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Dr. Myron Golden
I thank the Lord for the opportunity to be here this morning, still morning, this morning, and thank the Lord for this church, for all you wonderful people, for those of you who are not so wonderful. I didn't want to leave anybody out, amen.
And I dare say that I don't think I have a closer friend in the world than Brother David Mitchell. I truly believe that there's not anything he wouldn't do for me, and I know that there's not anything that I wouldn't do for him.
So consequently, we just go around doing nothing for each other. I'm just, I'm just kidding. Really, I love David and this church. Thank God for God. I'm just going to read one verse this morning, and we won't even be able to finish this verse.
It's not a very long verse, but it is a very heavy verse, and we're just going to look at it a little bit, turn around a couple of times, look at it from a couple of different perspectives, and then we'll be as close to done as we can get this morning, amen.
Genesis chapter one, verse one, it says, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. I didn't read that too fast, I hope. But that is indeed a great, great verse saying so much, and I want to talk to you this morning.
I'm not, you know, I'm not, I'm not very deep. I'm not, you know, I'm not even all that smart, but I'll tell you what, this Bible is awesome now. If we'll just look at it, if we'll just meditate it, God will show us some things.
I want to talk to you this morning on this subject. If he can do that, he's got to be God. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the power of it, the power of your word that sustains all that we know and see and feel.
Lord, you are truly awesome in our daily lives. We are so hurried sometimes, Lord, we've got so much to do. So little time to get them done, how great and how awesome and how powerful you really are. But I pray us to think about you a little more today and hereafter.
There was a time, if time it could be called, when God in the unity of his nature, though subsisting equally in three divine persons, dwelt all alone. There was no heaven where his glory is now particularly manifested, no earth to engage his attention.
There were no angels to him as praises. There was not even a universe to be upheld by the word of his power or by the glory of his power. There was nothing and no one but God and that not for a day, not for a year in age, but from everlasting, God was self-contained, self-sufficient and self-satisfied and in need of absolutely nothing or nobody.
That's one of the reasons perhaps we cannot comprehend God, because we need so much and he needs nothing. This verse says almost as much in what it doesn't say as it says in what it does say. Notice with me, if you will, that God does not go about to prove his existence in Genesis chapter 1 verse 1.
He does not go about to prove his authority, he just assumes it. He just states a fact, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth without any shred of proof, without any effort put forth whatsoever to prove to you his existence because God does not lose anything if we don't believe in him.
There are a lot of people who call themselves evolutionists who say that they don't believe in a God. They feel like if they could just eliminate God, then they don't have to deal with him. But the fact is, whether or not you try to eliminate him with your verbiage, you still going to have to deal with God one day.
They say that everything that is just happened to be, imagine that, everything, with all of its intricacies, all of its minute detail just happening to come into existence. There was a poem once written about an evolutionist that goes like this, once I was a tadpole small and thin, then I was a froggy with my tail tucked in, then I was a monkey up a coconut tree, now I'm a professor with a Ph .D.
They say there is no God, everything that is just happened to be. B .R. Lakin was an evangelist and he said those peanut brained, possum headed, pin whiskered rabbit faced monstrosities, the professors that praise our father which art in a coconut tree, they are biological baboon boosters.
Now I don't know what a baboon booster is, but it sounded like an adequate description to me. Notice also, if you will, that God needs nothing. The verse doesn't say it, but it does say it without saying it.
The Bible says in the beginning God created, which means before the beginning, God was already there, if you could call it there, because it really wasn't anywhere, but he was there anyway. Before anything else was here, before all the things that we need on a daily basis, a moment by moment, a moment basis, we need oxygen to breathe, without it we're gone.
God didn't need any oxygen. Moment by moment we need an earth upon which to stand, God needed nothing upon which to stand. We need food day by day to eat and God in his word said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't tell you.
God needs no food to eat, no water to drink. God, before there was anything, was totally self-existent, self-contained and self-satisfied. Do you think about this? When the Bible says in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, it shows us that God, unlike us, is not bound.
See, we're bound. We're bound by three dimensions. We're bound by time. All of us feel like we just need, if I just had a few more hours in a day, if we had a few more hours in a day, those would be just a few more hours for us to be frustrated by the fact that we don't have enough time to get everything done anyhow.
We're bound by time. God's not bound by time. God has always existed. He's not bound by time. He's been there from everlasting, before the beginning. He'll be there after everlasting, after the beginning.
There never was a time when there was no God. There never will be a time. God is outside of time and operates in time, all at the same time. God's before time and after time and in the present time, all at the same time.
God's awesome. He's awesome. I mean, we can't even think about it and he does it effortlessly. God's not bound by space. There was no place to be yet God was there. God's not bound by matter. We're bound by all three.
The more we have to do, the more we realize that we're confined to one place at a time. You ever think about that? What if you could be here and at home mowing the grass right now? Huh? Wouldn't that be good?
Wouldn't it be good if we could be more than one place at a time? But we can't, but God can. The Bible tells us in Psalm 139, verse 7 through 10, Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Whither shall I free from thy presence?
If I ascend into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me.
God is not bound by space. God is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The Bible says God is a spirit. Now, where does a spirit live? What does a spirit look like? How heavy is a spirit? God is a spirit.
They that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 1 Timothy 1 .17 says, Now unto the eternal, immortal, invisible, only wise God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Our very life depends on the matter around us performing in a way that we expect it to perform.
And when it fails sometimes, as it sometimes does, it doesn't just cost us in money, but it can cost us in our very lives. You think about people who get on an airplane. They sit down. They put all their faith in this big, old, heavy piece of machinery.
Now, I don't know if you've ever studied this, but think about this with me. A 747. How many of y 'all ever rode on a 747? Now, that's a one boat, big airplane. Fully loaded. It weighs just short of a million pounds.
It flies around the area. 600 miles an hour, like, no problem. Yet and still, we are dependent on that matter. We're dependent, when we're on that plane, we're dependent on the matter in this building to hold it up just to sustain our lives.
God's dependent on nothing. The person of creation proves that he is God. In the beginning, God. That's what it says. In the beginning, God. That's an awesome word. God, sometimes we take it lightly. The world would even go so far as to use God's name as a common curse word.
But I say the word God is an awe-inspiring word. Just his very nature. His person proves that he is God. God is an omniscient God. Knows everything. Now, have you ever stopped to think about that? Ever stop to think about how hard it would be to know everything?
Now, we sometimes think we're pretty smart. I mean, we look at some people, we think they're pretty smart. We think, well, Einstein was the smartest man in this country. You know, I saw that on Time Magazine.
Then we think of other people, and we think, man, that person's pretty smart. I think Brother David's pretty smart. And I think Brother Botes is pretty smart. And I'm sure there's some of the rest of y 'all that are pretty smart.
I know Brother Mitchell, Brother Fred Mitchell. They're pretty smart. I know that I've met some pretty smart people in my time. But you know the difference between human smarts and God's smarts? Ever stop to think about this?
Everything that we know, and it's only a little bit anyway. Let me tell you about this a little bit. Everything that we know, we had to learn. And it's limited. We only know a little bit. God knows everything.
He didn't have to learn none of it. That's awesome. God does not know everything because He learned everything. God knows everything because He designed everything. That's an awesome God. Who likes to read a book and knows every content of the book.
That's an awesome God who never has to study a subject but knows infinitely perfectly everything about that subject. And I like it when God shows off. Because sometimes God just shows off. He says, I'll show you how much I know.
He said, the very hairs of your head are enough. All six million people in the world today, all that have ever lived in the past, all that will ever live in the future, God said, just so you know how much I know.
I know how many hairs on all there is. We don't stop long enough to think about how awesome He is but I'm telling you, God is omniscient. Knows everything there is to know. Knows every person there is to know.
And everything about them. Some people think they can hide in the dark from God but darkness cannot hide from Him. Curtains can't hide from Him. Doors can't hide from Him. Nothing can hide anything from Him.
Even those who are faint. He knows everything we've done, everything we've seen, everything we've said, everything we've done, everything we will do. Nothing is hid from this awesome, awe-inspiring, almighty, omniscient God.
I really wish I could describe it to you this morning. The person of creation is omniscient. If He can know everything, He's gotta be God. Nobody else has ever done that. He's omnipotent. I want you to think about that for a minute.
A God who knows everything and cannot do what He determines to do about what He knows, then He wouldn't be God. But He can do whatever He wants to do. Whatever He wants to do. He don't have to change what nobody is.
All power. All power He owns. Doesn't have to get permission. Doesn't have to meet anybody's approval. He's just God all by Himself. Amen. The Bible says God has spoken once. Twice I've heard this. All power belonging unto God.
Just by the fact, the very nature of the fact that God has spoken once, we know that He's God. David, when you're in trouble, and I'm in trouble at the same time, He don't have to leave you to come to me.
Amen. He's omnipresent. The person of creation proves He's God. If He can do all those things, He's gotta be God. Why don't you think about something else? The power of creation proves He's God. The power of creation is the Word of God.
The Bible says in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him. Without Him was not anything made that was made.
What a demonstration of power. That's a demonstration of power. To create galaxies, a universe, planets, stars, sun, moon, without even lifting a finger He just speaks it. What an awesome God. He just says, let there be light.
Now, see, let me demonstrate for you if I could. If I could. Brother Russ, can you help me? Can you get that light switch over yonder? That one right over there. Okay, yeah, whatever turns these lights off up here.
These pretty chandeliers. Somebody turn these pretty chandeliers off. Now, see, Jesse just turned those chandeliers off. Thank you, Jesse. But you know what? These just chandeliers. These just lights.
Jesse, turn those back on. Don't use your hand. Okay, turn them back on. Use your hand. You say, Brother Myron, what's your point? There's not a one of us, no matter how powerful we might think we are, there's not one of us in this room that can turn these lights on without being as great as us.
God is powerful enough to create everything. Now, that ain't enough. How awesome I really am. I don't even need to touch my enemies. The Bible says in Psalm chapter 2, verse 4 and 5. The Bible says what, now I forgot the first verse.
Verse 4 and 5 says, He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak. Why do the heathen rage? The kings of the earth set themselves. Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointing, saying, We shall break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.
But he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath and vex them in His sword of His word. The Bible tells us over in, man, I didn't put the verse down there.
But, I thought I did. The Bible says that He shall curse. That's an awesome God. You know, we say, Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. I'm telling you, if you're the enemy of God, His word will crush you.
Powerful enough to create everything. God said, I'll tell you what, I'm going to give it to you in a form. If you use it right, you won't even hurt yourself. Amen? That's an awesome God. And it's powerful enough to consecrate the elect.
The Bible says in John 17, 14 through 17, the Bible says, I have given them thy word and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy word. Thy word is truth. God gave us His word and the fact that His word is powerful enough to consecrate the elect shows us that He's God.
When I think about the fact that God saved me, hey y 'all, you know what? You might be impressed with me, but if you knew me better, you wouldn't be so impressed. You wouldn't be any more impressed with my wife and kids.
If I knew you, I wouldn't be any more impressed with you either. But God knows us and God said, I'll save that one anyhow. God didn't save me because of me. God was not impressed with Myron Golden, not one little iota.
The hour of God's word. The Bible says in John 8, 31 -32, The Bible says,. Then said Jesus unto those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my words, then are ye my disciples indeed and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
Thank God for the word of God that frees me from the bondage of this wicked world, that frees me from the sin that my mind, that my flesh wants to commit. Thank God for the word of God. Well, the purpose of creation.
We talked about the person of creation. He is omniscient. He is omnipotent. We talked about the power of creation, the word of God and how it has the power to create everything. How it has the power to crush us and how it has the power to consecrate the elect.
But now let's look at the purpose of creation. We look at all these great things that God has done and we have to ask ourselves what's the meaning of it all? Sometimes we go through life and we want to ask.
We say, well, we can't ask God why. We want to ask, why did he do all this? What's the reason behind the sun and the moon and the stars? What's the reason behind this spinning planet? What's the reason behind all the relationships in my life?
What's the reason behind all the pain that I see going on in the world? What's the purpose? And I'll tell you, I believe the Bible gives us the purpose for everything that God created in Revelation chapter 4.
Why he made you. Why he made me. Why God made everything that is. I believe it's all summed up in Revelation chapter 4. The Bible says, Revelation 4, 11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and here it tells us why.
For thy pleasure they are and were created. That's why everything was created. That's why you were put here, to please him. That's why I was put here, to please him. It was all because we were put here to please him.
I want you to notice something. I don't know if you ever thought about this or not, but what pleases God is obedience. We were kind of talking about that in Sunday school this morning. I'm amazed how often that happens.
He is pleased by the obedience of his creation. Did you ever think about that? Over in Genesis chapter 1, the Bible says in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Verse 3 says,. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good. So God divided the light from the darkness. The Bible says, God said,. And there was light, and God saw that it was good. God said it. It was so. God said, It's good.
He's pleased by it. Why? Because it obeyed him. Creation. Nothing. The worlds came into existence out of nothing because God commanded it by his word. God said, It's good. Genesis 1, 9 says,. And God said, Let the waters under heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.
And it was so. And God called the dry land earth and the gathered together waters he called seas. And God saw that it was good. Why? Creation obeyed his voice. The Bible says in Genesis 1, 11. The Bible says,.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass. He didn't even have to sow any seed. He just said, Let the earth bring forth grass and herb yielding seed and fruit, trees yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth.
And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after its kind and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after its kind. And guess what? God saw that it was good again. Well, he didn't stop there.
The Bible says in Genesis 1, 14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven and divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so.
And God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day the lesser light to rule the night and he made the stars also and God said let the firmament of heaven give light upon the earth and rule over the day and over the night and he divided the light from the darkness and God saw again that it was good.
I could go on, but I'll just read the last verse of Genesis chapter 1. The Bible says,. And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good because creation obeyed him to his pleasure.
But you know what? If he can do that, I want you to think about this. He's not only pleased by the obedience of creation, but he's pleased by the obedience of Christ. You have to ask yourself, if you're going to ask the question, why everything?
Certainly, this question has to come to your mind. Why would a holy God send his son robed in human flesh to live a perfect life, to die a vicarious death in your place and in my place? You have to ask that question.
There's only one answer. Because the Bible says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself of no reputation took upon him the form of a servant.
Watch what it says. He was made in likeness of men, being found in fashion as a man, he became obedient unto death. Christ, the Lord God himself, was obedient to the point of dying. So how do you know it pleased God?
Because the Bible tells us in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 6 through 10, All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He was brought as a lamb to the slaughters, a sheep before a shearer's dump. So he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off of the land of the living, and for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death. Because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Watch this. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Those Roman soldiers couldn't crucify Jesus.
Jesus said, No man takes my life. I have power to lay it down, power to take it back up again. He was pleased by the death of his son. The Bible says it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief.
When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. The Bible says Jesus said himself in John 8, 29,.
He that sent me is with me, for the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him. He was pleased by the obedience of creation. He was pleased by the obedience of Christ.
Well, then he is pleased by the obedience of Christians. The Bible says, In 2 Timothy 2 4,. No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, but he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
Let me ask you a question this morning, Church. Is your life pleasing to him? I know it pleases you. I understand that. Is he pleased? Yeah, I understand your job is pleased with the work you do. That's not what I meant.
I understand your husband's pleased. I understand that. Your wife's pleased. I got that. Is he pleased? Is he? The Bible says in Hebrews 11, 6,. Without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
The Bible says furthermore, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 1,. Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God.
And so ye bow more and more. Do you please him? Is your life pleasing? The way you talk, is it pleasing to him? The places you go, is it pleasing to him? Your relationships, your associations, is he pleased by that?
Colossians 1, 10 says Paul wrote to the Colossians and said, I'm praying for you that you might be filled with all the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. He says that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.
Not most pleasing. Is the Lord pleased by your life? When God speaks to you like he spoke to the creation and says, let it be thus and such. Can he look at you five minutes later and say, it's so. And I say, are you unlike the trees and unlike the sun and unlike the elements, unlike the grass and unlike the cattle?
Do you rebel against the command of a holy day today? The Bible tells us that when we were without Christ, we were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. We were enemies in our mind. We were enemies against God in our minds.
And I think about this. The fact that when I wasn't looking for God, not at all, wasn't interested in God. Got no pleasure from the word of God. Got no pleasure from the people of God. When I was not looking for God, when I was lost and saved my old wicked soul.
If he can do that, he's got to be God. If he can take a life that was headed a hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction and glad to be going that way and turn it around. He tried to change me. He couldn't do it.
My brothers tried to change me. They couldn't do it. The only one in existence who's ever tried to change this old boy or you that's ever accomplished it is God himself. And if he can do that, I pray that you would help us with our finite minds at least to try and accomplish it.
I pray Lord that the elements who were called into creation out of nothing bowed and eyes closed will say, Brother Myron, I'm not sure. I know I'm saved because Jesus Christ saved my soul by the death he died on the cross, his bearer on resurrection.
I trusted in that. Not in myself, not in my religion, not in my religious exercise, but I've trusted in Christ. I know I'm saved. That's your testimony testified by raised hand. You know you're saved.
Praise the Lord. Put your hands down. Say, Brother Myron, I don't know I'm saved, but I sure would like to know before I leave, please pray for me. I'd like to know God as my father. I'd like to know Jesus as my savior.
Please pray for me. Anybody like that? Not sure you're saved, but you'd like to be sure. Please pray for me. God bless you little girl. I see your hand back there. Anybody else? Not sure you're saved, but you'd like to be sure.
Go say, Brother Myron, I needed this message. I needed to contemplate this morning. God in his greatness and in his glory, please pray for me that my life will be one that is pleasing to him. More pleasing than it's been in the past.
Pray for me that my life will be pleasing. Anybody? Praise the Lord. Father, thank you so much for these that have come this morning. Pray that you bless now during this time of invitation. I give you the praise for what you told us your word would do in accomplishing that with you.
Heads bowed, eyes closed. Stand with me if you will, please. The Spirit of God has spoken to your heart, and you need to respond to the message. I want to give you the opportunity to do so. I want to give you the opportunity to do so right now.
They're going to play a song on the piano, but you don't have to wait. You can come now. The Spirit of God has spoken to you. Do what he said.
Today. Pray together, and Brother Alfred, would you ask the Lord to bless our time of fellowship and our meal together?