Have you ever played gossip? Oh, I know some of you do it. I don't mean that. I mean the game, you know, where you all sit around in a circle and one tells a story and by the time it gets through 10 or 15, it's not even close to what it was. Well, if it is that difficult to communicate in the same language, you can imagine the difficulty with which God has gotten the message of his word through to us. Through his chosen people, the Hebrew nation, whose language was interpreted into the Greek and then into Old English and then into us in modern language today. The difficulty that we have of so many different denominations believing so many different things about the same passages of Scripture are at this point the problems of understanding what God really said. I think if all of us could understand exactly the original language in which God spoke everything on every subject, there would be no such perplexity and difficulty today. I think we would all be in the same denomination. I don't say we would all be Baptists. You know I think that, but I won't say it. But at least we would not be as confused as most of us seem to be. There are many supposed discrepancies in science and the Scriptures which really are not at all. Oftentimes you have the appearance that the Bible is saying something that it really is not. Sometimes it seems that science is saying something that science really is not saying. Now the Bible tells us to beware because in the last days many pseudo -scientists that means scientists falsely so -called will arrive and deceive many. And today there is as there has always been much that goes by the name of science which is not really science but appears to be. For example, no real scientist will ever claim that a theory is a fact. He will state theory is theory and fact is fact. And then any real scientist is just as interested in proving his theory false as he is in proving it to be correct. Now on the other side of the ledger many times the Bible seems to be saying some things that it does not say at all. And there are some things of which we simply cannot be sure. The word day for example in the Word of God is the Hebrew word yom. This word has many different meanings. 1180 times in the Bible the word yom means day. 67 times it is interpreted today. 18 times it is interpreted forever. 10 times it is interpreted continually. 6 times it is interpreted life. 2 times it is interpreted perpetually. You see as I said this morning because God was acting in the realm of eternity not in the realm of time because time had not begun yet and did not begin until he created something which had to die God was in our from our standpoint careless and loose with his use of terms because it really didn't matter anyway he wasn't keeping score there was no yesterday and now and tomorrow no 4 o 'clock and 8 o 'clock there was no measurement of the distance that elapsed between two consecutive events. Consequently when we look at the word day sometimes we think it may be a 24 hour creative period and there are theories that this is true and it may be true. There are also those who believe these creative days may be millions of years. They might have been second. They might have been only a thought with God. They might have been a 24 hour period. We simply do not know and we can only theorize and speculate. I think if God would have wanted us to have known he would have been more specific. But probably because we knew that our minds could not grasp and comprehend the length of eternity which really has no measurement of time he wasn't too clear to try to get it across to us in the first place. Now you will recall that the Bible says in the book of Colossians and I think it is one of the grand themes of the New Testament that all things were created by him the son and for him by him and for him. We think this is my father's world but would more correctly think this is the son's world this is my savior's world it too was created for Jesus Christ. Our heavenly father never created anything originally to be imperfect. The angelic creole was perfect. The uncounted cherubs and hosts were perfect. The first man was perfect. The first flower was perfect. There were no roses, no thorns on the roses, until imperfection came into the world. There were no physical difficulties. There were no spiritual abnormalities. There were no poisoned waters. There were no universes gone awry. There were no planets out of place. There were no stars crashing into each other. There were no societies in disarray until some outside interference brought perfection, imperfection, into God's original perfection. Now, understanding that by the Son, the Father created this earth for the Son, and He is not the author of confusion nor imperfection, but that all sin and evil and imperfection and imbalance and unpleasantness is the result of an outside tampering interference with original perfection, I submit to you that this world originally created in Genesis 1 -1 was a perfect world. Now, when we turn to Genesis 1 -2, we do not find a perfect world. I want you to turn with me over there in Genesis 1 -2. God having said, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth had, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Now, this word was upon the face of the deep is better originally translated became. The word and might better be translated but. And one might more correctly read it like this. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, but the earth became without form and void. This word was is, as I said, the grammatical vehicle we have in the English to say was is not full and complete, and we cannot get the nugget into the nugget of our vocabulary vehicle, the truth of what God was really trying to say. It is almost impossible, if not impossible, to have a direct translation from Hebrew for the word became. Was is a very poor substitute. Jude, the Christ to say became in Hebrew, really can't do it. And so he just has to start talking with his hands, and we can't write that down. And so it appears that the earth became, in verse 2, something that originally it was not. Not only because of the construction of the language, but also because of what we know about God in his creative plan. Now the literal rendition of this is that it was without form and void literally means it was uninhabited and uninhabitable. A kind of messy abstraction, a kind of a void, sterile, impotent nothingness that was little more than a blob, as the young people would say today, kind of like from Yucksville. I mean, it was just a nowhere place. Now the Bible tells us that in this situation, in this condition, the Spirit of God began to recreate, to reform, to bring life from darkness, warmth from coldness, and order from chaos, and symmetry from confusion. But it was not apparently, originally created like that. Now if you have your Bibles there, I want you to turn quickly over with me to Isaiah chapter 45, verse 18, for some support of this idea. And I am offering you a theory tonight, and I will tell you when I am preaching theory, and when I am preaching what the Bible says, it appears to me that something happened between Genesis 1 -1 and Genesis 1 -2. Isaiah 45, verse 18. Isaiah 45, verse 18. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth and made it, he hath established it, he created it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is none else. Now this expression, he created it not in vain, the interpretation of that is literally, he created it not a waste. And he adds in, he formed it to be inhabited. He created it not empty, not void, not impotent, not abstract nothingness. He created it not a waste, not a desolation uninhabitable. Habited and uninhabitable, he did not create it a waste. He created it to be inhabited, but it became a waste. And the Spirit of God as he does in wasted lives began to take the initiative to move on the fallen earth and recreate it as he takes the initiative to recreate nations and men and churches and societies and lives and hearts when they are under the influence of the recreative power of the Holy Spirit. It appears from the Word of God that there are three basic kinds of creation. There was heaven, the earth, and mankind. Now we find that something happened that caused the earth to fall. The earth became a fallen earth. The Bible tells us in the New Testament that even all of earth grown us together prevailing and waiting the day of redemption of the earth. The Bible says the elements are dissolved with a fervent heat. There will one day be a new heaven and a new earth. God will recreate again completely this earth as it was originally. The elements shall melt and pass away with fervent heat. There is going to be a new world. There are going to be new heavens and a new earth. God's going to redo what someone from somewhere undead originally. As I said this morning, the will of God though deferred and detained is always ultimately done. Now the Bible tells us that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Christ is Lord of the glory of the Father. God made this earth to be a perfect place to glorify him and his son and it will do that. He made men and women to bow the knee to honor Christ to glorify him and they will do that. You may honor him as judge, you may honor him as savior, but you will honor Christ one day. The will of God in your life and upon this earth is ultimately going to be done. And so as the earth fell and is waiting its redemption, so mankind who has fallen is awaiting his total redemption. My soul has been saved, you see, but my body has not. Society has not been redeemed yet. The body has not been redeemed yet, only the soul. And so when the earth fell, man fell. But I see here that God must have been looking ahead. He must have been planning ahead. Because he knew that when man fell, he by his spirit, as he did here in the book of Genesis, would begin to take the initiative to recreate man, to redeem man, to save man, to forgive man, to make him a child of God as God originally intended before someone interfered. But now where was he going to take man? Where was a born -again, blood -washed child of God going to live? The earth was a sinful earth. It could not be here. And so God looking ahead was protecting heaven. And so it would seem to me that this individual, this force, this power, whomever or whatever it might have been that came to the earth, that touched the earth, and that touched mankind, must have come from that third realm of heaven. And yonder this place must be perfected, because looking ahead, God had to have a place for his redeemed creatures to inhabit, since they could not stay on a sinful earth. And so creatures that are born again, that become washed in the blood, children of God, would have to have a place in eternity to inhabit, and that would have to be heaven. And so this force, which touched everything else in all of the universe and caused it to fall, was not allowed to inhabit heaven, was not allowed to touch heaven, was not allowed to spoil heaven. God was saving it for his creatures. Now if you have your Bible, turn over with me to Isaiah chapter 14, verse 12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cast down to the ground, which did weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into the heavens. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high, yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. Again, a theory. It appears to me that before God created this world, there was an angelic trio in heaven. Now we know that there was probably an angelic society. Over this angelic society, it seems that there were three angelic counterparts to the trinity. There was the archangel Michael, perhaps the counterpart of our heavenly father, the archangel of judgment and power and wrath. Then there was the the angel Gabriel, the soft -spoken angel. When Mary would hear the news that she was with child of the Holy Ghost, it was the soft -spoken angel Gabriel who came to give her the message. He would not send Gabriel to destroy Sennacherib's army, nor would he send Michael to bring the news of the virgin birth. He would have scared Mary to death. He was the soft -spoken angel. Now it appears that there was a third member of this high angelic trio called Lucifer, who was probably the counterpart, so to speak, of Jesus Christ, in that he was the central figure, the most intelligent, the most powerful, and the most beautiful of all created beings. And conjuncture would lead us to assume that one day, as Isaiah says here, perhaps Lucifer's heart was lifted up in pride, and after timelessness of honoring the Son, of fulfilling his place, his heart was so filled with pride that he said, I will be above God. I will no longer honor this Son. The world, the Trinity, the angels, the universe, were created by and for the Son. He is the focal point of every doctrine, of every creed, of every purpose, of every direction, of every theology, and every philosophy. The Son, Jesus Christ. And Lucifer became jealous of the Son. And six times here in Isaiah, rather than saying, thy will be done, and as thou wilt, the first time somebody put those two words, I and will, back to back, sin began. And so Isaiah tells us that Lucifer, instead of saying, as thou wilt, said, I will. And there was sin. Now God, knowing from the beginning that Lucifer, banished from heaven, would come to the earth and spoil man, he must have one place saved in purity, for redeemed man to inhabit through eternity. And so he saved heaven and banished Lucifer to this earth. You say, is there any other scriptural support for that? I believe there is. Sheremonia Bible is through Ezekiel chapter 28, verse 11. It's very important. Ezekiel chapter 28, verse 11. The prophet is, the prophet is discussing with someone called the king of Tyrus about a problem. He addresses him thusly. Ezekiel 28, verse 11. More of the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up to some, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. Now don't jump to conclusions about that Eden. Every precious stone was thy covering. The sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, the gold, the workmanship of the cabraids, and of thy pipes, was prepared in thee in the day thou wast created. The angels were created. They are not eternal. There was a time when they were not. Thou art the anointed cherub. So you see, this king of Tyrus, of which he speaks, is not a man. He is angelic. He is called a cherub. And so we begin to get a clue as to what he is saying. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth. And I have set thee so. Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God. Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence. And thou hast sinned. Therefore I will cast thee as profaned out of the mountain of God. And I will destroy thee, O covering cherub. There again he is a cherub, not a man. An angelic being, not a human being. From the midst of the stones of fire thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. The word Lucifer means light bearer or one who shines. I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee. That's going to be a glad day when Satan is bound. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities. By the iniquity of thy traffic. Therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee. It shall devour thee. The Bible says Satan himself shall be cast into the like a fire. And I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all men that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee. Thou shalt be a terror and never shalt thou be any more. That's going to be a happy day. Now you see he is discussing the fall of an angelic being lifted up with pride. And notice that he says thou wert from the beginning from the God's garden of Eden. To be exact Eden the garden of God. Now Eden the beginning garden was a botanical garden. There were flowers and trees and grasses and fruits. Now, the Bible says that his garden was of stone and sardius, topaz and diamond, barrel and onyx and jasper. This is a mineral garden from which this man, this cherub, fell. It was not a botanical garden. This is the same description that John in the book of Revelation gives to heaven. This mineral kingdom. And I believe that the inference of Genesis and the directive of Isaiah and Ezekiel lead us to the conclusion that one day there was rebellion in heaven. Lucifer was lifted up. God knew he would be banished from heaven and spoil the earth. God was saving heaven for man, and so he tossed him from heaven. And that one perfected creation, Lucifer, was not allowed to spoil. And hating God and hating the Son and hating righteousness and everything that God loved was for, he was against. And he came to earth to work indirectly against God because now he was sinful, and sinfulness cannot approach sinlessness. And so he becomes to God's main creation, the human race, and poisoning the federal head of the race that Adam and Eve caused all of man to sin and fall, as he caused all of the earth to fall, and now fights directly back against God through the human being. And he does everything that he can to destroy Jesus Christ, who came from heaven, to continue to war against him, causing people to distrust him, to turn against him. But he made one fatal mistake. He failed to reckon with the cross. He forgot that it was not by the magnitude of the perfected life of Christ, but by death that he was going to destroy him, which had the power of death, sin, hell, and the grave. That is the devil. And on the cross, he became the captain of our salvation, and he finished the job from the war that started back then. Because Christ, as I said today, steps from eternity into time, that we might be redeemed by his blood, and go from time back into eternity. You guys don't say amen? I'm going to fire all four of you in a moment. Now, you say, preacher, what happened then? Let's go back to Genesis 1 -2. You see, the deep, that's the water. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water. Let me read to you what the scientists have said. Dana, the ice over the North American continent was probably from 5 ,000 to 6 ,000 feet at one time, covered by hundreds of feet of snow and ice above it. The Pleiocinades. Annem. Pleiocinades. Annem. During great expanses of the ice age, where mountains were below 6 ,000 feet, ice seemed to have passed entirely over them. Murkison. Europe was entirely covered by the water that bathed the feet of the alps. Jameson. I think that there is no escaping the conclusion that the entire world was once covered by ice and water. And today, they find beautiful tropical plants that are contained in the great icebergs of the North and South Pole, suggesting that at one time, the world was an equatorial paradise. I believe the temperature in the Garden of Eden was 72 degrees. I believe there were flowers not only there, but around the encircling globe. It was a perfect place. And then something happened. The Pleiocinades occurred. The earth was covered with water and ice. It was uninhabited. It was uninhabitable because Satan ruins everything that he touches. And the Spirit of God began to move. I love this book. It is a wondrous book. It speaks so plainly of the sins as well as the successes of the saints. It records the dark days in the lives of God's people. It records their failures, their confusion, their frustrations, their disappointments. But oh, time and time again, how many weary travelers along the road of life has refreshed himself with the beauty of the Word of God, as he has said, and on the moth. Or it came to pass. You see, our God does not leave us in our sins. He does not leave nations where they are. He could not leave his creation in void emptiness and impotence. He is always the grand initiator. He began to move upon the earth that he had loved. And where the Spirit of God begins to move, there's life from death. There's warmth from coldness. There's life where there has been darkness. And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Holy Spirit began to move and beauty, the ice began to melt. Beauty began to appear. God was creating his world to have the choice of coldness or warmth, death or light, darkness or light. How wonderful are those words. And the Spirit of God began to move. A newspaper reporter did a wonderful job, I thought, of interviewing our church staff in one of our great chambers a few days ago about our organization and our structure and our setup and our plans. But as one of our men said, oh, he should have just added, but the Holy Spirit is the power that has made it all begin to move. Is there any hope for this nation? There is when God begins to move. Is there any hope for a church? When God begins to move. Is there any church for a rebellious and decadent society? There is when God begins to move. Is there any chance for a revival of America? Oh, God, when the Holy Spirit begins to move. Is there any chance for a life gone astray to again live and want? There is when the Spirit of God begins to move. What happens seems to be this. God created it in perfection. Satan fell from heaven. Satan touched the earth. The earth fell. Time lapsed. Second, billions of years, the important thing is, not how long, but who moved? The Spirit of God began to move, recreate. Life appeared. And warmth was everywhere. The sunshine of God's love and pleasant for a world he was making again in perfection for his beloved son began to cause things to come to life where there had only been death. The lessons from this second verse are simple. All life contains beauty and beauty and potential. But everything that Satan touches he defeats and destroys. But thank God when the Holy Spirit begins to move, life begins to flow in a church, in a heart, in a nation, in a man. Shall we bow our heads as we pray together. Our Father and our God, we pray today that we shall be willing and yielded vessels through which the Holy Spirit of God can move. Oh, dear Lord, as we have sent so much this day, and in these days thy precious moving, do thou so again this night. For without thee our very existence is sounding brass and but tinkling cymbal, and we are and can do absolutely no thing. We commit ourselves. We commit ourselves, our people, our cities, as we attempt by God's grace, with every vehicle at our disposal, to bring it to the feet of Jesus Christ, ourselves again we give to thee. And thank thee that thou art God, that there is a sweet spirit in this place, that thou art having thine own way. And we pray that thou shalt this night in his name. Now as heads are bowed and our eyes are bowed.