The New Heavens and the New Earth Part 1

The point: Deliberately, consciously, and continually discipline the focus of your minds, setting them on things above.

Martin describes feeling oppressed by the weight of the chapter (likely Revelation 6, given the context of the sixth seal in paragraph 12) and the knowledge that 'horsemen ride throughout the earth' while the congregation is in comfort, referring to death and famine experienced by brothers and sisters globally. This illustrates the present suffering in the world and the need for detachment from earthly comforts.

That we are dust. And Father, You know that my own mind and spirit feel so oppressed by the weight of this chapter that we have read, and the knowledge that those horsemen ride throughout the earth while we sit in comfort and in ease. We have brothers and sisters staring. That horseman.

2:09 - 2:39 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds Romans 8:19-22, personifying creation as eagerly awaiting the 'revealing of the sons of God' (believers' glorification). He explains that creation was subjected to…

Paul's use of 'earnest expectation' for creation is compared to a parent at an airport, stretching their neck to catch a glimpse of a son or daughter returning from a dangerous tour of duty. This vividly illustrates creation's eager anticipation for the 'revealing of the sons of God'.

He says for the earnest expectation of the creation. And the word he uses for earnest expectation waiting is the word you would use to describe that man who's gone to the airport to meet his son or daughter who's been away in a dangerous setting, perhaps a son who's been in Iraq and done his tour of duty and God has spared him. And he longs to see him and he goes to the airport and he knows the place where that particular flight will have its passengers come through and he's standing in the milling crowd and stretching out his neck to catch a glimpse of his son. Paul says the created order it ...

28:40 - 30:10 Read in full sermon

Driving home: These are not death groans and death pains but they're birth groans and birth pains and all of the indications when we hear of a tsunami the result of a deep sea volcanic action that forced out those walls of water and w…

The groaning and travailing of creation are likened to a birthing mother's pains, not death pains. This illustrates that natural disasters like tsunamis, volcanic action, and unusual weather are indications of the world in 'birth pangs,' leading to regeneration, not ultimate destruction.

shall be liberated not annihilated and replaced but purified renovated regenerated is the very term Jesus uses in Matthew 19 when the son of man comes in the regeneration speaking not of the individual regeneration of the believer but of the entire cosmos and then if you ask the question what is the indication the tangible indication that all of this is true verse 22 for we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now that's the language of a birthing mother she groans and travails and all the commentators without exception that I checked on this passage quote Ca...

41:56 - 43:24 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin quotes an author who summarizes that the day of the Lord will be a cosmic judgment affecting the entire creation, purging and purifying it from the contamination of human…

Martin quotes an unnamed author who summarizes the cosmic judgment affecting the entire creation, purging it from human sin's consequences. This reinforces the idea that human rebellion has consequences for the entire universe and that God's drastic action is necessary.

It will not just affect the human race but the entire creation. Just as creation was contaminated by the consequences of human sin, so it will be purged and purified by God's supreme act of judgment. All this reminds us that our rebellion has consequences for the world and universe of which we are a part. Just as human recklessness and greed lie behind the countless ecological disasters affecting the planet and even the growing pollution of space itself, so too in a more sinister way the sin that is bound up with that recklessness and greed touches the outer reaches of the universe in ways we ...

63:42 - 64:53 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin quotes an author who summarizes that the day of the Lord will be a cosmic judgment affecting the entire creation, purging and purifying it from the contamination of human…

The author's analogy of a landlord repossessing a property leased to unscrupulous tenants and undertaking a major clean-up operation is used to illustrate God's action in setting His house (the world) in order after humanity has spoiled it. This conveys God's intention to restore His good creation.

When a landlord comes to repossess a property that has been leased to unscrupulous tenants, he has a major clean-up operation on his hands to restore it to its original condition. The same will happen when our tenancy in our God-given home expires. God has not abandoned His good intentions for a world that He made well and pronounced very good, even though we, His tenants, have spoiled it. God is going to come and set His house in order.

64:53 - 65:27 Read in full sermon