Heaven is a Place on Earth

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Dr. Wittmer, Guest Speaker; Heaven is a Place on Earth

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Well, it is good to be back with you and continue this, I guess, segmented series. But as you said, you can catch up on the website or read the book.
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But if you have your outline, we're going to try and cover a lot of ground today. Ideally, I'd like to have time for questions that might arise, but we'll see how the time goes.
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We're going to try and finish up the big story of the Bible. It's really about the Christian worldview, which is really the story that God is telling.
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So the first couple points are a review from last January and April. The first point, just to review, is that the
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Bible has a plot. It opens in Genesis 1 and 2 with creation. Then there's this cataclysmic fall in chapter 3, a fallout of the fall, this downward spiral where the world turns ugly in unimaginable ways.
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Cain kills his brother. The ground is cursed. The whole world is cursed by a flood. Then in Genesis chapter 12,
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God says to Abram, I will bless you, and through you I will bless the world. And so the rest of scripture is about redemption, the restoration of creation.
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So creation, fall, redemption, that is the plot of scripture. And if we learn to see our lives in that story, you'll see why you matter and where you fit in the big picture.
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The last time I was here, we covered the story of creation, and we made a few points about that.
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First, creation is good. Seven times in Genesis 1, God says this world is good. Everything God made is good, with the possible exception of cats.
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You know I'm right about that. We also said that this world is our home.
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Genesis 2 -7, Adam comes from the Adama. Adam means red dirt.
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We are earthlings, for heaven's sake. We are made from the dust. We are made to live on this planet.
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This is where God put us. He wants us to flourish and thrive in our human lives down here, where we belong.
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Last time we looked at, again this is about a year ago, but creation also tells us the meaning of life. Why are we here?
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God put us here to flourish in three created relationships. He wants us to love him, serve each other, sacrificially, unselfishly, and responsibly cultivate the earth in our callings, our vocation.
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We don't just get jobs for the money, although in Michigan that's not a bad thing. Having money, having a job you get paid for, is a blessing from God.
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But your job is more than that. It's a calling, and you serve Jesus by serving others in your calling.
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So that's the review. Any questions? Are we caught up now? That was last. So we laid the foundation of creation, because if you understand creation, then the fall and redemption make sense.
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So let's talk about the fall. A couple points about the fall. Meet me in Genesis chapter 3.
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Let's look at that text. The first thing to say about the fall is that it happened.
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Increasingly today there are a lot of people that say, no, it didn't happen. In fact, there's a couple of Bible profs at a
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Christian college you would know, who last fall published in a journal, and they said, the
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Human Genome Project proves not only that evolution is true, but that there never was a first man.
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At most there was a thousand first humans who evolved out of this android species before them.
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So there was no first man, there was no Adam, there was no Eve, there was no fall. And they say, of course, in Romans chapter 5,
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Paul does think there was a first man, Adam, who is the first Adam, and the second Adam is Jesus, and this first Adam did have a fall, and he's wrong.
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So we have to give up, they said, the inerrancy, the truthfulness of Scripture, because of what science is telling us.
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So that's not just out there, that's in our Christian schools, that people are now saying this.
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And that's very dangerous. Science can help us understand what the
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Bible means, but when you know what the Bible means, you must submit to it. And you can't say,
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Paul's just wrong, Romans 5 is just false. The Bible is from God, it's our authority, and we must stand under it and use that to interpret the
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Human Genome Project and science. But you often hear this, there never was a golden age.
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Genesis 3 is the first sin of man, not the sin of the first man.
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There was no golden age, there was no cataclysmic fall, this world has just always been this way.
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Besides the fact that the Bible tells us there was a fall, a couple problems with that is, if there has been a fall, like the
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Bible says, then we are looking at a broken world. And if you don't realize the world is broken, it's like you've stumbled upon the scene of an accident and don't know you're looking at an accident.
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So you're going to not understand even what you're looking at. And if you think about it, if God didn't make this world good at the start, if the world
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God made had evil and death in it, then can we really trust
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God at the end to set things right? So you've got serious theological problems there.
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So the first point I want to make is that it happened. This world is not the way it's supposed to be.
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Something has gone horribly wrong when Adam and Eve sinned against God. The other thing though, which is important for us, is that it not just happened, but it does still happen today.
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It happens this fall, because I think what happens in Genesis chapter 3 is the root of all of our sin.
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In Genesis 3, you know the story where God made this tree and said, stay away from it, don't eat of it, or you will die.
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The snake comes along and says, no, it's a good tree, it will make you wise. God's just trying to keep you down. Eve, because she had the word of God, should have picked up a stick and beat the snake's head in.
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How dare you imply that God is jealous or afraid of me. But look at verse 6.
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Instead, what did Eve do? She looked at the tree. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.
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I think the root sin here is Eve elevating herself above both
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God and the snake. She had the word from God, but that wasn't good enough. She said, I'll be the judge.
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God, I have your take. Snake, I hear from you. I'll decide. Isn't that where all sin comes from?
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I want to be God. I want to be the judge. I put the theological word there for you in letter
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A. It's autonomy. The word autonomy, it comes from two Greek words, namos, which means law, and auto, which means car.
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No. Actually, auto means self. But it is where we get the word automobile from.
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An automobile is a car you drive by yourself. Whoever came up with that name probably was not married.
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But autonomy means self -law. I am a law unto myself.
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It's like this. I want to do what I want to do because I want to do it. I don't want anyone, even
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God, cramping my style. Isn't that why you sin? That's why I sin. I don't sin because I lack information.
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I don't sin out of ignorance. I don't sin because I'm really not sure what God wants for me here. I know what
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God wants. I just don't trust him. I think, like Eve, that he's trying to keep me down.
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He wants to make my life miserable. And I want to do what I want to do, so I do it.
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All sin, I think, comes from that wanting to play God. For Adam and Eve, it meant eating the fruit.
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For Cain, it meant killing his brother. It's the same sin. You ever notice this?
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You recognize how sinful you are when you're under stress, when you're under pressure, when you feel threatened.
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You will do things you never thought you would even consider doing. Because of sin, you're autonomous.
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We want to play God. We want to do what we want to do. That's where wars come from.
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You ever notice in a war, no one ever says, I started it. Or you have kids. No one ever says, it's me,
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Dad. I did it. Everyone says, I'm just responding to what they did to me. Everyone is in charge.
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Everyone's playing God. We're after Osama bin Laden, right? Because we can't believe what he did to us.
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But if you ask Osama, you can find him, why did you do that? I'm over there. I did what
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I did to you because you guys were over here in the Middle East, where you don't belong. We were in Iraq taking care of Saddam Hussein because he invaded
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Kuwait. If you ask Saddam, I invaded Kuwait because that was mine. That belongs to us. No one, no matter how evil, says, yeah, it's me.
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I'm the bad one. Everyone says, I'm just responding to what happened to me. We all play
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God. That's why God said, don't eat of it. Because when you eat of it, you gain this knowledge of good and evil.
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You understand the concepts of good and evil. But what goes in which category? It depends where you're standing.
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And what's good for me may not be good for you, and so we fight. Isn't that even in our homes?
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Isn't that where all problems arise? I get frustrated. I'm the only one in my home who turns off lights.
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I spend most of my day walking around turning off things. And I don't know why they don't get it, why they can't see it.
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A couple years ago, we put a storm door on our front door. And I didn't realize until we put the storm door on that we live in kind of a windy section,
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I guess, of town. And if we didn't latch the door properly, the wind would catch it, and it would flap, and it would break.
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And after about the sixth time of fixing it, I finally sat my family down and said, all right, apparently, we can't have a storm door.
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I don't know why. We should be able to do it. But this is the sixth time, and you guys don't shut it. It does not latch, and the wind catches it.
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I can't keep fixing it. It's going to just be irreparable. So this is the last chance, people.
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Otherwise, I'm taking it off, and God's just not God's will for us. We can't have it.
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So sure enough, a couple weeks later, it was flapping, and the wind caught it, and it broke.
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And I said, what was going on? My wife, who teaches piano, said, well, it wasn't me. It was a piano student's parent who was coming in and out and didn't latch the door.
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And I said, well, that's your student. That's your parent. That's on you. You have to do that. Well, I'm playing the piano.
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I can't be getting up and down. It wasn't me. It was them. I said, no, but it's you. So we had this big fight over whose fault was it.
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And I'm autonomous, and she's autonomous, and we think it's rightfully the other person's fault. We finally figured it out when the neighbor came over and realized
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I'd put the brackets on backwards. No, I still had a point. But isn't that why we have stress in our lives?
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Because we all want to play God. So the fall, it did happen, but it still happens.
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We all want to play. You hear this today a lot? My God would never. Wait a minute.
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He's not your God. You should belong to him. But when people say, my God would never send someone to hell forever.
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My God would never say homosexual practice is a sin. My God would never say adultery is wrong.
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My God would never try to keep someone from enjoying their life. He's not your
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God. You don't own him. You're not God. He is God, and we submit to him. So sin, that's the very first sin.
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And then letter B describes the fallout from the fall, how sin destroys God's world.
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First, it's intensive. Sin destroys all of me as an image bearer of God.
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And this goes up under creation B. We're here to love God, serve others, cultivate the earth, and now these relationships are broken.
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Instead of loving God, I serve idols. Instead of sacrificially loving my neighbor, I'm selfish.
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Instead of finding joy in my work, I'm lazy, or I just do it for the paycheck. So sin has dehumanized me.
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I'm not the person that God intended me to be. But not just me.
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Sin starts with us as a human race, but like throwing a stone on a pond, sin ripples out until all of creation is broken by the fall.
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Just to kind of go individuals, we now die, Genesis 3 .19 says. But not just us, human society is broken.
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Adam and Eve right away, blame and fight with each other. Cain kills Abel. But not just people are affected, all of creation is broken.
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Romans 8, Paul says, the whole creation has been groaning under the weight of our sin.
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Even the earth, the ground is cursed. I love summers in Michigan, the strawberries, the blueberries, the tomatoes, but I've only ever eaten fruit and vegetables from cursed soil.
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Imagine how good fruit and vegetables will taste, and chocolate, when the curse is lifted, when
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Jesus Christ returns and restores this good world. So our fall, because we are the image bearers of God, our job is to, we're
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God's representatives. He put us here to run this world on his behalf. And when we rebelled against him, we took this whole planet down with us.
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A couple applications before we get to the good parts and turn the page. First, there's a tension here between creation and the fall.
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Do you feel it? Creation, God made this world good. We are in his image. We have inestimable value, but this world has fallen.
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We are sinners. We're created, but we're fallen. We're fallen, but we're still created.
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So not long ago I was teaching about the gospel in a setting, and one fellow came up afterwards, and he was a youth pastor, and said,
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I could never say what you said to my youth group, that they're sinners, because if I did, they would just hear that they suck.
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And I said, wow, so if you can't talk about sin, how in the world can you talk about Jesus?
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Because Jesus didn't come to save people from low self -esteem. He came, the angel said, to save his people from their sin.
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If you can't talk about sin, you can't talk about the gospel. And I said, think about it. Why are you defining sin in terms of self -esteem?
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They'll feel like they're of no value, like they stink. Actually, if anything, our sin means that we have value.
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If we didn't matter to God, God wouldn't care that we're sinners. There's an old hymn we used to sing, that Jesus died for such a worm as I.
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We've now changed it rightly to sinners such as I. Because we're not worms, right? You've never lectured a worm for disappointing you.
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Stay on the hook. How dare you? No, it's a worm. You don't expect much from it.
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But our sin matters so much to God, he died to win us back.
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So if anything, if you want to talk about self -esteem, if anything, talking about sin is a backhanded compliment.
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It's telling us that you matter, you have value, because God takes your sin so seriously.
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But here's the point. Sin is not about self -esteem. Creation. We have great value because we're human.
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We're made in God's image. Sin is about the fall. It's about rebellion. We are rebels.
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We don't stink. We're rebels. We're rebellious people that matter a lot to God.
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So we always must balance this tension of we're created, of high value, but we're rebels. We're rebellious, but we still are human.
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We matter to God. A second application is if the fall has broken us and everything else in this world, we really shouldn't celebrate it.
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Any sin would fit here, but let me just give you an example. When I was growing up in a conservative Baptist setting,
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I remember that we weren't allowed to go to movies. Couldn't go to a theater.
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Now, we knew it was hypocritical, because we could stay at home and watch them on our VCRs. A VCR is like a box.
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Forget it. But you could watch them at home, but you couldn't go to a theater.
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Well, now, praise God, that legalism is lifted, and now we can go to movies. Yay, we're free in Christ.
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And that's okay. You can't go watch a movie. But I've seen the pendulum go the other extreme now, and good
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Christians in our churches, there's nothing they won't watch. What is wrong with that?
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You're paying money to be entertained. When you go to a movie, it's usually for entertainment. You're entertaining yourself with sin.
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How wrong is that? How messed up is that? So, we need to remind ourselves, sin is not our friend.
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Sin is our enemy. Sin is the reason we die. Sin is why someday you and I will lose everything and everyone we ever loved or cared about.
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Someday we will all die alone, and our loved ones will be gone, because of sin.
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So, we should be angry with sin. We should fight it. We should be angry with ourselves for doing it.
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Every time we sin, we're ratifying the fall. We're saying, yeah, I like that.
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Give me some more of that. That's where it's at. That's, first of all, stupid. Have you noticed that sin is stupid?
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Take Tiger Woods, for example. Not only was what he did was incredibly wrong, incredibly dumb.
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It was worth it? You've got to be kidding me. I have friends who are breaking up their marriages.
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I heard another one just this week, a former student who spent 12 years getting a
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PhD in theology, had a job teaching, and now he's getting a divorce because he had an affair.
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I'm mad at him. I want to just go punch him in the nose. But I'm also saying, how stupid.
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You work your whole life for something, and you throw it away? For what? Sin is irrational.
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Sin is evil. Evil is irrational. So, we should hate it.
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We should fight it. We should hate it in ourselves. Sin is not our friend. The good news, on the back, is redemption.
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If you put yourself in God's shoes, ask yourself, what is your next move? If Adam and Eve rebelled against you, and they broke all this creation, what's your plan?
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You're going to get it back. You're not going to say, well, that was a good run. Hey, we had a few months there anyway, and it was good.
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Wow, what a mess. I'm just going to blow it up and throw it someplace else. Think about it.
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If God did that, wouldn't he be conceding something to Satan? Satan, wow, you really got to my world.
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You messed it up so bad, even I can't get it back. Fine, you can just keep it. I can't imagine
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God ever conceding anything to the devil. Satan wins nothing in the end. Remember from a year ago, redemption is the restoration of creation.
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And God's plan is to restore everything that sin broke. So, quickly, we'll start with us, intensive.
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Grace restores all of me. If you remember, under creation, we are human.
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Under redemption, we are Christian. If redemption restores creation, then the whole point of being a
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Christian, the whole point of following Jesus Christ, is to become a more flourishing human being. Being a
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Christian should restore our humanity. Nobody should flourish like us who know
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Jesus Christ. So, instead of serving idols, we now acknowledge that Christ is
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Lord. We now deny ourselves and eagerly serve our neighbors. We find joy in our work.
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Colossians 3, we mentioned this last time, Paul says, do your work with all your might, as for the
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Lord. You're not just working for your employer now, and not just for the paycheck. Those are important.
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But you have a higher calling if you're a Christian. You are serving Jesus in your job.
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So, grace restores all of me, but not just all of me. Again, like a ripple going out into a pond, grace starts with me, but God aims to restore everything that sin broke.
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A couple of verses that just say that, under letter B, Acts 3 .21. Peter says, in Acts 3 .21,
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Jesus must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything.
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God will restore everything. Paul says something similar in Colossians 1 .20.
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Colossians 1 .20. Through Jesus, God will reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.
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Ephesians 1 .10, another passage. Everything will be restored. And I just put on your handout representative verses that would go with each one.
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Individuals, 2 Corinthians 5 .17. If you're in Christ, you're a new creation. The old has gone.
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The new has come. A society, Ephesians 4. The church. We should be a foreshadowing of the future.
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When people look at recasts, they should say something like that. When Christ returns, the entire world is going to be full of shalom and love and service and friendship, like that church is today.
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The church is God's putting his flag in the ground for how the whole world will be when he returns.
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And not just people, but also creation will be restored. Isaiah chapter 65, verse 25.
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And Isaiah chapter 65 and verse 17, he describes the new heaven and the new earth.
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And in verse 25, he says the wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat straw like the ox.
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So there will be animals on this new earth, and they won't be eating each other anymore. I guess the lion's like a big cat, so cats are fine.
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But there will be animals on the new earth. Remember when you were a kid and your puppy died, and you asked your mom and dad if your puppy's in heaven?
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And if they were honest, they would say, well, no. Why would they say no? Because it doesn't have a soul.
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Right? Yeah, how do you know it doesn't have a soul? Is that even relevant?
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Is having a soul or not having a soul, does that even matter? Here's the point. We tend to think, like Plato, that we have a body, which is physical and from creation, but our soul is eternal.
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Our soul is like this divine part within us which could never die. But that's not true.
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God made your body and your soul from nothing. Your soul is not eternal.
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My soul did not exist until 1966 when I was first conceived.
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My soul is part of creation just as much as my body is. The God who made my body and soul from nothing could take them back to nothing again if he chose to.
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I don't have to live forever. It's not like I'm indestructible. Even God can't take me out. I know
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I will live forever because I have God's promise. I have God's word that I will live forever.
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The point is, having a soul or not having a soul, it's neither here nor there. It doesn't make a difference.
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There will be animals on the new earth. Maybe one that looks like the puppy you lost.
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I don't know. But there will be representative animals and species on the new earth. Lions and lambs will lie down together.
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Look at Jonah chapter 4 if you can find it. It's right before Micah. Not for Micah.
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Look at the minor prophets and just kind of look around and see if you can find it. It's after Obadiah.
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If that helps. I marked it myself so I wouldn't be fumbling. You know the story of Jonah, right?
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He goes and Nineveh repents and now he's upset about it. There's this plant that grows up and gives him shade and he's happy and a worm comes and eats the plant and now he's mad again.
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God comes at the end of Jonah and says, why are you upset about this plant?
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You didn't make it grow. He says the very last verse of Jonah chapter 4 .11
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Nineveh has more than 120 ,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and many cattle as well.
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Should I not be concerned about that great city? Okay, I get it. There's 120 ,000 people in Nineveh.
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Absolutely. But really? The cows? Why is that a reason?
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Now, please don't misunderstand. We as human beings alone are in the image of God.
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We matter almost infinitely more than animals. There's no kind of equivalency here at all.
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But God loves us more than animals because we're in his image but it doesn't mean he doesn't care about animals at all.
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Noah's Ark, if Noah's Ark proves anything it's that God cares about animals. God cares about his creation.
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And he says in Proverbs that a righteous man cares for the needs of his animals. So redemption is aimed at us as human beings but it also has implications for animals.
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On the new earth Isaiah 55 .25 they'll live in harmony and peace. They won't be eating each other anymore.
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And the cows in Nineveh should have had a better life because their guardians were now followers of Yahweh.
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Again, it's not the same but it does matter. Take it up with God. It's in there.
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I didn't put it in there. Growing up Baptist I didn't understand that but now I think, okay they don't matter as much as us but they still matter.
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So the point is, even animals will be redeemed. And then the earth itself. Look at 2 Peter 3. This is the key text about the new earth.
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2 Peter 3 starting in verse 10
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Peter says the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar.
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The elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Anybody have a
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King James version? The King James ends verse 10 by saying the earth and everything in it will be burned up.
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Now the King James is a wonderful translation. This is the year we celebrate the 400th anniversary of the
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King James this year. We should have a throwback Sunday like we do in the NFL and bring out the King James and bring out the organ and wear suits and ties.
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Throwback Sunday. Wouldn't that be great? But the King James is a great translation. In fact, my wife said she wanted to buy one just recently because that's the translation she grew up with and memorized her verses in it.
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And I said, well honey, let's not buy one. Next time we're at a hotel, we'll just take the Gideon. Which is what they want.
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That's why they put it there. So it's a good translation. We now know though, because we have more reliable Greek manuscripts than they had in 1611 that the
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Greek word there at the end of verse 10 is really from the Greek word jiriska which means to be found, to be discovered.
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So that's why my NIV translates it the earth will be laid bare rather than burned up.
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But you understand why 400 years of English speaking Christians, when they read their
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Bibles they thought their Bibles were telling them the earth is going to be annihilated.
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So I grew up hearing there are two things that last forever. The word of God and souls. Everything else is going to burn.
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So don't worry about it. Don't care about it. It's all going to burn up anyway. We're like on the
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Titanic. You don't polish the brass on the sinking ship. Just the word of God and souls.
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Now again, the word of God and souls are most important. Absolutely. But it's just not true.
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I think that everything is going to burn up. There is a fire that's coming. So here's our question.
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This fire which is coming, is it an annihilating fire which is going to burn up everything?
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Or is it a purging fire? Like a smelting furnace where whatever is here will pass through this fire and the good that's there remains and the evil is burned away.
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There's reason to think it's a smelting furnace fire. If you look up at verse 6,
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Peter says, talking about Noah's flood, by these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.
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So Noah's flood destroyed the world and there's a coming fire which will destroy the world.
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Now think about it. Noah's flood did not annihilate the world. It cleansed the world. It washed the sin and sinners away.
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And if that's Peter's point of comparison then the coming fire may very well be a purging fire.
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Not annihilating everything, but just cleansing it. All the evil and the impurities are sloughed off.
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In 1 Peter 1 .7, he does use a smelting furnace analogy, talking about trials. He says, 1
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Peter 1 .7, these trials have come such are faith of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire may prove genuine.
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So my point is there's reason to think this coming fire is a purging fire. That not everything will necessarily be annihilated.
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Now I do grant in 2 Peter 3, verse 10 there's some pretty graphic intense imagery here.
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Heavens disappear with a roar. The elements are destroyed by fire. It's pretty intense. So actually
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I think it's a moot point. This coming fire I think for the reasons
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I gave it's a purging fire. But worst case scenario, it still doesn't change anything.
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We know God made this world good creation. We know he's going to restore it in the new creation.
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How we get from A to B, I think it's a purging fire. But even if it's an annihilating fire, it doesn't matter really because the same
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God who made this world from nothing can certainly recreate the same world again from nothing.
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He's going to have to do that anyway with a lot of people. The apostle Paul, I don't think there's anything left of him.
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He has completely decayed. He's gone. And yet the resurrection Paul will still be Paul.
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So God made Paul from nothing and he will have to recreate him from nothing again. If God can do that with people, he can certainly do that with the whole cosmos.
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The point is the new creation has got to be a lot like this one or we don't have redemption.
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If the future you, if the resurrection you is too different from the current you, it's not you.
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There has to be some continuity between the current you and the future you. Between this world and the future world.
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So if you look on the handout, this is the question under 4B. We are looking forward to a new earth.
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And just to give you the verses that say new earth. Isaiah 65, 17. Isaiah says there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
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We just saw in 2 Peter 3. Actually 2 Peter 3, 13.
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We're looking for a new heaven and a new earth. And also Revelation 21. 1 -3. John says there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
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So Isaiah 65, 17, 2 Peter 3, 13, Revelation 21, 1 -3.
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Three times we're told there's a new heaven and a new earth. New creation.
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When they say heaven, they don't mean heaven, the abode of God. They mean the sky. Firmament.
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King James language. So in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The sky where airplanes fly and the terra firma.
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And in the end, he recreates, restores. There will be a new heaven and new earth. So here's our question.
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New implies change. Something's different about the new earth. Earth implies something's still the same.
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So what's new and what's still the same? We find a clue in 2 Peter 3, 13.
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Peter says in keeping with his promise, we're looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
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What stands out in Peter's mind as new? What's new about the new world? Righteousness. If you remember from a year ago, we talked about the difference between words.
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The same word can be used as a thing or as an action. Like a rock can be a thing or rock can be, we got rocked by Ohio State because they're the number one team in the country.
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I'm from Ohio, so sorry. So the same word, rock, can be a thing or an action. Righteousness is an action word, right?
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Righteousness isn't about a thing, it's about actions. So this is significant. What Peter sees as new about the new earth is an action word.
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Unlike this world, which is fallen, the new world seems to be this world that's fixed.
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This world with all the sin removed. And we talk that way, right? When I was a poor seminary student,
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I had an 83 escorts that kept breaking down. In fact, at one point, actually the passenger door fell clean off.
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I had to tie a rope just to keep it on. And man, Michigan girls are just so incredibly vain.
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And it was so hard to get dates. But I'd often come as poor, single, undateable, seminary student coming home from the mechanic, and I would think, oh, good, it started.
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It's like I've got a new car. But what I meant by that is the same old Peter I always had. And I'm going home to have macaroni and cheese like I always do.
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But it was fixed. Or middle of February, today won't work, but about this time we just have cloudy day after cloudy day after cloudy day.
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And then a minor miracle happens in the end of February. You get a little bit of sun like this. And you start whistling, it's a small world after all.
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And you're skipping. I'm like a new person! What do you mean by that? You're the same new you've always been. But you're fixed.
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You feel better. And so new doesn't have to mean brand new things. Look at Revelation 21.
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Revelation 21 verse 5.
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Revelation 21 .5. He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new.
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Notice he does not say, I am making new everything. See the difference?
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God doesn't say, I'm making new everything. I'm making everything new.
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I'm fixing it. I'm restoring it. And again, think with me. Things are not our problem.
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Creation is good. The things are not what God has to get rid of. Redemption is aimed at creation.
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It's aimed at restoring those things. What has to go is the fall. What has to go is sin, not the good things.
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Grace restores nature. Redemption restores creation. It's not trying to get rid of it.
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I think what's new about the new world is, unlike this world, which is a fallen world, the new world is this world but fixed.
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In fact, if you look in the New Testament, the Greek word for world is cosmos.
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We're never told there's going to be a new cosmos. We're never told there's going to be a new world.
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We have one world, one cosmos in the New Testament. But this one cosmos has more than one ion, or age.
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Remember Jesus said, if you think of the Holy Spirit, that sin will not be forgiven, not in this age, nor in the age to come.
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We've got one world with a fallen age and a future restoration age.
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So this cartoonish character with his old man with a sign saying, the end of the world is near. The Bible never says that.
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The world doesn't end. This age will end as God restores this world.
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Further support for this in your handout, Luke 24. I think we mentioned this before when I was here. But Jesus Christ is the first fruits of our resurrection.
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He's the model of what our resurrection bodies will be like. Now I know he could also walk through walls, but he was
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God. He could do things we couldn't do because he's God. Remember they were going to come off a cliff. He just disappeared into their midst.
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So we can't do everything he can do, but the human part is not right either.
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The human aspect of Jesus, because he's fully God and fully human, the human aspect of Jesus is the model for us.
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He's the first fruits of our resurrection. And in Luke 24, Jesus went out of his way to say, look,
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I'm still human. Touch me. I'm not a ghost. I've got flesh and blood. Okay, watch.
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I'll eat fish. Can a ghost eat? Look, I'm chewing. So Jesus' resurrection body was still fully physical.
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And so we can expect our resurrection bodies to be completely physical. So here's the rule of thumb, number three.
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Again, we have more questions than answers, but here's the rule of thumb. If something belongs to creation,
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I think you can expect it to be here because it's what God is going to restore. If something is part of the fall, that's what's going to be gone.
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So on the new earth, I would not be surprised if there's still a Lake Michigan. That's part of God's good creation.
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Ann Arbor will be gone because that's the fall. Columbus represents redemption, so that will be here.
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The new Jerusalem. Are you slackers? But we can expect the world to look...
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Again, there may be differences. I'm not saying there won't be differences, but if this world is too different, if it's unrecognizable where are we?
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What planet are we on? Well, then we don't have redemption, do we? We have something else. We have
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God saying, I've got to start over, and now Satan wins something. So, rule of thumb,
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I'll just give you this, you can look this up later, we don't have time, but one example of things which will still be here are cultural activities.
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Revelation 21, verses 24 to 26, you can look up later where John says, the gates of the city will never be shut, but kings will bring their glory in and out of it.
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The gates of the city being open is a symbol of commerce, or trade. Trade is a good part of creation.
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Now, it's hard for us to in the last couple of years, we've seen the bad sides of trade, but that's because of the fall.
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We saw how everything good can go wrong, but in a perfect world, if I make something and you make something, you want to say, well, let's swap.
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So there will be commerce, business, apparently, on the new earth. In fact, later look at Isaiah chapter 60, verse 11, because Isaiah 60, 11, is the exact verse that John is quoting in Revelation 21.
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This new Jerusalem with gates that are never shut. If you look around Isaiah chapter 60, especially verses 3 through 11, you find gold and silver being brought on ships to Jerusalem.
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You see flocks of Kedar, rams of Neboah. Isaiah clearly sees animals and gold and silver on the new earth.
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Business, commerce. Isaiah 65, 21, in Isaiah's passage of the new heaven, new earth,
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Isaiah 65, 21, Isaiah says, on this new earth, people will build houses and live in them.
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They will plant vineyards and eat their non -alcoholic fruit. My Baptist translation.
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There will be wine in buildings. It will be human. It will be fully human on the new earth.
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Culture is part of this, what we're looking forward to. There are only a couple exceptions that I know of which prove the rule.
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First, there's one good of creation, which apparently won't be here on the new earth, and that would be marriage.
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In Matthew 22, that trick question they ask Jesus' woman. She had eight husbands and they kept dying.
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Who would she be married to in the end? He said, you don't understand, it will be marriage in the end. We won't be giving in marriage.
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A couple reasons for that, I think, is because of the fall, people divorce and they die, and so spouses remarry.
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God can't put one marriage back together without violating another. The fall has so scrambled marriage that marriage is not going to be here on the new earth.
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Elizabeth Elliot, no fault of her own. Her husband, she's on her third or fourth husband.
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Would she be married to Jim Elliot? That would compromise another marriage. Even death can so scramble marriage, even
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God can't put one back together without hurting another one. It seems like marriage is the only good
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I know of creation, which won't be here on the new earth. But actually, it will be, because in Ephesians 5, verse 32,
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Paul says, marriage as we know it now, is really just a shadow of the real deeper meaning.
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We'll all be married to Christ. We'll be the bride of Christ and be married to him. And then, two exceptions with the fall, which will not be fixed.
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Isaiah 65, 25, when the lion lies down with the lamb, Isaiah says, dust will be the serpent's food.
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The snake was cursed in Genesis 3, and that curse will never be lifted. And then,
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Jesus still bears his scars. So the two effects of the fall, the cursed snake and the scars of Christ, will always be here.
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I think so that when we're on the new earth, for after thousands of years, every time we see a snake, we'll remember our sin.
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And every time we see Jesus, we'll remember his sacrifice. The gospel will always be presented before us. So that's creation, fall, redemption.
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And the point is, our Christian hope is for the resurrection of our bodies, and for the new heavens and the new earth.
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So it's a tremendous comfort when our loved ones in Christ die and go to heaven to be with Jesus.
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But we must remember that's not the end of the story. We want something, and wait for something even more.
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In Revelation chapter 6, the martyred saints in heaven are right now praying out to God, how long, oh
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Lord, how long until you come back. So the end of the story is the new heaven, new earth.
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So the point is, if you follow Jesus, if you repent of your sin, and turn from the sin which has dehumanized you, and follow
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Jesus, your future is to live with Jesus forever here, on a restored earth.
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If you like being human, and you like being alive, you really should be a Christian. And hell is awful because it's hell, and hell is also awful because you never achieved what you were meant to be.
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You are not part of the new creation. Let me end with consummation. There's one more aspect of redemption.
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The point is, creation for redemption, that's easy to say, it's true. But the point is,
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God doesn't just restore creation, he consummates it. He takes it to a higher place.
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The consummation is, when we think of it as redemption plus. The end of the story is better than the beginning of the story, in at least five ways.
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First, the letter B, a couple of them. On the new earth, we will have the higher development of culture.
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You notice the Bible starts in a garden, it ends in a city. What's the difference between a garden and a city?
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Culture. Now think Europeans, don't think American cities. Think Paris, think cobblestone streets and the best of culture.
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And even the new Jerusalem has a river of life going through it, and a tree of life, and nature is there. But the point is, culture matters.
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When Jesus Christ returns, he will not take out a giant eraser and say, wow, 6 ,000 years of human history, impressive.
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Back to the garden, start over. It seems like we will enter the new earth at whatever cultural level we have achieved.
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So if Christ came back today, we may enter the new earth with iPads. Not AT &T, but iPads.
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But whatever culture we have developed, that will make it into the new earth, and then we'll just keep going. So imagine on the new earth, when you have
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Bach, Michelangelo, very artistic people who have forever to write music and paint things and draw without the handicap of sin.
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Imagine how wonderful the music will be and the art will be on the new earth. It will never end.
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Another better is Immanuel. In the garden,
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God came down and walked with Adam and left, walked and left. On the new earth, in Revelation 21 1 -3, we read
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God will be here. He will, the dwelling of God, John says, is now with us.
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Immanuel, God with us. That's better. God will be here permanently. Again, it shows how much
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God's committed to our world. This world's good enough for Him. He will live here forever. 1
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Corinthians 15 says we'll have spiritual bodies. Now that doesn't mean non -physical because Jesus' resurrection body is very material.
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Our best guess of what that means is our bodies will be animated by the spirit of God as opposed to just the fallen soul that can die.
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They'll be given a derived immortality. A spiritual body, God will not let it die because His spirit will animate it.
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Unlike now with our bodies that you go a few days without food and water and you start to break down, on the new earth you'll be able to eat from the tree of life and enjoy it, but you won't have to eat to survive.
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You won't be able to hurt yourself. I'm afraid of heights and I'm going to try hang gliding, but I'm going to say that to the new earth when
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I know that I won't be able to hurt myself. Another better is the inability to sin.
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Augustine says in the garden Adam and Eve were made in righteousness, but they were able to sin. In the new earth, we will not be able to sin.
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That's a better. Adam could not have the certainty that it would always stay this way because he did break it.
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But imagine on the new earth when you're with Christ and you're here and you have forever to enjoy being human and fully alive and worship
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Jesus, and you also know you can never mess this up. God will not let you fall. Just the peace of mind that comes with that.
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And then one more, the last, 1 Peter 1 .12, Peter says there are some things that angels stand on tiptoe, trying to make sense of.
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There's one better, which is better not despite the fall, but because of it. Only sinners, only rebels who have been forgiven understand grace.
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Not comprehend it, but understand it. An unfallen angel who never had to receive forgiveness doesn't know
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God like you and I know God. We know God's love and grace and mercy in a way they could never begin to understand.
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So we will understand God better on the new earth than Adam could have, because only when you've rebelled and been forgiven do you understand how deep
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God's love is for you. So that's a very quick summary, but it's exciting, right?
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It's something, wow, what a great privilege to be a Christian. We are fully human and fully alive, looking for the return of Christ.
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It also makes you excited for the return of Christ. When Christ returns, this kicks in.
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Remember when I was a kid, don't come back yet Jesus, I want to get married. Don't come back yet,
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I want to have children. What was I thinking, right? Grandchildren, yeah, that's better.
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But it's always, wait, I want to try this, I want to do this. But if you understand, Jesus isn't coming to take your world away.
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He's not coming to rob you of your humanity. He's coming to restore it all.
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If you really like being human, and you really like creation, you would want Him to come back.
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Because the minute He does, it's all better right then. Anyone have a, really quick, but any questions that triggered, or what's the rule of thumb, or what's new, or what's not new, or a lot of questions
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I know we have. Any easy ones? Yes.
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When people die, we're told four times that they go to heaven to be with Jesus.
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If they're a follower of Christ, they go to heaven to be with Jesus. We don't know what they're doing there, because Scripture doesn't tell us.
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We know they're with Jesus, and that's enough, because Jesus is what makes heaven heaven anyway.
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So sometimes we sing at funerals, we sing songs about their walking on streets, and fishing at hands, finding at God's, and it's all...
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I would just say we don't know. We just don't know what they're doing. Revelation 6 does indicate that they're praying how long.
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So that tells me that we tend to think of going to heaven as one long vacation. My work on earth is done, and now
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I'm resting. But Revelation 6 implies we're still working in heaven.
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Remember the game last week when Jay Cutler tweaked his knee?
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He got flack because he was just sitting on the bench like he didn't really care. So you're injured, you can't play in the game, but at least cheer on the quarterback who's in there for you.
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Well, when we die, we're no longer in the game. We're on the sideline, but we're still involved.
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We're cheering, Hebrews 12 says. We're now part of the great cloud of witnesses cheering on those who are still competing, and we're praying for them.
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So I think we can say that our loved ones in Christ who are in heaven are praying for us now. So we're not playing in the game, but we're still a part of it.
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But we know we're with Jesus, and that's Jesus and praying. Do I believe we're approaching the end of the days because of what's happening?
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Certainly could be. I'm always hesitant to make statements because I've studied church history, and ever since Christ ascended into heaven, every generation has had really good reason to think this is the end.
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For the early church, they were being persecuted. For the Lutheran Reformation, it was the
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Muslim Turks at Vienna. They're outside the door of Europe. We can't last much longer. In the
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Middle Ages, they had a few famines. Look, the earth is just old. The soil is wearing out.
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The world just can't last much longer. And now it seems like with the internet and the global village and stuff going on in Egypt, it seems like we can't go on much longer.
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So I feel that, and I think that, but I just know we've always had good reason to think that.
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So I think Christ's return is imminent. It could happen today. But I would
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I think we'd just get into trouble if we say, start making predictions. So I would say whether, no matter what's happening, it could happen this minute.
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And just leave it at that. Because we'll always have, and we've always had, very good reasons to think, in my lifetime.
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And some generation will be correct. I just hope it's not
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Jack Van Impey. Because when I was a kid growing up, he kept making predictions and they were always wrong. He'd just make new ones.
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And by the fifth time, just say, you know, don't trust me. Right.
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Oh, that's an easy one. The question about the inability to sin, will that violate your free will? Every Christian says on the new earth, as part of glorification, we won't sin anymore.
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Because if you sin, you start this whole process all over again. And yet, we think we'll be truly free, even more free.
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A freedom like a train. A train is only free if it's on the tracks. If a train said, you know what,
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I feel restricted. I feel confined. I want choice. And starts to go across a field, it'll just bog down and won't function like a train.
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A train is most free when it is on the tracks. So on the new earth, we will still have choice, but God, because he's
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God, in a way I can't understand because I'm not, can allow me choice and yet guarantee
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I'll make only right choices. So I believe a sovereign God in a mysterious way can give me full, free human choice and still guarantee what
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I choose. I think we have examples in scripture, like with Job.
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People who stole Job's herd freely chose to do that and yet God was behind that.
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It was part of, and Satan Satan was behind it and God was even it was his idea that they do that.
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If you read Acts Acts 2 .23 Peter says, speaking of Jesus' death, why did
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Jesus die? He says, this man was handed over by the foreknowledge of God and you did it.
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You nailed him to the cross with wicked hands. So in Acts 2 .23 you have in one verse both
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God's divine sovereignty and full, robust human freedom for the same act of the crucifixion of Christ.
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Because we are creatures we can't understand how he can do it but I think scripture is clear that he does it.
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One easy one. Yeah, the thousand year period is called the millennium.
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I focus on the end of the new heaven, new earth. There's difference of opinion among Christians whether right before, it's called the golden age of the new heaven, new earth, will there be a silver age, a thousand year period, a millennium right before that.
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If there's a millennium, then there's also a question of right before that, is there a seven year period called the tribulation with a rapture.
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I believe in a rapture and a tribulation and a thousand year millennium because I think
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God made some promises to Israel as a nation he will fulfill during that thousand year period. That's called the premillennial view and that's probably what many of you come from as well.
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And that's very defensible. Other Christians would, like reformed Christians, or Lutherans, they know
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Christ comes back and just goes right to new heaven, new earth. I would say right before that there is a thousand year period of millennium.
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But I realize that brothers and sisters in Christ disagree and that's fine. We only hear about the millennium in the next to last chapter of the
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Bible. Right before the end. By the way, it's going to be a thousand year period. It's in there and I believe it.
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But it's not as crucial as the new heaven, new earth. Right, but Christ will be here on the earth.
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That's why it's called the silver age. It's markedly better than the present age but it's not as good as the new heaven, new earth.
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So Christ will be here and it will be reigning and ruling and yet, at the end of a thousand years, Satan will be released and find people to rebel against the reign of Christ.
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Which shows, again, human autonomy. Even when you see
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Jesus and you're living under his reign for a thousand years, we still want to play God. And Satan can find people that will rebel with him.
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So I think that gets into a lot of... It's very interesting. We have more questions than answers.
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But the main thing is the goal that all Christians should agree on is Christ is returning and he will make all things new.
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Not new things, but everything will be restored. Father, thank you for your love for us.
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Thank you for not leaving us in our sin. We want to repent of that again and recognize that that's just stupid and wrong and it's not our friend.
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We pray that we won't nurse grudges, we won't entertain ourselves with the fall, but we will recommit ourselves to be pure children of you.
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And I pray that we catch the excitement of this cosmic gospel and that we would share it with our friends and family members who don't know you and they're lost.
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And we want them to be with us forever here on a new earth praising you, loving each other, and enjoying being human, living forever in your good world.