The world passes away

[0:00] We're going to turn to our scripture reading, the first reading this morning, which is in Jeremiah chapter 50. We're going to read two sections, Jeremiah 50 and 51. They're very long chapters, so we're going to read extracts of them, but in two parts.

[0:14] First of all, in chapter 50, beginning at verse 1, that's page 677 in our Church Visitors Bibles. We're going to read chapter 50, verses 1 to 20, and then skip down to verse 33 to verse 40.

[0:32] And then we'll sing and then come back to read a little more in chapter 51, this long oracle that all belongs together. And you'll see it's titled Judgment on Babylon.

[0:43] Last week, Bob was looking at the first of these long oracles in chapter 46, Judgment on Egypt. Now we come to the other great city representing the enemy of God's people, Babylon.

[0:59] Jeremiah 50 at verse 1, the word that the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet. Declare among the nations and proclaim, set up a banner and proclaim, conceal it not and say, Babylon is taken.

[1:18] Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed. Her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed. For out of the north a nation has come up against her, which shall make her land a desolation, and none shall dwell in it.

[1:35] Both man and beast shall flee away. In those days and in that time, declares the Lord, the people of Israel and the people of Judah shall come together, weeping as they come, and they shall seek the Lord their God.

[1:49] They shall ask the way to Zion with faces turned towards it, saying, come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten. My people have been lost sheep.

[2:03] Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone, they have forgotten their fold. All who found them have devoured them, and their enemies have said, we are not guilty, for they have sinned against the Lord, their habitation of righteousness, the Lord, the hope of their fathers.

[2:21] Flee from the midst of Babylon, and go out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as male goats before the flock. For behold, I am stirring up and bringing against Babylon a gathering of great nations from the north country.

[2:38] And they shall array themselves against her. From there she shall be taken. Their arrows are like a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed. Chaldea shall be plundered.

[2:50] All who plunder her shall be sated, declares the Lord. Though you rejoice, though you exult, O plunderers of my heritage, though you fulght like a heifer in the pasture, a neigh like stallions, your mother shall be utterly shamed, and she who bore you shall be disgraced.

[3:08] Behold, she shall be the last of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. Because of the wrath of the Lord, she shall not be inhabited, but shall be an utter desolation.

[3:22] Everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled and hiss because of all her wounds. Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around.

[3:33] All you who bend the bow, shoot at her. Spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the Lord. Raise a shout against her all around. She has surrendered. Her bulwarks have fallen.

[3:44] Her walls are thrown down. For this is the vengeance of the Lord. Take vengeance upon her. Do to her as she has done.

[3:54] Cut off from Babylon, the sower, and the one who handles the sickle in times of harvest. Because of the sword of the oppressor, everyone shall turn to his own people, and everyone shall flee to his own land.

[4:11] Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First, the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has gnawed his bones.

[4:22] Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing punishment on the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of Assyria.

[4:35] I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and in Bashan, and his desire shall be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.

[4:47] In those days and in that time, declares the Lord, Iniquity shall be sought in Israel, and there shall be none, and sin in Judah, and none shall be found.

[5:00] For I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant. And down to verse 33, Thus says the Lord of hosts, The people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah with them.

[5:12] All who took them captive have held them fast. They refuse to let them go. Their Redeemer is strong. The Lord of hosts is his name. He will surely plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.

[5:30] A sword against the Chaldeans, declares the Lord, and against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her officials and her wise men. A sword against the diviners, that they may become fools.

[5:42] A sword against her warriors, that they may be destroyed. A sword against her horses, and against her chariots, and against all the foreign troops in her midst, that they may become women.

[5:53] A sword against all her treasures, that they may be plundered. A drought against her waters, that they may be dried up, for it is a land of images, and they are mad over idols.

[6:05] Therefore, wild beasts shall dwell with hyenas in Babylon, and ostriches shall dwell in her. She shall never again have people, nor be inhabited for all generations.

[6:22] As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and their neighboring cities, declares the Lord, so no man shall dwell there, and no son of man shall sojourn in her.

[6:35] Amen. May God bless to us this, his word. Well, do turn back with me, if you would, to Jeremiah at chapter 51. That's page 679 in our church Bibles.

[6:49] Jeremiah 51, and we read verses 12 to 19, and then picking up again at verse 52. Jeremiah 51 at verse 12.

[7:03] Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon. Make the watch strong. Set up watchmen. Prepare the ambushes.

[7:15] For the Lord has both planned and done what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon. O you who dwell by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come.

[7:29] The thread of your life is cut. The Lord of hosts has sworn by himself, surely I will fill you with men, as many as locusts, and they shall raise the shout of victory over you.

[7:44] It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.

[8:01] He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses. Every man is stupid and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them.

[8:18] They are worthless, a work of delusion. At the time of their punishment, they shall perish. Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob, for he is the one who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance.

[8:38] The Lord of hosts is his name. And then verse 52, Therefore, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will execute judgment upon her images, and through all her land the wounded shall groan, though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify her strong height, yet destroyers would come from me against her, declares the Lord.

[9:08] A voice, a cry from Babylon, the noise of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans, for the Lord is laying Babylon waste and stilling her mighty voice.

[9:21] Their waves roar like many waters, the noise of their voices raised, for a destroyer has come upon her, upon Babylon. Her warriors are taken, their bows are broken in pieces, for the Lord is a God of recompense.

[9:35] He will surely repay. I will make drunk her officials and her wise men, her governors, her commanders, and her warriors. They shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, declares the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.

[9:53] Thus says the Lord of hosts, the broad wall of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. The peoples labor for nothing, and the nations weary themselves only for fire.

[10:07] The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Sarai, the son of Nariah, son of Masiah, when he went with Zedekiah, king of Judah, to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign.

[10:21] Sarai was the quartermaster. Jeremiah wrote in a book all the disaster that should come upon Babylon, all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

[10:33] And Jeremiah said to Sarai, when you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words and say, O Lord, you have said concerning this place that you will cut it off so that nothing shall dwell in her, neither man nor beast, and it shall be desolate forever.

[10:55] When you finish reading this book, tie a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates and say, Thus shall Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster that I am bringing on her, and they shall become exhausted.

[11:15] Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. Amen, and may God bless these solemn words to us.

[11:25] Now, I could ask you to turn, please, once again to the Jeremiah passage beginning on page 677, and we'll have a moment of prayer and ask the Lord's help.

[11:42] God, our Father, as we draw near to you, we pray that you will most graciously draw near to us, that you will take my human words in all their imperfection, you will use them faithfully to expound the written word, and so lead us to the living word, the Lord Christ himself, in whose name we pray.

[12:05] Amen. For many years, one of the great attractions in Stratford-on-Avon was the so-called Elizabethan experience, which was housed in a building near the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

[12:25] This was a truly brilliantly executed multimedia display. There was speech, there was colour, there was music, and it brought to life Elizabethan England, and particularly a progress that Queen Elizabeth I made through Warwickshire to nearby Kenilworth when Shakespeare was a boy and when he would almost certainly be among the crowds watching the Queen.

[12:50] But as the exhibition comes to an end, the lights begin to dim in the auditorium, light after light goes out. We are left with an eerie, haunting silence in which echo the words from Shakespeare's As You Like It, mere oblivion, songs, teeth, songs, eyes, songs, everything.

[13:12] Eerie, haunting silence. And that's the kind of impression it seems to me that chapters 50 and 51 of Jeremiah give as Babylon the Great fades from the stage of human history.

[13:26] The lights go out, the tumult and the shouting dies, the laughter, all the noise and bustle of that great city is gone. First of all, we must face a question.

[13:39] Jeremiah in earlier chapters has been very positive about Babylon. Read chapters 27 to 29. For example, in chapter 27 verse 6 he says, I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar my servant.

[13:55] Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, is called my servant. And then again, particularly in chapter 29 verse 7, seek the welfare of the city in which I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf.

[14:10] Seek the welfare of Babylon, pray to the Lord for it. And we notice at the time there was a message there for us. In our communities to be good neighbours, good citizens, play our part in society, vote, and enjoy the good gifts that God gives us.

[14:27] Art, music, literature, all the good gifts, holidays for that matter, all the good gifts the Lord gives us. What the prayer book calls all lawful and worthy activities.

[14:39] Now this seems like a contradiction and some of the commentators say it is a contradiction that Jeremiah has changed his mind. But when we look closely, that's not the case.

[14:51] Babylon here is not just the literal city on the Euphrates. It is that. And of course, the destruction of Babylon did take place.

[15:03] But this is Babylon as a world power, symbolising all world powers. And the destruction of all systems opposed to God. That's why it's compared to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, for example.

[15:18] And we go right back to the very beginning of our Bible, to the origin of Babylon in Genesis chapter 10 when Nimrod, the sinister warlord, builds this city.

[15:31] And it culminates, of course, in chapter 11 in the Tower of Babel. And right through Scripture, Babylon is not just the literal city on the Euphrates, any more than Zion, Jerusalem, is the literal city.

[15:44] It stands for the anti-God world power. And what John, the apostle, calls the world. That's what Babylon particularly means in these two chapters.

[15:57] In Revelation 17 and 18, which draw very heavily on these chapters, we have the destruction, the final destruction, of the anti-God city. That's why I've chosen as our title today, The World Passes Away.

[16:13] And there are four phrases, two in chapter 50 and two in chapter 51, which give us the clue. In 50, verse 4 and verse 20, in those days.

[16:26] Now, we've often seen in the prophets that those days refer to the last days, the day, the day of the Lord, the day which will culminate in the coming of the kingdom.

[16:37] And then, in chapter 51, verses 47 and 52, the days are coming. So this is talking, this is totally relevant to us. This is about Babylon now and Babylon's destruction.

[16:52] John says, in his first letter, 1 John 2, verse 17, The world passes away and all its desires, but whoever does the will of God remains forever.

[17:06] Don't be like Babylon, say both Jeremiah and John in Revelation, or you'll share in her judgments. But it's not just the fact that the world passes away.

[17:19] The backdrop to these chapters is not ultimately the world, it is God himself, the God whose steadfast love endures forever. And remember, that's what John says in the verse I quoted.

[17:35] The one who does the will of God remains forever. Remains forever because of the steadfast love of God. Now this is a massive, massive oracle, 110 verses in chapters 50 and 51.

[17:49] Thought of having the whole of it read, but that might have been too much for human flesh to bear, almost as long as all the other oracles put together.

[17:59] So what we're going to concentrate on is God who is our refuge as the world passes away. If the world is passing away, those who do the will of God remain forever.

[18:11] Then, that's what we're going to concentrate on. And three snapshots, if you like, to get us the essence of this passage. The essence of this passage is, as I say, the world passes away and God and those who do his will remain.

[18:24] So first of all, in chapter 50, in verses 1 to 20 and 33 to 40, we have the God of the everlasting covenant. Verse 5, let's us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.

[18:41] You may remember, you probably don't because it was nearly two years ago when we began this series. I called the series as a whole the prophet of the costly new covenant.

[18:53] Jeremiah, the prophet of the costly new covenant. Now, the new covenant is the eternal covenant, the everlasting covenant, which the last day will show to be true.

[19:04] God will be God and the world will know it on the last day. God is God now, but the world doesn't know it. But on that day, everything will be revealed.

[19:16] So what's happening then? As God destroys Babylon, what is he doing? First of all, he is destroying idolatry. Verse 2, chapter 50, Babylon is taken.

[19:27] Baal is put to shame. Merodach, our Marduk, the chief Babylonian god. Her images are put to shame. Her idols are dismayed. Rather, as God destroyed the gods of Egypt at the Exodus, this has been a theme of Jeremiah.

[19:42] We saw it last week. God destroys the gods of Babylon. It doesn't look like it. His nation is defeated in exile. That's one of the points of the book of Daniel. Where is God in the exile?

[19:55] Well, we know where he is. He appears in the blazing furnace to rescue his servants. He appears in the lion's den. And Ezekiel, also in Babylon, looks up into the sky and sees the chariot throne of Yahweh in the heavens, a kind of portable ark of the covenant.

[20:10] And I think there's two little details here, significant details. Babylon, in verse 1, is called the land of the Chaldeans. Now, that's the old name, going right back to Nimrod.

[20:22] So, you see, this is one of the ways in which we see that God is destroying the whole world system, the whole idolatrous system that has opposed him right from the beginning, right from the Garden of Eden, when Satan said, you will be like gods.

[20:37] And the other significant phrase is, out of the north a nation has come. Now, back in chapter 1, when Jeremiah prophesied judgment on Judah, he said, an enemy will come out of the north.

[20:52] Here the tables are turning. The God of Jacob, the God of Israel, the God of Judah is turning the tables. And Babylon is to disappear.

[21:04] As we sang in the hymn, with pride and hope he buildeth, tower and temple fall to dust. In verse 12, Babylon becomes a wilderness, a dry land, a taunt, a waste, and a curse, and all her cities perpetual waste.

[21:20] So, the first thing he does is he will destroy idolatry. On the last day, no idol will survive. All the idols will disappear in the blazing holiness of God's presence when it is revealed who God is and what he has done.

[21:35] The second thing is God's people will return. The good shepherd will lead them home. Verse 6, all my people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray.

[21:46] This is another theme that's run through Jeremiah. The false shepherds, the bad kings, and the false prophets have led them astray, led them into idolatry. The Lord's people will return as the Lord leads them home.

[22:00] and they will return to a place of great blessing. We are not the habitation of righteousness as it's called here.

[22:12] You see, this is the opposite of pride. God's people have nothing to be proud about here, have they? They've been disobedient. They've been taken into exile.

[22:23] They've dishonored the Lord of the everlasting covenant. That's really a message for us, isn't it? There is a very gray area between saying God has blessed us and aren't we wonderful.

[22:38] See, once we say aren't we wonderful, then we are praising ourselves. We are becoming Babylon. And Zion so often becomes Babylon. Never ever say we are doing well.

[22:51] we've got it right. Say rather the Lord is blessing us. True repentance. We need that. Otherwise, we're going to become Babylon.

[23:02] This is what happens so often. Not so much Zion taking to Babylon as Babylon coming and living in Zion. That's an even greater danger.

[23:13] Read the later chapter of the book of Daniel about the idolatry set up in the very heart of Jerusalem itself. God will destroy idolatry.

[23:25] God's people will return. The ransom of the Lord will return as Isaiah says and come with singing to Zion. Everlasting joy will be on their heads.

[23:36] And God's sword of judgment will carry out that. Will carry out God's will. Verse 35 a sword. Notice the repetition of the sword. Some of the commentators call this the ode to the sword.

[23:51] Now of course in one sense that's literal as armies overthrow it. But in another sense this is pointing to something much bigger and much more profound.

[24:02] If you read the book of Revelation again read 17 and 18 about the fall of Babylon and after that the rider on the white horse comes out of heaven with the hosts of heaven following him and out of his mouth comes a sharp sword which destroys his enemies.

[24:20] Now what is that sword? That sword is surely the sword of the word itself. The word which created and the word which destroys. The judgment comes through that word which has been defied.

[24:36] And over and over again remember in Hebrews the word of the Lord is sharp and powerful penetrating like a two-edged sword into really getting right into who we are.

[24:48] That heart which Jeremiah says is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. It's a judgment on those who trust in their own power. In verse 36 a sword against the diviners those who trust in the power of the occult the power of idols.

[25:08] Judgment on their military power a sword against the horse against their horses and against her chariots. Judgment on their economic power sword against all her treasures the end of verse 37.

[25:22] These are the things that all of us so often depend on don't we? Power to influence events power over people power over circumstances all of these are going to be judged and they're going to be judged verse 40 as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities the dust of human power and achievement the world passes away and all its desires but whoever does the will of God remains forever the God of the everlasting covenant who will be faithful to that covenant even when we are faithless but the second thing in these chapters as we come to chapter 51 now verses verses 12 to 19 this is the God who made heaven and earth look at verse 15 of chapter 51 it is he who made the earth by his power who established the world by his wisdom and by his understanding stretched out the heavens this is at the very heart of

[26:27] Israel's faith Israel is surrounded by gods but they're all human inventions what does the psalmist say my help is in the name of Yahweh who made heaven and earth now that is a very very practical truth it's not just a theory it's not just an idea about the universe an idea about the physical chemical structure of the universe it's extremely practical if the Lord made heaven and earth there is nothing in heaven and earth that can withstand his purposes this wonderful poem here which Jeremiah has already used in chapter 10 interestingly used in chapter 10 to condemn Judah who had become idolatrous now used to condemn Babylon God is not trapped in the universe now that's been the thinking of so much of the last century and more people in the early 20th century like Bertrand Russell and the Huxleys and others arguing that the world is a closed system that the only way we can understand the world is through the world the only way you can understand the world is studying chemistry and physics and history and all the rest of it now these are all valuable subjects but they trap us in the universe don't they they mean that we can see nothing beyond it we can't look back because history has no point we can't look forward because there is no event at the end of history we can't look upwards because there's no one there so if we can't look back and forwards and upwards there's only one place we can look and that's inwards and we become wholly self-absorbed and think the world belongs to us that we glory to man in the highest said the poet

[28:12] Swinburne in the 19th century for man is the master of all things and of course Dawkins and others in our own day still peddle that view it's amazing actually how many intelligent people I mean David Attenborough for example probably knows far more about the planet than anyone else on the planet and yet he does not see beyond that to the creator how Paul puts it in Romans one worship the creation rather than the creator who is blessed forever so God is not trapped in his creation notice he utters his voice makes the mist rise makes lightning from the rain that echoes possibly some passages in the book of Job about his wisdom about his understanding controlling wind and wave that is what the God of the Bible does and that explains doesn't it the awestruck question of the disciples on the lake of Galilee who then is this that even the winds and the waves obey him that's so important their dawning self-understanding of who Jesus was he is the eternal

[29:23] Lord of creation and he is the covenant Lord verse 19 not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob for he is the one who formed all things and Israel is the tribe of inheritance the Lord of hosts is his name we so often seen this Jacob Israel parallel Jacob what we are by nature Israel what he makes us by grace and it's one of those many passages you get in the Bible you have God working on a vast canvas the galaxies the the Milky Way the huge splendors which modern science have revealed more to us through radio telescopes and so on and yet the God who cares for little Jacob he is the portion of Jacob why should Jacob go after idols why should Jacob care about all this fantasy when the one who is Jacob's inheritance is the one who formed all things the

[30:26] Lord of hosts the hosts of heaven the angel hosts the starry hosts sometimes the hosts of Israel as in the David and Goliath story so there is nothing in heaven and earth which can thwart his purposes that's why Paul says nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord there's another practical implication as well doesn't it that there is no part of our lives there's no part of the lives of Jacob and Israel which is not his concern as well the pagan heart is a divided heart paganism essentially plays off one God against another you try to locate the dark gods the god of darkness of war and death and you try to please the good gods and goddesses goddesses of fertility of love and so on but the bible slices through this all what the devout you every morning said hear o Israel

[31:29] Yahweh is your God Yahweh is one he is not a god in charge of your holidays another one in charge of your work another one in charge of your relationship there is one god and you know how the new testament develops this one mediator between god and humans the man Christ Jesus see there is no third option between Babylon and Zion god judges the world the world passes away and on the last day there will be no third option it will be the lord or it will be idols so we have the god of the everlasting covenant the god who made heaven and earth the god and finally in this last little section this little narrative section at the end of chapter 51 59 and following the god whose word never fails this is our last glimpse of the prophet jeremiah notice of course thus far are the words of jeremiah the last verse and it could also be translated the words of jeremiah are ended now the words of jeremiah are ended but the book of jeremiah isn't ended we've got another another day god willing to finish off the book but this is the final glimpse of the prophet and once again as we saw a few weeks ago in chapters 45 and 36 another glimpse of this book coming together and as this book comes together like all the biblical books there are always two sides there is the human activity and the divine overruling sarah a high official a quarter master the steward under king zedekiah and very probably the brother of baruch jeremiah's secretary and he and he is what writes in a scroll all the disaster verse 60 that will come upon babylon obviously these chapters perhaps much more of a book remember how in 36 we saw the scroll coming together and we noticed at the time that's rather like what

[33:38] Luke says at the beginning of his gospel I've listened to what people say I've read what people have written I've done my homework and I've put it together and the result the process rather is superintended by the Holy Spirit so the words that he bears are not just the words of Luke but the words of God and similarly here not just the words of Baruch and Jeremiah it is the word of the Lord so that's significant here as the words of Jeremiah ends the Israel had been judged severely by the exile and this last glimpse of Jeremiah ends so often in the book with an acted parable way back in chapter 13 he was told to bury his belt at the Euphrates and other acted parables and the potter's shed and so on now here is another one and first of all we have a daring action Jeremiah verse 6 said to

[34:40] Sarai when you come to Babylon see that you read all these words and say oh Lord you have said concerning this place that you will cut it off that nothing shall dwell on it neither man nor beast and it shall be desolate forever that's a very dangerous mission forty days and none of us shall be overthrown remember Jonah was so terrified now Sarai has been given a similar message to take to Babylon and as we read the story and it's an exciting story if you haven't read it make sure you do and dip into it of how the Bible came to us daring exploits of people like Wycliffe and Tyndale and others who risked their lives and gave their lives so that we could have the scripture in our own language Sarai here like his brother or half brother Baruch stands among these courageous people who risked everything to bring us the word the other thing is we are not very far into the exile and the people who heard it in Babylon many of them would probably mock it because after all it would only be the very very youngest who would see it beginning to be fulfilled we've seen this multi-layer fulfillment the pioneers return to build the temple

[35:54] Ezra comes later and then Nehemiah to consolidate the work Ezra to consolidate it by preaching the word Nehemiah to consolidate it by his administrative skills and his building the walls and the city that's only a partial fulfillment fulfilled when the on the day of Pentecost when people from every tribe and language and nation hear the words of God in their own language and it keeps on being fulfilled as the word spreads throughout the world often referred to the early chapters of Acts taking that message that living word part of which is the book of Jeremiah to the nation so there's this daring action and symbolically the destruction of Babylon this is echoed again in Revelation it's an angel who takes the stone and throws it into the river and that's really the second thing this is the divine word judging the world

[36:55] I suggested the sword in chapter 50 is almost certainly the word of God itself and this is the final passing away of the world you see Babylon did Babylon was conquered by Cyrus the Persian that didn't really fulfill these prophecies because as far as we can gather Cyrus took it over relatively peacefully and the city was not destroyed at that time so we're clearly looking beyond it to the final passing away of the world this kingdom of God will come and the kingdom of this world will pass away now that kind of teaching does not make us to use the ridiculous phrase too heavenly minded to be of any earthly use has anyone here ever met anyone like that I most certainly have not and it's certainly not my temptation my temptations are all the opposite to be very comfortable in this world thank you very much

[37:58] I rather like it and so the point is this kind of teaching will tell us to as Jeremiah said to pray for the welfare of the city to be good citizens good neighbours and so on to work well in this world but to remember it's passing away the world passes away God and God's word do not pass away the God who is the God of the eternal covenant the God who made heaven and earth and the God whose word never fails see the more certain we are that one day Jesus will return to wind up the affairs of this world and to usher in a better one the more necessary it is that we engage in all lawful and worthy activities until he comes indeed that's the only motive that will keep us going any other motive will prove too weak any other sources of strength will let us down the fact that the world passes away but those who do the will of

[39:05] God remain forever that's what Jeremiah is saying in these chapters 51 and 52 amen let's pray father help us to live for you in this passing world help us to be good citizens good neighbors and to engage in all lawful and worthy activities but help us to look beyond to the day of the coming to the day when the new heaven and the new earth will be ushered in and where Jesus Christ will reign forever and ever we look forward to that day in his name amen