1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,240 I pray that you have been blessed not just so far this morning but also this past week. 2 00:00:06,240 --> 00:00:10,680 As you think back on the previous handful of days, you were able to see how God has 3 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:14,480 revealed Himself even a little bit to you. 4 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:19,480 That you've been able to recognize how good God is and how He blesses us. 5 00:00:19,480 --> 00:00:24,700 How He sustains us and then even in those moments where maybe we were stressed or bothered 6 00:00:24,700 --> 00:00:27,920 or concerned, God is still there. 7 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:31,320 I would say He's even there a little bit more closely in those times. 8 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:35,280 We're going to get into our sermon today. 9 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:42,040 This does continue in our series that we have been looking at from the beginning to the 10 00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:47,080 end, as we've considered in Genesis and the lessons that we can learn in the Bible's 11 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:48,200 first book. 12 00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:54,160 And not just that but how it applies to us today and how it carries us forward until 13 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:56,880 the end when Christ comes to take us home. 14 00:00:56,880 --> 00:01:01,040 There's a connection between the then, the now, and the will be. 15 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:07,760 It's not only relegated to the past or to humanity in bygone eras. 16 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:17,240 It's very relevant today even from the first verses, the first chapter in God's book. 17 00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:21,180 We're going a little bit out of order just because today is communion. 18 00:01:21,180 --> 00:01:27,240 So next Sabbath we will pick up right from where we left off which is the second part 19 00:01:27,240 --> 00:01:31,680 of day six in creation, the creation of mankind. 20 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:37,600 And today though we're going to look at a world without sin. 21 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:45,680 A world without sin. 22 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:51,960 When I was trying to think of a good way of introducing this I really have two and I couldn't 23 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:56,080 decide which one so you get both. 24 00:01:56,080 --> 00:02:03,280 When I was a child I often rode with my dad who was a therapist and had several contracts 25 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:09,360 all over the eastern, northeastern portion of Arkansas and I would ride with him as we 26 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:14,560 would go to the development centers or to the schools or sometimes on his home health 27 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:19,960 visits and some of those drives were a little bit closer maybe 20 or 30 minutes away. 28 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:23,040 Some of them were a little bit longer, an hour or so. 29 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:27,700 Well there were several of these trips when we would listen to music. 30 00:02:27,700 --> 00:02:34,580 We eventually ended up in audiobooks and that's how I kind of learned to like audiobooks. 31 00:02:34,580 --> 00:02:37,400 But we had a lot of music early on. 32 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:40,320 Just various artists and various songs. 33 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:46,720 Well then there was this one that he would play somewhat frequently and it was mostly 34 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:47,720 instrumental. 35 00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:52,320 Had a little bit of a western theme to it, a little bit of a Mexican theme to it. 36 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:55,760 I'm like oh well that's kind of neat, I don't mind that. 37 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:57,160 What is this dad? 38 00:02:57,160 --> 00:03:04,880 Oh this is songs from a movie that I watched many years ago, a little bit before your time. 39 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:07,760 And oh okay well what is it? 40 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:14,720 That's kind of catchy and it seems like there's this one particular chord that plays every 41 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:15,720 so often. 42 00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:21,320 And he goes well this is from, this is the soundtrack from a movie called The Good, The 43 00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:23,440 Bad and The Ugly. 44 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:28,240 Have any of us heard of that movie? 45 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:31,640 It's fairly famous, it's fairly well known. 46 00:03:31,640 --> 00:03:37,560 Clint Eastwood was one of the stars and I've only seen it once so if my memory is 47 00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:41,040 foggy we can correct me afterwards. 48 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:45,800 But from what I remember is that it essentially follows three men. 49 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:48,080 The story revolves around three men. 50 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:53,400 The end of the movie you end up with that Mexican standoff as they say where each of 51 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:57,200 the three men are aiming their guns at each other and who's going to pull first, how is 52 00:03:57,200 --> 00:03:58,200 it going to end? 53 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:01,800 It was very tense, it was very exciting I guess. 54 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:07,300 But the good, the bad and the ugly and as best as I can recall that's kind of the description 55 00:04:07,300 --> 00:04:09,000 of these men as you go through. 56 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:15,040 You had one that was the good guy, the upholder of justice, the one who was more morally and 57 00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:17,040 ethically pointing north. 58 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:23,360 You had the evil, the bad guy and then you had one, I don't understand why the ugly, 59 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:29,360 maybe unattractive, maybe his character was a little less pretty than the other two. 60 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:36,320 And so you had the good, the bad and the ugly, one of the greatest westerns ever done. 61 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:43,480 So I'm like okay well we can consider the good, the bad and the ugly as we think about 62 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:49,600 how God's creation ends from our scripture reading today. 63 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:56,680 When God looked at all that He had made and it was very good. 64 00:04:56,680 --> 00:05:04,340 Now that's just an emphasis, a highlight, the exclamation point on something that God 65 00:05:04,340 --> 00:05:07,440 had said all along the way. 66 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:11,560 God made light and He separated the light from the darkness and He looked at the light 67 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:14,800 and He said it is good. 68 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:19,800 Then the firmament and the water separated and the end of the day too and God says it 69 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:21,080 is good. 70 00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:27,800 And then that repeats five times until we get to the end of day six and then God says 71 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:31,260 it is very good. 72 00:05:31,260 --> 00:05:39,480 So in other words we could say something like when God creates it is only good there is 73 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:42,560 no bad or ugly. 74 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:50,160 And what does it mean for God to declare everything as good? 75 00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:54,400 What is the good that the Bible is talking about? 76 00:05:54,400 --> 00:06:02,660 Why would God say that and what can we learn from that word, from that declaration over 77 00:06:02,660 --> 00:06:04,900 creation? 78 00:06:04,900 --> 00:06:12,600 When God surveys something and He calls it good what does that encapsulate? 79 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:19,960 Well one because of the structure of the Hebrew and the repeating of God saw and it was good 80 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:21,400 because that's repeated. 81 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:22,780 He looks and it's good. 82 00:06:22,780 --> 00:06:24,300 He looks and it's good. 83 00:06:24,300 --> 00:06:30,000 We know that goodness includes aesthetic beauty. 84 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:35,720 When you have the connection of viewing something and calling it good there is a beauty to it. 85 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:39,240 Well I believe God is a God of beauty. 86 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:44,840 I believe that what God makes doesn't have bad and ugly in it. 87 00:06:44,840 --> 00:06:52,240 When God first formed the trees and the flowers we didn't have to worry about frost killing 88 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:55,940 something and limbs breaking off or flowers wilting. 89 00:06:55,940 --> 00:07:03,040 When God made the hills and the fields there weren't sink holes that destroyed it and there 90 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:09,680 weren't the jagged rocky sharp pointed kinds of mountains that we have today. 91 00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:12,800 We believe that was a result of the flood. 92 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:17,160 When God makes something there's not a deformity to it. 93 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:24,280 It's arranged and it blooms and there's life and the colors were vibrant and appealing 94 00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:25,760 to the eyes. 95 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:28,460 It was beautiful. 96 00:07:28,460 --> 00:07:34,720 We know that God is a God of beauty because also in the instruction of first of the tabernacle 97 00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:41,220 and then the temples God blessed particular craftsmen for their craft so they could not 98 00:07:41,220 --> 00:07:48,960 only make what it was to be functional but also for beauty that's the goal that's the 99 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:52,040 ornate kind of decorations. 100 00:07:52,040 --> 00:08:00,000 God intends the beautiful things around us to cause our thoughts to go heavenward. 101 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:04,960 Beauty we think of high and lofty things. 102 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:07,400 That's why I like the flowers that's why I like spring. 103 00:08:07,400 --> 00:08:12,520 Spring to me is very beautiful and I think of God a little bit more. 104 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:17,880 What else does the good mean when God declares it all good? 105 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:25,240 Well we talked about in one of our earlier sermons our parts of the series that when 106 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:32,420 God created he doesn't just arbitrarily make something he has a purpose for it. 107 00:08:32,420 --> 00:08:38,480 Light and dark separates day and night it lets us know what how to see and where to 108 00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:45,360 go and that then he populated the light and the dark with our heavenly bodies for direction 109 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:49,600 and constellations and the sun and the moon. 110 00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:52,320 There's a purpose to it. 111 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:58,040 There's a purpose to filling the voids of the air and the water with the birds and the 112 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:00,560 fish and so that they can live. 113 00:09:00,560 --> 00:09:07,160 God wants life in the emptiness not just to be empty and he doesn't just create the animals 114 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:13,680 to just be there he gave them a purpose for procreation and keeping to their kind. 115 00:09:13,680 --> 00:09:15,160 They had a purpose. 116 00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:24,800 I believe it was also to add more beauty and and and artistic value if you will to nature. 117 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:28,240 Some of the animals are rather awesome. 118 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:33,240 Some of them make us ponder and some of us just make us wonder. 119 00:09:33,240 --> 00:09:38,760 In fact I saw it recently and I have to agree with this you know I I think I've already 120 00:09:38,760 --> 00:09:45,040 shared I Bigfoot is the one thing I wonder if maybe it's true. 121 00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:51,400 But also someone proposed this that so many people you know downplay the idea of a unicorn 122 00:09:51,400 --> 00:09:57,700 ever existing but we don't have any problems with a giraffe which is kind of this camel 123 00:09:57,700 --> 00:10:03,440 leopard hybrid thing with a seven foot neck. 124 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:07,640 Little weird but we can't imagine a horse with a horn and that's it. 125 00:10:07,640 --> 00:10:09,520 That's the horse with a horn. 126 00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:14,520 If God can make this why why would we limit him on that. 127 00:10:14,520 --> 00:10:19,700 We know of some of our other extinct animals that are rather fascinating and sometimes 128 00:10:19,700 --> 00:10:20,700 a little odd. 129 00:10:20,700 --> 00:10:26,760 In other words God is unlimited in his creative imagination. 130 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:29,600 That's the point that's all good. 131 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:34,880 Speaking of nature when we think of when God says it's good that means that nature is in 132 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:37,640 harmony with itself. 133 00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:44,160 We don't have mosquitoes biting to suck blood and to give disease. 134 00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:47,560 We don't have a rabbit afraid of hawks. 135 00:10:47,560 --> 00:10:56,560 We don't have the antelope afraid of crocodiles or dogs afraid of humans or squirrels afraid 136 00:10:56,560 --> 00:10:59,240 of dogs. 137 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:10,280 The fear the tension the care for survival that we see in nature today just didn't exist. 138 00:11:10,280 --> 00:11:15,240 When Isaiah talks about how the lion will lay with the lamb and the child will play 139 00:11:15,240 --> 00:11:27,600 by the by the adders the snakes nest that tells us of a future harmony again inside of nature. 140 00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:30,640 The beginning there was this harmony. 141 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:38,120 I mean can you just in your imagination picture all the birds and the beasts and the bugs 142 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:43,600 and the fish all getting along. 143 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:49,040 That's goodness as God declares. 144 00:11:49,040 --> 00:11:53,920 What else is it when things are good and very good. 145 00:11:53,920 --> 00:12:00,960 Well we are going to get to next Sabbath the creation of mankind and I would like to propose 146 00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:07,120 that when God made man in his image that was one significant element of going from good 147 00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:09,280 to very good. 148 00:12:09,280 --> 00:12:13,040 The rest of creation was not made in the image of God. 149 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:20,160 The rest of creation was there but ultimately God had a plan for a being created after his 150 00:12:20,160 --> 00:12:26,920 own image to then be his steward over the rest of creation. 151 00:12:26,920 --> 00:12:33,400 And because that is an amazing and awesome thing to make that that's the crowning act 152 00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:34,960 of creation. 153 00:12:34,960 --> 00:12:41,040 So you go from good to very good with the introduction of humanity. 154 00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:45,720 Well good and very good with humanity. 155 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:47,200 What does that come. 156 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:49,760 What does that bring to mind. 157 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:57,240 What do we think of with human relationships that are good or very good. 158 00:12:57,240 --> 00:13:07,220 How many of us have ever had a person to person relationship that was perfect. 159 00:13:07,220 --> 00:13:12,940 Without a lie without a deceit without a backstabbing without a manipulation without emotional molding 160 00:13:12,940 --> 00:13:18,840 without physical harm without. 161 00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:22,960 Fill in the blank. 162 00:13:22,960 --> 00:13:31,820 I am so jaded by the negative relationships I've had over my brief years on this earth. 163 00:13:31,820 --> 00:13:34,760 I start out skeptical. 164 00:13:34,760 --> 00:13:37,160 I don't like that about me. 165 00:13:37,160 --> 00:13:41,920 I don't like that about our society but when I'm meeting someone new and when they're meeting 166 00:13:41,920 --> 00:13:51,340 me for the first time I actually think that it's commonplace for all humans to start skeptical. 167 00:13:51,340 --> 00:13:58,200 Are you going to hurt me or are we going to have a good relationship. 168 00:13:58,200 --> 00:14:03,620 That wasn't the case with our earliest parents. 169 00:14:03,620 --> 00:14:09,680 When Adam and Eve were created they were in harmony with each other. 170 00:14:09,680 --> 00:14:16,680 They didn't argue over toilet seats or towels being folded correctly. 171 00:14:16,680 --> 00:14:20,880 They didn't wonder how the resources were going to be spent and was someone a spender 172 00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:23,440 and someone a saver. 173 00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:29,540 They didn't they weren't concerned with well today is chore day or you're sleeping in too 174 00:14:29,540 --> 00:14:36,360 much or you're not giving me enough attention or or loving me. 175 00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:38,000 There wasn't any of that. 176 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:44,720 There was no fear that that some human was going to harm the other. 177 00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:45,720 There wasn't. 178 00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:51,840 It wasn't a bad relationship with Adam and Eve. 179 00:14:51,840 --> 00:14:54,040 It was perfect. 180 00:14:54,040 --> 00:14:55,680 It was good. 181 00:14:55,680 --> 00:14:57,560 It was ethical. 182 00:14:57,560 --> 00:15:01,800 It was loving and it was in harmony with each other. 183 00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:07,000 They didn't desire to be alone from one another. 184 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:12,840 That's good. 185 00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:21,200 God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good. 186 00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:25,880 Finally what what does it mean to be good. 187 00:15:25,880 --> 00:15:34,080 And God declares it good while nature was in harmony purpose was was presented and filled. 188 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:38,400 Humans were in a good relationship with each other and with nature. 189 00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:45,480 Men weren't afraid of the tigers or the crocodiles and they weren't afraid of man. 190 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:50,160 I would say at the top of all of that was good. 191 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:53,800 Everything was in harmony with its creator. 192 00:15:53,800 --> 00:15:59,400 All the things were good with God if you will. 193 00:15:59,400 --> 00:16:02,640 Nature responded to its creator. 194 00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:06,400 He only had to speak and it was. 195 00:16:06,400 --> 00:16:11,860 I can almost I can almost see God helping or being there with Adam in maybe forming 196 00:16:11,860 --> 00:16:16,360 some vines or shaping something for his first home. 197 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:21,200 We know that that the animals were brought to Adam so that he could name them. 198 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:26,540 There was this this good relationship. 199 00:16:26,540 --> 00:16:32,240 We know that they walked together in the cool of the evening getting jumping forward a little 200 00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:37,540 because when God comes to find them after the fall it's almost as if he was expecting 201 00:16:37,540 --> 00:16:41,860 them to greet him and he has to call out where are you. 202 00:16:41,860 --> 00:16:44,840 But it wasn't that way in the beginning. 203 00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:49,920 Man and woman could be in the presence of their perfect holy creator and they didn't 204 00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:54,200 die and they weren't in fear and they didn't tremble and they didn't fall to the ground. 205 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:55,440 They didn't run and hide. 206 00:16:55,440 --> 00:16:57,120 They didn't close themselves. 207 00:16:57,120 --> 00:17:03,600 They didn't make excuses for their actions and their words. 208 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:08,960 All was good between them and God. 209 00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:12,560 All was good. 210 00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:15,460 But what happened? 211 00:17:15,460 --> 00:17:20,360 What happened? 212 00:17:20,360 --> 00:17:28,920 My next my other introduction makes me think of I think of art and architecture. 213 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:34,440 Our buildings and our paintings and our sculptures throughout history. 214 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:35,440 I'm a fan. 215 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:36,740 I'm not artistic. 216 00:17:36,740 --> 00:17:43,160 God did not bless me with that ability but I appreciate others who have it. 217 00:17:43,160 --> 00:17:48,560 The music and other creative aspects to him. 218 00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:49,720 Love it. 219 00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:50,960 Love it. 220 00:17:50,960 --> 00:18:00,240 I especially like art and architecture from like the Gothic era, the Reformation era, 221 00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:05,320 some of the Greek and Roman kind of buildings and so on. 222 00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:12,160 But I'm really a fan of you know the 13 to 16 or 1700s somewhere in there. 223 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:13,160 I really like it. 224 00:18:13,160 --> 00:18:14,920 I like the big Victorian homes. 225 00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:16,800 I like the tall spires. 226 00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:22,920 Some of my favorite old churches are the more Gothic style where they've got the spires 227 00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:26,760 that just go way past the roof of the building. 228 00:18:26,760 --> 00:18:32,680 And it wasn't until recent years I learned that that was necessary because of the physics 229 00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:37,120 of how up they built them, how vertical the buildings were. 230 00:18:37,120 --> 00:18:43,640 The physics necessitated the spires to go even higher to maintain the outward pressure 231 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:45,120 from these tall buildings. 232 00:18:45,120 --> 00:18:50,600 Again, I don't know exactly how it works but I like it. 233 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:55,920 And then you go on the inside of the buildings and ceilings were painted and it took years 234 00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:58,240 to complete the craft. 235 00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:05,620 And you had statues that showed men and women just in a good healthy form. 236 00:19:05,620 --> 00:19:09,560 And you can go through the Reformation era and you can see paintings and if you know 237 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:14,800 what you're looking for, you can determine if the artist of the paintings was either 238 00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:21,900 Catholic or Protestant because the paintings had theology on them. 239 00:19:21,900 --> 00:19:30,400 Some of them were just of Balaam and his talking donkey or the lady at the well or Jonah or 240 00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:32,360 others. 241 00:19:32,360 --> 00:19:39,200 But what they would do is on the borders around the side of it, they would depict Protestant 242 00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:44,700 or Catholic doctrines in smaller images. 243 00:19:44,700 --> 00:19:46,760 Some of them are rather specific. 244 00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:52,760 Some Catholic paintings had well known depictions of a Protestant reformer with a dunce cap 245 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:57,160 and devils tormenting him because that's what they viewed of them. 246 00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:02,880 On some of the Protestant pictures, they did the opposite but with popes or cardinals. 247 00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:09,400 Or they would have a little picture about Sola Scriptura or Sola Fide, something like 248 00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:10,400 that. 249 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:13,040 It's very beautiful. 250 00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:21,760 I look at the Monets and the Van Goghs and I just I am in awe of what it is to take all 251 00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:33,920 those shades of paint or acrylic or pencil or something and just wow, the depth and the 252 00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:37,960 emotion comes through. 253 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:47,040 But then we get to contemporary art and my opinion changes rather drastically. 254 00:20:47,040 --> 00:20:55,440 I find most modern art extremely ugly and unattractive. 255 00:20:55,440 --> 00:21:04,080 I find that a lot of the creative abilities seem to have fallen away in favor of trying 256 00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:07,760 to make a statement with something ugly. 257 00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:13,640 So you have things like a banana and duct tape and it's just stuck to a wall with a 258 00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:17,440 little nameplate under it and they call it art. 259 00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:21,360 I call it the beginning of a compost pile. 260 00:21:21,360 --> 00:21:25,840 And then what's even more amazing to me is after some days had gone by and the banana 261 00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:35,120 had gotten more spottled and mushy, someone paid money to buy it and then eat it as an 262 00:21:35,120 --> 00:21:39,260 act of living art. 263 00:21:39,260 --> 00:21:44,320 I find that rather unbeautiful if you will. 264 00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:48,400 Other things is contemporary art that come to my mind. 265 00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:50,400 We have the famous blank canvas. 266 00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:51,400 It's just white. 267 00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:52,400 They just hang it. 268 00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:53,400 Well, what is that? 269 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:57,080 Whatever you want to have it be, just tell me what you see. 270 00:21:57,080 --> 00:21:59,560 I think it's lazy. 271 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:05,000 I think art should show something and it should be what the artist wants to show. 272 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:10,360 I actually don't think that the onlooker gets to decide what art is. 273 00:22:10,360 --> 00:22:13,760 Should be from the other way around. 274 00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:16,640 Some of it gets into the rather grotesque. 275 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:21,160 For example, in I believe it was a studio in New York. 276 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:29,120 Someone had a commode that they had painted on the inside of the American flag and it 277 00:22:29,120 --> 00:22:33,120 was closed off but people could get to it. 278 00:22:33,120 --> 00:22:37,640 The reason it was closed off was because it was intended to again be a living piece of 279 00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:38,640 art. 280 00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:45,200 People were asked and encouraged to use the commode, like people do, as a way of showing 281 00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:49,280 their distaste for the United States of America. 282 00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:50,980 I find that grotesque. 283 00:22:50,980 --> 00:22:54,140 I don't find that beautiful. 284 00:22:54,140 --> 00:23:03,440 What I find is that as society, and we can talk specifically about our culture, as our 285 00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:11,200 culture more and more and more gets away from God, then what happens is a deterioration 286 00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:20,300 in beauty, a deconstruction of the good down to either nothing or the perverse. 287 00:23:20,300 --> 00:23:27,160 You get away from purpose and order and beauty and grandeur and uplifting thoughts and you 288 00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:32,760 get more into the dirt and the muck and the mire. 289 00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:40,920 Well, we know that though God made everything good and beautiful and moral and in its proper 290 00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:45,720 place it didn't stay that way for long. 291 00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:52,200 We don't know how long but time passed and at some point first the woman then the man 292 00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:57,120 ate something they shouldn't have and sin came into this world. 293 00:23:57,120 --> 00:24:01,880 From that point forward all the things changed. 294 00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:07,880 One of the first things that changed was the relationship between man and God. 295 00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:14,020 Then we hid, then we covered, then we lied, then we blamed, then we all of that. 296 00:24:14,020 --> 00:24:20,880 Then we know that the ground and the plants, all of a sudden we've got thorns and thistles, 297 00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:24,040 less beautiful, they're acting outside of their order. 298 00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:27,200 You can just look around and see how animals are no longer in harmony. 299 00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:32,920 We can think of what sin has done in our world. 300 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:35,920 In the beginning there was no sin. 301 00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:42,960 It was good and very good and it was a world without sin. 302 00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:53,600 And then in between a hot mess, a dumpster fire, death and deception and crime and pain 303 00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:57,880 and tears and loss. 304 00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:01,720 And it's been awful. 305 00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:04,240 I don't like it. 306 00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:09,600 I don't like how many news stories we hear of people losing their lives or helicopters 307 00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:13,960 crashing and having people we know personally. 308 00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:18,840 I don't like hearing the stories of trains being derailed and a whole city plus some 309 00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:19,840 being affected. 310 00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:26,960 I don't like hearing about slave trade still going on and human trafficking and drug trafficking 311 00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:35,000 to the abuse and death of hundreds of thousands in our own country. 312 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:38,920 Breaks my heart. 313 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:45,240 It's difficult to not become desensitized but as I have studied the beauty and the wonder 314 00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:52,620 and the grandeur of the world that was before sin, I become more sad about the world we 315 00:25:52,620 --> 00:25:55,620 live in today. 316 00:25:55,620 --> 00:25:59,720 Because if only it had stayed the way God made it. 317 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,980 If only. 318 00:26:03,980 --> 00:26:15,520 Like any good book though, you have a good strong beginning and a good strong end. 319 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:23,320 God's book has a good strong beginning and a good strong end. 320 00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:31,580 The book ends of the Bible from Genesis 1 and 2 to Revelation 21 and 22. 321 00:26:31,580 --> 00:26:38,120 Give us the good beginnings and the good end. 322 00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:42,680 I'd invite you to turn with me to Revelation 21. 323 00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:48,720 Since this is the end of the book of Revelation, we know that the lamb that was slain has been 324 00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:49,800 revealed. 325 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:54,000 We know that the 144,000 have been counted. 326 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:56,520 We know that seals have been broken and read. 327 00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:58,640 We know trumpets have been blown. 328 00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:06,240 We know beasts 1 and 2 have been revealed and have done their mighty and awful works. 329 00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:10,640 We know that the woman and the dragon have been united. 330 00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:14,740 We know that God's wrath has been poured out. 331 00:27:14,740 --> 00:27:20,440 We also know that Babylon falls and all the institutions that have aligned themselves 332 00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:22,060 with her. 333 00:27:22,060 --> 00:27:28,640 We know that by the time we get to Revelation 21, if you have read any of these chapters, 334 00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:30,960 and if you haven't, I encourage you to. 335 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:32,440 Revelation is a good book. 336 00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:35,360 Difficult at times, but read it. 337 00:27:35,360 --> 00:27:49,780 Revelation 18 and 19, they tell us of the fall of all that is bad. 338 00:27:49,780 --> 00:27:55,280 Everything that we have lived through from Genesis 3 through our time today and going 339 00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:57,080 on into the future. 340 00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:04,400 We've read about the defeat of Satan and the saints of God in heaven for millennia. 341 00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:12,020 We've read about the final judgment as the wicked have surrounded the holy city. 342 00:28:12,020 --> 00:28:23,120 We have read about all the bad and the ugly coming to an end. 343 00:28:23,120 --> 00:28:27,240 And then what do we read in Revelation 21? 344 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:33,360 Then I saw verse 1, a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth 345 00:28:33,360 --> 00:28:36,800 had passed away and the sea was no more. 346 00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:42,320 That first heaven and earth, that's what we know today. 347 00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:46,740 There are theories out there that propose we're currently on a second. 348 00:28:46,740 --> 00:28:49,940 That doesn't bear out when you read this verse. 349 00:28:49,940 --> 00:28:52,240 Our second is yet to come. 350 00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:56,640 I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a 351 00:28:56,640 --> 00:28:58,240 bride adorned for her husband. 352 00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:05,560 I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place or the tabernacle 353 00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:10,000 of God is with man. 354 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:12,220 He will dwell with them. 355 00:29:12,220 --> 00:29:20,280 They will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. 356 00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:28,040 We go back to a human-God harmony once again. 357 00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:32,760 And then we read, God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. 358 00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:40,160 Death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for 359 00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:43,600 the former things have passed away. 360 00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:52,040 And he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. 361 00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:58,360 In the beginning when God created it was good and very good. 362 00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:06,960 In the end when God recreates, I believe that God will again declare over it that it is 363 00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:11,360 good and very good. 364 00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:13,920 I'm ready for it, my friends. 365 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:15,840 I am. 366 00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:26,120 But we don't get there without one more good in between. 367 00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:31,660 Today we are celebrating, we are participating in the communion service. 368 00:30:31,660 --> 00:30:39,440 We do this because it brings to mind that good in between the beginning and the end. 369 00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:49,040 When Jesus Christ condescended to this earth in human form and became a servant for us, 370 00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:55,880 as a babe born in a manger, lowly and without any real claim to the status of the human 371 00:30:55,880 --> 00:31:08,520 social ladder, He lived the life Adam should have and He died the death that we all deserve. 372 00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:14,520 Every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. 373 00:31:14,520 --> 00:31:20,240 We are all in our own way the bad and the ugly. 374 00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:22,020 All of us. 375 00:31:22,020 --> 00:31:25,480 And we've experienced it from others. 376 00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:33,840 It is only because of the broken body and the spilled blood of the perfect Lamb of God 377 00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:40,160 that you and I have hope in the end that is good and very good. 378 00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:49,560 It is because Christ as He ministered showed the Father to humanity and spoke of the love 379 00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:57,320 of God and demonstrated it without regard to peoples or languages or how others viewed 380 00:31:57,320 --> 00:32:00,640 your social status. 381 00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:06,360 God is no respecter of people and when Christ took on the sins, He didn't only take on 382 00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:14,440 the sins of the elect or those that God arbitrarily favored or the ones that God kind of liked 383 00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:17,460 a little more than someone else. 384 00:32:17,460 --> 00:32:24,320 When Christ took on the sins before His sacrifice, it was for everyone. 385 00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:29,540 Fully, holy and complete. 386 00:32:29,540 --> 00:32:37,600 That sacrifice was so sufficient that any person that has ever lived can claim it as 387 00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:40,600 theirs. 388 00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:49,800 It is because of His sacrifice that we can claim today the assurance, the hope, the promise 389 00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:54,560 of the end that is good and very good. 390 00:32:54,560 --> 00:33:01,640 We need this to bridge the gap between the bookends. 391 00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:09,720 Because without our Messiah, we don't have a hope beyond this bad and ugly world. 392 00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:12,440 I praise God for this. 393 00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:15,200 I claim this. 394 00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:19,840 Each morning, and you have to do this for yourself, people can't do it for you and being 395 00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:26,120 a part of this church doesn't make it automatic in your lives. 396 00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:32,120 You have to accept Christ's sacrifice on your behalf singularly. 397 00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:36,920 And it's not because you feel good about it or it brings, and it should bring a smile 398 00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:39,360 to your face and you should feel good about it. 399 00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:43,920 But even when you don't, you claim it by faith. 400 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:47,740 I don't feel it, but it's mine. 401 00:33:47,740 --> 00:33:52,320 God has said so, and so it is. 402 00:33:52,320 --> 00:34:02,040 You hang on to it, and every morning you claim it again and again and again. 403 00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:09,880 So that way when you come before God, when you enter into His presence, when you lift 404 00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:17,200 up your voice in praise, thanksgiving, and petition, again you can know that you are 405 00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:23,000 in a right harmony with your Creator and your Redeemer. 406 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:31,960 We celebrate, we participate, we do this in remembrance of Him who gave all for you, as 407 00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:36,200 if you were the only one that ever lived. 408 00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:43,760 Our communion service and our foot washing beforehand, all of it brings to mind the sacrifice 409 00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:45,300 of heaven. 410 00:34:45,300 --> 00:34:51,680 The foot washing tells us of a baptism, the death and the resurrection, one of Christ 411 00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:57,340 and two of you and I as the old dying away and the new being recreated in Him. 412 00:34:57,340 --> 00:35:00,720 The foot washing is a miniature baptism. 413 00:35:00,720 --> 00:35:03,900 We don't have to get fully immersed every single time. 414 00:35:03,900 --> 00:35:05,720 We wouldn't do that. 415 00:35:05,720 --> 00:35:08,780 But the foot washing is that. 416 00:35:08,780 --> 00:35:12,260 It is also an act of humble service. 417 00:35:12,260 --> 00:35:21,840 If Christ our Lord can take off His nicer clothing and gird Himself in a servant's wrap 418 00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:32,040 and kneel down on the floor and wash dirty, dusty, worn and calloused feet of His apostles, 419 00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:35,920 that sets an example for us today. 420 00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:41,120 We don't have a hierarchy in this church when it comes to service and love. 421 00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:44,200 And the foot washing service reminds us of that. 422 00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:47,880 If Christ can do it, we certainly can too. 423 00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:54,040 And then as we partake of the bread and the juice, we remember Christ's broken body and 424 00:35:54,040 --> 00:35:57,300 His spilled blood for us. 425 00:35:57,300 --> 00:36:03,200 And we declare that sacrifice until He comes again, every time we do it. 426 00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:07,160 This is not a sad moment, my friends. 427 00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:13,280 We rejoice in knowing that Christ gave all for us and we have the hope and the assurance 428 00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:16,220 of salvation in Him. 429 00:36:16,220 --> 00:36:23,160 If you need to search your heart before you take of the bread, say your prayer between 430 00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:25,960 now and then. 431 00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:31,280 Search your heart a little bit in the next handful of moments before we come back in. 432 00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:37,720 So when we do participate in this, we can cry out, praise God for the lamb that was 433 00:36:37,720 --> 00:36:39,720 slain. 434 00:36:39,720 --> 00:36:47,160 And we can smile and we can hold our heads up knowing that God will declare us good and 435 00:36:47,160 --> 00:37:10,400 very good in Jesus' name.