Brethren, let's turn to Romans
chapter 11. Our title and our subject this
morning is GOD. And the reason that's the title
is because this is our text. And this is a description, a
definition of who God is, right here. Verse 36. For of Him, and
through Him, and to Him are all things. To whom be glory forever. Amen. There's not one of man's
imaginary gods that can make that claim. Not one. God is first. God is the source
of all things. For of Him are all things. God is in the midst. He's the
creator. He's the sustainer. He's the
governor of all things. For through Him are all things. And God is the end of all things
to bring glory to Himself. For to Him are all things to
whom be glory forever. This is who God is. All things
are of God in the planning. All things are through God in
the creating and the working. And to Him to glorify His name
in Christ. All things. That's true from
the largest events in creation, the largest, most important events
in providence, to the most minute detail. Of Him and through Him
and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever and ever. Nothing helps a believer to trust
Christ and to have a good hope and good assurance and be settled
in our hearts like knowing that God's the source of everything
and that God is carrying on everything according to His will because
everything's through Him and that God's going to bring glory
to His name in everything He does because everything's to
Him for His glory. For of him and through him and
to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Let's look
at this. This will be our divisions. We'll
just look at each one of these. First of all, God is the source
of all things. For of him are all things. When there was only eternity,
there was only God, there was no earth and no heaven and no
universe, no space, nothing created whatsoever. There was only God. The self-existent, self-sufficient,
self-sustaining, solitary God in all His glory. So God's the
source of everything. Of Him are all things. Now the
first thing that God did before creating anything that was made
is He settled, completely settled in a council between the three
and one in an everlasting covenant, he settled everything for which
he would create and to which he would work everything toward. He did that before he made anything. Verse 34 says, Who hath been
his counselor? And that council was the eternal
council between the triune God. Christ said, which of you, if
you're intending to build a tower, which of you sitteth not down
first and count the cost, whether you have sufficient to finish
it? Well, there's no doubt that our God would fail because the
Lord of hosts is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working,
but God did counsel. He did counsel between the three
and one and He counted the cost and He determined that He had
sufficient to finish His work. This is what we read about in
Ephesians 3.11 when it says, According to the eternal purpose
which He purposed in Christ Jesus the Lord. That's what I'm talking
about. Look over at Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6. In that eternal council, God
the Father expressed His will to save His elect, saying, as
it's written here in Isaiah 6.8, Whom shall I send and who will
go for us? And the Son of God entered into
a covenant with the Father, answering, Then said I, Here am I, send
me. That's what happened in this
council and this covenant of grace. Believer, this is when
God the Father blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ according as He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world. That's when this took place.
Look over at Isaiah chapter 46. Isaiah 46. By choosing Christ to perform
all His will, and by choosing all His elect and giving them
to Christ, right then, as Romans 9.23 says, the vessels of mercy
were aforeprepared unto glory. Right then. Right then, every
elect child of God, as Acts 13 says, was ordained to eternal
life. Right then, God appointed us
not to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, as
is written in 1 Thessalonians 5. Christ agreeing to be made
of a woman and agreeing to come and finish the work. Right then,
God laid help on one that is mighty and exalted one chosen
from among the people, as Psalm 89 says. Right then, God did
this right here, Isaiah 46.10. declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying,
my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. This is what God did. By entering
into a covenant, Christ became surety of the elect of God. You know what a surety is. I
think I've gone over this with you a couple of times, but surety.
When we have a surety ship engagement, it's something like this. One
of you young people want to buy a car, and you don't have any
credit, so you go down to the bank with your father, and your
father goes down there, and he signs, he cosigns, and he says,
I'll be surety for him, so that if he can't pay, I'll pay his
debt. But with God, there was no question about whether or
not we'd be able to pay our debt. Christ entered in surety to do
everything, to do everything for his people. He agreed right
then that he would come forth and he would be made of a woman,
made under the law, and redeem his people from under the curse
of the law. And when he did that, right then,
just like Revelation 13 says, Christ became the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Nothing's been made yet. God
hasn't created a thing. The determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God determined right then that wicked hands would take
Christ and they'd nail Him to a cursed tree. And that by bearing
the sin of His people and by bearing the wrath and fury of
God in the place of His people, Christ would declare God just
and He would justify His people. This was determined right then,
before the world was made. Because His counsel shall stand
Because the Word of our God shall stand forever. Right then, as
Hebrews 4.3 says, the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. You see, all this had to be the
earth and the universe and everything we know, it had to be built on
a foundation. And Christ is that foundation.
Everything's upheld by the Word of His power, by the Word of
His covenant, by the Word that He promised the Father before
the first second was created. We don't plan something and then
go after it and do it just trying to plan it as we go along, do
we? If it's something important, don't we plan it before we go
into it and do it? Look at Isaiah 48 and verse 12.
Isaiah 48 verse 12. Harken unto me, O Jacob and Israel,
my called. I am he. I am the first. I also am the last. My hand also
hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath
spanned the heavens. When I call unto them, they stand
up together. All ye, assemble yourselves in
here. Which among them hath declared
these things? The Lord hath loved him, He will
do His pleasure on Babylon, and His arm shall be on the Chaldeans,
that is, on all God's enemies. I, even I, have spoken, yea,
I have called Him, I have brought Him, and He shall make His way
prosperous. Come ye near unto Me, hear ye
this, I have not spoken in secret from the beginning, from the
time that it was, there am I. Now the Lord God in His Spirit
hath sent me. Who's doing all this talking?
Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I am
the Lord thy God which teaches thee to profit, which leadeth
thee by the way that thou shouldest go. That's who we're talking
about here. This was all settled. You see,
this is the mystery. This is the hidden mystery, the
hidden wisdom that this world knows nothing about. This is
what we preach. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2,
6, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the hidden
wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. which none of the princes of
this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory." So then, having all this settled,
got all this settled, exactly what he's going to do, why he's
going to do it, the end to which he's going to do it all, to glorify
himself. Having settled it in the beginning,
when there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. In that beginning, He settled
everything. God elected His people unto salvation. He gave them to Christ. Christ
agreed to become flesh, fulfill the law, honor the law, magnify
the law by being made the sin of His people, by bearing the
wrath of God in their room instead. He promised to seek them all
out, call them all through the Holy Spirit, and not lose one
that the Father gave unto Him. And by all this, the God the
Father would be glorified before this host that He would save
and this host that He was going to create. And Christ would be
set up as having all preeminence because it pleased the Father
that in Him all fullness dwell. All this was settled beforehand.
And so, according to the purpose of Him, who worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will, then God began to build
the stage on which he would bring all of this to pass. Brethren, are you filled with joy to know
that the works were finished from before the foundation of
the world? Does it just make your heart overflow to know that
God has never done one thing by accident? Everything He's
done, He's never done something as an afterthought. It's not
ever been something like us where we'll plan to do something one
way and then we'll mess up and have to turn around and do it
the other way. He's never done anything like that. Of God are
all things. All things. I get a little unsettled
sometimes by the rulers of this nation. But when you get unsettled
by this nation and by the things going on in this world, just
look away from it and look to God. Because of God are all things
and in Him all things are well. They're well. They're running
right on course just like He purposed it from the beginning.
Of God are all things. Now secondly, Through God are
all things. Look at Colossians chapter 1,
Colossians 1. Through God are all things. God created, God upholds, and
God governs all things. Verse 36 says, For through Him
are all things. Now the entire work, the entire
work, and I don't think we realize this like we ought to realize
this. God the Father gave the whole
work to His Son. He gave the entire work to His
Son to do it all. And He began, God the Son began
by creating everything. Look at Colossians 1 verse 15.
Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. That's who we're talking about.
For by Him were all things created. that are in heaven and that are
in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him
and for Him. And He is before all things. And by Him all things consist. That's another way of saying
through Him are all things. All things are held in place
by Him. All things consist by Him. And
He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have
the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. So now let's go to Genesis chapter
1. Genesis chapter 1. So then we read in Genesis 1-1
in the book of beginnings. Now here's the beginning as we
know the beginning. What we talked about in our first
point was the beginning before the beginning. Now here's the
beginning that we know about. Genesis 1-1. In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. Well, you just said that
Christ did it. That's right. God did it. God
did it. He's God. He did it. In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. Somebody will say, well,
I don't believe He created the heavens and the earth. Of course
you don't. You don't have faith. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which
are seen were not made of things which do appear. Through faith
we understand God didn't use things to make things. That's
what man does. That's what the creature does.
God spoke things into existence out of nothing. There was nothing,
and God made something. The earth was without form and
void. After He made the earth, I don't
know what happened, but the wording in the language here is that
it became without form and void. It became without form and void.
And God said, let there be light, and there was light. He spoke
it, just like He spoke the heavens and the earth into existence.
He said, let there be light, and there was light. God appointed
the bounds of the sea. This is what it says in Job 2610.
He hath come past the waters with bounds until the day and
night come to an end. We don't have to worry about...
We don't have to worry about everything, the ice caps all
melting and everything that they say is going to happen. He has
come past the waters with bounds until the day and night come
to an end. That's what God has done. He did that from the very
beginning. He created all His creatures. He set the years and
the months and the hours and the seconds that each of His
creatures would live. Not just those He made in the
beginning, but all of the ones that would be born from them
and from them and from them. He set the hours and the seconds
down to the seconds that they'd live and then they would die.
of the worthless sparrow Christ said not he said not one of them
shall fall on the ground without your father and he said even
the very hairs of your head are numbered by are you not he says
so fear not therefore you're more value than many sparrows
this is God now and you know we'll sit there and we'll say
I can't conceive how anybody could do that good I'm glad I'm
glad you came. I wouldn't want a God you could
figure out. That's a little peanut God no
bigger than your mind. I want a God who's God. This
is God. Look at Genesis 1, 26. And God said, let us make man
in our image. Let us make man in our image
after our likeness. So God made man from the dust.
from the dust of the earth. And he breathed into him the
breath of life, and he became a living soul. And then God made
woman from the man. Look at Genesis 2.21. Genesis
2.21. And the Lord God caused a deep
sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of
his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib
which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman, and
brought her unto the man. And Adam said, now watch this,
we're going to look at this a little later in our third point, but
look at this. Adam said, this is now bone of
my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because
she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they
shall be one flesh. And then, I don't know exactly
when this happened, it may have been before this, it may have
been after this, I don't know when it happened, but at some
point God created some angels too. And they would play a very
critical role in this eternal purpose of God. The elect angels,
God made them to be ministering spirits sent forth to minister
for them who shall be heirs of salvation. You see, everything
God's creating, He's doing it all with this anchor point that
He started with back before time was, when there was nothing but
eternity and God. He determined why He was doing
all this, to glorify His name in the person of His Son in the
salvation of sinners. And so everything He's doing
in the creation is toward that end. Everything He's making.
We're going to see it as we go. So I don't know when these angels
were made, but He made them for that purpose, that they would
be ministering spirits to go forth and minister to them who
should be heirs of salvation. And there was another reason
too. Hebrews 1.6 says again when He brought in the first begotten
into the world, when Christ came into the world, He said, let
all the angels of God worship Him. That's why He made them. That's why He made them, the
elect angels. And then He made some other angels too. And they
played a very integral role in this purpose of God. Because
they would be the means by which sin would enter the world. Though
God created these angels good, everything God makes is good.
And He created these angels and they were good. But Satan, one
of those angels that we know as Satan, Scripture tells us
he abode not in the truth. Christ said he abode not in the
truth. So he knew the truth, but he
didn't abide in it. He didn't like it. He didn't
like it. The truth is God would exalt His Son and give Him all
preeminence above all, even above the angels. That part he didn't
have as much problem with because he was God. Christ was God. But what he had problems with
was he was going to exalt him as a man. As a man over him. Over an angel? A man over an
angel? And he abode not in the truth.
Satan rebelled and a whole host of angels were cast out of heaven
and Christ said, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Did Satan's sinful rebellion
catch God by surprise? Did God say, okay, now, uh-oh,
stop, I got to do something here. I didn't know this was coming.
Did He? Of course not. It was exactly
according to that eternal purpose that He determined before He
made anything. That God would manifest His glory
through sending forth His Son to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. That's why Satan was permitted
by God to sin and to fall. That's why. That Christ be glorified
in coming forth and putting away the sin of His people. He made
Satan for the evil day when wicked hands would nail his son to a
cursed tree according to God's determinant counsel and foreordination. That's what Acts 2.23 says. Acts
4.28 says, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. It was determined before Satan
and his angels ever failed. before they ever fail. Here's
why. Proverbs 16, 4 says, The Lord
hath made all things for himself, even the wicked, for the day
of evil. What's the day of evil? Well,
chiefly the day of evil is that day when wicked hands nailed
Christ to the cross. But God made made the wicked,
even for that day, even for that day. Satan nor any other creature,
Satan nor any other creature can do one thing of themselves. This is not, this is not, this
is just who God is. This is, this is, this is what
the definition of God is. God is over, he's not in competition
with Satan. Not at all. That wouldn't be
God. That would mean Satan would have
as equal power as he would if they were in competition and
struggling with each other. He's ruling him. He's ruling
him. For of God and through God are
all things. Do you remember what happened
with Job? Do you remember what happened with Job? Let me read
this to you. The Lord said unto Satan, Hast
thou considered my servant Job? that there's none like him in
the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and
escheweth evil? That could be said about Adam
better than it could be said about Job. Here's a perfect man
in a perfect environment where no sin is whatsoever. And Satan
said, hast thou not made a hedge about him? And the Lord said unto Satan,
Behold, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself
put not forth thine hand. You know what he did? He gave
Satan permission. He gave him permission. That
means God's more powerful than him. That means God's over him. And likewise, Satan didn't enter
the garden without God's permission. What comfort for a believer?
What comfort for a believer? You know, when you think about
it, if you're out on the playground, playing, and you got a bully
out there, you know, and there's two or three bullies that are
under him, that are his underlings, that walk around doing whatever
he says, and you're just worried about this one bully, he just
won't leave you alone. Well, if somebody's got that
one bully taken care of, that chief bully taken care of, you
ain't got to worry about the rest of them. If he's got that
one taken care of, he'll surely take care of the rest of them,
won't he? Well, this is comfort because our adversary, our chief
adversary, the devil, cannot do anything but what God permits
him to do. That's all. Your adversary the
devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he shall devour. No. Seeking whom he may devour. Whom he has permission to devour. Well, that don't sound like comfort
to me. That means that God might permit
Satan to sift me. Well, but think about it. God
overruled Satan sifting for Job's good. God overruled Satan sifting
for Peter's good. God overruled Satan in the wicked
hands that nailed Christ to the tree for the eternal salvation
of every elect child of God. So you can be assured that if
God permits the devil to sift you, it's going to be for your
good. It's going to be for my good. That's comfort. I would
much rather know that than to have this thing that preachers
are talking about where they're acting like they're in competition
There, God's doing everything he can just to try to ward Satan
off. I want a God who's got him on
a leash, don't you? That's who our God is. And Adam's
fall in the garden didn't take God by surprise either. For of
God and through God are all things. God allowed Adam to do what Adam
was willing to do because it was according to God's eternal
purpose. God allowed Adam to do what Adam wanted to do. But the only reason he allowed
it is because it was according to God's eternal purpose. Adam
willingly sinned with his eyes wide open. He did. Eve was tricked
and she was beguiled. She didn't know what was going
on when she did it. Adam knew exactly what was going on and
he did willingly what he was willing to do because God allowed
him to do it. But he did it only because it
was according to God's purpose. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. All have sinned. Be sure you
get this now. God is the force of good. God is the force of good. Without
God's keeping hand on any of his creatures, they will fall. They will fall. Without God's
keeping hand on this earth, there is not a law of gravity. God
is gravity. And if God takes His keeping
hand off of gravity, me and you right now would just float up
in this air like they do out in outer space. That's true. And if God takes His hand off
of any of His creatures, we will fall. We will fall. Satan fell,
angels fell, and Adam fell. They're all creatures, all made
of God. But only according to the determinate counsel and foreordination
of God our Savior. That's the only way. For of Him
and through Him are all things. Look at Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40.
Keep your place in Genesis. We'll come back there. Isaiah
40. Look at verse 12. Who hath measured the waters
in the hollow of his hand? The hollow is this part right
here. That's that little, just that little part right there.
Who's measured all the waters in the hollow of his hand? And
meted out heaven with a span? You know what that is. You take
your computer, you do like that and it opens up a window. That's
a span from the tip of your thumb to the tip of your forefinger.
He meted out the heavens with a span and comprehended the dust
of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance. Who hath directed the Spirit
of the Lord, or being His counselor, hath taught Him? With whom took
He counsel? And who instructed Him and taught
Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and
showed to Him the way of understanding? I don't like the way God did
this. I don't think this is right, a man will say. You're saying
that God let sin come in the world? I don't think that was
right. Well, who are you? Huh? With whom took God counsel? Nobody. It's right because God
does it. However, whatever, it's right
because God does it. If God does it, it's right. Behold,
the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the
small dust of the balance. Just a little dust that's left
in the balance when all the weighty stuff's been poured out. That's
what the nations are to God. Behold, He taketh up the isles
as a very little thing, and Lebanon's not sufficient to burn, nor the
beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. You could offer
and offer and sacrifice and sacrifice to try to please this God, and
if you took all of Lebanon, it had the finest cedars in Lebanon,
and it was a wealthy place. Lebanon's not sufficient to burn,
nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. Take all
the beasts, take them all, and offer them all to God. That won't
please God. Not just God. Scripture says
if you could be righteous, what are you going to give to God?
Huh? If you sinned against God, what
have you done to God? You might hurt yourself by sinning.
You might benefit another man by being righteous. You're not
going to do a thing with God. God is God. He's solitary, self-sufficient,
all-glorious God, no matter what happens to me and you. All nations before Him are as
nothing, and they are counted to Him less than nothing in vanity.
To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness will you compare
unto Him? Have you heard the preachers
that you sat under before, have they preached this to you? Had
they been telling you this about this God? Is this the God that
men are preaching? The God who created Satan? The God who is ruling everything
even when sin entered the world? He was in total control, absolutely,
thoroughly in control. Who will you liken this God to?
Who will you compare him unto? Oh, a little man, he'll take
him a graven image, melt him out some gold or something, and
the workman melteth the graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth
it over with gold and casteth silver chains. And he that is
so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that
will not rot. He seeketh unto him a cunning
workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved. God
made their God. God made all the elements that
make up every idol God. He made them all. He put them
all together. He made the man and the hammer
and the handle to the hammer and gave the man strength to
beat out the graven image and the wisdom to make it. And He
sets it up now and thinks, now this is my God. It can't be moved. And God is in the heavens laughing. Just laughing. He says, I'll
have them in derision. I'll have them so confused they'll
be like a little dog chasing their tail around. And that's
how God has men. All men are wise in their own
esteem of themselves. But verse 421 says, Have you
not known? Do you not know who God is? You're
going to meet Him. You're going to meet Him. Have
you not heard? Hath it not been told you from
the beginning? Have you not understood from
the foundations of the earth? Man, I'll stand around and they'll
question God. I don't think I could worship
a God that would allow so much evil to come to pass in the world.
Be sure you understand God didn't do the evil. Man did the evil. Man did the evil. But you know
what men are saying by that? They're saying, I could do a
better job than God. Take that up with Him. Take it
up with Him. You will take it up with Him.
Have you not heard who God is? Not heard who God is? It is He
that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants
thereof are as grasshoppers. And the inhabitants thereof are
as grasshoppers." I think from now on, when a man starts boasting
to me about what he will do and how he thinks God will do things,
I think I'm going to call him grasshopper. Go ahead, grasshopper. He stretched out the heavens
like a curtain and spread them out like a tent to dwell in.
He brings princes to nothing. He makes the judges of the earth
as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted.
Yea, they shall not be sown. Yea, their stock shall not take
root in the earth. And He shall also blow upon them,
and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away
as stubble. To whom will you liken me, or
shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? You see, that's the thing
about God. He has no equal. God wouldn't
be God if He had an equal. God has no equal. There's no
other God like this. None of the things that men call
God is like this. He has no equal. Lift up your
eyes on high and behold who hath created these things. Just look
all around at creation. Behold who has created these
things and that bringeth out their host by number. That's
why it's called the Lord of hosts. Everything you see, He's controlling
every bit of it. He calleth them all by names,
by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power,
not one faileth. Is there anything a man has ever
taken? We take the stuff that God's
made and we build something with it. Is there anything that we've
made that has lasted since the foundation of the world? Everything we've ever made eventually
just crumbles back into dirt. And this world is just held right
in place and has never failed. Never failed and won't by the
power of His might. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest, O Israel? Why do you say, O man, listen
now, my ways hid from the Lord and my judgments passed over
from my God? Why do you say, God don't know
what I'm doing? God can't see what I'm doing?
My judgment's passed over. He won't do this to me. Hast
thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the
everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,
fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his
understanding. Now look, he said he's going
to bring down all those princes and all those kings and all the
mighty, arrogant nobodies. But look what he's going to do
to these wretched, gutter, low down, nobody sinners, that nobody
even recognized. Look what He's going to do for
them. He giveth power to the faint. And to them that have
no might, He increaseth strength. Even the youth shall faint and
be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up
with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint. Now that's who God is. That's
how through Him they are all things. That's who's carrying
everything from creation, and it consists, and He's upholding
it all by the word of His power. Now let's look at the third thing.
All things are to Him. All things are to Him. Romans
11, 36 says, For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all
things to whom be glory forever. That means He's bringing glory
to His name in everything that's going on. His name is glorious. His name is glory. Everything
He is and everything He does is glorious. He is, in Isaiah
33, He's the glorious Lord. His glorious and fearful name
is the Lord thy God. His work is honorable and glorious. The liberty He gives His child
is the glorious liberty of the children of God. The gospel is
called the glorious gospel of Christ. His power is called His
glorious power. When Christ returns, it will
be the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior
Jesus Christ. Everything God is and everything
God does is glorious. So, somebody will say, how could
He possibly bring glory out of all this sin and all this evil?
It's just abounding since the creation. God only permits that
which shall bring glory to His name. Psalm 76 10, Surely the
wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath shalt
thou restrain. where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. God declared the end from the
beginning. So let's just stay in the garden. We're going to
stay right here in the beginning and we're going to see everything
right here, right here in the beginning. God made the creation
to declare Christ's glory. He made it to declare His glory.
He didn't just create earth for you to have some place to run
around and say, I don't believe God. He made it for Christ's
glory. It says, the heavens declare
the glory of God and the firmament show His handiwork. God spoke
into the void earth. It was void. It was without form
and void. And He spoke into it and there
was light. And by that He showed His power
to regenerate His people. Paul said, God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. God who said to the earth that
was without form and void, let there be light. That same God
who commanded light to shine out of the darkness has shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God doesn't do anything without
declaring His glory. He made the Son to typify the
Son of Righteousness. It comes forth like a bride from
His chamber, like a groom from His chamber and goes across the
sky. It gives light to the moon that
has no light in it because It pleased God that His people would
have no light in us and that all our light would be from Him,
that in His light we would see light. We're the moon. I've told
you this illustration, I think, before. You look up at the moon
and sometimes it's so bright and glorious and you can see
all that light in it. It's because the sun's shining
full on it. And then sometimes you look up
there and you just see a little sliver of light, that's all you
can see. You know what's happened? The worlds come between the sun
and the moon. What's happened when we have
a little light in us? The worlds come between us and
Christ, the Son of Righteousness. God designed seed that would
fall into the ground and die and that would be how it would
bring forth light. It would have to fall into the
ground and die and be die in the earth before life
would come from it. And he did it so that Christ
could stand there one day and say, verily, verily, I say unto
you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. Now he that loves his life, you're
going to lose it. You love your life, it's going
to be like if you have a little handful of peas and you say,
I'm just going to eat these and have one meal and I'll be done
with it. Then that's it. It's over. That's a man that
loves his life. But the man that hates his life,
the Lord said, shall keep it unto life eternal. That's the
man who takes those seeds and he plants them in the earth and
now he just has more life and more life and more life coming
up in abundance. He can eat all his days because
he's got plenty. You know who that man is? It's
Christ. He was going to the cross. He
was going to lay down His life in the earth and be crushed and
die under the fury of the wrath of God in the place of His people
in order that from Him might come life and an abundance that
no man can number. And He says, now, if you want
to serve Me, follow Me. Lay down your life. Follow Me.
Quit trying to save your life. Follow Me. And where I am, that's
where you'll be also. When He put Adam to sleep and
He created woman, He did that because He showed that through
Christ's death on His cross, that's how His bride came forth
perfect. Christ went on the cross and
He gave up the spirit when he had finished the work and he
fell into a deep sleep. And from out of his pierced side,
out of his wounded side, the bride of Christ came forth in
perfection, without spot, without wrinkle, perfect. Paul saw it. He quoted it in Ephesians 5.25.
He said, Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the
church and gave Himself for it, that He might present it to Himself,
a glorious church. Remember I said, remember this?
For we're members of His body and of His flesh and of His bones. And for this reason a man will
leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife,
and they too shall be one flesh. You know whose wife we leave
our father and our mother to be joined unto? His wife. His wife. When He speaks in grace,
we leave our father and our mother who sin. Don't join with that
group. Don't go out and join with them. I believe in free
will. Don't join with them. Just like
a man leaves his father and mother and says, I love her and I'm
going to join myself with her. We leave our father and our mother
and we join ourselves to Christ's bride and we subject ourselves
to Him and follow Him all our days. This is a great mystery,
Paul said, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. He made
Adam head and representative of his people because he pictured
Christ the Lord, the last Adam, who's head and representative
of his people. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Adam's a picture of Christ. God
overruled Adam's sin to glorify Christ. Adam comes there and
there's his bride and she's taken up that fruit that's forbidden
and he sees her and she sinned against God, and rather than
watch her perish alone, He willingly, out of love for His bride, willingly
was made a curse with her. Because when Christ came, He
was made a curse for us. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And He's delivered us from the
curse now by what He did. Everything God did, He was doing
from the beginning to show what He determined He would do in
that council back there before He made anything. The Lord came
and He sought Adam in his sin and He made him confess his sin.
And just like Christ the Shepherd will seek out every one of His
lost sheep and bring us to confess our sin. And Genesis 3.21 says,
And unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats
of skins and clothed them, and Christ is that Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. He's that one picture there and
that Lamb that was slain. God doesn't only find us and
make us confess our sins, He takes the blood and righteousness
of Christ and washes us in it and clothes us in the garment
of His righteousness within and without so that we're spotless
to be presented to God. Even Satan's fall was to glorify
Christ. Look at Genesis 3.15. The Lord
declared it to the devil. He told him this very thing.
He said this, I'll put enmity, hatred between you and the woman, in between your seed and her
seed. He told Satan, I'm going to put
enmity, hatred between you and you and your children are going
to hate this bride and her seed. You're going to hate her. That seed is Christ. He told
it from the garden. That seed is Christ. The only
one woman that had a child without knowing a man, that's Mary. That's Christ you're talking
about. And look, and that seed shall bruise your head, and you'll
bruise His heel. You see, right from the beginning.
He told the end from the beginning. Everything God's done in this
life, in your life and in my life, has been ordered completely
right down to this very second right now. And it's been for
the purpose of glorifying God. That's why. When He got done
there, He cast them out of the garden. But when He gets done
here, He's bringing us into His presence. And we're going to
be with Him forever and ever and ever. You don't have to look
past the garden to see the end. You can see the end from the
beginning because that's what God created. And everything He's
done since then has been glorifying Him. Everything He's done. Everything He's done. I don't
believe this is the real God. How can you possibly attest for
thousands of years the Jews sacrificing lambs because they said God told
them to do it? How come? And then when Christ
walks up, John the Baptist says, Behold the Lamb of God! There
He is. This is the one He's been declaring
for thousands of years right here. Here He is. That tabernacle on the outside
was badger skins and you couldn't see anything appealing about
it. Just like Christ. No form nor comeless about Him
that when you see Him you could desire Him. But within was gold
and all kinds of fine tapestries and just untold riches within. That's Christ. That's Christ. The tabernacle that God pitched
and not man. That's right. For mine own sake,
even for mine own sake will I do it. For how should my name be
polluted? I will not give my glory to another. God said. Sinner,
you're going to come one day before God. Mark my word. I'm going to be there. I'm going
to be there. The Scripture says that if I
don't tell you the truth, I'll have to be held accountable for
it. But if I tell you the truth and you continue on in your sin,
then I'm free from your blood. But this is so. You're going
to stand there before that God one day and He's going to say,
how do you plead? What is it? What's your right
to enter into my presence? What are you going to say? Well,
I didn't believe this was really going to happen. That's not going
to get you very far. Well, I thought I was, I thought
somebody else told me something different, and I thought it was
this other way. I don't care what. You're going to tell him
what you did? Well, I joined the church back
when I was 14 or 15, and I've been thinking that would get
me in. That won't get you in. What are you going to tell him?
There'll be many in that day, he said, that'll say unto me,
Lord, Lord, didn't we do many wonderful works? Didn't we cast
out devils? Didn't we prophesy in your name?
Didn't we do all this stuff for you? Religious folks! And he'll say, depart from me,
you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. You're standing
here working iniquity right now. All you're doing is bragging
on what you did. He knows on His right hand He'll
say, I was thirsty and you gave me water. I was in prison and
you visited me. I was sick and you came to me.
And they'll say, Lord, when did we ever do that? You see the
difference between the haughty, arrogant, self-glorying sinner
and that sinner who's had his heart broken by God's grace so
he doesn't glory in himself anymore? The sacrifices of God are broken
in contrite spirit. He won't despise that. Come to
Him saying, Lord, I have nothing in myself to confess whatsoever,
any worthiness in me whatsoever. But Lord, I've cast myself upon
Your mercy. I've cast myself entirely into
the hands of Christ and pray that He'll present me to You
and I'll be accepted in Him. Reject Him. Believe on Christ
and you'll be saved. Reject Him and you're condemned
already. Condemned already. And believer, what do you do? Just rest. Just rest. Rest in Him. Thine, O Lord, is
the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and
the majesty. What else is there? Thine, O
Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory
and the majesty, for all that is in the heaven and in the earth
is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord,
and Thou art exalted as head above all. And now I pray, God,
make You perfect in every good work to do His will, working
in You that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Let's stand together,
brethren.