We live in an entitled world. And I'm still trying to figure
out what makes men and women in this world imagine that God
owes them something. God's word plainly declares God
to be almighty, omnipotent, a sovereign God. He's one who reigns in heaven. one who does whatsoever he's
pleased to do to whosoever he's pleased to do it. And when he
does, arrogant and entitled men and women, they cry foul. Does
God not have the right to do what he will with his own? You
see, everything belongs to him by right of creation. The scriptures
declare that God has mercy on whom he'll have mercy, and whom
he will, he hardens. And the apostle Paul knew exactly
what people would say and how they would respond. Their response,
well, if God saves whom he wills, and if he saves whom he wants
to save, and if he chooses to pass by others, how can he yet
find fault? Preacher, if God is sovereign,
like you say He is, if God does whatsoever He wills to whosoever
He wills, how can He yet find fault? And why does He yet find
fault? For who has resisted His will? Have you ever heard that kind
of argument? I have many times. The unbeliever says, if I'm only
doing what God determines me to do, how can He hold it against
me? That wouldn't be fair. You've
heard me say this many times and without reservation, I say
it again. God doesn't have to be fair. God has to be holy. God has to be righteous. And
God has to be just. In order to be God, He has to
be those things. And we all, every one of us,
justly deserve nothing but eternal condemnation. When God doesn't
give us what we deserve, it's called mercy. And everything
other than mercy that we get, we deserve. Mankind's excessive
focus on self shouldn't be a surprise to us. I mean, after all, our
self indulgence is simply a result of our sin, is it not? Our arrogance
and our pride comes as a result of our sin. And that word entitled
simply means that one is given a legal right or a just claim
to do or receive something. So to be entitled to do something
is really a gift. For example, none of us deserve
God's salvation and God's redemption. None of us are entitled to it. Scripture is very clear, for
by grace are you saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves. Make that very clear from the
beginning. You didn't have anything to do
with it. It's the gift of God. Our means of being entitled to
this salvation is the fact that it's God's gift to us. The gift
of salvation is only in, by, and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the only reason that we have any legal right or just
claim to His righteousness. But for someone to feel entitled
to something that has not been given to them, well, that takes
our arrogance to a whole different level. It's to assume that you
deserve something without it being given to you. And my mother
used to define my sense of entitlement this way. She would very directly
say, this world, it doesn't revolve around you. You know, I thought
it did. And then I found out it didn't.
In other words, who was I to feel like I deserved special
privileges? Not long ago, I was watching
a previously recorded show on television. They call it On Demand
now, where you can watch a particular show whenever you want to. And
on this particular On Demand program or series, I couldn't
fast forward through the commercials, and I hate that when that happens. because I am very impatient.
But anyway, I heard several commercials in a row, and I was surprised. Shouldn't have been, but I was,
at how many times I heard the phrase, you deserve. You deserve. According to advertisers,
we all deserve certain gourmet foods and expensive cars and
high-end services, a much-needed vacation. Did you know you deserve
that? You deserve personal wealth.
And even McDonald's said that I deserve a break today. What
an entitled world in which we live. There's nothing that we
do not deserve, we think. And that's the cause of such
narcissistic thinking, what causes men and women to say, I deserve
to have what I want, to find out what we need to go back to
the beginning. I've titled this message, First
Things First. The first thing we must see,
and as my mother told me, is that this world does not revolve
around us. It revolves around the one who
created it. It's God who receives all the
glory for all that he has done, not us. What have we done? What have we done? Sin. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and thy true sake. Oh, we give glory to God for
his mercy. We give glory to God for His
truth. We give glory to God for His
salvation. Now turn with me to Genesis chapter
one, if you would, and let's deal with first things first. I was encouraged, it was somewhat
a confirmation to me, it was Eddie's turn to read this morning,
that he turned to Genesis chapter one and read this chapter. I won't deal with the whole chapter,
just a few verses, Let's deal with first things first. You
know, things must be put in their proper order and place, and we
don't come first in this world. We never have. I don't know what
makes men and women think that. Jesus Christ has the preeminence. You know what that means? That
means He's first. God's word puts things in their
proper order. And gospel preaching puts things,
prioritizes things for the believer and puts them in their proper
place. Man wasn't the first thing that God created. Did you know
that? As Eddie read through those verses this morning, man was
the next to the last thing that man created. And you know what
the last thing was? I hate to tell you ladies this,
but it was woman. God made man out of the dust
of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life. And then
he took woman from the rib of Adam, from the rib of man. The
creation of this world and all things in it has never ever been
about the glory of man. It's always been about the glory
of God, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's about the
glory of God and the salvation of sinners. Genesis chapter one,
verse one, first four words says multitude. In the beginning,
God. First things first. In the beginning,
God, the first four words recorded in the Bible set the precedence
for the rest of this holy book. In the beginning, God. It's all
about God. In the beginning, God. God always
was, God always is, God always will be. Only God was in the
beginning. You know, there was a beginning
before the beginning. There was a beginning before
heaven and earth was made and created, and there was only God. Remember, first things first.
So first, we have to start with the first. It has always been
God first, before the foundation of the world. How many times
do we read that in the scripture? Before heaven and earth ever
existed, there was God, God, the Father, God, the Son, and
God, the Holy Spirit. And God said, let us make man
in our image. Speaking of God, the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, why would God be indebted
to us in any way? What would make men and women
imagine or think that they are entitled to something for God?
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God
created this world, this universe. Every single thing in this world,
God made. God created man. God created
woman. God breathed into man the breath
of life and he became a living soul. He took a rib from man
and he made a woman. And man had no say in the matter
at all. And it's the same with our new
birth. It's here in Genesis chapter one that we see the glory of
God in the creation of the world, which pictures very beautifully
the creation of light and life in the souls of men and women,
dead in trespasses and sin. What a description verse two
gives of our cold dead hearts and souls. Look at it. And the
earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face
of the deep. The heart and the soul of every
fallen sinner is without form, void of light and life and darkness
is all that it knows. Nothing but darkness from the
soul surface down to its deep black recesses. The words that
God the Holy Spirit uses to describe us here are very accurate. The
Hebrew word definition for the phrase without form means a desolation. It means a desert, a worthless
thing, full of confusion, emptiness, vain, waste, and nothingness.
That's what it is to be without form. By nature, we are all without
form. The Hebrew word for void means
abyss. how descriptive that is of us
who are as a bottomless depth of depravity and sin. That's
what we are. We use terms like total depravity
and even that doesn't put it in its proper perspective. And
that word darkness does not even begin to describe man's soul
like the original word pronounced Koshek, which means misery and
destruction and death and sorrow and wickedness. That's what our
darkness is. This is the condemnation. The
men love darkness rather than light. Unless God give light,
we will all remain in our misery and in our destruction and in
death. So how did the earth receive light and life? Here it tells
us very plainly, the same exact way that the child of God receives
light and life. The formless, void and dark earth
could do nothing for itself. Neither could we. How then can
any be saved? Well, look at the last part of
verse two. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. With us,
it was the same for God who commanded the light to shine out of the
darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's how God saved you. The
Spirit of God in power and in mercy and in grace has to move
upon us. If not, we'll never be saved.
We'll never have life. Just as God gave light to this
formless, void, dark earth, God has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the revelation of Jesus Christ and the knowledge
of Christ. That's how we receive life. Jesus
Christ is the revelation of God. We see Him who loved us and gave
Himself for us. We see Him who provided for us
that perfect righteousness that we could not provide for ourselves. First things first. First things
first. Secondly, we see God's sovereign
hand and his divine purpose in the first day of creation. Before
God moved on to the second day, we see his sovereign hand in
the first day. Look at verse four, and God saw
the light that it was good. Now look at this, and God divided. God divided. God divided the
light from the darkness and God called the light day and the
darkness he called night and the evening and the morning were
the first day. So we see that light and life
originate from God. We see in the first day of creation
that it is God who divides. It's God who maketh thee to differ
from another. Same thing. God divides the light
from the darkness. Only God can do that. You and
I can't do it. We love darkness rather than
light. We don't want it to be divided. The light was divinely
produced. Only God can save sinners. Only
God can make His light shine forth. The light was divinely
approved. God saw the light and it was
good. God is satisfied with the light that He created. It was
good for the sinner and it was for the glory of God. God called
the light day and the darkness God called night. The light was
divinely proportioned. It's all about God. It's all
about what God does. That's why history is His story. The word light means illumination. Man, what a precious word that
is to avoid formless, dark heart. Illumination. Hebrews chapter
10, verse 31 says, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God, but call to remembrance the former days in
which after ye were illuminated, after you were saved, after you
were given the light of the revelation of Christ, you endured a great
fight of affliction. Men and women who profess their
trust in Christ in our day act as if they should never have
any trouble, never have any tribulation or affliction in this life. Why?
Because they feel entitled. But not so with the true believer.
No, sir. They understand, like David,
that it's good for me that I've been afflicted. That's how we
learn something of God's statutes and God's divine appointments.
It's God. He's the one who sends the trouble
and the affliction. And it's to teach us and to show
us so many things. God's people are not entitled
people. You know, many of the Jews in
our Lord's day had that same idea. They thought that they
were entitled to God's blessing simply because they were Jews.
John the Baptist, Christ's forerunner, he told the Pharisees, he said,
think not to say within yourselves, why we have Abraham as our father. He said, for I say unto you that
God is able to raise up stones unto children, unto Abraham.
God can take these cold, lifeless, dead stones and make children
of Abraham out of them. You got nothing to be proud of.
God doesn't need us. I don't know why that upsets
folks when you say it, because they think he does. That's why.
God didn't create this world to wait on us. Men have made
God out to be a servant to man. Men ask God for this. They ask
God for that. They expect to get it. Many today
preach the health and wealth gospel. I hate to tell you there's
no gospel at all in it. God wants you to have wealth,
they say. Not just to have your needs provided, but to have great
wealth. That's what God wants. And most
who preach the health and wealth gospel have the wealth. You know
why? Because intelligent men and women
first buy their lies and then they contribute to their will.
They say things like, well, give a dollar and God may give you
back 10, 30, maybe even a hundred. Is that what the gospel of Christ
is about? Our Lord said, lay not up for
yourselves treasures upon the earth where moth and rust doth
corrupt and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
I won't mention any names, but Kenneth Copeland, a well-known
preacher of the soul and Greek health and wealth gospel, I was
recently told by one of his followers that he has invested, he has
invested about 20 to $25 million in the poor. I found the way that he described
that pretty interesting. He didn't give it to the poor.
He invested it in the poor. Big difference. You know, men
invest in things that benefit them, don't they? I don't know
anybody that's ever invested in the stock market or anything
else and they said, boy, I sure hope I lose my money. Mr. Copeland recently and publicly
announced that he was a very wealthy man worth upwards to
$300 million. And he didn't make any apologies
that he recently bought another jet to fly and travel in. He
keeps this multi-million dollar jet on his private estate where
he has a private airport. I'm not making this up. You can
Google it. He claims that God told him that
he needed to buy a celebrity Tyler Perry's jet so he could
preach around the world. But you know what? I don't believe
him. You know why? Because God is able to call a
ravenous bird from the east, and he's able to call a man from
a far country to execute his counsel. God speaks it and brings
it to pass. God purposes and He does it.
God doesn't need Kenneth Copeland, Tyler, Perry, or anyone else
or their jets to accomplish His will and purpose. Wolves and
sheep's clothing was steal from the poor to line their own pockets
because they feel that God owes it to them. And the subject of
modern day religion has become nothing but talk about money,
material wealth, and earthly things. The Lord Jesus paid his
taxes with the money that he got out of a fish's mouth. And
he didn't have a place in this world to lay his holy head. Don't
tell me that's what it's about. It's not. First things first. How did we get into this mess?
How do we get out of this mess that we're in? Thirdly, I'd have
you to consider the first Adam and the last. Turn with me, if
you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I want you to see this. The first
Adam and the last. Let's begin reading in verse
45. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 45. Verse 45, and so it is written,
the first man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made
a quickening spirit. Now Adam was the first man and
he was our representative. God made Adam, I've said now
three times, from the dust of the ground and God breathed into
him the breath of life and Adam became a living soul. That's
what it says there in verse 45. As a living soul, Adam was sustained
by eating and drinking and he needed sleep and he was capable
of dying, just like we are. But the second Adam, the Lord
Jesus Christ, he's called Adam because he really is truly a
man. And he was raised from the dead
with a spiritual body. It was not changed into a spirit. It still remained flesh and bones,
but his body was no longer subject to the flesh's weaknesses. It's
now a quickening spirit because it had life in itself. And Christ
is called a quickening spirit because He's the one who gives
life. Now look at verse 46. How be
it that was not first, which is spiritual, but that which
is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. The first
man is of the earth, earthly. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. You see, it wasn't the spiritual
life that came first, but the physical. First things first.
Like the earth from which Adam was taken, the first Adam was
doomed to return to it. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.
But the Lord Jesus Christ came from heaven. He was formed in
a virgin's womb. He was conceived by the Holy
Spirit. Why, he's very God, a very God. In verse 48, as is the earthly,
such are they that also are earthly. And is the heavenly, such are
they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image
of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. That's good news. That's gospel
news. As was with Adam's body, so was
ours. We descended from Adam, just
houses of clay from the earth destined to return to dust. But
those who are in Christ, like Christ, they too shall rise again. And we are like Adam, born in
the frailty and the mortality of sin, subject to sin and infirmity
and death. But in Christ, we'll be raised
in the image of our glorious representative, created in perfect
righteousness and true holiness to live forevermore. First things first. Does God
owe us anything? Or do we owe Him? What are we
entitled to? I mean, legally and justly, our
sin's wages is death. For the wages of sin is death. The soul that sins, it shall
die. You know, death is truly the
only thing that we deserve. We deserve eternal judgment,
condemnation. We deserve the wrath of God.
Those in Christ, God doesn't give what they deserve. He doesn't
give them what they're entitled to. He gives them grace. Verse
50, now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. You see, flesh and blood here
signifies our bodies in their present state. These bodies cannot
inherit the kingdom of God. Why? Because they're corrupt
and they're defiled. They're subject to disease. They're
supported by things that are corrupt and dying. We've got
to be changed. We've got to be changed. We must
put on incorruption. We must put on immortality. We must be raised in a spiritual
body. Now look at verse 51. Behold,
I show you a mystery. You know, that's what the gospel
is. It has to be revealed to you.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. in a moment
in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. For the trumpet
shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we
shall be changed. for this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the same that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? One day, very soon, I'm gonna
look into the eyes of death, and I'm gonna say, you don't
have any power on me. Verse 56, the sting of death
is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to
God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. First things first. Fourthly,
In the kingdom of God, the first shall be last and the last shall
be first. Isn't that just like God? By
nature and because of sin, we feel so entitled, but we're entitled
to nothing. Everyone is striving to be first,
and because of that, they're gonna be last. This is the Lord's
prerogative. In Matthew chapter 20, verse
15, the Lord Jesus said, Barney quoted once, is it not lawful,
is it not right for me to do what I will with mine own? Then
he asked, is thine eye evil because I am good? Envy and malice is
expressed and seen in the eyes. The Lord is saying, is your eye
so tuned and so turned to express envy and hatred because I have
chosen to do good? Do you hate good so much that
you have anger and malice in your heart towards the good that
I do? And then our Lord said this, so the last shall be first. and the first last. For many
be called, but few chosen. Now, brother, I don't believe
in that election stuff. Well, what do you call being
chosen? He saves whom he will. So-called Christians today want
it all and they want it now. And they're really no different
than the world when you think about it. But what does God say
to such? He says, since you desire to
be first and you feel entitled to so many things, you shall
be last and you'll die with nothing. It's first things first in the
word of God. It's first things first in the
preaching of the gospel. And fifthly, that brings us to
the first and the greatest commandment. We're talking about first things
first. What is the first and the greatest commandment? Well,
in Matthew chapter 22, verse 37, Jesus said unto them, thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and the great
commandment. And the second is likened to
it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And on these two
commandments hang all the law and all the prophets. In other
words, if you can do those two things, the rest of the law will
be fulfilled. Then the next thing that the
Lord uttered was this question, what think ye of Christ? Friends, Jesus Christ is God. What do you think of him? Do
you love him with all your heart? Do you love Him with all your
soul and mind? Do you love your neighbor as you do yourself?
Well, if you're like me, and you are, all of us have come
short of the glory of God, have we not? We do not love God with
all we are and have. We're actually incapable of doing
it. We love ourselves way too much. We don't love our neighbor
the way we love ourselves. We're incapable of it. That's
why I want my way. And that's why we want to have
our rights. Well, we're entitled to our rights,
people say. That's why we say I deserve.
A child of God learns to say, I don't want what I deserve.
And I don't. Our Lord Jesus Christ, though
He was God, He gave up His divine privileges and He took the humble
position of a man and He humbled Himself in obedience to God and
He died a criminal's death on a cross. To more clearly understand
this humility, He humbled Himself to save His people from their
sin. What have you and I done to feel
entitled? What have you and I done that
makes us deserving of anything? I'm telling you that every believing
sinner must deal with first things first. And the sixth thing that
we must do is seek first Christ in all that we do. Our Lord said
again, Matthew 6, 33, you know the passage well, but seek ye
first the kingdom of God and His Christ's righteousness. And all these things shall be
added unto you. All these needs will be given
to you. God will provide us with all
our needs, plural, and He'll supply us with all our need,
singular, which is Christ Himself. Christ is the one thing needful. And Jesus Christ is the kingdom
of God. Talks about preaching the kingdom
of God. What do we preach? We preach
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus Christ is the kingdom of
God. And we must first and foremost
seek Christ and come to Him to have life eternal. And that's
where every provision for physical life comes. In Christ we live
and we move and we have our being. But dear sinner, please believe
me when I tell you that Christ is the only provision from which
eternal life comes. He said, no man comes to the
Father, but by me. The only way, no other way. And that brings me to the last
thing, which was also the first thing. Jesus Christ is the first
and the last. Our Lord said in Revelation chapter
one, verse eight, he said, I'm Alpha and Omega, the first and
the last. I am he that liveth and was dead,
and behold, I am alive forevermore. There's that word again. Amen. And I have the keys of hell and
of death. The very one whom you trust your
soul to has the keys of hell and death. You know what that
means? Everything's gonna be all right.
for those who put their trust in Him. Jesus Christ is Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Life now and eternal is all about Him. Now listen to me, we're
entitled to nothing. Nothing but that which God is
pleased to give us. First things first. We had not
first chosen Him. He first chose us. Our decision
entitles us to nothing. First things first. We did not
first love Him. He first loved us. That entitles
us to nothing by our love. Our love didn't entitle us to
anything. Christ, the just one, died for the unjust. Christ,
the God-man, died for the ungodly. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. And that entitles us to everything. Everything God did for Christ,
God does for us. Everything that Christ did for
God, we did for God. Everything that Christ is to
God, we are to God. He's our substitute. He's our
mediator. He's our advocate. He's our shepherd. First things first. It's He that
had made us, not we ourselves. We didn't make ourselves. We
are His people and the sheep of His pastor. And as a gift
to His people, if any man or woman sinned, well, we have an
advocate with the Father. We have a substitute. We have
a mediator with the Father. And it's Jesus Christ the righteous. And He's done for us what we
could not do for ourselves. I never grow tired of saying
that. And having perfectly done so, we are entitled to every
single thing that He's provided and given to us. We must see
that we're entitled to nothing in order to be entitled to it
all. May God be pleased to show you
that for His own glory, for your good, and for Christ's sake. Amen.