Hope for All Nations

[0:00] Genesis chapter 10. The Sons of Ham, Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan.

[0:42] The sons of Cush, Seba, Havilah, Saptah, Rema, and Saptica. The sons of Rema, Sheba, and Dedan. Cush fathered Nimrod. He was the first on earth to be a mighty man.

[0:55] He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it said, like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord. In the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erek, Akkad, and Kalneh in the land of Shinar.

[1:10] From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rebooth-er, Kala, and Resan. Between Nineveh and Kala, that is the great city. Egypt fathered Ludum, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtahim, Pathrasim, Kaslahim, from whom the Philistines came, and Kaphtorim.

[1:34] Canaan fathered Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemurites, and the Hamathites.

[1:47] Afterward, the clans of the Canaanites dispersed, and the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar, as far as Gaza, in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma, and Zeboim, as far as Lasha.

[2:04] These are the sons of Ham, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations. To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born.

[2:18] The sons of Shem, Elam, Asher, Arpachad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram, Uz, Hu, Geitha, and Mash. Arpachad fathered Shelah, and Shelah fathered Eber.

[2:32] To Eber were born two sons. The names of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother's name was Joktan. Joktan fathered Almadad, Sheleth, Hazamarveth, Jira, Hadaram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Ibamael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab.

[2:56] All these were the sons of Joktan. The territory in which they lived extended from Misha in the direction of Siphar to the hill country of the east. These are the sons of Shem, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

[3:12] These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.

[3:23] Acts chapter 17, verses 24 to 31. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

[3:51] And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, and that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.

[4:10] Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being. As even some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring.

[4:25] Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

[4:35] The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

[4:58] Amen. Thank you, Demetria. Well, Genesis 10 seems like just a long list of strange names.

[5:17] We thank Demetria for reading them. I don't think there was not a long list of people lining up to read Genesis 10.

[5:28] But Genesis 10 is God's word. Genesis 10 is an essential part of the book of Genesis and the storyline of the Bible, and indeed, the history of the world.

[5:48] And you'd remember, as we've been working our way through the book of Genesis, we made the point that the primary audience of this book was the people of Israel, whom God had recently delivered out of the land of Egypt, out of Egyptian slavery.

[6:07] And the book of Genesis was part of God's message to them to help them to make sense of the world and to understand their place in it.

[6:19] It was to help them to make sense of the world in which they had just come out of in Egypt and the world that they were going to in the land of Canaan and to make sense of it.

[6:32] For example, in this account of Genesis 10, the children of Israel would have learned that the Egyptians who had enslaved them and their forefathers for some 400 years were distant cousins because they descended from two brothers, the Egyptians from Ham and the Israelites from Shem.

[7:04] And so Genesis 10 is more than just a long list of strange names, and by God's grace, I pray that in this sermon, I'm able to show you how it is so much more than just a list of strange names.

[7:23] But first, let's pray. Father, we bow our hearts this morning before you. You're the one who grants illumination.

[7:34] Lord, it is only in your light that we see light. Lord, would you illumine our hearts to see that Genesis 10 is your word, and God, would you help us to understand why it is a part of your word?

[7:53] Would you speak to us this morning individually and as a local church? And Lord, most of all, would you be glorified in the preaching of your word?

[8:06] Lord, I need your help, as I always do, and I pray that you would be pleased to anoint me by your spirit and grant me utterance that comes from him.

[8:21] We pray and ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. The opening verse of Genesis 10 signals to us that we have come to another new section in the book.

[8:32] Again, you'd remember as we were working our way through Genesis, we pointed out that these words, this clause, these are the generations, that occurs 10 times throughout the book of Genesis, and each time is a new section, or some people call it a new book within the book.

[8:54] So we are signaled that Moses is moving us on now to a new section. He's already covered the flood, and now he's leading us on to a new section.

[9:05] And really, Genesis 10 sets up Genesis 11, which is the next event in this account that Moses is writing for us. In Genesis 11, we have the account of the Tower of Babel and how nations were united, one people, one tongue, and how they were scattered abroad in the earth.

[9:26] And so, Genesis 10 sets us up for that. It prepares us for what we're going to see in Genesis 11, starting next week.

[9:39] So the beginning is that we see the descendants of Noah's three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and the people groups and nations that came out of them.

[9:51] Some people call this listing in Genesis 10 the table of nations. And when you look at this account in Genesis 10, it's what you would call a genealogical account.

[10:05] We see the genealogies of all of these nations coming from these three sons of Noah. But Genesis 10 is also a theological account. It's not just to tell us the family tree of the sons of Noah and the nations that came out of them.

[10:24] It is also a spiritual or theological account of the nations. And I want to say to us this morning that the theological account is far more important important and far more unifying than the genealogical account.

[10:43] And so I'm not going to spend my time this morning trying to identify which of Noah's sons produce white people and which of Noah's sons produce black people and which of Noah's sons produce Asians.

[10:58] If you have an interest in that, I encourage you to go to AnswersInGenesis.org. It's a very great site to help us through a lot of the questions in Genesis.

[11:11] And you'll actually find articles that give very solid, clear explanations as to why we have different complexions and different facial features and different hair textures and all the other cosmetic differences that we have.

[11:29] So go to AnswersInGenesis.org. Sorry, AnswersInGenesis.org if you want to learn more about that. But this morning what I want to do is I want us to consider the theological account of the nations in Genesis 10.

[11:50] And in considering this theological account, there are two truths, two truths, two simple truths that we can learn from this account that should help us when we think of nations in general or when we think of any nation in particular.

[12:11] What we're going to look at this morning is true for all the nations. It's also true of any nation. And the first truth is this, the unity of nations.

[12:24] The unity of nations. I think you would agree with me that when we think of the world and all the nations in the world, the nations in the world are anything but united.

[12:39] Despite the existence of an intergovernmental organization called the United Nations, the world in which we live in is anything but united. And a truer name for the United Nations would be the disunited nations because we're not united.

[12:57] The nations of the world are divided in terms of nationality, they're divided in terms of ethnicity, they're divided in terms of nationality, they're divided in terms of geography, they're divided in terms of politics, they're divided in terms of military power, they're divided by development and lack of development and all kinds of other factors.

[13:18] The nations are divided. and so it's no surprise to us that wars continue it's no surprise to us that there continues to be selfishness among nations it should be no surprise to us that there continues to be nations that will exploit another nation or other nations for their own selfish advancement and so despite all the efforts to bring the nations together to unite the nations around these particular realities of living in this world the nations are still very much divided but despite all of these differences and divisions that we have among the nations and the peoples of the world the nations of the world and the peoples of the world are united in a far more fundamental and important and overshadowing way than in these cosmetic differences that divide us

[14:31] Genesis 10 tells us that the foundational way that the nations and the peoples of the world are united is that all the nations and all the peoples descended from three brothers Shem, Ham, and Japheth after the flood the only men on the earth were Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth and here we read in Genesis 10 this is God's revelation to us this is God's word to us in Genesis 10 verse 1 these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth sons were born to them after the flood so for most of us this morning I doubt that if I were to do a poll that any of us would know three or four generations of our ancestors

[15:38] I imagine that many of you are like me you know your grandfather you probably know the name of your great grandfather and after that everything obliterates but here's what is important though we may not know our immediate ancestors we know our ultimate ancestors we know that we have descended from one or more of these three men Shem, Ham, and Japheth Genesis 10 tells us that we are descended from these three brothers whose father was Noah who ultimately was descended from Adam who was created in the image of God and Genesis 10 reminds us all that the entire human race is united in their ancestry the entire human race is a race of people who are made in the image and the likeness of God and this was Paul's point in Acts 17 as he addressed the men at the Areopagus in Athens he told them that God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth he told them all nations came from one man and so Genesis 10 is in our Bibles to help us to see the unity of the nations connecting back to Shem, Ham, and Japheth connecting back to Noah and ultimately connecting back to Adam but there are people who study

[17:35] Genesis 10 to try to figure out which ethnicities and people groups descended from which of Noah's sons and really it is rooted in this sinful desire to promote racial supremacy whether it's white supremacy or whether it's black supremacy or whether it's Asian supremacy and the list goes on but brothers and sisters there is only one race and that is the human race and the human race is comprised of all kinds of people with all kinds of skin complexions all kinds of facial features all kind of hair texture all kinds of national experiences and all kinds of cultural differences but they are all without exception the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth and over thousands of years there has been so much commingling through children being born to men and women descended from these three men crossing the lines that it's almost it's a fool's errand to go trying to figure out your line up to one of these one of these men it is sufficient to know that that's where ultimately we all descend from the specifics we may not know but we know that it's one or more of them because we could be literally mixed between the three of those sons of Noah

[19:25] I doubt you'd find any in this world over that amount of time that there would be any of the lines of these three men that is absolutely pure in terms of whatever that line is and you know what it's all by God's design if God's design was to keep the descendants of the sons of Noah separate in their lines with no commingling he would have done that certainly has the power to do that and he would have done that if that was his design but where we are united is we all carry the same DNA of being humans humans who have been made in the image and the likeness of God and brothers and sisters let us not lose sight of that let us not lose sight of that based on nationality or the color of skin or the social standing in life let us not lose sight of that behind all of those cosmetics we have this hardwired common denominator that is shared by every single human being we are united in our humanity and that is what matters not only are we united in our humanity we are also united in our fallenness we are united in the fact that we are all fallen people we are all broken people and it doesn't matter what the color of our skin is it doesn't matter what the texture of our hair is we carry the same fallen nature in all of us without exception the same fallen nature that caused

[21:32] Adam and Eve to run and hide from God is in us the same fallen nature that caused Noah to get drunk and lie naked and pass out in his tent that is in us the shared sinful condition dwells in all people it is the common denominator that unites us as the peoples and the nations of the world and it is an important unifying factor if you doubt that is what unifies us you go and study any people group any nation that you wish any nation you think is the greatest nation which you would find is you will see sin and brokenness and human depravity in that nation as it exists in every other nation there is another way that we are united as well we saw this before we came to Genesis 10 remember in Genesis 9 verse 1 which we looked at last time

[22:43] Genesis 9 verse 1 it says and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth this factor of God blessing Shem Ham and Japheth from whom all the nations came when he told them you are to be fruitful and you are to multiply and you are to fill the earth God blessed them and by extension he blessed through them all the peoples and this blessing of God is not an isolated thing it continues down we see it next with with Abram and we won't see this until we get further on into Genesis 11 and then into Genesis 12 where we are first introduced to Abram whose name was later changed to Abraham

[23:47] Abraham had a son by the name of Isaac Isaac had two sons by the names of Jacob and Esau and the twelve tribes of Israel descended from Jacob in Genesis 12 1 to 3 we have this account of God calling Abraham this is what he says to Abraham go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing now listen to this and I will bless you sorry I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed that's the blessing that

[24:50] God pronounces on Abraham the promise that he gives to Abraham he says through you all the families of the earth will be blessed this is very important because there are some people who believe that God has special nations and particularly the people of Israel that they're the special nation no before they even existed God gave this blessing to Abraham they never existed until Jacob was born and Jacob had 12 sons when Abraham was fresh out of earth the Chaldeans worshipping idols God called them out of that land and God says I'm going to bless you and I'm going to bless all the nations through you Abraham well he's a pretty wealthy man and so there are some people that say yeah you know all of Abraham's blessings are mine and they have money and all these other things in mind that's what

[25:52] God had in mind the apostle Paul tells us exactly what God had in mind in Galatians 3 7 to 9 it's a very important light that is thrown on this blessing that is given to Abraham he writes this know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham and I'm not going to spend time on that this morning but the point that Paul is making in that statement is that Abraham's sons and daughters are not just his natural offspring it's those who have faith those who are of faith they're the sons of Abraham and so that would be all kinds of people from all kinds of nations without distinction without exception but I'll go on verse 8 and the scripture foreseeing that

[26:56] God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying in you shall all the nations be blessed so what is Paul saying Paul is saying that when God called Abraham way back when and he said through you all the nations are going to be blessed that God was preaching the gospel to Abraham that the gospel was being preached to Abraham the gospel and all that it means and all that it entails was being preached to Abraham and then he concludes and he says so then verse 9 so then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham the man of faith God's chief blessing is the blessing of the gospel through his son

[28:02] Jesus Christ the blessing of forgiveness of sins the blessing of consciences cleansed and that is why the psalmist says in psalm 32 1 and 2 blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit brothers and sisters this is the basis for the hope of all people of all nations there are no peoples or nations who are beyond the reach or excluded from the promise of the gospel God promised to bless all nations through Abraham and Paul tells us that the promise of the blessing was the preaching of the gospel to Abraham and so brothers and sisters the point from the table of nations in

[29:03] Genesis 10 is clear God is the God of all nations and there is hope for all nations it's not just the God of the nation of Israel as a matter of fact if you look at the table of nations in Genesis 10 the nation of Israel is not mentioned to see the nation of Israel to see Shem's lineage coming down to Abraham and then his son and then Jacob and Esau you have to go to Genesis 11 and 12 to find that but in the table of nations they're not mentioned now obviously by extension they're included but they're not specifically mentioned the point is it was always God's plan to bless all the nations with the gospel through Abraham he was the one to whom the promise came the promise didn't come to

[30:04] Jacob and then just to his 12 sons and the tribes that came out of them no it came to Abraham a man that God called out of darkness and God justified by faith as an example of how he would justify all those who come to him and so this is how people at the end of the day nations at the end of the day are united their merits and their demerits don't matter the merits and demerits that separate nations do not matter in the grand scheme of things they are united where it matters they are united in their common ancestry coming from these three men ultimately back to Noah all made in the image and likeness of God they are united in their fallenness and their brokenness and their united through the promise of God that the blessing of the gospel would come to them through

[31:20] Abraham a common ancestry a common fallenness and this common blessing of the gospel coming through Abraham and so brothers and sisters when we consider the nations in general or when we consider any nation in particular how are we assessing them are we getting lost in all the cosmetics and looking up to one nation because there are some cosmetics that we think are wonderful and looking down on another nation because there are some cosmetics that we think are bad or are we seeing all nations through this grid of having this common ancestry made in the image of God all broken and fallen people and we all have the promise of the gospel coming to us and you know because this issue of illegal immigration from Haiti is such a topical issue

[32:31] I think we would do well to apply what we are learning from this passage to that issue we are united with the people of Haiti in our ancestry in our fallenness and in the promise of the gospel coming to us and those are more important factors that unite us than anything else we have this shared ancestry and actually in our case we have this shared ancestry from one of Noah's sons more than the others in particular and that's the son of Ham when you read the account of Ham and the peoples that dispersed from him by and large for many of us in the Bahamas that would be our ancestry because we all came this way from Africa in all the Caribbean in all the countries where there was slavery we all came that way and so we have this commonality between us and brothers and sisters we are blind when we think that we are separate and we are different or we are better and we are mightier because we are not the things that we place stock on those are cosmetics and they are subject to change the fortunes of nations rise and fall the fortune of nations is never fixed it's in the hands of a sovereign God who determines rising and falling and so brothers and sisters we would do well to think about how we view the nation of Haiti how we view our

[34:23] Haitian brothers and sisters recognizing that we have this shared ancestry all made in the image and likeness of God all image bearers of God we are broken we are fallen they are broken they are fallen they have the same aspirations same desires as we do and all of us have this promise of being the recipients of the gospel the blessing of the gospel through through Abraham and I want to say to us that yes let's pray that Haiti gets the practical help it needs and let's pray that the blessing of the gospel will spread far and wide to the people of Haiti let's pray that people are saved let's pray that churches are planted but you know it is very easy to put up a lot of walls to hide our prejudices to hide our biases

[35:45] I can't use the word race because we all share the same race but although none of us in our own right is able to go and make a tangible difference in Haiti brothers and sisters we can pray we can have compassion and by our words we can give hope the government will do what the government has been elected to do but as it relates to us we can have compassion we can show the word we can show the love of Christ through our words and in our attitude towards those who find themselves in a very difficult situation fleeing their land!

[36:38] for a better way of life for safety for all the reasons that they do and we should never think that the fortunes the good fortunes that we enjoy in our nation will never change when we find ourselves united with the people when we find that we have things in common with people we tend to draw near to those who we think we have things in common with and we tend to be distant from those who we don't think we have anything in common with I remind us this morning that we have much in common because we have this shared ancestry and we're all broken and fallen people and the promise of the gospel comes to all of us we are wise when we are not distracted by the cosmetics and we are guided by these unchanging realities that make us united as the nations and peoples of the world that's the first truth

[37:53] I want us to see from the table of nations in Genesis 10 the unity of nations the second and final truth is the sovereignty of God now again Genesis 10 tells us about the different peoples and groups who descended from Noah's three sons and how we're connected to them look at verse 32 of Genesis 10 it says these are the clans of the sons of Noah according to their genealogies in their nations and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood after the Tower of Babylon Genesis 11 God dispersed the people living on the earth across the face of the earth and it can appear that this just happened randomly that you know some say man you know

[38:58] I'm going this way I'm going the other way and they just scattered based on women fancy but that's not what happened there was nothing haphazard there was nothing that was random and hopscotch about how people dispersed across the earth that's what Acts 17 26 tells us Paul tells us and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that's how nations came to be a sovereign God determined the allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwellings you know there are nations that used to exist that don't exist anymore

[39:58] God determined the allotted periods for existence and even where there seems to be apparent human choices!

[40:10] regarding nations independence or mergers or wars and boundaries changing and nations coming into being and nations ceasing to be behind it all is a sovereign Lord who determines the allotted boundaries and the allotted periods of nations and we read in Ephesians 1 11 that God works all things in accordance with the counsel of his will all things means all things it means some things it means all things all things includes the boundaries of nations all things includes the allotments of nations all of it is because of a sovereign God and so what we see in

[41:11] Genesis 10 these descendants of Shem Ham and Japheth and the nations that came out of them if we are watching you just think this thing is happening but no there was a sovereign God who was ordering and orchestrating where these nations would exist and what is true on a top level is also true on a bottom level the same is true for us not only did God determine the boundaries for nations God also determined our own boundaries within those nations it's no accident that we are in this country God determined that God determined the same way he determined who our parents would be he determined where we would live and why did he do that why did God determine the periods for these nations and the boundaries for these nations we're told in verse 27 of

[42:15] Acts 17 here's why he did it that they should see God in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him yet he actually is not far from each one of us that's Paul's point that's the point he was making to these philosophers in Athens that God has so ordered the nations and the peoples within the nations for this reason that they should seek God and that they should feel after him and find him and he makes the point he says yet he is not far from each one of us brothers and sisters it matters not where we live we're not far from God God there are there are there there there are there are!

[43:14] there are are some people who think that oh because we were born in the Bahamas we have an advantage of coming to Christ we have an advantage of serving Christ and yet there are many self proclaimed atheists in this country there are many people born in this country with churches in the gospel all around them and they have no interest in the things of God and they outrightly reject serving God and there are those who think that if you are born in a country like Pakistan that there are disadvantages to you serving Christ and yet in Pakistan there are countless numbers of people who are believers in Christ and they knowingly serve Christ every day of their lives realizing that it might cost them their very life some have lost families some have lost possessions and day by day every day they serve

[44:20] Christ they do so knowing that they could literally die they can be killed and even not have the protection in some cases of the law wherever God places people he is able to cause them to know him and brothers and sisters God has his elect people everywhere from every nation and tribe and language and tongue and people and he will bring every one of them to saving faith without exception it matters not how close the nation is to the gospel he will bring them to saving faith because they're not where they are randomly haphazardly they are there because a sovereign God determined it to be if you take the time to count the number of nations that came out of the sons of

[45:27] Noah you'll find that there are 70 of them there are 70 of them now remember that the books of Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy!

[45:44] These are the books of Moses that he wrote to the children of Israel and this is his case that he's making to them to help them to understand the world and understand what God is doing with them their place in the world taking them into the Exodus 15 verse 27 there's a very unusual account that Moses gives us about what happened when they had crossed the Red Sea and when they were going into the promised land this is fresh out of out of Egypt it's what it says Exodus 27 Exodus 15 sorry verse 27 then they came to Elim where there were 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees and they encamped there by the water just think about that for a moment they're on their journey they're probably tired and miserable and complaining and all the other things going on with them and you read the account and they come to this area where there are these 70 palm trees there are 12 springs of water and this is in the desert and somebody takes the time to count the number of palm trees someone takes the time to count the number of springs that are there it's 70 palm trees not 69 or not 80 it's 12 springs of water not 11 or 13 and the nation of

[47:36] Israel they go and they encamp near the 12 springs of water the number of the palm trees just happens to be 70 which is the same number of the nations the number of springs of water is 12 which happens to be the same number of the tribes of Israel and Israel camps by the 12 springs and what's the point the point that God is revealing through this seeming happenstance but clearly orchestrated by him to teach them and by extension to teach us is that God ordained it that the water of life Jesus Christ would come through the nation of Israel to the nations of the earth and it was all by his sovereign and gracious design he foreshadows it he foreshadows it in symbol and sign that this is what he is doing and so what we see is that

[48:52] Jesus Christ came through the nation of Israel he was born of the virgin Mary he was born of one of the house of David the gospel is to the Jew first and then to the Gentiles but it's not exclusively to the Jew it is to come to the nations through the Jews it comes through Abraham to the nations the spring of water has come through them and dispersed to the nations God's plan and God's purpose is to bless the nations and even when the nations as we'll see next week in Genesis 11 even as they are scattered over the earth what God does is he unites them in

[49:53] Christ he brings them together he brings people not without exception not every single person from all the nations but he brings his elect people he brings his chosen from among the nations and he unites them in the Lord Jesus Christ he calls them no matter where they are no matter how dark no matter how closed he gathers his people into one nation and Peter says about that one nation he says you are a royal priesthood you are a holy nation and that royal priesthood that holy nation is comprised of Jew and Gentile believing Jews and believing Gentiles and those who are the outside are unbelieving Jews and unbelieving Gentiles brothers and sisters this is

[50:56] God's sovereign plan God's plan is to have a people from all the nations his ultimate plan is that they would all hear the gospel and they would be saved when you think about what we have covered so far in Genesis the rebellion of mankind we think of the rebellion of Adam the rebellion of Eve we think about the wickedness that existed during the time of the flood and how God wiped out everyone except eight persons and you know what that was an expression of his mercy he could have wiped out every single person and indeed those who survived the ones who were spared they were not spared because there was anything good in them they were spared because of

[52:05] God's amazing grace because of the promise that he made that the seed of the woman is going to crush the head of the serpent and God has kept and God is keeping his promise and this is an expression of his amazing grace to sinners like me and you who do not deserve it right now there's a lot of focus on being Bahamian and the 50th anniversary that is coming up and brothers and sisters as wonderful as all that is and as much as there is to rejoice in all of that let us not forget the most important reason that God brought this nation into being brought this nation into existence is that we might find him that we might serve him and it matters not what we accomplish on the world stage it matters not how great our nation may be seen if we as a people do not serve the

[53:15] Lord we have missed the purpose for which he brought us into being he brought us into being that we might seek him and know him and that we might ultimately bring glory to his name my prayer for all of us gathered and those watching my live stream if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior and as your Lord I say come to Jesus come to him and you will find rest for your soul come to him and he says all those who come to me I will not turn away never turn away when he receives us he receives us forever and the reason he's able to receive us forever is because salvation is of the Lord from start to finish salvation doesn't start with us and salvation does not end with us it starts and it ends with the sovereign

[54:23] Lord and for those of us this morning who have put our trust in Jesus Christ may our hearts be filled with gratitude may our hearts be filled with wonder may our hearts be filled with amazement that God has had mercy on us and God has saved us and forgiven us of our sins let's pray together Father thank you for your wisdom in bringing the nations into being Lord you have a lot of their times and their boundaries for the ultimate purpose that they might seek you and they might find you Lord would you help us not to be distracted by all the cosmetics that separate the nations and help us to remember that all the nations have the common denominators of being descendants of the sons of

[55:37] Noah and ultimately descendants of Adam Lord and Lord help us to also remember that we also share in the same fallen nature and we all need the same Savior!

[56:03] and all of us without exception have come under the blessing and the promise of the gospel because through Abraham the blessings may come upon the Gentiles I pray Lord that you would help us to remember these enduring and unchanging realities and God has been being distracted by all the cosmetics that tell us that we are so different from all the other nations God work on our hearts help us to rejoice in the truth that our names are written in the book of life and where they're not would you have mercy oh Lord and would you save the lost we pray in Christ's name