Contractual Misappropriation

All right, let's pray. We're going to get started. Lord Jesus Christ, with us abide. From round us falls the evening time.

Let your word, that saving light, shine forth undimmed into the night. In these last days of great distress, grant us, dear

Lord, true steadfastness, so that we, keeping pure till life is spent, your holy word and your sacrament.

In Jesus' name, amen. Lengthen those words. That's his hymn. All right, we're going to do a little mini -study today.

We'll note that the themes in the Gospel text today were noticeably dark.

The end of the world is always such a fun topic to preach on, especially when you have a text like that where you don't get really to the other side of Christ's return.

But I wanted to show you something in the cross references in regard to the book of Deuteronomy.

Over and again, when you read the Olivet Discourse, either in Luke's version or in Matthew's version,

Jesus talks about how difficult it will be for women who are pregnant or are nursing in those days.

And there's a reason for that. And the reason is found in Deuteronomy chapter 28.

And a little bit of a reminder here, the Mosaic Covenant itself does not overthrow the Abrahamic Covenant.

The Mosaic Covenant is a good way to think of it as a land lease agreement between God and the children of Israel.

And there are rules for staying in that land, and those rules are laid out in the

Mosaic Covenant. Break those rules, persist in breaking those rules, and then in any covenant that's worth its salt in the ancient world, there's a section in that known as blessings and curses.

And this is the chapter that deals with the blessings and the curses. To keep things a little bit somewhat chipper, let's take a look at the blessings first.

If you faithfully obey the voice of Yahweh your God, being careful to do all of his commandments that I command you today,

Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the voice of Yahweh your

God. Notice the Mosaic Covenant is based purely upon obedience. These are conditional clauses.

And you'll note that today's modern day word faith, TBN types, prosperity preachers, they oftentimes go to this chapter in the book of Deuteronomy to somehow make it say, well, look at you, obey the voice of your

Lord, then you're gonna have all these blessings follow you, but these are the blessings of the Mosaic Covenant, then they always ignore the curses part.

So God goes on to say, blessed shall you be in the city, blessed shall you be in the field, blessed shall you be, shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of the ground, the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, blessed shall you be, shall be your basket and your kneading bowl, blessed shall be, you shall be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out.

Well, sign me up, right? I want all these blessings. But it's all conditional.

The interest payment is more than I can bear. Yeah, the issue is that this requires obedience.

Obey and then these things. Again, Mosaic Covenant is a land lease agreement. Deuteronomy 28, verse seven then, the

Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.

Yahweh will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake and he will bless you in the land that Yahweh your

God is giving to you. Yahweh will establish you as a people holy to himself as he has sworn to you.

If you keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and walk in his ways and all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of Yahweh and they shall be afraid of you and Yahweh will make you abound in prosperity in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground within your land that Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you.

Yahweh will open to you his good treasury, the heavens to give you rain to your land and in its season and to bless all the work of your hands and you shall lend to many nations but you shall not borrow and Yahweh will make you the head and not the tail and you shall only go up and not down if you obey the commandments of Yahweh your

God which I command you today being careful to do them and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today to the right hand or to the left to go after other gods to serve them.

So what the prosperity preacher does, he point, they point you to these blessings and they say, see, God wills for you to be prosperous.

God wills for your enemies to flee before you. God wills for you to be rich. God wills, wills, blah, yeah.

And they. Free set of steak knives. That's right, right. So just send me $1 ,000, make your check payable to Chris Roseborough here at Pirate Christian Media and show

God that you have faith and he will give you all of these blessings. You'll note the condition is you gotta obey.

Obey. How good are you guys at obeying those commandments? I got a Romans 3 .23

problem with that. Yeah, me too. I have a big Romans 3 .23 problem. And then that whole section, none is righteous.

No, not one. No one seeks for God. Isn't there also the conditional statement of like, oh, I guess

I'm not a member of ancient Israel. I kind of. Well, yeah, that's exactly where Luther would go and he's like, well, these are not promises made to you.

You guys are Norwegians. These are promises made to the people of Israel.

But again, these are contingent promises. The contingency is obedience and it's not sending in $1 ,000 to Kenneth Copeland.

I just wanna make that clear. It's not in the text. Now, all of that being said, I find it fascinating that nobody really pays too much attention to the next half of this chapter, which is the curses portion.

And it's the curses portion that tells us what Jesus was referring to in our gospel text.

And let me show you what he said again here. Here's what Jesus said, Luke 21 .20.

When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

Let those who are inside the city depart and let not those who are out in the country enter it.

For these are days of vengeance to fulfill all that is written. Days of vengeance to fulfill all that's written.

So Jesus is saying, this is a fulfillment of scripture. Which part?

Answer, Deuteronomy 28, the curses portion. And so then he says, alas, for women who are pregnant, for those who are nursing infants in those days, there will be great distress upon the earth, wrath against this people.

They will fall by the edge of the sword, be led captive among all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the

Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. So here's our cross -reference then. And we're gonna get this in its full context because the bit that applies specifically to 70

AD is at the tail end, the very end of this chapter. But watch what God says he's going to do if Israel worships and serves other gods.

And you've all read the Bible, so did Israel, after getting into the promised land, did they remain 100 % faithful to God and only worship him?

They didn't even get to the promised land before they messed up. What are you talking about? Details, me -tells. Okay, you know.

They lasted like a week. They got to Marah. But they meant well. I'm joking. Yeah. So Deuteronomy 28, 15.

If you will not obey the voice of Yahweh your God or be careful to do all of his commands and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.

Cursed shall you be in the city. Cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket, your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of the ground, the increase of your herds, the young of your flock.

Cursed shall you be when you come in. Cursed shall you be when you go out. Well, that doesn't sound very good. And when

God curses you, does his curses ever turn out to be just nothing?

No. Trust me, when God curses, he really does follow through. Yeah. So Yahweh will send on you curses, confusion, frustration, and all that you undertake to do until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds because you have forsaken me.

Yahweh will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession.

Yahweh will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation, fiery heat, and with drought, and with blight, and with mildew.

I mean, you might as well throw in flatulence as well. You know, I mean, this sounds like a list of symptoms, right?

They shall pursue you until you perish. The heavens over your head shall be bronze.

The earth underneath you shall be iron. Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven, dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

Yahweh will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them.

And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, and your dead bodies shall be food for all the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.

Yahweh will strike you with boils, the boils of Egypt, and with tumors, and scabs, and itch, of which you cannot be healed.

Yeah, that reminds me of that famous curse, may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits.

I mean, it just kind of, in that realm here, this just sounds awful, right? So Yahweh will strike you with madness, blindness, confusion of mind.

You shall grope at noonday as the blind grope in darkness. You shall not prosper in your ways.

You shall only be oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you.

Is this not the story of the book of Judges? Right? Over and again, that's the cycle.

Idolatry. I see that hand. I'm sitting on it. Okay, all right. You kind of get the idea, this is a mess.

You shall betroth the wife, but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it.

You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit. Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it.

Your donkey will be seized before your face, but it shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and there shall be no one to help you.

Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, but you shall be helpless.

A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall only be oppressed and crushed continually so that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see.

Yahweh will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

Isn't this, this is a really happy, clappy passage, you know, yeah. There it is, there it is.

Flag on the play. All right. But the last 20 chapters of Isaiah take these curses like almost point for point and in Christ point to the salvation that he has accomplished for us.

That's exactly right. We're blind in noonday, he leads the blind out by pass that they haven't known. You know, your children will be taken away from you.

You will carry your children to worship. Exactly. Is there any, do you think it is coincidental that Christ, in his earthly ministry, he gives sight to the blind, you know, and the people he's going after are those whom the

Mosaic Covenant would say are cursed. He is coming to give them mercy, forgiveness, healing, and life, and pardon.

And so you'll note that these curses here, I mean, this is severe stuff, and Jesus, like you said, in Isaiah he points it out, but in the

Gospels fulfills it point for point. It's the people that Jesus heals, the disciples said,

I mean, John says that Jesus did so many works, if they were to record them all, all the books in the world couldn't contain them, right?

But so the apostles pick a select number of healings that Jesus does, and you'll note that oftentimes these healings will have something to do with these curses.

You know, and that's not accidental, that's intentional, right? We continue, though.

It's gonna get a little darker, but I promise we're gonna end on a good note. I promise, promise, promise.

All right, so notice a nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground, and we'll note that you can see this in fulfillment with Babylon.

You can see this in fulfillment even in smaller detail when Midian comes and oppresses

Israel, when the Philistines oppress Israel and rule over them. There's examples of that. And then with ever increasing, you know, intensity,

God's curses then fall on the people of Israel so that when Alexander the Great shows up, they give up the city, they give up the country without a fight.

When you read Josephus on this, it's actually quite fascinating, is that, so there's Alexander the

Great, you know, he's on his great campaign to conquer the world, and wouldn't you know it, he pulled it off. He goes to conquer the world, and so when he shows up outside of Jerusalem, the high priest comes out in a parley to meet with Alexander the

Great and his officials, and he pulls out the scroll of Daniel and says, we were expecting you.

Pulls out the scroll of Daniel, says, we were expecting you, and they surrendered the whole city. And so Jerusalem was not destroyed by Alexander the

Great. Kind of fascinating. But then after the death of Alexander the Great, his kingdom is split up into four pieces.

There's four different generals who get a piece of the pie. And Egypt goes under the

Ptolemies, and I forget who gets to reign in the portion of Judea. It's not the

Ptolemaic Empire there, it's a different fellow altogether. But all of that is for naught, because once everybody learns how to speak

Greek, the Romans show up, and nobody could resist these guys. Nobody could resist them.

And you'll see an allusion to them in this chapter. All right, so the Lord will strike you on the knees, we got that part, verse 36.

Yahweh will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known.

That's fulfilled in Nebuchadnezzar. There you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, and you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away.

You shall carry much need into a seed into the field and shall gather in little, for the locusts shall consume it.

You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them.

You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off.

You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours. They shall go into captivity. The cricket shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground.

The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you. You shall come down lower and lower, and he shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him.

He shall be the head and you shall be the tail. All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of Yahweh your

God to keep his commands and his statutes that he commanded you. They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever because you did not serve

Yahweh your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart because of the abundance of all things.

Therefore, you shall serve your enemies whom Yahweh will send against you in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lacking everything.

And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand.

This is Rome. Yeah, what's Rome's big mascot, you know, in the Roman legions, you know, when they're organized?

It's that eagle, you know. The Germans just, you know, the Nazis stole that thing and used it as well.

S -P -O -R, right? You know, is it Q -R or O -R? It's Q, yeah,

S -P -Q -R, yeah. And so you'll note, this is a prophecy about the Roman Empire coming down and taking them captive.

It's fascinating, it's right here in the text. So they'll swoop down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, hard -faced nation.

Who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young? It shall eat the offspring of your cattle, the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed.

It shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, or the increase of your herds or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish.

They shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land.

Kind of fascinating here. A prophecy regarding high walls. And I think you even have an allusion here to Masada.

The fortress of Masada was like the last to fall here. Yeah, it was, yeah. And Rome, I mean, these guys were just busy bees.

I mean, they built a earthen rampart to get to the top of that thing. I mean, who does that with ancient technology?

That shows you the determination of Rome. You get the idea. So these are prophecies that were fulfilled with the

Roman Empire. All right, so you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom

Yahweh your God has given to you in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.

There it is. And that is not figurative.

That is not allegorical. That is how it went down. So note, Christ said, with the coming of the destruction of Jerusalem, let me remind you again of his words.

His words were these, that when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that its desolation has come near.

Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are inside the city depart and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are the days of vengeance to fulfill all that is written.

Alas for women who are pregnant for those and for those who are nursing infants in those days, there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people.

Why is it distressing for women who are nursing and are pregnant? Because Deuteronomy 53, the cursing portion of the

Mosaic covenant, says you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and your daughters.

In Eusebius's ecclesiastical history, and this is, it's horror reading.

It's just horror to read. He gives specific accounts of what happened to the

Jews who were in Jerusalem during the siege. And there's one account of a woman who no sooner gave birth to her child that she killed it and hid it so that she wouldn't have to share the meal with anybody else.

That's what we're talking about here. So it's, yeah, again,

God doesn't, when God threatens in punishment, these are not idle threats at all.

So the man who is most tender and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother, to the wife he embraces, to the last of the children whom he has left so that he will not give any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating because he has nothing else left.

In the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all of your towns. The most tender and the refined woman among you who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender will begrudge to the husband she embraces, to her son and to her daughter, her afterbirth that came out from between her feet and her children whom she bears because lacking everything, she will eat them secretly in the siege and in the distress with which the enemy shall distress you in your towns.

It's a horrifying picture. It is just an absolute horrifying picture. So when Christ says, now you understand this.

When Christ says that alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days, there will be great distress, great distress.

And indeed, and this is to fulfill the curses of the Mosaic covenant. So that's what he's referring to.

And now you know that Deuteronomy 28 has a specific set of prophecies regarding the

Roman Empire, their conquest of Canaan, their sieging of Jerusalem and the details of what would happen during that siege.

All of this is now just a matter of historical record. And I would note

Deuteronomy 28 was written long, long, long before Christ walked the earth.

It's an example of fulfilled prophecy. Okay, so all that being said, let's change gears a little bit here because I promised we would end on a good note.

So the difficulty, like I said, of a gospel text like the one we had, and even the text from Malachi.

Malachi gives us a little bit more of a picture of what's coming than even the gospel text is. Because our gospel text ends with Jesus saying, when you see these signs taking place, straighten up, your redemption is drawing near.

Raise up your head, get excited. Something good's coming for you, right? Malachi at least gave us the picture of the calf that has come out of its stall that's jumping and leaping for joy.

At least we got a picture of that. But since we're talking about the end of the world, let's do a little bit of work in the back of the book, shall we?

Let's take a look at Revelation 21 and 22. Because this will give us something for our faith to hang on to.

Some hope in the days that are ahead. So then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

The first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more.

Passed away. So what's gonna happen to the current creation? It's gonna die.

Death and resurrection even for the earth and the heavens. I could see the wheels spinning, all right?

Second Peter, I think, kind of gives us some of the details here.

Second Peter 3, do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is 1 ,000 years and 1 ,000 years is one day.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise. As some count slowness, but he's patient towards you, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are there that are done in it will be exposed.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of the

Lord, of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn.

But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Well, that's the end of everything here. Do y 'all know what the predominant eschatology is of liberals?

Yeah. Everybody gets to go to heaven because we're all good people. God would never, a loving

God would never send anybody to hell. Yeah, it's either universalism or post -millennialism.

Well, the idea is, oh, Jesus is gonna come down to earth and create utopia here. Well, actually, it's a little bit worse than that.

If you've ever read Jürgen Moltmann, who's like the eschatological guy of the emergent SJWs, post -modern guys, his eschatology runs something like this.

You see, it's our job to go and to transform the earth through our good works by fighting social injustices and eradicating systemic poverty that we create the kingdom of God here on earth, we create human utopia, and then once we've achieved it,

Jesus reappears and says, good job, way to go, you finally did it,

I'm king. I am God, I am God, I'll do it all myself. Oh, brother.

Yeah. You'll notice that the scriptures do not paint this positive image of how the end is gonna go down.

Everything really, I don't know, it kinda sounds like the end of the world, you know? And I love the graphic for today's bulletin.

I mean, that looks like, you know, if you put some color on that thing, you know, it looks like the album cover from an 80s metal band, you know?

It does. So you'll note then that we are waiting, new heavens, new earth, we're sojourning here, and at some point, everything that you see, everything that you can touch, all your photographs, your photo albums, the history, it's all just gonna go kaput, right?

Nothing you build will last. Nothing will survive. It's gonna be like the end of the world.

Because it is. It's the end. And so you'll note then that death and resurrection occurs not merely to human beings, but to the heavens and the earth themselves.

They pass away. They die. And so even the heavens and the earth are resurrected.

And that's kind of the point here. So I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had passed away.

The sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their

God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.

Ah, no more waking up with a bad back. No more the creaking bones and just the absolute insult that aging is, right?

It's just one insult after another. It's like a daily insult, you know? You're just getting older and older and older.

And things really, for real, kind of start making the turn about 24, 25, you know?

Yeah, that's when you're at your best. And then everything from there, you have nothing to look forward to. It's just really bad.

Come on, guys. Say the hallelujah. Praise the Lord, right?

Curse this mortal frame. Yep. But you'll note, no pain no more. No, the former things have passed away.

Now, one of the goofiest things I've seen from an ELCA pastor is she wrote on a blog that there will be handicapped people in the new earth, in the

Eschaton. And here was her reasoning. Because they're such a beautiful community. And if Jesus doesn't resurrect them with their handicaps, then it'll mean the total destruction of that entire community of beautiful people.

It's like, are you out of your mind? And so they believe that if you believe that people are gonna be resurrected from the dead, if like, say they had their legs blown off in World War II.

And if you tell them that they're gonna be raised from the dead and their legs will be restored, oh, no, no, no, that means the whole destruction of an entire community of human beings.

That's terrible. I'm thinking, are you out of your mind? Is it the same people that actually rage against modern medicine and saying that like, you know, cures for people with handicaps is evil because it erases the community?

Right, right. So the deaf community is now suffering because they've come up with technology that can give people the ability to hear.

Stay blind. They're okay with that destruction. I want my phone. Yeah, yeah, it's funny, it's funny.

Scripture describes those who embrace idolatrous false doctrine as those who love death.

That's one of the descriptions for them. They love death. That's a good way to put it, you know?

So he's gonna wipe away every tear from our eye, no more pain, all the former things have passed away. Now he who is seated on the throne said, behold,

I am making all things new. Oh, I love those words.

That means me, that means you, it means the earth, it means the heavens. Oh, he's gonna make all things new.

Also, he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. Well, when has

God ever spoken and those words were not trustworthy and true, right? And he said to me, it is done.

I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

You get to drink from the spring of the water of life free, just like your salvation. The one who conquers will have this heritage.

I will be his God, he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is second death.

You sit there and go, wait a second, there's things on that list that might actually apply to me. Are you not bled for and died for?

Your identity isn't wrapped up in your sin. Your identity's wrapped up in your baptism.

You have been united with Christ in his death and his resurrection. You are washed. You are forgiven.

You are not in this list. So then came one of the seven angels who had seven bowls, the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, who spoke to me, saying, come,

I'll show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain, and he showed me the holy city,

Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper clear as crystal.

It had a great high wall with 12 gates, and at the gates, 12 angels, and on the gates, the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed.

On the east, three gates. On the north, three gates. On the south, three gates. On the west, three gates.

And the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them were the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb.

And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city with its gates and its walls.

That's quite the measuring tape made out of gold. Mine's made out of aluminum.

The city lies four square, its length the same as its width. He measured the city with his rod, 12 ,000 stadia.

Its length and its width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement.

So apparently there are angel measurements, and we can plumb the mysteries of those measurements when the new earth shows up.

The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel.

The first was jasper. The second, sapphire. The third, agate. The fourth, emerald. The fifth, onyx.

The sixth, carnelian. The seventh, chrysolite. The eighth, beryl. The ninth, topaz.

The 10th, chrysoprass. The 11th, jacanth. The 12th, amethyst. And the 12 gates were 12 pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl.

I wanna see the oyster that made those. Maybe I don't.

Ha ha! Ha ha! Ha ha! Ha ha! In the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

I love it. The gold standard turns into something completely different. Here in this earth, gold is everything, right?

It's the symbol of wealth. In the new earth, gold is asphalt. It's what the horses poop on in the streets.

Right? Right? I'm just saying. Ha ha! Yeah. You mean the paving stones?

Come on, right? So I saw no temple in the city. Its temple is the Lord God, the

Almighty, and the Lamb. The city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives its light, and its lamp is the

Lamb. By its light will the nations walk. The kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there.

They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, only those who are written in the

Lamb's book of life. Chapter 22. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, brightest crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the

Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. This river is also pictured in the book of Ezekiel. Kind of fascinating.

It flows out from the presence of God. On into the Jordan River, and it takes the

Dead Sea and makes it alive again. It's kind of fascinating. You get a picture of this in Ezekiel.

Through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.

That's quite a tree. Monthly fruit. 12 kinds of fruit.

Interesting tree. Yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship

Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more.

They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

So what are we gonna do in the new earth? You're gonna reign. Apparently we're all royals.

I don't know how to be a royal. Hopefully there'll be training, right?

And that's the weird part about it. How do you reign in a world where there is no sin? What does reigning exactly look like when you have nobody to punish?

What worries and anxieties are you dealing with on a day -to -day basis in a world without end where there is no sin, or pain, or curse, or anything?

I will be the supreme commander of squirrels. You can have them. I get the bunnies, though.

Yeah, a little known fact, I have this special place in my heart for rabbits.

Apparently there's an island in Japan where the rabbits have completely run rabbit. I guess that's a play on words.

I guess you can experience death by bunny or something. It's the cutest way to die ever. No, you don't really die, but you know.

What is it, Bunny Python Island? It's a five -hour place in town with seven of you. Yeah, appreciate that.

I'm always sad because my dog, Luther, every time we let him outside, he goes and chases the rabbits. So yesterday

I was coming back from the men's Bible study and there was a bunny in my yard. I'm like, hi, hi. He's like. So he said to me, these words are trustworthy and they are true.

And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.

And you'll note that this is a fascinating text here. Kind of parallel with what we just read in 2

Peter that God is not slow as some count slowness. He's patient, not desiring that anyone should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

And so you'll note God taking his dear sweet time to send Jesus back has given all of us the opportunity for real to receive from God the forgiveness of our sins and life and all of that.

If God had not been patient with us, what would our fate have been? And so you'll note then that as Christ tarries, this is good.

But he keeps saying, I'm coming soon. And this is soon by God's standards, not my standard or your standard.

You know, like when I tell my wife, I'll be down in a minute, she's learned that I don't really mean 60 seconds, okay?

Because if she were to enforce it as 60 seconds, I'm in trouble, okay? But you'll note then that God says, this is all gonna take place soon.

And then we hear these words of Christ. Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the word of the prophecy of this book.

And now comes an interesting debate. What's the this book of this book?

It's a good debate. Is it merely the book of Revelation? Doesn't Revelation recapitulate all of scripture?

It does. In fact, it pulls hard on the themes and the curses of the

Exodus. I was actually thinking about that this week when I was working at an ELCA Bible camp where a lady had a shirt, just a fraction of a verse, harm not the trees and the grass.

Oh, Lord have mercy. And I was a young widget and I did not know to go warn her, I would like you to read the last chapter of Revelation and consider burning that before the lightning comes.

Yeah, yeah. So the debate, the way it goes, there's a group of scholars that sit there and go, well, this is a warning regarding only the book of Revelation.

But let me ask you this question. In a book that pulls so heavily on all of the eschatological themes of the entire

Bible, where the plagues of Egypt make a reappearance in the judgment of the world, they really do.

And God, the Holy Spirit, is inspiring this text to be written as it was. And the Greek here is so ridiculously simple to translate.

The best way I could put it is, have you ever seen an impressionist painting? Somebody who just does a quick impression of a scene.

These are broad brush strokes, there's not fine detail, you see what's going on.

That's how Revelation is written. It's written in this really quick, super easy, bad grammar

Greek that it reads like an impressionist painting, is the best way I can put it.

But do you think for a second that God, the Holy Spirit, was shocked when this book ends up at the end of everybody's

Bible? No, I just,

I don't think so. Speaking of the Holy Spirit, there doesn't seem to be much mention in Revelation about the

Holy Spirit. What's the role? He is mentioned, he is mentioned. Again, I would refer you to a book, and I forget the authors, it's plural.

It's Holy Spirit, Shy Member of the Trinity. It's a fantastic book. And you'll note then that there oftentimes seems to be this gap when it comes to the doctrine of the

Trinity because the Holy Spirit is so rarely mentioned. And then when he's mentioned or he shows up, the only person the

Holy Spirit's interested in talking about is Jesus, all right? So there's an entire book.

It's really short. You can actually read it in a couple hours. Holy Spirit, Shy Member of the Trinity. That's Dale Bruner.

Huh? That's Dale Bruner. Yeah, Dale Bruner. So there's a Lutheran fellow and a Presbyterian guy,

I think, who are the authors of this. But so the idea then is that when

Jesus says in the Gospel of John that he's gonna send the paraclete, he's gonna send the

Spirit, and he will convict the world of sin and unbelief, right?

And this is really, you can tell the Holy Spirit's really working when people's sins are laid before them and they're convicted and they're brought to repentance and they're given faith.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit. So one fellow that I remember who trained me said the Holy Spirit is the

PR guy for Jesus. And if you're focusing on the Holy Spirit, he's gonna say, yeah, let me tell you about Jesus, man.

We talk about that guy. So you'll note that the Holy Spirit is there and he's the active member of the

Trinity in bringing people to repentance through the preached word. And that's really his job.

So he is mentioned in the Book of Revelation, but throughout the New Testament, the

Holy Spirit always seems to have this kind of behind -the -scenes role, behind -the -scenes.

He's the leader of the Holy Spirit. Oh, I know, I know. This is most certainly true.

So the Holy Spirit is quite active, all right? You don't see him, no, but he's very active in the church.

And the people who sit there and say, you can really tell the church is spirit -filled when you have people rolling on the ground and barking like dogs.

God is a God of order, not of disorder. The Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self -control.

The person who is claiming that they're manifesting God, the Holy Spirit, while barking like a dog and acting like they are inebriated and drunk, that's the opposite of self -control.

And there's no example of that in the Scripture at all, none, you know? So I'm coming, the one who keeps the words of the

Book of this prophecy, I'm of the opinion that the context itself demands that what is being referred to here is the entire

Scripture, the written Word of God, all of it, from Genesis to the last chapter of the

Book of Revelation. The prophecy of this book is referring to the

Scriptures as a whole. Well, if all of the Bible is halagos. And it is. How can you cut away with halagos from halagos?

Yeah, yeah. If all of the Bible is God's Word and John makes quite clear God's Word and Jesus are not really extricable, how can you cut and paste without blaspheming

God? You can't. Did Jesus point, I just need a little pinky, hold it really still, this won't hurt very long, it's a really offensive pinky.

And you'll note then that the church historically, when they knew definitively that God has spoken, what'd they do with those words?

Recorded them. Every time we knew God spoke, they'd record those words, they'd get written down.

God's words don't just show up willy -nilly. They're inspired and written for our edification, for the convicting of our sins, to teach us and train us in righteousness and right belief.

So the idea here is that when God is speaking, the church, ancient and modern, modern

I mean like New Testament, the apostles, they've all collected these words up.

These are God's words. Yeah. I have one kind of, is that going a little far?

Because Paul's epistles have orders and instructions on how prophecies to be orderly carried out in church.

We have none of those prophecies carried out in church, unless he's giving orders for something that never happened.

But still it's scripture. Do you think that part of 1 Corinthians doesn't apply? In the sense that it's not scripture?

No, I agree. I agree that 1 Corinthians is scripture. But the assertion that everything

God spoke we have in the Bible, that all the prophecy the church received we have. And if -

Let me put it this way. If it was rather prophecy, it should be a new book in the Bible. When God is speaking, the church has written it down.

Now we don't have all the sermons of Isaiah. We don't have all the sermons of Christ. We don't have it all.

And yet you'll note that everything that is necessary for our salvation, right belief, all of this is recorded for us.

And so my question would be, do we need today for somebody to raise up and say, thus saith the

Lord, and reveal to us something new? Oh no, absolutely not. Okay.

So if I were to say, listen, Shabba, I feel that there's a shaking coming and that God is going to be releasing breakthrough and nonsense like this.

These are the types of prophecies you hear in today's. Then I have God's word. What's your short -term sign?

What's your long -term sign? And when do we get to stone you if any of it doesn't come to pass? Well, they claim -

Are you pointing to Christ or are you pointing to self? They claim that they don't have to be accurate because they're still practicing on hearing the voice of God.

But no prophecy had his origin in the will of man, but men spoke as they were carried along by -

Yeah, you keep pointing to that biblical stuff. I mean, they seem to want to be unbuckled from it. Okay.

Yeah, we can disqualify them on the clear teachings, but to say, because we can infer from God's word that there were prophecies given in the

New Testament churches, and we don't have them written down. We can't,

God can do anything. It's really easy to use God's word to disprove the charlatans, but I can't.

I myself am a secessionist by bent, but - Uh -huh, I get it.

And this, let me give you a text on this. Little inside baseball, my apologies here. I want you to consider what the

Apostle Paul writes here, and what is he referring to? Now, this is an interesting, there's a reformed guy who wrote a book called

The Signs of the Apostles. It's worth the read. It really is. I think he makes a compelling argument exegetically regarding the need or the ongoing idea that we need prophets today, all right?

And so, here's the historical situation and the didache bears this out, by the way.

The didache does a good job of bearing this out. So, the Apostle Paul shows up in Corinth, and we know that 1

Corinthians is written probably 50 AD, 20 years after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, roughly 20 years.

And he planted the church well before 50 AD. So, it was up and running probably several years prior to this.

Now, all of that being said, when the Apostle Paul writes, if 1 Corinthians is the first book of the

New Testament written, that some scholars argue that it is, I would say that actually seems a little late to me.

I am of the opinion that Luke and Mark were writing a lot earlier than this, and when you read the church fathers, the church fathers say that Matthew wrote first, and he wrote early, and he wrote in Hebrew.

And one of the reasons why we have some weird variance in the Gospel of Matthew in the Greek has to do with the translation of it from Hebrew into Greek.

You know, that's just standard scholarship on the book of Matthew. But all that being said, just work with me here for a second here.

So, Paul plants a church in Corinth. He preaches the Gospel in the synagogue there. Some people believe now they are no longer attending the synagogue.

They are attending a Christian congregation in the city of Corinth. What are they going to hear

Sunday after Sunday after Sunday as far as their preaching and teaching goes?

Is the New Testament finished? Do they have the three -year lectionary or the one? All right?

The New Testament is far from complete. Far from finished. And so, what is going on here?

And you'll note that one of the signs of the apostles is their ability to lay their hands on Christians and for them to receive the charismata.

These are specific gifts of the Holy Spirit for the purpose, and Paul explains this in 1

Corinthians 12, 13, and 14, that these various gifts are given for the purpose of edifying and building up the body of Christ.

And one of those gifts is prophecy. And prophecy has kind of a narrow meaning and it has a wider meaning.

Narrow meaning would be the ability to hear specifically the voice of God and to foretell future events and things like that.

When people think of prophecy, unfortunately oftentimes think of it as something to do with like, you know, somebody who's able to do a tarot card reading or nonsense like that.

But in the broader sense, prophecy is somebody who's been given a direct message from God for the purpose of delivering that message.

A prophet doesn't speak of his own. He is just somebody who's been given a message directly from God and then they convey it and with the authority that this is an actual oracle coming from God.

And you'll note that Peter later in his life writes that we are to believe that the word of God and pastors are to preach the word of God as if they are the very oracles of God.

So in the wider sense then, all pastors today are prophets, and I'm putting that in air quotes.

Okay, I have been given words from God to preach to you. You can read ahead though next, you know, if you want.

You get the idea. In fact, you can kind of take a look at the lecture. It'll tell you which texts I'm preaching on for like the next three years, right?

But you'll note then that I am not preaching my words. I am giving you words from God.

But when a New Testament isn't finished and we do not have the ability to fill out our preaching and teaching with an epistle text or with a gospel text, how is the church to focus then on Christ without a gospel and an epistle text and without the

New Testament being done? Answer. Well, you have the

Old Testament. They had that. But the solution that really seems to be the one that is borne out in Scripture is that God gave, through the apostles and the laying on of their hands, to some people the ability to prophetically foretell the word of God during the church services until the

New Testament was complete. And one of the phenomenon you see happening in the ancient church is with the death of the apostles, you see the disappearing of the charismata, all right?

Most notably, I would point out Polycarp. Polycarp was discipled by the

Apostle John in the city of Ephesus. And when you read the account of his martyrdom, he's martyred in his 80s.

So he's an old man when he's martyred. And in the week before he was arrested, he had a very, very vivid prophetic dream that he was going to be captured and that he would die by being burned to death.

And you say, well, there you have an example, you know, early first century of a prophetic dream.

Yes, but remember who laid his hands on him. John did. He operated in that gift until his death.

But nobody operated in that gift after him. So the great defender of Christianity against the

Gnostics, Irenaeus, he had no charismata that he operated in. He was just extremely skilled in wielding the word of God.

You see the difference here? And so the idea then is in the in -between period then between the planting of these churches and the completion of the

New Testament, you have the operation of these charismata for the purpose of building up and edifying the church, which then drops away with the rise then of the pastoral office and the completion of the

New Testament and the finishing of the canon. So that with the finishing of the canon, Christians moving forward, we all have the exact same word of God from here until the return of Christ.

You see it? And here's kind of our text on this. And it's found in that great text that a lot of people wanna throw into their weddings for some reason, which is weird because we're talking about the use of the gifts of the

Spirit. So if I speak in the tongues of men and angels and I have not love, this is 1 Corinthians 13, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but I have not love,

I'm nothing. If I give away all that I have, if I deliver up my body to be burned, but I have not love,

I gain nothing. Love is patient. It's kind. It does not envy or boast.

It's not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It's not irritable or resentful.

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. Now, pay attention to this part because this is where it gets interesting.

As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the, and now I'm gonna not use the

ESV. When the teleos comes, uh -huh, you could also say the mature.

Yeah. When the complete, when the fullness, when the mature comes, the partial will pass away.

When I, and you'll note, I'm gonna, I'm gonna argue that based upon what comes next,

I think he's arguing about the completion of the New Testament. So when I was a child, I spoke like a child.

I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part. Then I shall be known fully, even as I have been fully known. I think

Paul's making an argument here that it's not the perfect. We're not talking about the return of Christ.

He's talking about when the New Testament is finished. Then we will know fully.

I think that there's a compelling argument, and many scholars, really Christian theologians have believed this to be the case over the millennia, that what's being referred to is the completion of the

New Testament, which then comes back to our text. Let's go back to Revelation.

Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things, and when

I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, and he said to me, you must not do that.

I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book.

Note here, I'm a servant with your brothers and the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book, okay?

I think we're dealing with a bigger body than the actual book of Revelation. So he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.

Let the evildoer still do evil, let the filthy still be filthy, the righteous still do right, the holy still be holy.

But I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, and blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and that they may enter the city by the gates.

Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches.

I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright and the morning star. The spirit and the bride say, come.

And let the one who hears say, come. And let the one who is thirsty, come. Let the one who desires take water of life without price.

Notice the invitation here, this is for all. So I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them,

God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy,

God will take away his share in the tree of life, in the holy city, which are described in this book.

Add to, take away, is that not how every false teacher operates in one way or another?

The ELCA, oh, well, the Bible isn't the word of God, it just contains it. We can ignore what

Paul said regarding the ordination of women because Paul was a hater, he was a misogynist. And then you got the charismatic moving, adding to the word of God constantly, thus saith the

Lord, all right? This is a clear warning. So he who testifies to these things says, surely

I am coming soon, amen. Come, Lord Jesus. He caras tu curio,

Iesu metu panton. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all. He's gonna be here really soon.