We return once again this morning to Luke chapter 24. Our focus once more is on verse 47. These are the words of Jesus Christ and they must be said in their proper context In our study, we come now to consider this phrase in verse 47, to all the nations. We need to ask the question, well, how will we understand that phrase? What is the context? Well, we understand that it is the risen Christ who is the one who is speaking here. We're to understand these words that are instruction by the risen Christ to the apostles that was given during a period of some 40 days after His resurrection prior to His ascension to the glory of God in verse 51. These are the words of the risen Christ. That gives context to these words. These are the words of the one who is overcome, the one who is the conqueror of death. These are the words of the commission of the risen King spoken to his apostles and by his apostles to us as his church. What else is the context of these words, to all the nations? Well, we remember these important words from verse 44 and following, that Jesus speaks in the context of the revelation of the entire Old Testament. The Old Testament described in its three main parts in verse 44, the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, all of which concern Christ Jesus, referenced again in verse 45, the Scriptures, and then once again in verse 46, it is written. We have to set this phrase to all the nations in the context of the entire Old Testament. And then also this phrase, to all the nations, comes at the end of words that Jesus Himself has been speaking. Not only is He the speaker, but what has He said? He said to them, verse 46, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. So the context is the one who's speaking The context is the spoken, inscripturated word of God in the Old Testament. And the context is immediately those words that Jesus has already spoken which give the setting for this phrase that we are now delving into, this matter of God's purpose for the nations, to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Now there's a lot that is new in the New Testament that is in many ways a different and certainly an advancement over that which is revealed in the old. But Jesus would have us understand, as it is written, that God has determined the salvation of the Gentiles, of the nations, to save sinners from every tribe, people, nation, and tongue, and that purpose has characterized the activity of God throughout the course of redemptive history, throughout the pages of the Old Testament. Indeed, we know that as soon as Adam fell, God came to him redemptively. Yes, he executed judgment, but we'll see, and this is an important principle to learn. Salvation is always in the context of judgment. you're saved from judgment. Salvation is always in the context of judgment. Now this gospel is to be proclaimed to the nations. We'll notice in our study in the days to come that here's something of a transition in the old covenant People of God were set, as it were, as a city upon a hill that was a light shining to attract the nations to that people, that they might come among the people of God and say, there's no God like the God you worship. There's no wisdom like yours. There's no law like yours. There's no compassion and justice and mercy like yours. I want to become part of this people. And the people from roundabout were attracted, are supposed to have been attracted. to that glorious society under the rule of the Lord. But now, in the New Testament, this society is a missionary society. It is one which is to go out and to take the message to the nations, to go into the highways and the byways and the hedges and to take the Word of God to those who are round about as the Holy Spirit now makes known this glorious salvation that has been accomplished through the risen Jesus Christ. So that these blessings have come beginning in Jerusalem and through the course of the age of the church has spread to all of the nations, even to the eastern side of the state of New Jersey. the Flemington itself. What a wonderful, wonderful gospel that has come to us from the risen Christ. So I want to consider with you this morning God's purpose for the nations as we begin to focus in on the topic that is here presented to us in Luke 24, 47, that we are to proclaim repentance for forgiveness of sins in His name to all the nations. And again, I remind you that Jesus says that's what your whole testament has prophesied concerning you, the people of the risen Christ. So let's look first of all this morning at the context of redemptive history. So I'm beginning by standing back and taking a look at the big picture. Now, today there is an aversion against the idea of the meta-narrative, the idea of a big, totalizing, all-encompassing story that is absolute and embraces everything for everyone at every place at all times. are in a day where that kind of a concept is not at all well received. That's because narcissists are concerned only with their story, not with his story, if you will, his story. The only story that a narcissist is concerned with is his own, her own. You begin to talk about something and immediately the conversation is commandeering, well, let me tell you about me and let me tell you my story. And the only story that the narcissist is interested in is his own. And so the only context that is of any relevance to such a self-altar is himself, himself. And fallen man shrinks and shrivels into a little solipsistic puddle of sentiment that soon evaporates in self-altar tree, my story. is what's important and I want you to celebrate my story because my story is just as important as your story and just as valuable and just as true. Your perspective on life is just as good and legitimate as anybody else's perspective on life. We all have our stories to tell and so the question is not what does it mean? Is there meaning? The question is what about me? What does it mean to me? What does it have to do with me? No one has the story, the definitive perspective, the all-encompassing truth. Well, is that true? Well, brethren, God has the definitive perspective. God has the all-encompassing truth for all, everywhere, at all times. And God reveals His story. He is the protagonist. He is the character at the center of the story. The unfolding of the plot is for the benefit of His glory and the revelation of His name. He is the actor on the stage of history. He is the one. who speaks concerning the story that he tells. And it's a story of redemption and grace and forgiveness and love. And he is right to be the main character of his own story without any accusation of narcissism. Because he alone is worthy. For the story to be about anyone other than Him, it would be the wrong story. For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. Romans 11 and verse 36. One of the most challenging things for a sinner to come to terms with is, it's not all about me. So if the Bible has this big story, what is called the meta-narrative, how is it constructive? As we stand back and look at the Bible, and that's what we're doing this morning, how is this story constructive? Well, I hope that you can answer the question when I ask, what are the four pillars of redemptive history? What are the four categories, the high level categories by which we're to understand the unfolding of human history as God has unfolded that history. What are those four stages of redemptive history? I hope you can answer the question. The first is creation. The second, the fall. I think you've got notes in front of you, right? The third is redemption. And the fourth is consummation. Now the longest period of history in terms of those four primary points of reference is redemption. That's the story that unfolds through the bulk of the Old Testament and the bulk of the New Testament. But what begins and what ends are very definitive of what happens in the middle. Creation in the fall, at the beginning, and the consummation, the resurrection, and the glory to come at the end, and redemption is in the middle. Christopher Wright, in his most helpful book, The Mission of God, says the following, The Bible presents itself to us fundamentally as a narrative, a historical narrative at one level, but a grand narrative at another. It begins with the God of purpose in creation, moves on to the conflict and problem generated by human rebellion against that purpose, spends most of its narrative journey in the story of God's redemptive purposes being worked out on the stage of human history, finishes beyond the horizon of its own history with the eschatological hope of a new creation, This has often been presented as a four-part narrative, creation, fall, redemption, and future hope, which we've called consummation. There is one God at work in the universe and in human history and this God has a goal, a purpose, a mission that will ultimately be accomplished by the power of God's word for the glory of God's name. In my view, this is the key assumption of a missional interpretation of the Bible. It is nothing more than to accept that the biblical worldview locates us in the midst of a narrative of the universe. behind which stands the mission of the living God. As I was praying this morning for you in preparation for this message, I prayed something along this line. Lord, help me to show your people that they are involved in great and grand and glorious things, to help them to get out of themselves and to get into the mission of God, as this book is called by Christopher Wright. Our tendency in our day is to take God and funnel Him down into the little narrow compass of our own little selves. Brethren, we're called to come out of ourselves and to be involved in the grand, glorious story of God's redemptive grace for a fallen world and for the glory of the name of Christ. So first, context. that we set this whole matter of to the nations. This is this grand meta-narrative of creation, fall, redemption, consummation. Secondly, redemption and consummation are purposed in creation. Creation has within it by the intentionality, purposeful, decretive will of the Creator. It has within it all that is to transpire to bring creation to God's intended purpose, to the intended goal that is held before man even before the fall and is described as God's Sabbath rest. Because creation is something that is in the past, we have a tendency to view it as something that's done over with and we're finished with that and we've moved on, and there's a certain sense when that is true. God completed the work of creation at the end of the sixth day, and on the completion of that work, God rested. There's a certain sense, indeed, that creation is completed, but there's another sense in which creation continues to be present in its relevance in defining and determining the categories of our present life as creatures and giving to us the categories by which we are to understand the nature of our salvation. What God established in creation continues on through the fall, on through the flood, So that the people who receive the writings of Moses in the book of Genesis were already aware of the fact that God has sustained this created order through two major events of judgment. The fall and the flood. Creation continues. because creation is chock full of eschatological significance. It's chock full of significance for the age to come, for the purpose of God's glory in the age to come, so that when we arrive at the end of our Bibles, we finally come to the last two chapters. Can you just try to read that like just the first time you've read it? And you finally get to the end of the chapter and you're thinking, this is going to be amazing. We're going to see things we've never seen before. This is going to be totally, just absolutely fantastic. And you start looking around and go, this looks strangely familiar. We've been here before. We're in a garden. with the tree of life, and with the waters, and the presence of God. And you realize God's purposes have never changed. His purposes for creation continue and abide and indeed inform our expectation of the age to come. So creation gives us these central themes and motifs and categories by which we're to understand who we are as we live as God's creatures and what is the nature of our salvation so that when we read Genesis, when we read of the account of creation, behind all of this, we should be asking ourselves the question, well, what is the Lord telling us about our salvation? Because this is a word that has come to a people who he has rescued from slavery in Egypt. And he's telling them about himself. What does he want them to know? Well, let's look at Genesis chapter one. beginning, strangely enough, at verse 1. How is this creation relevant to the metanarrative, to the big story, to the new creation that we know the Bible brings us? God, who has rescued his people from the exodus Egypt, immediately tells them I am the Creator, and I am in control of everything. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, Let there be light. And we proceed from there. Now, here we meet up with vocabulary of what is called the primordial chaos. And this vocabulary, formless, void, and darkness, becomes vocabulary used later in the Old Testament to describe God's judgment for God's judgment in a certain sense, is a de-creating of the order established in creation. And these words become associated with what the Bible tells us about evil. When the created order loses, if you will, its order and structure and collapses back into a chaotic formlessness, We experience that as something evil. That's something that's threatening. That's something that's harmful. So that when you see a hurricane blowing up the Gulf Coast, that's chaotic. The wind is not staying within its boundaries. It's blowing out of its boundaries. The waters are not staying within their limits. There's a way that this is, this is evil. It's a destructive thing. And this, these words later become used in that kind of way. So too, in verse 10, when we read later in Bible about the seas, the seas can become a picture of, of chaotic turmoil in verse 21, which have sea monsters in them. But I want you to see that this language is not describing something over which God has no control, even though later in the context of the fall, God warns his creatures of his judgment by undoing the order and the structure of the goodness of creation and exposing them to these primal forces, if you will. When Jeremiah describes the judgment of God in Jeremiah 4.23, he says, I looked on the earth and behold, it was formless and void and to the heavens and they had no light, darkness, formless, Void and darkness. Look at Zephaniah, chapter 1, verse 2 and 3. Zephaniah 1, verse 2 and 3, it's describing, Zephaniah is describing the day of the Lord. It's the language of final judgment. How is this described? I will completely remove all things from the face of the earth, declares the Lord. I will remove man and beast. I will remove the birds of the sky. I will remove the fish of the sea and the ruins along the wicked, and I will cut off man from the face of the earth. Notice anything interesting about that sequence of removal? Man, beast, birds, fish. That's the reverse order in which they were created. God is de-creating. He is collapsing creation back into chaos, losing its order. But I want you to again come back to Genesis 1. And notice verse 31. At the end of chapter 1 in Genesis, God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. Now, let me ask you a question. Does that very good include what we were told in verse 2? Does that very good include what we were told in verse 2? I said yes, that language later, after the fall, is picked up by the Holy Spirit to describe a tearing apart, a de-creating, a rending apart of the order. But at this juncture, When chapter 1, verse 31 says, and all was very good, does that include the darkness, the void, the formlessness of verse 2? You all seem a little bit uncertain. Yes, thank you. It was all very good. It was all very good. God's initial act of creation was done in such a way to reveal who he is to the God of his people. And he's telling them by virtue of his creation because his creation is the revelation of himself as the creator. And he is telling them in no certain terms, no uncertain terms rather. I am sovereign over everything. And I use chaos for good purposes. So that in my hand, chaos, darkness, formlessness, What would I use in order to bring things to their very good purpose? God is sovereign over what we would call evil. And he causes, what does Paul say? He causes all, what? All things to work together for good. All things. so that when man under judgment collapses, if you will, into the chaos of death, when the fallen powers and principalities that have taken man's domain by Adam's sin, And they bring to man these forces of chaos and bring upon man the liability to the judgment of God. A judgment which is described as a decreating back into, as it were, the primal chaos. God is saying to his people, he's saying to us, I'm the creator, I created all this, I can use this chaos for my glory, it's all part of what I've made. So if the God who brings his good creation out of the chaos of verse two in Genesis, my friends, is the God who can bring salvation to sinners under the judgment of death. The formless, darkness, emptiness of death is no match for the God who is the Creator and the Redeemer of His people. What appears to us in this fallen world as evil In all of its manifestations, natural evil, moral evil, personal evil, demonic evil, none of that is outside of God's sovereign purposes. And that is revealed to us in the second verse of the Bible. Work with me, okay? Have you ever thought about these things before? As creation emerged out of chaos, the new creation emerges out of death. The new creation emerges out of the judgment, which is described in this language, because the God who created all things has intended for that creation to go forward into the glory of God. And sin and the evil one and rebellion pulls man back downward, if you will, into the disorder of chaos. The God who gives light into the darkness is the God who forms order out of chaos and the God who fills the emptiness and void of his world with his image bearers and the bounty and beauty of animals and plants. This is the God who raises the dead. Can you see the connection? Thank you. I was really excited when I put this sermon together. Having a little trouble getting excited about it now, but I'm working on it. Now, you see, the Lord hasn't given to us answers to our quote-unquote scientific questions here. The revelation of God is not opposed to true science. What is he doing? He's revealing himself. This is his story. And he's saying to his people, I'm your creator. I'm the God who has just rescued you from death. I'm the God who, at the beginning, took the darkness and the emptiness and the formlessness of the original chaos and gave it structure, gave it boundary, filled it, gave it purpose and significance, and it's all very good. And I just brought you through the Red Sea. And that looked like it was absolutely Impenetrable, how are we gonna get through the Red Sea? And the God took the chaos of the sea, put it in its boundaries, you pass through, enemies come along, and they're destroyed. The God who was with you through the emptiness of the wilderness, with no food, no water, he's the God who fills the emptiness. He's the God whose pillar of fire gives light in the darkness, whose cloud gives evidence of his presence in the day, who gives you water from the rock, who gives you manna from heaven. He's the God who is totally in control of your chaos, of your emptiness, of your formlessness, of your darkness. The God who created all very good is the God who raises the dead. This is the same thing that God reinstituted for the people in Noah's day. He made it evident. Even after the destruction of the flood, where the world was destroyed and its original structure and order seemed totally decimated under the judgment of water, the Lord comes to Noah and says, it's still good. I'm still keeping the original order of creation intact because I haven't changed my purpose for my glory as your creator. The end of the age, we'll see another total dismantling of the order and structure of this present age, not through the element of water, but through fire. And Peter tells us of these things in 2 Peter 3.10-13 of the destruction of the created elements, and then he says, but we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. So when we come to Genesis chapter 1, in verse 26 to 28. All of this vocabulary, image of God, be fruitful and multiply. fill the earth, subdue the earth, rule over the earth. All of that language is picked up as revelation continues through redemptive history and becomes our understanding. It informs our understanding of who the Messiah is. What is the purpose of our salvation? These terms are repeatedly used to describe God's redemptive saving purposes with His people so that they are to understand that the salvation to which God is bringing them is in full harmony with the original intent of God's purposes in creation. To be glorified in His image, that noble, royal, priestly Son who fills this created order with image bearers, who act like God, and who live with God, and who glorify God, and who are ultimately brought into the glorious communion that God promises for His people when He brings them into His Sabbath rest. These structures of creation are the structures by which we are to understand our salvation. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, we look at verse 21. Paul is comparing Jesus with Adam. For since by a man came death, by a man also came resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits. After that, those who are Christ's at his coming. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and authority and power. For he must reign until he has put his enemies under his feet. And the last enemy that will be abolished is death. Jesus here is said to be the second Adam. Jesus accomplishes what the first Adam failed to accomplish. Jesus is the true image of God. Jesus is the true Son of God. And Jesus brings the fallen created order through redemption and resurrection into the glorious Sabbath of God. You see, creation continues to be the realm of time and space. It continues to be the unfolding of purposes through time so that it moves toward God's intended goal. It moves toward that completion of God's glory in the revelation of His Sabbath rest. and the purposes for God at the very beginning continue to characterize now God's redemptive purposes with His people. He gives us now the true Adam, the true image of God, Jesus Christ. He gives now life that they might be fruitful and multiply, resurrection life, so that through their evangelism, nations, men, women, children, boys and girls from the world over. The world now begins to be inhabited with the people of God who subdue the forces of evil through the gospel and bring the rule of Christ and the administration of grace to bear upon this fallen world as we await the coming of Christ. In Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5, Paul is teaching us about marriage. And then, in verse 31, he quotes from Genesis chapter two, verse 24, and puts a picture before us of Adam and his wife against the backdrop of an unfallen created world. And he takes us all the way back to creation. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall become joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I'm speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Paul says you see it there in creation. That's a picture of God's redemptive purposes. Redemption and consummation. are intended in God's work of creation. Marriage is a creation ordinance, but it points to the glories of our redemption in Jesus' love for us. Creation has significance, redemptive significance. One other text, not in your notes, But it's relevant in Hebrews chapter 4. Not long ago we looked at this text concerning the issues of the Sabbath. And in Hebrews 4 and verse 4 we find the only place in the New Testament where Genesis 2-2 is quoted. For he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day, God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And so that is the informing understanding, that informs our understanding of what God's rest is, the prospect of entering the land, the prospect of having sanctified time in the presence of God. All of that is defined in terms of what God has held before man from creation. where he rested on the seventh day. And so then in verse 10, we read, for the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from his. Who is the one who's entered his rest? Jesus has. And now he has entered into the rest of God redemptively, bringing us to that glorious consummated rest. And that's why the writer to the Hebrew says, Press through the wilderness. Don't let the chaos, don't let the trouble, don't let the opposition stop you from achieving what has been accomplished for you in Christ. Press through the wilderness of this present age and follow Him who has entered before you so that you too might also enter. because the history of our lives, the history of this planet is still structured according to God's original creation. It is still structured according to the unfolding of time that meets its appointed goal and enters into the eternal age of God's Sabbath blessing. None of that has changed. All of that is intact and all of that is accomplished even through the fall, redemption unto the consummation. So that when Jesus tells us that the gospel is to be proclaimed to all the nations, He's telling us that because He's the Creator of all. And as the Creator of all, He is the Redeemer. And His redemptive purposes encompass the entire created order. This is what Paul tells us in Romans 8. Romans 8, verse 19 to 22. Political utopia! Null. It's waiting for the revelation of the sons of God. It's waiting for the fulfillment of God's redemptive purposes. His redemptive purposes, the anxious longing of creation, waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. The creation, brethren, listen to this, the creation leans into glory. The creation leans into glory. It moves toward the purpose of God. It comes together toward the goal of the revelation of God's goodness and creation that culminating in God's rest of Sabbath glory. and to bring creation to the rest of God's Sabbath glory, to the praise of the Redeemer, for whom all things have been created, through whom all things are created, in order to bring men to that redemptive Sabbath glory, The workings of salvation and redemption are all part of God's purposes for the creation. Paul says, see Adam, see Esha before the fall. That's a picture of Jesus and his love for you. It's all there. It's all there. See the Lord entering into his Sabbath rest. That's a picture of his redemptive grace for you. It's all there. Who in the world is excluded from that? Who of God's creatures? What racial ethnicity is excluded from that? What part of the geographical globe do we look at and say, well, gospel's not relevant for those people. Not when the creator is the redeemer. And the redemption embraces the entire fallen creation. In Revelation chapter 21 and verse 1. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and first earth passed away and there was no longer any sea. The new cosmos. But it's described with what language? It's described in the language of creation. So that we can be attracted to it. So that we can be attracted to it. It's described as a garden that is the temple of God. And so you come to the end of your Bible and you say, well, it's just like the beginning because that's the Bible's inclusio. That's what it's all about. God dwelling with his people in a garden paradise is the beginning. God dwelling with his people in a garden paradise is the end. And everything in the middle is all about God dwelling with his people. God saves from chaos and death. And he brings his people into the glory of his Sabbath rest. And here is the description of God's Sabbath rest. Verse 5, all things made new. Not all new things. All things may, I don't want to go to a heaven that is made, now help me somebody, Klingons or something, some creatures that I don't have any correspondence with. I don't wanna go to their heaven, they don't have one anyway. I wanna go to a heaven that is designed for humans. A heaven that is designed for humans. The new heavens and the new earth takes us to the garden of the true Adam, the Adam for which all things have been created, to a place where the people of Adam have multiplied and filled the earth, and the glory of Christ's rule subdues all the enemies, and death is no longer, and the curse is no longer, and Satan is no longer. And that's when it begins. That's when it begins. And all is summed up through the glory of Christ, through whom also God made the world, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things. Hebrews 1 verse 2 and chapter 2 verse 10, for from him And through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. Romans 11, verse 36. All that's created, all that is ours through salvation, all that is given to us in the resurrection, all that we look to, to the destiny of the glory that is coming, is all for the glory of Jesus Christ. So brethren, by way of application, first this morning, we must read scripture in context. I need to emphasize this to you because I want you to learn how to read your Bibles. You have to read scripture in context. And when we talk about redemptive history, that means one of the things you're obligated to do is locate yourself in this story. Locate yourself in this story. A lot of theological missteps are made when Christians locate themselves at the wrong place in the story. And they put themselves, as it were, back under the theocracy of the Old Testament. And they look at the things that God said to the theocracy and say, well, that's the way we need, wait a minute. You're not at the right place of the story. You're on this side of the resurrection. You're on this side of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. You're on this side of the Great Commission. You're not here to build a theocracy. You're here to take the gospel to the lost. You're here to establish holy temples for the worship of God. You're here to live lives of light and salt and the doing of good for the glory of Christ so that through your witness and testimony the nations will be brought into the kingdom of God. See the context. Now, that doesn't mean that a single verse in the Bible shouldn't be memorized or that single verses in the Bible are very, very helpful on occasions of crisis and so forth. What I'm saying is when you do that with the single verse in the Bible, make sure that you are not neglecting reading the verse in its context. Donald Carson has rightly said, a text taken out of context becomes a proof text for a pretext. All right? You can take a bit of the Bible. That's what people have done. Did you know that Marxism is based upon two phrases taken out of the Book of Acts? You can take the Bible and make it say a whole bunch of stuff. I already told you the joke about parachuting, reading of the Bible, you know, where I'm going to find out what my Bible, what God is going to say to me today. I'm going to take my Bible and my finger comes down on Matthew 27.5, Judas went out and hanged himself. That's not very hopeful, so let me see, I'll try again. Come down on Luke 6.31, go thou and do likewise. Well, that's not very helpful. Again, let me see. I'll come down on another one here. John 13, 27, what you are about to do, do quickly. You take a text out of its context and it can become very dangerous. So context is king when you're interpreting the scripture. So I'm starting there so that you might say to yourself, when Jesus says, go to all the nations, where does that come from? Well, this morning we're learning it comes from the creator. the Creator of the entire created order, which is the second point of application, and that is that our Creator is our Redeemer. Our Creator is our Redeemer. Do not put a whole lot of space between Creator and Redeemer. Okay? because the creation is the record. The record of creation is the revelation of the God of Israel. This is the revelation of Yahweh. This is the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the one who brought order and life out of chaos. This is the one who was still sovereign over the chaotic evil of this fallen world and our fallen lives. It is in the context of judgment that he saves his people and overcomes Death, He who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. You see how Paul, when he wants us to understand our salvation, he says, He gives life to you. He's the one who calls into being that which does not exist. That's Genesis 1. In 2 Corinthians 4, 6, God who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Paul says, you see how God spoke into the darkness? In Genesis chapter 1 verse 3, that same God who speaks light into darkness is the God who speaks the light of the knowledge of God and his glory revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. God overcomes the darkness and chaos with light and life and glory. The creator is your redeemer. Doesn't it strike you when you read the Psalms how often the psalmist is praising God as creator? How often the New Testament writers speak about God as creator? That's not irrelevant. That's our God. And we are to understand that the God who speaks light into darkness is the God who is our Savior. Do we groan? Does this planet groan? Is life often chaotic and threatening? Well, brethren, our God works all things together for good. There's no chaos in the hand of the sovereign loving God. So there's no conflict. When we praise God in Romans 4, 11, worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things. Because of your will, they existed and were created. There's no conflict with that praise of God and the praise in chapter 5, 13, to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever and ever. There's no conflict in the worship of the Creator and the worship of the Lamb because it is the worship of the one true God. who is the Creator and the Redeemer. So why is the Gospel to be proclaimed to all of the nations? Because Jesus Christ is the Creator of all, Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of His people, and the revelation of His grace and His love is good news to every creature under heaven. Amen.