Well, let's begin by singing
number 242 out of your hardback, Jesus, I Come. 242, we can do that standing
if you like. Oh, my bonded sorrow and I Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come
into Thy freedom, gladness, and life. Jesus, I come to Thee,
welcome my sickness into Thy health. Out of my want and into
thy will Out of my sin and into thyself Jesus, I come to thee
Out of my shameful failure and loss Jesus, I come Jesus, I come
into the glorious gate of thy cross. Jesus, I come to thee. Let all your sorrows into thy
palm, out of thy storms and into thy calm. Out of distress to
jubilant song, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come. Into Thy blessed will to abound,
Jesus, I come to Thee. Learn of Thyself to dwell in
Thy love, Out of despair into rapture Thou burn. Up o'er your rayon wings like
a dove, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of my fear and dread of the
tomb, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come, Into the joy and light of Thy
home, Jesus, I come to Thee. Where the depths are brewing
untold, Into the peace of Thy sheltering home, Good morning. Scripture reading
this morning will be from Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40. Comfort ye Comfort ye, my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight
in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted. and every mountain and hill shall
be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the
rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it.' The voice said, Cry, and he said, What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass, and all goodliness thereof is as the flower of the
field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit
of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The
grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the Word of our God shall
stand forever. O Zion that bringeth good tidings,
get thee up to the high mountain. O Jerusalem that bringeth good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up. Be not
afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God. Behold, the Lord God will come
with strong hand. His arm shall rule for him. Behold,
his reward is with him and his work before him. He shall feed
his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young, who hath measured the waters in the hollow
of his hand and meted out the heaven with the 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, who hath taught him? With whom
took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path
of judgment, and taught him in knowledge, and showed to him
the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a
drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance,
Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon
is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient
for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as
nothing. They are counted to him less
than nothing and vanity. To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness will you compare unto him?' Lord, we thank Thee for bringing
us together this morning to hear Your Gospel. Will Thou bless
Thy Word to our hearts and will Thou give Eric what he needs
to preach Your Gospel. We thank You for bringing Eric
and his family to us. Will Thou go with us through
the rest of this day and give us hearing ears, understanding
hearts, and for those who haven't heard, will thou reveal Christ
to their hearts. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Eric. Morning. Thank you again for
having me and my family. I really appreciate the invite.
Thank you. All right. This morning we're going to be
looking at Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter 1, we're going
to read the first five verses. Genesis 1-1, In the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without
form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And
the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, And God
said, let there be light. And there was light. And God
saw the light, that it was good. And 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. We have here a brief history
of the creation. And as it is with all things
in creation, They point to and glorify the sovereignty of our
God and the salvation of sinners. That's what's pictured in salvation. Many people maybe, or maybe,
you know, you think that, oh, you know, God sees something
in creation and thinks, oh, that's a good picture. I'll use that
to picture the salvation of my people. But no, God created all
things for the very specific purpose of pointing to and glorifying
how Christ saves sinners. All right, even our beloved Apostle
Paul recognized the picturing of creation and God's salvation
when he said, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So brethren,
this here, just like Philippians 4, this is a good report. This
is something good to think about, to see how God works all things
in his creation. to His glory for His purpose
and to show forth how He saves sinners and delivers them from
their sins. My title this morning is In the
Beginning, God. And we're actually going to be
looking in 1 Peter 1. So you can put a mark there,
but hold your place in Genesis 1 and put a mark there in 1 Peter
1. Because this passage When I look
at it, I see a parallel passage to 1 Peter in Genesis 1. So that
we behold the God, the sovereign God of creation is the sovereign
God over the salvation of sinners. And we're going to have six divisions
again this morning, but they'll be brief. God creates, man sins,
God moves, God speaks, God divides, and the first day. All right,
so there in Genesis 1, it says in the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth, and just as God created the heavens
and the earth, so God created man. Man didn't crawl out of
a slime pit of spit, you know, he didn't just crawl out of some
oozing puddle or something like that. God created man. It says in Genesis 126, God said,
let us, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, let us make
man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in
his own image, and the image of God created he him, male and
female created he them. And the scriptures tell us that
when God created man, man was created upright. He didn't have
sin. He was righteous when he was
created by God. Paul said, and so it is written,
the first man Adam was made a living soul. Adam wasn't created in
sin, he was created in righteousness. And the preacher in Ecclesiastes
7.29 says, God hath made man upright, but he hath sought out
many inventions. So it's man, it's his heart that
seeks out many inventions and doing things that are contrary
to what God reveals. Alright, that brings us to our
second point. We all know that Adam sinned
in the garden. He disobeyed God's command not
to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. And when he sinned, the scriptures teach that when Adam
sinned, He plunged all his race into sin and into death with
him. We were in Adam's loins, so when
Adam sinned, he was representing all mankind. He had all his people
there in his loins, and when he sinned, we sinned. It says
in Romans 5.12, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned. That's what the Word of God says.
All we are sinners. That's what God says. To be more
clear, in verse 18, He says, As by the offense of one, judgment
came upon all men to condemnation, So that, verse 19, by one man's
disobedience, many were made sinners, and the result that
followed is that sin hath reigned unto death. God said, in the
day you eat of the fruit, you shall surely die. Adam didn't
die. He's not talking about the death
that Adam died 900 years later. He said, in the day you eat of
it, you shall surely die. That is, Adam died spiritually
right then and there when he ate that fruit. Adam plunged
himself and all of us in him into spiritual death so that
now we don't know God by nature. When we're born of our Father,
we come forth into this world dead and in darkness, having
no light. Alright? We weren't just wounded
by the fall. We don't just need a little bit
of help to get by. We don't just need a little help
from God, our co-pilot, as some people used to say. God's not
a co-pilot. God is God. We're the begging
sinner seeking God for his mercy and his grace and his kindness.
We died in that fall and we need a savior to save us completely,
fully, not just partially, not just adding a little something
to what we do ourselves. We need God to save us fully
and completely because we cannot save ourselves or work any righteousness
of our own. Paul provides a description of
us, if you hold, just keep your place there in Genesis, but he
says in Ephesians 2, he says, ye were dead in trespasses and
in sins, dead in trespasses and in sins, wherein in time past
ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. That's whose power we all are
under by nature. That's how we come into this
world, under the power of the Prince of the Air, among whom
also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, not the mind, and
were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." was indeed our federal head.
When he sinned, we sinned in him. He died, we died spiritually
in him. And we see the truth of that
every day. You see it on the news, but it's not even just
the news, you see it in your own heart. God shows it to us
in our own heart that we are, by nature, this flesh, dwells
no good thing. Nothing good about this flesh.
Now we read in Genesis 1-2, It says, the earth was without form
and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And there
again is another fine picture of us, brethren. That's us by
nature. It says, without form, so that
we know that by natural birth we have no part in the form or
in the body of Christ. We're apart from Christ. We have
no part in his body. Not by nature, we don't. And
it says that we're just like the earth there, we're void.
Void of righteousness, void of goodness, void of holiness. We
don't have any of that by nature. And we're also born into this
world in darkness. We don't have the light of God.
There's not a spark in man, some amount of goodness by which he's
able to generate a heat and generate a fire and then suddenly he can
now believe on God, it takes the power of God to bring us
out of that darkness, out of that darkness by nature, into
the light of his son, Jesus Christ. Alright, so we're void of God's
righteousness, we're in so great a darkness that we don't know
or understand the things of God, we don't know how to worship
him, we don't know how to approach him, we don't know how to please
him, not by nature. We are dead. That's what the
scriptures are teaching us, we are dead. And that's why I'm
emphasizing it, so that you don't think that there's something
in you whereby you can now please God. God is not pleased with
the works of the flesh. It's not going to do it. It's
not going to sway him or anything of that nature. We are dead in
trespasses and sins. All right, let's look at our
third point. Genesis 1, 1 and 2. We'll see that it's God who
must move upon us. We don't act first and then God
moves in response to us. God moves first and then we,
once given life in Him, move in response to Him. In the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without
form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and
the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. All right,
so the earth couldn't bring forth any light of itself. The earth
didn't bring forth any light of itself. The earth didn't bring
forth and make itself into a nice shape or anything like that.
It was all of God first. It says, the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters. So there again is a great picture
of us, brethren. No light of God in us. We've
no life in us until God moves upon us and we can't put ourselves
there into the body of Christ. And that then brings us to Peter's
epistle. If you look there in 1 Peter
1-2, just hold your place in Genesis because we'll be back,
but 1 Peter 1-2, he says, elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you,
and peace be multiplied. So here we see grace through
our Savior Jesus Christ, doing for us what we cannot do for
ourselves. First we see in this verse here,
the election of God, choosing a people in Christ. So this is
grace unto us. Our Savior did for us what we
could not do for ourselves and what we cannot do for another
person. Christ, God himself, left the throne in glory. He
took upon him the humiliation of bearing upon him our flesh. He came in the likeness of sinful
flesh, though he himself had no sin. And he fulfilled all
the righteous requirements of the law, for all the ordinances
that were contrary to us and against us by nature, he fulfilled
each and every one of them. He fulfilled all righteousness.
He even was baptized by John the Baptist and he said, because
it behooves us. He just spoke to
John saying, it's us. We must fulfill righteousness
by you baptizing me. I must be baptized because we've
got to fulfill all righteousness. So he did all that on behalf
of his people so that when Christ did it, it's our righteousness. Everything that we needed to
do, Christ did it on our behalf. And then Christ didn't stop there,
but he bore the sin of his people. He took that sin that we had,
that we were responsible for, that we committed, that we did
all those things that we should have borne the punishment and
the wrath of God for, Christ himself took that willingly upon
his own body. The sins of his people were laid
upon him so that he went before God. He who never broke fellowship
with God, was willing to take our sin, and there was separated
by God, God forsaking God, there on the cross, when he said, My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He really did bear our sins. Christ isn't a sinner, but He
bore those sins, and He suffered under the wrath of God as the
sinner, as we should have suffered under that wrath. He bore that,
and He put away our sins. So perfect, so complete is His
salvation that He put it away forever, so that now God no longer
sees us and our sin, but when we stand before Him, we stand
in Christ's righteousness, covered in His blood, and God is pleased
with us. Isn't that amazing that God is
pleased with us who are vile, wretched sinners? It's amazing. So in Christ alone, that's where
we find peace. None of us, just in speaking
to you all, none of us have found peace by the things that we've
done. Alright? Doesn't matter how much
you read your Bible, doesn't matter how much you pray, doesn't
matter how long you've gone to church, it doesn't matter how
many times a week you go to church, none of us found peace there.
There was no peace. It's only resting in Christ,
looking to Christ and seeing, Lord, I believe, I don't know,
it's not of me, but now I hear your word, I hear your voice
and I believe that you are the one who put away my sin and that
right there is where I rest. We do sin, we sin every day,
we sin every moment, but that's not what saves us, it's Christ. Christ didn't put away our sins
so that now we can keep making ourselves more and more righteous.
He put them away, that is all the sins of the past, and all
the sins we've yet to commit. He took care of them all, they're
put away. Alright, next we read through
the sanctification of the Spirit. So the Spirit of God moves upon
us, we see how God elected a people, and now the Spirit moves upon
the people. Christ justified us there on
the cross, but now God isn't pleased to leave us in darkness.
God, it pleases Him that we should come to a knowledge of His Son,
so that the Spirit comes and sanctifies us, sets us apart
from all those others in the world, not because we're any
better than them, but because he's chosen us, he's elected
us, and brings them to himself, and he teaches us the gospel.
The scriptures declare that they shall all be taught of God. God shall teach every one of
his people the gospel, so that we now know and understand and
believe that Christ really did put away my sin. He did for me
what I could not do for myself. And he leads us unto the obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. So that the scriptures
talk about our obedience, but this here is the obedience of
Christ. It's that work. that Christ did on our behalf,
fulfilling all righteousness, is that we see, Lord, you alone
have fulfilled all righteousness. God isn't looking to me and to
my work. He's looking to you, to his son, who did all the work. And he takes that blood of Christ
that was spilled for us, for our sins, and he sprinkles his
people with that blood and cleanses us and makes us clean. Isaiah
42, 21 says, the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He's not
well pleased for your righteousness sake. He's well pleased for his
righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. We've never magnified the law.
We've made it a sham. We've been hypocrites. We've
been liars. But Christ made it honorable
and fulfilling it all and doing, fulfilling all righteousness,
always doing the will of the Father. So the Spirit leads his
children to the obedient work of Christ, which he did. and
that Christ fulfilled all righteousness while he was here ministering
to his people in the flesh, where he bore their sin on the cross
and he put that sin away fully and completely. And God no longer
sees us in our sin. All right? Next, fourth, God
speaks. Back there in Genesis 1-3, it
says, And God said, Let there be light. And there was light. Now if anyone's familiar with
John chapter 1, you'll know that when God said, let there be light,
that's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? In John 1.1 it
says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him.
That means everything that God created, He spoke it into existence. So that by His words, He created
all things, and that's why the scriptures declare that Christ
is the Word of God. And that's why all things were
created by Christ, because He spoke everything that is into
existence. All right, and verse 14 tells
us, indeed, that is Christ. God's Word is Christ, because
it says, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, that
is the Lord Jesus Christ." So it's Jesus Christ that is creating
light spoken by God. Now just as God by Jesus Christ
gave light unto a dark world, So God speaks light into our
hearts and into our minds, revealing to us who we are, who God is,
truth, that he really is holy, that we can't just bring him
down to our level by thinking that we're somehow fulfilling
and doing the law. That's to bring God down to man's
level. But we see that God is holy, and that we're sinners
in need of his grace and his mercy to put away our sins, and
that it's his power, his might that must do that work for us
in bringing us to a knowledge of himself. Turn to Hebrews 1. Hebrews 1, 1. It says, God, who at sundry times
and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he
made the worlds, for being in the brightness of his glory,
in the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat
down on the right hand of the majesty on high. And because
he is the brightness of God's glory, he is that light that's
shining into our dark hearts, our carnal hearts, he's the one
who brings light the light of God to us, and by the spirit
of His power, He transforms us. He gives us life in Himself,
and He takes us out of this dark kingdom and puts us into the
kingdom of light of His Son, Jesus Christ. That's a new birth,
brethren. That's not something that we
do naturally by the flesh. There's many counterfeits. There's
many people that try to manufacture that and try to put that on display
that somehow they are able to build and to create and manufacture
God's kingdom, but it doesn't come by natural birth. The scriptures
declare that flesh begets flesh. So if it's a work in the flesh,
all we can do is build a fleshly kingdom. It's the spirit that
begets spirit. So if we have life in Christ,
if we have life in God, it must be by that birth of the spirit
of God doing it in us. Christ said to Nicodemus, ye
must be born again. And then he says, that which
is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit
is spirit. I said it earlier, but I'll say
it again. It's God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
or God who hath commanded the light to shine out of 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 why we
preach Christ, because that's where we see God, that's how
we worship God, that's how we approach God and how we come
to Him. It's all through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Peter
says back in his text, 1 Peter 1.3, he says, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His
abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So that we see
that it's God's electing grace, it's his abundant mercy in Christ,
all in Christ. Because of Christ, the Spirit
now moves upon us, and the Spirit reveals to us all things concerning
Christ. We hear his voice. When we declare
the gospel, we hear the voice of Christ, how he's done all
the work. We hear how Christ has begotten
us again and given us life from the dead. We hear that, we hear,
we hear it by the ear of faith which he's created in us and
making that new man, that man that now can hear God and see
God and believe on God and trust him in spirit and in truth. It's
not by our natural flesh. All right, turn to John 10 16.
I want us to see how It's His voice that we must hear. It's
not an audible voice that you're going to hear, but you will hear
His voice speaking in the Word. John 10, 16. John 10, 16 says, This is our
Savior. Other sheep I have, which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear My
voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. So when
Christ speaks to us, you will hear Him. When He comes for you,
you will hear Him. There's a time where we do resist
the Lord, like we try. There are times, there's people
that are saved after many, many times. So don't be discouraged
when you're ministering to those that you love and that you speak
to and that you pray for. Don't be discouraged. The Lord
knows what He's doing in His day, in His time. If they're
His, He will cause them to hear the voice of the Son of God.
And they won't hear your voice, they'll hear the voice of Christ
and what He's done. And finally that veil will be
lifted off and they'll see and they'll finally understand, now
I see what Christ has done. And they'll be delivered from
that dark kingdom where you were held to. It took the power of
God to do it for you. I know sometimes you know you
labor and you spend so much time with people. And you try so carefully
to be careful in what you say, not to overdo it, not to underdo
it. And you know, you beat yourself
up. Maybe I should have said this. Maybe I shouldn't have
said that, you know, and you get so wrapped up in it. And
sometimes you even get angry with them, you know, frustrated,
but just keep praying, keep praying that the Lord does the work because
that's, that's what we needed. It was the spirit of God that
did it. That's exactly what we needed to do. That's what we
needed to hear was His voice. So this is grace and abundance
of mercy doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He purged
us of our sins. And John 10 3 says, The sheep
hear His voice, and He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth
them out. And when He putteth forth His
own sheep, He goeth before them. He's not just sending you out
there into the wilderness. He goes before you bearing what
you yourself are bearing as well. He bore it for you. He goes before
them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. God
said, Let there be light, and there was light, so that that
power of God, which created the heavens and the earth and spoke
all things into existence, is that same power that creates
light in these dark hearts and gives life to these dead bodies,
these lifeless dead creatures that we are. It's He who speaks
life by His power into us. And it's that same power that
raised Christ up from the dead, and it's that same power that
gives us hope, looking to Christ, trusting in that resurrection,
knowing that because God raised Christ from the dead, He accepted
that sacrifice, He's pleased with the sacrifice of Christ,
and He's not looking to me for anything more He fixes that.
That's His power, giving you that hope, fixing it in Christ,
keeping it in Christ, and maintaining it in Christ, so that you're
not like so many others that just get discouraged and just
have enough of religion and go off forever and ever. He brings
you back. He calls you and secures you
by the Spirit of His power. Alright? So fifth, God divides. And God saw the light, that it
was good, and God divided the light from the darkness." Alright,
so here we see God dividing the light from the darkness so that
God preserves that light which he's given, which he's created. Now back in 1 Peter 1.1, we didn't
look at that verse yet, but there's this little phrase there that
says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered
throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Do you remember
Paul speaks to the Ephesians that there was a time when we
were strangers to the covenant of God. We were strangers to
the things of God. He even reminds them of it. He
says in Ephesians 2 11, wherefore remember that ye being in time
past, Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision, that
at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world, but now because
Christ has reconciled us to himself, that God has reconciled us to
God the Father, we're no more strangers because of what Christ
has done. Now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ, for he is our peace. So that now brethren, when we're
called strangers, that's a term of endearment for us. We've been
separated now and divided from this world. Whereas once we were
friends with them, and partners with them, and strangers to God,
but now He's separated us unto Himself, so that we're strangers
to those things, and we have no part in those things. Whereby
now having His Spirit, we cry, Abba, Father, Daddy, save me,
save me from this wicked place, save me, Lord, keep me looking
to You. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children
and heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that
we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. So God in Christ, he elected
a people who chose them out to be the bride of his son. He gave
them to the son. The son agreed. Yes, father,
I'll come down there and put their sin away. I'll establish
them in righteousness. I'll gather them together. I'll
call them. gather up the people which you've
given to me and I'll not lose one of them. I'll fulfill all
your will. I'll do exactly what you say
and I'll do it perfectly on their behalf." And that's exactly what
he did. He did all the work for us so
that now because of that, because he did that, he secured gifts
for us and he gives those gifts to his people to love him, to
believe on him, to hope in him, and to continue and persevere
in him. It's all His work, we give Him
all the glory. And that's what Peter said there,
1 Peter 1.5, who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time wherein ye greatly
rejoice. All right, brethren, that's our
living hope. Now, the sixth and last point. The first day, back
in Genesis 1.5, it says this, and God called the light day
and the darkness he called night, and the evening and the morning
were the first day." Brethren, our living hope is that we trust
and know that it's God who called us to himself, it's God who's
now keeping us. It's not reverting back to us
at some point for us to take it over and to bring it on in
home, you know, into our final destination. We trust and know,
we believe it must be so, that God has done the work from the
beginning and God will do the whole work all the way right
up until the end. That's our living hope that he's
sustaining us. Now in Peter 1, 3, and 4, they're
a little bit into verse 3, it says, which according to his
abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So that brethren,
we know that if you raise Christ up from the dead, he'll return
to gather us together, and he'll raise us up from the dead as
well. And that will be to an inheritance, verse 4, incorruptible
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you. That hope all began in Christ.
When Christ was raised from the dead, that's where our hope is
fixed by the power of the Spirit. And it says in 1 Peter 1, 13,
and that we hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought
unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And the reason
why I read that verse there in Genesis 1-5 is because I know
that day, I'm sure that day when God created the heavens and the
earth and he brought form and light to it and he took away
the darkness of it was a beautiful and a glorious day. And that
day, brethren, be encouraged, trust in the Lord and wait for
him because that day when he returns is going to be a glorious
first day when we awake in his likeness and we behold our God
who has returned for us and is now going to give us all things
for which we've put aside and we wait and we commit them all
to the Lord now, but in that day we shall have the riches
of his glory and we'll see him as he is and all the shame and
the fear and the sorrow that we go through here will be gone
away forever. I just want to read this one
passage for you from Isaiah 26, 19, because it's a beautiful
picture of what that day is going to be. Isaiah writes, Thy dead
men shall live. Together with my dead body shall
they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell
in dust. For thy dew is as the dew of
herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people,
enter thou into thy chambers, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself, as it were, for
a little moment, until the indignation be overpassed. Our God is angry
with the wicked every day, it says, and that God is going to
rise up and he's going to judge this world in righteousness.
But we who know have been shown that I don't want to be caught
up in that. I don't want to stand before
God in my own righteousness. We trust and look to the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him alone, and that's where we hide ourselves,
in Christ, till the indignation be overpassed. There's trust
in the Lord. He's reconciled us to God His
Father so that now we have peace with Him. Rejoice in that, brethren. Amen.