What Is This World Coming To? Part 1: The Big Picture

And we're going to begin reading in verse 18 and we're going to read 18 through 20. First Peter chapter one verses 18 through 20. In just a moment. What is this world coming to? That's a question a lot of people are asking today Lot of people have great concerns about our world.

And they've received many, many, many different answers. There are some people that think it's actually getting better and better and better and it's just going to keep getting better and better until we have utopia on Earth. But they are obviously quite blinded. Having cell phones that get smaller and smaller or bigger and bigger, whatever the fad is at the moment, doesn't make the world a better and better and better place. It makes it more convenient at times.

It's nice that I can have that with me and people can call me when I'm away from the house. Unfortunately, sometimes the ringer gets turned off and so I have it with me but I don't get the call anyway. So, conveniences are nice, technology is nice, but this world doesn't seem to be headed in a very good direction. What is this world coming to? Well, in order to understand the answer to that question, I think we need to take some time this morning to understand who we are and how we got here.

I took a class in college called Calculus three. Has anybody taken Calculus three? Okay. Not very many people. I got into a class and the teacher went up to the board.

And there was he had a chalkboard. I think it was still a chalkboard at that time. It was chalkboard or one of those grease boards. And it probably went from the plant back there on the wall, at least up to the speaker here. And he started on that end, and he started writing, and he started talking, and he wrote, and he talked.

And he went to this end, and then he erased it. And then he started over again. And and then he stopped and he turned around and he would look for the person who had the the most confused look on their face and then he would point them out and point to the board and say, what's the answer to this? And I would want to crawl in the back corner and and usually, the answer was 0 or infinity. In Calculus three, it's usually 0 or infinity.

And so I guess one and I'd always guess the wrong one. You see, I took calculus one and I took calculus two, but I didn't listen very good. And I kinda just slid by. And I got to calculus three and all of a sudden, went splat up against this wall that he was writing on because I didn't understand anything that was going on. There's a lot of people today that don't have a clue what's going on in this world and when they turn to the book of Revelation, the book of Daniel, the of Isaiah, it it it it it's just a bunch of confusion to them.

They they don't have any understanding. It doesn't make any sense because they don't know who they are and how they got here. They don't have the big picture. It's like it's like turning to the end of a storybook that you read. You pick up a novel and if you turn to the end, you read the end and sometimes, the end doesn't make much sense.

Why? Well, because you haven't read the first part of the book. You need the context or the ending might not make much sense, you see. And I think it's important for us as we go into this, what is this world coming to in the next few weeks? Ask the question, where is the world at right now?

Who are we? And and how did we get here? And to get to step back and see the big picture. Because as we begin to understand the big picture, God's plan for this world. Then, those things that we talk about in the coming weeks are be going to begin to make a little more sense to us than if we just jump right into.

Look if you would in first Peter chapter one verse 18. Peter wrote, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed. The word redeems means to be bought back, to be purchased back. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things. These are things that that are passed away.

They seem of value now, but are really no value in light of eternity, such as silver and gold. From your vain conversation, that means lifestyle or customs received by tradition from your father. We weren't redeemed by those things. Silver and gold can't redeem humanity from sin. But we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

Who verily or truly was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you. Bible says, we're not redeemed with corruptible things and silver and gold traditions of the world but we're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ without blemish and without spot, the sinless son of God, who died on the cross for our sins, who was foreordained, that was God predetermined, decided this, plan this before the what? Before the foundation of the world. God has a plan. God is fulfilling that plan.

You are part of that plan in some way. And God will finish that plan Praise God. He tells us here all about it. Let's take just a moment and go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we thank you again for this day, this opportunity to look into your word.

Please guide us today as we look at the scriptures. Lord, help me to explain and proclaim the word of God today. I pray that the holy spirit would would work in our heart, enlighten, enlighten us, and draw us closer to you and conform us more to the image of your son. We pray that Jesus would be exalted today and as Jesus is exalted, that all men would be drawn unto him. In Jesus precious name, we pray.

Amen. The big picture, the big picture. What is the big picture start with? Well, it starts with this question. How did we get here?

How did we get here? Is that important as to where we're going? Yes, it is it is very important. It is directly connected with who we are, It's directly connected with why we are and it's directly connected with where we are going. Where did we come from?

How did we get here? The world of academia today would have you believe as they have imagined that you are the product of some humongous accident. They call it the big what? The big bang. And they would have us to believe that we are nothing but products of a great accident.

Brought into the world by an explosion of who knows what? Because how was it here? Who knows? And we evolved by random mutations into what we are today. A glorious accident.

Although, they were not there to see it. Although, they have no record of it and although they are constantly changing their minds about it, their theories are constantly in flux. Constantly changing because they don't have any concrete evidence. They have no concrete record. They've just conjured this up in their mind.

Evolution renders humanity with no purpose. No purpose. Declaring us to be no more than a highly evolved animals. That's what they would have you believe today. You're just a highly evolved animal and that's all you are.

Charles Darwin wrote, animals whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal. Obviously, he considered them his equal. Frogs, toads, rats, amoebas, fish, birds, whatever. And so we have generations in this country and in this world that have grown up being taught that they're nothing more than animals and so, that's how we act. As animals, with no or little moral conscience about us.

However, there is a record provided for us by the only eyewitness to our creation. There is a record that's provided us which the eyewitness has preserved for us that we might know how we came to be, who we are, and why we're here. But where is that record found? Here it is. The Bible.

The Bible is, we call it what? God's word. What is this? This is God's record and particularly the book of Genesis is God's record of how we came to be here. How we got here?

It was recorded. It was given by the only eyewitness to creation. The only eyewitness is to how the world came into being. The evolutionist, the scientist, the philosophers, they weren't there. But God was.

Yeah. And God has left us a record as to how he created the world and how it came to be and how we came to be and why we are here. God has not left us without a record. His word. So that we can know how this all began.

Turn if you would back to Genesis chapter one. Shouldn't take you too long. Genesis chapter one. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The Bible is very clear.

In the beginning, there wasn't a big what? Bang. In the beginning, there was God and God created the heavens and the earth. The heavens means all of space, the heavens, and all the matter, the earth. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

It says, in John one verses one and three, it says, in the beginning was the word. Who is the word? Jesus. Jesus is the word. In the beginning was the word.

That's Jesus. The word that is Jesus was with God and the word that is Jesus was God. All things, look at this, all things were made by him. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. All things were made by God.

All things were made by Jesus and without him, there wasn't anything made that was made. There's nothing that exist in this world that wasn't created by God. Well, he is the creator of all things. That is where this world came from. That is how we came to be.

God created us. He didn't evolve us. He created us. It tells us exactly how in Genesis chapter one. Now, there are some Christians today that want to believe that that God started the process of evolution and that we evolve from that state into the state that we are in now.

But that is very contrary to what Genesis one says. Either we believe it to be God's word or we don't. If it's God's word, it's going to tell us what? The truth. The truth.

You see, man's word is not all that dependable. Can go to any library and go to any bookstore and and pick 10 books on the same subject and they're all going to say contrary, contradicting things because they were written by fallible, ignorant, limited human minds. But God's word, we can count on it. Amen. God doesn't make mistakes.

God doesn't lie. He always tells the truth. He tells exactly how he created the world. He created it in six days. He said, let there be light and there was light.

He said, let the the waters be separated from the land. He he said, let the plants grow and they did. He he he created the the stars, moon, and the sun on the fourth day. Just to make sure nobody misunderstood that what a day was at the end of each day, he said the evening and the morning were the first day and the evening and the morning were the second day and the evening and the morning. So, they would understand.

These weren't long extended periods of time. They were an actual what? Day. Okay. Because it didn't take God any longer than a day.

A matter of fact, God simply said it and what? It it appeared. By faith, we know that the worlds were framed by the word of God. So, with things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. What does that mean that God created everything out of nothing?

He spoke it into existence by his power exactly as it is recorded here. Unless we be confused and think, well, hey, maybe God created the amoeba and the amoeba evolved and it evolved into the fish and the fish and the lizard and so forth and so on. God repeated several times in the first chapter of Genesis that everything reproduces after its own what? Kind. Own kind.

What that means is, that fish produce fish, that dogs produce dogs, that people reproduce people. Dogs do not reproduce horses, nor fish lizards, doesn't work that way. Never has worked that way. The scientist still are forced if they're honest to call these transitional fossils, these transitional beings that they're looking for in the fossil record. If they're honest, they would still be forced to call them missing links because they're still missing and why is it they're missing?

Because they never existed. God tells us in his word how the world was created. In six literal days, as he spoke it into existence by his power. Do you believe in an eternal God or do you believe in an eternal peace of something that exploded? Take your pick.

Something has to be eternal. Something just had to be. And it makes a whole lot more sense to believe the word of God and believe in an eternal God with the power to make and create and design the world. This watch right here, as simple as a watch is, you wouldn't believe me if I said, I blew up something and this came out of it. Functioning and working.

You wouldn't believe that, would you? Believe that I put a bunch of sand in a blender and I blended all the sand together and I poured it out. Low and behold, here was his watch. Well, believe that. You say, no, it had to have a what?

A designer. Yet, we live in a world where lots of people believe that things that are like the human eye, which are million times more complicated than this thing. Happened by accident. Yet, when they would recognize this simple watch needs a designer. The Bible tells us all this, tells us who made it.

Colossians one sixteen, for by him that is Jesus were all things created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible, invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. What does that leave out? Nothing. He created all things. We read this to start the service this morning.

Thou art worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. Well, why is he worthy? But why is he worthy of of receiving glory and honor and power? Why? For thou hast what?

Created all things and for thy pleasure, they are and were created. Who is it that made us? God did. He made us. We are his creation.

Therefore, he is due our glory. He's due the glory and the honor and the praise and all of that. For he's our maker. He also has the right to set the rules because he's the maker. And why did he create us?

He created us for his what? For his pleasure. Well, that makes sense. If you create things, you make things with your hands, you make them for your good or for your pleasure. Certainly, God did the same.

And the last beings that God created were man and woman. The climax of creation and the really the purpose for all of it. You know, why did God create atmosphere and oxygen? We needed it to what? To breathe.

Why did he why did he make water? But we needed it to to drink. Why did he make land? Well, we needed to stand on. Why did he make vegetation?

Because we needed to eat and we could go on and on. They were created for us. When he had created man and woman and placed him a garden of Eden, he said, have dominion over all that I've created. I've created it for you. And we were created for for him.

It tells us in John one in in Genesis sorry, not John. In Genesis one twenty seven, it tells us this. If you're still in Genesis, look in verse 27. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.

We, the Bible says, were created in the image of God. Now, that doesn't mean we look like God. What that means is we are similar to him in many respects. We were created holy and perfect and innocent. We were created with a moral code.

We were created with an intelligence that is incredibly superior to anything else that God created. We were created to have dominion over his creation as he has dominion over the universe. We were created in the image of God. Unlike the rest of creation, we are not just highly evolved animals. We are not just happen to be a little smarter than dogs or pigs or apes.

We were created in the image of God, not them. Genesis chapter two gives us a closer, more detailed look at the creation of man, a personal look because you see, God just didn't simply say, let there be man and poof, there was man. No, God created us a little differently. He took a personal interest in us. In Genesis chapter two begins the use of the word Lord in all capital letters which is Jehovah.

That's God's personal name. You might call me pastor. That's a title. But Rick is my name. We call him God.

That means supreme one and so he is. But he is Jehovah or Yahweh or however you pronounce that word. We're we're not sure because the Jews refuse to pronounce it for fear. They pronounce it wrong. He is a personal God who created man personally to have a relationship with him.

Verse seven of Genesis two, and the Lord, Jehovah God, formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. God took personal interest in us and he breathed into us life and we became a living soul, a living being created in the image of God. That is how we got to be here in a nutshell. Now, the next question is this, How did we end up like this? If God created us in his image, if God created us perfect and holy and innocent, how did we end up like this?

How did our world end up like this? Because it does not reflect the holiness of God. It does not reflect the perfection of God. It does not reflect the innocence. What happened?

How did we end up this way? Once again, as we observe, the continuing in capability of man to follow the simplest laws, to find peace in themselves with one another, and stem violence, drug abuse, and all sorts of promiscuous behavior. We ask the question, how did we end up this way? It just doesn't seem humanity can conquer any of its weaknesses or any of its ills. War keeps coming back around.

Death, murder, violence, you name it. We haven't solved any of it. After thousands of years, how did we end up this way? Well, Darwin concludes, he says, we must however acknowledge. As it seems to me that man with all his noble qualities still bears in his bodily frame, the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.

Charles Darwin and evolutionist conclude, here is our problem. We're animals. We're animals. We're we're just more highly evolved animals but were animals none the same and no matter what we attain to, we still are nothing but animals. In other words, the world, the lost world blames it on our animal origins.

But God's record tells us a different story. One which reveals the true nature of our problem. Our problem is not that we're animals. Our problem is sin. It isn't our lowly origins for we were created in the image of God.

Not in the image of apes. It is the entrance of sin into the world and the resultant change in our world and in the human heart that has brought us to this end and to this place. What changed? Well, the Bible tells us. Romans five twelve, wherefore, as by one man, who is that?

Adam. 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. When God created Adam and Eve in the Garden Of Eden, he put them there. If they hadn't sinned, they'd have lived how long? Forever.

That changed. They would have lived forever in perfect fellowship with the Lord. But all of that changed When sin entered in to the world and to the human heart. That image was marred by sin. It was it was changed drastically.

You see, the devil, God's enemy. Once an angel of great power and beauty called Lucifer. Rebelled against the Lord. Turn if you would to Isaiah. Hold your place in Genesis.

We'll be back there but turn to Isaiah chapter 14 and let's look briefly at this passage. Isaiah 14 and verse 12. Isaiah tells us about how Lucifer became known as the devil and Satan. Lucifer meaning son of the morning. The devil meaning deceiver.

Satan meaning accuser. How art thou fallen from heaven, oh Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.

I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. Lucifer, a created being, decided he would rebel against his creator, God almighty, and that he would take his place. That he would rise to his glory.

But that didn't happen. He lost that battle for he is not God and it says in verse 15, yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. You see, the devil lost the battle in heaven and so he brought the battle to where? He brought the battle to Earth and he came to Adam and Eve in the Garden Of Eden and he came to Eve in the form of the serpent. You see, it tells us it tells us in Revelation.

I'll just read it. Twelve nine, it says, and the great dragon was cast out. That old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. You see, the serpent in the garden was Satan and Satan came to Eve and he wanted Eve to join himself in his rebellion against God.

He wanted to rob God of his creation. He wanted to set up his own kingdom here on this Earth. He lost his opportunity in heaven. He said, I'll set it up here. I can't defeat God in heaven.

I'll hurt him here by robbing him of his precious creation. So, he came to Eve and he lied about God. He said to Eve, look at all these beautiful trees. Did God say that you can't eat of these? He said, no.

No. No. We can eat all these except for the one in the middle. We can't eat of that one. We can't touch it lest we die.

Well, the Bible doesn't actually say, record that God said, you can't touch it. Maybe God said that maybe he didn't. Maybe it'd be that that Eve is kind of exaggerating a bit because that's that's sometimes what we do. You know, when we can't do something we want to do. Well, they said, I can't even go out of the house at all.

You know, that's not what he said. God said, you can't eat of it, neither can you touch it, lest you die and Satan said, you won't die. God knows that when you eat of that fruit, you're going to be just like him. You're going to be your own gods knowing good and evil. You see, who did Satan want to be?

Satan wanted to be God. So, how did he tempt Eve? He said to Eve, you can be God too. God, God's keeping something from you. God doesn't want you to have any fun.

That's how the devil tempts us especially when we're young. Your parents, they don't want you to have any fun. Yeah. Maybe your friends would say that to you. Oh, you don't want to do drugs, you don't want to drink alcohol, you don't want to go here, do that, do this.

Well, your parents, they just don't want you to have any fun. No, the fact was, your parents cared about you. And that's why they said don't do that. Because they know it was going to probably end very badly. God cared about Adam and Eve.

He told them to stay away from the one thing that would destroy them. But they were deceived. At least Eve was. And she ate of the fruit and then she gave it to Adam. Adam did the same.

For as by one man, Adam, sin entered into the world and so death by sin. The Bible says, for the wages of sin is death. The Bible says in Hebrews nine twenty seven, it's appointed unto man once to die but after this the judgment. Bible tells us in Revelation 20 that the dead will be judged out of those things written in the books by their deeds, whether they're good or evil, whether they have broken and transgressed God's law and if they're found guilty, they'd be cast into the what? The lake of fire.

Which by the way was not created for human beings. It was created, the Bible tells us in Matthew 25, for the devil, or Matthew 24, for the devil and his angels. When Adam and Eve chose to rebel against the Lord and disobey him, humanity took on the same punishment of as the devil that they followed. And man changed. His heart changed.

His world changed. Sin became a way of life and man was separated from God. Cast out of the Garden of Eden. Cast out of his relationship with God. He died to God that day.

His spirit not only his body began to die. So man finds himself in a terrible pickle, not because we were our evolved animals who don't know better, but because we are depraved sinners who were born in sin and continue to sin in rebellion to the God who made us, to transgress his laws, to fight against his will rather than serving him and doing that which is right. That's how we got to be this way. And before we can understand where we're going, we have to understand how we got here. But we also need to understand this answer to this question.

Is there a remedy for our condition? Is there a remedy for our condition? Well, we've tried education. Well, hasn't worked too well. We've tried just adopting and embracing all of our sinful nature and that hasn't worked too well.

We've tried all different kinds of religion. You can go out there and you can, there are hundreds and hundreds of religions that people have dreamed up in ways to try to fix man. And it hasn't worked. But there is a remedy and God already had that remedy prepared what? Before the foundation of the world.

Did it catch God by surprise that Adam and Eve sinned? No. No. God already knew what was going to happen and God already had a plan to buy, to redeem man back from his enemy, the devil, to restore his kingdom, to restore his people, to overcome his enemy. God already had a plan and in Genesis three fifteen, he tells Adam and Eve and Satan himself about his plan.

He introduces it anyway. Verse 15 of Genesis three and I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. Now, let's read that a little slower. I will put enmity or animosity between thee and the woman.

Satan and the woman. In between thy seed and her seed. It that is the seed of the woman shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. Now, if somebody bruises you here, your heel, it hurts, but it what? It heals.

Okay? I got I got a splinter in my big toe the other day and it hurt, but it's healing. It'll heal. It'll get better. It'll be fine.

However, if you step on a serpent's head, what happens? You kill it. So, right all the way back in Genesis three fifteen, before Adam and Eve were forced out of the garden, God says in their presence to Satan, I'm going to send the seed of the woman to destroy you. You haven't won. You haven't won, Satan.

I have a plan. Who is the seed of a woman? The seed of the woman is Jesus. He's uniquely the only human being that's ever been born without a human father. You say, well, well, Eve didn't have a human father.

Well, he, Adam, and Eve were what? They were created. They weren't born. Jesus is the only one born without a human father. He is uniquely the seed of the woman.

Galatians four four and five up here on the screen says, but when the fullness of time was come, when God's time was right, God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them, to buy them back, to bring them back that were under the law, under the condemnation of the law, that we might receive the adoptions of sons, that we who would been taken captive by Satan might be again become freed from Satan and become the children of who? The children of God. That we might receive eternal life in him. When Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden, they were separated from another tree in that garden. It's called the tree of.

Life. Life. But through faith in Christ, the Bible says, God gives us eternal life for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. The Old Testament is the story of how God worked through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Judah and David to bring into the world the Messiah, the seed of the woman, who would redeem mankind back to God. Genesis four tells us when the time was right, Jesus came.

He came born in Bethlehem as prophesied, born of a virgin as prophesied, born of the seed of Abraham, Jacob, Judah, and David as prophesied. He did great miracle as prophesied. He died on the cross and he rose again from the dead as we looked at last week from Isaiah 53. Just as God said, he would. Just as he had told us in his word and he would know that because it was all part of his what?

It was all part of his plan. Take your Bibles if you would turn to Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five. Romans five. Look if you would in verse six.

Romans five beginning in verse six. For when we were yet without strength, that's without spiritual strength lost in sin. In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. That's you and me. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet per adventure for a good man, some would even dare to die.

Well, you might give your life for a really good person. You might give your life for somebody that you really loved, who who loved you, and and was worthy of it. But per se, God commended. He demonstrated his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were yet sinners, while we were yet in the mire and the muck of sin, we were we're like we're like pigs rolling around in the mud of our sin.

You won't get near em and touch em. You get all slimy and dirty and muddy and gross. But yet, we were worse than that. But God why? He loved us and while we were yet sinners, bound in sin, and animosity with him because we were on the other side God demonstrated his love toward us and that he sent his son to die on the cross.

For our sins back to first Peter chapter chapter one, but we are redeemed, bought back with the precious blood of Christ. As a lamb without blemish and without spot, who was verily foreordained before the foundation of the world, but when the time was right, he came and he died not for his sins but for ours. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoso believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. God sent his son, Jesus, world to save us.

First Peter three eighteen, for Christ also hath one suffered for sins. The just, that's Jesus who didn't sin for the unjust, that's us. That he might bring us, that he might restore our relationship with God, being put to death in the flesh as he died on the cross but quickened or made alive again in the spirit as he rose again. From the dead. The Bible tells us in Romans ten nine, it's this simple that thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Thou shalt will be delivered from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his marvelous light That you might pass from death unto life. That we might leave the slavery of sin and Satan and we might become children of the king. All part of God's plan to make a way for man to be redeemed. Through faith alone in Jesus Christ. And then he ascended back up into heaven.

He told his disciples to be witnesses to others to tell them of what he had done for them. He assured them in John 14. He says, if I go away, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am that there you may be also. We have a blessed hope. One day, we're going to be with Jesus and we're going to be with him for all eternity.

Because we have become the children of God by faith according to his grace and his mercy. So, how is it all going to end? How is it all going to end? Well, turn if you would to Revelation 21 this morning. How will it end?

And this is the question we're going to spend a great deal of time looking at in the coming weeks. Question that's on a lot of people's minds today. How is this all going to end? Well, God tells us. He doesn't leave us in the dark.

Revelation 21 verse one and I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, heaven, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they will shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said unto them, write for these words are true and faithful.

And he said unto them, it is done. I am the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be my son. But the fearful and unbelieving, the abominable and murderers and whoremongers, and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the Lake Of Fire, which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

How is it all going to end? It's going to all end this way. There's going to be two places for you to be forever. In a place of torment called the Lake Of Fire, if you reject the son of God or at in the presence of almighty God, in a new heaven and a new earth for all eternity. Where he'll wipe away all tears from our eyes.

Where do you think God wants you to be? He wants you to be with him. He created you to be with him. He made you a way for you to come back to him. He sacrificed his own son so that you might become his child and spend eternity with him.

The question is this, where do you stand today with him? Bible is very clear. John three eighteen. He that believeth on him that is Jesus is not condemned. But he that believeth not is condemned already.

Because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. Jesus died on the cross to take your place. Will you receive his gift today? Will you put your faith in him? Will you turn in him in repentance from your sins and trust in him to save you from them today?

To give you a home in heaven. He did all this for you. Where do you stand in the big picture? Let's pray. Dear God, thank you Lord for your word.

Thank you for what you've revealed. That we might know who we are, where we came from, why we're here, and where we're going. And I pray Lord if there's someone here today that's not sure where they're going. Because they've never trusted in Christ as savior. I pray that you would help them to understand that you would bring conviction into their heart.

That they would come to recognize. That they're accountable to you. But you love them and that you died for them. That you'll receive them if they'll come to you by faith today. And Lord I pray they'll come as we give this hymn of invitation.

As I wait up here upfront to show them how they can know the Lord Jesus and have eternal life in him. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.