What He Will Do with Heaven and Earth, Part 1

Driving home: When true and mature believers confront the over-emphasis upon, or the distortion of a specific truth of scripture their natural tendency is to shy away from that truth altogether or worse yet to construct another distor…

The analogy of a pendulum is used to explain how people tend to overcorrect or distort truth, moving from one extreme to another rather than staying centered.

Amen. Amen. When true and mature believers confront the over-emphasis upon, or the distortion of a specific truth of scripture their natural tendency is to shy away from that truth altogether or worse yet to construct another distortion as a corrective to the distortion of that truth which they perceive in others. One reflective man has very helpfully said that the pendulum moves swiftest through the center of its arc and is stationary at both extremes. Now, you don't need to be a profound philosopher to validate that. Just go look at a clock with a pendulum. It is stationary when its arc move...

4:32 - 5:34 Read in full sermon

Driving home: When true and mature believers confront the over-emphasis upon, or the distortion of a specific truth of scripture their natural tendency is to shy away from that truth altogether or worse yet to construct another distor…

The analogy of a pie with major slices is used to represent the various events clustered around the return of Christ, helping to organize the sermon series' topics.

Secondly, as to the place, of His coming in redemptive history, it is both central and climactic. It is the next great event in redemptive history, and clustered around it will be everything that winds up history as we know it, and ushers in the eternal state. Thirdly, as to the time of His coming, for us the people of God, and for God's people in every age, it is always, imminent, it is at hand, it is indefinite, and it is unknowable. And then fourthly, as to the events connected with His coming, they are clearly revealed and manifold. And that's where we've parked now for a number of weeks. ...

9:30 - 10:51 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin describes the original creation as orderly, harmonious, and 'very good,' reflecting God's wisdom and love, and perfectly suited for Adam and Eve to fulfill their mandate…

Martin imagines quoting Genesis 1:1 to a convocation of scientists, highlighting the disarming simplicity and dogmatism of Scripture in contrast to human intellectual pride.

The opening words of our Bibles, are uncomplicated, straightforward, and utterly disarming by their artless simplicity, and by their unashamed dogmatism. Can you imagine calling together a convocation of the world's greatest astrophysicists, and biologists, and paleontologists, and geologists, and all the other ologists, and say, Brethren, I have one simple statement to make concerning all of the realities that you focus all of your mental powers upon, and all of your devices, to understand it. I have an answer that covers the whole shebang. And then you were to stand and quote Genesis 1-1, In...

17:26 - 18:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Grasp the reality of the perfect original creation, even if it seems foreign to our current experience.

A lengthy quotation from Octavius Winslow's commentary on Romans 8 is used to vividly describe the perfect, sinless, and harmonious state of the original creation before Adam's transgression.

And as they reflected upon that mandate, and as they looked at that which God had created, there was not one thing that in any way stood in the way of the joyful, successful accomplishment of the mandate that their Creator gave them. No unyielding earth, no threatening skies, no intimidating mountains, no raging streams that threatened them, all was very good. And though Adam and Eve in union before God must labor to fulfill the mandate, there was nothing unyielding in the face of that labor. Everything was in perfect harmony as it came from the hand of their Creator God. Listen to Octavius Wi...

25:25 - 26:54 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Moses does not enumerate all the disadvantages in which man by sin has involved himself, but mingle its own sweetness I'm sorry, Moses does not enumerate all the disadvantages in which man by sin has involved himself, fo…

A quotation from John Calvin's commentary on Genesis 3 is used to support the argument that all natural evils and disorders in the world are fruits of sin, not just those explicitly mentioned in Genesis.

For the Bible tells us that that physical creation that came from the hand of God, perfect, in which there was this perfect harmony with man, the image-bearer, man, the worker, and all that was about him, there has been a disruption and alteration in the physical creation as a result of the fall of man. Calvin in his commentary on this very passage makes this statement and I believe he's right and I want to quote it to you. Moses does not enumerate all the disadvantages in which man by sin has involved himself, but mingle its own sweetness I'm sorry, Moses does not enumerate all the disadvanta...

42:56 - 44:24 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Moses does not enumerate all the disadvantages in which man by sin has involved himself, but mingle its own sweetness I'm sorry, Moses does not enumerate all the disadvantages in which man by sin has involved himself, fo…

The example of a beautiful, ripe grain field being devastated by a hailstorm in minutes illustrates the sudden and destructive impact of the curse on creation, contrasting its beauty with its fallen state.

of brevity adapted to the capacity of the common people was content to touch upon what was most apparent in order that from one example we may learn that the whole order of nature was subverted by the sin of man. And to that I say my sad, amen. Think with me, if you've ever seen one of those vast grain fields out in the grain belt of our country, if you've ever seen one of those fields when the grain is all ripe and it looks as though someone literally sprayed the stalks with gold, gently waving in the wind, and you say, oh God, my God, how great and marvelous are your works. Who but a God of ...

44:24 - 45:47 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Moses does not enumerate all the disadvantages in which man by sin has involved himself, but mingle its own sweetness I'm sorry, Moses does not enumerate all the disadvantages in which man by sin has involved himself, fo…

The example of human capacity to create beautiful music (Beethoven's Fifth) versus cacophonous rock music is used to illustrate how man, like creation, is not what he once was due to sin.

How do you put that together? May I say that that's the question we ask when we look at what man is. How can we human beings in some ways be so God-like when one thinks of the capacity inherent in the human mind, the ability to create the notes in a man's head that can come through his pen and then come out with Kurt Mazur conducting the New York Philharmonic in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and you feel you've been transported to heaven. And yet the same creature with the same God-given mind can come up with the stuff that these rock groups that we mentioned in the previous hour would make you t...

45:47 - 46:58 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You see, renovation means there's continuity between the mess that is and the lovely thing that's going to be. And that's why I've used the term renovation. God is not done with this earth.

Martin recounts the renovation of the old Elks Club into Trinity Baptist Church, using it as an extended analogy to explain that 'renovation' means substantial alteration and continuity, not total replacement, for the physical creation.

The radical renovation of the physical creation which will occur at the return of Christ. Now why have I chosen the words renovation and then modified it with the word radical? Well, renovation you see is not replacement. We don't have very many now who were with us back when we bought the old Elks Club in Essex Fells back in the late 60s.

48:00 - 48:25 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You see, renovation means there's continuity between the mess that is and the lovely thing that's going to be. And that's why I've used the term renovation. God is not done with this earth.

The analogy of the 'twin towers' (referring to the World Trade Center) is used to emphasize the prominence and foundational importance of 2 Peter 3 and Romans 8 for understanding the radical renovation of creation.

This is not just taking a rotten, moth-eaten, termite-ridden, ugly building and slapping a little paint on it. This is radical, radical renovation that our Lord Jesus will do at his return. And as I said earlier, we're going to look, God willing, tonight, at two passages that are the twin towers. Now, you basketball nuts, I'm not speaking about Robinson and his buddy down there in San Antonio.

51:56 - 52:27 Read in full sermon