How This Earth Remains (Noahic Covenant Part 2)

[0:00] Well, our normal pattern of ministering God's Word is to preach through portions of the Bible that He has given us. This semester, we're doing something fun. We're doing a series called Covenant Theology, and it's a bit more topical.

[0:15] We're seeing different parts of Scripture, how God has revealed Himself by way of covenant. So covenant is a word and a concept that God Himself chose as a way of revealing who He is to His people.

[0:27] We've seen that the creation, the covenant that God made, called the Covenant of Works with Adam, the federal head. We've seen that before God created the heavens and the earth and even time, the Lord covenanted to save a people, the covenant of redemption.

[0:43] We saw last week the covenant that God made through Noah to preserve Him and to show grace, which is pointing to Christ. It's pointing to the covenant of grace. So today's focus is the Noahic Covenant, the covenant with Noah and all of creation, part two.

[1:00] In our Bible, we'll start reading with Genesis chapter 8. We'll start at verse 1, and I'm going to be calling out the section, so I'll try to make it clear so that we can read it and follow along together.

[1:12] As I read and you see your copy of God's Word, remember, we believe this is God's inspired, inerrant, infallible, clear and sufficient Word. It's the Word of God Himself for His people.

[1:25] So at the end, I'll say this is the Word of God. And if you receive it that way, you can respond, thanks be to God. Genesis 8, beginning at verse 1. Genesis 8, verse 15.

[2:01] Then God said to Noah, Verse 20.

[2:24] Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.

[2:48] Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.

[3:02] Chapter 9, verse 1. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Chapter 9, verse 6.

[3:14] Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image. And you be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.

[3:27] Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock and every beast of the earth that is with you.

[3:41] As many as came out of the ark, it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.

[3:56] And God said, This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all future generations. I have set my bow in the clouds and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

[4:12] When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh.

[4:24] And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.

[4:41] God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all the flesh of the earth. This is the word of the Lord.

[4:53] Thanks be to God. Indeed, you may be seated. Let's pray.

[5:15] Amen. Father, we need help to walk in this world. Our minds so quickly turn to despair.

[5:32] We know the wrath that we deserve for our sin, but we're reminded, Lord, of your covenant faithfulness. And we pray, Father, that from this passage today, you'll make it more clear to your people how it is that you want us to walk on this earth and what it means to be part of the kingdom of heaven and in this world, though we are not of the world.

[5:55] Help us to understand, Lord, the context of our redemption and the context of the church today, Lord. We pray that you'll unite us as a body in the mission that you've given the church through Jesus Christ.

[6:09] We pray that your Holy Spirit will guide us, bring us closer and closer to you. Use your word to sharpen us, Lord. Use your word to fan into a flame, especially those who are weak today, Lord.

[6:24] Those whose whose faith is feels to be flickering. We know you will not quench the smoking flax. You will stoke it, Lord. You will preserve it.

[6:35] We pray that you'll do that today by the ministry of your word and the power of your Holy Spirit. For your glory we ask. Amen. Amen. In studying this passage and trying to understand in my own mind, what is the mission of the church?

[6:51] What does it mean to be in this world and not of the world? And what is it that God has set in place since the time of the waters receding after the flood?

[7:02] And then the kingdom that Christ inaugurated. There were several stories that came through my mind. The one I decided to share with you today begins with a man named Jan or John.

[7:16] And he lived in the Netherlands in a city called Leiden. His work in Leiden was a tailor. He made clothes. And he began hearing these teachings of a more radical group.

[7:29] And their feeling, their very strong feeling is that they could set up a new Jerusalem. A city in Germany that they would call Zion. And it would become a theocracy that would usher in the kingdom of heaven.

[7:45] So this group of zealous, fervent people moved to the German city of Münster. This was in the 1500s.

[7:57] At the time while Martin Luther was still alive in the Reformation in another part of Germany. Once this group came into power, the remaining sin in their flesh became very clear.

[8:10] Their lack of understanding of the Bible also became very clear. Jan, who then was nicknamed John of Leiden, he became like the king of this little new Jerusalem in the city of Münster.

[8:22] He took 16 wives for himself. The government ended up coming in and teaching a lesson. They beheaded these leaders. They put their bodies in cages that can still be found in a church.

[8:36] Not the bodies, but the cages are found in this church in Münster today, I'm told. I've never been there. That is an example of what Martin Luther called theologians of glory.

[8:49] People who read the Bible and they want to hold on to all the parts that bring themselves glory. They want to essentially put themselves in the place of Christ.

[9:00] Martin Luther saw the very clear contrast with the New Testament. What he called theologians of the cross. That's what we want to be. Theologians of glory, they prefer works.

[9:15] Theologians of the cross see the path following Christ includes suffering. Theologians of glory want glow. But theologians of the cross take up their cross daily and follow Christ.

[9:29] Theologians of glory want strength. Theologians of the cross embrace the weakness of our vessels. The weakness of our position depending on Christ daily.

[9:41] There is a very dangerous message in our country and around the world right now. I'm not even going to give the label, but you can probably guess or find it quickly on Google.

[9:54] And there's a group that claims if only our group or our movement could take over. You can take your pick how you want to fill in the next blink. Take over the school board. Take over the state government.

[10:05] Take over politics on a national level. One person said, quote, we would solve school shootings and we would, quote, solve immorality in America.

[10:20] So what is our view? What is our view as the church in light of this covenant that God makes through Noah and all creation after the flood? I don't know what your view is.

[10:31] I'll do my best to lay out for you what I see in these passages. Jesus Christ said that this earth will perish. This earth will perish.

[10:42] But if you see in our sermon text today, Genesis 8, verse 22. We're told that this earth also remains. So the sermon title today is how this earth remains.

[10:55] How in both senses. How can it remain? How can we not self-destroy? And then the other in the other sense, the earth does remain. How? What are the conditions?

[11:06] What has God set in place? Last week, as I mentioned, we saw that God covenants to save his seed from the coming judgment. And this foreshadows the first coming of Jesus Christ.

[11:21] We see in response to God preserving Noah and this seed that would crush the serpent's head one day. We see in Genesis chapter 8, verse 1. That God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark.

[11:35] And God made a wind blow over the earth and the waters subsided. The rain from the heavens was restrained. God was true to his promise.

[11:46] He's revealing the covenant of grace. He will preserve the seed until Jesus Christ comes to fulfill all of scripture. We see in chapter 8, verse 20.

[11:57] Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

[12:10] It's curious because this comes from Moses, through whom God did give the ceremonial law. So he's using a description that the people of Israel would have understood. But Noah was offering a sacrifice to God that was pleasing to God, even a reference to clean animals.

[12:26] So we have to imagine and try to understand how was it that Noah learned to do that? God showed incredible grace to Noah. And his first response when the water subsides is to build an altar and offer up a sacrifice.

[12:42] If you look in your Bible at Genesis chapter 5, the genealogy, you won't have time to do this now during the sermon, but you can see others who have charted it. You can simply make a bar graph for each of the ages of the people who lived.

[12:56] And it struck me one observation trying to answer this question. Where did Noah learn how to offer up a sacrifice on an altar? We're told that Noah's father, his name was Lamech.

[13:08] You see that in Genesis 5, verse 30. And if you look at the bar graphs of each of their lives, Lamech, Noah's father, would have most likely been alive when even Adam was still alive.

[13:22] And certainly when Seth was alive. So where did Lamech learn to offer a sacrifice? Well, most likely from Seth. And then there's old man Adam sitting there.

[13:34] Yes, and he gets to hear from that account the great story that we just reviewed of how God made a covenant of grace and clothed them, shedding the blood. Now, the interesting thing to me is that there was no overlap that I could tell between Noah and either Seth or Adam.

[13:51] Noah's faith and what Noah learned and how Noah responded seemed to be dependent on Lamech, his dad, as handing it over and teaching his own son.

[14:04] Now, in part two, the focus is less on the covenant of grace being foreshadowed and pointing to the work of Christ. Part two of the Noah covenant is this. We see here that God covenants to preserve the natural order as a backdrop for redemptive history to unfold.

[14:25] Yeah, God, God let Noah learn from his dad what pleases God. And Noah passed that on to his three sons. The one who seems to have believed and received that faith and through whom the promise would continue with Shem.

[14:38] And Abraham comes from the line of Shem. And so we see this continuity throughout all of Scripture. It's God unveiling and showing exactly how he will work.

[14:50] But the real question for the Noah covenant today, part two, is how does God stabilize the stage, as someone put it, so that the playwright, God himself, can become the main actor and the hero?

[15:03] So really, the focus is less on redemptive history and the covenant of grace being unveiled for Christ. It's more on the stage. How is it stabilized or the backdrop from which the grace of God and the person of Christ will shine?

[15:16] So here's a few observations as we walk through this. Genesis 8, chapter 20 or chapter 8, verse 21. So Noah offered that sacrifice.

[15:26] But now it's from God's perspective. In verse 21, when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said, pay attention, in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.

[15:45] I believe God is revealing himself to us who have his word now. I'm sure this isn't all of them, but here's four revelations from this passage.

[15:56] Number one, man is ill-meriting. Remember, Noah deserves death and judgment just like everyone else. But the Lord is merciful. Man's heart is evil, but God shall preserve life despite man's depravity.

[16:12] Mercy is withholding due punishment. And God says he will not destroy again. And after the flood, man continues to be fallen.

[16:23] Man is no better after the flood than he was before. Yet God grants man life under the sun, under creation. After the flood, man gets to live.

[16:35] And God will keep his promise no matter how good or bad man's works are. This covenant was purposed in God's heart. It does not depend on man in any way.

[16:46] God will preserve this world as long as it remains. So our Lord is merciful. I shall never again destroy the world with a flood.

[16:58] I shall never again strike down every living creature as I have done. God preserves the world that you and I live in every single day. When you wake up and the sun is shining, the grass is turning green another season.

[17:12] These are reasons to praise God and to remind ourselves, This is my father's world. He's the creator and the sustainer of everyone and everything. It also gives us a desire for the perfect mercy of God to be fully unveiled, doesn't it?

[17:30] It points forward. When will this merciful God fill the whole world with his glory? We long for that day. So that's the first revelation.

[17:42] Man is ill-meriting, but the Lord is merciful. Second revelation is that man is death-deserving, but God is not only merciful, he's gracious.

[17:53] God vows he will preserve the cycle of the seasons. He will govern earth's environment and climate to ensure animal and vegetable life continue. That's how this earth remains.

[18:07] So the book of Ecclesiastes is really a commentary on this, this truth. Life under the sun is only good. And food of the different seasons and the meats that you can grill, those are only good because God made it so.

[18:22] You deserve death, but God has filled this earth with things for you to enjoy in your life under the sun, knowing that it's all going to perish one day and your life is fleeting and it all ought to point you to God.

[18:34] Never to worship the creature rather than the creator. We read in verse 22, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease as long as the earth remains.

[18:50] What's the reason for that? You can say with confidence it's because God, the creator is in covenant with his whole earth. Doesn't that give you comfort?

[19:01] When you see the next headline, man, there's there's all kinds of headlines, aren't there? It's stuff you could not make up. When some of you were in school, these are things that the sci-fi was about and it's happened.

[19:13] It's all happening. How long will this earth remain and how does it remain? How have we even continued to remain this long? Only if a good God is sustaining all of it. God is generous and God is patient and God generously, patiently preserves all of life.

[19:33] He withholds his judgment. Doesn't it make you long for his glory to fill the earth fully, consummately one day? When will it be that this gracious Lord will truly rule over all the earth, not just in a preserving way, but the true kingdom of heaven filling this entire earth?

[19:53] We long for that day. So man is death deserving, but the Lord is gracious. The Lord also reveals this by way of covenant.

[20:05] So the same two points, but in the form of a covenant, the Lord reveals his covenant mercy and his covenant grace by committing himself, by vowing with a legally binding oath.

[20:18] This is how he'll do it. It was interesting for me to learn. If you look at verse 21, the Lord said in his heart, most interpreters think that this was God revealing later to Moses what was true all along, even if Noah didn't know it.

[20:35] So it's likely that what God was covenanting was part of that divine counsel, maybe not even heard by Noah at this point only. It would have become audible for Noah later, but God's decree does not depend on Noah even knowing that.

[20:53] God's decree was expressed in chapter 8 of Genesis by swearing by himself. And then if you turn to Genesis 9, verse 9, it's showing us what God did tell Noah.

[21:06] Now God is speaking to Noah in Genesis 9, 9. Behold, I establish my covenant with you and every offspring. The point here is that God covenants before man even knows it.

[21:20] That's another source of comfort that we can have. Some of you, this has been a wonderful truth to learn. Why is it that you believed in God? When you heard the gospel, why did you know that could even be true for you?

[21:33] That you could be cleansed by the blood of Jesus? Well, the answer is because God covenanted to do that. And you know you're saved. You know he gave you a new heart. But now, only now, by studying his word and what he's revealed, do you see, this is what was happening all along.

[21:49] And why? All glory be to God and more comfort for you. More trust in his promises. The fourth revelation I see here is that after the flood, the Lord covenanted not only with mankind, but with all future generations generations of mankind and every living creature with the whole earth itself.

[22:10] Let's look at Genesis chapter 9, verses 9 and 10. Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you with every living creature with you.

[22:21] Verse 12, the covenant that I make is between me and you for all future generations. So Noah is receiving this on behalf of all mankind that will follow.

[22:36] There are no human beings on planet earth that did not come from Noah. His three sons came from him and everyone on filling the earth today came from this one man. So God's covenant stands to every single person from every people, nation, tribe, and tongue.

[22:52] God will preserve them. I love how Ecclesiastes 1, 4 says, a generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

[23:04] Picking up on this refrain. So those are the revelations we see in this passage. But next, I'd like to highlight the implications.

[23:15] I see five significant implications of the covenant that God made through Noah with all the earth. First is that the Noahic covenant is non-redemptive in the sense that it's not promising to save all of mankind.

[23:31] But instead, this covenant promises that God will sustain, uphold, govern all the earth until the ground, until the ground bears forth the fruit that man can eat and the animals reproduce and man can eat them.

[23:45] Man can enjoy life on the earth. He'll have the carbs he needs by tilling the ground and he'll have the protein he needs by shepherding the flocks. Man has to go out and work and cultivate in order to survive on this earth just like Adam east of Eden.

[24:00] But it's non-redemptive. So it's for survival and preservation only. One commentator that was very helpful here, I'll mention him a few times. His name is David Van Drunen, systematic theology professor at Westminster.

[24:16] He wrote, So the Noahic covenant is non-redemptive.

[24:35] Second is that the Noahic covenant is common, meaning that it's not limited to the elect and it's not limited to the special line from Abram to Jesus Christ.

[24:47] It's for every single human being. It's common. Another theologian, Meredith Klein, commented that common grace is not itself redemptive.

[24:58] Rather, it allows for the preservation of a world stage upon which the drama of the covenant of redemption could play out. So it's common and it's good for all.

[25:09] How can wicked people who despise God enjoy the fruit of his earth? How can they enjoy times of great harvest and prosperity and enjoy all the good gifts that God has given?

[25:23] Even if they don't give glory to God, it's because they are part of this common covenant that God made with all who fill the earth today. The third implication is that the sign of the Noahic covenant, it's symbolic.

[25:39] Because a sign, it points to further significance. The sign is the rainbow. Just as we can still see the rainbow today, we're reminded that the covenant is still in effect.

[25:50] Let's look together at chapter 9, verse 13. God says, I have set my bow in the cloud and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

[26:09] And even to this day, the rainbow shines out from the clouds for every man and beast to see. Everyone who sees the rainbow bears witness that God has made a covenant with the earth.

[26:22] God says, I have set my bow in the clouds. And this word is used in other parts to describe warfare language.

[26:37] One scholar pointed out how in ancient iconography, bows are vertical in battle. It means you're ready to shoot them. But then after a battle, the victorious Lord, as they're riding off on their horse, would be pictured with their bow horizontal, indicating peace following the war.

[26:58] You see how the bow, it's a sign that God has made war with wicked world. God is victorious and his bow is now in the resting position. He's giving man undeserved peace until the second coming of Christ.

[27:16] God has already waged his war. He's already punished the violent, rebellious man. And the rainbow is a sign. Notice, it's for God.

[27:28] Look at verse 16. It's a sign for God of his own terms of his covenant. This is a unilateral covenant.

[27:40] It's God himself who makes the covenant. God himself will keep the covenant. And the sign is, so to speak, a reminder for God. In verse 16, he says, when the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and I will remember the everlasting covenant between me and all life on earth.

[28:00] This is our God of peace. Doesn't it make you long for that day when true peace, relational shalom with God will fill this earth?

[28:11] When will that day come when the glory of this peace keeping God will rule over all perfectly? The fourth implication of the Noahic covenant is that it is binding today.

[28:24] The Noahic covenant is still binding just as it's good for every human being. It binds every man and woman today. Let's look together at verse 6.

[28:36] The Lord says, whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed for God made man in his own image. Every human being is an image bearer of God.

[28:51] Every human being is precious in the eyes of the Lord. And it's also saying that it's man's job to shed the blood of murderers. How can man judge that way?

[29:02] How can man discern well? It's because every man has the image of God still. God preserves in all his image bearers a natural sense of law.

[29:16] This is a good thing. This is why we can have very wise judges and lawyers working a judicial system as image bearers of God though they're not saved, though they're not yet regenerated.

[29:32] But this is still binding today. The sanctity of life. One of the statistics I looked up, I had to double check this and just I sat there stunned and silent.

[29:44] Reminded again, you've heard these numbers as I have, how quickly I forget. Every hour, 100 abortions happen in America.

[30:01] One million abortions every year in this country. 73 million abortions every year worldwide.

[30:17] God's covenant with Noah is still binding. We are image bearers and God has given us a sense of law and justice.

[30:29] God's love. We need to have confidence in this world. We need to not be surprised by how wicked the world is. What we do need to be surprised by is how God can preserve anything good out of this fallen creation, even after the flood.

[30:49] And I am amazed at both of those things every week. How wicked we are because of sin as human beings and also how good, how much good people are capable of without even knowing the Lord Jesus.

[31:05] Paul pointed that out in Romans 2.14. He said, that's why Gentiles do by nature what the law requires. It's the only reason human beings do not act more badly.

[31:17] So we can ask, how does this world remain? This is how God preserves the world so it does remain. we read in Genesis chapter 9 verse 1, God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

[31:39] This is another binding command for all mankind which is God's design for the family. God commands very clearly in scripture, man and wife are to multiply children within the family.

[31:55] That's God's good design. It's not a sin if a family can't have children or abstains from childbearing for medical or other reasons, but that's God's design.

[32:06] One man, one woman in a family bearing children. G.K. Chesterton pointed out the heart of human society is, quote, a triangle of truisms consisting of father, mother, and child.

[32:23] Tearing them apart has devastating results for both individuals and society. And one result is that ever more selfish and loveless forms of sex become normalized, someone pointed out, as forms of self-expression for salvation.

[32:39] that didn't strike me until recently. You start to hear some of the songs on the radio, songs that are, you know, it's different than the love songs of a different era.

[32:50] These are songs that are using worship language to describe a sexual encounter between two people. Normalizing sexual activity and identity as a form of self-expression and even a way of saving yourself.

[33:11] There's a Princeton law professor named Robert George. Everything I've read from him has been very helpful, and to me it's a reminder of this natural law. He wrote, it's odd, but there are people who seek fulfillment, even a kind of salvation in sex.

[33:28] They won't even expect more than it can give. Sadly, by perverting it, they deny themselves the great good that it actually can deliver, namely, true marital communion.

[33:42] That's the end of his quote. This is God's binding design on all mankind that fills the earth still today. And when we see God's covenant sign in the clouds, this is what we should be reminded of.

[33:59] We should thank him for preserving this wicked world as he does. guys. The fifth significance I see here is this, that we live in a layered reality.

[34:13] The Noahic covenant pulls together for us the backdrop, the three layers in which redemptive history will unfold now when we move next to the covenant God makes with Abraham.

[34:24] But here are the three layers of the reality of this world that we live in. Creation, fall, in Noahic preservation, we can call it. So our reality from creation, it includes God's natural law that reveals him and it reveals what pleases him.

[34:43] John Gill wrote that the natural law was given as part of the Lord's providential control over what he made. The content of the natural law is the moral law. What Jesus summarized as, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

[35:00] which the Mosaic covenant opened up as the Ten Commandments. A theologian named Ian Clary wrote that while the natural law could not establish God as the savior of mankind, it does tell us about God, the creator.

[35:16] It is insufficient to save sinners, so it needs to be re-engraved on our souls in regeneration. And that's the great promise of Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8 being fulfilled.

[35:27] I will write my law in your heart and in your mind. So the Noahic covenant was not a simple reinstituting of God's creation commands, but it was a revision of what God had commanded all along, but now in the common grace mode.

[35:47] Not to fulfill as a federal head like Adam only could do because he was sinless, but rather to preserve all mankind until the coming of the second Adam who could fulfill God's covenant of works.

[36:02] One theologian pointed out how in this covenant with Noah, there is no Sabbath in view. In the first creation, we see how the Lord rested on the Sabbath day. And then later on in Exodus, when the law is being given, the fourth commandment, it makes reference to that.

[36:16] You shall rest as God's special people because God rested at creation. But with the Noahic covenant, there's no mention of Sabbath rest. And so the Sabbath ordinance, Meredith Klein pointed out, it was a sign for Adam and then for God's people in the old covenant that would mark God's promise of eschatological blessing.

[36:37] If you take a Sabbath rest, it's pointing you toward a greater rest that you'll have one day. Before the fall, the cultural mandate had the Sabbath in view, but this is not the case any longer for those after the flood.

[36:51] In other words, he's saying that those after the flood should not expect blessing from God by living on this earth post-fall through any cultural labors.

[37:02] We cannot save ourselves. So now I'm going to try to give you some things to contemplate.

[37:16] As you answer the question for yourself, how do I live in this world? in light of creation, fall, and God's preservation. First, this world is the city of man.

[37:33] We're told that this world is Satan's domain on earth. The church is the city of God. The church is a picture of heaven coming to earth. Michael Beck pointed out that when Christ came, he did not establish the state or the family or a school or a business venture.

[37:52] These things already existed and were governed and preserved under the covenant God made with Noah. The Lord Jesus established one thing, the church. And Christ remains the universal Lord of all, but only the church is sacred.

[38:09] Only the church is the special kingdom of God on earth. First Timothy 2.2 says, We are now in the city of man. We are to lead a peaceful and quiet life that is godly and dignified in every way, that this is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

[38:36] So while you're in the world and the city of man, live a peaceful and quiet life, knowing this is pleasing in God's sight and may your life be a testimony that God uses to draw people in to be saved and to belong to his special kingdom on earth, which is the church.

[38:52] So this world is the city of man and the church is the city of God. Number two, Christ did not charge the church with ushering in the new heavens by taking over the city of man by force.

[39:06] Instead, the picture we're given is being like the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are sojourners and exiles in the world. First Peter 2 11. Here we have no lasting city.

[39:19] Instead, we seek the city that is to come. Hebrews 13 14. So as Christians in the city of man, yes, we vote. We can even run for offices, but we don't put our hopes that those things would save this world.

[39:34] First Timothy 2 11. We are to pray for those who rule over us as God's ordained magistrates. I urge you that to make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for the civil magistrates that God ordained.

[39:49] But when the elections don't go the way we want here in Colorado or nationally, that is not what we're putting our hopes in. We trust that God will preserve us through suffering, through our theology of the cross.

[40:03] as long as this earth remains, he will preserve his people according to his will. And if we're persecuted in this world, we say this is to the glory of God. He's our provider and he will bring the new heavens and the earth in his time.

[40:20] Vendrunen wrote that Christians should pursue cultural activities. We should do that. Music, the arts, study medicine, study law, study these things in the city of man. But we do it with a spirit of love and service toward them, not triumph and conquest over the world.

[40:37] Our work in the world does not usher in the new Jerusalem. We don't want to make the mistake of John of Leiden. Revelation 21 verse 2 says something mind-blowing.

[40:52] It says that the new Jerusalem, it is the bride of Christ. Christ, the bride of Christ, the church, the people, they are the continuity between this world and the world to come.

[41:06] It is our bodies and our souls that God will transport into the new heavens and the new earth. That's what will be in common. It's the church. Vendrunen also wrote, no one born in Adam's curse could accomplish Adam's dominion mandate.

[41:22] The last Adam, Jesus Christ, he has completed that mandate once for all and no one else needs to accomplish it. So when Jesus teaches us to pray for the will of God to be done and the kingdom of heaven to come on earth, we do that trusting that Christ is the one who ushers in the kingdom of heaven spiritually.

[41:43] It is not the mission of the world to trans. It's not the mission of the church to transform the world, but rather in Romans 12, we are told do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but you church be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

[42:00] Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are not theologians of glory. We want to be theologians of the cross. We want to obey Jesus and his command to take up our cross daily in this world.

[42:14] He's preserving it until the full number of those that Christ purchased are brought to him. We don't want to have a mission statement that says we will transform the world.

[42:26] Instead, we want to praise God every single day that he preserves this fallen world, this decaying planet, and he does that through his people. This earth is that decaying carcass, but we are the salt of the world.

[42:39] We've been pushed into the the massive humanity on earth to hold it together, to preserve it. We will not fill this planet with the kingdom of heaven by any form of cultural dominion.

[42:54] Instead, Christians, we want to throw our whole life on the promise that Christ shall return in glory one day. Romans 14, we read that we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

[43:09] This is Christ's second coming. And as I live, saith the Lord, he's quoting Isaiah 45. Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God.

[43:21] And so then every one of us shall give account himself to God. It's when Christ returns that every knee will bow and we will give account to him.

[43:35] So when Christ does return that second time, all of the earth will be full of the glory of God. Habakkuk 2 14 says the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

[43:54] That's when the Lord will fill this earth with his kingdom of heaven and we will be able to rest fully and finally with him forever. Let's pray. Oh Lord God, hallowed be your name.

[44:13] You are the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything. Lord, we do pray that your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[44:25] Thank you for how you've inaugurated the kingdom of heaven through the work of Jesus Christ in your church today. that we get to be part of that Lord, a foretaste of the heavenly glory will enjoy.

[44:37] We long for the day when you will return, when you will come and your glory will cover this entire earth as the waters cover the sea. Please come quickly, Lord Jesus, according to your will.

[44:49] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[45:04] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[45:22] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[46:01] Amen. Amen.

[46:33] Amen. Amen. As we prepare for the Lord's Supper, I want to bring to your attention some important parallels between Noah and Adam.

[46:54] Came from the study and Bible commentary. In both narratives, Adam and Noah, God created and then recreated out of watery chaos.

[47:07] Both Adam and Noah are said to be the image of God. And those are the only occurrences in all of Genesis of that phrase, the image of God. Both Adam and Noah walked with God.

[47:21] Both exercised dominion over animals. Adam was told to name the animals. Noah was told to preserve them in the ark. God commands each to be fruitful, to multiply, and to rule.

[47:36] Both Adam and Noah were to work the ground. Both Adam and Noah sinned in connection with what they consumed. Adam sinned by eating the forbidden fruit.

[47:51] Noah, after the water subsided, grew a vineyard, grew the grapes, made wine, got drunk. And the sin of both Adam and Noah resulted in shame, in nakedness, and needing clothing.

[48:05] Our Lord Jesus Christ came.

[48:17] The Bible calls him the second Adam. He came to inaugurate the new creation. And we're told that those who are in Christ are clothed with his righteousness.

[48:28] And now with the Lord's Supper, we eat and we drink. All that man has done to sin, to destroy that bond, the covenant of grace, it goes forward and it promises the blessings that Christ secured for you.

[48:46] So come to the Lord's table today. If you are a Christian, if you're united to him, praising him for his righteousness, praising him for redeeming what we eat, redeeming what we will drink.

[49:00] It's not a fruit of the vine that's bitter anymore. It's sweet taste. And it's a foretaste of the banquet feast of heaven. The new Jerusalem, the Zion of God, where he rules his people as their king.

[49:16] If Jesus is your king, then this is his table. And he invites you to come and to feast with him, to rest in his grace again today. If you're a baptized believer in good standing within a church, taking steps toward membership or visitors who know Jesus, then you come and you enjoy the Lord's Supper.

[49:37] It's for you. We'll take the elements by making a line down the middle, breaking off the bread and taking the cup back to your seat. And then once everyone's been served, we'll stand together as a spiritual family and we'll read from God's word to enjoy it together.

[49:51] You may be served. You may be served.