Before The Beginning

To deliver the message this morning. if you're new here, my name is, Pastor Mike Berry. I'm one of the men who was not able to go to the fishing trip. although I've heard some really good things, but it's a great blessing to be here and to bring the word of God.

thanks to Nate Aiken for leading worship for the first time for us. You did a great job, Nate. Real blessing to have him on the On the crew And also, I just wanted to say just how grateful I am just Every Sunday just to see the ways that you guys serve each other and serve the body, just coming in and being able to get a cup of coffee and, men and women that are here at O Dark 30 setting up flags and doing sound, and it's just such a blessing just walking around and seeing the way, the ways that you guys all serve each other.

And so thank you for using your gifts, for the Lord, for his body.

these are eternal investments. We are, going to begin a series on Genesis starting next week. And so, we're really looking forward to this. Pastor Milton will kick us off in Genesis 1:1.

if you go to our website right from the home page, you can click on the little icon that you see behind me, and that'll take you to some study notes, we're, trying to coordinate the preaching series with what we're actually gonna be studying in our homes and encouraging you guys to take advantage of it, for family worship, and then we'll also be taking those studies and using that in our care group discussion. Pastor Carlos, and Pastor Milton have been working very hard and diligently to coordinate the study of Genesis, with the preaching of Genesis.

there are also, some handouts. I think it's on a table out to my left.

And then also at the information booth, if you want a hard copy today, I think we have about 150 copies of this week's study notes. This gives you day one. Here's what you, here's what you do and here's the questions you ask and or that you deal with. And so we'd encourage you guys starting today to begin studying Genesis through those notes.

And then when we gather together, we'll hear the word preached and then we'll go to our various care groups and we'll talk about both the preaching of the word and also what we studied that week in the word. So I encourage you guys to take advantage of that. the outlines that you guys have in your bulletin and even what the children have is out of date. I'm sorry about that, but this can be a nice lesson, and you guys can figure out what a sermon looked like on Thursday compared to Sunday and see how pastors go through updates and changes in their, in their outlines.

So you can just fill stuff in or use the back, what have you. this morning, we are going to be doing a prequel to the Genesis series, call this Episode 0. called Before the Beginning. What was God doing before Genesis 11?

What was God up to? What was he doing? when I was a public school teacher in the joint, Colton Joint Unified School District, I taught English to 7th graders, and we had an assembly one day where a lady came in and taught multicultural creation myths. And she got up and just acted out various creation myths, and she started a particular myth.

By saying, God, thousands and thousands of years ago, God was very lonely. And he was unhappy and he was very bored. So God tried to figure out what can he do to have a friend, and so he tries to create different things. He creates a rock and he creates mountains and he creates different animals and nothing would really satisfy his heart.

He was still lonely, still bored, but finally he created a human being and that brought his heart great happiness. And several of my colleagues knew that I was a Christian, and they just thought this was so wonderful that in this assembly, we were talking about creation, and so they all gazed at me with a big smile on their face, like, isn't this great? Isn't this awesome? And I just wasn't very good at like hiding my emotions and I, I think they could just tell by the look on my face, I was just like, I looked like I was ready to just throw up.

And And so one of my colleagues, came up to me afterwards and said, what's wrong? We're talking about creation. Isn't this wonderful? We're talking about God here in the public school and I just, I just said, God was not lonely.

God was not bored. this is not at all the God of the Bible. And so I reinforced the, stereotype of the straight-laced Christian. In my public school.

This morning, we're gonna take a look at what does God tell us about what he was doing before creation, and we're gonna be delving into some profound mysteries that admittedly are hard to understand. And even the language with which the Bible uses to describe these things really just probably gets at the edges of what is going on in eternity. And I want to offer us two warnings or dangers that we could fall into as we start talking about these mysteries. One is, we could say we could be tempted to say more than what God has revealed, or what can reasonably, reasonably be deduced from his revelation.

We want to be careful just to say what the Bible says. And try not to go beyond that lest we add the scripture. But secondly, we need to avoid teaching and believing what God has revealed on such a topic as this, and thus unintentionally take away from God's word. We don't want to like stop short of what the Bible says.

And, and be embarrassed or, or just say that we're not really sure what all of this means when God has clearly told us things about Himself. We see language all throughout the Bible that says before the world was, for instance, before the foundation of the world prepared from the foundation of the world, before the mountains were brought forth, or before time began, or from the beginning. There's language all over the Bible that gives us clues as to what God was doing before Genesis 1:1.

And so one of my life verses actually is Deuteronomy 29:29.

Where, Moses tells us the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. There are clearly things in the Bible that God has revealed to us about what was going on before Genesis 1:1. And so we want to take a look at those, and yet we don't want to go into the secret things that God has not revealed to us. We could say with Dine De Souza that once upon a time, there was no time.

There was a day in which there were, there were no succession of moments. There was no creation, there was no stuff. There was no space, there was no time. Gruden summarizes this in his systematic theology dealing with this, this attribute of God where he says, before God created the universe, there was no matter, no material.

So there was no space either, yet God still existed. Where was God? He was not in a place. That we could call where, for there was nowhere or space, but God still was.

We're looking at profound mysteries here. We're talking about a God who is spirit. Who created time, who created space, who created stuff. And before that stuff in space and time came into existence, God still is.

We're gonna suggest three things from the Bible, and I want to encourage you guys to have your Bibles ready, whether paper or electronic, to turn as fast as you can to a lot of different passages of Scripture. I've tried to turn fast in my, on my phone, and I just can't do it. It just goes so slow. And so, so I'm gonna be turning in my old fashioned copy of the word of God and encourage you to turn to all these different passages of scripture because I want us to see them together.

if you want to look up some of the things that we're gonna be talking about, we do have a guest password to our wireless, and so the guest password is guest. Some people have been asking for that. It's a capital G U E S T, thank you. Guest G capital GST, if you want to look up some things.

But we're gonna be basically dealing with three points. What was God doing before Genesis 1:1? Well, first of all, God. I Or we could say God existed, and there's a reason why I have the is underlined in the term existed.

So God existed. this term existed actually comes from the Latin existencia. There's a sense in which we could actually argue, as RC Sproul does, that God did not exist. And every one of you in this room, if you are a believer in God, if you are a theist, you could actually argue that God did not exist.

What do we mean by that? Well, if you look at the Latin word that comes behind exist, extensia, it literally means to come out of, to emerge from, or to become. Ex means out of. And so it's appropriate, when we're talking about stuff that's real, and we understand in the English language when we say God exists, we're just saying that he is, right?

I don't think too many people are asking us to split up the word and go back to the Latin. But if you do look at the Latin as Archie Sproll does, you would find out that it means that something has come out of something, something has come into being. And so in that sense, we would argue that biblically, God has not come into being. He, he is.

And so in that sense, because God does not exist. I'd love to have a t-shirt that just says, God does not exist. Ask me why, and just have people come up and ask me why God does not exist, so I can explain that to them. And you could say that yourself, God does not exist in the Latin sense of the term.

God is. that we can also refer to ourselves as atheists. Did that? Raise your hand if you're an atheist.

I am. I'm an atheist in the pre-Constantinian sense of the term, that one of the early criticisms of the church is that they were atheists. Why? Because they denied the multiple Greek and Roman gods.

They said there is only one God. And so one of the early debates that they would have is, if you are a Christian running around in the, in the 200s and 300s, they would call you an atheist. And so you'd have to defend why you're an atheist, why you don't believe in all of these multiple gods. And so we could make, we could update our t-shirt and say, I do not believe God exists.

I'm an atheist, ask me why. And you could explain that to them. It'd be a great witnessing opportunity. Well, how do we know that God is?

How do we really know that God is? There's some people in our culture that deny the existence of God, but they would say, hey, if you can show me the evidence, I believe in God. Just show me the evidence out there, and I will readily fall on my knees, and proclaim that God exists. This is In essence, what Richard Dawkins has said in his book The God Delusion.

If all the evidence in the universe turned in favor of creationism, I would be the first to admit it, and I would immediately change my mind. As things stand, however, all available evidence, and there is a vast amount of it, favors evolution. And by the way, Richard Dawkins is not a theistic evolutionist. He sees evolution as demanding that God does not exist.

If there were evidence, he says, if the evidence pointed in the direction of theism, he would become a theist and a creationist. God created. Is this true? Is Richard Dawkins being honest with us?

Well, we're gonna first answer Richard Dawkins from the Bible. And we make no excuses for starting with the Bible, because there really is no higher authority, as Hebrews 6:13 tells us, for when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by him. Self. There is no greater authority.

And so when God was making a promise to Abraham, If there were any other authority to which God could appeal, he could have appealed to that. He could have appealed to historical accuracy or logic or reason or observation. But no, he swears by himself. It's God Himself in his own word that is our ultimate authority.

And if you've been part of our Sunday school class, raise your hand if you've been part of the Sunday school class. Hey, you guys understand our argument. That God's word is the ultimate authority and all arguments for ultimate authority and starting points are of necessity circular, right? So we ask, we, we, we tell people that we believe that God exists because the Bible says so, and we believe that the Bible is the word of God because the Bible says so.

You say that circular reasoning, but everybody starts with circular reasoning from the get-go, right? Because if you say that, if you say that reason is your ultimate starting point, the only way to prove that is to say it's reasonable, that reason is our starting point. If logic is your starting point, the only way to prove that is to say it's logical. If empiricism is your starting point, that I only believe what I see, what I hear, what I taste, what I touch, the only way that you can prove that is through empiricism.

So everybody starts with faith. Everybody leaps out from a starting point and says, this is my starting point. Our starting point is that we can swear by no one higher than God Himself. And so he's the ultimate authority.

And so with Jesus, this is what Jesus does all over the New Testament. Jesus, for Jesus, Scripture is powerful, decisive, and authoritative, because it is nothing less than the Word of God or the voice of God. And so Jesus is constantly appealing. To the words of God to make his point in his case.

And so we follow in the footsteps of this lowly servant named Jesus, who uses the Word of God as the starting place, the ultimate authority. All that to say, how are we going to prove that God exists? Well, we start, we demonstrate it from the Bible. First of all, open up the Psalm 90 verse 2.

Psalm 90:2. And actually, I'm cheating here because I have my verses right here on my notes. So I'll wait for a moment for you to get there. Psalm 90.

Verse 2, Which says before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. And are there's in italics because there is no verb in the Hebrew, it's just you, God. That you were God or you will be God, it's just you, God. You the God.

You've always been God. Before the mountains were brought forth before you created everything, from everlasting, we can talk about in the past, everlasting into the future language really escapes us here. But the Word of God says from everlasting to everlasting, you, God, you are God. God exists.

The Bible tells us in Romans 1:19 and following that people have an inner sense of his existence. They know that he exists. God has made each person to have a sense of God's own existence. The Bible further tells us it's actually the fool that says there is no God.

Not this isn't saying that it's stupid people that say there is no God, it's the fool. The very definition of a fool biblically is someone who says there is no God, or I'm going to live as if I have no creator. And so it's the fool that says this. When I was a youth pastor, we actually wrote a song and we'd have all the kids singing the song.

The fool is said in his heart. There is no God, and we just repeat that over and over and over again. And all the rest of the, they are corrupt. They've done abominable works by raising their hands.

this is a song, right? This is a song. This is, this was sung. Imagine the people of Israel singing, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God, and teaching songs like this to your children.

this is the ultimate, according to the Bible, this is the ultimate in foolery, tomfoolery is to say, I don't believe in God. When the Bible, God's authority says there is a God in the beginning, God created. Notice just the way Genesis starts as Pastor we'll get into this next week. Genesis doesn't start with some proof for the existence of God.

It just says in the beginning, God created. It's assumed. And really, when you research, most people, most cultures for all of human history, have believed in what the existence of God. It's really a very, very small minority of people who have denied the existence of God.

And the Bible just frankly calls them foolish, because God can say that he has the authority to say that because he's the one that put the knowledge in their hearts. He's the one that created the whole world as evidence of his existence. And he looks at them and what do we do by nature? We, according to Romans one, we suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

There's a reason why we don't want to believe in God. It's because we don't want his authority in our lives. We want to live our lives the way we want to live them. Gruden tells us in a systematic theology, Wayne Gruden, that thus, for those who are correctly evaluating the evidence, everything in Scripture and everything in nature proves clearly that God exists, and that he is the powerful wise creator that Scripture describes Himself to be.

If the data was interpreted properly, everybody would come to this conclusion, but we have a problem. That is the fall, that is sin that clouds the minds. No longer do people have the appropriate glasses to put on, but they put on totally different glasses that gives them a radically different interpretation of the world. So we would argue from the Bible that God exists.

But secondly, we can also because this really is God's universe, and God really is the one who created logic and reason in nature, we can make arguments from logic. As long as we realize that people are going to interpret our rationale according to their worldview. Let's give just, just one logical argument. We'll, we'll, we'll call this the argument about the existence of matter.

The very existence of matter. If, if I'm engaging in a conversation with an unbeliever, and, and they want to tell me that they don't believe that God exists, one of the first things I do, like Greg Cochel speaks of in his book Tactics, is we ask Columbo questions, we say, how do that? How do that God does not exist? We don't always accept the burden of proof.

They're the ones that they're the ones that are making the claim, right? If they come to you and say, God does not exist. Then why do we accept the burden of proof? Turn the table, say, How do that?

And they try to give their various reasons for why they think God does not exist. Another question I ask is because they say, Where did God come from? That's one of the first things the average person will tell you on the street. Well, where did that come from?

And I refuse to answer that question out the gate. I'll say, Where did matter come from? Because they want to immediately try to make it this faith science type of debate. And so I want them to really begin to think through their worldview, where does matter come from?

And so they'll go back and they've seen some, the average person has seen some, something on the History Channel, right? It's normally where it comes from, or the Science Channel, that there's some speck out there that just compressed and then exploded. And so that's where matter come from. That, that doesn't explain it at all.

Where did that speck come from? Where does matter come from? Where does space come from? And if you keep asking this question over and over and over again, then eventually, if they're honest, they have to say, I don't know.

Can you prove the existence of matter or the origin of matter using the scientific method? Can you observe, measure and repeat? No, you cannot. So this is ultimately, it's a starting point.

It's a faith step. So now you've demonstrated we're both in the same camp when it comes to origins. You're accepting by faith, either the that matter, there's only really three options. This is what I would share with people.

Either matter has existed forever, and that's what some people will accept totally by faith. You cannot demonstrate the eternality of matter in a in a test tube, right? This is metaphysics. Now, if you want to have a philosophical discussion and just say, I accept, if they say, I admit, That I believe, as a presupposition that matter is eternal, I would say, great.

Now we can have a discussion. OK, because now, now we're really comparing apples with apples, right? You admit that matter is eternal. And the only way that you, that is because you accept it by faith, correct?

Do you follow? So that's one option is matters eternal or matter just popped out of nothing. That's the second option. And just about everybody, it doesn't matter if you're a theist or an atheist, rejects that idea that matter just popped out of nothing, that there was nothingness and the matter just appeared for no reason whatsoever.

The third option is that there is some eternal being, we're not arguing that he or she is personal at this point. We're just saying that there's some personal being that decided to bring all things into being. And so, I would just ask, ask a person, which one of these three seems to be most logical, which one of these 3 seems to match what we actually observe in the world, that nothing just popped into something, most people reject that, that matter is eternal and matter just organized itself into all of the complexities that we see in the world today, or that there's an intelligent designer that created the universe.

And to me, To me, according to my worldview and the way I'm interpreting the evidence, the existence of matter argument clearly points to God.

If I, if, if we were to blow something up, this, the average atheist out there who just believes in the Big Bang, they, they're basically arguing that you blow something up, and it organizes itself into complexity and beauty, that through random natural processes, you have organization. So if we just blow up this building, and please cut that out of the of the tape that goes up online, if we were to blow up this building, this building would suddenly organize itself. If I throw up a deck of cards a million times, if I give, give it enough time, it's eventually going to organize itself in order, or it's going to make some sense.

No.

This seems illogical. And when we look at this evidence from a biblical worldview, it makes sense. However, if you present this, and this is not something that Richard, Richard Dawkins has heard this argument before, does he accept it? No, because it doesn't fit his starting point, his worldview.

there's also, arguments as demonstrated by observation. We'll give like two observational arguments here, as quickly as we can. There's the, what we can observe and what you can call information science. This has especially been, very important since 1955, I think it was, with the discovery of the exact, structure of DNA.

Information science, we can define information as coded messages containing an expected action and intended purpose. Theorems of information science demonstrate creative information cannot arise spontaneously in in matter by chance process. When we look at DNA and all of the complexities and the coding and the language which go far beyond my expertise, but many, many, many scientists would look and say that this, there is just no way this complexity in these systems, this information just arose by chance.

And as we're interpreting the evidence through a biblical worldview, we would arrive at just that.

Biochemist Doctor Wayne Gish says this, the genetics are so incredibly complex and can be so marvelously interrelated that it's absolutely going to demand an intelligent source. The idea that all of this could have come about by random accidents, genetic errors, and so forth is just simply beyond comprehension. And we would say to Dwayne Grigish. Amen.

Right, we agree. but what about those who actually discovered the DNA structure in 1953, actually, Watson and Crick. Do they discover the DNA structure and fall on their knees and and proclaim God as existing and God as Lord? No, Francis Crick said DNA is a confirmation of evolution and discredits the God hypothesis.

James Watson, our understanding of DNA has helped to debunk religious myths from the past. Same evidence, two completely different conclusions. Why? It's worldview.

It's all about worldview. It's all about starting points. If you have a certain starting point, you're going to find the results. And as we look out into the world, the way God has shown us to interpret it, we see God everywhere where we see organization, we see structure, we observe, and we see complexity.

These people look at the DNA structure and they see chance and random processes somehow just moving in a way that causes complexity and structure. To me, from a biblical view, that just sounds foolish. It just seems foolish. And so I agree with what the Bible says.

There's also the irreducible complexity argument that we can observe in nature., there's in, in the human body or just in cells in general, there are complexities that cannot, could not have happened in a, in a molecules to man evolution scheme. In other words, there are things that are so dependent upon one another. If you take one little brick out of the complexity, the whole thing falls apart. One example would be blood clotting.

in order for our blood to clot when we're injured, a host of chemical reactions must take place in a highly specific order. If any of these parts are missing, the entire process fails. Hemophilia is an example of a disorder where one or more of these interdependent parts are missing or nonfunctional. For evolution to work, you have to build one block at a time.

From a from a moles to molecule standpoint, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about one cell structure that suddenly develops into multi-cell structures in complexity. So does this, does this prove to guys like Richard Dawkins that because we have irreducible complexity, that therefore, there must be a God? no, Wired science writer Brandon, Keene says this, the necessary pieces for one particular cellular machine were lying around long ago.

It was simply a matter of time before they came together into a more complex entity. It's always a matter of time. And what we do is if, if we're writing according to our evolutionary worldview, we just look for other pieces to explain away what seems to be clear data. He goes on to say that the process by which parts accumulated until they were ready to snap together is called pre-adaptation.

It's a form of neutral evolution in which the buildup of parts provides no immediate advantage or disadvantage. Neutral evolution falls outside the descriptions of Charles Darwin, but once the pieces gather, mutation and natural selection can take care of the rest. So what you have here is, is you just have natural through the process of natural selection, there's pieces that aren't needed that evolve, but they're not needed for anything. They just sit over here.

And then suddenly, something happens within a species where now we need that piece that's been sitting there for a million years unneeded. Let's go get it. And so, so then random, natural selection takes care of the whole process. Does that make sense to you?

So what happens is through accidental just random processes evolution creates things that are totally unnecessary and in future species or cellular machines suddenly find the need for them as time marches on. Which requires more faith, folks. And is Brandon's scheme, is he giving us this data because he observed it in a test tube, by the way? No, he's just hypothesizing to support his worldview.

That's all he's doing. Listen to what Michael Gray says, cell biologist at Dalehouse University. You look at cellular machines and say, why on earth would biology do anything like this? It's too bizarre.

He's looking at all the organized structure. He's looking at all the complexity and the machines that are irreducibly complex. He says, this is bizarre. I don't know how to explain this, but when you think about it in a neutral evolutionary fashion, pieces laying around for millions of years, in which these machines emerge before there's a need for them, then it makes sense.

Makes sense? If, if, now, brothers and sisters, I'm not saying this in a disrespectful way. But in my thinking, anybody who's trying to be rational, who reads the statement should laugh. This is nothing more than suppression of the truth and unrighteousness.

This is, I don't want there to be a God. Therefore, I will create imaginary things that I've never observed and call it science. so that I can escape, at least Huxley had the nerve to admit it at the end of his life, that the reason I argued against the existence of God is I wanted to carry out my sexual fantasies, at least he admitted it. These guys, they, they want to sit on their intellectual high horse and look down upon us.

And so, That's why we must start with the Bible, right? The Bible is our ultimate authority. It's our starting point. And when we read the evidences through the lens of the Bible, then the evidence is out there comport with our worldview.

But if you think you're gonna convince Richard Dawkins or any of these guys that God exists by somehow trying to pretend that there's this neutral ground in the middle where we can leave the Bible over there. No, we need to do like Spurgeon says, and we need to come, and we need to pierce hearts with the sword of the Spirit. God's Word is authoritative. And even when people deny that it's the Word of God, as we come and we use God's Word, it is powerful, it is sharp, right?

It is, it is God breathed. And really, there's nothing more powerful than the gospel in all of the world, right? The gospel, as Pastor Milton has taught us from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 1:18, it's the central point of God's power. And so, in fact, let's, let's just turn to as a reminder to, to 1 Corinthians.

And so, while it is, it is legitimate for us to use various evidences, maybe logical evidence or observational evidence, we need to not be fooled into thinking that somehow this is going to really win the day. Unless the Holy Spirit's operative in somebody's heart through the gospel. 1 Corinthians 1:18, for the message of the cross, it's what? It's foolishness to those who are perishing.

But to those of us who are being saved, it's what the power of God. So as we share the Word of God, if the Holy Spirit is operative, we're going to see it moving with power. So what was God doing before Genesis 1:1? Well, first of all, he was, or he is, he exists, right?

He is, everybody say he is. OK, so he is before mountains brought forth, wherever you created anything, you are God, everlasting to everlasting. Second thing, Is God relates. God's God relates or God is relational.

and this begs the question, who is God relating to? To whom is he relating? Yes. Before Genesis 1:1, to whom God is relating?

Himself. Did God need to create to have friendship? Did God need to create to have love? The God need to create so he wouldn't be lonely?

No, in the Christian worldview, we have really an amazing answer to the to a big problem. And that is how can God be personal if he didn't have anybody to relate to? How do you have a personal God? If God is by definition, love, who did he love before creation?

If God is by definition, relational, who to whom was he relating before creation? And the answer is himself. The Trinity is the answer to this question. God relates to Himself.

Now, this isn't a sermon on the Trinity, but let me give you the three main points of the Trinity, that are all supported in Scripture. God is three distinct eternal persons. God is three distinct eternal persons. You can demonstrate from the baptism of Jesus, for instance, that you have the Father, the Son and the Spirit all there simultaneously, and they're distinct.

Secondly, each person is fully God. You can go to all kinds of different verses to demonstrate the Father's God, the Son's God, and the Spirit's God. If you want some stuff on that email me, I'll give it to you. And then lastly, there is one God.

We don't have three gods, we have one God. The Bible's very clear, there's one God. And so, in the early church, you had this little triangle type thing, you had God in the center, right? And then you had Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And there's a line that connects each person to the center that said, the Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God, right? But then there's a circle around the edge that connects the persons that says the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Father. They're distinct, three distinct persons, but all fully God, right? Makes sense?

No, we don't understand this. But it is revealed in the Bible. And it answers some profound questions like, who is God relating to? How can he be personal and so on.

And so for all of eternity, before Genesis 1:1, we have a God who relates, and he relates in love. Turn to John 17, we'll look at a couple verses in John 17. John 17, God relates in love. This high priestly prayer, this is an amazing gaze into the relationship between the Father and the Son.

Where Jesus says, Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, and that you may, that you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. This is a this is terminology that we see over and over again. This is verse 24, sorry, John 17:24. You loved me before the foundation of the world, before Genesis 1:1, Father, you loved me.

There's a relationship going on between father and son before creation. Now we do have to deduce that while in this high priestly prayer, there's no immediate mention of the Holy Spirit. We do see the Holy Spirit mentioned in chapter 14 and 16 as being the helper and comforter that the Father and the Son are sending. We see from Hebrews 6 that this is the eternal Spirit.

We can demonstrate the deity of the Holy Spirit. So we see this interworking relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We also see that God is relating, within himself in glory. In verse 5 of the same chapter, high priestly prayer, Jesus says, and now, oh Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before what the world was.

There was an exchange of glory. An exchange of exaltation, where the Son is, is exalting and, and, and praising the Father and the Father is exulting in the Son and the Son is exulting in the Spirit, these inner Trinitarian mysteries that we just get a little bit of glimpse into. In this high priestly prayer. And so there's relationship going on in love and in glory.

And we'd also say in wisdom, We see in passages like Matthew 13:35, that there were secrets before the foundation of the world that are later revealed. And so there's secrets, there's, there's information. Moreover, in Proverbs 8:22 and following, you guys can go ahead, go ahead and turn to Proverbs 8. We have this, what we would call a personification of wisdom.

It's the idea where you take, you take wisdom and you in, in literature or poetry, you'd set wisdom up as a woman, and then you would speak of this woman and all of the attributes of this woman as representing wisdom. And so in Proverbs 8:22, wisdom is saying, the Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way before the works of old. That's another term for before creation. I have been established from everlasting from the beginning before there was ever an earth.

When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains abounding with water before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth. While as yet he had not made the earth or the fields or the primeval dust of the world. And so what you have here is, is, is wisdom personified speaking as being something that was experienced and given by God before Genesis 1:1.

Brothers and sisters, I want to propose to you that wisdom is a relational practical term, you don't have wisdom by yourself, right? There's wisdom that's being shared in the eternal. Space, using strange terms here, right? Because there's no space, there's no time, right?

We're talking about just God being Sharing wisdom, Father and Son and Spirit, sharing wisdom with one another. So there's wisdom, there's love, there's glory, and the wisdom takes us into this final point. And that is what was going on before Genesis 1:1, God was, God is, existed, God relates. Number 3, God decides.

God is determining things. He's making decisions. And when we look throughout the scriptures, we see terms like prepared beforehand. Appointed, chosen, elect, predestined before the foundation of the world, you see this type of terminology all over the scriptures.

What types of decisions Did God make in eternity past? Well, God decides to elect. to salvation, first of all, Turn to Ephesians, chapter one. And let's get a view of yourself.

In the mind of God before Genesis one. Ephesians chapter 1, and we're going to start in verse 3. God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit. Made decisions as it were, before creation.

How do I know that? Verse 3, blessed be the Godfather of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the verbs here, notice who the subject is of all these verbs, it's the Father. Who has what blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Just as he chose us, when did he choose us? In Him in Christ before the foundation of the world. With this result and purpose that we should walk holy, that we should be holy without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of whose will? His will.

To whose glory, to the praise and the glory of His grace, by which he made us accepted in the blood. All of these verbs I want to propose to you happen before the foundation of the world. Blessed, chose, predestined, made us accepted all before the foundation of the world. In Him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, which he has made to abound towards us and all wisdom and prudence.

There's that wisdom stuff. Having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to good pleasure of which he purposed himself, that the dispensation of the fullness of times, now we're in human history, he might gather together, in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on the earth in Him. And here's the clincher in him. Also, we have obtained an inheritance being predestined.

According to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of whose will, His will. God is making decisions. about you, about me before the creation of the world. we see, scriptures like Titus 1 verse 2, actually starting in verse 1, Paul, a bond servant of God, he starts up this book.

And what does he want to talk about right out the gate? According to the faith of God's elect, In the acknowledgement of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie promised before time began. Before time began. 2 Thessalonians 2:13, but we are bound to give thanks to God always for you.

Paul says, brethren and beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning, chose you for salvation. When did he choose you? From the beginning, this is this pre Genesis 1:1 stuff. From the beginning, God chose you for salvation.

First Thessalonians 5:9, God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation. These are just a few of the passages that talk about this inter Trinitarian deciding that happened before Genesis 1:1. Do we understand it all? No.

But we need to be careful not to avoid it, just because we don't understand it. It's clear that these are things that happened before Genesis 1:1. What else was God deciding before Genesis 1:1? He, he decided to provide for salvation.

God decided to elect, he decided to choose, he decided to appoint. And then he decides to provide for their salvation. We see this in some of the same verses that we were just reading. For instance, in 1 Thessalonians 5:9, God says, or as Paul says, for God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation.

How? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so if you really flesh out what's going on here grammatically, he didn't appoint you to wrath, but the salvation through a particular means. So he decides to provide the means for your salvation.

2 Thessalonians, where Paul says, beloved brethren, I'm, I'm thankful for you because from the beginning, God chose you. And he says, through sanctification by the Spirit, belief in the truth. God didn't just choose you, he provided the means for your salvation. Open up the first Peter, if you would.

First Peter chapter one. We're gonna fly through a number of verses here the last few minutes. First, Peter. Chapter 1, starting in verse 19, where Peter says, but with the precious blood of Christ, As of a lamb without blemish, blemish, and without spots.

He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world. Who was foreordained in verse 20? Say it again. Jesus, Jesus was foreordained.

Obviously, Jesus is eternal. So this must mean that he is foreordained to do something, which comes in verse 19. He is this lamb without blemish, without spot. He's got precious blood.

We're talking about the death of Christ. So before the foundation of the world, the death of Christ was foreordained. We see this also in Acts, a couple places in the Acts. Peter says it on the day of Pentecost in chapter 2, verse 20, where he says, Jesus, being delivered up by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God.

Jesus was delivered up to death by a determined purpose and foreknowledge. In Acts 4:27, We see this for truly against your servant, holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles, the people of Israel were gathered together to do what? To do whatever your hand. And your purpose determined before what to be done.

So everything that happened to Jesus, listen to the language that's being used here in this prayer, to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before it be done. When was this decided? Before, before when Genesis 1:1. So well before Genesis 1:1, the cross, the death of Jesus, the provision for salvation, has all been laid out.

Now, there's some different interpretations of Revelation 13:8. If you return to Revelation 13:8, you've got this situation of, of people not being written in the Book of the Lamb, right? the ESB says, and all who dwell on the earth, who will worship that is the beast, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world into the book of the life of the lamb that was slain. So the question is, is, should the, the phrase before the foundation of the world, should that go with These people were not written in the book before the foundation of the world, or should it be like the NIV that the lamb was slain before the foundation of the world.

There's different ways people go. If you have New King James, King James, it's gonna say that the lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. I want to suggest that that's probably the best reading. If you want to know why later, you can come up and ask me.

It has to do with the genitive case and all this nonsense that really doesn't matter at this point. But the slain before the foundation of the world, if that's the right rendering, You have in the mind of God, Jesus Christ being slain before the foundation of the world. And so God is providing for salvation. He's this, in other words, this is, this is the kicker right here is Christ's sacrifice was not an afterthought in the mind of God.

God didn't like go, oh, no, Adam and Eve sinned. The world is spinning out of control. What shall I do? OK, I know what we'll do.

Let's send Jesus Christ to come die on the cross. No, this, these are profound mysteries, brothers and sisters. That God in His eternal counsels had already figured out and decided that Jesus Christ was going to come die on the cross for the sins of the world, and that he had chosen you and he had chosen me, and he was sending Jesus to come ensure our salvation. And then thirdly, what is God deciding?

He decides to prepare for salvation, and judgment. So in the eternal counsels of God, we see verses like this, because of time, I won't have you guys turn there and I can tell you guys are getting real tired and I think some of your fingers are, are getting a little worn out. Matthew 25:41. Then this is the sheep and the goats passage.

Then he will also say to those on his left hand, depart from me, you cursed into the everlasting fire. Actually, no, that's not the one I read. I'm sorry, get have my house. Let's, let's turn to Matthew.

Let me turn to Matthew. I want to read the other one first. 25, 34. Matthew 25:34.

Then the king will say to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my father, when were we blessed? According to Ephesians 1, when were you blessed? Before the foundation of the world, come you blessed of my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you when from the foundation of the world.

This is a kingdom that has been prepared from the foundation of the world. Not only was his kingdom prepared for you, but listen to Ephesians 2:10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared when? Beforehand That we should walk in then. What?

You mean, so all the good works that I do and I feel so proud about. Oh, look at me, I'm such a good Christian. No, God prepared beforehand that I should walk in these good works. God is the one that decided that I'm going to do these certain works in the eternal counsels of God, to understand what this means?

I have no idea what I'm talking about. But we are his workmanship, and I've been created in Christ Jesus for good works. And by the way, so I don't get all proud about my works. Paul reminds me that these works were prepared beforehand by God.

Listen to what 1 Corinthians 2:7 says, where Paul says, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God Ordained before the ages for our glory. which none of the rulers of this age, had they known, they would have not, none of the rulers of this age knew, for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard nor have entered the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who loved him.

When did he prepare these things?

Ordained before the ages. Was God bored? Was God sitting around, what am I gonna do? I'm just so bored.

Man, I really wish I had a Wii or some video game. God had infinite love and relationship. wisdom, eternal decisions being made. We see, in Hebrews 4:3, I won't even read the whole passage where it just speaks of these works being finished before the foundation of the world.

In the mind of God, these things were done before the world even began. Then we have very difficult passages that are hard to understand. Revelation 17:17 8, which speaks of those who worship the beast in this tribulation period, and those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. These are difficult things.

Verse 5, for what if God, or I'm sorry, Romans 9:22. What if God wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long suffering, the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. That he might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory. Even us whom he's called.

What does that mean? Prepared beforehand. We have the blood of the prophets being shed from the foundation of the world. We have profound mysteries, brothers and sisters, in the decrees of eternal God.

What was God doing before Genesis one? A lot busy. Got a spirit God is not circumscribed by space. There are no succession of moments in his being.

And yet God is, God existed. He is relational. This concept of a relational God, does a lot to really establish The Christian concept of God is the only rational concept of God. one of the things that you can very politely ask an Islamic friend to say, who did Allah talk to before he created?

How do you have a personal God named Allah who has no friends and relationships? Who did he love? It's really only the Trinitarian concept of God where you have love and relationship. Before creation.

Theologians have called this the sanity of God or the independence of God, God's self-existence, that God does not, he did not create out of any need. Paul tells us, the Athenians in Acts 17 that God does not need anything, right? You and I are the ones that need and yet, We also see that God was Making decisions or these decisions had always existed in his, in his mind. God is independent, God is relational.

So what God is, God is. We have an independent God, not a needy God. We don't worship a needy being, a lonely being, a dependent God. We worship an all sufficient God who is relational and personal and loves us, and he foreknows us, and he predestines and he elects.

We come to him and we look at what he's revealed, and yet we let him have the secrets. And we say, God, I don't understand it all, but I accept what you've revealed to me. And I dare not peer into the secrets. I accept it and I worship you.

Let's, let's end with this final verse. How does this really help us today? Well, Paul tells us in Romans 8:29, for whom he foreknew. He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

That he might be the firstborn born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, whom he called these he also justified. Notice that these are all in the heiress for the past tense. These aren't things that might happen, and we're not really sure.

These are things that are settled in the counsel of Almighty God. He also justified whom he justified these also he glorified. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

He did not spare his own son, he provided for the salvation, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

If God had you in mind from eternity past before Genesis 1:1, if God looked out and said, you're mine, Is there anybody that can bring a charge against you that will ultimately damn you? Is your salvation in any way dependent upon yourself? The very works that you do, the very faith that you have is a gift from Almighty God. And when you, when we all with that faith go out and work for the Lord, we're not trying to earn any aspect of our salvation.

There's nothing that we can contribute to the plate of our salvation. God is the very one that gives us the faith. He's the one that's prepared the works that we should walk in them. It's God from start to finish.

He is the author and finisher of our faith. This is what the Bible says. We do we understand everything about it? No.

But we worship a God that is active, that was active before Genesis one. relational, making decisions. And we worship and praise Him for what He has revealed and we worship and praise Him for what He has kept secret. Amen.

Amen. Let's pray. Our Lord, we thank you so much for what you have revealed to us and our children that we may do them, that we may hear them and obey them. We pray God that you would Continue to grant us faith so that we could believe and affirm these things.

Some of these truths are hard for us as humans to put our minds around before we are the ones that are dependent. Without air that you provide, we would die. Without food and water that you provide, we would die. Yet you need none of these things, and yet you've chosen to create us, not out of need.

But you create us for your own glory, not that you need anything from us, but you choose to share yourself with us. We ask God that this will break great comfort to our hearts when we feel accused. We pray, Lord, that this would give us great boldness as we share the gospel. We pray, Lord, that this would humble us to realize how much of our life is ultimately dependent upon you and Almighty God.

Use these things we pray Holy Spirit in the lives of each of your children. We know that you can apply them. We pray that you convict us in the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. You'd apply the salve, the shed blood, the gospel of Jesus Christ our Savior.

We pray in his name. Now God's people said, Amen.