LutheranLectionary.org

Series B – Ninth Sunday of Pentecost – Sunday, July 25, 2021 | Pr. Chris Rosebrough

Welcome to the Teaching Ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Kongsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of Northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone, and now, here’s a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrough:

Time Stamp	Transcript
0:23	The holy gospel according to saint mark
0:30	the sixth chapter [Music] [Applause]
0:38	immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side to
0:44	bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd and after he had taken leave of them he went up on the mountain to pray
0:50	and when evening came the boat was out on the sea and he was alone on the land and he saw that they were making headway
0:56	painfully for the wind was against them about the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea
1:01	he meant to pass by them but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost and they cried
1:06	out for they saw paul saw him and they were terrified but immediately he spoke to them and
1:12	said take heart it is i do not be afraid and he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased and they were utterly
1:18	astounded for they did not understand about the loaves but their hearts were hardened when they had crossed over they came to
1:24	the land at ganesha and moored to the shore and when they got out of the boat the people immediately recognized him and ran about
1:31	the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was
1:37	and wherever he came in villages cities or countryside they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch
1:44	even the fringe of his garment and as many as touched it were made well this is the gospel of the lord in the
1:50	name of Jesus amen i remember years ago i you know was doing research on the emergent
1:57	church movement you have to church and quotes there and uh listening to tony jones and doug padgett
2:03	and brian mclaren and these this new form of liberalism that sprung up you know came
2:08	to life maybe more than a decade ago and one of the things i thought was interesting is that they do
2:14	not like and i mean this do not like the story of the flood in fact i i remember reading one of them
2:20	on a blog saying why is it that Christian parents paint their nurseries with scenes of the
2:28	ark and the animals and the rainbow the the flood story is absolutely abominable why they ask
2:36	why is it abominable because it’s a story of god’s wrath
2:41	and then they go on to explain how this is just a terrible way to think about god god doesn’t have wrath
2:48	god is a big senile grandpa who lives up in the sky in the clouds who likes to hand out butterscotch to
2:55	his well disobedient bratty little grandkids this is how they describe him right but
3:02	here’s the thing the story of the flood is not merely a story of god’s wrath it is also a story
3:09	of salvation and god’s mercy and so i would note that the story of the flood is one that
3:16	there’s a lot that you could unpack from it i mean a lot and so what we’re going to do today i
3:21	don’t think we can exhaustively pull all of the stops out we’re going to do a little bit of a study on the flood because i mean if
3:27	you’re going to talk about the noetic covenant and the rainbow and all this kind of stuff all that’s pointing to something so
3:33	we’re going to start in a weird place second peter 2 peter chapter 2
3:39	and i’m going to start in verse 4 because here peter the apostle peter you know the guy who
3:45	well sank when he tried walking on the water i just bring that up you know by the way that the whole story about Jesus walking
3:51	on the water is not about you getting out of any boat i just want to make that clear in fact i like the ark story because
3:57	there’s nothing about walking on water or getting out of the boat in that story you got to stay in the boat that’s kind
4:02	of the point now here’s here’s what it says in uh second peter chapter 2 verse 4 if god did not spare
4:09	angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be
4:16	kept until the judgment if he did not spare the ancient world
4:22	but he preserved noah a herald of righteousness now pay attention to that word herald of
4:28	righteousness and here the word karuk so actually means he a preacher somebody
4:33	who is a preacher of righteousness and he so he preserved noah a herald a preacher of
4:38	righteousness with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly
4:44	if by turning the cities of sodom and gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction
4:49	then making them an example of what is going to happen
4:54	to the ungodly ah okay so what is the whole flood narrative
5:01	the whole flood narrative along with the story of sodom and gomorrah these are examples of what is going to
5:07	happen to the ungodly and note that what peter said that when god
5:12	brought the flood that the flood was upon the world of the ungodly
5:20	that’s an important bit you see we must come to grips with this fact we are not good people
5:29	over and again i am just amazed by how blind to our own evil we are
5:36	you talk to the average person are you going to go to heaven when you die yes why because i’m a good person
5:46	are you really really you know and and this is where we must take a look at god’s law i mean let’s
5:52	look at the ten commandments here are any of us good scripture says you shall have no other gods before me and anything that you
5:59	trust in god to deliver you to comfort you whether it be money or or even escapism
6:05	well that becomes your deity are you an idolater you betcha even if you trust in yourself that’s
6:11	that’s that’s the idol that we like to make i i will get myself out of my own problems because i can solve
6:17	this i will be in control i will make the world a better place yeah then you become your own deity and
6:23	then we’ll talk about not taking god’s name in vain you know that would mean not deceiving or
6:28	teaching false things about god or even believing them remembering the sabbath day keeping it holy do you despise hearing god’s word
6:36	do you think ah sunday i don’t know i want to get out of bed and go to church right and then let’s not even talk about
6:42	honoring our father and mother that has more to do with all the people who are in authority over
6:47	us not just dad and mom it also includes presidents and governors and bosses and things like that and then of
6:54	course we shall not murder we shall not commit adultery we shall not steal does any of this
7:01	sound familiar with you all and you sit there and go well it’s not really stealing i know that you know it’s not really stealing if the thing
7:07	i’m stealing is under twenty dollars or just weird things like this you know um
7:12	and then of course you shall not well you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
7:20	you know lie about them tear them down break you know make other people think that their character is
7:25	horrible and all based upon what oh gossip rumors things like this and then
7:31	they don’t even get me started with the coveting thing you notice the whole commandments against coveting that’s going down deep into what’s
7:37	inside of our heart do you really want to tell me you’re a good person after working through those 10.
7:44	you’re not i’m not none of us have kept it and so you’ll note that here this text
7:52	tells us that the story of the flood is an example of what’s going to happen to the ungodly and here’s where i might
7:59	want to bring a little gospel to bear romans chapter 4 makes it very clear
8:04	that Christ died for the ungodly good news you qualify i qualify
8:12	and because Christ has died for the ungodly we can be declared righteous by god by
8:18	faith in fact we are do you believe the words of the absolution that you heard today that you are forgiven
8:24	for Christ’s sake that he is the one who suffered in your place who took your ungodliness upon himself
8:32	and died so that you might live then you are declared righteous and we’ll talk about that a little bit more
8:38	so note then here’s kind of our key thought that the flood is an example of what is
8:43	going to happen to the ungodly it’s a type and shadow of what we confess in the creed that
8:49	Jesus will return in glory to judge the living and the dead Jesus himself makes this very clear in
8:56	the olivet discourse in matthew 24 that that his return is going to be
9:02	just like the days of noah the unbelieving ungodly world will not
9:08	even see it coming all right and Jesus says that just as in the days of
9:14	noah they were eating and giving in marriage and things like this kind of the the the picture that Jesus paints is
9:19	this idea that somebody in the ancient world maybe many couples i don’t know
9:25	they had planned their wedding for the day that the flood would come they didn’t even know it was coming but they should have because noah was a what
9:32	preacher of righteousness he preached for 120 years that god was going to send a
9:39	flood upon the earth 120 they should have seen it coming but did they listen to old that old kooky guy
9:45	noah who was building that big boat in his backyard right no they didn’t listen to them at all so
9:51	what did they do on the day the flood came there were people who were getting married that day
9:57	maybe they had just gone to the ceremony and they were all at the reception the photography had been done and they were all sitting there raising
10:04	their glasses in toast to the new couple in their future together went off in the distance you can hear
10:09	the rumble coming and the tsunami that is the flood covering the earth
10:16	but see scriptures tell us these things so that unlike those people we would not
10:24	be caught unawares that’s why you’re here today to hear the truth
10:29	because we all know that we stand condemned before god and we want to hear words of hope
10:35	we want to hear comforting words that that we will somehow survive the deluge
10:41	that’s coming on the earth but the only way to do that is to believe and so back in genesis
10:48	back in genesis chapter six i’ll start at verse five let’s work our way through a large swath of this today
10:53	we don’t have communion so i just kind of think of that as an invitation to preach more bible you know
11:02	cleveland just gave me the weird eyebrow thingy i gotta get a talking too after the sermon
11:09	all right genesis chapter six verse five yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that
11:16	every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually this is a result of our fall
11:24	into sin we are born dead in trespasses and sins we are by nature objects of god’s wrath
11:30	and uh and listen i’m gonna i’ll give you a little confession about myself there have been times in my life
11:36	where i’ve woken up in the morning and i haven’t quite gotten out of bed yet you know like
11:41	because you know getting out of bed is a little bit of a commitment like because you’re warm and cozy and toasty and then you know that like you have to
11:47	get your feet cold on the tile in the bathroom and stuff like this and and so i i would be sitting there in bed
11:54	awake and you know what i was doing i was thinking about sin i was thinking about doing something
12:00	wrong and planning it out and working it out in my mind and you know what if you’re honest you’ve done the same thing
12:06	right how is it that we do this it’s because we are by nature sinful and unclean and
12:13	as god says every intention of the thoughts of our hearts are only evil continually as it relates to the old
12:19	adam that we have so yahweh regretted that he had made man on the earth it grieved him to his heart
12:26	so yahweh said i will blot out man whom i have created from the face of the land man animals creeping things birds of the
12:33	heavens i’m sorry that i’ve made them but listen to these words verse 8 but
12:40	noah found favor in the eyes of yahweh well how did he do that i’ve heard some
12:48	pretty awful sermons on the flood and usually the sermons go something like this the word of the lord came to
12:54	noah and said build an ark and of course everyone likes to do the old bill cosby routine but now that he’s
12:59	been to prison and stuff like that people kind of avoid bill cosby’s humor right but you get the idea but people would
13:05	say so and so what there’s noah going what’s an ark what’s the cupid you know and people go huh
13:10	that’s funny right and so the idea then is is that that the pastor then says so when the
13:16	word of the lord comes to you he’s gonna tell you to do something that sounds crazy in fact the crazier it is than
13:23	that that’s proof that it’s from god you know god you want me to be a ballerina are you sure
13:31	right okay and so the quest and see noah obeyed god even though the whole thing
13:36	sounded crazy so are you gonna obey god when god tells you to do something crazy and just sit there and go
13:41	are you kidding me that’s not what this is about far far
13:48	from it peter tells us this is a picture of what is coming it’s a picture of god’s wrath but also his
13:54	rescue of those who trust in him so noah found favor in the eyes of yahweh
14:02	how did he do that i mean that’s the big question right
14:08	well hebrews tells us hebrews 11 hebrews 11 verse 6 says this without
14:14	faith it is impossible to please god not hard not difficult not challenging
14:23	impossible without faith it’s impossible to please god whoever would draw near to god must
14:30	believe that he exists and he rewards those who seek him verse seven and eight verse seven by
14:36	faith noah being worn by god concerning events as yet unseen
14:41	in reverent constructed an ark for the saving of his household by this he condemned the world and
14:48	became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith you see before
14:55	noah went to home depot and started buying lumber
15:00	before he did that he believed god he trusted the words of god and this
15:07	scripture says that he is an heir of the righteousness that comes
15:12	by faith aren’t we also who are in Christ heirs of the
15:19	righteousness that comes by faith and that’s the point so you can
15:24	try as you might obey as you will and always and again i just find it odd that people think that god’s going to
15:30	tell you to do something and are you going to obey his voice and the reason i find that odd is because
15:35	he’s already told you what to do read the ten commandments how well are you obeying them
15:42	it’s been written out for you so you don’t even have to wonder if it’s from god how well you doing on obeying that well
15:49	if you’re honest miserable you’re terrible at it so am i
15:55	this is why our god is so merciful because he saves us by grace through
16:02	faith not by any obedience or works of the law to somehow earn his merit or favor we
16:08	can’t so the story then goes on to say i’ll start at verse 11 back in chapter six the earth was
16:14	corrupt in god’s sight i love those words in god’s sight
16:20	in man’s side is the world corrupt in humanity’s site is the world corrupt
16:26	well we’ve got some problems i mean we got systemic racism and poverty and
16:32	and of course you know there’s issues of people who have drug addictions and things like this and
16:37	and yeah there’s there’s human trafficking and and and people who don’t pay their taxes and there’s
16:42	there’s ten penny uh you know tyrants who rule in different obscure places throughout the earth but
16:48	overall overall we’re pretty good right but the text says
16:55	the earth was corrupt in god’s side his opinion is the only one that matters
17:01	here not yours or mine and if our opinion difference that differs than god’s
17:06	the problem lies with us not with god so the earth was filled with violence
17:12	and god saw the earth and behold it was corrupt all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth and god said to know i have
17:18	determined to make an end of all flesh if the earth is filled with violence through them behold i will destroy them
17:25	along with the earth so make yourself an ark of gopher wood make rooms in the ark cover it inside
17:31	and out with pitch this is how you were to make it the length of the ark is 300 cubits its
17:37	breath 50 cubits its height 30 cubits make a roof for the ark finish it to a cubit above set the door
17:42	of the arc on the inside make it with lower second and third decks behold i will bring a flood of
17:48	waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh and which is the breath of life under heaven
17:53	everything that is on the earth shall die but i will establish my covenant with you and you shall come into the ark
18:00	you your sons your wife your son’s wives with you and of every living thing of all flesh
18:07	you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you they shall
18:12	be male and female the birds according to their kinds and of the animals according to their kind
18:17	of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind two of every sort shall come into you to
18:23	keep them alive also take with you every sort of food that is eaten stored up and it shall serve as food for
18:30	you and for them and noah did this he did all that god commanded him why because he believed
18:37	he believed the word of the lord he knew that god doesn’t lie and his threats are not idle
18:42	and we know that too even if we act like we don’t we know it’s true we know it’s true that Christ is coming
18:49	again to judge the living and the dead we know this so then yahweh said to noah go into the
18:54	ark you and all your household i’ve seen that you are righteous before me in this generation
19:00	love it righteous before me because we know from hebrews 11 noah is an heir of the righteousness
19:05	that comes by faith so take with you seven pairs of all clean animals male and its mate
19:11	a pair of animals that are not clean a male and a his mate and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also a male and female
19:17	to keep their offspring alive on the face of all of the earth for in seven days i will send rain on the earth for
19:23	40 days and 40 nights now a little bit of a note here when you consider the dimensions of the ark
19:28	throughout Christian history many many notable church fathers and others have
19:34	have basically noted that the ark kind of looks like a big floating coffin it’s not a bad way to think about
19:42	it if you were to do it but here’s where it gets interesting all of this is type and shadow
19:48	this is a picture of what’s coming so how is it that we are to be saved from the
19:53	deluge that’s going to come on the earth not of water but a fire we’ll hear that at the end of the sermon
19:58	well we need to be in the ark what’s the ark Jesus Jesus is the ark you’re pointing
20:06	to him right yeah that helps okay maybe we should lay him down you know but for this for this uh for this example but that’s that’s
20:12	exactly right we you’ll note that when it talks about our baptism
20:18	it says that we are baptized into Christ we are in
20:25	Christ and the question is are you in Christ or not i assume you are but if you’re not
20:32	the note that only in Christ is their salvation from the flood of god’s wrath that is to come
20:38	only in him and so the picture then is is that when we were baptized
20:43	we were placed into Christ into his death and into his resurrection we are safely tucked away in
20:52	Jesus there are many passages throughout the new testament that talk about us being in Christ this is a good picture because
20:58	only those who are in the ark are in Christ will be saved from the deluge
21:05	their sins have been forgiven they have been pardoned reconciled to god their ungodliness atoned for and god’s
21:11	wrath propitiated and then you’ll also note here just kind of a little bit of a side note
21:17	i often times get people asking me questions they kind of go something like this pastor chris do you think there are
21:22	going to be animals in the in the new earth yes absolutely
21:28	okay this is another example of this because here we have a picture of the reboot of of creation it’s not a real reboot
21:36	but it’s very close to it as far as you can get into the types and shadows and what’s the reboot picture new
21:42	heavens new earth with what animals all right so there’s going to be dogs and bunnies and cats and
21:50	and hamsters and and parakeets lots of parakeets but you get the idea
21:56	all of them are going to be there the world the way it was supposed to be will be given back to us
22:03	and we will no longer have sin and so god makes careful preparations not only for
22:09	humanity’s survival but for the survival of all flesh so noah was 600
22:15	years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth noah and his sons and his wife and his son’s
22:20	wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood of the clean animals of the animals that
22:25	are not clean and of the birds and everything that creeps on the ground two and two male and female went into the
22:31	ark with noah as god had commanded noah and after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth
22:37	in the 600th year of noah’s life now i want to pay attention to these little details one of the interesting things is that the bible has
22:44	minutia in it and you have you ever read the minutia and go your eyes roll back into your head think
22:50	this is so boring what is all of this stuff right so and so begat so and so who begat so and so
22:56	who begat so and so this is begetting boredom right okay you’re going to note something here
23:02	the way this is written noah was 600 years old in the 600 years of his life
23:08	second month 17th day of the month what does this tell you this is history
23:17	how many people have you heard say you know the flood is not really a historical account it didn’t really happen it’s just a babylonian myth that
23:24	kind of steered its way into into the ancient jewish scrolls bellogna that’s absolutely false
23:32	this is a history which mythology have you ever heard has phrases like 17th day of the
23:40	month on that day the fountains of the great deep burst forth star wars it’s a mythology right
23:45	the original ones go back to three four and five right how do they begin a long time ago in a galaxy far
23:51	far away where did it take place i couldn’t tell you when it doesn’t matter just a long time ago
23:58	here it gives us the details of the actual day of the month which month it was how old noah was
24:05	all of that that says this is history oh and by the way Jesus believed it was history too
24:10	and if Jesus thought it was history i’m going to believe it’s history because he rose from the dead
24:16	so all that being said the great deep burst forth the windows of the heavens were opened the rain fell on the earth
24:22	for 40 days and 40 nights you know the children of israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years
24:28	Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness for 40 days hmm yeah there’s always that picture
24:35	then of it kind of invokes a human lifetime of you know things going wrong
24:40	so 40 days and 40 nights the heavens were open the rain fell and on that very same day
24:46	noah and his sons shem ham and japheth and noah’s wife and three wives of his sons with them entered the ark
24:52	and then every beast according to its kind and all the livestock according to their kind every creeping thing that creeps on the
24:58	earth according to its kind every bird according to its kind every winged creature
25:04	they went into the ark with noah two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life
25:09	uh-oh he uh looks like humanity and well creatures are binary don’t let the
25:14	feminists know that male and female and all that kind of stuff right those that entered male and female
25:20	of all flesh went in as god had commanded them and note the last last sentence of verse 16 the lord shut
25:27	him in so everybody’s in the ark and mrs noah
25:32	freaks out how are we going to close the door god says don’t worry i got it right and god himself is the one who
25:38	closes the door of the ark beautiful picture and what is god doing
25:43	he’s saving them just like he is saving you now this
25:50	is a picture of the wrath to come and how god’s great love and mercy
25:55	towards you is not that you perish but that you live
26:01	and he himself in the waters of baptism shut you into Christ hid you away inside of him and there you
26:08	safely wait until the flood of sin passes by the flood of god’s wrath
26:17	to follow flashes before us safely in Christ the flood continued for 40 days on the
26:23	earth the waters increased and bore up the ark it rose high above the earth waters prevailed and increased greatly on the
26:30	earth the ark floated on the face of the waters and the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth
26:35	that all the high mountains and the whole heavens were covered by the way this is why we have fossils just saying so then the waters prevailed
26:43	above the mountains covering them for 15 cubits deep all flesh died that moved on the earth
26:48	birds livestock beasts swarming creatures that swarm on the earth i really wish noah hadn’t brought any spiders on the
26:54	ark but oh well all mankind everything on the dry land and whose nostrils was the breath of life
27:00	died he blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground man and animals creeping things and birds of
27:06	the heavens they were blotted out from the earth and only noah was left
27:11	and those who were with him in the ark and the waters prevailed on the earth for 150
27:18	days as a long long time and where is everybody at this
27:26	point dead except for noah and his family those who believed
27:32	listened to the voice of god that is the only way they could be saved and then we hear these wonderful words
27:38	god remembered noah everybody else is forgotten everybody else is judged everybody else
27:46	is condemned but god remembers noah and he remembered all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the
27:51	ark and god made a wind to blow over the earth and the water subsided the fountains of the deep and the
27:56	windows of the heavens were closed the rain from the heavens was restrained and the waters receded from the earth
28:02	continually at the end of 150 days the waters had abated and in the seventh month on
28:07	the 17th day of the month the ark came to rest on the mountains of ararat and the waters continued to abate until
28:13	until the 10th month in the 10th month on the first day of the month the tops of the mountains were seen
28:18	and at the end of 40 days know opened the windows of the ark that he had made and he sent forth a
28:23	raven it went to and fro until the waters dried up from the earth but then he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters had
28:30	subsided from the face of the ground but the dove found no place to set her foot and she returned to him to the ark
28:36	for the waters was still in the face of the whole earth fascinating right by the way it seems
28:42	like a you know like a throwaway detail but it’s not the dove it dove isn’t that when Jesus
28:50	was baptized didn’t the holy spirit descend in the form of a dove ah there’s another
28:56	place where this shows up but you have to know hebrew to kind of pick it up and that is is that in genesis chapter
29:01	one in the opening sentences of genesis it says in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth
29:07	the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep
29:12	and then it says that the spirit of the lord the spirit of god was
29:19	and here’s your verb in hebrew america fete he was well
29:26	hovering brooding like a bird over the face of the waters this is what it says america fed is a
29:32	bird verb you would and so there at the beginning of genesis you have this picture of the holy spirit
29:38	brooding over the waters of creation brooding hovering america fedding that’s the wrong way to
29:44	say it by the way over this and so here at the flood you have a picture again
29:50	of reenactment in types and shadows of the holy spirit making a new creation
29:58	but we see that same imagery then where when Jesus is baptized there’s Jesus
30:05	being baptized by john the baptist and the heavens open the holy spirit america fetes right over him over the
30:12	waters of his baptism alights on him and stays on him the voice of the father says this is my beloved son in whom i am well
30:18	pleased when you connect the dots you sit there and go wait a second are you saying that when we’re baptized
30:25	baptism is a way by which god is making the new creation you
30:30	betcha you betcha you see because we are a new creation in Christ
30:37	we who have been joined with Christ in his death and his resurrection we have been regenerated baptism is a picture
30:43	of the holy spirit working and taking us now and making us citizens
30:50	of the kingdom to come and recreating us the new man that you are in Christ
30:55	is already part of that new creation the old man that you have the old adam
31:01	that’s part of this one and there’s a different world coming so you can see how the pictures work
31:06	so here in the types and shadows you have this dove america fetting and nowhere to go ah i see the picture
31:15	so he put out his hand and took her and brought her back into the ark and then noah waited for seven days and
31:20	again he sent forth the dove out of the ark and the dove came back to him in the evening and behold in her mouth was a
31:26	freshly plucked olive leaf boy you could do a lot with that right see the olive branch isn’t that a sign
31:34	of peace right the dove with an olive branch that’s a sign of peace but i would even note this as a little
31:41	bit more in the types of shadow than merely peace peace we have for sure but isn’t Christ
31:47	described as that olive tree in which we are the branches who have been grafted in
31:52	it’s a picture of the new israel the new israel is growing in the new earth that’s the point
31:59	so noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth and he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove and she did not
32:05	return to him anymore and then fast forwarding just a little bit it says
32:12	in verse 20 noah built an altar to yahweh took some of every clean animal some of
32:17	every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar and when yahweh smelled the pleasing aroma
32:22	yahweh said in his heart i will never again curse the ground because of man for the intention of man’s heart is evil
32:27	from his youth and neither again will i ever strike down every living creature as i have done while the earth remains save time and
32:34	harvest cold and heat summer and winter day and night and we know this also then from the new testament that all of the
32:40	sacrifices of the old testament are pointing to the one sacrifice of Christ
32:45	and so you’ll note there is no need for sacrifices in the new earth the sacrifice has been given here god
32:52	has given his son who willingly laid down his life who became sin so that you might be the
32:58	righteousness of god and because of this never again will we experience the curses
33:04	brought on to us because of our sin and rebellion against god in the new earth all of them are gone and this is then
33:11	where we hear our old testament text that god had blessed noah and his sons told them to be fruitful and multiply
33:18	and established his covenant with them a covenant that had a sign
33:23	the sign of the rainbow and every time the rainbow appears in the sky god says i will remember
33:31	my covenant and i will remember and i will see and what is the promise of the
33:37	noadic covenant that god will never again flood the earth with the waters but there is a flood
33:42	coming of fire so you’ll note then that all of this covenant talk points us to the new
33:47	covenant that we find ourselves in and so coming back to second peter peter made it clear that the flood
33:54	itself is an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly and that being the case he goes on to
34:02	say if god rescued righteous lot greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked for that
34:09	for as that righteous man lived among them day after day he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds
34:14	that he saw and he heard then the lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials as well as to keep the unrighteous under
34:21	punishment until the day of judgment especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling
34:26	passion and despise authority and then in chapter three we get the
34:31	kind of the cash out of this concept here peter writes he says this is the second letter that i’m writing to
34:38	you beloved in both of them i am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder so that you should remember the
34:44	predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the lord and savior through your apostles knowing
34:50	this first of all the scoffers will come in the last days scoffing they will follow their own
34:57	sinful desires they will say where is the promise of his coming for ever since the fathers fell asleep all things are
35:03	continuing as they were from the beginning of creation for they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago
35:11	and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of god and that by means of these the world
35:18	that then existed was deluged with water and perished but by the same
35:23	word the heavens and the earth that now exist they are currently stored up for fire
35:29	being kept until the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly so do not overlook this
35:36	one fact beloved that with the lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as
35:42	one day and the lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness
35:48	instead he is patient toward you he is not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance
35:54	have you ever thought why doesn’t Christ just get it over with the world is just
36:00	a mess it’s all gone crazy it’s getting crazier by the minute right answer god is patient
36:09	Christ is patiently plodding away building his kingdom right now
36:15	saving people calling them through the gospel washing away their sins in the waters of
36:21	baptism why because he it is not his will that any should perish
36:26	but that all should reach repentance that’s Christ’s intent his intent for you and
36:33	for me and so let us rejoice in the mercy of god that he even though he found us as ungodly
36:40	that he has washed away our sins and he has granted us repentance in him so the day of the lord it will come
36:47	it’ll come like a thief but not for us because we know it’s coming and then when that happens the heavens will pass
36:53	away with a roar the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and all the works that are
37:00	done in it will be exposed in other words kind of think of it this way no point in empire building for
37:06	yourself or building a kingdom for yourself or monuments for yourself think of all the wonders of the earth
37:12	you think of the eiffel tower or you think of our great and magnificent buildings that we build
37:17	or or even the republic that we’ve built here in the united states all these things are going to burn right
37:26	pack light you’re just passing through all of it the moon the sun the stars
37:33	the milky way all orion and his belt and all of the constellations it’s all
37:40	gonna burn the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved the earth and all the
37:46	works that are done in it will be exposed and since all these things are thus to be dissolved and by the way that’s kind
37:52	of a big sobering fact now i gotta admit when hollywood tries to do movies like
37:59	this it always is stupid okay you know what i’m talking about
38:04	yeah yeah i i remember that i forget the the name of the movie but there was that there was a movie about you know the
38:09	earth being destroyed by hurricane snow storms like you know you know
38:15	the day after hurricane snowstorm so if you go out in it even if you’re all
38:20	bundled up if you go out you have like 30 seconds before you turn into a frozen ice statue and i just cracked up you know then i think
38:27	of the movies that i was you know when i was growing up like earthquake right 1984 and and like all of los angeles falling into you know
38:34	the san andreas fault and there’s death in mayhem and helicopters crashing into buildings and all this
38:40	it’s just a joke but here’s the thing what hollywood cannot depict
38:45	scripture can and when we think about what is coming this is the type of thing that
38:53	should keep us humble and give us pause everything that we see
39:00	smell taste touch it’s all gonna burn
39:07	and isn’t that sad knowing this that there are so many people who live their lives with the with kind of the yolo mentality
39:15	you only live once and they just hang on to this life
39:20	but the thing is is that the tighter you hold on to it the more it’s going to slip through your fingers because there’s nothing here
39:27	that’s permanent including you since all these things are to be dissolved what sort of people ought you
39:33	to live that ought you to be in lives of holiness
39:38	godliness you see all of this is happening all of this is coming all of this wrath
39:44	is stored up because of what because of our sin our rebellion our ungodliness we are
39:50	not good in god’s sight and so because of this do we turn the
39:56	gospel then into a license to live sinfully how could we
40:03	how could we because all of this destruction is coming because of sin
40:08	and it makes you realize we need to be done with it so these sober thoughts and god’s
40:16	judgment recogni help us to recognize that sin is not something that we should entertain or imbibe in or think
40:22	lightly of instead in light of god’s judgment we should cry out to god through the
40:29	power of the holy spirit that he grant us the ability to bear the fruit of repentance
40:35	in love towards each other and that through the holy spirit that we daily mortify our sinful flesh and return to
40:41	the waters of our baptism on a daily basis while we wait for the hastening and the coming of the day of
40:47	the lord because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved the heavenly bodies will melt as they
40:53	burn but according to his promise and i love these words but according to his promise we are waiting for new
40:59	heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells
41:04	so therefore peter says since you are waiting for these be diligent to be found in Christ
41:10	without spot or blemish and it’s only in Jesus that before god you stand before him
41:16	without spot or blemish not in your own righteousness not in your own good works not in your law
41:21	keeping not in your alms giving not in your prayers only in Christ are you found without
41:27	spot or blemish and at peace and then count the patience of our Lord then of salvation salvation
41:33	for you and salvation for others just as our beloved Paul wrote and so here now he references Paul
41:40	so brothers and sisters the flood is a picture of God’s wrath but so much more the flood is a picture
41:48	of God’s mercy for those who will hear his word and heed his call to repent and believe
41:54	to trust in him his will is not that you perish his will is that you live
41:59	so come to Christ trust the words of Jesus that in him there is the forgiveness of
42:06	sins because Noah found favor with God by faith and we do as well in the name of Jesus
42:15	amen

If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax-free donation to: Kongsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th Ave NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support. All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message, and, again, thank you for listening.