Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 2709 Rock Springs Road in Kingsport, Tennessee,
would like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. For information and service times,
visit www.ksgc.church. And now, Gabe Stoniker. If you
would like to follow along with me, our message will come from
Genesis chapter one today. Genesis chapter one, and we're
going to look at verse one for our text, and really the first
half of verse one. It says, in the beginning, God. That's how the scripture opens. the first words of our Lord to
us. In the beginning, God. Our focus for this message is
the Lord our God. We are going to look at the Lord
our God. This is going to be all about
him. in the beginning, God. The great tragedy of man, the
great tragedy of mankind is he does not know God. Mankind does
not naturally know God. Mankind does not know who God
is. God is man's maker. And man does
not know who his own maker is. That is so sad. But John 17 verse
three says, this is life eternal. This is eternal life that they
might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou
has sent. Eternal life depends on knowing
God. It does. Eternal life depends
on knowing the true and living God. Knowing who He is, yes. But more than that, knowing Him. truly knowing Him in a relationship
and union with Him. We must know who God is. We must know Him. We must literally
be joined in a vital union with God. Over in Matthew chapter
11, It says in Matthew 11 verse 27, our Lord said, all things
are delivered unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son, but
the father, neither knoweth any man the father, save the son,
and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. If we are going
to know God, and not just know who he is, but more deeply know
him. He must reveal himself to us. If we're going to know him in
his character and know him in his person, know really the essence
of who he is, then he must reveal himself to us. The spirit of
God, the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to have to reveal
the essence of who he is to us. And I pray that's what he will
do for us today. I truly pray that's what our
God will reveal to us today. I pray he will reveal the truth
of himself. The revelation that he's given
to us through his word. I want to know him. And I want
you to know him. And I pray we all want to know
him. I pray we do. I pray we all will know him by
the revelation of himself in his word. So let's take a minute
here and look at the subject of in the beginning, God. In the beginning, God. And I
want to start with this right here. We're going to start with
the essence of God. the essence of God, all right?
Turn over to 1 John 5. If you're looking here with me,
let's go to 1 John 5. And while you're turning there,
I will remind us again, our text says, in the beginning, God. God was in the beginning. Well,
who is God in the essence of his being? When we talk about
this God who was in the beginning, Who are we talking about? All
right, who is God? 1 John 5 verse 7 says, for there
are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost. All right, the Father is the
Father. The Word is the Son, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the Holy Ghost is the Spirit,
the Spirit of God. And verse seven goes on to say,
these three are one. These three are one. If we want to know who God is,
that's the first thing we need to know. Those three are one,
and I know it's hard for us to get our minds around that. I
know you may be saying, what do you mean by that? Well, that's
complicated. That's above us. But if God will
give us faith to see it and faith to believe it, we will know something
about God. When we talk about the Father
and the Son and the Spirit, is there a Father, a Son, and a
Spirit? Absolutely. These three are one. They are one. Verse seven, there
are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. You can't separate
them. You cannot, I know that we just
did by saying these three, but according to God, you cannot
separate them. These three are one. Verse eight,
and there are three that bear witness in the earth, the spirit,
the water, and the blood. And these three agree in one.
Everything that is God is one. And everything that is God agrees
and comes together in one. It all boils down to one. One. There is one God, and again,
I'm gonna repeat some of this, made up of three persons, the
Father, the Son, the Spirit of God. The Father of God, the Son
of God, the Spirit of God, these three equal persons are one God. And these three equal persons
are seen and made known in the image. If we want to know what
the image of God is, these three equal persons are seen and made
known in the image, in the being, in the bodily form, of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, He, the
scripture says, refers to God by saying He, Him, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the fullness of God, the fullness of the Godhead.
In John 14, verse nine, the Lord Jesus Christ said, He that hath
seen me, hath seen the Father. If a man or a woman sees Jesus
Christ, that man or woman has laid eyes on God the Father. That's amazing, isn't it? In
John 10 verse 30, he said, I and my Father are one. One. John 1 verse 1 says, In
the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was
God. Christ, the Word. So when we
read, in the beginning, God, what we are reading is, in the
beginning, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit existed
together. In the beginning, they existed
together. And proof of that is when God
created man. I'm sure you have read the verse
where it says, God said, let us make man in our image. That's what God said. Let us
make man in our image. So God, the father, God, the
son, and God, the spirit We're all in the beginning. All right. Not that there was a beginning.
There is no starting point with God. If we want to know something
about God, this is amazing knowledge. There was no starting point with
God. There is no ending point with
God. He has no beginning and no end. He was in the beginning. He said in the book of Revelation,
I am the beginning and the end. But there was no starting point
with God. Psalm 90 verse 2 says, from everlasting
to everlasting, thou art God. Habakkuk 112, it says, art thou
not from everlasting? Oh Lord, my God, my holy one. Deuteronomy 33 verse 27 says,
the eternal God is thy refuge. So there was no starting point
with God, but before anything else was, there was a beginning. That's just how our mind has
to think of it. That's the only way we can comprehend
it. There was a beginning and God dwelled in that place. God dwelled in that time, if
we can say it that way, alone. Let's really enter into this.
Let's really understand this from everlasting eternity. may be possible to get our minds
around a never ending eternity. Something just keeps going and
going and going. But it's so difficult for us
to get our minds around no beginning. It just keeps going and going.
There was no beginning. Everlasting. It was eternity.
It was never beginning eternity. From everlasting eternity, forever
and ever and ever, God dwelled alone. Alone. This is so important to understand. This is so important. If we are going to understand
the truth concerning God, we need to know this. Forever, God
dwelled alone. And he dwelled there in perfection. He dwelled in completeness. He dwelled in perfect contentment,
lacking nothing. He lacked nothing. He was in
need of nothing forever and ever. He was in need of nothing. God
needed nothing. And it's important for us to
realize this because as he was, that's how he is. The way that he was forever,
that's how he still is. God does not change. Now I know you have heard men
say that God changes. I've heard it too. I have heard
men say, well, God changes. God changed his mind. God changed
this and changed that. It's not so. God does not change. He said, I am the Lord. I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He does not change. And forever,
he dwelled in imperfection. He dwelled in completeness. He
dwelled in contentment, lacking nothing, needing nothing. Acts
17 verse 25 says, God is not worshipped with men's hands.
I know that you see people in religion, they like to throw
their hands up and go like this. Acts 17 verse 25 says, God is
not worshipped with men's hands. God was not worshipped For an
endless eternity beforehand, he was not worshipped with men's
hands. Before men's hands ever even
existed, God was worshipped in whatever
way God is worshipped. It's still that way today. It
says there in Acts chapter 17, God is not worshiped with men's
hands as though he needed anything. He doesn't need anything. He
never has. Men stand up in pulpits today
telling people what God needs from them. They stand here saying,
now this is what God needs from you. Obviously those false preachers
do not know God. The very definition of His name,
if you just look up the definition of the name God, it means the
self-existent one. The self-existent one, the very
fact that He is God means He is in need of nothing. That's
what it means. In the beginning, God was in
need of nothing. For an eternity, God was self-sufficient,
self-satisfied. Isaiah 40 says, no one was there
to direct him or counsel him. As it is now, it has always been. that everything he does, everything
he has ever done was and is a sovereign act on his own part. Everything. He did only what
he determined in his heart to do. He was under no obligation
to anyone or anything because there was nothing else
in existence but him alone. Our text says there came a point
when God created the heaven and the earth. In the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth. There came a point when
God created the heaven and the earth. But for an eternity of
existence, there was no heaven. Think about that. Does that register
with us? If God at some point in time
created the heaven and the earth, for an eternity of existence.
There was no heaven. There was not a heaven. There were no angels. You know
angels are created beings. There was no heaven. There was
no angels. There was no universe to be upheld by the word of his
power. There was no earth for him to delight in. From everlasting
for a span of a past eternity, there was nothing but God in
all of his glory. Nothing but God in all of his
glory. That's what he was in throughout that entire span of
time. He was in his glory. And that's
where he still is. Nothing about God changes. I am the Lord. I change not. So when his creation came into
being, the way he is over all of his
creation right now in glory and in power, that's the way he has
always been before creation ever existed. The coming in of his
creation, it did not increase his glory. It did not increase
his sovereignty. It did not increase his authority.
It only manifested His glory and manifested His sovereignty
and His authority that was always there. So what this means is
He does not need for us to glorify Him in order for Him to be glorified. He doesn't need our glory. He
does not need for us to praise Him in order for Him to be praised.
He doesn't need our praise. Nehemiah 9 verse 5 says, Blessed
be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and
praise. He is above all blessing and
praise of Him. He is above all worship of Him. He does not need our worship
of Him. Now, we owe it to Him. We owe
him our worship. We will be forever debtors to
him for everything he's done for us. But he gains nothing
from our worship of him. He needs no external glory from
any of his creation. He is glory in himself. He is glory in his essence. All of creation itself is just
the evidence of His outpouring glory. The heavens declare His
glory. The heavens do not give Him glory.
They just declare the glory that He already is, the glory that
He already has. I pray that the Lord might really
reveal something about this to us. We need a higher view of
God. We need a higher view of Jesus
Christ, God. His creation of heaven and the
heavens and earth and man and everything that is, all of it
is the revelation of His glory. All of it is the result of His
glory. And therefore, all of it is to
the praise of His glory. If you look at Romans 11, It
says in Romans 11 verse 33, oh the depths of the riches both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his
judgments and his ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind
of the Lord or who hath been his counselor? Or who hath first
given to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again. For
of him, through him, and to him are all things to whom be glory
forever. Amen. of Him, through Him, and
to Him is everything. And it's because all glory is
His. Everything is from His glory,
by His glory, to His glory. Everything that He has done is
accredited to His glory. Alright, now with that being
understood, look with me at John chapter 1. John 1 verse 1 says, In the beginning
was the Word. Again, that's Jesus Christ. And
the Word was with God, with the Father and the Spirit. And the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life. and thee life was the light of
men. Verse 14 says, and the word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace
and truth. The only image, the only begotten
bodily image that there is of the father. Do we understand,
do we see more of who it really was that came to us? The word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. Do we understand who it is
that lived for us in our place? This man came and lived for a
people in their place. Do we understand more of who
it really is that suffered for us in our place? This one who
came and suffered and died on a cross, this one who came and
shed blood, eternal blood, to pay the sin debt of his people. Do we understand who it was really
that redeemed us? First Timothy 3.16 says, God
was manifest in the flesh. God was. Why? Why did God come
down here to redeem His people? Here's the answer. His glory. It was His glory. Ephesians 1
verse 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ, according as He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world. Back there in eternity. In His
perfection, this is what He chose to do. He chose us in Him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to
the good pleasure of His will, He did this. He decided this. And it was all to the praise
of the glory of his grace wherein he has made us accepted in the
beloved through his work. Through his sacrifice. Every
soul the father gave to him is accepted in him. All to the praise of His glory.
God chose a people in Christ. He predestinated a people in
Christ. He adopted a people in Christ. Why? His glory. The essence of
His glory. The will of His glory. Verse
7 says, In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of His grace. Why did He redeem
us? Why did He forgive us? His glory. His glory. God chose to redeem his people
in his own blood and forgive his people in his own blood according
to the riches of his grace. That's who he is. That's who
he is. God chose to do this of his own
accord. And he's made known to his people
through his word this mystery of his eternal will which he
purposed in himself as Ephesians goes on to say before the foundation
of the world. He's purposed to gather all of
his chosen people in Christ. He's going to gather them together.
sinless in the blood of Christ, redeemed in the blood of Christ.
He's going to give them an eternal inheritance according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will. This glorious eternal God. Why would he do this? He's God. It's what he was pleased
to do. It's what he purposed to do.
Why would he do this? It's because he's glorious. We're
not, but he is. He's wonderful. Through the message
of who God is, who it was who came, what it was that he did,
who it was that he did it for, God's people receive faith to
believe the account, to believe the declaration, and that faith
is the promise that seals his people until he comes to get
them. If you finish reading Ephesians
1, that's what you'll find. I'm out of time, but you finish
reading Ephesians 1 and you'll see that all of his eternal will
and purpose in Christ was, is, and will be carried out for His
glory. All for His glory. May God reveal
Christ to us, the person of the living God, for His glory's sake. Amen. You have been listening
to a message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport Sovereign
Grace Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like a copy of this
message, or to hear other messages of sovereign grace, you can call
or write to the number and address on your screen, or visit www.ksgc.church. Tune in at this same time next
week for another message of God's free and sovereign grace.