morning. It's good to see everyone
here this morning. Go to Lord in prayer before the
message and remember those that have need Tammy and uh Joanne
are still Joanne still recovering. Tammy just started. Uh so pray
for them as they fall there. Tammy failed. So pray for her
and Joanne and following last week. Pray for them. I thought about doing a message,
why hath the Lord done this, and I still may. One of the points of that message
was simply this, the Lord did it. If we ask that question,
why hath the Lord done this, the first thing we've acknowledged
is this, God did it. God did it. I tell you, I do not understand
so many things that God does. I don't. He's never commanded me or even
asked me to try to explain His providence. Nope. I don't have divine wisdom. Neither do you. This is why we
don't understand. If we had divine wisdom, we would
surely understand that, oh yeah, now I understand. But we don't. And what we must do is simply
resign. And that is not a one-time effort,
is it? Resignation is not a one-time
thing. It is a constant daily necessity
to resign to God's sovereign will and purpose. So, pray for those that are sick. Intercede for them. Ask God's
mercy for them. Come to that in Romans 12, weep
with those that weep. and rejoice with those that rejoice. I know God has a time and a season
for every purpose under heaven, every time, every season. This should be comforting to
you that it, to every purpose under heaven, that everything
is not without purpose. And it is God's purpose that
these things take place. Men think that they are in control. God is. God determines what men
do and what men do not do. And so this we should And that's
why I put it in the bulletin this morning. My grace is sufficient
for them. My grace is sufficient. I pray that God would help us
with that during our times of affliction. That's not my message. Lord willing, I desire to deal
with that soon. Remember, Angela, in your prayers, Jill, Rick, I asked for your prayers this morning
on this message. I've thought about this message
all week. And I believe the Lord laid this
on my heart this week. And I do pray it is a comfort
for you, a comfort for you. this morning. Any other requests
need to be mentioned, anything else? Pray for those churches
without pastors, please. Remember them. Pray that God would raise up
men. I would love to see thousands of men sent by God to preach
the gospel. But at this point, give just
one more. The world seems to be in need,
a famine, a desperate famine for the word of God. Let's go to him in prayer. Our
gracious Father in heaven, we bow again before you, seeking
your strength, your spirit, your grace, your power. so that we may worship you in
spirit and in truth. We thank you, Father, for Christ,
our Savior, by whose grace it is well with our soul, by whose
blood and righteousness we are made acceptable in thy sight. Thank you for your quickening
power, generating power of grace and faith that you have given
us even in this moment. I beg you, Father, for grace
to save those that are lost, that you would this day pull
the bran and pluck them from the burning, that you would be
gracious to give life to the dead, that you would give light
to those who sit in darkness. And Father, that you would, by
your grace, to those who you have given light, Cause us this
day to rejoice in the light we have been given. Cause us to
be thankful, grateful, and not a murmuring and complaining people. That you would help us, Father,
as we desire to hear your word. But, Father, not only to hear
these things, tell others of these things, to witness to those
that are outside of this place who have never heard these things.
She would open opportunities for us to preach the gospel,
and not only preach with our mouths, but that she would help
us to help others, to love them and serve them. By this we are manifest to be
the children God, seeing this is how God has loved us. Please forgive us our sins and
cleanse us of our unrighteousness. Help those that are sick, those
who in need, those who have needs in this body, frailness of this
body. Touch them, if it be your will. Raise them up. Give them healing. as only comes from you, and then
grace to be thankful. And I ask this in Jesus' name
and for his sake. Amen. All right, take your Bibles and turn
with me to Genesis. Genesis, chapter 1. And the text will be found in
the first five verses of entitled this message, The End from the
Beginning. The End from the Beginning. Now, I was going to preach from
Romans 12 today, but this last week I had a wonderful conversation
with a young believer. This young believer had told
me that she had desired to read through the Bible. It's a good
thing to do, to read through the Bible. And she does, as most
young believers, she puts her head down and she just reads
and she determines and just gets through each chapter and then
she got through Genesis and she was so happy. And I said, well,
what was your favorite part? And she said, the story of Joseph
was her favorite part. And I said, what does that mean? Tell me the meaning of that history. Why is it there? And she said,
well, the thing I got was forgiveness and how Joseph forgave his brothers. And I said, well, that's a good
point. There's no doubt that that's there. But I began to
explain to her that the Scriptures are much more than just a morality
lesson. The Scriptures are much, much
more than just a morality lesson on forgiveness. And I began to
tell her that that's a message of Jesus Christ. It is a message
of Jesus Christ and the salvation of Christ for His people. How do we know this? Because
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said this to the Pharisees. He
said, search the Scriptures. Now, if anybody had known the
Scriptures, the Pharisees had it memorized. Do you have the
first five books of the Bible memorized? They did. They memorized them. From a youth,
from their childhood, they memorized the Torah, the Law. They were
able to recite it. And here Christ said, search
the Scriptures. To them that was laughable. Notice
this. In them you think, you dream,
you imagine something. You think you have eternal life. But you've missed the whole point.
Listen to what He said. They are they that testify of
Me. you are ever to read the scriptures,
everything, everything, every history, every
song, every proverb, every writing, every prophecy, every sacrifice, everything, is about Jesus Christ
and the salvation of His elect people. Everything. And so then, I took her back
to the beginning of Genesis. And I told her, I can preach
the gospel to you in the first five verses of this text. And that's what I'm determined
to do this morning. I'm going to take the very first five verses
of the Word of God and expound to you God's purpose in saving
His people, when? From the beginning. From the
beginning. Well, how does this text begin?
In the beginning. In the beginning. God created
the heavens 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 on
the face of the waters, and God said, Let there be light, and
there was light. God saw the light was good. God divided the light from the
darkness. He called the light day, and
the darkness he called night, and the evening and the morning
were the first day. Now, plainly, everybody can understand
this is a historical account of creation. This is how it was. God created the heavens and the
earth from nothing. simply by a declaration God created. Before there was this, can you
imagine a time? And I say this word loosely,
time. Because before this, there was
no time. At this moment, time began. The moment God created is the
moment time began. Yet I say this because it's the
only way I understand it. There was a time before time
when God existed alone. Self-sufficient and happy within
himself in need of nothing. Perfect in all his attributes. Yet according to his own will,
he created. He created. He began to create,
and by this he displayed two things, will and power. God willed to create, and what? God created. What stood in his way? There
was nothing. So what could stand in his way?
Nothing. God purposed, it was done. This displays God's will and
power. He spoke and the heavens and
the earth were created. But I want you to see something.
Look at verse 2. The earth was without form and
void. Now, I want you to see that this, when God created the
heavens and the earth, in this moment, it was not perfect. Why? Was there anything withholding
God's power to make it perfect? Nothing! He could have in an
instant made everything and made it perfect. Why take seven days?
What is the purpose of this? Why do this? Because of this,
God was willing to display His salvation by Jesus Christ from
the beginning. That's why He did not make everything
perfect in the first day. Because He was willing abundantly
to show to you and me that this purpose of our salvation existed
long before anything else. And this is a display, and I'm
going to show you, I'll show you some things here this morning.
But God did not make these things perfect in an instant. He said
the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the
face of the deep. As yet, the earth had no land,
no mass. It was a mass of confusion. It
was unorderly, uninhabitable, unsustainable. in his present
form. So what? God moved. It said the Spirit moved upon
the face of the deep. He covered it. He formed it. It is though he put himself over
the top of it and formed it. Like a potter would take a piece
of clay that's all mangled and he would press it in and meld
it. That's exactly what's happening
here. The Spirit of God moved, brooded over the earth, formed
it. Then God said, let there be light.
This is not the sun and moon. That was not created until the
third day. Isn't that something? There was light before there
was ever sun and moon. What could that be? I'll show you in just
a minute. God said let there be light,
and what? There was light. I don't want to take the time
to go into this, but you know there's no bigger fool than an
atheist. They're educated people, they're very intellectual people,
they're very devoted in certain studies and they're engineers
and they're smart people. I mean, brain surgeons and so
forth, scientists. But they're the dumbest people
I've ever met in my entire life. They don't want you to believe
in miracles except one. That something came from nothing. Have you ever seen that? Has
that happened? Ever? Can science ever duplicate
that? No, they can't. Somebody once
said, you know, you may debate whether God exists, but you know
what really doesn't exist? Nothing. Nothing really doesn't exist,
and yet they say that something came out of nothing. They're
the biggest fools that ever lived. And so we know this, that by
this account God created. But I want you to see the purpose
of it. The purpose of God displaying
His creation was not just to display His power, which it does. You cannot deny God exists. Why? Because every morning you
wake up and you see that sunrise, you see it run its course, you
see the night come, you see the seasons move, you know God is. And the scripture never debates
God's existence. In the beginning, God doesn't
debate His existence. He simply declares it. It's something
everyone knows. But I want you, this is something
that not everybody knows. The purpose of this. Go to that
passage in Isaiah I just read to you this morning, Isaiah 46.
Isaiah 46 in verse 9, God says, Remember. Remember the former things of
old. Isn't that what we're doing this morning? We're doing exactly
what he said. Remember the former things of
old. We're remembering the very first thing of old. Creation. Why? For I am God and there is
none else. I am God and there is none like
me. Declaring the end when? From the beginning. From the beginning. God created the heavens and the
earth in this manner to declare the end at the beginning. To declare the end at the beginning,
to show us the end. Now, if you read Genesis, Genesis
is a seed plot for every doctrine. Every doctrine of redemption,
the necessity of blood, the necessity of a mediator,
a high priest, all of this begins in Genesis. Genesis is a seed
plot of the scripture. of all the doctrines. But these
things are just shadows. They're just pictures. They're
just types. Now God really did create the
heavens and the earth. The earth was really without
form and void. The Spirit really did move on
the face of the deep. That really happened. But yet
it was a picture of something greater. And that picture is
Jesus Christ. That picture is God's salvation
by Jesus Christ. When? When did God declare that?
Before man was created, God declared it. God declared it. I want you to see that. That
is something vitally important. And I'm sorry. As your pastor,
if I have missed this, I would apologize to you. When I was talking to this young
lady, and she didn't understand that Christ is in all the scriptures,
that that's what she needed to be looking for, I felt like I
failed. Why, sometimes I just assume
everybody knows this. There are very few people who
understand that. that this whole book is about
Jesus Christ. Now, very few people understand
that. If you understand that, that's a gift of God's grace
to you. Now, I've got five things, five
things that are witness to us of the gospel of Jesus Christ
in this text. First of all, I want us to see
the election of God. The election of God. God here in the beginning, sovereignly
determined to create. What was His purpose? If God was content within Himself,
what was the purpose? Because God was willing to display
His grace upon the objects of His love. You that believe. Do you understand that this world
was created for you? So that you should glorify Him. That's it. From the beginning,
God purposed this. Just as God sovereignly determined
to create the world, He in Himself, before He created, before the
first Adam was created, He set in motion the hands of time.
I want you to know that God the Father, of His own sovereign
will and purpose, determined to save and love a people for
Himself. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Look what it says. 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. Look at verse 13. The apostle says, we are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord. Now, why are we giving so much
thanks? Because God hath from when? The beginning. chosen you to
salvation. Not only chose you to salvation,
but also ordained the means through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth, which we're going to get to in our
text. That's the moving of the spirit. Our Lord, from the beginning, chose a people to save. And who
are these that God loved? Who are the beloved of the Lord?
They are the ones chosen to salvation. And when did this take place?
From the beginning. From the beginning of the world,
before the foundation of the world. Now men that deny this,
they hate this. But the truth is, if God hath
not from the beginning chosen a people, there would have been
none. Had God not chosen a people,
consider that. Without election, we all would
have been like the fallen angels. When the angels sinned, they
had no Redeemer. There is no Redeemer for them. There is no salvation for them.
The distinction is this. In election, God chose a people
who, yes, would fall, but He would save. When I read this in the beginning,
I know why He began to create. I know why He did it this way.
He did it this way because He loved me before He created anything. You that believe, He loved you
before He began to create. If any deny this, they deny the
only hope for sinners. And you read that in Ephesians,
according as he hath chosen us in Christ, when? Before Genesis
1-1. Before the foundation of the
world. Having predestinated us under
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself. according to the good pleasure
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Why did
God create? He created for His own glory. He created for His own glory.
Why did God elect a people before the foundation of the world?
That we should be to the praise of the glory of His grace. So we see God created out of
sovereign will, even so God in election is by sovereign will,
sovereign grace. There's no other reason. Believe
it, can you find any reason in yourself that God would choose
you over anyone else? Now the self-righteous would
find many reasons why God would choose them. But you know, here's
a secret, He didn't choose them. If they maintain their self-righteousness,
it's because God didn't show them anything. The second thing I want you to
see in this text is a picture of man's depravity. Before man
fell, God is going to show us a very clear picture of man's
depravity. You see that in verse 2. Go back
to your text. So we see, in the beginning God
created, we see the heavens and the earth, we see that before
this He chose a people, He created this world, so as to save them
for the glory of his grace." Now, here's a picture of man's
depravity, verse 2. And the earth was without form and void, and
darkness was upon the face of the deep. This is a picture of all of Adam's
fallen race. This is an insight into the heart
of man as he is born into this world. He is without foundation. That's what it means, without
form. He's a blob of mass with no foundation. Somebody once likened false religion
theology to mud. You ever step in mud? You see
how it displaces and just moves? You can't nail it to the wall,
can you? You can't nail mud to the wall. It just adapts with
everything around it. It has no form. It has no foundation. It's constantly moving in flux. Well, that's the heart of man.
It's the heart of man, without foundation and void, empty. Why? Because the scripture says,
wherefore, as by one man sin entered in the world, and death
by sin, so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. Our Lord illustrated this in
Matthew chapter 6. He said this. If the eye is sick
or blind, the whole body is blind. Isn't that right? If your eye
cannot see, my hands cannot see, my feet cannot see. My whole
body is blind if the eye is blind. And yet, what do men say? I can
see. And Jesus said, if that's true,
then how great is that darkness? That darkness is greater than
you think. Why? Because you're deceived. You're
deceived. And so when a person is blind,
he is governed by that darkness. And so too are the souls of men
filled with darkness. Man by nature is filled with
darkness. His heart is dead to the things
of God. The scripture says the carnal
mind is enmity against God. It's at war with God. How do
you know that? Many religious people say, I
love God. How do you know that the heart is enmity? Because
it's not subject to the law of God. Listen to this, neither
indeed can be. It's impossible. It's impossible. Man by nature is totally, absolutely
without form and void, and darkness covers the face of the deep. Man is absolutely, completely
ruined in utter darkness. Oh, the insanity of darkness.
What's the manifestation of this darkness? Listen, because man
runs from the mercy of God. Now, God clearly extends the
mercy. Come unto Me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Come unto Me,
all you that are the ends of the earth, and be ye saved. I'm
God and there's none else. And yet, what do men do? They
run from that, they cling to their works, They cling to the darkness. Why?
Because men love darkness. They love darkness rather than
light because their deeds are evil. Man by nature, all men
by nature, outside of Christ, are without form, no foundation,
no hope, no peace. They're full of darkness and
cannot see or ever know the way of peace. That phrase,
without form, means confusion or chaos. This is the heart of
every sinner. They flee to sin for joy. How
do you know they're blind? Because they flee to the very
thing that damns them. The very thing that incites the
justice of God against them is the very thing they embrace. I think of this often. How is
it that the unregenerate man, he keeps saying this, if I can
just get this, then I'll be happy. If I can make it to this point,
then I'll be happy. Then they get there, then what?
They say, well, I got that. But if I can just get to this
point, then. And they do this until when?
Until they die. Never reaching it. Do you not
see the chaos of that? The insanity of it? This is always a vain and empty
promise and lie of the darkness of men's hearts is to think that
they can be satisfied with the things of this world. I think of that woman with the
issue of blood. Remember that? She went to every doctor. Every
one she could find. And what does the scripture say?
She grew none the better, but worse. If you're seeking the things
of this life, to find joy and contentment, listen, you won't
find it. You won't find it. And so what, when men they don't
find the things of this world, they in darkness then turn to
religion, thinking religion is going to be the answer. Well,
I didn't find it in the world, so what am I going to do? I'm
going to try to find peace in religion. And so what do they start trying
to do? They start trying to quell the chaos by religious deeds. They try to make, form themselves
in the image of God. The problem is that you can't,
just as no man could quell the chaos of this newly created world,
there is no way that you can quell the chaos in yourselves. You cannot give yourselves light. You cannot give yourselves a
foundation. Religion always works from the
outside in. It always does and if that's the way you think you've
missed it true religion works from the inside out God works
down from God to man and in man and then works out of man I'll tell you what if God stopped
at verse 2 we'd be all in trouble, but that's he didn't did he and
The earth was without form and voice. Oh no! What are we going
to do? As though God didn't have a plan.
As though this took God by surprise. No it didn't. This was His purpose. God does not stop there, but
now gives us this third thing. Listen to this. Salvations of
the Lord. That's what verse 3 teaches us.
Salvation The second part of verse 2 and
verse 3 teaches us that salvation is of the Lord. The scripture
says, The earth was now form and void, and darkness was upon
the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved on the face
of the waters. God created the heavens and the
earth. It was a massive chaos. And now the Spirit of God comes
and moves on. That word moved. I want you to
see what that word means. It means brooded over. Like hen
takes her wings and broods over her chicks. It means to cover. To cover. The Spirit of God brooded. The Spirit of God hovered. Covered. face of the earth with
himself. And notice that it was God who
came and moved the earth. It wasn't the other way around,
was it? The earth didn't seek God to
quell it. God came down to it. God moved on the earth. He spread himself over it and
quelled the chaos and From it formed order. And so we receive by this seed
plot that all true salvation comes from where? Comes from
God to man, and not the other way around. Religion has it flipped.
They believe salvation comes from man to God. No. Salvation comes from God to man. So it is with every one of God's
elect that he is purposed to save, He will and He must come
to them. He must brood over their souls
and move on their heart of darkness in order to save them. Isn't
this what happened to you? Was your heart not full of darkness? And God moved. God came down to you in your
chaos, not waiting for you to get better. He didn't wait for
the earth to get better. He came down and He moved. Mark this down. It's the truth
of Scripture. If God does not come to you,
no matter what you do, no matter how sincere you are, If God does
not come and move on your heart, you will never believe. No man can come to me. Who doesn't understand that? Does anybody not misunderstand
that? No man can come to me, except
the Father which has sent me draw him. Friends, we must be
born from above. We must be born of the Spirit
of God. The Scripture says, As many as
received Him, to them gave He the right to become the sons
of God, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. That's what our text here teaches. Man's pictured by this void and
darkness, and what does God do? Having purpose to do it from
the beginning, God moved on it. That's what God did for us. He
moved on us and gave us life and faith. To whomsoever the Spirit cometh,
listen, they will be saved. That's what this is telling us. When God determines to save,
there's nothing that's going to stop Him from saving. Was there anything to stop Him
from forming the earth? Nothing. What would stop Him from forming
us? Isn't this what He did with us?
He created in us a new nature, holy and order! He made order
out of the chaos. I think of that prophecy in Ezekiel,
remember that? Where Ezekiel was told to preach
to those dead bones? That seems like a useless task,
right? You got a bunch of dead, dry bones out there. God said,
you preach to them. You tell them this. I'm going
to give them life. Don't you think people would
have mocked that? Listen, that's what I'm doing this morning.
I'm telling you, if you're God's elect, He's going to give you
life. And soon as he preached that, you know what happened?
Those bones began to shake and rattle, and they all came to
each one his own. They were scattered! And they
came each one to his own, and he put flesh on them, and he
put muscle and bone together. Made a man standing there, an
army of them. And he said, tell them this,
I'm going to give them life. And sure enough, as soon as he
preached, the wind came, and they breathed in Him the breath
of life, and there was an exceeding great army. This is how God saves
His elect. He moves on them and gives them
light. And that's what verse 3 says,
and He said, Let there be light, and there was light. When God came to you, was it
a decision or a command? As a matter of fact, Before you
knew what happened, it had already taken place. Why? Because God said, and it
was done. Paul Mahan keeps saying this,
the only Latin he ever knew were two words, dictum, factum. Said, done. Isn't that what the text teaches
us? When God says something, it's done. Believer, when God said live,
what else could you do? What could you do? God said,
and it was done. Lazarus, come forth. Any chance that wasn't going
to happen? Any opposition? Was Lazarus to sit and debate
as to whether he should decide to come out or not? You that
believe, was it a decision with you? Not with me. I couldn't help but believe.
And even in the midst of my unbelief now, I still can't help it. I
believe. Now why is that? because God
commanded and it was done. You believe because God commanded
it. But who is the light? I told
you it wasn't the sun and moon. That isn't until the third day.
Who's the light? Three times in the book of John,
our Lord Jesus Christ declares Himself to be this, I am the
light of the world. First time our Lord Jesus Christ
is mentioned in scriptures right here. Let there be light. He's the manifestation of God's
salvation being declared from the beginning. I am the light. I am the light. The light existed
long before this, but it wasn't manifest until God said so. Didn't
your salvation exist long before you ever realized it? Did this
light shine from eternity? It did! Christ is eternal! He is eternal light and glory
of God. And yet it wasn't until God said,
let there be light, that it was manifest. When God said, let there be light,
what did He reveal? When He saved you, when the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the deep, of your dark and depraved
and chaotic heart, what did He say? He said, let there be light. What? Behold, the Son of God
taketh away the sin of the world. Paul said this, 2 Corinthians
4 and verse 6, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
What scripture reference is he referencing? Just as God commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, listen, He has shined in our hearts to
give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Listen, I didn't know anything
at all about my darkness until He said, let there be light. I didn't know anything of my
need of Christ until He said, Let there be light. And when
He said, Let there be light, what? I had a need. I was a sinner. I had a need.
I saw the holiness of God. I saw the sinfulness of myself.
And I found out I couldn't make myself acceptable to God. But
then in that moment of despair and chaos, guess what? The Spirit
moved and I saw Christ. I saw His blood as all my atonement
for sin. I don't have to atone for sin.
He atoned for my sin. He's all my righteousness. I
don't have to contribute to this righteousness. He's all my righteousness. That's the light that's been
revealed. We see that Christ then is all. Do you see Christ is all this
morning? Do you see that? Now, why do you see that? Well,
because God purposed that you see it. In the beginning, He
purposed it. And in time, the Spirit of God
moved on that dark heart of yours, and God said, let there be light.
And what? There was light. There was light. And listen, God saw the light
was good. Who else could that be but Christ?
Who else could that be but Christ? God saw His righteousness was
good. God saw His offering was good. Do you see His offering is good? Is it enough? Is Christ enough? God said from the beginning,
He's enough. He's good. He's good. And the last thing here is a
division is made. A division is made. And God divided the light from
the darkness, and He called the light day, and the darkness He
called night, and the evening and morning were the first day. A division is made. When God
saves a sinner, a division is made. Surely now we are separated
unto God. Another term for sanctified.
We're set apart. We were chosen, sanctified by
God the Father's will. We're sanctified by the blood
of Christ. We're now sanctified by the Spirit of God. We are
a holy people unto God. But who made the difference?
Who made the division? God did. This is what every believer
recognizes. We didn't make this division.
We didn't separate ourselves. We don't sanctify ourselves.
God sanctifies. And I think this has a better
meaning than just to sanctify the division between us and the
lost world. This is the division within ourselves. This is a picture of the dual
nature that we now possess. Notice God didn't completely
do away with the darkness. When God creates in us a holy
nature, this is what he calls day, light. But he did not eradicate the
night. He did not eradicate the night. Yet this night that we possess
is not as it once was. It's not utter darkness. When
you go out at night, there's still a light to rule by night,
isn't there? When God created the sun and
moon, He fulfilled this part of the type, that even our darkness,
there's still light. We still, in our darkest times,
We still have life, don't we? We still have life. And so believer, I know this,
that you and I struggle within ourselves. We are often found
in times of grief and sorrow and pain. We're full of anxieties
and fears. Are you not? Maybe I'm alone.
Maybe I'm the only one that's got any fears. You guys maybe.
You're just so strong and I'm just weak. I know this. I'm anxious. I have fears, doubts,
trials, afflictions, pains, sorrows. Why? Because I still have this. He'll have this old man as a
rotting corpse about my neck, dragging me down constantly. But here's my hope. He will never
eradicate the light that God put in. Never. Paul said, I am
persuaded that neither life nor death, no angels, no principalities,
no powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature is able. Not that they're not
going to try. They will. They're not able. Why? Because God purposed my
salvation from the beginning. Just as God was willing to create,
God created so that he might save his people from their sins. Manifest His grace and His glory. How did we come in this world?
We came in this world void. Darkness covered the face of
our hearts. Until when? Until the Spirit
of God moved on the face of the deep and God said, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And what we do?
We believed. There was light. God said let
there be light and there was light. And then he made that
division. And there's going to be a division
until he comes and receives us to himself. Always. There's going
to be day and night until the end. Right? You know what he
says in Revelation 22? He said there will be no night
there. Only then will the night cease.
Only then will the anxious fears subside completely and sin be
forever removed. But until then, we will struggle.
Day and night will continue until we are received into a presence
of God. But my hope is this, that God
declared the end from the beginning and everything in between. Everything in between. When do you do that? In the beginning. I hope and pray that was clear.
I hope and pray that Christ was magnified in that text. Because
that's exactly what the Spirit intends. That you see Christ
in the beginning. So if nothing could stop God
from doing this, what could stop God from saving you? You that
believe, what will stop Him from saving you? This is our foundation. This
is our hope. I pray that God will help us with
this. Stand and be dismissed in prayer. Father, would you be gracious
and merciful to us today? Take the word. Apply it to our
hearts. Show us every line of thy holy
writ to be concerning Christ and thy glory, which is the salvation
of thy people. I pray that you would use all
things in time and providence to call your elect to yourself,
and then use the messages preached, wherever you have them preached,
to comfort your people in the time of their need. Forgive us
our sins and lead us, we pray, in Christ's name. Amen.