Will you please turn to Matthew, the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 16? We will read just one verse, verse 18.
Matthew 16:18:
And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Brothers and sisters, as we gather here at this time, our theme is clear: Prepare the Way of the Lord. Of course, by that we mean, prepare the way of the second coming of the Lord.
Before our Lord Jesus came into this world the first time, God prepared His way. Not only did God prepare the time for it; He also prepared the vessels for it.
We know that in Galatians 4:4, in the fullness of time, God sent His Son into this world. So there is a timing involved.
It was the time when Rome controlled the known world. There was peace, and the Romans were famous for building roads. There were good roads everywhere. At the same time, even the Greek language was being used in commerce. So it seemed as if the time was ripe for the coming of the Lord.
At the same time, the Lord prepared the vessels. As our brother mentioned last night, He prepared Zacharias and Elizabeth, and through them came John the Baptist. He prepared Joseph and Mary. He prepared Simeon and Anna. These are the ones that we know; we believe that there must have been many others.
So we find that at the first coming of the Lord Jesus, there was preparation both in time and in vessels.
This time, when we are talking about preparing the way of the Lord, of course we know that this refers to His imminent second coming. But our emphasis this time is a little different. The emphasis is more on the way—the way of preparation for the coming of the Lord.
So we use especially Matthew 16:18. There, after Simon Peter received revelation from God the Father concerning our Lord Jesus and confessed Him as such—“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”—our Lord Jesus continued to reveal something more about God’s eternal purpose.
He said, “You are Peter. You are a small stone, but I will build My church upon this rock,” this massive rock, out of which all these little living stones came. “I will build My church upon this massive rock,” that is, the Lord Himself and the confession of Peter.
But when He was doing that, He said, “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
Here we find three things emphasized. One is the vision—the vision of Christ—because the vision of Christ is the basic way for His coming. The second is the vessel: how He prepares a vessel for His coming. The third is the conflict. It is through conflict that a vessel is prepared and the coming of the Lord is sped up.
Now, I was given the assignment on the third point: how the way of conflict is the preparation for the coming of the Lord.
This morning, we would like to go back to the origin. In other words, why is there conflict upon this earth?
We know that when God created the heavens and the earth, there was no conflict whatsoever, because whatever God created was perfect.
As we find in Psalm 19:1:
The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament showeth His handiwork.
So you find that in heaven and on earth, everything glorifies the Lord. There was no conflict whatsoever.
When God laid the foundation of the earth, the morning stars sang for joy, and they shouted for joy. They agreed with what God had done. It was so wonderful, so perfect.
If we even go back to Revelation 4, which we believe is a review of the creation of God the Creator, we find that everything was so harmonious. You find the twenty-four elders sitting on their thrones and taking off their crowns in worship. You find the four living creatures crying day and night, “Holy, holy, holy, God Almighty.”
When this was done, there was worship of God Who created it. He created everything according to His will, and it is for His glory.
So, as you read the Word of God, you find that in the very beginning of God’s creation, everything was harmonious. Everything was good. Everything expressed the glory of God. There was no discord; there was no conflict.
But why is it that there was conflict afterward?
Of course, we do not see plainly in the Word of God, in plain words, how it happened. But God did give us hints about what happened. We find that in the Bible God used two different parables. As you read these two different parables, you cannot apply them merely to human beings. It has to be something higher.
He used the king of Tyre, and He used the king of Babylon. But in these two instances, as you read the description, I think, brothers and sisters, if you are without prejudice, you have to confess that there is something deeper than can be applied to any human being.
For instance, turn to Ezekiel 28, verse 11.
And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say unto him,
Thus saith the Lord God:
Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
Thou wast in Eden, the garden of God;
Every precious stone was thy covering:
The sardius, the topaz, and the diamond,
The beryl, the onyx, and the jasper,
The sapphire, the carbuncle, and the emerald, and gold.
The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was in thee;
In the day that thou wast created they were prepared.
Thou wast the anointed cherub that covereth;
And I set thee, so that thou wast upon the holy mountain of God;
Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created.
Now, you cannot apply this to any human being, because this is beyond human beings. In a sense, God is using the king of Tyre as a type of something bigger and greater. We believe that it refers to the archangel Lucifer.
Most likely, the angels were created even before the foundation of the earth was laid. When God created these angels, these spirits, there was one angel among the angels—we do not know whether he was the first created one—but we find that he was created in such perfection.
He was adorned with precious stones. He was given musical talents. He was even the anointed angel over the throne of God.
Just as we find later on, when Moses made the ark and the mercy seat, there were two cherubim covering the mercy seat. So this angel must have been the closest of the angels to God, and he had liberty to walk up and down before God.
The Bible says, “In the day that thou wast created, they were prepared.” Verse 15 says:
Thou wast perfect in thy ways
From the day that thou wast created,
Till unrighteousness was found in thee.
Now we wonder if he was the angel that led all the angels in worshiping God. He was given great authority and dominion. When he was created, he was perfect; there was nothing wrong with him.
But sadly, we find in verse 15, “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till unrighteousness was found in thee.” Somehow, something happened to this archangel.
“By the abundance of thy traffic they filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned.” Because he was given so much, and he was faithful in the beginning, something happened as he continued for God. You find unrighteousness, violence, and sin.
Now, this happened during the first world. We do not know how long it was, but this archangel began to rebel against God.
From verse 16 onward:
By the abundance of thy traffic they filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned:
Therefore have I cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God;
And I have destroyed thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty;
Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness:
I have cast thee to the ground;
I have laid thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
By the multitude of thine iniquities, in the unrighteousness of thy traffic,
Thou hast profaned thy sanctuaries;
Therefore have I brought forth a fire from the midst of thee;
It hath devoured thee, and I have turned thee to ashes upon the earth
In the sight of all them that behold thee.
All they that know thee among the peoples shall be astonished at thee:
Thou art become a terror, and thou shalt nevermore have any being.
So we find that, even in the early days, there was a rebellion. The archangel Lucifer became proud of himself. He was proud of his wisdom, and he was proud of his power.
Then we find what was really in his heart when we turn to Isaiah 14.
Isaiah 14, from verse 12. Actually, when you read the verses before that, the Lord was talking about the king of Babylon. But suddenly there comes a description that does not fit any human being, even the king of Babylon.
Verse 12 says:
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations!
Here you find the plain words: Lucifer, the morning star. He has fallen and is cut down to the ground. Now, why did this happen?
“And thou saidst in thy heart”—something began to come into his heart:
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will sit also upon the mount of congregation, in the recesses of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.
Here you find the reason for the rebellion. The “I” comes out in such a way. He wanted to ascend into heaven. He wanted to exalt his throne above the stars of God. He wanted even to sit in the council of God. He wanted to rise up so high as to be like the Most High.
If you read the New Testament, you find that in Philippians 2, when it describes the mind of Christ, it mentions another mind. That other mind is not the mind of Christ, but the mind that tried to rob the place of the Son of God. We know that this mind is the mind of the devil, the adversary of God.
So, brothers and sisters, this is the origin of the conflict of the ages. It is really a conflict between God and His enemy, Satan.
Now, how did God react to this situation? It would have been very easy for God simply to destroy this archangel, and then everything would be peaceful again. But this is not God’s way. God’s way is always higher than man’s way.
We find that God has His own strategy. God’s strategy at that time was that He did not want to do it Himself. If He did it, He would get no glory out of it. It would be like a grown man beating a little child. There is no glory in that.
So God would not do that, even though He was able to do it. Instead, He would use someone lower than the angels. From those who are lower than the angels, He would destroy His enemy, and that would give Him glory.
This was the strategy that God decided upon: how to meet His adversary and how to defeat His adversary.
That is the reason why, when Lucifer was dismissed from heaven, evidently, in the first creation this planet Earth was under the rule and government of Lucifer.
When he fell from the throne of God, we find that there was destruction over the area in which he had dominion. Our earth must have been one of them. That is where Genesis begins.
We know that, as we read Genesis, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1 says:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
We believe that this is the real beginning of the heavens and the earth. We do not know how long ago God created them, but we know one thing: when God does anything, He will not leave something undone. He always does it perfectly.
So we can believe that when God created it, it was finished; it was perfect. This verse refers to the very beginning of the heavens and the earth.
But strangely, when you come to verse 2:
And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
God would never create a waste. God would never create something void, without meaning. That is not like our God. Whatever He creates is perfect, and whatever He creates is full of meaning.
But strangely, you find that the earth was waste and void. How did it happen? Evidently, there must have been a catastrophe that came upon the earth.
Water began to surround the earth. Darkness began to penetrate and fill the earth. The earth became a waste. Everything was in disorder. It was not only void; it was also empty. It had lost its purpose.
We do not know how long this existed, but we know one thing: this must be what geology calls the ice age. The earth, at one period, was surrounded with water, darkness, and ice. That was the reason why we have all these fossils.
It must be that the first earth, with all those who inhabited it, was destroyed. We do not know how long this ice-age period lasted.
But thank God, when you read verse 2, it says that the Spirit of God was moving upon the face of the waters. In other words, God began to restore the ruined earth into a habitable place.
The Spirit of God was hovering like a mother hen hovering over her eggs. His warmth, His creative power, began to come over the face of the waters. Out of the energy of the Holy Spirit, we find that the earth was restored.
That is how we find, from verse 3 onward in Genesis 1, the six days of creation. So far as we understand, this was not the original first-created world. Actually, it was the restored earth. The Lord used six days to restore this earth to be habitable.
Why did He do that? Because God was going to create man.
Brothers and sisters, we are the latecomers. We did not exist in the first world. We came only at the beginning of the second world, and we were created even on the last day, the sixth day.
But thank God, when He created man, He created man in a very different way—in a way that He had never done before.
Even when He created angels, He did not create the angels in His image, according to His likeness. He created them out of His wisdom, out of His power, and out of His character. That is true. But He did not create even the angels in His own image, that is, His own inner nature and character. He did not create even the angels in His own form, the outward form.
No. Man is the only creation that is created in the image of God, after the form of God.
Now, we know that the word image is not what we use today. When we talk about an image, we think of something that can be seen. But the image here refers to the inner nature and quality of God.
When God created man, He created man according to His own character, according to His own nature, and after His likeness. The likeness here refers to outward form.
Of course, we know that God has no form. He is the invisible God. But among the Godhead, there is One Who has a form, and that is the second Person of the Trinity.
So even our outward form is formed after the second Person of the Trinity. You find that man was created in such a wonderful and glorious way. That is how He created us.
Now, why did He do that? God never does anything without purpose. He does everything according to His purpose, according to His eternal will, according to His good pleasure, for something that He has in His heart.
Why did God create man in such a special way? We know today, of course, that He did it because He wants to use man as His vessel, an instrument to defeat His enemy.
So, brothers and sisters, we are created with a purpose. We are not created for ourselves or for our pleasure. We are created to fulfill God’s wonderful purpose and His marvelous strategy.
We are created to be used by God to destroy God’s enemy, and that will bring glory to Him. That is how man was created in the first place.
That is the reason why, after God created man, He gave man dominion over the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, and the fishes of the sea. He committed the earth to man, to subdue it.
The earth was under the control of God’s enemy, and He raised man to subdue it, to bring it back to the rule of God.
So, brothers and sisters, we have to remember: we are something special in the strategy of God.
How sad it is today that we think greatly of ourselves. But no matter how great we think of ourselves, we think too little of ourselves, because according to the will of God, we are created with such a nature, with such a possibility, with such a commitment, and with such a work to do.
How sadly we fail.
As you read human history, you find that in the beginning God created Adam and Eve, a corporate being. One single person can never contain the fullness of God and can never defeat God’s enemy. So He created a corporate person: the man and the woman.
To them He gave the charge to keep and to guard the garden, because the enemy was outside.
But, brothers and sisters, we all know very well that we do not know how long Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden, enjoying God’s provision and even the fellowship of God. We do not know how long that existed. Probably it was not a very long time.
But then something happened. The enemy came into the garden.
Adam and Eve were supposed to guard the garden. They were the wall to the garden of Eden. God commissioned them for this work. But evidently, they were not faithful to their work.
Number one, man and woman were supposed to be together because they were one. But strangely, you find that Eve seemed to have drifted away from Adam. The two seemed to be apart.
When you are apart, weakness is revealed. So the enemy used this failure of man to slip into the garden and tempt Eve.
Evidently, Eve was before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Bible says that God planted the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and beside the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
I often say that whatever God planted in the garden of Eden was a good tree. God would never create a bad tree in the garden of pleasure. All the trees bore fruit, all for the food of the body of man, to nourish us.
This tree of the knowledge of good and evil was actually food for the soul of man, for the mind of man, to make man wise—to know what is good and what is evil.
In the midst of the garden was the tree of life. It was food for our spirit, that by eating the tree of life, we would have the life of God in us, and our spirit would be strengthened and become one with God.
So everything in the garden was good. But God purposely planted these two trees in the midst of the garden. Why?
Because God created man according to His own image. He is the perfect will in the universe. So when He created man, He gave man a will.
Now, what is a will if there is no choice? God provided these two trees before man and gave man an opportunity to choose.
They could choose the way of God. By eating the fruit of the tree of life, they could receive life from God, be united with God in life, and live a dependent life, fulfilling all God’s purposes.
Or they could prefer to make themselves gods. They would know good and evil. They would not need to ask God. Like children, they have to ask their parents what is good and what is bad because they have no knowledge of that. But now they could become independent, grown up in themselves, and live by themselves and for themselves.
They could choose this selfish way. So God put these two ways before man and let them choose.
Unfortunately, man preferred the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man wanted to be independent of God. They preferred to depend on themselves. They thought they were able.
But, brothers and sisters, God knows very well that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a good tree, but the good is the enemy of the best. It proved to be the downfall of man.
Now, do not blame Eve. Do not blame Adam. Even today, if these two trees were put before man, what tree would you choose?
Is it not true that even today men choose to be independent of God? “We can do it. We do not need to depend upon God. We are our own king, our own sovereign.”
Brothers and sisters, this is the spirit of the adversary of God. Unfortunately, we inherit this spirit.
In other words, all who are born of Adam inherit from Adam his fallen nature. We all have this independent spirit within us. We do not want God.
This is the sad history of human history.
But thank God, He does not give up. He still holds to His own strategy. He knows that His strategy is the best one.
So we find that, one day, in the fullness of time, when everything seemed to be at the right time, God sent His Son into this world, to be born of woman, to be born under the law, that He might deliver us out of the law and give us sonship.
This is how redemption came to us. Dear brothers and sisters, here we are this morning as the redeemed of the Lord.
God never gave up on man. He still wanted to use man to defeat His enemy. So He sent His Son into this world to be a man.
Brothers and sisters, in Philippians 2, it says that He, being equal with God, was one with God, because He and the Father are one. It was not something to be grasped.
This is a hint. Before this, someone was trying to grasp at that position, and we know that was Lucifer, the fallen angel. But this was Christ’s rightful position—to be equal with God—because He is God. He is the image and the form of God.
But thank God, in God’s wisdom and arrangement, the Father and the Son are one. The Father sent the Son into this world, and the Son was willing to be sent by the Father.
Now, brothers and sisters, when we think of incarnation, I do not think we are able really to fathom what incarnation involved.
Think that God the Son, equal with God, sitting on the throne, worshiped by all the obedient angels with honor and glory—how He emptied Himself.
This emptying is something beyond our human understanding. Brothers and sisters, we have nothing to empty. The only thing we empty is our sins. But He had everything.
He emptied all the honor, glory, position, and accompaniment that He had. Of course, He could not empty Himself of His Godhead, because that is what He is.
Even when He was on earth, He was God, because that is what He is. But everything that accompanies God, He emptied Himself of and came to be a man.
He was even born in a manger, in the lowest condition of man.
When you read His earthly history of thirty-three and a half years, from the beginning the enemy tried to destroy Him. The enemy knew that this was the Man who would be his end.
You remember how he used King Herod, trying to kill all the boys within two years old in the Bethlehem area. But God had already sent His Son down to Egypt.
When He came back, He lived in a small place, Nazareth. He learned to be a carpenter. We do not know His hidden years, but we know one thing: He lived His hidden years as a perfect man.
He obeyed His parents. He learned the trade. He became a carpenter, known for His carpentry work. He supported the family, because Joseph must have died early.
He was hidden for thirty years. Then, when He stepped out, He came out as a man. He came to be baptized by John the Baptist.
John the Baptist said something noble to Him. John said, “I could not baptize You. You should baptize me.” But the Lord said, “Let us do it, for righteousness’ sake. This is the way that God has ordained for this time.”
It is the way of repentance, in order to go back to God’s purpose. Our Lord Jesus was baptized as Man, as the representative Man, even though He had nothing to repent of. He took all our sins as if they were His and repented before God.
No wonder, when He came out of the water, the heavens opened and said, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”
Immediately afterward, He was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He was alone in the wilderness forty days and forty nights, without eating and drinking.
It was not like Adam and Eve. When they were tempted, they were in the best environment, in the garden of Eden. But when our Lord Jesus was tempted, He was in the desert, in the wilderness, alone by Himself.
What was His temptation? The devil came to tempt Him and said, “Now, if You are the Son of God, You can easily turn these stones into bread and fill Your stomach with food.”
In other words, the enemy tried to tempt Him to act as God and not as a man. If He had acted as God, He could not represent man anymore, because only man can die for man. Only a perfect man can die for sinful man.
But how our Lord Jesus overcame all these temptations! He remained as Man and submitted Himself to God His Father. He overcame the enemy, and the enemy left Him for a time.
During His three public years, the enemy tried every means to tempt Him, to remove Him from that position of man and make Him act as God. But he could not do that.
He was obedient to His Father, even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we find that the second Man came to the fight. On Calvary’s cross, He drove the enemy out of this world.
He bruised the head of the enemy. He took all these principalities and authorities under the enemy captive and made them a show of His victory.
In other words, His victory is decisive. Our Lord Jesus, as the Man, the representative Man, overcame the enemy completely and perfectly. He said, “It is finished,” and that is the finished work of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, today we are in the good of that. Strictly speaking, the conflict is not between you and the enemy. The conflict is between God and the enemy.
But because we are the vessel and the instrument used by God to finish the enemy, therefore we are involved in the conflict.
But, brothers and sisters, for us it is the fight of faith. We cannot fight it by ourselves. We can only fight it by believing in the finished work of Christ.
This is the reason why we have conflict today. Formerly, we were allies of God’s enemy. But now we are his enemies.
No wonder our Lord Jesus said:
In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
Our Lord Jesus said, “I send you out as sheep among wolves.” You will have tribulation and suffering, but you do not need to be afraid, because He has overcome.
So, brothers and sisters, this is the reason why there is conflict in our lives. This is the reason why the gates of Hades are all open to attack the church that God is building.
May the Lord strengthen our faith. Let us pray.
Dear Lord, as we come into this marvelous work that You are doing today, we praise and thank You because our Lord Jesus Christ has already overcome, and we are in the train of His victory.
O dear Lord, deliver us from every fear, knowing that Thou hast overcome. We praise and thank Thee that by faith we may fight the good fight.
May we be able to accomplish, to finish, the work that Thou hast left for us to do. So, Lord, may this be a reality to each and every one of us.
We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.