The concept of "abundant life" as presented in the Bible, drawing parallels from God's creation on the sixth day to the spiritual abundance available to believers. It highlights how God's creation, from the teeming waters and skies to the vastness of the stars, demonstrates His power and care, even for broken hearts. The message emphasizes that just as God's creation exhibits abundant life and power, Christians are called to live a life filled with abundant grace, mercy, power, assurance, and ultimately, an abundant entrance into His everlasting kingdom. This abundant entrance is achieved by utilizing the spiritual resources God provides, living a life dedicated to Him, and bearing fruit for His glory.
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In our studies on work days of God, next week will be the sixth day God's masterpiece, man's creation. We've got to be back. Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter one. And verse twenty. God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly. I want you to underline that word abundantly. And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have light and power that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
God created great whales and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly. There it is again, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply in the earth, twice to have the word multiply. In these studies we've been taking up in Genesis the work days of God, the more you read over them, the more you are amazed at the precious truths you'll find here.
The opening day, I think we pointed it out, was Conversions Day, the day of illumination. That's when God says, let there be light and there was light, illumination. It means that darkness was replaced by light and confusion was replaced by clarity and emptiness was replaced by fullness, all by the Spirit and Word of the Lord. Then you come to the second day. the day of division when God caused the firmament to be established, and it divided the waters below the firmament, the seas, from the waters that were above the firmament.
And here's an amazing thing. This firmament is a restraining force. And I was amazed this week to think about this restraining force, that of the firmament that separated the waters above from the waters beneath. There was a time came when that restraint was removed, and that was when the flood took place. And how remarkable that waters from above met the waters from beneath, and all flesh perished upon the face of the earth.
Evidently the firmament was removed. The restraint was gone, gone. Because God opened the windows of heaven. And the word water opened in the windows of heaven means the water gates of heaven. It wasn't the usual downpour of rain. Nowadays, why the sun draws up the water from the oceans and empties the waters upon the earth. But in that day, the windows of heaven were opened. You find that in verse eleven of chapter seven.
God opening the windows of heaven. In chapter eight and verse three, he shut the windows of heaven. Just like turning open a faucet and the water pours out and then God turns it on. For forty days and forty nights, the rain poured down. No mention but for a moment. the restraining force has been removed. And God's judgment upon those antediluvians came down. Just a sheet of water poured down from the heavens. No evidence of the sun, all over the earth, the waters poured down from heaven.
Where did it come from? God, the Creator, poured it down. And there was only one place to escape from that deluge, and that was the ark. It must have been a lonely sight, the only spot on the surface, the bosom of the world, water. Yes, an ark is a float. No water enveloped that ark. Inside that ark there were eight people. nor his wife, his three sons and their wife. That's all the life that was left.
All the rest was destroyed. And there you have the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's only life in Christ. And that awful den, that judgment that fell upon the earth of the time of the flood, The ark took the full impact of that flood. Jesus Christ on the cross suffered the full fury of God's judgment against sin. There he is upon the cross. He bared his bosom. He received the stroke that justice aimed at me.
And God's wrath was poured up upon the Lord Jesus. on dark television there is salvation only in him and I thought of another restraint and it's amazing and today it's evident over in Thessalonians and you can read it if you wish I'll read it to you now over in second Thessalonians God said and Paul writing Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things, and now ye know what withholdeth or restraineth, that he that is the wicked coming Antichrist, he might be revealed in this time, for the mystery of iniquity does not already work.
It was working when Paul wrote this. But when he who now led the restrainer, when he has removed the Spirit of God in the church, then shall the judgment of God fall upon this earth, and upon Satan, and upon those wicked, ungodly forces that seem to be rising by the hour. Just like that firmament was a restraining force holding back The judgment of God until the moment came when God removed it and the waters came down and destroyed the antediluvian dengeneration.
For nineteen hundred years the Spirit of God and the Church and the Spirit of God in the Church and Paul says ye are the salt of the earth. Salt is a preservative. And you know it because the Spirit of God is in this world and the church is still here. A lot of it's already gone to heaven. And we are the restrainers. The Spirit of God in the church are the restrainers holding back God's coming judgment. The iniquity, that awful iniquity, that system of iniquity, it's called the mystery of iniquity, is working.
is getting worse by the hour. I don't have to tell you that. It's approaching that moment when God, that sect of restraint, will catch it away. The church will be gone when Jesus comes and every born-again Christian. And the Spirit of God he now offerings in this church age will be caught up. You take every Christian out of this world right now, and it'll be an awful place to live. You take the restraining spirit of God out of this world right now, and hell will break loose.
And so we have this secondary strength. One of these days, the last soul to complement the church is going to be saved. And when the last so essential to be the last member of the body of Christ is born again, the restraint is gone. And then the wrath of God will fall upon this poor world, just like in the case of the flood. That's an amazing paradigm, but awfully true. And so you have the second day.
And then the third day came, here you have the day of resurrection. And you'll notice where the Ark rested, not down in the valley in the puddle, but on the top of Mount Aralach. We mentioned that as being dry ground, and I'm sure that was right. Christ Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. He now sits at God's right hand in the heavens. All of us who are saved know something of the life and fruit of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Then we notice the fourth day when our eyes were turned to objects, subjects in the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, they appeared on the fourth day.
Here we find the Christian, and the Bible says, Set your affections on things above, but not on things on the earth. Where Christ sitteth at the right hand of the heaven. And so here is the Christian. His eyes, his gaze are stirred upward. From the moment you trusted Christ, God says, I want you to fix your focus. on the man at my right hand, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so our eyes are turned up on the fourth day to heavenly persons, to heavenly objects.
And we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. So here is the Christian occupied with heavenly things. How wonderful to think that we as God's people can be occupied with these wonderful things in the glory. Many times I visited sick people in the hospital, hundreds of them. Some of them can't move around their back, and I always remind them they're in a good position to look up. A nice way to look in them. To be able to look up and know there's someone in the heavens.
There's a man in the glory And I can be occupied with him. I said last week we were going to finish our subject on the stars. And there's a verse I'm going to quote it to you. To me, it's one of the most marvelous verses in the entire Bible. It's over in Psalm one, forty-seven, and verses three and five. And this is what it says. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number of the stars. He calleth them all by their name.
Great is our Lord, and of great power and understanding, it's infinite. That's the most amazing language. here is Almighty God and to show that he's infinite you can see what he can do he's so infinite that he can create the stars and he can hurl them out and put them in their sockets of blue and keep them in their place not only can they do that he can heal the broken parts and bind up their wounds.
If that isn't a contrast, what is? Think of that last word, infinite. I had to look at Webster's dictionary this week to find out exactly what he had to say about that which is infinite. And it's hard to grasp it. He said this, infinite, it means limitless, it's boundless, eternal, timeless, endless, vast, huge, great, enormous, immense, immortal. God would have to be all that to do what He says, said.
Create the stars, know them, and name them. The astronomers today could only give us maybe a few names of the stars. But there are trillions of stars, and God knows everyone, and He names everyone. That's someone who's infinite. He comes down to Earth, and He names all His children. He knows everyone, and He knows their wounds.
He knows their broken hearts. Only God could be infinite. All the doctors and the nurses in the world couldn't begin to minister to all the wounded and broken hearts in the world today. God can. Is He not infinite? Why, when you think of this passage, what opposites you have here? You have might and neatness, glory and grace, sovereignty and sympathy, stars and sighs and sobs. You have planets, you have pain, you have worlds, you have moons, brilliant heavens and broken hearts.
What opposite? He cares more for us than he does the stars. The stars only cost him his power. We cost him his son. And the son, it cost him his blood, his life, to save you and me. What a wonderful text. I think he cares for stars, each one. not some of them. Each one, he singles them out. So much so that he identifies them with a name. A name means identity.
You have a name that identifies you. And God knows every star. He names it. It's identified. And God puts that star in its place and he keeps it there. It's in that path. stars are mechanical. They don't have any feelings. They don't know what it is to rebel. They're just like a machine. But those of us who are saved, Christian, we have feelings. We can rebel, but we can obey. Some Christians are rebelling because of the place in which God has put them.
and the circumstances they're going through, they can repent. But they can accept it willingly, knowing that God has a plan and a purpose. He puts that star in its orbit, and he's put you, if you're a Christian, where you are. And there's a path for you, and he wants you to accept it. He has a purpose in it. He has a hand, a plan, a purpose in your trouble. What is that? His likeness. It is God that worketh in you, both the will and the do of his good pleasure.
He knoweth our frame. He remembers that we are but dust. He won't put on us more than we can take. How wonderful he knoweth the stars he knoweth you and me. And the stars praise him. Do I praise him in those unpleasant circumstances? I don't know anything that thrills me, and it makes me ashamed. When I visit Christians who are in suffering, pain, discomfort, and they can praise God, how that thrills the Lord. The heavens declare the glory of God, so do wounded hearts and broken hearts.
who accept it as God's will for them. Yes, the stars are numberless, so are broken hearts. We can't begin to tabulate. No computer can tell us today how many wounded hearts, wounded bodies, wounded minds, And broken hearts are in the world today. God knows everyone by name. And He's able to bless everyone.
One star differs from another, star in glory. One moon differs from another. Some moons are on the surface. Other moons go deep. He knows all about it. He knoweth the stars. He calleth them all by their name. He healeth the broken in heart. He bindeth up their wounds. Now Almighty God said that, I did. Now that's the story of these stars. What a wonderful lesson. Now I want to get into the next day, the day we've been reading.
And here you have in our verse, abundant life. You had the seas, and the real rendering of that is the waters swarming with fish. In that verse, all of a sudden those waters were just swarming with fish. And all of a sudden the air was swarming with birds. And twice we read abundance. Where did all this life come from? All of a sudden the waters are just churning with life.
God did. All of a sudden he spoke the word. And the waters were filled with fish, abundant life. The air was filled with birds, fowls, abundant life. You say, fish have abundant life. Yes, they sure do. So do birds. I've noticed on one occasion, and I've stood in amazement, a cold windy day. I saw this in Canada, almost enough to blow some human being off his feet. And here the little bird comes along, and he's going against the wind.
He must have a little powerful motor inside and under those little feathers. There must be some power there somewhere to allow the little bird to go against that wind. There's abundant life there all right. And that little fish can go against the stream. That current will sweep you off your feet. Little old fish can go against it. And I was out in British Columbia some forty years ago in the National Park there. I was watching the river where the sockeye can, son, they come up to spawn.
And there was a big fall, about thirty feet high. I was standing there with a ranger, amazed. And you'd see the bats, oh, that son would come up. Maybe six, seven pounds. You'd see it coming up. And up it goes up. and he'd go about three-quarters of the way up that falls. Where does he get the power to do that? To go against that rushing water and to even up part of the falls. They've got some gas I don't have. Abundant light. We're amazed at the power there is in God's creation. Here you have abundant life.
Well, I think how that applies to us. We as Christians have an abundant life. The Lord Jesus said in John ten, ten, I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it, more abundant life. Plenty of, tell them, abundant life. Why should we as Christians live defeated life, weak, wobbly life, when God has made available such abundant life? When you think of what you have in Isaiah, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up upon wings as eagles. They shall rather not be weary. They shall walk. They shall not faint. There's that abundant life. Enabling you to do what seemingly humanly is impossible. But I want to think of seven abundant things. That's one. Abundant life. Then you have abundant grace. Now I think of the abundant grace. And this is what you read in First Timothy one, four. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundance, as I'm saying. The grace of our Lord was abundantly as an adjective there. The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
Here you have abundant grace and His grace is abundant. My grace is made perfect. Abundant grace. Then you have abundant mercy. another abundant thing. And there's abundance of God's mercy. You find that over in First Peter one three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Then you have abundant power in Ephesians three twenty.
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding Look at the attitude. Exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. There you have abundant mercy. How abounding an abundant is his mercy. Then you have something else. You have abundant, an abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit. What Christian doesn't want this? What does Titus say? Tide says, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he has saved us. By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he hath done what?
Pour upon us abundantly. Here it is, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Abundant power. The Holy Spirit. The reservoir. a divine energy, abundant power. In my life, and I don't like to talk about things like this, I have fish coming on this platform, I remember one time years ago. I didn't have the mental, physical, or nervous energy to stand behind this pool. Some of you may remember the day when Brother Beck was here, I told Mother Beck when I got here, I said, Henry, I'm just not able to preach this morning.
Well, he says, I'm ready. He said, let me know when you're ready. I come up on the platform. And I thought, what a fool I am to be up here. Why not go ahead and tell him to go ahead and preach? I waited till all this thing was over. and he turned around to see what I was going to do, I still sit there. I said, I'll preach. I preached that morning, better than I'd preached many mornings. Where did that power come from? That's the power of the Holy Spirit of God. I could apply that till last Sunday, when I only had about two hours of sleep.
I didn't know how it was going to get through. This is what Christians can depend, rely upon. It's there. And God is ready to go. And you have also another thing, abundant assurance. My goodness, lovely, abundant assurance. I'm going to give you this. Wherefore God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, he confirmed it by a that by two immutable, unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation or thread for a refuge and lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul with both sure and steadfast, which enter into that within the veil, whether the foreowner hath for us entered, even Jesus.
Here you have abundant assurance. If the forerunners in heaven, I'm going to be there. And if the anchors in heaven, the ship may be tossed around outside the harbor mouth in the rough waters, but it can't get back out to the ocean. The anchors within the bay, my anchors in heaven. And I may get tossed around a bit down here, but I'm saved. My anchors in heaven. abundant assurance. Now I'm going to come to the seventh, a most amazing abundance. And I'm going to read it to you.
Second Peter one, eleven. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly to the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There is a word used in theological sermon at circles and it means permanent it's the mention or first mention the law of first mention I was in bed one night this week and I began thinking of what I've been reading for I went to bed about abundant life in the seas and in the air the verses in Genesis one and then I thought of this verse I thought that's strange.
I wonder if that in Genesis one could be the first time, and this could be the last time in the Bible. I get out of my bed. I wind up my contortance. And that's true. The first time abundantly is found in your Bible is in Genesis chapter one. The last time is in second Peter one eleven. You have seven abundantly. I thought that's fantastic. And you know the whole plan and scheme of redemption leads up to this verse.
What a wonderful verse. For so an infant shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That one verse is the answer to God's whole scheme of salvation. If because of what's in this verse that Jesus Christ came and died and rose again and went back to heaven, here you have the happiness in death, an abundant entrance. You know, it's the afterwards that scares people to death.
I heard a man say one time, he said, I'm not afraid to die. I'm not scared of death. But he said, I'm scared to death over the other side of death. On the other side of death, a living God. And if I am not saved, it's an angry God. I've got to meet God. That's it. But for the Christian It's another story. What's on the other side of death? The everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Should I be afraid of that? The everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how wonderful. This is His kingdom. No one else's. His kingdom. Christ's kingdom by claim. by right, by demand, by title. Jesus Christ purchased the title for that kingdom. It's His by reward for His obedience, His suffering, and His death. It is His kingdom by possession. He hasn't possessed it yet, but He's where He will.
as in Revelation nineteen as he comes down the heavens on his white charger with all his hoot is coming to possess his kingdom. It's the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What's the manner of this entrance into the kingdom? Well, the manner of this entrance is twofold. One is death, The other is the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm waiting for the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not waiting for Kimball's story. I'm not waiting for the undertaker.
I'm waiting for the opertaker. That's the entrance. One or two, one or the other, is going to be our entrance into the kingdom. Who's going to administer? or supervise, govern, control, or execute this entrance, God the Father. And I'll make that entrance, and so will you, in the type of time, manner, means, and place, fixed by God. What an entrance into the everlasting kingdom.
But he says an abundant entrance. What does that mean? An abundant entrance for the child of God who's lived for God. A child of God who has utilized that power, that abundant power that's at his disposal, demonstrated first in Genesis one. demonstrated in the New Testament by the Holy Spirit within and the living Christ above, the Word of God. Through these things you can have an abundant entrance. I think of boats I've been to many a dock in my life and here comes a boat into the dock.
It's empty. I see another boat coming in. It's about a quarter full. I see another boat coming in, it's about a half-foot. I see another one coming in, it's about a three-quarter. Then I see an old boat coming in, come from England. It's my water life. It's loaded. Everything's loaded. It's gone through four or five rough storms coming across the Atlantic. But it made it. Now it's headed into the harbor. His flag is flying.
His whistle is blowing. I'm in. I'm home. I've got all my cargo saved. That's an abundant entrance. What kind of an entrance are you going to have into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ? I've also been down the fishing field. A man comes in with this boat, a couple of men didn't catch fish. Another one comes in, he got two or three little ones popping around on the bottom of the boat. Another one comes in, he got a few. Another boat comes in, he's loaded.
There were a lot of big ones. That's an abundant entrance. Are you going to enter into the kingdom of God gladly or sadly? To think of making your exit from this life and your entrance into that kingdom a backslider. Away from God. Christ comes, or you drop dead in a place you have no business to be as a Christian. Doing something you know have a right of doing as a Christian. That's a sad entrance from backsliding into the presence of God who's been watching your voyage through life.
I hope you'll think of this. Why, to have a boat full of fish you've caught. You have an abundant entrance. That's a happy entrance. You've spent your life living for Christ. You spent your life carrying out his mind and will, winning souls and be a blessing to God's people. If all you live now that you're a Christian, you live for yourself in this world, you won't have an abundant embers. It'll be a side embers. You live for yourself. Only in the measure you've lived for Christ and lived for God have been a blessing to others.
and you can have thirty percent fruit or you can have sixty or you can have a hundredfold and john speaks of fruit more fruit much fruit there are degrees it depends upon how you utilize those things and opportunities that power that god's given you as to what kind of an entrance you're going to have into the kingdom, the everlasting kingdom. It's an everlasting kingdom. Everything's translated down here, but that's an everlasting kingdom. Are you going to use the energy, the power that God has made available to you, the fish to?
I hope you're more intelligent and efficient. the birds do, I hope you're more wise than the birds. And use the power that God has made available for you and me to chart our course in His will through this light and meet light storm and take advantage of life's opportunity that when your current time comes To make your entrance into this kingdom, it will be an abundant entrance. Shall we pray?
Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus, we come into thy presence. We ask thy blessing upon thy word. May we be exercised as Christians as to our life here. in view of what's there in my presence. If there be those here this morning unsaved, they don't know Christ, they're lost, they're going to hell. And waiting that awful day when that restraining power of thine will be withdrawn and judgment will pour down on this poor wicked ungodly world.
The gospel of any here today are unsaved. They'll take advantage of this opportunity to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and be saved now and saved forever. We ask it in our Savior's precious name. Amen. Shall we sing in closing hymn number one, From page sixty-five, softly and tenderly, Jesus calling, calling for you and for me. See on the portals, he's waiting, he's watching, he's watching for you and for me.
Three hundred and sixty-five. He is waiting, he's watching, he's tenderly calling you. Will you count? Shall we stop? Let me do the things of Christ, for in your interest will be.