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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Then God said to Noah,
Verse 20.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Thanks be to God.
Indeed, you may be seated.
Let's pray.
Amen.
Father, we need help to walk in this world.
Our minds so quickly turn to despair.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In studying this passage and trying to understand in my own mind, what is the mission of the church?
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?
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.
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.
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.
So this group of zealous, fervent people moved to the German city of Münster.
This was in the 1500s.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Theologians of glory want strength.
Theologians of the cross embrace the weakness of our vessels.
The weakness of our position depending on Christ daily.
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.
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.
Take over politics on a national level.
One person said, quote, we would solve school shootings and we would, quote, solve immorality in America.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mercy is withholding due punishment.
And God says he will not destroy again.
And after the flood, man continues to be fallen.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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?
We long for that day.
So man is death deserving,
but the Lord is gracious.
The Lord also reveals this by way of covenant.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
God will preserve them.
I love how Ecclesiastes 1, 4 says,
a generation goes
and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
Picking up on this refrain.
So those are the revelations
we see in this passage.
But next,
I'd like to highlight
the implications.
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.
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.
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.
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.
He wrote,
So the Noahic covenant
is non-redemptive.
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.
It's for every single
human being.
It's common.
Another theologian,
Meredith Klein,
commented that
common grace
is not itself redemptive.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
God says,
I have set
my bow
in the clouds.
And this word
is used
in other parts
to describe
warfare language.
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.
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.
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.
Look at verse 16.
It's a sign
for God
of his own
terms
of his covenant.
This is a unilateral
covenant.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Reminded again,
you've heard
these numbers
as I have,
how quickly
I forget.
Every hour,
100 abortions
happen in
America.
One million
abortions
every year
in this
country.
73 million
abortions
every year
worldwide.
God's
covenant with
Noah is
still binding.
We are
image bearers
and God
has given
us a
sense of
law and
justice.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We cannot save
ourselves.
So now I'm going to
try to give you some
things to contemplate.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Amen.
As we prepare for the Lord's Supper, I want to bring to your attention some important parallels between Noah and Adam.
Came from the study and Bible commentary.
In both narratives, Adam and Noah, God created and then recreated out of watery chaos.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Our Lord Jesus Christ came.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You may be served.