Christ Performs the Work of Creation and Providence

On a construction site there is one chief equipment operator who can run the bulldozer, the crane, and the cement mixer — only the most skilled. So with the works of God: only One can do them, and Christ does them.

I used an illustration relative to a construction site in which we are told there is only one man, the chief equipment operator, who can operate the bulldozer, the crane, and the concrete and dump trucks. And if we went to such a building site and found one particular individual who was operating all of that equipment, we would certainly be right in deducing that this was indeed the chief equipment operator. Likewise, the Scriptures say that there are certain works which only God Himself can perform. When we turn to the Scriptures and find Jesus Christ performing those works which only God can...

1:36 - 2:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject every 'Christ plus' addition to the gospel — the angels, the ascetic disciplines, the gurus — your Maker has given you Himself.

Paul writes Colossians against teachers who said Christ plus angels, Christ plus asceticism. If Christ is Creator-God, He is sufficient — nothing is to be added to a Maker who has given me Himself.

If I have a Savior who is God, and He's given birth to all other things, what thing that He has made can give me more than what the Maker Himself has given me? My friend, if you're bored with this, God have mercy on your soul. You've never felt the pains of Holy Ghost conviction. You've never felt how dreadful it is to think of appearing before a holy God as a sinner.

10:33 - 11:02 Read in full sermon

Psalm 139 says God was there manipulating the gene pools when you were conceived — as if the rest of the universe was shut down so He could plan to make you you.

God was there. God was manipulating the gene pools. God was there determining the inherited characteristics. God was there in my mother's womb.

14:50 - 15:02 Read in full sermon

Martin admits he gets confused when more than three or four signals come in at once — too many irons in the fire — yet God orders billions of strands without ever being ruffled or confused.

Now, if in any way Jesus Christ is said to be doing that, He's God. I get confused when just more than three or four signals go in at once and I've got three or four things to do at once let me give a little confession Wednesday nights especially I feel like a one-armed paper hanger I usually come with a whole stack of stuff I have to give certain bills that have come to the house to Mr. Nixon and then I have other literature that needs to go to Phil and letters that he's given to me and I've dictated an answer that afternoon and I have to give them back to him and then there's usually this on...

17:19 - 18:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There is no motion of the various planets in their orbits apart from Jesus Christ.

From the tiniest motion within an atom to the orbit of the farthest galaxy — there is no movement that is not held together in Christ. He is the cohesive element of the entire universe.

You mean the apostle is saying that Jesus of Nazareth is the cohesive element of the entire universe? I mean to say that's exactly what he is asserting. There is no motion of the various electrons and the rest in an atom that are not controlled and governed by the power of Jesus Christ.

24:31 - 24:59 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He has the weight of the whole creation upon His hand and disposes it by His power and His wisdom.

Martin lingers on the staggering image: the Upholder of the universe lies on a bed of straw, His being still upholding all things even as a virgin upholds Him in her arms.

You mean when I gaze upon that bed in that manger at Bethlehem, that he who there lies upon a bed of straw is the upholder of the universe. The Scriptures affirm without any equivocation, yes, upheld by straw, he is the upholder of the universe.

29:01 - 29:25 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He has the weight of the whole creation upon His hand and disposes it by His power and His wisdom.

When the disciples woke Christ in the storm, He stood and said in effect 'Storm! That's enough' — and the waves were still. He was upholding all things even as He napped, and proved it.

They thought that they were being victimized. And the Lord said, You're not being victimized. I'm upholding all things. I'm upholding you.

30:15 - 30:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Truly it is, upholding all things when He had purged our sins. He never relinquished that work even on the cross.

On the cross the Upholder of all things hangs Himself nailed to wood — and yet His sustaining word never lets go of the universe even as He bows His head and dies.

Now with the storm He manifests Himself as the God of providence. and wonder of wonders hanging upon a tree. I behold and say, it is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit and I see the lifeless form upheld upon a Roman cross.

30:53 - 31:15 Read in full sermon

The point: When you mistrust a strange providence, you are accusing the Upholder of dropping stitches — repent and trust the One who has never lost a thread.

When you mistrust providence you are saying that a few threads got out of your Savior's hand and the devil wove them. He has never dropped a stitch in the fabric of your life.

When you do not believe He is good and wise and kind in that strange providence, you're saying in essence that somehow a few threads got out of your Savior's hand and the devil wove them into your life.

35:06 - 35:19 Read in full sermon