The scripture reading this morning is Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter one, we're going to be considering once again the apostles' creed and focusing on the omnipotence of God, which we see here. Well, the creed, you know, begins that I believe in God the Father Almighty. maker of heaven and earth. So, Genesis chapter one. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and there was evening and there was morning the first day. And God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters, and God made the expanse. separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse, and it was so. God called the expanse heaven, and there was evening and there was morning the second day. And God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called seas, and God saw that it was good. And God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth, and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning the third day. And God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth to rule over the day and over the night and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning the fourth day. And God said, let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth and across the expanse of the heavens. So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves with which the water swarm according to their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let birds multiply on the earth. And there was evening and there was morning the fifth day. And God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning the sixth day. And there you have the six days of creation, this great display of the power, omnipotence of God that we're going to be considering then this morning. And that is the word of God, and we are to receive it then as such. Father, as we come to your word, Once again, this Lord's Day, we ask that you would teach us, that you would send your spirit to enable us to understand, that you would give us insight into the truths of your word and strengthen our faith, that we would accept your word as it is, your word and not ours, that we would believe it, trust in it, trust in your promises, Thank you for speaking to us, for revealing yourself to us. We pray this all in Christ's name, amen. Well, here then, and you have it in your handout, let's recite together the Apostles' Creed once again. I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there, he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. Maybe by the time we're done with the study, we'll be able to just recite that. Although my memory is not as good as it used to be, so we will see. But we've looked at, to this point, what genuine justifying faith is. And after all, the creed is says three times, I believe, I believe, I believe. What does that mean? We looked into just who God is. I believe in God. Well, who is this God that we are talking about here? And we looked at how God in Christ has become the Christian's father, and we have become his children rather than his enemies. We saw how confessing this creed, confessing faith in God is also to confess faith in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as revealed to us in Scripture, and that we we confess faith in the Holy Spirit. So we confess that our God is the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons but in one Godhead. And furthermore, we looked at last time this matter of idolatry and that this confession rules out all false gods. It makes no room for any idol whatsoever. And we saw, we were reminded again, that the Roman church is an apostate church and that it is thoroughly an idol temple consisting of false sacraments, a false priesthood, and certainly a false gospel. And we were reminded then and exhorted, never compromise with Rome. Don't do it. Don't go into an idle temple, which is of Antichrist. Well, we continue on then with this confession of declaring, I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. And this is what we want to consider this morning. A fundamental attribute of God, And this is one of his what is called incommunicable attributes, all right? There are certain attributes of God that are true of God which are communicated to his creatures, the goodness of God. And certainly we don't possess the goodness of God as God is good, but nevertheless, Goodness is in his people then as well. But not a single one of us, no human being, no creature, can be said to be almighty. We are not omnipotent. What does it mean, then, that God is almighty? What does that mean, to have all potency, omnipotent, you see? Well, when we declare, first of all, that we believe in God Almighty, we are not confessing. Now, oftentimes we get this wrong, but we are not to mean God is really, really, really powerful, right? That is not what saying God is almighty means. What we're saying is what Jeremiah said. This is from Jeremiah 32. Lord God, it is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power. And by your outstretched arm, nothing is too hard for you. There it is. Nothing's too hard for men. Note also, as it is in the Apostles' Creed, you see there that Jeremiah connects specifically the almighty, the omnipotence of God, his infinite power, and the creation, you see. Man is required by God and responsible before God to believe in God and to see that the God who is, who is our creator, is omnipotent, you see. And we'll see more of that shortly. God's omnipotence is seen in the creation of heaven and earth in one great sense, as we think it through, and that is that when nothing existed, can you conjure up thoughts about nothing? Some people are probably better at it than others, but can you think of nothing? It's actually, actually it's impossible. You can't think of nothing because if you're thinking some thought about nothing, you're thinking about something and nothing, as R.C. Sproul would say, something is not nothing. And so we can't, but before there was any thing, there was only God. And God, as we just saw in Genesis chapter one, who is unmoved, he's not created, he's uncaused, he's eternal, all power resides in him, and he simply spoke, and it was, from nothing. Sometimes you'll run across that, I think it's Latin anyway, term ex nihilo, when God created out of nothing. We can't even comprehend that. How do you make something out of nothing? We can make things, but really all we're doing is refashioning them or combining them. But here we see particularly God's omnipotence displayed in his creation. Let there be. And there was, you see. How much power is in the sun? Well, I'm not any kind of an astronomer. I bet even astronomers would have a tough time quantifying in some kind of units how much energy or power is in the sun. But I do know this, our sun, is a relatively small star. It's a star. And it's relatively small. There are other stars that are giants compared to our sun and it's fortunate that our sun is not one of them or we wouldn't be here. But then How many stars are there in the universe? Nobody really knows. Millions? Billions? Nobody really knows how many, or for that matter, how many galaxies are in our universe. What makes all of them go? These stars are like these energy factories, right? Just burning and burning and burning. What is that about? Where does it come from? What's fueling the fire? And the answer that scripture gives us is it is God Almighty. How powerful is that? I mean, we can't even conceive of a being who would be able to keep our sun going in its energy source, but here's God, the creator of everything. He simply spoke and called it into being. So his power is not just great. He's not just really, really, really powerful. His power is infinite. And that's something we cannot conceive of. As far as we know, he created this universe, right? Now some of these questions would be, maybe it's even wrong to think about them. Not necessarily. Could God, is God powerful enough that if he wanted to, he could have created other universes, I suppose. Well, if you watch frequent movies nowadays, it's like the multiverse, you know. But God's revealed to us that he's created this particular universe. And we see here, we see this in Colossians, Colossians 1 verse 15 and following, he, and it's talking about Christ, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created. This is Jesus who, I mean, would it have been something that the apostles sit down and have meals with Jesus, he's the one that created the universe. All things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And if that's not enough to kind of blow your mind, verse 17, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. It's Christ that's holding it all together. He's called it into being, and in his power, his omnipotence, he holds it all together. So, people, we're all thinking about nuclear bombs these days. When a nuclear bomb goes off, it is, as I understand it, the release of power from atoms. That's why they talk about splitting the atom and so forth. But where did the energy come from that was released? Where'd that energy come from that was holding all those atoms together? What's holding the atoms and molecules of your body together right now? Well, the answer is Christ. That's why Paul told the Athenian philosophers, you know what, you guys, this God, who is the unknown God to you. He's not far from you. In fact, in him, we live and move and have our being. He's holding us together. He's right here. Right now, if you get up, say 5.30 or so in the morning, which we do because we have dogs, and it's their breakfast time. But if you get up in the morning on a clear night, last night was clear, or the night before. Anyway, you go out right now, and the moon was really bright, and right near it in the sky anyway is, I guess it's a Venus, a really bright planet there. We are accountable, all human beings are accountable to look up and see that and say, God exists, God created it, there's no other explanation. God created this and he created me, I am his creature. I must acknowledge him and give him thanks. And the chief reason that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against man, as Paul says in Romans 1, is man refused to do that. He looks up there at the sky and says, well, I guess stuff has always existed. I guess the universe, or maybe if it came, there was this magic ball that everything was compressed in and one day it blew up and then here we are, you see. What's energy? To say that God is omnipotent and that he has all power, what is power? Some kind of energy? There's light energy, there's gravitational energy, there's electrical energy. What is it? What is it? There's equations about it, but to define it, The only way it can be defined is it's Christ. It's his power. In him, all things hold together. Everything that is is created then by him. So when we declare that we believe, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, we're confessing this, John chapter one, in the beginning, was the Word, right? And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and he always had been. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. In him, that's where everything came from. He said, where does light come from? God said, let there be light, and there was light. In him was light, and in him was life. So we do not confess, we deny that the universe came into being by itself, that it's somehow eternal. We deny, we do not confess that the universe then is a product of time plus chance, or that life is the product of time plus chance. In God was life, and he said, let there be, and it was. Listen to Job, this is chapter nine of Job. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against him and succeeded? Nobody. He who removes mountains and they know it not. When he overturns them in his anger, who shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars tremble? Where'd that earthquake come from? God. Who commands the sun and it does not rise? Who seals up the stars? Who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea? Who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the Chambers of the South? Who does great things beyond searching out and marvelous things beyond number? Behold, he passes by me and I see him not. He moves on, but I do not perceive him. Behold, he snatches away, who can turn him back? And then here is the kind of the summation, who will say to him, what are you doing? Now people do that. Sinful man does that. God, what are you doing? What are you doing? Well, who are you old man? To answer back then to God. I was reading in John Owen in the first part of his, book, The Death of Death and the Death of Christ. It's kind of hard going for sure, but he said regarding this matter of man asking God what's he doing questioning God. He said, you know, when we follow God, when we follow Christ, we need to follow him. But man, in his pride, he always wants to get out in front of God. He wants to be out here. He wants God to follow him, which is to say, well, God, you know, you've revealed yourself to us in this way, but I'm gonna make some edits here. I'm gonna tweak this, you see. And that way, God, guess what? I can improve upon you. I can make you better and bring you more glory. And so this is why, and of course, what Owen's doing in that book is he is destroying the argument of the Arminian, who's claiming that man has free will. And that God, salvation is not entirely of the Lord, God, a man has to choose and do his part. And what Owen is saying is that, Well, you know what? That's not what God says in his word. What he's revealed to us is, Jacob I loved and Esau I hated. That's how it is. And that I elected in eternity past my people, according to my good pleasure, and the others, according to my good pleasure, I passed by, and that they would perish in my sins. And as Owen points out, that is the most glorious statement about God. And we must never come to the word of God with this attitude of saying, Well, okay, that's what it says, but God, I can help a little bit. I just don't think it's very glorifying to you to say that there are people that you don't love. I don't think that, so I'm gonna say what must really be true is that you love everybody, and there. We can glorify, well, that is to create an idol. And doing those kinds of things arouses God's wrath against man. We have no right to say to God, God, what are you doing? There's nothing wrong with saying, well, Lord, I know I don't have the big picture. I'm not you. I know that whatever you do is righteous and good. I don't understand what's happening to me right now. That's good to pour your heart out to God. But what Job is talking about here is the critic of God. God, what do you think you're doing here? I have a better way. What are some practical implications then of the omnipotence of God? It's always very practical. applications here. One thing is we believe God is sovereign, that is he's king of kings, he is the sovereign. He's king of kings and lord of lords. You can't be a king if you don't have power. And you can't be king of kings and lord of lords unless you are omnipotent, you see. So to declare that God is almighty is to declare that he is sovereign, that he knows what's going on in Israel right now. He knows what's going on in every war, he knows what's happening. He's decreed it, everything that comes to pass in eternity passed. But if God were not omnipotent, He could not be sovereign. He could not be, you couldn't be assured that he's in perfect control of everything that happens to you, touches you. The thing would be impossible, because there'd be all kinds of, there'd be something out there that could thwart his purposes. But that can't be because he is almighty. Also because he is almighty, he is the giver of life and he raises the dead. Here's a little blurb about the background of the novel. We all think of it as a movie, right, but a novel. The novel Frankenstein, I guess the original title was Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. And I was gonna look up Prometheus, but it's one of those alien movies, I think, right now. But this character, but that's Mary Shelley that wrote it. Well, listen to what this account explains here. During one mid-June evening, the discussions turned to the nature of Mary Shelley, and she married the poet, I can't remember, was it Percy Shelley? Anyway, this other well-known poet, ultimately he drowned in a lake, but one mid-June evening, June evening, the discussions turned to the nature of the principle of life. Perhaps a corpse would be reanimated, Mary Shelley noted. Galvanism, studies in electricity, had given token of such things. It was after midnight, before they retired and unable to sleep, she became possessed by her imagination as she beheld the grim terrors of her waking dream. They'd challenged each other to come up with a ghost story, see. She says, I saw the pale student of the unhallowed, unholy arts, kneeling beside the thing he had put together, the monster. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital emotion. Frightful must it be, for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world. So here she is, she's acknowledging that God is a creator of the world, but man, you know, if he could just harness enough power, maybe he could even conquer death, and he could bring a corpse then to life, you see, and somehow they were thinking, you know, galvanism, pump enough electricity into this corpse, and it will live. Well, it might happen in a fiction, but All that happens in real life is you're going to burn it up, you see. Well, that would require, what does it require to bring a corpse to life? No amount of electricity is going to do it. What kind of power does it take to raise the dead, to command Lazarus, come forth? and he who was dead came forth. What kind of power does that take? It requires the infinite power of God in whom is life itself. It's this resurrection power from the one who is the maker of heaven and earth. Genesis 2, then the Lord God formed man, of the dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." And again in Revelation 20, then I saw thrones and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image, and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years, you see. We believe in this God who speaks and raises then the dead. He's the creator of heaven and earth. And it's a good thing. It's a really good thing that God is omnipotent in this sense because not only will he raise our body when Christ comes again, but There's another kind of resurrection that in many ways is even more important, Ephesians 2. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Every one of us in that sense was stillborn. We're born dead, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that's now at work in the sons of disobedience, Satan, in other words, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, objects of God's wrath, like the rest of mankind, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, and here it is, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you've been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In ways, I think we're to understand that this is a greater exercise of God's power than the creation of the universe. That he saved us, he had mercy upon us when we were dead. And he spoke to us by his spirit through the gospel and said, live. Come forth. God has to put us to death. We who were dead, he has to put us to death with Christ, raise us up again with Christ, and recreate us as new creation. This is, as I said, a greater manifestation of his glory and his power than the creation of the heavens and the earth. In light of the doctrine of the omnipotence of God, particularly in his work of creation and salvation, why is it that so many professing Christians insist that salvation is a cooperative effort between man and between God? Fundamentally, that is what Arminian theology maintains. God does his part. But I've got to do my part. Now, why is that? Well, one of the reasons, I think, for it is that they do not truly believe that God the Father is almighty. I don't think they believe that. I think that even God can't create faith. That has to come from me. I have to believe. And they limit, then, the power of God. There's many ways, I'm convinced of it. We've no doubt been guilty of it to some degree at one time or another ourselves, maybe more so than we realize, where our actions don't really portray faith in a God who is Almighty. Most of you have probably heard of Charles Hodge. He lived from 1797 till 1878. And he was a Reformed Presbyterian theologian. And he was the principal, the head or president of Princeton Theological Seminary back in its glory days when it was sound doctrinally. He was a leading exponent of the Princeton theology, which was just Orthodox Calvinism, Reformed theology. And he was a champion for maintaining the authority of scripture as the word of God. Now listen to what Hodge has to say here about the omnipotence of God and its implications for us. He says, it is by removing all the limitations of power as it exists in us, that we rise to the idea of the omnipotence of God, and we still won't entirely get there, but remove all limitations of power. We can do very little. God can do whatever he wills. We, beyond very narrow limits, must use means to accomplish our ends. For example, if we're going to drive a nail, we need to use a hammer. But with God, means are unnecessary. He wills, and it's done. He said, let there be light, and there was light. He, by his will alone, created the heavens and the earth. At the will of Christ, the winds ceased, and there was a great calm. By an act of the will, Christ healed the sick, opened the eyes of the blind, and raised the dead. This simple idea of the omnipotence of God, that he can, without effort, and by his will, whatever he wills, is the highest conceivable idea of power, and it is that which is presented to us in the Bible. I am the almighty God. Genesis 17. There is nothing too hard for you. Jeremiah 32. With God, all things are possible. Matthew 19. Our God is in the heavens. He has done whatsoever he pleased. Psalm 115. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that he did in heaven and in earth. in the seas and in all deep places, Psalm 135. The Lord, Hodge continues, the Lord omnipotent reigns and does his pleasure among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. This is the tribute of adoration which the scriptures everywhere render to God. And the truth, which they everywhere present as, and here it is, the ground of confidence in his people. What kind of faith could we have in, for example, the promises of God, if God were not omnipotent? There would be no real assurance, no guarantees. Luther recognized that the omnipotence of God necessarily means nothing can stand against him. Can't even begin to stand against him. We're gonna conclude the service in a little bit here by singing Martin Luther's hymn, A Mighty Fortress. Here's this great verse. And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God has willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure for lo, his doom is sure. And look at this, one little word shall fell him. You know, the final battle between Christ and his enemies, it's not really a battle. He speaks and it's done. That's it, one little word, Revelation 19. From his mouth comes a sharp sword, his word, with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. And again, and I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur and the rest were slain, look at this now, the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him. That's just to say he spoke and it was done. Who was sitting on the horse and all the birds were gorged with their flesh. That's why Hebrews says the word of God is powerful, sharper than any two-inch sword. So this is where assurance comes from because God is almighty. In addition to other things, he's good and he's holy and he is just. The ending of the Bible is certain. The outcome of human history is not in doubt. We've read the end of the book. We know how the story ends or really how it really begins with the new heavens and the new earth. Here's God the Omnipotent, Psalm 2, the kings of the earth set themselves. And the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. See, this is what they really are all about. They hate God. They want to be done with him, no God for us, right? Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. And what's God's reaction? He who sits in the heavens laughs. He holds them in derision. You know, here's this little bug, squish. He doesn't even have to take his thumb to squish him. He just speaks and they're squished. Psalm 118, the Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Hebrews 13, keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have. For he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me? Nothing, ultimately. Can't do it because God is, the Lord is my shepherd. Now there's a lot to be afraid of in this present wicked world, right? I mean, there are fearful things that happen. I mean, these are increasingly fearful days that we live in. Our own nation is, I mean, this is a given to any thinking person that wants to think the truth. Our own nation is led by corrupt and wicked leaders. in the highest offices in the land, and they're using their power to dominate and control. They hate Christ. They hate his people. How are we to respond as God's people? The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Because our helper is omnipotent, you see. Justice for his people is coming. The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. So I shall not want, you see. This leaves plenty of room for us to examine ourselves, right? How much time do you and I spend every day being afraid of something, being anxious about something? It's kind of crazy because, well, the Lord understands our frame. He does understand this. He knows we are weak. But nevertheless, for us to fear and be all keyed up and anxious is really in our sin to be not believing in God omnipotent, right? Because God has this, but we worry about things. What if social security runs out? What if there's a nuclear war? What if evil wins the day in our nation and we lose our constitutional rights? What if I get cancer? What if somebody opens fire at the mall the next time I'm there? What if I lose my job? What if people hate me? What if God stops loving me? But not a single thing on those lists is anything that I truly need to be afraid of. It's as that Psalm 18 verse said, bottom line, what can man do to me? What can he do to me? He can kill me and send me to heaven. And then that's it, he can't touch me. So these fears dissolve in the light of the omnipotence of God. He's made all kinds of promises to us and he can't fail. It's impossible for him to fail. His word always then comes. Here is, let's see, this is John Calvin. Let us consider what our Lord Jesus Christ says, that if we have a small grain of faith, we will be able to make mountains move out of their place, break loose and cast themselves into the sea if need be. Not that this has to happen just because we want to amuse ourselves and make entertainment of God's promises. We must receive them with all reverence. But the long and short of it is that nothing will be impossible for us if our trust is in God. It was Calvin that said this, we must not in these things walk in front of God and insist that he follow us as if we have the right to command him. No, our faith must follow and God's word must guide it. For his word is not called our lamp. My word is a lamp to my feet, right? Without reason, in the midst of this world's darkness, it must light our way so we can stay the course. And if our faith follows God's word that way and is governed by his guidance, we will then be able to overcome everything that's against us, neither mountains nor valleys, neither fire nor water, neither sword nor anything else will be able to harm us because we have God's promise in which he tells us that he protects us, that our lives are precious to him, And since we have his promises, it is certain that we cannot be disappointed. Even Satan's instruments to destroy us will help us if we put our confidence in God and call upon him. And so all of those things are true because we believe and we know that God is the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. Now, and I think I'll end with this section here. God is almighty, and therefore, his other attributes would elicit this fear as well, like his holiness. But the almighty God is to be feared by all men, all human beings. We are to fear God, you see. But as God's children, we don't fear God in the way that we used to fear God, nor in the way that the wicked fear God, even though they deny it, you see. We fear God with a reverential fear. That kind of fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the fear of the Lord. It is a good thing. Knowing who God is, we fear him, we honor him, we fear God. displeasing and we don't want to displease him as he is our father. But the terror of the Lord remains for the wicked, for all who reject Christ. Now, right now you can talk to unsaved people and if they have any sense at all, they would be in fear that a nuclear war might happen in this world. But I can show them something that's far worse than a nuclear war. The interesting thing is, human beings who will have nothing to do with God, nothing to do with Christ, boy, they'll expend all kinds of efforts, gotta dig some kind of a shelter, gotta keep myself, you know, there could be a nuclear war, we've gotta take action against this. But here's something they should be terrorized by, but they aren't. Paul, Silvanus, 2 Thessalonians 1, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly. And the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you're enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God. that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering. Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. Now get this, here's the point that we really wanted to get at. This is Jesus, right? When he comes again with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. There it is. They should be terrified. And when he comes, guess what? They'll be terrified. Rocks and mountains fall on us, hide us from the wrath of the land, the day of the wrath has come. And then it'll be too late. Chapter two of Second Thessalonians, then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth, his word, see, and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false, in order that they may be condemned, that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. And Peter, when he describes Christ's coming, he's talking about the very elements of the earth and the universe melting in fire. And that's why I say, this is what This is what the wicked should be afraid of. They're the ones who should be running to the rock of ages, let me hide myself in thee. But hide themselves from what? From God, from the wrath of the Lamb, you see. All of these things, and I'll let you take a look at the rest there that's in your handout regarding some fallacies in regard to this as people think they're so wise and they want to deny the omnipotence then of God. But for us, as Christ's people, Why should we be afraid? There's no reason for us to be afraid. We read over and over and over again in scripture that this world is a mess. There's gonna be wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes. This is how it's gonna come down. But the end is not yet. The end will come when Christ comes again. In this world, you will not have peace. The declaration and greeting in all of Scripture for God's people is grace and peace to you. We have peace because we are at peace with God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, thank you for that peace. Thank you for these truths. Please forgive us for all of the times in our unbelief that we doubt you and we behave as if You are not omnipotent. We ask your forgiveness, Father, and we pray that you would help us to do better, that you would increase our faith. And even in this world, as peace becomes more and more rare, that we would experience the true peace that you've given to us in Christ in greater abundance. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.