God - His Work

Now just to recap, and just to remind you, that here we have God, the eternal God without beginning and without end. And the work that we know Him for, and even the Evolutionist, I am quite sure of it in his heart of hearts, he knows that behind the scene that men can see is a hand that is greater than the hands of men. And here is the evidence of the living God, though marred by sin, in the heavens and the earth, as described in Genesis chapter one.

But then there comes this tremendous character, and brother and sister, please don't underestimate him. I know the world calls him 'old Nick', and a lot of other names, but please never do it, and the Bible warns you against it, that you do not speak evil of dignities. Even the archangel Michael darest not bring a railing accusation against him, but said 'the Lord rebuke thee'. And there are enough names that God has given to Satan to suit all his wiles, his subtleties and his works, and you can use any of those names without borrowing some profane title from the world. So you will give him the adequate consideration, for we wrestle not against blood and flesh, but against spiritual wickedness in high places. And these are greater things than a world.

Now this one, I believe, is the covering cherub that Isaiah and Ezekiel speak about, and there pride fills his heart. 'I will sit as God, I will be as the most high,' and it is not a clambering up the steeps and the slopes of heaven, until he reaches the throne, he was within one hand's breadth from the very throne of God. He was the cherub that covereth, he was the greatest of God's creation, and when he fell, according to Jude, the' he took quite a number of the angelic host with him. And brother and sister, the Epistle of Jude in relation to the angels, has to do not with the flood, but with the rebellion before the present heaven and earth came into being.

The angels that sinned, leaving their first estate or principality, they did not do it for a lower situation, they were leaving their principality for a higher situation. Remember it was pride that filled Satan's heart, and pride reaches for a higher place than you deserve. And so they were reserved in chains of darkness waiting the judgement of the great day.

Now this one, the Lord Jesus says He beheld Satan cast out of heaven, and from then he becomes the arch enemy of God. And during the time, and five times a already or should I say four times, Satan has created a circumstance that only God Himself could deal with, and He dealt with them in such a way that the conditions after the crisis were altogether different to the conditions before the crisis.

Now you will notice, and I am quite sure you have noticed, that one, two, three, four crises Satan created and God Himself stepped in and dealt with the situation. But when we come here, (last coming crisis - see chart)it is the crisis of crises, and Satan himself was taken into consideration and He had to deal with his own position, and his own position failed, and from now on is destined to go down, and down, and down, until he reaches the lake of fire.

But you will notice, now, that these two crises, they do not rest in the hands of Satan, they rest in the hands of God. For Calvary is God's triumph.

Brother and sister, I want to say something, perhaps it will set your ears back a little bit. We talk about the battle of Armageddon, some of you are used to it, I know. We talk about the battle of Armageddon, brother and sister, there will be no battle of Armageddon. The whole field will be spread in array, when the first and the second beasts and the kings of the earth, and all the rest of their armoury and power are awaiting the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But I tell you this, there won't be a gun fired, and there won't be a sword smeared with blood. He'll slay them with the sword that proceedeth out of his mouth, and that is His word, brother and sister.

The victory was won at Calvary, and there will be nothing in the power of Satan to reverse it. And I am! anticipating, I'm going to say it again afterwards, but so that you can get the picture, when Satan is loosed out of the bottomless pit after that thousand years, and he goes about the whole earth deceiving Gog and Magog, until they are as the sand of the seashore, innumerable, and they compass the Holy City, and the camp of the saints where the Lord is, there will be no battle. For God will destroy them with fire out of heaven. My brother and my sister, we are as safe for heaven as though we were there already.

The final verdict is as sure now as though that eternal position were already in existence. Don't underestimate that work at the cross, brother and sister, it's the world that does that. But as far as God is concerned, It is a work that was planned in eternity, that eternity might be secure for the glory of God and the blessing of men.

So we had a look at the crises that Satan has created and God must deal with, and then the triumph of Calvary, and as it were, I speak after the manner of men, the initiative is in the hand of God, He creates the crises and Satan is at a complete loss.

Then we discover that God divided the earth, or the human race, into three sections, giving none offence to the Jew, nor to the Gentile, neither to the church of God. And so we looked, and discovered that the first division came here, (Babel crisis) when God gave confusion of tongues, and scattered them abroad upon the face of the whole earth. There were no divisions in the human race from Eden to Shinar. But then God takes this man out of Ur of the Chaldees, one of the great cities of Nimrod. He built five cities, but the most notorious was Babel. God took Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees, one of those cities, an idol worshipper, completely ignorant of God, and you'll discover that it was the year that Noah died that Abram was born. So that Abram was commencing a new testimony for God altogether. He gave Adam everything, He gave Abram nothing. But He did give him the promises, and He gave his seed the oracles, and He gave them the promise of their Messiah, and they rejected their Messiah.

But with this man coming into being, God divided the human race, and there was Jew, and then there was Gentile. But He scattered those abroad upon the face of the whole earth, and you will remember then, that here are two works of universal dominion, for God gave dominion to Adam, then He gave it to Noah, and their authority was usurped, first by Cain, then by the line of Ham, and brought judgement each time. So that God has not finished the work of universal dominion, and here He dealt with the nation of Israel, and He scattered them abroad, and He hasn't finished that work concerning the nation of Israel. And so I did give you the little recipe for prophecy, and it simplifies prophecy, brother and sister, it falls into two sections. Now I am speaking of dispensational things, I'm not speaking of the Lord Jesus, because all the prophets spake of Him. I'm speaking of dispensational matters, and prophecy is God telling us beforehand how He is going to finish those two works. Universal dominion that He finished there at Shinar when He scattered them abroad, He will finish it here, ( millennial valley - see chart) where there will be universal dominion again, and His son will be King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

This work concerning the nation of Israel that He put down when they rejected the Messiah, and scattered them abroad, He'll finish there, (second coming - see chart) in that seventieth week of Daniel, for Gabriel says to Daniel, '70 weeks are determined upon thy people, to bring in everlasting righteousness,' and so on and so .on, as you find in Daniel chapter nine.

So if we want to study prophecy, then it will be either in that section, or this section, and it will speak of the Tribulation, or it will speak of the Millennium. Now, that's good order, and true to the Word of God, if we can take the text out of the context, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

But in between, in doing these works, in beginning them and finishing them, we have this tremendous parenthesis of the church. It was never started here, (past crises - see chart) and it was not revealed unto the prophets, as it is now revealed unto the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was kept secret, and the apostle Paul is the great expounder of that mystery that was kept hid in Christ. And so he says to the Ephesian saints, that 'ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ,' and then he goes on in the same chapter, 'that all men might see,' and then a bit later on in the same chapter he says 'that unto principalities and powers may be made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.'

Now brother, this is God's greatest work, and this is the work that will maintain its identity for all eternity. The nation of Israel is not going into eternity. The redeemed of the nations are going into eternity, but there are no nations in eternity. No nations at all. They were fashioned in time, they will finish in time, but the redeemed of the Lord are going into eternity. But one company of people will maintain its identity, and that is the church, the bride of the Lamb. And they will be with Him, and with Him for eternity. And brother, the work is such, that we will be in such a condition, in His likeness, at the shout - I believe, brother and sister, we'll leave that until later on in the study.

We are going to be like Him, when these vile bodies which bring into humiliation, shall be fashioned unto His own body of glory, whereby He is able also to subdue all things unto Himself. There we will sit with that blessed One, upon the throne, and we will bask in a glory which no man has yet ever seen, 'that they might behold My glory, and be with me where I am.' So brother and sister, give God thanks that you were never born before the cross came, eh? And give God thanks that you were not born after the church was finished, but my, give God thanks that you were born while God is dealing with the Gentiles, because you are going to take part in God's greatest work among the children of men, the Church, which is His body.

So, this work is different, I am just repeating again, is different to these two. These two were started in the earth, and continued in the earth, and will be finished in the earth. But this one belongs to heaven, from the beginning to the end. And so, just with that in view, it is quite clear that the church is not going through the tribulation, that is just one point. Did I ever tell you the story, ( I usually have a few stories to tell, don't I? ) It was after the first of those Swanick meetings, and it was held in a hotel in London, the Korah hotel, long enough back, because I lived in Norfolk, in Norwich, and I was going to take a weeks meetings in Hopton. A brother came to pick me up in his car, because I hadn't got one then. As we were going along the road this subject came up, about Korah. 'Well', he said, 'I was there. 'Oh,' I said, 'that's fine, I'll be able to call on you after one of the meetings and you can tell me what the other side say.' 'Well, the brother that you are staying with he was there, too.' I said, 'That will be more convenient.' We hadn't gone on very far when I discovered that they were both on the other side, and I had landed in, hook, line and sinker. Well, on the Sunday night after the gospel meeting, about 8 o'clock, the brother that I was staying with said,' I hear you want to know what went on at Korah.' I said I would like to know. And for me, I listened very patiently. I only answered his questions, and if you know me, you know I can get a little bit vexed sometimes, especially if I think it is wrong. I know some of you think I'm wrong sometimes.

But he went through it, bit by bit, and when he asked a question, I answered the question, and then when he had finished I said, 'Now do you mind if I ask you some questions?' ' Go on,' he said. 'Well,' I said, 'among a lot of other things, you did ask me when are all things going to be made the footstool of His feet? And I said that is the millennium. And then you said, God says to His son, "sit thou here on My right hand until the millennium." So how can you talk about the Lord Jesus coming in the clouds before the Tribulation?' Have you ever had that one? Eh, it's a bit of a problem isn't it? I said, 'did the Lord Jesus ever disobey His Father?' He said 'Don't be ridiculous.' I said, 'if you were right, He did.' He said, what do you mean?' I said, 'what was He doing when Steven saw Him?' He said 'He was sat down on the right hand of God.' I said 'my Bible says He was standing up. What was He doing standing up if God said sit down? And what was He doing on the road to Damascus? And what was He doing on the isle of Patmos? And what right has He got to say where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I? Or, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age?' 'Oh,' he said 'I hadn't thought about them. '

(Brother and sister, you can take a text out of its context and make it mean anything. But I'll tell you this, if what you say about one scripture does not have the agreement of the rest of the scripture, then you are wrong. So you had better study your Bibles, not just one verse, but study that verse in the light of the rest of them.)

So I said to him, 'Who is on the throne of England?' 'Oh now,' he said, 'you are being silly.' I said 'I am asking a question, who's on the throne of England?' He answered, ' Elizabeth, of course.' I said 'She's not, she's in Australia. ' The brother replied, 'you know what I mean.' I said, 'I know what that text means, too. When we say the queen's on the throne, she is not sat on that wooden seat in Westminster Abbey, from the time that the crown's put on her head until the day she dies. What we mean when we say the queen is on the throne is that the power of the throne is behind her wherever she goes. And when God says to His son sit thou on my right hand, the right hand of power, He means that the power of God is behind Him wherever He goes and whatever He does. So, He can go on the road to Damascus, and He can go to the isle of Patmos, and He can be with all His people, and bless God, He can come into the air with a shout and call us home long before the millennium begins.

Now that is going a bit out of the way, but that is just one of the illustrations.

So, brother and sister, that is a heavenly work, a distinct work from any of these, the beginning or the end of it, it has nothing to do with it at all, and it will remain the masterpiece of deity for all eternity. So give God thanks that you have been brought into such a purpose of God, that you are going to bear His likeness, and that for ever.

Now, last evening we went away to the first crises. We did not deal with it fully, but we dealt with it as a crisis. I want us to have a look at Genesis chapter one for a minute, and you young ones, still go to school, do you? eh?

If you don't, you should do. And I know you are hearing a lot of things today, and a lot of things that are contrary to the scriptures. I remember when one of my girls was at school, and the religious instructor said something, up went her hand. 'That's wrong,' she said. 'The Bible says this.' My, I was proud of that little girl, you know. Must take after her dad. In school today there are substitutions being made for the Christian faith, and the minds of young people are being turned aside and perverted as though this Bible were no different to any other book, or any other religious book. This is the only revelation of God, apart from the Christ of God. This is the written word, He is the living word. God reveals Himself in the book, and He revealed Himself in His son. Now, read the book.

Now listen, we are being told that those days of Genesis chapter one were thousands of thousands of years in length. They weren't! They were each twenty four hours long. Do you know, brother, it is not the shortness of the time that bothers me, it is the length of the time that bothers me. God could have done it in seven minutes, never mind six days. But He does it in six days because He is telling another story before the first story. And behind the story of that earthly creation, He is telling the story of a new creation. A creation that will never pass away.

Now you will notice, brother and sister, that when He finishes at the end of the sixth day He has got a man in dominion. When He finishes the book of Genesis He has got a man in dominion, Joseph. When He finishes the whole of the book He has got a man in dominion, and that is His beloved son. And there is the picture, and so you can look - I am not going to go into the gap theory - but I am going to tell you this, brethren, I believe it. I can't imagine, not for one minute, that God would bring in such a thing as darkness, when God is light and in Him is no darkness at all, that God should bring in darkness, if that is a part of His creation. No, something has happened, and God is reforming the situation.

On the fourth day He made the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the night, and it takes the sun and the moon twenty four hours to do it. So the fourth day was twenty four hours long. The fifth, and the sixth, and every other day are described as the evening and the morning, and. that is how He describes the first three days, as well. The evening and the morning. So here we find the handiwork of God bringing in creation. It is in perfect order.

I did ask a scientist, sometime, not that I disbelieve God, but I did say to this scientist, 'As a scientist, could Genesis 1 be right, the order in which it is presented?' He said 'The order of Genesis chapter one is absolutely scientifically correct.' Now that is what the scientist said. And I did not ask him whether he was a Christian or not. But there it is.

Will you notice, He creates three spheres first, hm? He creates the heavens, and the seas, and the earth. In the next three days He furnishes them in the same order. Now there is perfect order, He is not the God of confusion, He is the God of order. Now, last evening we went into this thought, that in Genesis chapter one it is God, that is the creator of the cosmos. In Genesis chapter two it is the Lord God, the one that brings relationship into the cosmos that He has made. In Genesis chapter three it is the Lord, the one that deals with a people that He has relationship with. Now have a look at those, brother and sister for yourself.

So that there is the arranger of the cosmos, God, and sets it in its order, and there is not a man that can move it out of place. You know, the scientist says this: 'If the earth was a mile further away from the sun it would freeze; and if it was a mile nearer the sun it would burn.' I wonder how evolution just put it in the right place, eh? God put it there! And God keeps it there, and He will keep it there. And I'll tell you something else, the atom bomb is not going to destroy it either. Oh, I've heard a lot of Christians say that.

No, no, no. The heavens shall melt with a fervent heat. The earth that then was, being overflowed with water, perished, is by the same word. reserved unto fire. He shall yet speak from heaven,, that the things that can be shaken may be shaken, that they be taken out of the way. the One whose word brought it into being, and the One who upholds it by the word of His power, is the One that will bring it to an end by the word of His authority, melting with a fervent heat and a great noise. My, aren't you glad you are saved, brother?

Aren’t you glad you' re saved !

Anyway, into this scene the Lord God brought conditions for peace. He made a relationship between a man and the ground so that what he sowed he reaped.

There was no anxiety, there was no fear, there was no danger, he would reap a hundredfold. The sun shone, and the earth was watered with a mist that proceeded out of the ground. He was right in his relationship with the beast, the bird, the creeping thing. They came before him, there was no fear between any of them. There was peace, he was right. He had a wife, he loved his wife, a help that was sufficient to him, and he walked with God in the cool of the day in the garden, and he was right with God.

So that he was right within himself, he was right with God, he was right with everything that was about, and that is the positive, scriptural definition of peace. Now peace is not a negation of war, we thank God that we are not at war, but that is not peace. Peace is positive, not negative.