God’s Eternal Gospel

Transcript

GR 2034
03/11/2018
God's Eternal Gospel
Revelation 14:6-7
Gil Rugh

How privileged we are to have the revelation that God has given in our own possession. God revealed Himself in His creation, we will speak of that this morning. The whole creation reveals something of the glory of God. But then God has specifically spoken in words to us and we have that in our Bibles. How blessed are we to be able to open the Bible and read the very words of God. How important it is for us to pay attention, to take heed to what He says.

We are in the book of Revelation itself, the last book of the Bible, the 14th chapter. God tells us how things began, God speaks of how we are to be conducting ourselves, the necessity of placing our faith in the Savior He has provided and He graciously has unfolded the future for us in many places in the Scripture. But it all comes together in the book of Revelation at the conclusion of the Bible. The book of Revelation is focusing primarily on that seven-year period that will conclude with the return of Christ to the earth to establish His kingdom. He is telling us specific details about events that will take place in that seven-year period. It is going to be an awful time. God will be pouring out His wrath on a world that has rejected Him. We have seen even through the first 3½ years literally billions of people will die in the judgments God is pouring out on the earth.

And then in chapters 10-14 there is a break, an interlude. We have had a series of judgments under the seals and the trumpets, seven seals, seven trumpets, each one bringing another judgment. They have followed one after another. Now we are taking a break before we have seven bowls that will follow one after another and complete the last 3½ years. What he is doing in these chapters is giving us details of things we need to understand so we grasp what is taking place during this 3½-year period that climaxes with the return of Christ. The devil will be very active, he will raise up a man to become the world ruler, the man who will declare himself to be god on earth. There will be a second person, we saw these in Revelation 13, the first under the guise of a beast coming out of the sea, the second a beast coming out of the earth. Both are personal individuals. The second person, beginning in Revelation 13:11, is the one called the false prophet. He will direct the worship of the world to the political ruler. You understand the devil is opposing the purpose and plan of God. God has made clear that His intention is that creation concludes His plan with His Son ruling over the earth and all worshiping him. The devil is trying to create an alternative plan to replace the plan of God where there is a kingdom on the earth, ruled by a man set up by Satan and all the world will worship him. And in worshiping him, they are worshiping the devil.

So we have spiritual forces at work, the spiritual forces of evil under the authority of the devil and God's work overruling all. It's not a pretty picture and it could seem discouraging. Think about if you would be living in this time, and you won't be if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, because we have talked about the church will have been removed from the earth before this seven-year period begins. But in Revelation 13 it talked about the persecution that will come, that people will not be able to buy or sell anything if they do not worship the Antichrist. They will be required to get his mark on their forehead or on the back of their hand. We have the infamous 666 which probably connects to letters and numbers that go together, that will reveal who he is to people living during this time. It’s going to be an impossible situation. You can't go to the store and buy if you don't have that mark. We can understand a little bit of the ability to control things that way, with the day in which we live.

But Revelation 14 puts things in perspective. The devil will fight God until the end, but the devil loses. The people who will not believe in Jesus Christ resist the will of God until the end, but sadly they lose. But God is the victor and the people that believe in Him have victory. So in Revelation 14 we have a glimpse of the future beyond the seven years, what happens when the seven years come to a conclusion. Well, even though it seems the Antichrist and the devil's purposes and plans are winning as martyrs are dying for their faith, we get a glimpse of how it will all end. Christ will return in Revelation 19.

So Revelation 14 opens up giving us a preview of how it will end. Christ is standing on Mt. Zion. The chapter opened up, “Then I looked and behold the Lamb was standing on Mt. Zion.” Mt. Zion is where Jerusalem is, where the temple mount is, where Christ will return and stand and establish His kingdom. With Him were the 144,000 Jews. Now we met those back in Revelation 7, so come back to chapter 7 briefly. As God is pouring out His judgments on the earth there is a break in Revelation 7:3, the judgments on the earth are held back for a period of time. God says in verse 3, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond servants of our God in their foreheads.” And then we are told those being sealed are 144,000 from every tribe of the sons of Israel. And remember there were twelve tribes in the sons of Israel, the nation Israel develops from Abraham through Isaac through Jacob to the twelve sons of Jacob. And each of those sons is the head of a tribe. And so we are told there are 12,000 in verses 5 ff. from each tribe that are sealed by God. They will be protected from the judgments being poured out on the earth and from the wrath of the Antichrist who is trying to destroy all Jews and all Gentile believers.

So when you come to Revelation 14 and we get to the end, Revelation 19, Christ is standing on Mt. Zion, ready to establish the kingdom. And we read that the 144,000 are standing there with Him, indicating God's protection has been sure and they have survived to the end. They are singing and celebrating God's provision of salvation, He purchased them from the earth. And we noted at the end of verse 3, “they had been purchased from the earth;” the end of verse 4, “these have been purchased from among men.” And that word purchased, agorazo, the Greek word, it means to redeem. Becomes one of the great words relating to our salvation. We were redeemed, Christ paid the price necessary to purchase us for Himself. We were under the condemnation of sin. The wages of sin is death, which includes an eternal separation from God in hell. He'll be talking about that later in Revelation 14, we'll see that most clearly at the end of Revelation 20. But Christ paid the penalty. The wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ. These have placed their faith in Christ and they have been preserved by God.

These 144,000 Jewish men, as they were identified, you remember we are told in verse 5, “No lie was found in their mouth, they are blameless.” I take it during this last 3½ years they have been proclaiming the truth of God. The devil has been promoting a lie that the Antichrist is god, that you worship him. That is all a lie. They have been faithful with the truth, proclaiming what God has said. They have been blameless, they have served Him faithfully. That's the perspective here.

Now we are ready to move on to further revelation, and there is going to be a series of angels that come into the picture here. In fact there are six angels in the rest of chapter 14 who are used to bring further revelation. You will note verse 6 begins, “And I saw another angel.” There is another angel in addition to the angels we have already seen. We won't go back and look at those. Back in Revelation 8:3, “Another angel came and stood at the altar;” in Revelation 10:1, “Another strong angel came down.” Now in Revelation 14:6 we have “another angel” and this angel is seen “flying in mid-heaven.” Before we move on with that you'll note verse 8, there is “another angel;” down in verse 15, and “another angel came out;” verse 17, and “another angel came out;” verse 18, and “another angel.” So you have these different angels that come with a special responsibility from God. And we get a glimpse into what will be happening in the future. Understand, the devil doesn't win, this is a preview of how it ends. And will be an encouragement to those living in that seven-period, and particularly that last 3½ years. And they are reminded as they are enduring the suffering of the Antichrist and his persecution, when it all ends there is victory for the followers of Christ.

But God is doing a work of grace. Here we are at the end of the end, the millenniums of time, now we have come down to 3½ years. Mankind has persisted in rebellion against God, the church has been removed from the earth, all true believers at the beginning of the seven-year period. But here now even as we come to the end and God pouring out His wrath, in wrath there is mercy. God continues to call people to salvation in Christ. So verse 6, “I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those that live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people.” This angel is flying in mid-heaven, in other words he is above the earth but below heaven/heaven. So he can encompass the whole world with his message. Now the question comes, is this a literal angel or is it picturing this angel brings a message that will be proclaimed by God's servants on the earth, like the 144,000. We saw the summary of their lives in verse 5, they have spoken no lies, they are there giving out God's truth, and other believers. Or is it a literal angel on the earth.

Back in Revelation 8:13 we read, “Then I looked and I heard an eagle flying in mid-heaven saying with a loud voice, woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth because of the remaining blast of the trumpet.” Now this eagle flying in mid-heaven, he is announcing it but it doesn't necessarily require that there be a literal bird. But this bird flying there is carrying a message and this is for the whole earth and it will be a message that is understood by believers. It is declaring something, but it doesn't necessarily require the bird flying. But this is the message to the whole world. So this eagle is seen in the picture given to John of flying around the world because the whole world is impacted by what is about to happen. These last three trumpet judgments are going to be the worst that have ever been seen and they will bring terrible devastation. It could be in Revelation 14:6 that this angel flying in mid-heaven is bringing this message around the world but he could be using human messengers. Remember Moses at Mt. Sinai went up to receive the Law from God. But the book of Hebrews tells us that God gave that Law to Moses through angels, then Moses brought it and give it to the children of Israel. So it could be here this angel representing the fact that God is going to spread the message of the Gospel to those who live on the earth, to every nation and tribe and tongue and people.

Now Jesus spoke of this during His earthly ministry. Come back to Matthew 24, and this passage in Matthew is sometimes misapplied. It's true we want to share the Gospel with everyone everywhere, but Revelation 14 is talking about a specific period in time, in the last half of that seven-year tribulation. Matthew 24, Jesus was giving what is known as this sermon on the Mount of Olives and He is telling them about this coming seven-year period. He gives a summary of that seven years down through verse 14, and you'll note what He says in verse 14, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations. And then the end will come.”

Now it has sometimes been used, back in the days when Christians began to use radio, some of them used this verse, that with radio we can carry the Gospel to the whole world. So we can bring the Gospel to the whole world until Christ can come. Sometimes it has been used as a missionary verse, that we need to get to people everyplace in the world so the Gospel can cover the world and then Christ can come. I'm not saying any of those are bad ideas, this is just not a verse that is talking about that. Christ is talking about what will happen in the kingdom, particularly that last 3½ years. You'll note where He picks up in Matthew 24:15, “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the Holy Place, let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains,” and so on. Why? Verse 21, “Then there will be great tribulation.” So really what He is talking about, the abomination of desolation, we saw that in Revelation 13, the image set up of the Antichrist in the very Holy Place in the temple that will have been rebuilt.

So Matthew 24:14 is the same thing as we are reading about in Revelation 14:7, “The gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed around the whole world.” And isn't it amazing, the grace and mercy of God? At a time when He is pouring out His wrath on an unbelieving world, bringing that judgment, there is also God's continuing mercy. God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth. So that is the gospel that is being preached to those who dwell on the earth.

Come back to Revelation 14:6ff. It is an eternal gospel that is preached to those who are on the earth. The word gospel, euaggelizo, it's the good news. The gospel of the kingdom, Jesus called it in Matthew 24 where we just read. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all the nations. Here it is called the eternal gospel. Paul referred to the gospel which he preached, that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture, that He was buried, that He was raised the third day. And we have salvation through faith in Him in His death on our behalf.” And there is the gospel of God. The gospel is the message about God.

He is going to summarize this eternal gospel here with three clear commands that are going out as this message is preached. Important we understand, this is the gospel. You'll note it is the eternal gospel, it is the only word that brings salvation, it is the message from God. You have to go to God to find out how to be saved. You can come to this church, but I can't tell you how to be saved apart from the Word of God. Does no good to trust the preacher or a priest or any other religious person who says I'll tell you how to be acceptable to God, and he gives you this idea. Only God can tell us how we can become acceptable to Him, and He has made the provision. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son in order that whosoever believes in Him might not perish.” He doesn't talk about what it means to perish. When we get down to verses 9-11 which we won't arrive at today, but in our next study. It's a terrible thing, that's an eternal hell. Christ came to rescue us from that. This is the message that will be preached around the world, an eternal gospel, the gospel that has been preached, continues to be preached.

You'll note there are three commands, these commands are sharp commands. Given in Greek aorist imperatives, strong way to give a command. Three of them. Let me give them to you, then we'll look more in detail at them. The first one in verse 7 is “fear God;” the second one is “give Him glory;” the third one, “worship Him.” Three commands, the eternal gospel comprised in these three commands. Fear God, give Him glory, worship Him.

Fear God. He is a God to be feared. It's a recognition of who He is. If He is God, He is to be feared. He deserves reverence, respect. Even we as believers in Jesus Christ are to reverence God. Sometimes people, maybe with good intentions but with terrible theology, try to reduce God to just a good friend. And there is a sense which He is a friend, but it never becomes that casual, informal where He is reduced to just another one of us. He always will be God and we never will be. And the amazing thing is He loves us, has made us part of His family. But He is a God to be feared. That means we humble ourselves before Him, we acknowledge that He is God and everything He says about us is true. He is the God who cannot lie. We fear Him. Why? Because He says “all have sinned, there is none righteous, the wages of sin is death,” the soul that sins will die. There is not a just man upon the earth who always does right and never sins. We fear Him, we realize He is God, He is holy, He is righteous and He is a God to be feared.

Come back to Ecclesiastes. At the very closing verses of the book of Ecclesiastes, which gives a proper perspective of life on earth and our lives and how we see things from God's perspective. Verse 13, “The conclusion when all has been heard, Fear God.” Now I want to summarize everything it says about life, about our life on earth, let's put it in perspective. Fear God, keep His commandments. This applies to every person. He is a God to be feared, He is a God to be obeyed. “For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.” You do not escape. In this world some people escape punishment for their wrongdoing. You understand, we will escape nothing. The God before whom we will be judged will examine our hearts and our motives. He is a God to be feared, He is a God to be obeyed. This applies to every person. This is the gospel going around, one gospel for every person. There is one God, He is a God to be feared, He is a God to be obeyed. We have His truth that we must obey. God is giving instructions to everyone everywhere that they should believe in His Son. This is what God says, He has provided a Savior. “He that has the Son has life, he that does not have the Son of God shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on Him.” If you don't believe in Christ, you are going to hell. Not because you are worse than someone else, we are all in the same boat. So fear God, obey Him.

Come over to Luke 12 in your New Testament. Look at verse 4, Jesus is speaking, “I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that they have nothing more they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear, fear the One whom after He has killed has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” People think they can do away with the fear of God by pretending there is no hell. Jesus makes clear, I want to tell you something. Don't be afraid of men, but you better afraid of the God who has the authority to cast you into an eternal hell. Well, I don't want to believe that, I don't believe that, I don't believe that a loving God would send people to hell. Well, you can believe that, you are believing a lie. Jesus thought it important enough to put it this way, “I tell you, my friends, those of you who are listening to me, pay attention. God is a God to be feared, there is an eternal hell.” The beginning point is you must fear God, recognize Him as God, submit to Him as God, be ready to obey Him. I mean, if He is God, He must be submitted to, He must be honored, He must be obeyed.

So come back to Revelation 14. This is going to be having great impact in the days of the tribulation, when to buy food, to exist and live a life on earth you are going to have to fear the Antichrist. That's why I say it is better to give your life because all he'll be able to do is kill your body, but Christ says God can cast you into hell after your death. Fear God. Second command, Revelation 14:7, “Give Him glory,” give Him glory. Now that involves repentance. You recognize who He is, you fear Him, you turn from your sin to give Him glory and honor by recognizing your sin and placing your trust in Him and the provision He made in His Son to be your Savior.

Look over in Revelation 15, see what he says in the song of Moses in verse 3. “Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God the Almighty. Righteous and true are your ways, King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name.” So you see we have in that declaration the two commands we have just studied, that eternal gospel. You fear Him, therefore you give glory to Him, you glorify His name. That involves you obey Him, you honor Him, which involves your repentance of recognizing. If God says you are a sinner, and He said that because He says “all have sinned, there is none righteous, no not one.” So if I make myself the exception, I'm not bad enough to go to hell, I'm not sinful enough to go to hell, what am I saying? He is not to be honored, not to be feared. I wouldn't give glory to His name because I'm unwilling to change my opinion of myself. That's basically what we are saying. That doesn't mean we don't go to church, doesn't mean you haven't been baptized, doesn't mean you don't try to be a good husband or a good father. It's just that that won't save you. Christ wouldn't have had to come and die on the cross if you would clean up your own life. I couldn't clean up mine, you can't clean up yours.

Come over to Revelation 16:9, here we are into the next series of judgments. We talk about global warming. Global warming is coming because verse 8, “The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, it was given to it to scorch men with fire.” You get to this last 3½-year period, it is going to get hot on earth. So hot that men are going to be scorched with fire, as things are going to be burning up. “Men were scorched with fierce heat,” note what they do, “they blaspheme the name of God who has the power over these plagues.” Now note this last statement, “They did not repent so as to give Him glory.” You cannot give God glory until you have repented. In our sin we are in a state of rebellion against God, refusing to obey Him, to submit to Him, stubbornly standing against Him. If I want to glorify Him, I recognize, I fear Him, I have come to believe He is God. He is God, He is all powerful, all sovereign, He has the power to cast me into an eternal hell. That moves me to repent, to turn from my sin and obey Him by believing in His Son so that I can be cleansed from my sin and glorify Him by acknowledging, agreeing with Him that He is God, that I am a sinner but His Son is my Savior. “To God be the glory, great things He has done.” We sing of that.

So we give Him glory, honor, He is God. Repentance is always part of the Gospel. When John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness in Matthew 3, what did he preach? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus came in Matthew 4, what did He say? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What was the message? Unless you repent, you will all perish. There is no salvation apart from repentance, recognition that God is God. I fear Him. Like Jesus said, you better fear God. Then I recognize what He says is true, I am a sinner, I am guilty. God, I want to cast myself on your mercy, I give you glory, you are a holy God and you have provided redemption so I could be purchased for yourself. Your Son took my place, died when I should die, paid my penalty so I would not have to be cast into hell. We give Him glory. There is no giving God glory.

And you'll note back in Revelation 14, “Give Him glory,” verse 7, “because the hour of His judgment has come.” The wrath of God has begun to be unfolded, poured out. That is what has been happening on the earth. It will culminate finally in the Great White Throne at the end of Revelation 20, where every unbeliever who has ever lived on the face of the earth will be cast into an eternal hell. So it's the same things Jesus talked about, I tell you, my friends, you better fear God. He has the authority, the power and the right to cast you into hell after you die. So give Him glory, the hour of His judgment has come. Time is running out for these people. At the end of this seven years every unbeliever is going to be removed from the face of the earth. We'll see that judgment as we get to that point, Matthew 25 talks about it. It's awesome. The time of His judgment is come, I mean, time is running out, literally for the world here. Time is running out for us. Quite a few people who have sat in these seats in this auditorium over the years are now in eternity, all that matters is did they believe in Christ when they had opportunity. Time is running out for us all, we are all in the process of dying. Some of us are closer to that than others, but if Christ doesn't come we are all on that road. In a hundred years if Christ doesn't come, nobody in this auditorium will be alive on the earth, but we will all be alive, either in the presence of God or burning in Hades. There is no other alternative. So the hour of His judgment is come.

The third command, worship Him, worship Him. What does it mean? To bow down before Him, you prostrate yourself. You don't have to do it physically, but in my heart and mind I bow before the living God. I've repented of my sins, I have agreed He is correct, there is no hope for me but in Christ. But that is all the hope I need. Worship Him. Well, everybody goes to church, goes to synagogue, goes to a place of worship. They are worshiping the devil. Remember we have looked at passages in connection with Revelation 13, all worship that is not offered to God through Jesus Christ and on the basis of His death on our behalf, is really the worship of the devil. As Romans 1 puts it, they “worship and serve the creation rather than the Creator.” They create their own God, they don't come to the Word of God and find out what God says about them, what God requires, they come up with their own idea. Do you know what that is? That's making myself my own god. God said this, I disagree. I will not bow before Him, I will not repent and give Him glory because I don't fear Him. Well, you reject the eternal gospel. “There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” “Jesus said I am the way, the truth, the life; no one comes to the Father but by Me.” That's just how narrow it is, one way of salvation, the only way for anyone anywhere. But do you know what? It's a big enough way that anyone who wants to come, desires to come can come.

Fear God, repent and give Him glory, acknowledging He is God and what He says is true. Then you place your faith in His Son and bow and worship Him. Remember Jesus, we've been to this passage recently in John's gospel, confronted the woman of Samaria at the well and said God is looking for worshipers who worship Him in spirit and truth, in your heart and mind, your inner person, according to His truth. God is not pleased just because people go to church, He is looking for those who worship Him in their heart, their inner being in accord with his truth. Good intentions won't get you there, it has to be according to God's provision.

Worship Him. Now note how this is qualified, “who made heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of water.” So everything in the heaven around us, everything, and that includes heaven where the angels are as we will see, everything in the sea and all the fresh water. Everything is made by God, everything that is there. He is the Creator of all things. That's the basis of requiring worship of God.

Come back to Nehemiah 9. In Nehemiah 9 the priests are speaking to Jews who have returned from captivity. And in Nehemiah 9:5, breaking into the middle of the verse, “Oh may your glorious name be blessed. Arise, bless the Lord your God forever and ever. O may your glorious name be blessed and exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord, you have made the heavens, the heaven of the heavens with all their host.” In other words when you go above our stellar and atmospheric heavens is the very heaven where God's presence is manifested and all the angels there, He made it all. “The earth and all that is in it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them and the heavenly host bows before you.” This description of the Creator as John reaches back into the Old Testament reveals this is God.

Come over to Psalm 33:5, “God loves righteousness and justice, the earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, by the breath of His mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap, He lays the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord, for all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him, for He spoke and it was done. He commanded, it stood fast.” You see that fearing of the Lord is inseparably connected to recognize He is the One who created all things. That's very important. Sometimes people think that they can say I believe God, but I don't believe what the Bible says about creation. I don't believe God created the world in six days, and that's all right, I still believe God started it all. We call it theistic evolution. It may be theistic evolution, but it is not biblical because the Bible tells us how God created.

I want to take a moment, come back to Exodus. I think it is a serious matter, the church gets led away, the devil undermines our confidence in the opening chapters of our Bible that talk about creation, he undermines our confidence in the closing chapter of our Bible that tell us how it all ends, and then he begins to muddle the middle. Just read your Bible like you read the newspaper, take it for what it says. Exodus 20, and here God is giving the Ten Commandments, and note what He says in verse 11. “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth.” Now that is what Genesis says, in six days God made the heavens and the earth. So if you don't believe Genesis, you don't believe Exodus either, because it says “In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth.” I believe in the verbal inspiration of Scripture, that means God inspired every word. And unless there is something in the context that clearly indicates it is not to be taken literally, it is a figure of speech, metaphor, simile, something like that, then we take it literally. “In six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh.” So God blessed the seventh day.

Come over to Exodus 31, we don't observe the seventh day. Why, if God blessed the seventh day? Because He made it a special sign for the nation Israel, and we are not the nation Israel. So in Exodus 31:16, “So the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath,” the Sabbath is the seventh, the seventh day, “celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day He rested from His labor.” See how clear it is? God created the world just as He said in the opening chapters of Genesis. Now I can't understand how those who claim to fear God, have repented and give Him glory and now worship Him, deny what the Bible says about creation. Our worship of Him is based on recognizing He is the Creator and as such He is worthy of the worship. I realize there are those who say they are Christians, and I can't see their hearts. It becomes a matter of how confused can you be and still claim to be a believer in the Word of God and its message. It is seriously troublesome. Science doesn't rule, and besides there is no conflict between the Bible and true science.

I was reading this well-known scientist, I believe they said his name is Hawkins, was reading in the news. He has come up with the answer of what there was before the big bang that brought creation. All scientists are on the edge of their seats. Thirteen and a half billion years ago there was a big bang and out of that everything developed. What was before the big bang? And he has a scientific answer—nothing. Wow, that's wonderful, and as someone pointed out, he has it right, there was nothing until God created. And it wasn't a big bang. Even now the scientific world as developed is divided because now they are saying, that is no answer. You can't claim to be scientific and claim there was just nothing and then there is . . .

The unbeliever will go to no end of foolishness to try to deny what the Scripture clearly explains. God created it in six days. I can't see how that could happen, and besides there is all this evidence for evolution. If you are going to start with the premise, you have to explain what there is without reverting to God. Well, that's ….. you come up with whatever you want. But you understand God says if they don't speak according to the Law and the testimony, according to the Word of God, this is Isaiah 8, it's because they have no light. If they are saying things contrary to the Word of God it's because they have no light, they live in spiritual darkness.

Come over to Isaiah 40, we'll take a moment on creation. It troubles me that our evangelical schools, I was talking with someone recently who has contact with one of our “evangelical” seminaries. Do you know what he said to me? There is not a professor left there who believes in the six-day creation. Wait a minute, people go there to study the Word of God as the Word of God and you are telling me there are no professors there now that believe literally in the biblical account of creation? It's not evangelical anymore, it is not biblical. Isaiah 40, this is basic to our worship, verse 12. Note what he says about God. I have to read verses 6-7, verse 6, “A voice says called out. Then he answered, what shall I call out.” Note this, “All flesh is grass, all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows upon it. The people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our God stands forever.” All men in their brilliance come and go, they cannot escape the penalty of sin which is death and the eternity that follows. The Word of God stands true.

Look at verse 12, “God is the One who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, marked off the heavens by the span, calculated the dust of the earth by measure.” Think about that, do you think you could measure the dust of the earth? God could give you the answer to that immediately. “He weighed the mountains in a balance, the hills in a pair of scales. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has informed Him.” Down to verse 26, “Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number.” Did you ever look at the sky when you are in a place where there is no earth light blocking and you just look at the stars. Now we know with our telescopes and everything, what do you say? He calls them all by number. But there are billions. I can't even remember the names of everybody in the congregation, I forget my kids' names sometimes. “He leads forth their host by number, He calls them all be name because of the greatness of His might, the strength of His power. Not one of them is missing.”

There is no answer except God is so great, so powerful, He created it in six days and He holds it all together by His power. You can't worship Him if you are denying Him. We need to be sure of this as God's people. We don't just read this and pass on. True science is in accord with the Bible, there are scientists who say there is no conflict with true science and the Bible. Who was there 13.5 billion years ago to say what happened? They just created that because they don't have any explanation. You got something out of nothing, which I think is not scientific. Something comes out of nothing. And this is what this brilliant man who is so close to eternity has an answer.

Come to Isaiah 45, I'm skipping 42, 44, but come to 45. You ought to read Isaiah 40-48, just sit down and read through. But Isaiah 45:9, “Woe to the one who quarrels with his maker, an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth. Will the clay say to the potter, what are you doing? Will the thing you are making say he has no hands?” Come down to verse 12, “It is I who made the earth, created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with my hand, I ordained all their host.” Verse 18, “For thus says the Lord who created the heavens, He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it, did not create it a waste place, formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, there is no other.” Come down to the end of verse 21, “There is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior. There is none except Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.” And do you know what He says? “I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness, will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear.” Everyone ultimately will acknowledge God is God. Some will do it at the Great White Throne as they are sentenced to hell. Others bow and acknowledge it in believing the salvation He has provided.

Fear God, give Him glory. Repent and turn from your sin, acknowledge Him, trust the Savior He has provided. Worship Him. He created everything. You don't worship the creation, you worship the Creator; you don't worship the ideas of those He has created, you worship the Creator. And you cannot worship Him apart from Jesus Christ because “there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.”

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your Word. Thank You for speaking to us clearly with the intention we understand and believe the truth that You have given us. Lord, we would honor You, we would fear You, we would give You glory, we would worship You. We pray that might be true of each one here. In Christ's name, amen.