The Alpha and the Omega

Well, good afternoon, brother, once again. In our present chaotic world, I am often asked a very simple question, and that is, how is God involved in human events? Or, more importantly, how is God involved in my life? I think that's really a good question, and what I'd like to do today in this sermon is I would like to see what the Scripture says about God's involvement in the world and God's involvement in the lives of His children, those whom He has called out of this world. And I think that's such a great question that it's something that we should examine today. And in all things, we need to achieve balance in understanding God's presence and God's will and what God does in this world. Because there are two ditches that we can fall into. One ditch is because of our heritage. Many of our founding fathers were religious people, but they were deist. Their view of God, basically, was that God was like a watchmaker. He created the world, and He wound it all up, and then He just stood back and rarely, if ever, intervened in the affairs of men. It was almost like a lab experiment gone wrong, the human race. And He just basically observed it all. That's a kind of a deist view of a God. It acknowledges a creator, a superior being, a designer, but it says that God had just kind of withdrawn. And then in the other ditch that many people fall into, including some in the Church, is they really deny that God allows us to have free moral agency. They want to assume or believe that everything that happens is God's will. Everything that happens is because God is making the decisions to make that happen, from the realm of politics to anything else that God is making those choices. And, of course, if God is making all those choices, then we really don't have free moral agency, do we? We basically have God leading and controlling everything that's going on in our world. So those are two ditches that many people fall into. Well, let's see what the Scriptures tell us about God. We're going to begin by going to the book of Revelation, chapter 1 beginning in verse 7, the beginning of the introduction of John into this book very early in the writing. And here's what the Scripture's saying. Here's what Jesus Christ says about himself.

He says, Behold, He is coming with clouds, and we're all looking for the day of His coming to this earth to establish that great kingdom. And every eye will see Him, everyone who's alive at that time, even they who pierced Him, all those who deny that there is a God or deny that Jesus is a Messiah who's alive at that time, everyone is going to see it.

All the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him, even so, amen. The reason they're mourning is they know that the period is that 6,000 year period in which God said the humankind could start your own governments, your own religions, your own cultures, like spoiled children. Go ahead and do it your way, that that period is coming to an end. I can remember a memory that I have.

I was probably seven years old, and I was at my grandmother's, and my cousin Dennis was there. We were there for lunch back in the old days. Schools were neighborhood schools, and you actually went home for lunch, and then you walked back to school for the afternoon. We kind of destroyed that with busing and everything else that we have going on in our culture experiments today, but it used to be in Cleveland that everyone had neighborhood schools. You would walk home for lunch, enjoy a nice lunch, and then walk back to school. No transportation needed, no buses, it's something that you could do, and it was so safe that there were no concerns about that.

So I'm at my grandmother's, and I have a can of ready whip, and I want to put ready whip on a little dessert. My cousin Dennis is sitting next to me, and my grandmother said, Greg, I want to help you with that. Can I help you with it? Oh no, Grandma! I know how to do it, and I pushed the nozzle, and a stream of ready whip flew about two feet, hit my cousin in his chin, and all the way down his shirt. And that's kind of a metaphor of the human race. God says, this is the way to live. Let me help you. Oh no, God!

We know how to do it. We're smarter than you are. Watch us mess everything else up in this world. So the earth is going to be mourning, because they know that this age is coming to an end. And then verse 8, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet. Omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet. It says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come.

By the way, that's what the name Yahweh means. The one who was, who is, and who will always be, or yet to come. It says the Lord, who is and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. Then he says in verse 9, I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the island that was called Patmos, the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. So the word Alpha and Omega, these are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.

It's a comprehensive term, meaning all the other letters in between. Sometimes in the church of God we fail to appreciate and understand that if God knows the beginning and God knows the end, he also knows everything that happens between the beginning and the end. That's something that we often don't grasp or fully appreciate. The understanding is that God is all-knowing. He's omniscient. And that phrase is stated four times in the book of Revelation Alpha and Omega. It is that important that that phrase is used four times in the book.

It means that God's presence inhabits the sweep of eternity from the beginning, all through time, including him here in the present, and leading all the way up until the end of time. Now, at this point, early on in the sermon, I need to remind us of the vast difference between what God's will is and what he allows. I've spoken on this before, but I've heard lots of comments and read emails that I've just sent recently that, again, helps me to appreciate that people don't grasp the huge, vast difference between God's will and what God allows. Let's go to Matthew chapter 6 and verse 10. If you will turn there with me. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 10.

Jesus wants to teach his disciples how to pray. And here's something that he says, something we should pray for every day. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 10.

He said, your kingdom come. And then immediately after that, he says, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. First of all, the reason we pray for that is that God's will is not done on earth as it is in heaven. If everything that happened on earth was God's will, there'd be no reason to pray this. There'd be no reason to say it. But there is a reason to say it, because this earth is under the control of the prince of the power of the air. We know him as Satan the devil. And God allows a lot of things to happen in this world that are not his will. I'm going to give you a couple of theological terms. I hope I don't bore you. I know many people aren't interested in theology or theological terms. But I'm going to give you a couple here to meditate on. The preceptive will is a theological term in which God is said to be stating his will for humankind. For example, don't lie, don't steal, don't commit adultery. What we find in Exodus chapter 20, it's specific, it's direct, and that is his preceptive will. But there's another theological term. It's called his permissive will, and that means God allows human beings to do things that are contrary to what he told us in his preceptive will. He doesn't like it, he's against it, it's negative, but he allows it to happen because he wants it to be obviously a learning process, allowing us to be free moral agents. He allows us to sin.

Though his will is that we don't sin, he doesn't want us to sin. It's true that God allows his rebellious creation to do sinful things. For example, violence. God doesn't will or want there to be violence. He wants everyone to live in pace. But in this world we have violence, disease, hatred, greed.

All of these things exist in our world, but those are not God's will. He allows them to happen because he determined that the only way we could grow in the character that was necessary for all eternity was to have free moral agency and to consciously and purposely choose to do the right things and consciously and purposely refuse to choose to do the wrong, hurtful things. That's only possible when you and I have a choice, when we have free moral agency. And that's why Jesus taught us to pray for something that's rarely happening in this world today in the earth, and that is God's will. Again, in this age, Satan is the god of this world.

Jesus, after asking for the arrival of the kingdom, said, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This rarely happens now and will not ever fully happen until Jesus Christ returns and establishes the kingdom of God. God allows negative things to happen as teaching experiences, as since the time of the Garden of Eden and the sin of Adam and Eve.

Meanwhile, while God is allowing all of these things to occur, God's working out a plan. He's working out a plan that will ultimately achieve His total and complete will. Even though we may not grasp or understand what God is doing or how God is doing things because we're limited, we're physical, we only look at things short-term because we're physical, God looks at things through the long-term lens of eternity.

And so, He has a plan. And please, rest assured that God is presently and meticulously working to complete His plan of salvation for all humanity. And He also is working out a personal plan for your life. We not only have a great work, you are God's work. He's working in you.

Let's go to Isaiah chapter 14 and verse 27. Isaiah chapter 14 and verse 27. The prophet Isaiah was inspired to write, For the Lord of hosts has purposed. In other words, God has a plan. God has a purpose for this world, for salvation, a purpose for your individual personal life. And who will annul it? We live in a culture and society today where we use the term canceled out. Well, God has a purpose. Who can cancel God's purpose? No one can cancel God's purpose. Yes, people may do things that God allows.

They may do hurtful things against His will. But ultimately, God is going to achieve His purpose. No one, nothing, can stop the plan that God has. And who, it says here, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? The answer to that is no one can turn it back. No one can stop God from achieving what He has desired to achieve.

I'm going to read this from the translation God's word for today. The Lord of armies has planned it. Who can stop it? He is ready to use His power. Who can turn it back? So the prophet Isaiah is saying no nation, no man, no evil spirit can do anything without God's allowance that it's done, and that God is ultimately going to fulfill His purpose, and He's going to achieve His will, and no one can stop it.

Psalm chapter 33 and verse 8. Let's continue to build on this understanding of God's influence in the world, and in our lives, Psalm chapter 33, and let's pick it up here in verse 8. Let's read what the psalmist writes here, chapter 33 and verse 8.

Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. Why? Because He's the Almighty. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the true God. Verse 9, for He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. Nothing can stop God.

When He commands something, when He decides the time is right, something's going to happen, it happens. He commanded and it stood fast. Verse 10, the Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the plans of the people of no effect. So for this period of time in which God has basically said to humanity, okay, do things your own way. Create your own religions, your own governments, your own cultures, your own languages. Go ahead and do all that. In essence, God says, at the end of the day, all that comes to nothing. You people think you're so smart because you've discovered some of the secrets of my creation by technology and by science.

You don't know squat, God says, and everything that you think you've achieved will all come to nothing. You think you build these great civilizations and you achieve all these rights for people. All of that comes to no effect. How can God say that?

Because God is looking from the prism of eternity. He can look from 2,000 years from now back in our time and laugh in derision. They're just so silly. They think they're so advanced. They think they're so smart. They're just spoiled children doing what spoiled rebellious children do. Verse 11, the counsel of the Lord stands forever. It's what God decides. It's His will that will be achieved in this world. The plans of His heart to all generations. He's working out a plan of salvation. Each generation will get an opportunity that few will be called in each generation and called in that lifetime and have an opportunity for salvation.

The majority in each generation will not be called in their first physical lifetime and will be called at a later time. He has a plan in his heart that influences, in a positive way, all generations. Verse 12, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen for His own inheritance. They are the ones who are to inherit His glory and His love within His family, inherit all eternity and inhabit it with Him. Verse 13, the Lord looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men from the place of His dwelling.

He looks on the inhabitants of the earth. He fashions their hearts individually. God knows the thoughts in the heart of every human being. Whoever lived or ever will live, He knows us individually by name.

That's how important every human being is to God. He considers all their works.

So generation after generation in this world, yes, they may do their own thing, and nations will rise and nations will fall, and governments and cultures may rise and fall, and new religions come, and new religions die out, but they all come to nothing. Through it all, through everything, including what we're living through today, God is in supreme control of all events. And even though He may allow some painful and negative things to happen, His plan will be fulfilled according to His will.

Sometimes that's hard to appreciate and understand. You know, Job got through a point of time in his life where he finally got the big picture. Now, he had to suffer a whole lot before he got to that point. He had everything taken away from him. Let's go to Job chapter 42 in verse 2, and see that over a period of affliction and personal trial, he finally got the long-term picture of God's plan after a time of suffering and discouragement. And God says, if that's what it takes to get you to yield to my will, then so be it.

He says to each and every one of his children, we can either do this the easy way through obedience and respect and love of me, or if you're a free moral agent, even in the church, if you choose not to do that, God says then we'll do it another way. And that other way usually is not very joyful. It's usually not very happy, very fulfilling on our part. Job chapter 42 in verse 2, Job comes to this point after all he's been through, God has chewed him out and he had questioned God and he had faced a lot of personal physical challenges.

I know that you can do everything and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you, Job says. No purpose of yours, your ultimate will, your plan. What you have lined up for the future of this world cannot be withheld from you, God. I finally come to understand that. You asked, who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?

The translation, God's word for today, says in that verse, who is this that belittles my advice without having knowledge about it? How many times do we do that as human beings? We pray to God and we just think we're so smart, we're so knowledgeable about a situation, and our loving Father probably just shakes his head and says, I love you, but you're clueless. You're stating your opinion, you're stating what you want, you have no idea what you want. Continuing, yes, I have stated things, I didn't understand things, too mysterious for me to know.

Job is recognizing that God has a plan greater than our ability to comprehend it. So mysterious, so beautiful, so powerful behind the scenes that we can't see in this limited physical world, that God has a plan and His will will be fulfilled even though we don't understand what God is doing. Paul said we see through a glass darkly what God is doing oftentimes or how God is going to do it.

Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, says Job. I thought I was so smart, I thought I had all the answers I see now that I was clueless. Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. And there are things that are too wonderful for us. We know the skeletal framework of God's plan of salvation because of the holy days and how they progress, but there's a lot beyond those days and in between that we don't understand.

God understands. He knows what His plan is. Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Verse 4, Listen please and let me speak. You said I will question you and you shall answer me. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. I'd heard of you intellectually. I knew about God being a supreme creator in the Alpha and the Omega and that you're all powerful and I understood all of this, but now the blinders have fallen off.

And now I see you for your majesty, for your awesomeness. I see you, God, for who you truly and really are. So wonderful and it's far beyond what I thought you were, what I thought I understood that you were.

Continuing here, I've heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. In other words, the blinders have been removed that Job was living in. Therefore, I abhor myself and repent and dust and ashes. I thought I had all the answers. I thought I was so smart and I realized that I'm just a clod, a worthless clod, and I don't understand it, but somehow through your grace and your love, you want me of all people to be a part of your family and to share eternity with you. So, brethren, events like punishment and curses, and Job certainly went through punishment and curses through his experience, are intended to remind us to love God and to obey him. Let's now see another example. See an example in Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 29, if you'll begin turning there, please. And once again, we will see how an omniscient God, creator, that is the Alpha and the Omega, actually predicted in advance that the peoples of Israel would sin by worshiping other gods and be driven into captivity long before they did. He told them as early as Deuteronomy 29, why? Because he's the God who knows the beginning, from the end, and everything that happens in between the beginning and the end. He tells him, this is exactly what you're going to do. So, let's read about it.

Picking up here in verse 24, all nations would say, why has the Lord done so to this land? Are those, why did he take these people that were his and drive them into captivity? Why is he punishing Israel? What does the heat of this great anger, meaning God driving his people into captivity after all the effort to bring them to that land, God curses them and drives them into captivity? What does this mean? Verse 25, then people would say, because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, for they went and served other gods and worshiped to them gods that they did not know and that he had not given to them. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against this land to bring on it every curse that is written in this book, and the Lord uprooted them. Remember, these are, this is people in the future looking back, talking about what God did. And the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and wrath and in great indignation and cast them into another land as it is to this day. The secret things belong to the Lord are God. In other words, God has a grand plan, and even though it's pretty negative right now, he took all of his people that he had such great effort to bring them out of Egypt into this land, he just drove all those people out of the land. Only God can understand the logic behind that is what they will say. In other words, secret things. God has a plan behind all that. Secret things belong to the Lord are God. God has a grand plan. But those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever. That we may do all the words of this law. So here again, this is just a situation where the one who knows the beginning from the end and everything that happens in between the beginning and the end says this is exactly what you're going to do and how you will react. Chapter 30 verse 1. Now, it shall come to pass when all these things come upon you the blessing and the curse which I have set before you. In other words, it's your choice. God says you're a free moral agent. You can either choose blessings through obedience or you can bring a whole lot of heartache and misery on yourself by being disobedient. It's your choice. And you call them to mind. When you're in captivity, you've got lots of time to think. Everything you had has been taken away from you. You'll have a lot of time to look back on the things that you said and the things that you did. And you call them to mind among the nations where the Lord your God drives you. And you say to yourself, hmm, why did this happen to me, to my people? Let me analyze this. How did it happen? Why did it happen? What can I learn from this? Verse 2. And you returned the Lord your God and obey his voice according to all that I command you today and to your children with all your heart and all your soul that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you. That's the secret things of God. You see, he had a plan to restore people that he drove even into captivity.

Verse 4. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts of heaven from there the Lord your God will gather you and from there he will bring you. Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. This emphasizes again that they had free moral agency. His will is that everyone loves him and everyone obeys him, but he allows us to choose blessing or cursing according to our choices. But either way, here's the important thing. Either way, behind the scenes, God is directing and guiding the outcome that he desires, because God is absolutely going to achieve his will. We can choose to make it easy on ourselves or hard on ourselves by the decisions that we make. But either way, God is going to prepare us. He's going to mold us like a potter. He's going to design us so that we're exactly at the point we need to be. I'd like to give you an analogy, and all analogies break down, but I think this may help us to appreciate a little more what God does behind the scenes while allowing us to have free moral agency. Many years ago, I used to play a software computer game that was called Chess Master 10. And in Chess Master 10, you played the computer. And I was never that great of a chess player anyway, and I absolutely positively grew to hate that game to the point where I even stopped playing it. Now, here's its goal. Here was its plan. Its plan was for the computer to make me to submit to it, and I would lose pieces, but eventually it would take my king, and that would be the end of the game. So here's how it would work. It was obviously a lot smarter than I am because it's using a computer CPU to do all the analysis. You would have a certain amount of time to move, and I would think, if I move it, I move it this way. So I would spend the maximum amount of time to move. For a moral agency, I could have moved five to ten different ways. So I make them move. It immediately would respond.

So I would think about it, and I would make another move immediately it would respond. So what was going on here? Well, its plan was for my submission beyond my mere human abilities. It knew in advance every move that I could make, and it was prepared to align the right things in advance, no matter what decision I made. It was my decision. I was a free moral agent and could have made any number of moves within the legal confines of the game called chess.

But no matter what I did, its will, which was to take all my pieces and eventually my king and humiliate me, its will was always achieved. It resulted in my humility and in my submission. And whatever decision we make in life, we are never ever going to thwart God's will. He'll always respond to decisions we make in circumstances to allow us to learn something from it, to take our lives to another level, even if we require him to do some very painful things to us or allow some very painful things to happen to us, either disciplined directly by him or just the consequences of our own decisions.

Whatever it takes, the easy way or our way, God's will is going to be completed. Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 10. We're going to take another look here before we move into the New Testament. This is the Old Testament Scripture. Well, perhaps I think the last one we'll be looking at today.

It's another prophecy where the omniscient creator, again the one who knows the beginning from the end and everything that happens between the beginning and the end, predicted in advance that Judah would go in captivity for 70 years, and then after 70 years they would get to go back to Jerusalem. He predicts that in advance right here in Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 10. So let's see what Jeremiah writes here. Thus says the Lord, after 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you and cause you to return to this place.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord. So what do you think God's thoughts were towards these people that he had driven into captivity? Oh, you're bad. You're damned. You're condemned. I don't love you anymore. That's not God's attitude at all. Let's find out what it is. I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord. Thoughts? Peace and not of evil. To give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you and you will seek me and find me.

When you search for me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the Lord. I will bring you back from your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord. And I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. God says, in spite of your mistakes, I have a plan. And you know what God says? In spite of you, my plan is going to be fulfilled. My plan is to offer you salvation and to give you and your descendants a better life in the nation, the physical nation, in this case physical nation, of Israel in the future.

This verse is a promise that even though things presently seem very bad, and we're going through some things today that may presently seem very bad, in their case of captivity, God always works things out for the good of his people to achieve his will. Now, we should take note that most of the people hearing this message would die in captivity. If you were 40 years old when Jeremiah spoke this, the odds of you living to be 110 were probably not very good. So how is this a good thing?

How is God fulfilling when he says, I'll give you a future and a hope? It's because it calls our attention to the big picture that Job finally understood. This isn't a promise of individual short-term prosperity. God doesn't care about our physical short-term prosperity. God cares about our eternity. God does everything he does in the long-term perspective. It's a promise that at the end of the day, God's people will prosper when his will is fulfilled, aside from the divergence and things that human beings always do, when God's will is fulfilled, that God's people prosper, that they are blessed.

I want you to think about if God has so much love and personal influence in this physical nation that was known as Israel, how much more does he have as far as his love and his planning for the lives of his spiritual children?

If he cares this much about this physical nation and physical people, think how much he cares about you and your life and the plan that he's working out in your life. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 11, turn there with me. Read some scriptures from Paul that are very, very powerful. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 11.

Paul writes, in him, speaking of Jesus Christ, we have obtained an inheritance. You think that these physical people are being blessed? We just read about in Jeremiah that they're going to go back to their land and God's going to give them a future and a whole? That's good. But how about this? How about eternal life as a spirit being? How about being in the literal family of God? That's called our inheritance. That's far more powerful, far more better, far more awesome than just being resurrected someday and going back to a physical nation and going back to the land of Israel. In him, also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined or predetermined. We'll talk about that a little bit more. According to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. Again, God has a purpose. It's God's will that ultimately will be fulfilled. And you know what? You're part of that. Your calling is part of that will. Your individual calling was part of the purpose that God has for not only the world but certainly for your individual life. Verse 12. That we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. So Paul's saying because of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice, we can now inherit eternity with him. Predestined comes from a Greek word proordizo and it means to predetermined to determine beforehand to ordain something in advance of it actually happening. Your life, your calling, is not an accident or an afterthought. Albert Einstein once said that God doesn't play dice. No. The Alpha and the Omega, who knows the beginning from the end and everything that happens in the beginning of the end and allows the free moral agency and people that make choices to that entire process, called you for a reason. We're going to find out more about that in a few minutes. There's a purpose and a plan to everything that God does and that includes your individual calling. He has predestined that most people who have ever lived or are alive today are not called into a relationship with him and his family in this lifetime. Even if you said, a little statement I don't believe, but even if you said, all right everyone who claims to be a Christian is saved, that's only one out of every three people on earth. Two out of three don't believe in Jesus Christ in any way. Don't acknowledge him as their Savior. Have no Christian beliefs. Whatever. They're living and they're all going to die. They've been living and dying in that percentage for a long, long time. Should we be concerned about that? No, because God predetermined that the majority in the first physical lifetimes they lived, that they would most of them would never even hear about Jesus Christ. Who or what? He would never even own a Bible. Lived in parts of the world or governments that wouldn't even allow them to have faith in anything except the king or the God, the self-appointed God, chairman, or whatever you want to call their title today. But then there are others. There are others whom God predestined like yourself to call in advance of your lifetime. So do we appreciate the unique and precious calling that we have? I'm going to read verse 11 from God's Word for today. It says, God also decided ahead of time to choose us through Christ according to his plan, which makes everything work the way he intends.

So it wasn't like the moment we were born, God said, wow, I'm running out of people. I'm running out of people to call. I know. I'll choose this one.

The one who inhabits eternity, who knows the beginning from the end and everything that happens between the beginning and the end, called us long before we came into existence. Paul isn't done with this, let's take a look at Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it, speaking of grace, is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. I'm going to read this from the New Century Version. God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing. So you've been called by God to be his personal child and he's working on us. That's the term used here. We are his workmanship. God is doing it work in your life and we're either making his work easy or most of us are making it really hard for God to work with us and get us to where we need to be to serve in that family forever. God told the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 1 and verse 5. He said, Before I formed you and the woman knew you, before you were born I sanctified you. I ordained you a prophet to the nations. How could God do that? Because the one who knows the beginning from the end also knows everything that happens between the beginning and the end. Now, I wouldn't go so far as to say that our roles in this world are as specific or will be as influential as Jeremiah's. I'm not saying that, but the alpha and the omega obviously knew in advance of our births and had predetermined that we would be called in our lifetime. Didn't happen by coincidence. Didn't happen because God drew straws that day and we were the short straw. It happened because God has a plan and a will and no one can stop His will. Romans chapter 8 and verse 28. Turn there with me. Romans chapter 8 and verse 28.

Paul writes to the church congregation in Rome, For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose. God has a plan. He has a purpose. And though we may go through some difficult times, we may even make our growth hard on ourselves, God is going to work it out for our good. Because He considers us part of that plan. You as an individual as part of that plan. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed. That is molded to be reshaped in the image of His Son. Again, we're His workmanship. God takes that spiritual mallet and He chops off a big lump here and He grinds a little area there. And He works on us and works on us to develop our character to get us to the point where we need to be so we can serve.

Into the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Jesus was the firstborn. He wants many brethren throughout history. And in our generation, that's you. Moreover, verse 30, whom He predestined, determined in advance, these He also called. And whom He called, these He also justified, made right, justified in the eyes of God. And whom He justified, these He also glorified. We are the sons of God. As Mr. Graham spoke about last week, we are born again. We will be born again at another time, but we're new creatures in Christ right now. And we are to live to give God glory. Verse 31, what then shall we say to these things if God is for us who can be against us? I'm going to read this verse, these verses again in a new century version. We know that everything God works for the good of those who love Him. They are the people He called because that was His plan. God knew them before He made the world, and He decided that they would be like His Son so that Jesus would be the firstborn of many brothers. God planned for them to be like His Son, and those He planned to be like His Son, He also called, and those He called, He also made right with Him, and those He made right, He also glorified. So again, I want to emphasize your existence is not simply because a man and a woman came to love one another, and you were the result of them loving one another. There's a far deeper purpose in your existence. We need to understand that, brethren. We need to appreciate that. Your existence isn't an accident. It's not a mistake. It's not coincidence. It's not because you were lucky. God knew of our potential existence even before we were ever born. Long ago, He desired your calling and wanted you to be transformed into the likeness of His firstborn Son, Christ Jesus. And He made this decision in advance because it is His will to call us. It's His will to make us righteous in His sight because we have Jesus Christ living in us, and His will to glorify us forever in His marvelous family.

And He also allows us to be stupid at times because He allows that free moral agency. Verse 35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword or, I might add, or social media or cultural movements or viruses or politics? Verse 36, As it is written, For your sake, we are killed all day long, and we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Now, we don't face a kind of level of martyrdom today that Paul faced when he wrote this, he and his ministry, and the brethren at that time. But that day may come when we can relate to this verse with a whole lot more empathy than we do now. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us, for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created things shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And why did he say this? Because he understands nothing can alter God's will. Sure, there will be distractions along the way, humanity, things that we say, things that we do, cultures that we build, ideas that we have. There'll be those little distractions, but nothing, no being in heaven or on earth can thwart the will of God. That's why we're more than conquerors in Christ. So, brethren, I'd just like to give a recap of some of the things that we discussed today. God is the Alpha and the Omega. He's all-knowing. He's omniscient. This means that God's presence inhabits the sweep of eternity from its beginning and to its end. Alpha and Omega are as a comprehensive term encompassing all the other times in between the beginning and the end. Within the Greek alphabet, using it as that metaphor. God is sovereign over all that takes place in human history, or will ever take place in human history. Next. There's a vast difference between God's will, his express will, and what God allows revealed in Scripture. Indeed, he controls and oversees everything, but he also allows events and activities to happen that are against his express will. He allows us to sin even though it's against his will. God allows his rebellious creation to do silly things, foolish things, sinful things, because he wants us to have free moral agency. That is why we have violence and disease and hatred and greed in our world today. But those are hurtful and negative things that are not part of God's express will.

There's a purpose and plan to everything God does. He has predestined or predetermined that most people who have ever lived or are alive today are not called into a relationship with him in their first physical lifetime. They will receive their first opportunity at a later time, and that too is revealed in God's plan. But then there are others, very blessed individuals like yourself, whom God predetermined to call in advance of your lifetime. Do we appreciate how unique and how precious we are to be part of God's will in that way? Generation after generation in this world may do their own thing. Nations will rise, nations will fall, governments and cultures and languages and religions come and go. They eventually all come to nothing. We may think it's important because it happens in our time. We hear about it over and over and over ad nauseam on the news. So we get all hyped up and we may think things are important, but they will all come to nothing. Through it all, God is in supreme control of all events. And yes, even though he may allow some painful and negative events to happen and to occur, his plan will be fulfilled according to his will. Good things sometimes require bad things to happen first. And that's true of our individual lives when we start going astray. As God's children, God is working out an individual plan for each and every one of us. He allows us that free moral agency. He allows us that ability to choose each and every day and to learn from those choices. But either way, he's going to get us to where he wants us to be. We either do it the easy way or we do it the hard way. God's will will always be done. My final point is our existence is not an accident. It's not a mistake. The fact that God called you is not coincidence. It's not mere luck. God knew of our potential existence long before we were even born, and he wants us to grow under the likeness of his firstborn son, Christ Jesus. How do we know that? Because we know he's the Alpha and the Omega. He knows the beginning from the end, and he knows everything that happens between the beginning and the end. We looked at some prophecies where God told Israel before they even rebelled in Deuteronomy exactly what they would do.

He told the prophets before Israel came back from captivity that in 70 years you'll go back out of captivity to Jerusalem. How did he know that? Because he knows everything that happens between the beginning and the end. So the fact that God called you is not coincidence, mere luck. It's part of God's plan. As Paul stated in Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6, being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good working you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. God called you into the faith because that was his will. And God has begun a work in your life because that's his will. And Paul encourages us to know that he who has begun a good work in you is going to finish that work. Now, what we go through in the meantime is mostly up to the way that we respond to our calling. Again, we can either do it the easy way or we can do it another way. But either way, God has a plan and your life is part of that plan because God predetermined to call you into his family. What a wonderful gift! What a wonderful privilege to know that and to be part of God's plan. Have a wonderful Sabbath!