Proverbs chapter five. Our hope
and purpose tonight is the same as every time we gather, but
what it's not is just to learn a bunch of facts, to have our
mind stimulated or our intellect stimulated. That's not why we're
here, is it? No, we're not here to have an
emotional stirring. So many people They come together
on Sundays and Wednesdays and some other days of the week,
and they have emotional stirrings in their services, and they leave
saying, wow, what a great service we had. And I was one of those
at one time that had those moments of feeling like, wow, this was
a really good service because of all this that I really felt.
But the work of grace is in the heart. It's by faith, isn't it? So we're not here to have an
emotional stirring and we're not here to have our intellect
intrigued or to be stimulated. We're to see the Lord. That's
why we're here. We want to see him high and lifted up like Isaiah
saw him seated as the king, seated on his throne, high and lifted
up. See, we want to see him like
John saw him in Revelation there. We want to see him as the alpha,
the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
We want to see him as God. We want to see the Lord. The
good news is, even though we're not here to have intellectual
stimulation or emotional stirring, we do stand in awe, don't we?
Our mind can't comprehend it. So it's not that our mind is
stirred, our mind is stopped because we see him. Our mind
is, we cease to think He's incomprehensible. We just declare Him. We just
declare Him. He's past finding out. And as
soon as we see Him, is it not true? We're not here for an emotional
stirring, but do we not experience joy unspeakable and full of glory? Do we not experience peace that
surpasses all understanding? But that's what He brings. And
that's what we have when we see Him. So we're here to see Him.
And that's why we're here. We're here to see Him. Read with
me in this passage as Solomon is communicating. And it's the same, you all know,
it's all throughout Proverbs. Now it doesn't, he never shifts
gears into something else. He's going to continue to talk
about wisdom. He's going to continue to talk about knowledge and he's
going to continue to point us to Christ over and over and over
again. Proverbs five, we're going to
read the first two verses. My son, attend unto my wisdom.
And bow thy ear to my understanding, that thou mayest regard discretion,
and that thy lips mayest keep knowledge." Our only hope tonight is to see Him. And He is that
wisdom. And if we receive understanding,
be assured it is of the love and grace of God that has caused
us to understand that knowledge, to receive that knowledge, to
attain to that knowledge. And what is that knowledge? Christ
is all, Christ is all. Unlike in John chapter six, where
they came to the Lord, you remember this, they came to the Lord,
they were, he had fed the 5,000 in the previous chapter, and
they came back to him in the next chapter, And they say, he
got on a ship and he actually departed from them, went over
the sea, but they came across the sea and they found him. They
said, okay, there he is. Now we can eat again. We can get
some more food. And he said, you didn't come to me that you
might have life. You didn't come to me, but that
you might get your bellies full. That's not why we're here, is
it? We're here to see him. Something that's glorious about
the Lord's word is that every, line upon line and precept upon
precept in the volume of the book it's written of him. If
ever we open the scripture, we should determine to find him
immediately and run to him. He's on every page, he's in every
chapter. It doesn't matter where it's
at, it's speaking of him. It's speaking of him. Our desire
is to look to Christ alone and to feast upon the bread of life,
the fountain of living water. And is it not true? He has to
come to where we are just like he did at the woman of Samaria. It was, she was at the well and
he said, if you had asked me, I'd have gave you, I'd have gave
you drink. I'd have gave you drink. It did
have been fountains springing up and everlasting life. I'd
have gave you living water. And she said, well, give me this
water. I'll take some of that. That sounds pretty good. She
didn't know who he was. She was talking to, did she?
She didn't know. So if the Lord doesn't, if he's
not our teacher, If he doesn't cause us to attend wisdom, if
he doesn't cause us to bow our ear to understanding, if he doesn't
call us to regard discretion, that our lips may keep knowledge,
we'll never be able to do that. He's got to come to where we
are. He's got to teach us these things. Title of this message, The First
Cause. The First Cause. And I think
it's laid out perfectly in these first two verses, because although
it seems to appear to be a command from a father to a son, first
thing I want you to notice is the word my son in verse one.
He's not just talking to his physical son. Solomon's not writing
to David's grandson only. This is God's word. It's infallible. This is God's word that was given
for a purpose, for a meaning. It's not written to everyone.
God's Word's not written to everyone. It's written to the Lord's people.
It's written to his chosen people, his elect people. It's written
as a love letter from a husband to a bride. That's what it's
for. It's written to reveal in the
form of preaching according to God's purpose and will to reveal
his gospel, his good news, how he saved sinners. So we must understand that it
was, my son is the Lord's church. And he says, attend, attend unto
my wisdom, attend unto my wisdom and bow down thine ear to my
understanding. We said over and over again,
that this book is not, not to the world. It contains the mysteries
of God that he chooses to reveal, or he chooses not to reveal.
And if you were to read I remember being in false religion I read
Proverbs and I thought I have that you know pretty down pat
as far as some of the things that was saying it just went
right over my head I didn't have a clue what it was saying why
is that because it's spiritually discern it's a spiritual book.
And so unless it's the children of the Lord that read and the
Lord being their teacher, no man can understand this book.
That's why I started by saying, we're not here for an intellectual
stimulation. Men get together, have debates and they'll kind
of, they'll find something over here on this page and they'll
compare it to something over here on this page. And at the whole
end of it, you know what they missed? The sum and substance of the
entire book, the Lord Jesus Christ. They miss the gospel, the most
beautiful part of the, what's the finished work of God and
how he saved sinners. They miss all of that. So why
did we come? We came to hear of him. He has
to be the first cause to do that. He has to put the desire, number
one. Well, that's true, he must put the desire in us, but here's
what happened first. He came to us and said, live first, didn't
he? And then he put the desire in there. Dead man can't have
a desire. He had to cause it to live first.
He's the first cause, that's the point. That's the point. Sometimes if you ever watch Greg,
you'll see him going through his notes and he'll flip them
real quick. That's because he said most of it already. And
then that's kind of why I scroll like that. It takes me a second
to get caught back up. If the Lord does not come to
where a sinner is and leaves them to themselves, we have no
hope. But the promises of the Lord and the good news of the
gospel is that's what he, that's exactly what he does. That's
exactly what this book teaches. That's exactly what it shows
us is that the Alpha and Omega became a man to save wretched,
vile sinners. The wisdom of God was enrobed
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh. Why? that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. This is the wisdom he's mentioning
here. This is what we long to hear
and understand. Now we can't understand it in
our flesh. So it's not that we bow our ear and that's attend
or hearken or obey. We can't obey unless we have
ears to hear to begin with. That's very important. But it's
not understanding of the flesh. It's not that we've, We learned
more of scripture. And well, now I know what this
means. And now I know what that means. The more you see of Christ,
the more you'll get tired of hearing men talking about facts. You get tired of it because facts
won't feed you anymore. Facts won't feed me anymore.
I know a lot of preachers that declare a partial gospel and
they give a lot of, they'll say a couple good things. I'm like,
okay, let me listen to this guy for a second. And then they get
on a tangent about facts and it just keeps going and going.
And at the end of it all, they miss the sum and substance. Lord,
don't let us miss Christ. If we miss him, we've missed
it all. If we don't attend unto you, First of all, if you don't
cause us to attend, we never will. But if we don't attend
unto you, we'll never have any hope. Cause us to hear, cause
us to speak what you speak. That's what the lips are there.
When he says in verse two, thou mayest regard discretion and
that thy lips may keep knowledge. How does your lips keep knowledge?
Will you speak what God speaks? Speak, you don't lose what he
said to your ear, it comes out of your mouth. You say truth,
Lord, I am a dog. Truth, Lord, thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God. Lord, you've revealed these things
unto me. That's what we say. That's what
we say. Now, if we attain this, if we Have wisdom revealed unto us,
as he said here, attend. He said, attend unto wisdom.
That word means heed. How do you heed wisdom? How do
you heed wisdom? Oh, I know from experience that
a lot of times we hear things as humans, but we don't exactly
heed it. Speed limit's a good example. We hear, okay, there's
the speed limit. This is how fast you're supposed
to go. Do we heed that speed limit? Sometimes, you know, we
stay below the speed limit. I'm telling on us, but that's
okay. It's true, isn't it? We didn't heed the rule. We broke
the rule. Heeding is obeying. So he's telling
us, obey wisdom. What does wisdom cry? What does
wisdom cry? It is finished. Well, how do
you obey that? You're looking not to yourself
because it's finished. You're looking to Christ because
it's finished. That's the difference, isn't
it? That's heeding the truth. That's obeying the truth. It's
looking to Christ as your only hope of salvation before God.
Your only hope of righteousness before the throne of God. Bow
down thine ear, he says next to my understanding. That bowing,
I like the bowing. It means incline, it means incline. Try to listen, incline, pay attention. Don't you love what the scripture
says in John chapter 10, my sheep hear my voice and I know them
and they follow me. They hear my voice. He didn't
say I speak and sometimes they may listen and sometimes they
may not. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow
me. That's not open-ended, is it? I mean, there's not an invitation
there. There's not a loophole where
it's the Lord's sheep that hear. John chapter 10, verse 28 through
31, it's clear. My sheep hear my voice, I know
them and they follow me. And I give unto them my sons,
and he's talking about here, my sons, my elected sons and
daughters, eternal life, and they'll never perish. They'll
never perish. The Lord's people are made to
hear him, made to hear his word, made to hear his truth, made
to hear his everything. that he speaks, that he chooses
to reveal, we're made to hear it. Made to hear it. And only the Lord's people are
made to hear it. If we attain spiritual knowledge,
as he says here, and that's the point is all this is spiritual,
spiritual wisdom, spiritual understanding. spiritual discretion, spiritual
knowledge, if we're able to attain that, make no mistake, he is
the doer of it. It means it's bestowed, it's
not something that we have merited, it's not something that we have
earned, it's not something, you know, a lot of religion believes
you can put forth, they're gonna have Bible study on Thursday
night, they're gonna have Bible study on Friday morning, they're
gonna have Bible study on Saturday morning and Saturday night, and
they're gonna have services on Sunday, and they're trying to attain
wisdom. It's never gonna happen that way. It's the gift of God
by grace, the revelation of Jesus Christ. And you know the most
interesting part? Whenever you see Christ, when
you truly see Christ, he's all you want to see more and more
and more. Tell me more about him. I understand
these facts that you're telling me, but that doesn't soothe my
soul. Tell me about his precious blood
and what that accomplished. Tell me about him offering himself
up under the father and the father being well pleased with his son.
Tell me that. Don't tell me how to live right, how to do right.
Don't tell me how good I am or how good you are. Don't give
me that. I don't want to hear about that. Don't tell me what
I should and shouldn't do. Don't tell me about how good Moses was and
how good Daniel was. Tell me about how Moses is a
picture of Christ that led the children of Israel in the book
of Exodus out of bondage that they couldn't have got out of
and let God send the deliverer. Tell me about how Daniel is a
picture of Jesus Christ that died as the substitute surety
of his people and went to hell for his people on the cross and
the lions couldn't do anything against him. The lion couldn't
do anything against him. Why? Because he's God. And yet
he died, but he was resurrected third and appointed morning.
And the King was pleased. Tell me about that. Tell me about,
don't tell me about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Tell me
about the fourth man in the fire. I want to hear about him. I want
to hear about the son of God that was in the fire that protected
them in so much that they didn't even have the smell of smoke
on them. How's that possible? It's a picture of the Lord's
people never having to endure hell itself. They even have the
smell of wrath upon us. That's what hell is, is the wrath
of God. That's what that fire represents. Couldn't touch them.
Why? Christ was with them. That's
who wisdom is here. This is what's revealed all throughout
the scripture. No, we're not here for a intellectual stimulation. We wanna hear more about him.
More about him. He's saying here, consider Christ. He is the first cause. If we're
able to hear he is the first cause. Incline your ear to him,
heed him, look to him. That's the only way that you
can keep His covenant. Did you know that? Look to Christ. It's
not a bunch of commandments that we keep in order to keep covenant
with God. No, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
It's His covenant we're clinging to, the covenant of grace. It's
not the covenant between me and Him. It ain't that I gave Him
my heart and I promised to do really good for Him. No, it's
that Christ laid down His life freely for His sheep and redeemed
His people back to God. My hope is that I'm one of those
sheep, one of those people. Because if I am, I'm in Christ,
seated in the heavenlies. There's nothing that can touch
the child of God. Those that the Lord died for,
they're perfectly righteous. Notice verse two, and I got ahead
of myself, but I'll read it again. That thou mayest regard discretion
and that thy lips mayest keep knowledge. That means you're
gonna speak what God speaks about yourself, and about God. And that's repentance. That's
what that is, repentance. Repentance is whenever you see
God as seated on the throne as the sovereign king of kings and
Lord of lords. You see him as high and lifted
up as Isaiah did. And as soon as Isaiah saw that,
and I say this often, so the reason I do is it's a perfect
picture of repentance. He said, well, I thought they
were the problem. Turns out I'm the problem. And they are too,
but I'm just as bad as they are. Worse than they are. Paul said,
I'm the chief sinner. It's a faithful saying, and worthy
of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. That's the point, isn't
it? It's just, we're constantly,
we're not getting better. Now this old corruptible is becoming
more corrupt because of sin. Everything around us is sinful,
but oh, that new man is renewed day by day in Christ Jesus. Renewed
day by day. Now we're gonna speak about ourself
being the center and him being the savior, us being man and
him being God, his work, not our work, what he has done. We're
gonna speak what he speaks, and he's the doer of it. How do you
know that? Somebody says, well, how do you
know that that's how you speak that's because he's the doer
of it? Who else is gonna teach you, teach your soul the wisdom
and the salvation? Who else is going to teach our
soul the wisdom unto salvation? Nobody. Ain't a man that can
do that. That's God that does that, isn't it? That's God. Who
has the only words where he can speak eternal life? Remember
the disciples were They were with Him and they stayed with
Him. Everybody else had departed. I think it was actually that
same chapter, chapter 6. I'm pretty sure after 6 goes into
7 and so on. So you understand it's the same
group of individuals that left or whatever. And they all left
because He didn't do the miracles again. He didn't make the five
loaves and two fishes feeding the five thousands again. So
they departed. And the disciples are standing there and He looks
at them and He says, Will you not go away also? Lord, who shall
we go? He spoke up. Lord, who, where
are we supposed to go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. We have nowhere else to run to.
Lord, you're the first cause of everything. You're the first
cause of this world. You're the first cause of the sun. You're
the first cause of life that we have in ourself. And you're
the first cause and the finisher of faith, the author and finisher. Whom shall we go but you? How the Lord teaches his people
that Christ is all and realize he and makes us realize over
and over again, he's the first cause. From the dust that's on
the. The smallest will say in the
field over there, but if I said something about the church, whoever
cleaned last will get mad at me. I don't want to say that
from the dust, wherever it may be. to the ant that's running
around somewhere, to the stars in the heaven, to your heartbeat
right now, he's the first cause of it. He's God. This is how we know salvation
is not up to man. Go ahead and create a world by
speaking it into existence if you want to be God. No, we can't
do that. We can't even will away a cold.
If I could, I'd get rid of this cold I've had. Can't will away
a cold to try to take this and that, try to do this. Can't fix
anything going on. Can't control my heartbeat. Oh
my, Lord has to teach us. Calls us to attend unto your
wisdom, Lord. Calls us to bow our ear to your understanding.
Calls us to regard your discretion and make our lips keep knowledge. Calls us to speak what you speak. Greatest, one of the greatest,
well, the world itself is a great example of the Lord's sovereignty,
but the cross, if you want to see the sovereignty of God and
how he, his awesomeness, I should say full of awfulness, that's
what that is. Look at the cross and what it,
what he did in order to redeem his people, how that he delivered
our soul from certain death by the death of his own son. How
that he executed his son because he bore our sin upon the cross.
And how amazing is it that he would do it for such sinners,
such depraved creatures. And looking at ourself now, knowing
the truth, if he had not done that, what hope would we have
had of anything, of being with him? What hope would we have
of anything, of having righteousness or or peace or joy or anything. We wouldn't have had anything.
He's the first cause. He's the first cause. Didn't
need no help from us. Still doesn't need any help from
us, does he? We didn't contribute anything. Yeah, he bore our sin
upon the cross, but we didn't give him to him. He took him.
He's God. He's God. This is how we know
he's the first cause. Everything is his story. You
ever looked at the word history? It's his story. He's, he's wrote
it out. It's going to come to pass. Everything
that's happened, whoever, doesn't matter. You're elected to officials.
It doesn't matter about, uh, all the, and I, and we certainly
do our diligence in order to do voting and things like necessary.
The Lord's given us the ability to do, but I'm simply implying
that the lot falls in the lap, but the whole disposings of the
Lord. From the price of eggs in China right now to the price
of eggs in the United States, it's the Lord's first cause.
Do you believe that? First cause. To not believe it's
unbelief, isn't it? Whose fault is it then if it's
not God's? Who's the cause of it, I should have said, if it's
not God's? He's never at fault. Well, the Lord's the first cause. Even the entire volume of the
book that we have, I've said this already, but it speaks of
him as one focal point, one sum and substance. This world that
we're in, you can look from a tree that grows that has the fruit
that it produces and the seed of the tree within the fruit
itself. That's a picture of salvation and what the Lord's done. That
tree bore seed after its own kind. All that we could have
in Adam is just his seed passed on to us. It was just death by
sin. So we needed a new man, the Lord Jesus Christ, a new
Adam. And that's what the tree, we see the picture thereof. We
see the rising of the sun and the falling of the sun as a day,
and at night, we see the moon reflecting the sun. Is that not
a picture of the Lord and His church? We're in this dark land,
just like those candlesticks we read about in Revelation chapter
one. See, it's all about Him. He's
the first cause of all of this. Everything is about Him. By His blood alone, He has wrought
salvation for His chosen, elected sinners. And if we're caused
to hear Him, we're caused to hear him, he's
the first cause of it. If we're caused to know him,
he's the first cause of it. If we're caused to see him, he's
the first cause of it. And you know what that makes
one of the Lord's people do? It doesn't make them antinomians
or not care about the truth of the
Lord anymore. No, it makes us cry out, Lord,
have mercy on me, the sinner, cause me, make me, show me, lead
me. And he says, I will be thou made
whole. That's what he says to his people. The Lord has revealed himself.
May he always cause us to realize as we're reading, There's going
to be things we don't understand. Why? Because it's the word of
God. But never doubt for a second, brethren, never doubt for a second
that in the volume of the book, it's written of him. Somebody
said, well, this means this, and this means this, and this means
that, and these two countries are going to go to war, and this
is whenever they set up this and that and all this other.
In the volume of the book, it's written of him. The revelation
of Jesus Christ is the first part of revelation. It's all
about him. He's the first cause of all of it. And he's the last,
isn't he? I'm Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end, the first and the last. It's important, no matter
what is written, we must find Christ in the text and run to
him as fast as we can. Told the Pharisees, they knew
a whole lot about the scripture, didn't they? The scribes, do
you know what a scribe is? I'm sure some of you do, I don't
know if my children do. I don't know if I've ever told them.
A scribe is somebody that literally just sit there all day long and they
copied verbatim the previously copied text. So they had the
ledger, the very first book, or the scroll rather, and they
would copy it. They would literally copy word for word. Now they
made another script. They didn't have printing presses
is the point. They didn't have printing presses. They sat there
and they just kept making new copies with their hand. They
knew a lot about the scripture, didn't they? If you write something,
you retain it pretty well. At least I do. Matter of fact,
I'm making more notes now than ever to try to keep remembering. With scribes, they knew a lot
about it, and they were coming to Christ and always trying to
accuse him. The Lord said to them, search
the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life,
but they are they that speak of me, of me. It's all about him. Ponder, brethren,
how many have studied his words? only to miss his subject, only
to miss his truth? How many of them have studied
this book only to miss the true subject of it, the true meaning
of it? Lord, don't leave us to ourself.
Teach us, be our teacher. Cause us to understand, cause
us to believe. How many false religions have
been formed only to miss the singular source of true religion,
the Lord Jesus Christ? He's the first cause of all salvation. His salvation, He's the first
cause. He's the first cause of all life. He's the first cause
because He is the truth of all truth. That's why we say, have mercy
on me, the sinner, Lord, teach us. I see that you're the truth.
I'm the way, the truth, and the life. I see that you're the truth.
I need your truth. It's amazing, we see ourself
as sinners by His grace alone, and we see ourself as false in
every way. I don't trust myself in this flesh. I don't trust
myself to truly seek after the Lord like I desire to. And you
know what I mean by that. You desire to seek after the
Lord, but, well, Paul even said that, to will is with me, but
to do good is, he said, that which I would, I can't. That
which I would, I do not, but that which I would not do, that
I do. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this
body of death? No, he's got to teach us if we're going to learn. Let's read this again. My son, attend unto my wisdom
and bow thy ear to my understanding, that thou mayest regard discretion
and that thy lips may keep knowledge. When a believer hears about these
certain words, attend, bow, regard, and keep, we often think, a believer
thinks, okay, this is something I need to do. I need to do. But I can say it to us this way,
because it's the truth. Look to Christ, who is wisdom.
Look to Christ, who is knowledge. Look to Christ, to teach description
and look to Christ to keep your lips. Look to him. That's the same wording. That's
the same wording. That's what the Lord's teaching us. He's
the first cause of it. He's the heart of the matter
and the doer of it. As I was studying this, I was going to
call it the heart of the matter, but I'm actually titled a message
heart of the matter last April, I think it was. I was looking for a word that
I had thought of last week and I couldn't remember it, but I
finally found it. It's the word nucleus. Nucleus. That's a scientific
term. And I have no interest as, as I said, starting this,
I have no interest in speaking to us on facts or to speak to
us on, um, human knowledge puffed up. I have no interest in that.
I just want to read this and see if the Lord be our helper,
we can understand what the Lord revealed to me in this. So a
nucleus, is the central and most important part of an object,
movement, or group. The center of all life. That's
what the nucleus is, the center of all life. Forming the basis
of activity and growth. Now the nucleus is the center
of the atom. And the atom is the smallest
form of life. Now it's interesting that you
see the word atom is A-T-O-M. But I'm reminded of a man named
Adam from the very beginning, A-D-A-M, the first man, Adam.
And also I'm reminded of the second man, Adam, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we know the second man, Adam,
is the center of even the most smallest form of life because
he's the first cause of it. So even scientists, whenever
they discovered this nucleus all the way back in 1926, I don't know if the man was a
believer or not. I don't see anything in his writings that
I read that gave the Lord any credit for what was found. But
that being said, they had no idea that they discovered that
the most microscopic thing that you could call it, an atom, down
to the nucleus, is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the first cause. He's the center of it, the center
of it all, all life, all life. Don't you love that our Lord's
creation, even the wrath of man will praise him? Doesn't matter
what it is. Man hasn't discovered anything
new. They've only discovered what God created. He's past finding
out. They've never discovered something
new. Yes, by their standard they have. There's nothing new to
God. Nothing new to Him. That's why
He's the first cause of everything. And we love that about our Lord. They only found one more thing
that points to Christ, didn't they? and yet they can't see
him. Can't see him. Even the baby forming, completely
dependent upon the mother, forming in the womb. Baby is forming
in the womb, completely dependent upon the mother's breath, completely
dependent upon the mother's heartbeat, completely her blood, completely
dependent upon her giving nutrients to the baby. What a picture of
our Lord and the church and our complete dependency upon him.
And what about the new birth? Is it the child that does anything
from the womb? No, it's the mother. We're dependent upon him. He's
the first cause of life. He's the first cause. And you think he's going to leave?
You know what the scripture says? He says, would they leave their
suckling child? He said, well, they may, but
I'll never leave you. So you might see somebody that
maybe left their child. He said, I'll never leave you.
And I'll never forsake you. He gave us life. He's not going
to leave us. Without him, there's nothing
made that was made. By him are all things. By him
are all things. For without God making the first
man Adam, there would be no physical life, would there? You know,
physical life upon this earth, as far as humans are concerned,
the Lord had to make Adam. He's the first cause of it. God
formed man out of the dust of the ground, breathed into his
nostril, man became a living soul. God was the first cause
of life. He spoke the world into existence.
He spoke everything else into existence, but he put his hands
upon man. Why? He said he created him in his
image. Yet, although he was without sin, oh, he was capable of sinning,
wasn't he? He was capable of sinning. Without the second, now, if I
said that, without the first man, Adam, there would be no
physical life, but without the second man, Adam, there'd be no spiritual
life. The first man, Adam, couldn't
give the Lord's people life, spiritually speaking, just physically
speaking. But the Lord Jesus Christ, the central, most important
part of everything, remember, that's what the nucleus definition
is, the central, most important part, that's Him. He's the central,
most important part. He's the first cause, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the God incarnate, the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Without him, there'd be no spiritual life, for we all died in Adam.
We all died in Adam. And unless he gives us eternal
life, we will remain dead. He's the first cause. He's the
first cause. 1 Corinthians 15, 21 through
22 says, for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection
of the dead. For as in Adam all died, or as
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Every
elected child of God will be made alive by the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the first cause. And I like
that he's not only the first cause, but he's the second cause,
and the third cause, and the fourth cause. He's just the cause
of it all. I love that. Because it's in him we're born.
It's in him we live. It's in him we move. It's in
him we have our being. I mean, he's the first cause. He's the
alpha and omega. And that's the alphabet, the
whole, we have 26 letters, and I haven't studied the Greek alphabet,
I don't even know how to, I don't know a lick of Greek, but I do
know that alpha and omega is the A and the Z of their alphabet,
it's the beginning and the end. So he's also, in ours it'd be
the A and the Z, he's also the B, C, E, F, G, H, I, J, you understand,
he's all of it. He's all of it, he's God. At the center of all time and
eternity, there's one. And it's our savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the eternal I am. He's the only hope that we have
for eternal life. And aren't you glad God saved
his people from their sin? He saved them. He didn't try.
He was successful. He saved them from their sin.
And I love the thought that the particles, the cells, they separate
and they take the form of the first sell, they just divide,
and they keep dividing, and that's how life is created. No, he's
the first, and his people are the ones that are created by
him, duplicated, you can't call it duplicated, we're created
by him, and he has likeness in his image, just like him. And the Father's well pleased.
Thank God he's the first cause. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you that you did not leave us to ourself. calls us to look
to you. Lord, stop our minds from day
to day to remember to look around and to see in your creation,
your salvation for your people. Bless us to our understanding
for your glory in Christ's name.