Let There Be Light

The sermon begins by revisiting Genesis 1:3‑5, emphasizing that God’s command, “Let there be light,” demonstrates His absolute control over creation. The speaker stresses that God initiates and directs light, day, and night, and that this divine authority extends to every aspect of the world. He warns listeners not to treat God as an emergency fix‑it only in dark moments, but to recognize that God’s power is present in both light and darkness, and that the light of His Word is given to illuminate every heart. Building on that foundation, the preacher explores three key truths: God commands the light, God controls the light, and God sees the light as good. He contrasts the obedient creation—light, animals, the heavens—with humanity’s unique rebellion, noting that man alone has resisted God’s control. The sermon then moves to practical application, urging believers to become the “light of the world” by sharing the gospel, living distinct from darkness, and seizing the limited opportunities God provides. It concludes with vivid illustrations of light’s purity, its role in knowledge and wisdom, and the consequences of rejecting it, urging listeners to let their lives reflect the divine light before it is withdrawn.

What is Houston's First Baptist Church?

Houston's First Baptist Church is a relevant biblical community where we gather our hearts, grow our souls and give our lives as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). This podcast provides weekly messages from Pastor Gregg Matte and others. Visit us at HoustonsFirst.org to learn more about HFBC, and visit us in person the next time you're in Houston!

In Genesis chapter 1, let's go back and pick up those first two verses again. If you're not coming Sunday nights and Wednesday nights and getting the continuity through these messages, you're really missing something. Genesis chapter 1, verse 1 and 2, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Now, our text today, verses 3, 4, and 5. And God said, Let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. There are several wonderful truths that are obvious in this passage of Scripture. Number one, God commands the light. God is in control of things. God is the author. God never wonders where things are. He is never caught off guard. He is never surprised at how things work out. He is never taken unawares by a circumstance over which he has no control, and with which he cannot deal. God is still on the throne. God is in control. God is in charge. This is still my Father's world. He made it. He created it. The elements, the light, the darkness, the night, the day. It is all in his hands. Many times when men go through seasons of nighttime in their lives, when worlds seem to be facing, and nations and societies seem to be facing, the nighttime of their very existence, they turn to God. They believe that God is up there somewhere and that somehow man can get a hold of him and talk him in and coerce him into coming into this world and interfering in the affairs of men and bringing solutions to problems. But they forget the fact that God is there in the daylight as well. I want you to remember that the only way you can be sure to have God's power available to you in the darkness of your life is to have him in the daylight of it as well. He is not an emergency clause. He is not an escape clause in the fine print of the insurance of living. God commands the light. God is in control of this world. He sends the light. He withdraws the light. He directs the light. He is on the throne. He is in control of things. I told our Wednesday night congregation that the Bible tells us God creates by the Spirit of God. Now the Spirit of God gives light and warmth and brightness and light and by the Word of God. Now the Bible tells us in John 1, 9 that he lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And so you and I may be sure that our Heavenly Father has sent the light of His Word to illuminate the heart of every personality that has ever lived to the fact of an awareness that they need something. But God does not command the Word. He commands the light. There is a demand of God that awareness, a need of something, be created in the heart of every person. But it is by the Word of God which must willingly be sent out, not commanded willingly by people who love Him and want to spread His Word that spiritual new birth and recreation takes place in the lives of men. God commands the light for our good. God is the prime mover. God loves man. He is concerned about Him. He wants man to have light. The weary traveler along the road of life will always find light and direction and warmth and power and security and all of the things that our God initiates to giving to the human race when men will come to God. It is there. It is available. Men did not ask for the light. They did not seek the light. Did not have to beg for the light. God hath commanded that light shine in this world. It is there. It is available. It is for us. As the ultraviolet rays of the light cleanse, and the x -ray light looks within the human heart, so it is that God is over everything. Man didn't have to talk God into coming into the world. He didn't have to talk God into illuminating the world. He didn't have to talk God into providing a need for salvation. God saw it from the beginning. God commanded the light. Now the second word is this. God controls the light. The Bible says, God said, let there be light, and there was light. I want to read to you from Psalms 33, verse number 6. Listen very closely. The Bible says, by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all of the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth. It was by the word of God that the heavens, the light, came into existence. It seems from the scriptures that God does his creative work by three ways. The waters were commanded to bring forth every creeping thing and everything that flies. The heavens were created and the earth was created by the spoken word of God. The life that flies and the life that swims were created by the water. Man, the Bible says, was created from the dust of the earth. The origin of the animal kingdom is a bit uncertain in the word of God. I wonder if it could be that there were some things God did not want us to know. I wonder if it could be that one day God knew men would speculate into those things, and that man would have to be left with ultimate speculation and theory as opposed to what the word of God says. I wonder if God knew that one day man would have to answer the question whether he would believe a theory or believe what the word of God says. The Bible says God created man instantaneously in his complete state from the dust of the earth. He says that the birds and the fowls came and the fishes came from the sea, and the universes, the worlds, came from the word of his mouth. So, when God commands the light, we find a wonderful truth in the actual construction of this sentence. God said, let there be light, and there was light. This word, and, the translation from the Hebrew word, is literally so insignificant as to almost be non -existent. In other words, when placed in the middle of a sentence like this, the continuity, the dependability of the sentence is in no way affected by the removing of the middle word. This word, and, is placed there where it is to place an emphasis upon the insignificance of it. In other words, it could almost be said like this, and God said, let there be light, there was light. He almost said, light be, light was. In other words, the immediate response, the immediate control of God over his creation is emphasized in the very way in which the sentence is constructed. I find a wonderful truth. God commands the light. God controls the light. The light responds. When God said, light be, light was. The Bible tells us the animal kingdoms obey him. The fishes of the sea obey him. Isn't it strange that God's chief creation, God's highest creature, man, is the only person in all of creation which short -circuited the control of God over his creatures and over his creation by sin and disobeyed God. The light obeys God. The earth obeys God. The planets obey God. God commanded the waters to bring forth life, and they did. God commanded the human race to come into existence, man to be created, and it was done. They all obey him. But it was only man made in the image of God that was created by God that found it impossible in his heart to be controlled by God. Would to God that you and I as human beings could be as responsive under the control of God as was the light. Now the Bible says, ye are the light of the world. He has placed light within us. He says, go about and shine. Give to men the ability of salvation. Spread to them the knowledge of the word of God. He says, ye shall be my witnesses. Ye are the light of the world. And if this world is lost, if this world is a sick society, it is not God's fault. It is our fault because we have failed to be as responsive to the word of God and the will of God as were the inanimate creations of light and darkness and day and earth that God created. God controls the light, but God finds difficulty in controlling man. Number three, the Bible also tells us that God saw the light. God saw the light. Now look at it. God said, let there be light and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good. He sees the light. Now the best, again, the best translation is God continued to see the light, or God was seeing the light. It is not as though God was surprised. It is not as though God looked up and said, well, there's some light. I've never seen light anymore. God just continued to see what already was there. After all, God did not need the light to see. He sees as well in the darkness as he does in the light. We need the light to see. The light of the world is for us. It gives us direction. It illuminates our world. God didn't need the light. God had seen light before. God created light. God said, light be, and light was. And when our God created this world, he did not just begin to see, he continued to see what already was, and other spiritual truth. When Jesus Christ, the light of the world, came into this world, he did not just begin to be. Physically, he was born of the virgin yonder in Bethlehem. Not over 1 ,900 years ago. He lived for 33 years. But the Bible says that he was the Lamb of God slain from before the foundation of the world. He always was. He didn't just begin to be. And this very same light, which is the light of the world, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, which was co -existent, was always existent, is existent, am existent, always, eternally, just is, no present tense, no future tense, no past tense. The light of the world always has existed. Jesus Christ always has been. Now the Bible tells us that God was pleased with the light. God saw the light. The Bible says, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, that it was good. He was pleased with the light that he had caused to exist so that man could see it. I believe that in the eternality of matter, these molecules may change form. But it is impossible for this, what makes up this wood, to become non -existent. It will exist in some other form. God was pleased with this light, which had always been, but which he made visible to the world. He was pleased with it because it gave direction to mankind. He made it for men. What the world could not see, God had always seen. God loved the light. He was pleased with what he had done. He was pleased with the light because light is pure. Now there is dirty air. There's dirty water. But there's no such thing as dirty light. Light is the only created matter. The only created matter which it is impossible to adulterate with a foreign substance. Now light may show up dirt on another object. Light rays may reveal dirt in the air. But there is no such thing as dirty light. Light is always pure. Light gives knowledge. The entrance of thy word giveth light. Unless there is light, there is no knowledge. People may have facts. They may have awareness. they may have an accumulation of information, but there's a difference in sense and in learning. There's a difference in an accumulation of facts and in wisdom. A computer can be fed facts, it can contain information, but it can be robot -like in the same condition that a man can unless his knowledge, his information, is illuminated by light. A woman was trying to teach her little blind girl some things. She gave her a beautiful little white vase, and the little girl rubbed it and pelt of it. It was round, and it was smooth. And she said, Darling, this is a little white vase. Later on, she said, Darling, tell Mother, what is white? She said, Mother, white is anything that's smooth and round. She had information. But only light gives wisdom and sense from an accumulation of knowledge and facts. Young people, it is so important for you in school and in college that you become much, much more than an accumulator of information, than a storehouse of facts, that your daily information that you accumulate must be illuminated by the light of the world, or you will have misinformation, you will misinterpret facts, you will make wrong judgments. Without light, it is difficult to comprehend the truth. Light gives intensity and gives direction and knowledge more than just information and fact. Light was loved by God because light is inexpensive. I think another picture is found here. The sun that lights the whole world is the gift of God. The difference in Christianity and every other religion in the world is that every philosophy of relationship of God to man is God, is man seeking God. But the Christian ethic is that God seeks man. He comes to us free of charge, except for the cost, of course, of his own son on the cross and does for us what we could not do for ourselves. It is indeed the gift of God. Light is welcome. Light is welcome. God loved the light, and men love the light. Many a weary mother has through the night rocked a sick child in her arms and finally found relief from her weariness and rest from her fatigue by the morning rays of the sunshine. Many a mariner tossed to and fro on the sea through an awesome and stormy night has at long last found tranquility and peace and relief because of the morning rays of the light. God loves the light. Now I want you to notice that the Bible says God separates the light. God withdraws the light. God separates light. Here we find that He says He separates the day from the night. He separates the light from the darkness. In just the very same way, our God separates light from men. He lights every man that cometh into the world. Every one of us have an age of accountability, an age at which we are sensitive to and aware of the fact that there is something in us that illuminates a need. Now that illumination does not always remain. That day of accountability passes. For ultimately when men reject the light, reject the Holy Spirit, God withdraws the Holy Spirit, there is a deadline, an unpardonable sin, a day beyond which a man may not go, from which God will withdraw the light. God will separate the light. And you cannot be saved just any time. You must be saved when the light is shining on you. You must be saved when the Spirit of God is drawing you. And the very fact that you are here today, that you are listening today, suggests to me that you are interested in the light of the world. But if you reject that light, if you resist the light, the Spirit of God will withdraw from you and leave you in total darkness. The Bible speaks of hell as being a place of utter darkness and whatever else the nature and character of eternal separation from God may or may not be. It is a place where there is an absence of the light of the world. God separates the light. The Holy Spirit does not always strive with men. The Christian may go so far in their unrepentant condition that God will withdraw the light. The Bible says when the Spirit of God leaves men, a man can commit the sin unto death, saved by the skin of his teeth, saved so as by fire, left alone to his indifference. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians that a man's soul may be spared. God can take his life prematurely that his spirit might be saved in the day of Jesus Christ. I have heard it said that it is possible for a doctor with a certain kind of machine looking in the human body to even tell at the exact moment of which death comes because a kind of darkness is created inside the body. The soul, the consciousness, the awareness of God which leaves the body is light. Man don't turn out the light. Don't buy by sin. Don't buy rejection. Don't buy selfishness. Don't buy worshiping of the shrine of intellectualism, gathering knowledge without sense, gathering learning without wisdom, illuminated by the light of the world. Don't drive the light from you willingly or God will, regardless of your will, of his will withdraw the light. For the Holy Spirit of God is sensitive and when he is insulted, when he is repelled, when he is repulsed, he leaves. Leaves a man to his own selfish tendencies, to his own dark desires and that man is left hopelessly. And for the Christian, when the light goes out, his body dies and God takes him on to heaven prematurely out of the world. For the unbeliever, when God separates the light, he commits the unpardonable sin, he insults the Holy Spirit, he nails the Spirit of God to the cross, says I'll have none of this. I'll not be saved. And God separates from him and leaves him in his lost condition. Now another word is this, our God, our God limits the light. He limits the light. The Bible tells us that God gives a man only so much time. There are seasons of light. God lets the light shine a certain time. Then the moon comes out. Then the skies turn black. Then the sun goes down. It is limited. The word limited is used over and over again in the Bible and every time but two in connection with a man's appointed opportunities, his days of salvation. He limits your days. Vince Lombardi died this week. The world lost a great man. Mr. Lombardi said some time ago, possibly between 12 and 15 chances are given to a football team to win a game. With all the different plays, there are probably 12 or 15 different game opportunities at which a team may move the ball and win the game. And every one of those they miss reduces by that percentage their chances of winning. And few teams will beat the odds when it's three out of 15 or two to 15 or one to 15 odds against winning the game that they'll turn the odds and win the ball game. God in that same way limits the light. There's so much night. There's so much day. There's so much darkness. There's so much light. And every opportunity you have that you reject, every service you walk out of without Christ, every time you reject the Holy Spirit's call on your life and say no, reduces the percentage of opportunity of opportunity, the chances, the probability that you will accept Jesus Christ and ever be saved. In 2 Corinthians 6, 14, be not in equally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness. In the same way, God expects us to be the light of the world, to fellowship with darkness, to witness to it, but not to be a co -labor of its unrighteousness and a contributor to its iniquity. God expects something different from the Christian. I'm very concerned that on our campuses, that we not just have 50 or 100 or 200 college students who are Baptist kids who love the Lord and want to join the church, come. We must be winning the unsaved student. We must be getting out there and reaching these kids for Christ. And students and men and women and businessmen and housewives and young people and doctors and lawyers and nurses, God expects you to be the light of the world. To go everywhere in your school, everywhere that you are, just a little bit of light can light up an awfully lot of darkness and spread the light of the world through your being. He has limited the light that he gives the world through human beings. There's only a fuzzy awareness of a need unless the crystal -like clarity of the clear -cut gospel witness is given by the Christian. He expects there to be a long, straight line of demarcation from our lives to that of the world, being in the world but not of the world as the light of the world. God limits the darkness. He puts some strains. He puts some reins. He puts some limits. He puts some controls on our lives. We are not to just do what we will as we want to. When we walk across a campus, when we go through an experience, when we walk through an office, there should have been a little ray of light that has been left, a spiritual deposit of our inheritance under God into a dark, dark world that needs the Lord so very, very much. Over in England, I saw in 1957, the first and only time, one of the real genuine old lamplighters. A little section of town, they still maintained it for the tourist, I suppose, as they had always done it. And you could see, looking out of that little hotel window in the Belgravia Hotel, Ireland, not England, England, I'm sorry, where that old lamplighter walked along and lit one light here, and one light there, and one light there, and one light there. And on and on, progressively, you could see right where he had been because he had left some light. You should be able to look into any classroom, in any dormitory, in any office, in any job, in any plant, until where the Christian has been because of the light of the world. Our God is controlled and commanded and limited in and through the life of the Christian to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. The last thing is this. Our God controls and commands and directs and loves the light and limits the light, but also he names the light. Now he says he called the darkness night and the light he called day. Does that amaze you? Our God is pretty good at passing out names. He names everything else. The early astronomers used to believe that there were 2 ,000 stars. But years before that, the Bible had said they are limitless. They cannot be counted. They cannot be numbered. But the Bible says God names them every one. Think of it. Our God knows every name of every star. Is it any wonder that he knows my name? The very hairs of our head are numbered. Not even a sparrow is sold for a farthing, not a little bird falls to the ground. But our God does not know and see and care. He is in the people helping business. He lighteth every man. He is available to every man that comes into this world. And our God will love you and bless you if you will respond to the light. In the 17th century, Sir Isaac Newton discovered the law of reflex ability, not reflect ability, reflex ability. That law states that it is the tendency of light light given from an object striking another object to return to the original source of its power. But the law of reflexibility states that the more the object of the recipient object rejects the light and reflects it, the more likely the incidence is that it will return to the originating power. Not only does it return, but the more that the object rejects it and reflects it and is not able to assimilate and absorb it, the more likely and the greater the incidence of its returning to that original source of power. Oh, what a truth. When I read it, I said, oh God, thou who dislight every man, every believer, every non -believer who art available to everyone that cometh into the world, how true that is in our lives as well, that the more we reject thee, the more likely that thou will return to the Father from whence thou didst come. And the less likely it is that we will respond, believe, and ever be saved. The light of the world is shining on every heart. God has given you the responsibility of sharing Christ.