[0:00] Genesis chapter 9. And we're going to read the whole chapter.
[0:13] Ralph is going to be speaking a little bit later on, or just after the reading. Certainly I'm very thankful, an opportunity to sit and to hear God's word.
[0:26] So I'm looking forward to it, but let's listen to God's word to us and ask for his help to us. So let's read Genesis chapter 9, starting at verse 1 to the end of the chapter.
[0:50] Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea.
[1:12] They are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
[1:27] But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood, I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal, and from each human being too.
[1:42] I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. Whoever sheds human blood, by human shall their blood be shed.
[1:55] For in the image of God has God made mankind. As for you, be fruitful and increase in number. Multiply on the earth and increase upon it.
[2:08] Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that was with you, the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, and all those that come out of the ark with you, every living creature on earth.
[2:30] I establish my covenant with you. Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.
[2:43] And God said, This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you. A covenant for all generations to come.
[2:57] I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind.
[3:18] Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.
[3:38] So God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth. The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth.
[3:56] Ham was the father of Canaan. These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth. Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard.
[4:10] When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside.
[4:26] But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders. Then they walked in backwards and covered their father's naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they could not see their father naked.
[4:44] When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.
[4:58] He also said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem! May God extend Japheth's territory!
[5:10] May Japheth live in the tents of Shem! And may Canaan be the slave of Japheth! After the flood, Noah lived 350 years.
[5:23] Noah lived a total of 950 years. And then he died. Thanks, Ralph. Good morning, everyone.
[5:53] Thank you, Johnny, for reading chapter 9 for us this morning. I might just lower this slightly. Okay. And... Okay, you can still hear me okay?
[6:11] Yeah, okay. Well, we reached the end of the story of Noah. And the question comes up, doesn't it? How does the world begin again after such devastation?
[6:27] A new start, a new beginning is needed, isn't it, after the flood? I was thinking World War II might be the closest reference point that we have in our generation to the time of Noah.
[6:43] We've seen documentaries... Sorry, I'm going to make this a little bit higher now. It seems to be going down on me. Sorry, just seen the stand for those listening on audio.
[6:53] We've seen documentaries, watched films, and... Sorry. I'm really struggling with this. Very glad we get this one. Yeah.
[7:05] Sorry, that might be easier, actually. Sorry, I'm actually going to switch the lines altogether. If we make enough money in the book sales, you might get a new one. Sorry.
[7:20] Thanks, Johnny. Hello. Dear.
[7:33] Thanks. Thanks, Johnny. I said, I think the closest reference we might have to the devastation of the time of Noah is World War II. And I said, we've seen documentaries or watched films or even read books about what that time was like.
[7:47] And even through those, we only get a hint of what the upheaval must have been. After six years and all the destruction, it finally ended in September 1945.
[8:02] But not before the US had dropped two nuclear bombs over the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, totally obliterating them and killing tens of thousands of people.
[8:15] But a new start did come, didn't it? On the world stage after World War II, we had the emergence of the United Nations, we had the beginnings of the early start of the European Union, and both of them were an attempt to say, never again, never again, never again.
[8:37] The scorched lands of Germany and Japan were rebuilt with outside help. a new start for the main aggressors of the war.
[8:48] And what can happen on the world or the global stage can also happen on our stage, our personal stage, on the small scale.
[8:59] We can be left wiped out. We can be left under rubble by people and by circumstances or both.
[9:10] We get that urge, don't we? We want to start again. We want to build better. And if you haven't already gone through a fresh start in your life, chances are you've thought about it.
[9:23] You've thought about selling up, packing up, and just moving on. And as we reach chapter 9 in Genesis, we find the first worldwide fresh start.
[9:37] It is a post-apocalyptic world. The black and white clips from World War II can't compare to the breadth and the depth of the destruction here.
[9:49] It was near total, global, worldwide wipeout. And in one sense, the earth is now arguably cleansed.
[10:00] We have these eight hand-picked survivors. And on paper, all good people, all chosen by God. We could assume that all that was wrong with the old world has now been decisively dealt with.
[10:15] It's sorted out, gone, and dead, and buried in the rubble and the muck. All that was wrong. This is the freshest of fresh possible starts.
[10:28] And the focus in Genesis chapter 9 is about that fresh start. chapter 8 has led us up to it, hasn't it? The waters, remember, they subsided.
[10:40] The waters are subsiding and the dry land is beginning to appear again. And that's an echo back to Genesis chapter 1, wasn't it? Where the waters were gathered together so that dry land could appear.
[10:53] And the coming of the birds and the animals out of the ark to fill the land again and to fill the skies again, that's to remind us again of Genesis 1, isn't it? Where God created the animals and he created the birds to fill the land he'd created and to fill the skies that he had created.
[11:12] It's back to creation again. So God, in a sense, in chapter 9 here and chapter 8 is helping us to imagine that this is a re-creation.
[11:23] It's a re-affirming, a re-establishing of his relationship and his covenant with creation and with his image bearers. And of course, we're meant to think, aren't we, then, that if that's what's happening, that Noah is like a new Adam.
[11:42] Look at verse 1, then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.
[11:53] You see, the blessing is being passed on to Noah now and the command to be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. Well, that's Genesis 1 again, isn't it?
[12:04] It's back to creation. And God is saying, enjoy the new start. Be fruitful. Fill the earth. And we have this provision as well, don't we, of food again.
[12:19] Also an echo from Genesis 1. And we see that in verse 3. In the garden, what was it? It was all the plants and all the fruit and all the trees that were given to Adam and Eve and to humanity to enjoy.
[12:36] And here, everything is given for food, including the animals. So steak is now on the menu. But, can we also see in these verses the subtle changes from the garden, the subtle changes to suit the circumstances of a fallen world.
[12:57] The curse and the impacts of sin resulting from Adam and Eve's rebellion still, it's still simmering, isn't it, under the surface through all of life. Notice some of the difference.
[13:10] Look at verse 2. The animals that, remember they came to Adam to be named by him in the garden? It's almost like they come up, there's no fear there. Or they were brought by God to Noah to enter the ark and the animals went into the ark with Noah and stayed with Noah on the ark and lived with him.
[13:29] Well, now they don't come so easily. Verse 2. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky. They carry a fear of people now.
[13:41] So that assumed care that we read about in Genesis 1 of mankind caring for creation, that assumption of that relationship is, well, it's broken. It's not as it should be.
[13:54] And basics, I mean real basics that we could have taken for granted back in the garden, they now need to be spelt out by God and written large and kind of blown up and announced.
[14:09] Basics. The intrinsic worth of human life needs to be spelt out. Genesis 9 and verse 4.
[14:21] But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood, that's the lifeblood of a person, I will surely demand an accounting.
[14:33] What's verse 4 and this thing about lifeblood? What's it about? Why the emphasis on blood and lifeblood? Well, I think it's this. God is setting blood as a symbol and as a sign of life.
[14:48] And we'll see that all through the scriptures from here on in. But blood is really a proxy or a symbol for life itself. Blood, then, is to remind us of what?
[14:59] The sanctity of life. Blood equals life. And you show your respect for life by showing your respect for blood as a symbol.
[15:12] Even in how the animals are to be killed and to be eaten. It's to remind us that blood equals life and life is sacred. Verse 5 and 6, any time an image bearer of God.
[15:28] Think about that. Any time an image bearer of God that is a man or a woman or the unborn or a baby or an infant or a child or the elderly is spilled.
[15:43] Any time the blood of a person is spilled, God will demand an accounting. God will demand an accounting. Shedding the blood of a person is no small thing.
[16:00] God himself will hold you to account. Why? Why this high standard? Well, verse 6 reminds us and again back to the garden.
[16:12] Whoever sheds human blood by humans shall their blood be shed. Why? For in the image of God has God made mankind.
[16:24] Each human being, each of you here this morning, you bear the image of God. You bear the image of God.
[16:35] Even after the fall, even after you've been afflicted by sin, you still bear God's stamp. Human life is sacred.
[16:46] It's touched by God himself. And this used to be taken for granted. It used to be a cornerstone of society because of Christian influence over centuries. But those ethics around life and death, they've had a lasting impact, but they're drifting away, aren't they?
[17:03] The idea that human life is intrinsically valuable is rapidly being dismantled. The value of life is now negotiable and we can have a debate about it.
[17:17] And especially debate and negotiate about those at the very edges, those that are most vulnerable, those that are in the early days in the womb or those that are at their latter days towards the end of their life.
[17:30] Let's have a discussion and a debate about killing. Let's have that debate about the smallest and the weakest and the most vulnerable and call their lives expendable.
[17:43] But the Bible here reminds us that each human life is precious because each one bears the image of God.
[17:54] Each one is marked and stamped by the creator. To unjustly kill and to unjustly take life is to unjustly attack God himself and he will demand an accounting.
[18:12] So this is the fresh and the new start. The garden again but with modifications. We have Noah as a new Adam. He takes on the mantle to rule and care for the earth, to be fruitful and to protect life.
[18:30] Here we have eight people who have witnessed the flood. They've witnessed God's judgment and God's wrath poured out against sin. And they've been blessed now with God's salvation and they've been given God's direction.
[18:46] All the old people and all the old circumstances and all the old situations they've been wiped. They've been wiped out. They've been wiped away literally. They've arrived in a new country. Everything else is gone and in the past.
[18:59] They've been told to go and make the world their own. It's the freshest of freshest possible starts that any of us could imagine. But what's your experience and my experience of fresh starts?
[19:15] Well, after a time, they're simply not new anymore. They're not fresh enough anymore. You see, the old issues and the old habits with their simmering tendency, they kind of come up again, don't they?
[19:32] But why? Why can't we just have the never-ending fresh start? Well, I think we have a sense of that already. Even if the world was washed clean for us to begin again, we'd still be there.
[19:49] even if the world was washed clean for us to begin again, we'd still be there carrying with us our personal strain and mutation of the sin virus.
[20:01] It's along the lines of the old quip, and some of you will know this one, if you find the perfect church, don't join us, you'd spoil us. Which we can modify as, if you find the perfect new starts, don't go for it, you'd spoil it.
[20:20] Let's jump down to verse 18 and look at what happened to this new start, this global new start. They come out of the ark, verse 18, Noah and his sons and their families, and verse 20, Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard, and when he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay on covered inside his tent.
[20:48] Verse 22, Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his brothers outside. It's chapter one to three again, isn't it?
[21:00] It's like the garden all over again, sin and its consequences. And we have fruit again as a trigger for sinful actions. This time it's fruit from the vine, grapes, instead of fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
[21:17] And Noah, he's delighted with his post-flood discovery of his wine-making abilities. And nothing wrong with enjoying the literal fruits of your labor.
[21:29] There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with some of the wine, verse 21. But when drinking and sin can combine, they can combine very quickly to snare the body and the mind and lead to drunkenness.
[21:49] And like the garden, after the episode of sin, we have this following of a sense of nakedness and a sense of shame about that. Again, it's all intentional parallels between the start in the garden and the start with Noah.
[22:04] Verse 22, Ham, the father of Canaan, seeing his father nakedness. And then we have this strange part in some ways.
[22:16] It feels like an overreaction by Noah. After all, it was he that sins originally. Poor grandson Canaan ends up getting cursed because of his father Ham happening to see granddad Noah naked.
[22:35] It's a really strange family situation. Verse 24 and 25, when Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, curse be Canaan, the lowest of slaves will be all of his brothers.
[22:51] So we have this embarrassed Noah and his own drunken shame leading to his grandson being cursed. And the cursing of Noah, the extremity of that in some way, points us back to consider how bad the behavior of Ham was in verse 22.
[23:10] Look at what it says right at the end. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. And instead of protecting his father's dignity and his father's modesty, Ham engaged in shaming his father.
[23:31] And so we get this contrast between his brother's subsequent modesty and care for their father versus Ham's neglect and exposure of his father's shame.
[23:45] And again, the incident might feel small to us or trivial, but it's the trigger for Noah and this family to follow the garden path out of Eden again.
[24:00] Out of the fresh start. They walk down the path out of it and split the family line between curses on one hand and blessings on the other hand.
[24:11] Do you see it? Do you see Noah sins? Ham sins? Canaan is cursed as a slave while the line of Shem is blessed.
[24:24] The cycle again of fall and blessing and curses starts again. And this one will reverberate for centuries. By the time Moses, who we believe wrote Genesis in the first five books of the Bible, sits down to write this account, hundreds or thousands of years later, we have the Semites, descended from Shem or the Israelites, led by Moses, about to go to war with the descendants of Canaan, the Canaanites, who live in the promised land.
[24:57] So the Israelites have come up out of Egypt and they're going into the promised land. So the descendants of Shem, meeting the descendants of Canaan, hundreds or thousands of years later, the curse and the blessing from Noah's hand eventually lead to war.
[25:17] So much for the fresh start. fresh start. And how often in our fresh starts probably aren't as dramatic as that, if we're honest, the opportunities we've had, but how often in our mini fresh starts do we end up going down the literal or proverbial garden path again and heading in the wrong direction.
[25:44] And there's almost a paradox here or a slight tension because our fresh starts are often a needed blessing and opportunity and we need them, but we spurn them again and again.
[26:00] It's like the stressed father working 10 hours a day. And when he's at home now because of COVID, and when he's interrupted by his eight-year-old daughter running into his room, who just needs 30 seconds, he barks back, what do you want?
[26:17] Close the door. Instead of How are you? It's good to see you. How can I help, pet? You see, the father needs a next time, doesn't he?
[26:30] He needs a next start, a new start, to show an ounce of care towards an image bearer. And a fresh start that comes with a new job.
[26:41] There were so many negatives in the old place, people either not caring about me or the work or demanding too much out of me. Well, this new place, I get to start over. I get to build better and put in place better working habits.
[26:55] At our home groups, we've been looking at the life of Noah, or Noah, I've done it again, Jonah, the life of Jonah. Jonah ran away, and he sailed away from God.
[27:07] He disobeyed. But God patiently chased him down, showed him mercy, and gave Jonah a second chance. And like Noah, we can even sometimes leave it all behind.
[27:22] We can leave all of the people and all of the circumstances and have them buried down. And God can even sit us down. He can open up his word and he can lay out for us how to build again and what's going to be different this time and how to behave and how to act like he did at the start of the chapter.
[27:39] And he can give his blessing and he can give his direction. You see, we can thank God for fresh starts and second chances. They are a blessing.
[27:52] But then wham! I turn and I give out to my daughter again. I cut down the new people in my job, like my old job.
[28:03] Like Jonah, I start to grumble again at God for not sorting out and punishing those people that I don't like. Or wham! Like Noah, one day it's about new starts and rainbows and blessings and then another day I'm drunk and naked and disgraced and cursing my own grandchild.
[28:23] Is there any hope for our new starts? Any lasting hope? God knows. God knows.
[28:36] He knows that new starts that new starts give way to old sins. It's no surprise to God. Look back Genesis 8 21.
[28:51] We saw this last week. Genesis 8 and verse 21. The Lord smelled a pleasing aroma. This is after they've come out of the ark and they've sacrificed to the Lord in thanksgiving.
[29:04] this is what he says in his heart. Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood and never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
[29:25] As long as the earth endures, sea time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease. Remember, the world has been cleansed, everything has been buried and done away with and before there's even a flicker of rebellion, of new rebellion, God promises to never judge the whole earth again because of mankind's sin.
[29:55] Because we can look back at the time of Noah and Genesis and kind of wonder but the reality is this, God could justly wipe out every generation on this earth.
[30:10] He could justly wipe out every generation on this earth. He could repeat this every single generation because of sin. Because fresh start means fresh sin.
[30:23] But God's judgment on the earth is stayed because of his promise. God's and we see that through chapter nine, don't we, that being given a fresh start and being given a clean slate is not a sufficient remedy for the human condition or for human plight.
[30:46] It is not. A fresh start and a clean slate like this is not. Even before we read a single word of a fall from chapter nine, God is promising in his heart to be the one that is faithful, to be the one that is merciful towards his creation.
[31:06] The hope for the human condition is God. The hope for the human condition is God for him to act in steadfast love towards his sinful image bearers.
[31:20] And this brings us to the heart of the chapter from verses eight to seventeen, where God establishes a covenant with his creation. Let's look at verse eight to eleven.
[31:34] Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you, the birds, the livestock, all the wild animals, and all those that came out of the ark with you, every living creature on earth, I establish my covenant with you.
[31:53] Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood, never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. God's relationship with his creation, with you and me, is always through a covenant.
[32:13] But what is a covenant? Well, there's many ways to try and sum up what a covenant is in the Bible. Here's one way, and I'll say it twice. A covenant is a voluntary relationship involving solemn commitments under oath between parties.
[32:33] There's a lot in there, say it again. A covenant is a voluntary relationship involving solemn commitments under oath between parties.
[32:45] And hopefully we'll see some of those elements as we look at this one. And the closest human equivalent, and I think this is quite a common comparison to the biblical covenant, is the one between a man and a woman in marriage.
[32:59] One man and one woman make promises and commitments to each other that will bless them, that will enrich them, and that only death can separate. And in a covenant, like in a marriage, the emphasis is always on the relationship, the relationship between the parties.
[33:18] So God here is making deep, lasting, relational commitments and covenants here. And we see that throughout the scriptures, through all the other covenants as well.
[33:33] God makes those deep, deep commitments to people. And in the Noahic covenant, the covenant of Noah, the God of the heavens and the earth and all creation freely enters into a binding relationship with his creation.
[33:51] And he takes upon himself the commitments and the promises that he will fulfill. Yes, there are stipulations on humans, as we've read, to protect life and to protect God's image bearers, but it is God who makes and upholds the promise to preserve life on the earth for all generations.
[34:16] And that is despite each generation adding to the fresh mountains of sin that are building and accumulating all that sin and injustice that we witness in the world.
[34:29] So this is how the covenant here works. We've seen Noah sins, God sees and remembers his promise.
[34:40] God waits, God is merciful and patient. The people, including us, after Noah sin, God sees and God remembers his promise and God waits.
[34:56] God is merciful and God is patient. All the time God is remembering his promise to Noah, all this time that God is remembering, he also provides a sign, a physical sign, a rainbow as a reminder.
[35:11] And future covenants will have their signs, won't they? Circumcision, the Sabbath or baptism. And each of those signs will see the human side carry out the cutting, the observing or the baptizing.
[35:28] So there's always a human element in the future signs and the covenants that will come. But this covenant and sign is different, isn't it? See, the rainbow in the sky, it's enacted always by who?
[35:42] Not by us. I mean, we don't put rainbows in the sky. It's enacted by God. And we're not going to read this all again, but just if you glance down through verses 12 onwards about the rainbow, it says, this is the sign of the covenant I am making.
[35:59] I have set my rainbow or my hunter's bow, literally, in the clouds. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant.
[36:10] I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant. So when it comes to the sign of the covenant, the rainbow, it's all God. I, I, I.
[36:21] Not you, you, you. God is setting the sign. Not because he would forget, but so that we are comforted to know that God is keeping his promise.
[36:34] because after the global flood, any rain cloud in the sky could be a bit threatening, a bit menacing, couldn't it? Oh no, uh-oh, oh, it's the clouds again.
[36:47] Uh-oh, we're in trouble. It's a threat of judgment from God, the clouds coming. But God turns around our fear of judgment by setting his bow in the rain clouds.
[37:01] His bow, his rainbow, serves as a sign that he would never judge the earth by flood again. So brothers and sisters in the Lord, remember, when you fail in your actions and your heart towards your daughter, just asking for some help and remembering that she too is a sinner like you, God is still merciful and patient.
[37:28] When you reach the end of yourself at work because it's full of sinners just like you and you want to collapse at the end of the day, remember that God is still merciful and patient.
[37:40] When you find yourself like Jonah grumbling at how God is treating your enemies better than you think they deserve, remember, they are sinners just like you and God is merciful and patient.
[37:54] When you mess up like Noah in a drunken, shameful state and create opportunities for others to sin because they are sinners just like you, remember God is merciful and patient.
[38:09] But for how long? For how long? How long will God put up with the repeated failures of the people on the earth? Where is the justice and the accounting that he said was needed in verse 5?
[38:26] for all the innocent blood that has been spilled since that day? Well, the good news is that the cycle of new starts and the cycle of new sins has been broken.
[38:41] It has been broken by Jesus. Jesus was the first new human being since Adam and Eve that came without sin and his new start.
[38:59] The new start in Jesus lasts because it is untainted by failure and fall. So that means the day of accounting is today.
[39:13] Jesus, who never sinned, says turn from your sin and put your trust in me so that your sin is credited to me and taken care of by my perfect sinless death on the cross on your behalf.
[39:36] We can only fully benefit from these promises of God, his promise, covenantal promise of mercy and patience if we have given our sin over to Jesus.
[39:52] And if we have done that, we are now safe in him from any threat of punishment or judgment. To understand the urgency of this, that the time of accounting and salvation is today, I want to finish by reading from 2 Peter chapter 3 in the New Testament and we will end here.
[40:14] 2 Peter chapter 3, I think it says it better and more clearly than I could try to explain.
[40:30] And we're going to read from verse 3 onwards. You're using the church Bible, it's page 1224. And if you're here this morning, for those that follow Jesus, you are secure in the mercy and patience of God because of Jesus.
[40:53] For those that do not follow Jesus, the time of mercy and patience is running out. If you do not believe, turn to him today in repentance and faith.
[41:09] 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 3 and down to verse 15. Above all, you must understand that in the last days, scoffers will come scoffing and following their own evil desires.
[41:26] They will say, where is this coming, he promised, ever since our ancestors died. Everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation. But they deliberately forget that long ago, by God's word, the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
[41:45] For by these waters also, the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
[42:04] But do not forget this one thing, dear friends. with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years. And a thousand years is like a day.
[42:17] The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
[42:31] But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, the heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
[42:43] Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? Well, you ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.
[42:59] that day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells.
[43:19] So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him.
[43:34] Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him.
[43:46] Amen. Let's pray. For Heavenly Father, we thank you that you covenant towards us. you give us your promises, and you care for us, and you help us, Lord, through our new starts, to always turn to you in repentance, to cast aside our sin and that which would entangle so that we follow Jesus closely.
[44:17] We thank you for peace with you. We thank you for your patience now means opportunity for salvation, and Father, I pray for any that do not know the joy of salvation, that they would turn to you this day.
[44:35] They would not exhaust your patience, but that they would turn to you away from their sin in faith and put their trust in you. Be gracious, Lord Jesus, now and forevermore.
[44:49] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.