the Word of God - A Survey of the Bible - Part Seventeen - H Oct 20, 2019 by: John Herbert | Series: The Word of God - A Survey of the Bible Audio Study Notes PDF https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T002_20191020.mp3 Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Ge 12:1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you…………….3 And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” We will continue to look at the type of the journey to see what we can learn for our own race of the faith. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday October 20th 2019 The Word of God A Survey of the Bible – Lesson 17H ‘What More Shall I Say?’ 1). Ge 12:1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you…………….3 And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” We have seen that the instructions given to Abraham represent the complete separation that he was to make from his life in Ur of the Chaldees. Abraham was already eternally saved before the Lord gave him this instruction, but we can see that his eternal salvation of itself was not all that was necessary for him to be able to see the land that God would show him or for the promised blessing for ‘all the families of the earth’ to be realized. There was something more, beyond his initial salvation experience – he had to move on – he had to make the journey. a). In order to see the land and realize the promise, the eternally saved Abraham had to separate himself from his country, his family and his father’s house – he had to begin his journey by faith following the Lord’s direction. And the more that separation from his previous life took place, the closer Abraham got to the land of his inheritance and the realization of the promise. And the journey that Abraham made is synonymous with our own race of the faith, of our going on to spiritual maturity. b). And the literal, physical separation that we see as Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees pictures what for us is a spiritual separation – a separation from a life of unbelief, from a self-life, to a life of complete trust in God, to a Spirit led life that takes us from faith to faith. c). Abraham’s separation and transformation were brought about over a period of time by the child training of the Lord through the testing of Abraham’s faith – Heb 12:5“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; 6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Ro 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And through the process of child training and transformation Abraham’s faith is shown to have been brought to its goal – Ge 22:15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” And here in response to Abraham’s faith we see that the promised blessings now go far beyond that seen in Genesis 12. And let’s remember that Abraham is one of those faithful OT saints that we have seen in Hebrews Chapter 11 who will receive not only their earthly inheritance but their heavenly inheritance as well – Jas 2:22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. But now, to state the obvious, if Abraham had not left Ur, he could not have made the journey to the land that God would show him, and without the journey he would not have experienced the child training of the Lord as these are inextricably connected. And consequently, he would not have realized either an earthly or a heavenly inheritance. There would have been no separation from his former life and although eternally saved he could have only continued to live in unbelief, cut off from God’s purpose for his eternal salvation. d). And this is the same truth we had seen last time through the Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus, ‘the teacher of Israel’ - Jn 3:5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born [brought forth out of] of water and [brought forth out of] the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ [Lit. brought forth from above] 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? The Lord is talking to Nicodemus, an eternally saved Jew, within the context of the offer of the Kingdom of the Heavens to Israel, the thing that Nicodemus had come to talk with the Lord about. And the Lord drew from Israel’s past history under Moses to teach Nicodemus what the nation needed to do at that time to access the Kingdom on offer – the nation had to leave their state of unbelief, repent and be baptized, and follow the leading of ‘the Word made flesh’ to the Kingdom that was at hand - we will remember that being brought forth out of water is a reference to Israel passing through the Red Sea and being brought forth out of the Spirit is a reference to the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night that led them to the land of their inheritance. As with Abraham, that first generation of Israel could not reach the land of promise without making a journey to get there, and again it is a journey that was not just physical, but spiritual. And as the Lord told Nicodemus this journey could not be made in Israel’s past or at the time when He spoke to him, apart from being brought forth out of water and then following that symbolized by the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. e). And we will remember from last time that these 2 experiences for Israel of being brought forth out of water and being led by the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, form the type for our own experience pictured through the symbolism of baptism and being led by the Spirit from faith to faith, towards the land of our inheritance, towards the goal of our faith. f). And we had noted that without the experience of that pictured through baptism we are not in a position to be led by the Spirit and therefore unable to make the journey. And as we just saw with Abraham, if we don’t make the journey, we won’t receive the child training of the Lord and without that we cannot be dealt with as sons and the heavenly inheritance remains out of our reach. g). And, we had finished last time by realizing that this same truth is taught in a foundational way in Chapter 1 of Genesis – Ge 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. 6 Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. 9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day. The introduction of light into the darkness on Day 1 we know to picture the moment of our eternal salvation, the beginning point in the process to complete restoration for us as a ruined creation. And in the division between the light and the dark we find separation – there is, at our eternal salvation, a separation between our soul and our spirit, the old man and the new man. h). Having passed from death to life we have a spirit that is alive to God that is separate from a soul, a sinful nature, that remains associated with darkness and death. i). As we move to Day 2 in Genesis, we find separation occurring again – the waters below the firmament are separated from the waters above the firmament and at this point there is an expanse, a firmament, called heaven, between them that cannot be breached. And as we think of God’s process of separation on these first 2 days, we might call to mind God’s instructions to Abraham – ‘Get out of your country, from your family and your father’s house.’ Instructions that also speak of separation. j). When Abraham was given these instructions, he had a choice to make, he could either have received that which God had said to him or he could have rejected it. He could have done that which would have appeared right in his own eyes or that which he knew to be right in God’s eyes. k). And it is this choice between self and God that we can see symbolized through the separation of the waters on Day 2 in Genesis Chapter 1. l). The waters beneath the firmament typify wisdom from below, that which would appear right in our own eyes, and the waters above the firmament typify the wisdom of God, the wisdom which would be brought forth from above. m). The foundation in Day 2 doesn’t address the choice itself because it is the foundation to which more must be added as we compare Scripture with Scripture. But it does present 2 separate ‘waters’, one above and one beneath, a separation that must be in place as part of the process that leads to the complete restoration of that which was ruined – and if we now move on to Day 3 we see the dry land for the first time and separation again - 9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. The dry land is brought forth out of the waters under heaven and as such provides the foundational type for Israel coming up out of the Red Sea and that symbolized through the experience of baptism. As well as being prophetic concerning Israel yet future. n). The waters beneath the firmament, now called seas, are clearly to be associated with death, as it is from below these waters that the land is brought forth. And that which brings forth the land out of the water is God’s Word -‘God said’ - it is His breath, His Spirit, and this Divine action provides us with our first sight of resurrection power. o). And as we see, it is only once the land has been brought forth out of water that it is in a position to be fruitful - 11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. If the land had remained beneath the water, it could not have been fruitful – only in resurrection is fruitfulness possible. Now, to state the obvious again as we did with Abraham, if the land had remained beneath the waters the events of Days 4-7 could not then have taken place. The light from Day 1 would still be there and the waters above the firmament would have remained separated from the waters below the firmament, but without the raising of the land there could not have been a Man and a Woman to have dominion – and without them there would be no 7th Day. I am sure we can see what we are to learn from this. p). Now, let’s also note that the Man and the Woman who are to have dominion are not created immediately the land came from beneath the waters even though it is from this land that the Man is made. It is on the 3rd day following this that they are created. Why is that? 2). Ge 1:14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. On Day 4 we see that through God’s Word there are lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night and they are there to demonstrate the separation that must continue between the two. But, let’s note that as well as continuing the separation between day and night, these lights are also for ‘signs and seasons, and for days and years’ and ‘to give light on the earth’ – to give light to that which has been brought forth out of the water. a). The first part of v14 then, talks about signs, seasons, days and years, all of which denote the passage of time with an end result in view, and in the passage of time we find the foundational picture for the journey, that which takes us from one point to another – Abraham’s spiritual journey took him some 60 years and our race of the faith continues day by day and year by year as time passes. b). Then in v15, in conjunction with the passage of time, we see light being given on the earth. Light is given from above to that which has been brought forth out of water, and here we can find the foundational type for the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, for the leading of the Spirit and therefore the child training of the Lord – Ps 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. Jn 16:13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. 1 Th 5:5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. And that which then follows in Genesis 1:16 has to do with rulership, rulership of the day by the greater light and rulership of the night by the lesser light with a view to the continued separation of the light from the darkness – Col 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 2 Cor 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. So then, we see that there is a work that has to continue beyond the land being brought forth out of water, before the Man and the Woman, who are to have dominion, can be revealed. 3). This is obviously an enormously significant truth. So, what must we grasp from it? How is knowing this going to help us to be one of the many sons to be brought to glory? Well let’s begin where God began – Ge 1:1 In [the] beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Da 4:26……….the heavens do rule. We must see from the outset that rulership is God’s purpose and this is what is being dealt with throughout the Scriptures – the heavens were created to rule over the earth and God will bring this to pass in the way that He has purposed from the beginning in the 7th Day – Col 1:16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. We must then understand that God is offering us the incredible privilege of participating in the rulership of that Day as His Son’s Bride, as one of the many sons to be brought to glory, but in order for that offer to be realized we have to be child trained, so as to be prepared for the task ahead and as we have seen from Hebrews, without being child trained God cannot receive us as sons, and without being sons we cannot be adopted as a firstborn son. a). And we have just seen from the foundational type in Genesis, that which we have also seen from Exodus, that the child training cannot take place and therefore we cannot be properly prepared unless we are brought forth out of water first and then be brought forth out of the Spirit. b). And as we have seen, being brought forth out of water has to do with separation and is pictured for us in baptism – Ro 6:3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is our ‘Passover’, His death is the substitutionary death on our behalf, the death of the firstborn. And from v6 in Romans Chapter 6 we can see quite clearly that ‘our old man was crucified with Him’. c). There is no question about this, this is the reality. Our old man, our sinful nature which constitutes our first birth had to pay the penalty for sin and therefore had to die and although Christ died in the place of our old man having become sin for us, we need to see our old man as dead. d). And that which is dead needs to be buried – ‘therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death’. As we plunge beneath the baptismal waters we are totally immersed in death, from which the old man has no escape. But our new man, the man of the spirit, brought forth from above, was completely separated from the old man at our eternal salvation when the light shone in the darkness. e). And because the man of the spirit has spiritual life death has no dominion over him and by the resurrection power of the Spirit, because Christ was raised from the dead, he is brought forth out of the water to walk in newness of life. But the man of the spirit comes out of the water in an unredeemed body and still in that body is an unredeemed soul. But from this moment onwards we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This does not mean that we don’t sin anymore, because we do, but when this happens, we are to remember the symbolism of baptism and that our old man is to be reckoned as dead. f). We are to confess our sin to receive forgiveness and realign our thinking with the truth of Scripture – our old man was ‘crucified with Him’; we set aside our unbelief, the sin which so easily ensnares us, and we walk again by faith allowing the Spirit through the Word of God to lead us and guide us on our journey. g). And perhaps we can view this process the same way as taking up our cross, on which our old man was crucified with Christ, and being a living sacrifice. These are all one-time events that set-in place the death of the old man, the death of self. Then that seen in these one-time events, the death that has already taken place, needs to be carried with us throughout every day that follows. And when we allow the old man to ‘live’ again we are to remember that he, from God’s perspective, is dead. Therefore, believing this we change our mind, we repent and reaffirm the death that has already taken place. h). And so, dying to self on a daily basis is not putting the old man to death again, which really would be impossible. Because if the old man has been crucified with Christ to put the old man to death again would require the Lord to be crucified again. Rather, dying to self daily is realigning ourselves with the truth that the old man is already dead, and we are therefore no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness – Ro 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. More next time – if the Lord is willing. the Word of God - A Survey of the Bible - Part Seventeen - H Oct 20, 2019 Speaker: John Herbert Series: The Word of God - A Survey of the Bible Category: Sunday Morning https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T002_20191020.mp3 Download Audio x
Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Ge 12:1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you…………….3 And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” We will continue to look at the type of the journey to see what we can learn for our own race of the faith. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday October 20th 2019 The Word of God A Survey of the Bible – Lesson 17H ‘What More Shall I Say?’ 1). Ge 12:1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you…………….3 And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” We have seen that the instructions given to Abraham represent the complete separation that he was to make from his life in Ur of the Chaldees. Abraham was already eternally saved before the Lord gave him this instruction, but we can see that his eternal salvation of itself was not all that was necessary for him to be able to see the land that God would show him or for the promised blessing for ‘all the families of the earth’ to be realized. There was something more, beyond his initial salvation experience – he had to move on – he had to make the journey. a). In order to see the land and realize the promise, the eternally saved Abraham had to separate himself from his country, his family and his father’s house – he had to begin his journey by faith following the Lord’s direction. And the more that separation from his previous life took place, the closer Abraham got to the land of his inheritance and the realization of the promise. And the journey that Abraham made is synonymous with our own race of the faith, of our going on to spiritual maturity. b). And the literal, physical separation that we see as Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees pictures what for us is a spiritual separation – a separation from a life of unbelief, from a self-life, to a life of complete trust in God, to a Spirit led life that takes us from faith to faith. c). Abraham’s separation and transformation were brought about over a period of time by the child training of the Lord through the testing of Abraham’s faith – Heb 12:5“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; 6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Ro 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And through the process of child training and transformation Abraham’s faith is shown to have been brought to its goal – Ge 22:15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” And here in response to Abraham’s faith we see that the promised blessings now go far beyond that seen in Genesis 12. And let’s remember that Abraham is one of those faithful OT saints that we have seen in Hebrews Chapter 11 who will receive not only their earthly inheritance but their heavenly inheritance as well – Jas 2:22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. But now, to state the obvious, if Abraham had not left Ur, he could not have made the journey to the land that God would show him, and without the journey he would not have experienced the child training of the Lord as these are inextricably connected. And consequently, he would not have realized either an earthly or a heavenly inheritance. There would have been no separation from his former life and although eternally saved he could have only continued to live in unbelief, cut off from God’s purpose for his eternal salvation. d). And this is the same truth we had seen last time through the Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus, ‘the teacher of Israel’ - Jn 3:5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born [brought forth out of] of water and [brought forth out of] the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ [Lit. brought forth from above] 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? The Lord is talking to Nicodemus, an eternally saved Jew, within the context of the offer of the Kingdom of the Heavens to Israel, the thing that Nicodemus had come to talk with the Lord about. And the Lord drew from Israel’s past history under Moses to teach Nicodemus what the nation needed to do at that time to access the Kingdom on offer – the nation had to leave their state of unbelief, repent and be baptized, and follow the leading of ‘the Word made flesh’ to the Kingdom that was at hand - we will remember that being brought forth out of water is a reference to Israel passing through the Red Sea and being brought forth out of the Spirit is a reference to the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night that led them to the land of their inheritance. As with Abraham, that first generation of Israel could not reach the land of promise without making a journey to get there, and again it is a journey that was not just physical, but spiritual. And as the Lord told Nicodemus this journey could not be made in Israel’s past or at the time when He spoke to him, apart from being brought forth out of water and then following that symbolized by the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. e). And we will remember from last time that these 2 experiences for Israel of being brought forth out of water and being led by the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, form the type for our own experience pictured through the symbolism of baptism and being led by the Spirit from faith to faith, towards the land of our inheritance, towards the goal of our faith. f). And we had noted that without the experience of that pictured through baptism we are not in a position to be led by the Spirit and therefore unable to make the journey. And as we just saw with Abraham, if we don’t make the journey, we won’t receive the child training of the Lord and without that we cannot be dealt with as sons and the heavenly inheritance remains out of our reach. g). And, we had finished last time by realizing that this same truth is taught in a foundational way in Chapter 1 of Genesis – Ge 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. 6 Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. 9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day. The introduction of light into the darkness on Day 1 we know to picture the moment of our eternal salvation, the beginning point in the process to complete restoration for us as a ruined creation. And in the division between the light and the dark we find separation – there is, at our eternal salvation, a separation between our soul and our spirit, the old man and the new man. h). Having passed from death to life we have a spirit that is alive to God that is separate from a soul, a sinful nature, that remains associated with darkness and death. i). As we move to Day 2 in Genesis, we find separation occurring again – the waters below the firmament are separated from the waters above the firmament and at this point there is an expanse, a firmament, called heaven, between them that cannot be breached. And as we think of God’s process of separation on these first 2 days, we might call to mind God’s instructions to Abraham – ‘Get out of your country, from your family and your father’s house.’ Instructions that also speak of separation. j). When Abraham was given these instructions, he had a choice to make, he could either have received that which God had said to him or he could have rejected it. He could have done that which would have appeared right in his own eyes or that which he knew to be right in God’s eyes. k). And it is this choice between self and God that we can see symbolized through the separation of the waters on Day 2 in Genesis Chapter 1. l). The waters beneath the firmament typify wisdom from below, that which would appear right in our own eyes, and the waters above the firmament typify the wisdom of God, the wisdom which would be brought forth from above. m). The foundation in Day 2 doesn’t address the choice itself because it is the foundation to which more must be added as we compare Scripture with Scripture. But it does present 2 separate ‘waters’, one above and one beneath, a separation that must be in place as part of the process that leads to the complete restoration of that which was ruined – and if we now move on to Day 3 we see the dry land for the first time and separation again - 9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. The dry land is brought forth out of the waters under heaven and as such provides the foundational type for Israel coming up out of the Red Sea and that symbolized through the experience of baptism. As well as being prophetic concerning Israel yet future. n). The waters beneath the firmament, now called seas, are clearly to be associated with death, as it is from below these waters that the land is brought forth. And that which brings forth the land out of the water is God’s Word -‘God said’ - it is His breath, His Spirit, and this Divine action provides us with our first sight of resurrection power. o). And as we see, it is only once the land has been brought forth out of water that it is in a position to be fruitful - 11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. If the land had remained beneath the water, it could not have been fruitful – only in resurrection is fruitfulness possible. Now, to state the obvious again as we did with Abraham, if the land had remained beneath the waters the events of Days 4-7 could not then have taken place. The light from Day 1 would still be there and the waters above the firmament would have remained separated from the waters below the firmament, but without the raising of the land there could not have been a Man and a Woman to have dominion – and without them there would be no 7th Day. I am sure we can see what we are to learn from this. p). Now, let’s also note that the Man and the Woman who are to have dominion are not created immediately the land came from beneath the waters even though it is from this land that the Man is made. It is on the 3rd day following this that they are created. Why is that? 2). Ge 1:14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. On Day 4 we see that through God’s Word there are lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night and they are there to demonstrate the separation that must continue between the two. But, let’s note that as well as continuing the separation between day and night, these lights are also for ‘signs and seasons, and for days and years’ and ‘to give light on the earth’ – to give light to that which has been brought forth out of the water. a). The first part of v14 then, talks about signs, seasons, days and years, all of which denote the passage of time with an end result in view, and in the passage of time we find the foundational picture for the journey, that which takes us from one point to another – Abraham’s spiritual journey took him some 60 years and our race of the faith continues day by day and year by year as time passes. b). Then in v15, in conjunction with the passage of time, we see light being given on the earth. Light is given from above to that which has been brought forth out of water, and here we can find the foundational type for the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, for the leading of the Spirit and therefore the child training of the Lord – Ps 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. Jn 16:13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. 1 Th 5:5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. And that which then follows in Genesis 1:16 has to do with rulership, rulership of the day by the greater light and rulership of the night by the lesser light with a view to the continued separation of the light from the darkness – Col 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 2 Cor 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. So then, we see that there is a work that has to continue beyond the land being brought forth out of water, before the Man and the Woman, who are to have dominion, can be revealed. 3). This is obviously an enormously significant truth. So, what must we grasp from it? How is knowing this going to help us to be one of the many sons to be brought to glory? Well let’s begin where God began – Ge 1:1 In [the] beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Da 4:26……….the heavens do rule. We must see from the outset that rulership is God’s purpose and this is what is being dealt with throughout the Scriptures – the heavens were created to rule over the earth and God will bring this to pass in the way that He has purposed from the beginning in the 7th Day – Col 1:16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. We must then understand that God is offering us the incredible privilege of participating in the rulership of that Day as His Son’s Bride, as one of the many sons to be brought to glory, but in order for that offer to be realized we have to be child trained, so as to be prepared for the task ahead and as we have seen from Hebrews, without being child trained God cannot receive us as sons, and without being sons we cannot be adopted as a firstborn son. a). And we have just seen from the foundational type in Genesis, that which we have also seen from Exodus, that the child training cannot take place and therefore we cannot be properly prepared unless we are brought forth out of water first and then be brought forth out of the Spirit. b). And as we have seen, being brought forth out of water has to do with separation and is pictured for us in baptism – Ro 6:3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is our ‘Passover’, His death is the substitutionary death on our behalf, the death of the firstborn. And from v6 in Romans Chapter 6 we can see quite clearly that ‘our old man was crucified with Him’. c). There is no question about this, this is the reality. Our old man, our sinful nature which constitutes our first birth had to pay the penalty for sin and therefore had to die and although Christ died in the place of our old man having become sin for us, we need to see our old man as dead. d). And that which is dead needs to be buried – ‘therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death’. As we plunge beneath the baptismal waters we are totally immersed in death, from which the old man has no escape. But our new man, the man of the spirit, brought forth from above, was completely separated from the old man at our eternal salvation when the light shone in the darkness. e). And because the man of the spirit has spiritual life death has no dominion over him and by the resurrection power of the Spirit, because Christ was raised from the dead, he is brought forth out of the water to walk in newness of life. But the man of the spirit comes out of the water in an unredeemed body and still in that body is an unredeemed soul. But from this moment onwards we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This does not mean that we don’t sin anymore, because we do, but when this happens, we are to remember the symbolism of baptism and that our old man is to be reckoned as dead. f). We are to confess our sin to receive forgiveness and realign our thinking with the truth of Scripture – our old man was ‘crucified with Him’; we set aside our unbelief, the sin which so easily ensnares us, and we walk again by faith allowing the Spirit through the Word of God to lead us and guide us on our journey. g). And perhaps we can view this process the same way as taking up our cross, on which our old man was crucified with Christ, and being a living sacrifice. These are all one-time events that set-in place the death of the old man, the death of self. Then that seen in these one-time events, the death that has already taken place, needs to be carried with us throughout every day that follows. And when we allow the old man to ‘live’ again we are to remember that he, from God’s perspective, is dead. Therefore, believing this we change our mind, we repent and reaffirm the death that has already taken place. h). And so, dying to self on a daily basis is not putting the old man to death again, which really would be impossible. Because if the old man has been crucified with Christ to put the old man to death again would require the Lord to be crucified again. Rather, dying to self daily is realigning ourselves with the truth that the old man is already dead, and we are therefore no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness – Ro 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. More next time – if the Lord is willing.