.
Cherubim is the plural of Cherub.
And Elohim is the plural of El.
And then we can ask ourselves, how is
that?
And that's the word used here.
Elohim, God, in the plural.
So that we can say that right in
the first verse of Scripture, there is a
testimony to the fact that though God is
one, yet there is more than one person
in God.
That's just my way of introduction.
Let's turn back to Genesis 1-1.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and
the earth.
I want to point out to you that
in Genesis 1, there are two words used
concerning God's work.
One is the word create, and the other
is the word make.
And they are not the same.
To create means to make out of nothing.
That means there was nothing there, and then
something was created.
But to make means to make out of
something that was already there.
For example, man's body, Adam's body, was not
created.
It was made out of the dust which
was already there.
But his spirit, that was created by God
from something that did not exist.
So that's just to illustrate the difference between
the two, because then we shall understand that
Genesis 1 is not a description of the
creation of the heavens and the earth, but
of the remaking of the heavens and the
earth, which were already created earlier.
Verse 1, in the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth full stop.
That's finished.
And then in the rest of Genesis 1,
he's talking about something that happened after the
heavens and the earth had been created.
Now we know that God, whenever he does
anything, he does it perfectly.
There's nothing imperfect with God.
Whenever God makes anything, if it comes straight
from his hand, it is perfect.
And yet we read, verse 2, and the
earth was formless and empty.
Void means empty.
And darkness was over the surface of the
deep, or as some translations have it, the
earth became without form, empty, and dark.
Three things, without shape, empty, and dark.
Then we know that something must have happened
between verse 1 and verse 2, for this
perfect earth that God had made to become
shapeless, to become empty, and to become dark.
And then in that condition, the Spirit of
God moved over the surface of the waters
that were on the earth.
And then we find throughout this chapter, the
word made, verse 7, God made something.
And verse 16, God made the true great
light.
And he made the beast, verse 25.
What happened between verses 1 and 2 for
this darkness to come?
That we know from other portions of the
scripture is the fall of Lucifer, the head
of the angels, and all the angels who
followed him in rebellion.
That fall took place between verses 1 and
2.
And we can ask, why is it not
described here?
Because this is a book that is dealing
with the history of man, and God's dealings
with man.
And therefore he begins straight with the creation
of man in the first chapter, and all
of God's dealings with man.
And this other part of the angels is
just mentioned separately in some other portions of
scripture.
But we know that happened there, because by
the time you come to Genesis chapter 3,
Satan is already there.
And so, we see that between verses 1
and 2, something happened which made the earth
like this.
If you turn to Isaiah 45, verse 18,
there's a verse that tells us something interesting.
Isaiah 45, verse 18, it says, For thus
says the Lord who created the heavens, Isaiah
45, 18, He is the God who formed
the earth and made it.
He established it, notice the word made and
created, and did not create it as an
empty waste place.
No.
And it's the same word used in Isaiah
45 that's used in Genesis 1-2 in
the Hebrew language.
He did not create it empty.
But we read in Genesis 1-2, it
became empty.
What happened?
We read another verse in Jeremiah 4, verse
23, I looked on the earth, and behold,
it was formless and void.
And to them, heavens, and they have no
light.
The same three things we saw in Genesis
1.
Shapeless, empty, and dark.
Verse 25, I looked, and behold, there was
no man.
And this we read in the last part
of verse 26, was because of the fierce
anger of the Lord.
So when we put all these verses together,
we find that there was a manifestation of
God's anger on the earth long before Adam
was created.
That is what made the earth shapeless, empty,
and dark.
God didn't create it like that.
And so, we can just turn to see
something about the fall of Lucifer, which is
mentioned in two passages.
Isaiah 14, just look at it briefly.
Isaiah 14, verses 12-15.
We read about the head of the angels.
How have you fallen from heaven?
Isaiah 14-12.
O star of the morning, or Lucifer, or
shining one, sun of the dawn, just remember
this word used to describe Lucifer in the
margin.
The shining one.
We will come to that later in our
study of Genesis.
How have you fallen from heaven, O fellow,
the shining one, Lucifer, sun of the dawn?
You have been cut down to the earth,
you who have weakened the nations.
That is, later on, after man was created,
he weakened the nations, but going back to
his previous history, it says here, you said
in your heart, this is the origin of
sin, he didn't speak, he only thought in
his heart.
Sin originated in the thought life.
A big warning to all of us.
Sin originated in the universe, in the thought
that came into an angel's heart.
You said in your heart, be careful what
you say in your heart, I will ascend
to heaven.
Sin originated with these words, I will go
up.
Never forget it, my brothers and sisters.
Salvation originated with these words in Jesus, I
will go down.
This is sin, I will go up.
This is salvation, I will go down.
And that applies in many areas of life.
The main thing in our flesh is this
poison of Lucifer, I will go up.
I want to be bigger than my brother
and sister, I want to have more than
my brother and sister, I want to be
better than my brother and sister, I always
want to go up, I want to be
a little bit above him in some way.
And Jesus went exactly the opposite way, there
is no salvation apart from that spirit gripping
us, I will go down.
And to cleanse ourselves from filthiness of the
spirit is to cleanse ourselves from this, I
will ascend.
I will raise my throne above the stars
of God, I will sit on the mount
of assembly in the recesses of the Lord,
I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds, I will make myself like the Most
High, I will be like God.
It came into Lucifer's heart first, and that's
what he told Eve in the Garden of
Eden, you will be like God.
And that is the thing which he tries
to put into our hearts also.
You can be like God When we try
to run other people's lives, what are we
trying to be like?
What are we trying to be like?
God.
When we judge other people, what are we
trying to be like?
God.
God is the only judge.
God is the only one who's got the
right to run other people's lives.
But when that comes into us, it's the
spirit, I will be like God.
Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of
the spirit.
The other thing I want you to notice
here in the fall of Lucifer is, nevertheless,
verse 15, you will be thrust down to
Sheol, to the recesses of the pits.
He who exalts himself will be humbled, abased.
He who humbles himself like Jesus will be
exalted to the right hand of the Father.
But the other thing I want you to
notice here is, the five times this phrase
comes, I will, verse 13 and 14, I
will, I will, I will, I will.
This is the origin of sin.
My will.
And this is the origin of salvation.
Not my will, but thy will.
Jesus said in John 6, 38, I came
down from heaven, not to do my own
will, but the will of him who sent
me.
The reason I point that out to you
is, so that we can get back to
the root.
John the Baptist said, the axe is laid
to the root of the tree.
Jesus came to lay the axe to the
root.
Moses could chop off a few fruit through
the law, but Jesus has come to lay
the axe to the root.
And the root is not adultery, it is
not love of money, it is not anger,
it is not sexual lust.
The root is, I will go up above
others, I will be like God towards others,
I want my way.
That is the root.
And even when we have got rid of
anger, even when we have got rid of
sexual lust, even when we have got rid
of the love of money, if I don't
allow the Holy Spirit to lay the axe
to the root, which is, my desire to
be like a little mini-God to other
brothers and sisters.
My desire to go up at least a
little bit above others.
The axe is not laid to that.
My desire to have my own way and
not to use in a confrontation with another
person.
If the axe is not laid to that,
my brothers and sisters, all of our so
-called working out our own salvation is just
cutting a few fruit from the branches of
the tree.
Jesus has come to lay the axe to
the root.
And that's why it appears as though victory
takes so long.
I am chopping off a fruit here, but
a fruit comes out there.
I am chopping off a fruit there, another
one comes out there.
It will keep on coming.
It is a never-ending fight.
If I think that it is these fruits
I have to chop off.
Fruits are chopped off only to get honor
before men for a godly, saintly life.
But if you want honor before God, you
have to go to the root.
This desire to act like God towards other
people.
You see all the many manifestations of that
in our life.
This desire to be a little bit above
another, over another, not rather than under.
This desire to have my way.
This unwillingness to deny my will.
Why do we say the cross is so
important?
Because the cross is canceling out my will.
And that is to lay the axe to
the root of the tree.
And if we do not do this, we
have not cleansed ourselves from the spirit of
Lucifer.
Let's turn to the other passage in Ezekiel
28.
Ezekiel chapter 28, where also the history of
Lucifer is described.
In verse 14, you were the anointed cherub
who covered.
He was, he had an anointing.
Do you know that Lucifer had an anointing?
An anointing must refer to the Holy Spirit.
Lucifer was anointed.
He lost the anointing.
But he did not lose the supernatural gifts.
That's why the devil can heal the sick.
That's why the devil can do supernatural things
in heathen religions and through evil spirits.
When did he get those supernatural abilities?
God didn't give it to them after he
had fallen.
Definitely not.
God gave it to him when he was
the anointed cherub.
And when he lost the anointing, he retained
the supernatural abilities.
A tremendous warning for us to be careful
when we see Christians with supernatural abilities.
It does not prove that they still have
the anointing.
It does not prove it.
They may use the name of Jesus with
supernatural abilities, but they may have lost the
anointing.
That's what many have not understood.
To discern between the anointing, which brings grace,
in addition to the gifts, and just the
supernatural abilities.
It's when we discern between these two that
we are not surprised that Jesus said, Many
will come to me in the last day
and say, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your
name.
We have supernatural abilities.
Cast out demons and heal the sick.
And he will say, I never knew you.
The anointing is gone.
That's a great warning to us that we
also can receive supernatural abilities.
And if we are not careful to walk
in brokenness and humility, taking up the cross,
we can lose the anointing and yet retain
these supernatural abilities, even to heal the sick,
or to share the Word, or to minister.
We can deceive ourselves that the anointing is
on us.
The anointing is a freshness.
The anointing is something that can be there
only if I have an absolutely clear conscience,
before God has brought it.
You were the anointed cherub.
Not now.
Now you are not the anointed cherub.
You were the anointed cherub who guards, it
says on the margin.
He was appointed to guard something.
I placed you there as a guard.
You were on the holy mountain of God.
Verse 13, You were in Eden.
The garden of God.
Do you know that long before Adam was
in Eden, Lucifer had been placed in Eden
to guard Eden.
And he was thrown out of there.
And that's why he was so jealous when
somebody else was now appointed to replace him
to guard Eden.
And he was determined, I'll get him also
out of there.
And he succeeded.
We understand that jealousy began there.
You are not given that responsibility which you
were once given for whatever reason.
It has now been given to another brother.
And jealousy?
I had that once.
You see what the satanic nature is in
all these things.
You had the feel of perfection in the
last part of verse 12.
You see, this is spoken to the king
of Tyre, verse 12.
And we are told that in Ephesians 6
.12 that these principalities are the rulers of
this darkness.
So even if there was an earthly king
of Tyre, there was a ruler on top
of him.
That was the devil who was the real
king of Tyre.
You had the feel of perfection full of
wisdom and perfect in beauty.
That was how he was created.
Full of wisdom, perfect in beauty.
And yet he perverted that wisdom.
He became proud of that beauty.
You were in Eden, the garden of God.
And it speaks there about these precious stones
that were his covering in the last part
of verse 13.
It says the middle and the gold and
the workmanship of your the margin says tambourines
and flutes.
There was musical ability in Lucifer in the
garden of Eden.
Tambourines and flutes.
In other words, musical ability which was given
to him.
Music was created by God in the garden
of Eden long before Adam.
It was an ability he gave to the
angel.
There was nothing sinful in it at that
time.
It was a perfect ability given to Lucifer.
He had wisdom, perfection in beauty, musical ability.
And we read here they were all in
you on the day you were created they
were prepared and you had the anointing.
You can imagine what music there must have
been among the angels with the anointing, perfection
and musical ability.
It must have been absolutely fantastic.
And now I want to tell you something.
After the anointing has gone from Satan he
has not lost that musical ability and he
has perverted it and used it in the
world to lead people to hell.
That's why we have to be very careful
in this realm of music.
Not all music even if there are Christian
words to it is necessarily spiritual.
And how will the devil infiltrate Christianity?
He can't infiltrate Christianity in the musical realm
by singing songs to heathen gods.
He'll use Christian words but with another spirit
with another beat in it that makes people
more interested in tapping their legs and shaking
their hips rather than in glorifying God.
He lost the anointing but he didn't lose
the musical ability.
Therefore be careful.
He lost the anointing but he didn't lose
his intelligence.
His intelligence is still there.
He's wiser than any of us.
Further.
Verse 15 You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created until unrighteousness
was found in you and that unrighteousness was
tried.
We saw in Isaiah 14 we see here
what he was proud of.
What are the things you can be proud
of?
Verse 12 Wisdom Beauty Verse 13 Musical ability
Verse 14 Your position as a leader The
anointing These are the things one can be
proud of.
One's wisdom I'm a wise brother.
One's physical beauty I'm good looking.
I'm attractive.
One's musical ability Such skill in music.
The anointing I'm anointed with the gifts anointing
of God.
My position as a leader the one who
is to guard.
These are the things that puffed up Lucifer
and these things are written for our warning.
He was blameless for a while until and
that history can be written about many believers
given so many things by God blameless until
this unrighteousness from spiritual pride came into him.
By the abundance of your trade you were
internally filled with violence and you sinned.
In the heart came rebellion.
Therefore I cast you as profane.
Verse 17 Your heart was lifted up because
of your beauty because of your abilities.
How many millions of people that word has
to be written about since that day.
Your heart was lifted up because of your
beauty.
Your heart was lifted up because when you
looked into the mirror you saw that you
were good looking.
Your heart was lifted up because when you
compared yourself with other believers you were more
intelligent.
You were more spiritual.
Your heart was lifted up because of your
spiritual beauty.
Because of your wisdom.
Because of your musical ability.
Because of your spiritual gifts.
The same spirit and you corrupted your wisdom.
That wisdom which should have made him humble
was corrupt and became demonic.
James speaks about that wisdom which is from
beneath.
That demonic wisdom which is full of jealousy
and strife and competition.
Yeah.
You see the beginning of that.
What was the result of all this?
We turn back to Genesis 1.
The earth was shapeless empty and dark.
And we can say why have we studied
Lucifer's history so much?
Because it is these things that I have
just spoken about which made the earth the
object of God's anger.
God resists the proud.
And that was true even in those days.
Because God resisted the proud the earth became
shapeless, empty and dark.
And the warning for us is that if
these characteristics are found in our life we
also will become shapeless, empty and dark.
Shapeless means without the image of Christ.
Empty means hollow no content having a form
of godliness but empty inside, no power.
And dark means no life.
No revelation.
No life of Jesus.
That can happen today.
It's happening.
Happening to people who were born again were
anointed.
You were the anointed cherub.
You were an anointed believer.
You were an anointed man of God.
You were an anointed sister.
What's that word?
But because you got puffed up the anointing
is gone.
You have a good testimony before other believers
but the anointing is gone.
Brothers and sisters shall I tell you what
we learn from verses 1 and 2?
Fear to lose the anointing and to retain
the testimony before other believers.
Fear it.
Fear when that emptiness comes into your life
which is an indication that the anointing is
gone.
Fear when the darkness is creeping into your
life an indication the anointing is gone.
We must be in the light.
God wants to give us revelation.
God wants to give us content.
Fear when that freshness is gone from your
life and the Christian life has become stale.
Fear when the freshness has gone out of
your relationship with another brother or another sister.
You can't do anything about the other person's
part.
You can do something about your part.
Fear to lose the anointing.
Then we end up in Genesis 1, 2
in our life.
And the spirit of God was moving over
the surface of the waters.
Satan was now, as we read in those
verses, cast out from he had free access
being a spirit being unlike man who was
created subject to the law of gravity.
When Lucifer was appointed in the Garden of
Eden he was not subject to the law
of gravity.
He could move in a flash of a
second right into the third heaven into the
immediate presence of God and being in the
Garden of Eden in a flash of a
second.
He was a spirit being.
He didn't have a body.
He could be right there in the presence
of God in the third heaven.
But he was thrown out of the Garden
of Eden and thrown out of the third
heaven and he was thrown down to the
second heaven.
We'll come to that a little later.
But Satan is not in hell.
Satan has never been in hell.
Did you know that?
Hell is in the heart of the earth
and Satan has never been there.
Not till today.
And he will never go there.
He's been cast out from the third heaven
to the second heaven.
He's the one of the spirit, along with
the spirit rulers in the heavenly places.
That's why we find prayer so difficult.
So difficult to communicate with God.
It's not easy to communicate with men because
the devil's headquarters is there.
It's so difficult to communicate with God.
That's why we feel sleepy when we want
to pray.
Because it's the second heaven where the devil
is there trying to hinder our communication with
God.
That's why it's a battle.
We wrestle with principalities and powers in the
heavenly places.
One day as we read in Revelation chapter
12 he'll be cast down from there to
the earth.
That day hasn't come yet.
It's coming very soon.
Then when Jesus comes back from the earth
he'll again be cast down still not to
hell but to the bottomless pit and then
finally released from there for a little while
back to the earth as we studied in
Revelation 20 and then finally thrown not into
hell but into the lake of fire which
is quite another place where hell also is
thrown.
That is the final lake of fire.
The eternal lake of fire where nobody has
gone there yet.
So we see there are stages Satan's falling
down and the present is in the second
heaven.
Right?
We see the earth was formless and void
and darkness was over the surface of the
deep.
The spirit of God was moving over the
surface of the water.
It's a very beautiful picture of what God
did to remake that earth which he first
created perfect which became imperfect through the devil's
sin and which now the spirit of God
is moving over in order to remake.
It says here that the earth was covered
with water long before the flood of Noah
there was another flood that's spoken of here
the flood that came as a result of
Lucifer's sin we can say it's Lucifer's flood.
Noah's flood was many hundreds of years later.
But the earth was first created.
Beautiful earth that God created and then Lucifer's
sin and the earth was judged and part
of that judgment was the whole earth was
covered with water it was a flood and
not a speck of land you could see
anywhere.
And you read about this in 2 Peter
chapter 3 where we read about the verse
6 2 Peter 3 verse 6 The world
at that time was destroyed being flooded with
water.
Verse 5 In the name of Jesus Christ
I notice by the word of God the
heavens existed long ago the earth was formed
out of water and by water through which
the world at that time was destroyed being
flooded with water.
The earth was destroyed.
It was not destroyed in Noah's day.
In Noah's day the waters were over the
earth only for a short while.
Even the vegetation was not completely destroyed because
we read that when the dove went out
of Noah's ark he could bring back a
leaf.
But it was destroyed in Lucifer's flood completely.
And then we read in Genesis 1-2
The Spirit of God moved over this flooded
earth.
This dark flooded earth.
It's a picture of how the Holy Spirit
seeks to move over man who has been
ruined by Satan.
Genesis 1-2 is a picture of man
in his fallen state.
Shapeless, empty dark and then God wants to
remake man.
This is the work of salvation.
The Spirit of God moving.
There can be no remaking without the Spirit
of God moving whether it's the earth or
a human being.
The first thing is the Holy Spirit has
to move.
We are so dependent on the Holy Spirit
to be transformed into the likeness of Christ.
We need to see Genesis 1 as a
picture of our sanctification and our transformation.
Because at the end of Genesis 1 you
read in Genesis 2-3 Then God blessed
the seventh day and sanctified it.
He had completed His work.
Genesis 2-2 God completed His work and
He sanctified the seventh day.
That's the first time the word sanctification comes
in the whole Bible.
And therefore I say this whole thing can
refer to our sanctification also.
Like it says in Genesis 2-2 One
day it will be written God completed it
in our life.
And therefore we look at this as a
picture of how God transforms us and therefore
it's very interesting to see that it begins
it begins with the Spirit of God.
Where a believer does not value being filled
with the Holy Spirit transformation is impossible.
Where a believer thinks it is just my
denying myself my gripping my teeth my judging
myself my doing this very good leave out
the Holy Spirit and it will be Buddhism.
It will be yoga.
Never begin with judging yourself begin with the
Holy Spirit.
Let Him reveal to you the things that
you can never see.
In His light we will see light.
The second thing the second agent by which
transformation takes place is the word of God
free Then God spoke His word.
We can read it like that.
Then God sent forth His word.
Let there be light.
Therefore we see that this whole work of
of remaking this spoiled earth of remaking the
mess that the devil has brought upon the
earth this remaking of this mess is done
by the Spirit of God and the word
of God.
Remember the verse we saw at the beginning
from Matthew 22 where Jesus said you are
mistaken because you don't know the word of
God and you don't know the power of
God.
If you don't know these two you don't
have Christianity.
What you've got is a lot of good
theories.
No, it's the Spirit of God moving and
the word of God to which the earth
submitted the earth submitted to the moving of
God's Spirit and to the spoken word of
God.
Of course the difference is the earth did
not have a will of its own to
resist the Holy Spirit moving or to resist
the word of God but when this happens
to fallen man man has the opportunity to
resist the Holy Spirit and to resist the
word of God and that's why God's not
able to do a work in man like
He did on the earth.
The remaking of the earth was such a
perfect job that at the end God says
that means God inspected it and said couldn't
be better, excellent.
That's because He just submitted.
There's a lesson there for us brothers and
sisters that if we can learn to submit
to the Spirit of God moving it's a
beautiful word I'm told that in the original
as it says in the margin here of
your Bible the Bible Genesis 1-2 it
says was hovering or brooding it's like a
bird hovering over the nest a dove so
we see there that the Spirit of God
is pictured like a bird even there in
Genesis 1-2 hovering you know just over
there moving speaks of gentleness it's not the
Spirit of God kicking, pushing no that's the
devil kicking, pushing we've got that in us
brothers and sisters we've got it in our
flesh just think of the way we treat
our children we discover how much of it
is in our flesh kicking, pushing and then
we see the Spirit of God is hovering
trying to change change us into the likeness
of Christ firmness with gentleness determined to transform
this earth firm about it but yet not
with kicking and pushing and yelling but gently
that's how He moves with us that's why
the word of God says be still and
know that I am God we have to
really be still to hear the gentle voice
of the Spirit saying not this way the
other way and I don't listen and He
doesn't kick He doesn't push He lets me
go in the wrong way but He still
whispers not this way the other way and
I still don't listen He lets me go
no kicking, no pushing at all no need
to say that don't say that word now
no need to say that to him or
to her I don't listen I am determined
to say I want to get it off
my chest He won't stop me He'll let
me do it He'll let me do the
greatest evil in the world He won't stop
me so that's the sad thing that's why
transformation is so slow brothers and sisters learn
from Genesis 1-2 that transformation can take
place only if we can be submissive to
the hovering of the Holy Spirit over us
be sensitive to those gentle promptings little things
don't do that not now hold on go
right now and apologize to Him don't put
it off settle that matter now there's a
wrong attitude in your heart to that person
cleanse it now no pushing, no kicking hovering
the aim is transformation remaking this mess that
the devil has made in my life listen
to that voice, brothers and sisters listen to
it that's how we have delayed the work
of God in our lives and the word
of God, submit to it the word of
God is always bringing light the unfolding of
God's word brings light Psalm 119 verse 130
God said, let there be light and that's
always what God is doing God's word is
to bring light into a dark situation light
into darkness and there was light if I
submit to that word of God it will
always bring light into my life every word
of God has got the same power that
that first word of God mentioned in scripture
has to bring light if I submit to
it it will bring light into my life
we read in 2nd Corinthians 4 2nd Corinthians
4 and verse 6 for God who said
light shall shine out of darkness is the
one who has shone in our hearts so
then we read that what we are studying
in Genesis 1 we are going on the
right line we are going in the right
direction because the Holy Spirit says here that
that's exactly what it all means that it
is a picture, spiritually of that light that
shines into our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ in other
words, the light of revelation that's number one
the light of revelation is the beginning of
the work of transformation and the other thing
we read in John 1, 4 is that,
that light is the life of Jesus in
him was life and that life was the
light of men so from both these verses
we see that the light is a picture
of revelation and of the life of Jesus
revelation leading to transformation of character or we
can also say that comparing that first day
of the remaking of the old creation to
the first day of the week when Jesus
rose up from the dead and to think
of the tomb as the darkness and into
that tomb God says let there be light
and Jesus rises from the dead and that
resurrection is the light the beginning of a
new creation on the first day of the
week this is the first day of the
week of the old creation and what we
read in Luke 24 is the first day
of the week of the new creation and
in both cases it is light out of
darkness, death being overcome it is resurrection which
is pictured there in Genesis 1, 4 Genesis
1, 3 there was light resurrection, revelation resurrection,
the life of Jesus and that is why
we speak so much about putting to death
that which is of Adam because there cannot
be a resurrection if there is no putting
to death of the Adamic life if we
die with him we shall live with him
if we do not die with him, we
shall not live with him if we bear
in our body the dying of Jesus the
life of Jesus will be manifested in our
body so if you want the resurrection you
must have the death first and that's why
I say the cross is central in the
whole of the scriptures and you see it
right there let there be light God is
always seeking to do that in our lives
let there be light in that area think
my brothers and sisters when you have a
difficulty a relationship problem with someone we can
say that it is an area of darkness
think of your relationships with all the brothers
and sisters like a house with a hundred
rooms and some rooms the light is not
on or some rooms it's a zero watt
bulb it's on but sort of a bit
dim relationship with somebody other rooms is thousand
watts bright and what does God want to
do he wants to enter those rooms not
the rooms which are bright he wants to
enter the rooms where there is no light
and say and the word of God is
let there be light in your relationship with
that brother let there be light in your
relationship with that sister now the question is
like the earth submitted will you submit or
not there will be no kicking no pushing
by the Holy Spirit only a hovering and
the word of God going forth let there
be light let there be light let there
be light in that area which is a
bit shady in your life some practice something
you are doing in your office something you
are doing with your money let there be
light let there be light some habit which
is not so good the word of God
is let there be light and he waits
patiently till we submit to that let there
be light and if it can be written
about our life in that room and there
was light praise God in that relationship with
that person there was light in that shady
area of my life there was light then
the work of transformation is progressing so we
can think about that I think we have
something to meditate on we can stop there
and see where what application it has in
our own personal life so that we can
allow the word of God and the Holy
Spirit to accomplish its purpose in our lives