All right, brethren, we're going
to begin. Let's turn to Genesis 1. Genesis
1. I'm going to read the first five verses,
Genesis 1, but we're going to begin in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, Father, we thank you for your mercy. Lord, that you would
gather your people together here this morning. And Lord, I just
thank you for your kindness that you've shown to us through them.
And Lord, we ask that your spirit would be upon us now this morning.
Lord, that you would give us light, that you would help us
to see Jesus Christ, who is the only hope we have for salvation. Lord, we pray that you would
bless us now to hear His voice. And it's in Jesus' name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Alright, 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. So we have here a brief history
of the creation which God had made, and we also find here,
in this passage, we can see a picture of our sovereign God and the
salvation of sinners. And we know this because we know
and believe that all Scripture points to and reveals our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. So we are certain that we can
see every beautiful picture of our Savior throughout all the
Scripture, and it's certainly true of this passage here. And
even Paul, our beloved apostle, said, For God, who 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. So even he recognized that this
is a picture of God's salvation of his people. And Paul also
told the Philippians, he said, whatever thing is true, and honest,
and just, and pure, and lovely, or if anything be of good report,
he said, think on these things. So this is truly something that
we can think on and just glorify our God through his Son, Jesus
Christ. My title this morning is In the
Beginning, God. And we're going to look at 1
Peter 1, we'll be there in a bit, but I couldn't help when I read
1 Peter 1 and knew that I wanted to speak from that passage just
how much I was struck by seeing This passage here, Genesis 1,
1 through 5, just seeing how, just as God created the heaven
and the earth, just as he formed the earth and brought light to
the earth, it's such a beautiful picture there of what Peter is
showing, how God does all the work in saving his people. So that's the parallel relation
there, if you will. And we're going to have six divisions
this morning. So they will be fairly brief, each division,
because I know six is a good amount. And it's God creates,
man sins, God moves, God speaks, God divides, and then the first
day. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. And just as God created the heavens
and the earth, so we know that God created man. And in the image
of God, God created man. And in verse 26 of Genesis 1,
it says, God said, 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, in the image of
God created he him, male and female created he them. And the scriptures tell us that
when God made Adam, when he formed Adam, Adam was created righteous. Adam had no sin in him when God
created him. And so it is written, the first
man, Adam, was made a living soul. Adam was alive, he knew
God, and he was righteous before God. But Solomon tells us that
God hath made man upright, but he, man, hath sought out many
inventions so that Man has gone astray, he has plunged himself
into sin, and he has taken himself out of the knowledge of God. And that brings us to our second
point, man's sins. Now many of us know that when
God created Adam, and he put him there in the garden, that
Adam fell into sin. Adam sinned against God. God
had prepared a beautiful garden full of trees, full of fruit,
plenty of things for Adam and Eve to eat. And he said, there's
one tree that I've placed in the midst of the garden, the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That tree you shall
not eat. You can eat of every other tree
in the garden. And there was plenty. God didn't
go skimpy on what he provided for Adam and Eve. He gave him
plenty to eat. He said, you can eat of all these
things, but don't eat of this tree. And so we find that and
learn from reading the scriptures that Adam did eat of that tree,
and he fell into sin. And Paul tells us, therefore,
in Romans 5, he says, 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. And he says in verse 18 of Romans
5, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
so that by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, and the
result which followed is that sin hath reigned unto death."
So what the scriptures declare to us over and over again is
that we are dead, dead to the things of God. We do not know
God, we cannot know him. In Adam, when he sinned, we all
sinned because we were all in Adam. We were not wounded by
the fall. We weren't wounded in Adam so
that there's still some kind of a little bit of light for
us or something that we can do for ourselves. The scriptures
tell us that we died in Adam so that we cannot do anything
to give ourselves light, anything to help ourselves or recommend
us to God. So what does that mean that we
died in the fall, the era of Adam? Well, Paul provides clarity
on this. He elaborates on what that means
that we died in Adam. And if you hold your place there
in Genesis, because we'll come back, just put a piece of paper
there maybe, and turn to Ephesians chapter 2, Ephesians 2, and in
verse 1, He's speaking to those who now
have been made alive in the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, "...and
you hath he quickened," and here's my point for reading this, Ephesians
2.1, "...you were dead in trespasses and 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, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. So that we're to understand
from these scriptures, what the scriptures are teaching us is
that Adam is what we call a federal head. Adam was representing all
mankind when he was there in the garden. We were all yet in
Adam, and Adam represented us. So when Adam fell and he plunged
himself into sin and died, he plunged all of us into sin and
we all died in Adam. That's what the scriptures are
saying and we see this worked out in our lives every day. Not
only do we see friends and family and loved ones dying and passing
away, but we see even the fruit of sin being worked out in our
own hearts and in the hearts of others and the dealings that
we have with other men and women. We see how sin is just so ugly
and it works itself out constantly so that we understand, yes indeed,
Adam did die and he fell into sin and truly we all ourselves
have been cast into sin And we see it just as Paul is saying
there, we all had our conversation doing that, and we all still
see that wickedness in our flesh still warring and fighting against
one another. But in Genesis, we also read
concerning the earth there, it says in verse 2, And the earth
was without form, and void and darkness was upon the face of
the deep. And there again is a fine picture
of what we are by nature. We read the earth was without
form so that we are to understand that by natural birth, because
we are sons and daughters of Adam, when we come forth we have
no part in the body of Christ. Not by natural birth. We have
no part in the form of the body of Christ, not naturally speaking. We also read that the earth Just
like the earth, we are void. Void of righteousness, void of
goodness, void of holiness. There's nothing good about us
or savable or that recommends us to God. We're buried in those
things. And just like the earth was in
darkness, so we too are in complete and utter darkness. Darkness
of his knowledge, darkness of what pleases God, darkness of
how to worship God, how we are to approach unto God. Now we
think, many of us by nature think that we understand God or think
that we have a knowledge of Him and how we are to worship Him
and what pleases Him. And that's why there's so many
religions in the world because all of us have different imaginations
and ideas of who God is. And some of us have multiple
ideas of who God is and think, oh, that sounds good and that
sounds good. And we kind of add that to our belief. But that's
the best that we can do by nature. And that's just death. It gives
us no good so that we're so void of God's righteousness. We're
in such complete darkness and we have no part in the body of
Christ that the scriptures tell us this is death. This is death. That's why Paul
declares it and says what it is, that we are dead in trespasses
and in sins. All right, let's move to our
third point, God moves. There in Genesis 1, 1, and 2,
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. Now the earth was without life,
and the earth couldn't bring forth life itself. And the earth
had no life on it, and it couldn't bring forth any life of itself. And the earth had no form, it
couldn't shape or move or do anything for itself. So the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters. And there again is
a picture of sinners upon whom the Lord God is pleased to move
upon and to bring light and life and to bring them into the body
of Christ. It's the Spirit of God that does
this. And this brings us to 1 Peter. So turn to 1 Peter chapter 1.
And we'll pick up in verse 2. 1 Peter 1-2. And you're going to want to put
your ribbon there in 1 Peter 1-2, because we're going to be
there. He says, elect. 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, right here in
Peter, we see the grace and the movement of the Spirit of God
upon His chosen and elect children for whom He has purposed to save
and to do all things for them. Because we cannot do for ourselves
what we need to do to make ourselves righteous with God. So God does
all the work in doing for us what we can't do. First, we see
the election of God. God choosing a people. The scriptures
are clear that God has chosen a people for himself. A bride. A people to be the bride of his
son Jesus Christ. So he's elected them. And then
we see that this is This in itself is grace to us. And just as Peter
said, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. It's a prayer,
and it's a desire, and it's a desire in us for our brethren, because
it's a desire of the Lord that we should know and understand
the grace which God has for his people through the Lord Jesus
Christ. That God elected a people. He chose us without us having
done any good or any evil. a people for Himself, and that
because we were plunged in sin in Adam, because we could not
help ourselves or do anything, He saw the death that we would
bring upon ourselves, Christ, covenanted with God before the
foundations of the earth, covenanted that He should come and redeem
His bride, that He would redeem His people and deliver them from
the sin and the death that they should fall into, so that Christ
took upon him the likeness of our sinful flesh. Though he himself
had no sin, though he himself was perfect and righteous and
holy and did all things well, the scriptures tell us that he
fulfilled and honored the law of God perfectly on our behalf. And yet, Though he himself had
no sin, he took upon him the sin of his people, and he went
gladly to the cross to do for them, as a high priest and as
the Lamb of God, to put away their sin from the sight of God
forever. So that Christ, bearing our sin,
went to the cross and bore the holy just wrath of God being
poured out upon him, to put away our sin, so that we who see and
behold Christ, who are given faith and hope in Christ, see
what He has accomplished, and we believe and trust Him that
indeed God has put away our sin in Christ. so that Christ makes
peace for us with God before we were enemies of God and now
in Christ he has made peace with us and this is his grace and
mercy that's multiplied to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. So
God elected a people and then we read that the Spirit of God
sanctifies a people. We are sanctified through the
Spirit. That means that the Spirit now separates us, takes us apart
from this world and separates us and brings us to the Lord
God Almighty our Father. He brings us to Him through sanctification
so that the Spirit of God is moving upon us where we cannot
do anything for ourselves. God has elected us and now He
sanctifies us or separates us unto God. And it's for this purpose. It's to bring us unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. So that, if you
read that rightly, it's unto the obedience of Jesus Christ
and unto the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. And it's
God's Good pleasure that we should be separate unto him for his
use and for his pleasure, so that we are brought unto obedience,
not our obedience, but to see and to behold the obedience which
Christ himself worked out when he came into this world. He did. And speaking of the Lord's servant,
the Lord Jesus Christ, Isaiah said, the Lord is well pleased
for his righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and he
will make it honorable. Alright, so it's the spirit that
leads us, that separates us out. and brings us to Christ's work,
to behold the obedience of Christ, that He fulfilled the law of
God perfectly, doing all things well, all things right, honoring
the Father through everything that He did on earth, where He
bore our sin, where He put away our sin, and suffering under
the wrath of God, There, shedding His blood, is that the Spirit
brings us to see and to behold, this is the Lamb of God that
takes away the sin of the world, all the believing world that
He has called out and separated to Himself, and we are sprinkled
clean by the blood of Christ. Our fourth point, God speaks.
In Genesis it says in verse 2, 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 borders, and God
said, Let there be light. And there was light. Now, anyone familiar with John
1, it'll come as no surprise to you that when God said, let
there be light, that He spoke that word, that spoken word,
let there be light, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's speaking of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God. For John 1 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,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. And a little
further down in that chapter, verse 14, it says, And the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. So we see and know when God
there is speaking creation into existence out of nothing, that
is the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, creating
all things. That is Jesus Christ. This is
Jesus Christ when God is there creating light and speaking light
in Genesis 1-3. So just as God through the Lord
Jesus Christ, spoke light into a dark world. So our God, through
the Lord Jesus Christ, speaks the light of the glory of His
name, the light of the glory of His salvation, into our dark,
dead, cold, numb, and dumb hearts. We who by nature are dead in
trespasses and sins, He speaks to us through the Lord Jesus
Christ. He speaks light into our hearts,
into our minds, that we might know Him, and that we might grow
up in the Lord Jesus Christ, having a more fuller and complete
understanding, just coming and hearing the Gospel, and reading
His Word, and seeking Him. This is what He's called us out
to do, to seek Him and to stay upon Him, that we might feed
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to Hebrews 1. Hebrews 1. Try and put a marker there in
Genesis 1 and 1 Peter 1, but look in Hebrews 1. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse or various 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, who being the brightness of His glory, and
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. So that because
he is the very brightness of the glory of God, he is able
by that same power to shine brightly into these dark dead hearts,
giving us life to now see and to be alive to what God has done
and giving us light upon what God has done for his people through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And by the spirit of his power,
he does all these things and works all these things in us
for us because we can't do it ourselves. And because he is
life in himself, the scripture says this is a new birth. We were dead in trespasses and
sins, Christ makes us alive, giving us a new birth in him. So that it's not a natural birth,
the flesh gives birth to the flesh, but the spirit gives life
to the spirit. All right? Spirit begets spirit.
And that's what Christ said to Nicodemus. He said, he must be
born again, Nicodemus. For you to know and to see the
King of God, you must be born again. And he says the same thing
to you and to me. You must be born again. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. So you
must be born by the Spirit of God. And I quoted earlier, but
I'll say it again. For God, who 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. And that's what Peter speaks
of there in the next verse, verse 3. Back in 1 Peter 1.3, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again, hath given us life
again, life from the dead, hath begotten us again unto a lively
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So that
we see it was His electing grace, and through His abundance of
mercy and grace to His people, all in Christ, that the Spirit
of God should move upon us, to separate us apart from this world,
to bring us to Himself, to where we can hear the Gospel. And in
the preaching of the Gospel, in hearing the Gospel of what
Christ has done for us, Our Lord, by the Spirit, gives us life
and gives us a hearing ear so that when we hear that Gospel
preached, we now hear it with faith. Whereas before, many times,
I'm sure that all of us here who believe on the Lord would
say the same thing, I came, I heard the Gospel, I heard it over and
over and over again, and yet I didn't understand. But once,
I don't know what it was, but I know it was the Spirit of God,
but when He gave me faith, suddenly I heard that word like I never
heard it before, and suddenly I saw and understood that indeed
the Lord Jesus Christ is my Savior, that He is the One who is able
and the only One that is able to put away my sins, and I see
now the need that I have for the Lord Jesus Christ. He has
shown me that I am dead in trespasses and sins, and I must have His
grace. Only God can do that for a sinner,
and that's what Christ does. He gives us the ear of faith
so that we hear His voice speaking to us, though we never heard
it before, but now we do. If you're able, turn to John
chapter 10, and we'll see this. John chapter 10 and verse 16
Our Lord says, other sheep I have which are not of this fold. He's
speaking to Jews, and he's saying, I have other sheep that are not
Jews, but of the Gentiles. Them also I must bring, and they
shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. So that when Christ is speaking
to us, there is abundance of grace and mercy in his voice
speaking to us. He gives life. He speaks light
and life and liberty into the heart of dead sinners, doing
for us what we cannot do for Himself. As Hebrews had said,
when He by Himself purged our sins, He did all the work. And
in John 10 verse 3, verse 3 there says, a few words in there, 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, and the sheep follow Him, for
they know His voice." That's all because just as God said,
let there be light, that's the same way when God says, let there
be light in the heart of that sinner. Oh, we hear the voice
of the Son of God for the first time. So that We ought to understand
that power of God which created the heavens and the earth. The
power of God that did that is the same power of God that shines
into the heart of a dead sinner that we might know and understand
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And it's that
same power which when Christ had died and laid down his life,
giving up the ghost and was buried in the ground, it's that same
power there that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead. Even so,
that same power that created the heavens and the earth, that
gave life to us in our hearts to understand and know Christ,
that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, is the same power that
now by his spirit gives us hope, a living hope, the scripture
says, so that we must continue to feed upon what Christ has
done. We feed upon this gospel. We
come to hear it because we must have it. We want to know because
we draw nourishment and life from his word, feeding us and
teaching us by this gospel power. It's that same power that keeps
us hoping until the end, knowing that when Christ returns, he
shall raise up these mortal bodies as well. into life immortal. This is what Christ said there
in John 10.17, Therefore doth my Father love me, because I
lay down my life that I might take it again. No man take it
from me, but I lay it down of myself I have power to lay it
down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have
I received of my Father." You can be sure that he is using
his power. We who believe are here in demonstration
of the power and might of God our Savior. Alright, God divides,
our fifth point, God divides. There if you saw the little marker
in Genesis 1-4, otherwise I'll read it. God saw the light, that
it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. So here we have God dividing
the light that He had created, that He's spoken to existence,
He's dividing it from the darkness. He's preserving that light, that
it not be overtaken and swallowed up by the darkness. He's preserving
it. He's keeping that light going. So that now if you're able to
go back to 1 Peter, I realize I have you jumping around a bit,
but I think it's good for us to see the scriptures. In 1 Peter
1.1, Peter says, Peter, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Brother, we at one
time were strangers to God, right? We did not know God. We were
not in the body of Christ. We didn't know Him. We didn't
have the light that we have now. We were strangers to God. And Paul says to the Ephesians,
wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the
flesh who are called on circumcision, he said 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 listen, Christ has reconciled
his people to God. He's done all things necessary
that we now have peace and reconciliation with God our Creator, so that
now in Christ we're no more strangers to God. Paul had said, but now
in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by
the blood of Christ for he is our peace. He has brought us
into the family of God so that now when Peter says strangers,
strangers, scattered, what that is is that's a term of endearment
because it shows that God has separated us and made us strangers
from this from this earth, from all others who do not know God,
we are now estranged to them. They don't know us, and we don't
know them, because now we know the Lord Jesus Christ. He has
adopted us and brought us into his family, and we have the spirit
of adoption now dwelling in our hearts so that we cry, Abba,
Father. Daddy, have mercy upon me. Save me, Lord, from this unjust,
unholy generation that, Lord, it would just take me away off
into all that it's doing and delights in. I once delighted
in that, but now you've given me a new heart, Lord. Save me,
deliver me from the works of this flesh, the lustful desires
of my heart, and keep me looking to Christ and Him alone. Paul had said to the Romans,
the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. And if children, then 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 in Christ, God has elected
a people, and he's separated that people. unto himself, and
he shall never fail to save them, the Spirit of God will move upon
them. And he shall speak life and light
into the hearts of his people. They shall be brought to hear
the gospel. And when they sit and hear the
gospel, he shall give them an ear of faith, and he shall give
them life to hear the voice of the Son of God, so that they
see and know Yes, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. I must have
him. I have no righteousness of my
own. I must be delivered from this death that I have made for
myself. I cannot work out my own righteousness.
I cannot save me. Lord, have mercy. upon me. So he does this and he gives
gifts through his Holy Spirit. He gives us love, which is a
love and a desire for him. We don't have that by nature.
He must give us that love to keep us always coming back to
the Lord, to looking to him. He gives us faith. That's not
of nature. As Paul had said in another place,
all men have not faith. So that faith is a gift of God. And so that we hear what God
has done through his son Jesus Christ and we believe him. And
then He gives us the gift of hope, that living hope that keeps
us looking unto the end, keeps us hoping in Him, believing that
though this world says all manner of nonsense to try and get us
to doubt and not to believe and just to go the way of the world,
but no, He keeps us looking to Him, trusting that, yes, I believe
that just as He's raised Christ from the dead, He shall return
and He shall raise this body from the dead in that day. And
that's what Peter says back there in the text there, in 1 Peter
1.5, he says, "...who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time wherein ye greatly
rejoice." That's our living hope, brethren. Alright, our last point. In Genesis 1-5 we read, God called
the light day, and the darkness he called night, and the evening
and the morning were the first day. So that what we ought to
understand is that God sustains his people by the Holy Spirit
through the gospel and Peter says to us there in the second
half of 1 3 he says God which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead. So we know that God raised Christ
from the dead. We believe that God has raised
Christ from the dead. But we're looking unto the end
there of when he shall raise us up from the dead. And he tells
us in verse 4, that it will be to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you. And brethren, that hope began
for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave us that hope and it's
fixed in Jesus Christ because we see and believe that, yes,
He raised Christ from the dead. And if you're there in 1 Peter,
if you look over in verse 13, He says, wherefore gird up the
loins of your mind and be sober, and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So that we see hope, both at the beginning of our faith, where
we look to and say, God raise Christ from the dead, and we
see the end of our faith, which continues to hope and look for
the coming again of Christ, when he shall raise us up also from
the dead. And it's just like that glorious
day there in Genesis, that first day of creation there, and that
day when we shall be raised from the dead to that eternal inheritance
which God has prepared for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. What
a beautiful first day that shall be. And I love the vision that
Isaiah gives of this. I'm just going to read it. sweet
and powerful of a picture, and I'll just read it. If you want
to see it later, it's Isaiah 26, verse 19. You can look at
it, but he says, thy men shall live, or thy dead men shall live. Together with my dead body shall
they rise. Awakensing 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, which is a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Enter into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee.
Be clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
stand before God in your own righteousness. Come before Him
alone in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and you shall be
clothed safely in that day. He says, come, my people, enter
thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee, hide thyself,
as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation be overpassed. Brethren, that indignation is
when God shall return and call out his people to himself, and
he shall punish all those who hated his appearing, who did
not love the Lord Jesus Christ, They shall be ashamed. They try
to shame us today for believing and hoping in Christ, but they
shall be the ones ashamed. And you who hope in Christ, who
forsake this world, you shall not be ashamed to have cast all
your care and all your hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall
raise you from the dust, and you shall behold, this is all
the work and the glory of God which he has promised from before
the foundation of the world, I pray that you would flee to
Christ. Flee to Christ and be reconciled
to God, for in Him and in Him alone is salvation. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, Father, we thank you for your mercy. Lord, help us. Speak light into our dark, dead
hearts, Lord. Give us light and life in the
Lord Jesus Christ to see that he alone is salvation. Show us our need of him, that
we may behold what he has done, what you have done for him, that
we might know your grace and mercy which is poured out to
your people in the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray this in Jesus'
name. Amen.