I please God to bless us together
this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn to the book
of Genesis chapter 8 and reading verse 22, the last verse. The book of Genesis chapter 8
and reading verse 22. While the earth remaineth, seed
time and harvest and gold and heat, cold and heat, and summer
and winter, and day and night shall not cease." We may consider this to be a
promise from Almighty God. It is really, we might call,
a covenant promise. A covenant promise is a sworn
conditional promise. And here we have this promise
from God. It was so necessary, of course,
to Noah and his family, as they came out of the ark, to be encouraged
by such a word as this. They'd seen a terrible situation. They'd seen the annihilation
of all mankind apart from their family. They'd seen a destruction
of every living creature on the earth. Of course the fishes still
remained, but nonetheless there was a total desolation. They'd been in the ark for some
year, and now we see that God had brought about the occasion
when they were able to leave the ark and to come down onto
the earth and to sacrifice unto their God. And God therefore
smelled that sacrifice as we read. It was indeed a sweet savour. And the Lord said in his heart,
I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. For the
imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither
will I again smite anymore every living thing as I have done.
And so then he gives this promise. A promise which has remained
through all those years up to the present moment of time. Because
he says here, seed time and harvest every year would occur. Well
of course it didn't occur in that year of the flood. There
was no seed time and there was no harvest. It was a time of
total desolation. But now he tells them that this
seed time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter,
and day and night shall not cease. And so, down through the ages,
we have proved the truth of that. There have sometimes been famines
in parts of the world, but not all the world. There's always
been sea time and always been harvest. And if we think of our
current year, you think what a wonderful harvest there has
been, an abundant harvest. and really how unworthy we are
as a country to have such wonderful blessings. But still the Lord
is faithful. And it is because we have the
word of God to rely upon that we can recognize his faithfulness
toward us. Remember what the prophet Jeremiah
said when he wrote his Lamentations. And in the third chapter, in
the 23rd verse, we read these beautiful words. They are new
every morning. What's that? It is of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed. Because His compassions fail
not, they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. And here we have then the faithfulness
of our God being proclaimed, that this will always remain
while the world remaineth. And Jeremiah goes on to say,
the Lord is my portion, saith my soul therefore will I hope
in him. What a blessing for you and me
today. If we are trusting in the Lord, if we are believing
in his faithfulness, And as Jeremiah says, the Lord is good unto them.
Who is he good unto? Is he good unto you? Is he good
unto me? Well, it's qualified. And here's the qualifying statement.
The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that
seeketh him. And so may we be able this morning
to lay hold of a promise like that. and to believe, yes, well,
I am praying to God, I am waiting for him, I am seeking to him. Remember, the Lord Jesus tells
us, those that seek shall find. What a blessed encouragement
it is to those who are seeking, seeking to know that their souls
are right with God, seeking to know that they are saved with
everlasting salvation, seeking to know The Lord Jesus Christ
has died for them upon Calvary's cross, seeking to know that he
has atoned for all their sins, seeking to know that they are
washed in the precious blood of the Saviour, seeking to know
that it is well with their soul, seeking to know that one day
they will be with Christ, which is far better. Here we have then
this encouragement. Why? Because God is faithful. God is faithful. Let us always
remember that. We may be unfaithful, we are
unfaithful, so, so much. But blessed be God, he is faithful
and therefore his promises are sure and certain. And we can
base that faithfulness and base our hope on such a word as this. While the earth remaineth, seed
time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and
day and night shall not cease. Now really I just want to start
with these words which commence this verse, while the earth remaineth. What does that mean? It means
there will be a time when the earth does not remain. It means
there will be a time when this earth will be no longer as we
know it. And therefore the truth of these
words only apply to the time while the earth remaineth. Well, the time will come when
the earth will not remain. And Peter in his second epistle,
he refers to this truth and the situation
which will come, and he reminds us of the situation, he tells
us about Noah's flood, he says, for this they, sorry, fourth
verse is saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since
the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were
from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant
of. that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the
earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the
world that then was being overflowed with water perished." And it's
a very significant statement, is it not, here. As people say,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation,
or many people of course will say today, all things continue
ever since the Big Bang occurred. Well of course they don't realize
that there's no such thing as a Big Bang and of course a Big
Bang couldn't have occurred anyway because there needed to be matter
to produce a Big Bang. So how wrong they are but nonetheless
people want to believe that things will just continue as they are.
They don't want to anticipate that there will be a time when
the earth does not remain They don't want to think about that
time when all things will be burnt up. And yet the Word of
God is very clear and it's very true that these things will happen. And so here the Apostle Peter
directs the Church of God to the truth concerning these things. He tells them, but the heavens
and the earth which are now by the same word I kept in store,
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition
of godly men." So the Lord is reserving this world. It's remaining
still a moment, remains still until today, but there's a day
that God has reserved. day only known to God the Lord
Jesus said known to his father that day reserved that day of
judgment that will come and how Important it is and it's so important
that the Apostle Peter tells us he says but beloved It's good
how he addresses the Church of God, but beloved that means you
and me be not ignorant of of this one thing, that one day
is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as
one day. The Lord is not slack. That means
he doesn't forget his promises. The Lord doesn't forget what
he has ordained to do. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering
to us, Lord. not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance." Well, what a blessed truth that
is. Coming back to those words you
see in Lamentations, those that seek, the Lord will hear. He
will hear their prayers. And so may we be blessed with
that great gift of repentance. And we will only repent if the
Lord has brought us to an understanding of our need, of a Saviour, to
realise the condition that we are in, that we are lost and
that we are ruined because of Adam's sin which passed upon
all mankind. We are born in sin and shaped
in iniquity. We are all unworthy of any blessing. We all deserve endless hell because
of our sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. And so to believe that we have
a wonderful God who still is long-suffering to us, Ward, and
to believe and to have that good hope that He's long-suffering
to you and to me, because of His faithfulness, because of
His promise to remember His faithfulness, is set forth in these words,
that their sea time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter,
day and night, shall not cease. while the earth remaineth. But
it will cease when the world is no more. And so here we have
this gracious encouragement, but that all should come to repentance. How important it is that we all
need to know our need of a saviour and our need to come to repent
of our sins, to be sorry for our sins and the desire not to
continue in sin. Now I know of course we have
sin which is within us, and we have to contend with it every
moment of our life. But notwithstanding that, what
a blessing when the Spirit of God gives us a desire after holiness,
not after sinfulness. We have those two natures. Let
us never forget our old nature goes after sin. But if God has
given us a new nature, the new birth, there will be that desire
after righteousness, after holiness, and we shall understand the battle
there is in our hearts between that which is dead of the flesh
of the world and that which is of the Spirit which is life eternal.
And so Peter goes on, having spoken to that, and we're not
to be ignorant, he says, but the day of the Lord will come,
will come, as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall
melt with a fervent heat, the earth also and the works that
are therein shall be burned up." It's a very vivid description,
isn't it, of that which will occur when the earth no longer
remains in the condition that we know it today. What a time
that will be. What a terrible day. What a frightening
day to all those who are not found in Christ. Those who are
following their own life, following their own way, content with their
sinful life. What a terrible awakening that
will be. Let me read it again. The day
of the Lord will come as a thief in the night when no one is expecting
it. in the which the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise. Think of all the planets, think
of all the stars, passing away with a great noise. Something
we can't imagine, can we? Just beyond our comprehension.
But the reason is that we don't really understand the greatness
of our God. Our God holds all these things
in his hands. The planets and the stars are
there because Almighty God has put them there and he holds them
there. And so here he says, and they'll
pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with
a fervent heat. The earth also and the works
that are therein shall be burned up, seeing then that all these
things shall be dissolved. It's quite certain it will come.
People don't like to believe it, they don't want to believe
it, but it's certain it will come, and therefore he tells
us, and he points this question, what manner of persons ought
ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? How poignant that
is, isn't it, to all of us, as we live in this world. which
is fast hastening to that time when it will no longer remain. And of course, when it no longer
remains, there'll be no more sea time or harvest or night
or day. Because remember, in eternity, there is endless day
for God's people and endless night for the wicked. There'll
be no sun because the Lord Jesus as the sun of righteousness will
be all the light the church of God will need, but there will
be outer darkness for all those who are in hell. Now the apostle
therefore says, seeing that all these things shall be dissolved,
what manner of persons ought ye to be, that's you and me,
in all holy conversation and godliness? That's the path that
you and I should be concerned, to have holy conversation. Holy conversation. You may ask,
and you children may ask me, what is holy conversation? Well,
it's speaking about the things of God. It's speaking about the
truth of God. It's speaking about those things
which have occurred, And it's speaking about those things which
will occur. And it's speaking about the great
and glorious work of God in salvation. Now, this is holy conversation. And godliness is joined together. And godliness is the opposite
to worldliness. And so easy it is, isn't it,
for you children and young people to follow Well, all of us, isn't
it? We shouldn't limit it to young people. It's the same for
all of us. It's so easy to be following
worldliness. The world today is all around
us. The world comes into our homes,
doesn't it? Mobile phones and the internet
and all those things, the world is in our homes, isn't it? Well,
what does the Word of God here say? What manner of persons we
ought to be. in all holy conversation and
godliness. Doing those things which are
right. Not doing those things which are wrong. Following those
things which are God-honouring. Not doing those things which
are God-dishonouring. And so remember, it means our
conversation. You are not to tell lies. You
are not to swear. You are to do those things which
are right. Godliness. Holy conversation. Now, you will need God's power
to do this, because left to ourselves we are ungodly in our conversation. It's not godly conversation,
it's not holy conversation. Left to ourselves we very easily
lapse into unholy conversation, don't we? And that's why The
apostles tell us, and that's why the Word of God records it
for us today, to remember the truth of this. While the earth
remaineth, and we know it won't always remain, and there will
become a day when it's dissolved, and so therefore we're faced
with the reality of this situation, the Word of God speaks to us
in these words. that we might indeed be blessed
with a life of holy conversation and godliness. And we should
endeavour and pray that we may be like that. Now, it's easy
to say, well of course I can't do these things. Well we can't,
in and of ourselves, but my friends, it's wrong to just turn away
from it and give up and say, well I'm going to continue as
I am. Remember the Word of God speaks about his people as being
lights in the world. It doesn't speak about the God's
people being darkness and following the ways of the devil. It speaks
of God's people being as light. And if we are light, what does
that mean? The Lord Jesus Christ is light. He is the light of the world.
And if we desire and profess to be a follower of the Lord
Jesus Christ, surely our concern, surely our prayer should be that
we might have much grace to be found walking this way in a holy
conversation and godliness. And then he says, looking for
and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. Remember, the
Apostle Paul spoke very similar words when he addressed his son
in the faith, Titus, and he spoke to Titus about that same desire,
he says, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing
of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. So, here we have
these two apostles, both under the inspiration of the Spirit
of God, encouraging us to be found looking, looking up, looking
forward to the day of God's appearing. And so it says, looking for and
hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens
being on fire shall be dissolved, and all the elements shall melt
with fervent heat. Well, are you and I looking for
that day, looking forward to that day? Or are we thinking,
no, I don't want that day to come. I've got a lot of things
I want to do. My friends, our life is vanishing
away. Eternity is before us. Eternity
stands at our door. Are we then listening to what
God speaks to our hearts, looking for and hasting unto the coming
of the day of God? where in the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. Remember, the earth won't remain forever. It won't
remain forever. And every day is a day nearer,
the day when the earth will be dissolved. And so he says, nevertheless,
nevertheless, don't be discouraged, nevertheless, we The people of
God, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, purity, holiness. What a blessed
scene it is for the Church of God to look forward to, and that
forever, in eternal light, no night, no day, while the earth
remains as night and day. When the earth ceases to remain,
there's no night and no day. And so he tells us, wherefore
beloved, how the Apostle addresses the Church of God. And so does
the Apostle John address the Church of God. Beloved, wherefore
beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent
that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless. Well, we are encouraged, aren't
we, to be diligent in the things of God. The devil wants us to
be the opposite. He wants us to have no concern
about our eternal state. He wants us to live our life
as though we were living forever. That's how he wants us to live
our life, so we can live forever on this earth. And this is our
home. That's what people want, isn't
it? They don't want to find that their life's hasting away. I always remember years ago in
South Africa, I was with a group of people, and there was a woman
there. And she said, oh, she said, somebody said, oh, it's
your birthday tomorrow. And she said, oh, I hate birthdays. Why did she hate birthdays? Because
it evidenced that her life was ebbing away. She hated to be
reminded that she was moving on through life. She said, I
hate birthdays. Well, may we indeed think of
birthdays as a year nearer, our eternal home, not something to
hate, not something to turn away from, as a reminder that another
year of God's mercy, another year of his favour has passed
by. and we're a year nearer that
time when by His grace we shall look on His face. That will be
glory, be glory for me." Well, here we have these gracious words
of the Lord then, reminding us, while the earth remaineth, it
won't remain forever, but while it does remain, to be encouraged
to know that God's promises are sure and certain. And we see
the confirmation of that. We don't deserve it as a world
today, do we? There's so much wickedness existing. So much wickedness. Terrible,
isn't it? And just recently, last week,
we actually read of that account of that mega church in the Philippines,
I think it was. where the pastor and his elders
were all convicted of gross embezzlement of millions of pounds. A church
which has, I think, 25,000 people worshipping on a Sunday. But
what were they going for? Entertainment. There was a big
band. There was a big orchestra. There
was no real worship. It was really just entertainment.
My friends, what a tragic scene it is. In many places in the
world today, there is just entertainment. There's not real worship. There's
no worship. They're just going through the
motion, acting as though they were worshipping God. They're
worshipping the devil. They're following the devil.
The devil's got them in his grips. He's shown them this is a very
easy religion. Isn't it enjoyable? Dancing around and jumping up
and down. no work of God in the soul. Well at the moment God
is merciful and is still granting that there is this seed time
and harvest, cold and heat and summer and winter and day and
night shall not cease. It won't cease until the time
when earth no longer remains and then all these things will
finish. It won't be there anymore, but
we have today and we can look back and bless God that we have
this promise. Because as we hear and see this
work being performed, we can be encouraged to know that we
worship that true and same God. That God who spoke these things,
and as you know, one of the confirmations was that God gave to Noah was
the rainbow, wasn't it, you children? It's lovely, I always love to
see a rainbow. And a few weeks ago I saw a wonderful rainbow
going right across the sky from one end right to the other end.
You don't often see a complete rainbow. But I was travelling
down to Kent and it was right across the sky. And what does
it remind us of? The promises of God. What does
it remind us of? The faithfulness of God. God
is faithful. And God granted that there would
be that rainbow. to encourage us to know, I am
the Lord, I change not. Now God spoke through Malachi
those words, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Because of our sins, remember
God is a holy God, God cannot look upon sin, but he sees us
through Christ. And as he sees us through Christ,
He sees us holy. He sees us washed. He sees us
clothed to cover our nakedness, not with our righteousness, which
we may have at one time tried to grasp hold of and try and
improve ourselves so that we were just in our own eyes and
just in the eyes of God. Nowhere, no way can we do that. But what a blessing to know that
the Lord gives us, gives us. His perfect robe of righteousness,
that heavenly dress to cover our nakedness, and it's pure. There's no sin. You see, no sinner
can ever enter into glory, only those who are washed, who are
cleansed, who are made white in the blood of the Lamb. You and I, my friends, will never
get to glory unless we are washed in the blood of the Lamb. Now,
we may not always realise the wonderful blessing that that
is. But nonetheless, the Word of
God is true because the Lord has given us life. Given us life,
then the wonderful blessing is that we are We are cleansed,
we are washed, as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians. And in the first epistle to the
Corinthians, and in the sixth chapter, he speaks to the Corinthians. And the Corinthians, as we know,
were, generally speaking, a very wicked people, a very sinful
people, left to themselves. But he tells them this. And such
were some of you, not all, such were some of you, those who are
blessed with the Spirit of God. But ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of God. So if the promises of God are
applied to our heart and we are able to trace out His work and
that quickening work, that enlivening work which gives us to realise
our condition before our Holy God. There's no hope in ourselves. There's no righteousness in ourselves.
We have to look out of ourselves. We are to look up. We are to
look to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to behold the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sin of the world, the world they're
of course referring to, the Church of God. He takes away our sins. And because of that, these words
are so, so true. And such were some of you. But
ye are washed, washed in the blood of the Lamb. It's a very
solemn and a very sacred and a very wonderful thought to think
that when the Lord Jesus Christ gave his life upon that cross
at Calvary, when he died there, it was to atone for the sins
of his church, and that was set forth by the shedding of his
most precious blood. It's no wonder, isn't it, that
the Apostle writes to the Hebrews and says, without shedding of
blood there's no remission of sin, there's no forgiveness.
But, bless God, the blood was shed. Christ died to atone for
our sins. However bad they are, However
bad they are, my friends, they're all washed away. Not one sin left. So here is the statement, but
ye are washed if we are blessed to realise the Lord has come
to us and indeed quickened us, made us alive. who were dead
in trespasses and in sins. Blessed with that this word is
true and applies to us today. But ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of God. I'm just passing on for a moment
to realise the Apostle then says, all things are lawful unto me,
but all things are not expedient." Sometimes we allow ourselves
to do things which we think are lawful, and we can say, well
that's okay, I can do that. Well we need to just analyse
it a bit more carefully and to seek for grace to discern whether
it is being expedient. You might say, what does that
mean? What it means, whether it's going to be a blessing to
our souls or whether it's not going to be a blessing to our
souls. That really is what it means.
Whether it's going to do us any good in our souls or not. We might justify it in our own
hearts and think, well I can do that, I can carry on in those
things. Is it bringing us nearer to God? Or is it taking us farther away?
Well, and so this gracious promise to Noah and his family, and it's
a gracious promise to the Church of God to be encouraged today,
that as we see these things occurring, we can therefore believe the
whole truth of God's Word. There's the evidence around us,
and the evidence therefore that we have a God who does hear and
answer prayer. A God who rules and reigns. The
promises of God, you can follow them through, and you can follow
them through the very many promises of God to his people. I know
you children have recently considered at Sunday school the case of
Gideon, haven't you? Now Gideon, well he was fearful,
wasn't he? He was told he was going to go
and destroy the Midianites. Well he was fearful, wasn't he?
But God spoke to him and God told him he would be with him,
the almighty man of valor. It's a promise of God. Well,
to be strengthened and encouraged by that, he could remember, he
could go back to this promise that Moses recorded in Genesis
and realize, yes, this same God that spoke these words to Noah
so many years ago has now spoken these words to me. and therefore
to rest in that promise. And as we know, God wonderfully
appeared for his servant. And what a clear evidence it
was of God's power on his behalf. He had a great army, had to be
reduced right down to just a mere 300 people, and they didn't have
to fight. What a wonderful deliverance
it was. Now we have today the same God,
the God who promised Noah, the God who came and spoke and blessed
with Gideon. And you follow all the people,
you can think of David, in the many battles he fought, and what
did he often pray? There was the enemy. And he prayed
to God, he said this, shall I pursue? He asked God if he should fight
the battle. Well, God answered him. Sometimes
yes, sometimes no. But when the Lord said, yes,
go and pursue, the Lord was with him. The Lord granted the victory. The Lord was gracious. The Lord
directed him. Sometimes the victories don't come immediately. Sometimes
there's a number of battles to fight before the victory comes. But remember, God's promises
will be fulfilled. And the great blessing is to
know that God's promises will be fulfilled in each of our lives
if he has come and spoken to our souls. And we can rejoice
in that great promise in Jeremiah 31 verse 3. Yea, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love and therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Now, if you and I have known
anything of God's touch By that I mean his drawing influence. We've been inclined to him. We've
been drawn to him. Drawn to him to pray to him for
our soul's salvation. He's drawn us because of his
love toward us, because of his mercy toward us, because of his
faithfulness, because of his promise to the living Church
of God. or then be encouraged. Press
on to believe he who has begun a good work in us will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. Yes, the promises of God are
sure and certain. They are yay and amen. God never
fails. His promises are certain. And
so as we have this word here this morning before us, a very
simple statement, isn't it? But it's a very encouraging statement.
It's a statement which to the present moment of time has been
proved and it's been tested. And you and I can prove and test
the promises of God and we shall never be dismayed. And the Lord
will never, as it were, let us down. They are sure and certain. And may we today be encouraged
by such a statement, while the earth remaineth. Remember, it
will one day perish. May we therefore be amongst those
who are looking for his appearing. Sea time and harvest, and cold
and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not
cease. You know there are a number of
words of encouragement to speak to us about that. And in the
Psalms we read, you know, Psalm 74 tells us, he says this, Thou has set all the borders
of the earth Thou has made summer and winter remember this But
the enemy has reproached O Lord the foolish people of blaspheme
thy name see there is another word of encouragement To know
that that which God speaks is true Isaiah also speaks the same
words of encouragement these prophets of the Lord wonderful,
isn't it? To encourage us today, Isaiah 54 and verse 9, we also
read, For this is as the waters of Nuh unto me. For as I have
sworn that the waters of Nuh should no more go with the earth,
so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke
thee. For the mountains shall depart,
and the hills be removed. My kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. Well, wonderful, isn't
it? And now, as I commenced, I spoke
of the covenant, the covenant promise which it was. And Jeremiah
speaks in his prophecy of this promise in the 33rd chapter He
speaks and says, thus saith the Lord. The word of the Lord came
unto Jeremiah saying, thus saith the Lord. My friends, God today
speaks in the same way to our souls. Thus saith the Lord, not
the word of a man, the word of God. If you can break my covenant
of the day and my covenant of the night, and that these should
not be day and night in their seasons, then May also my covenant
be broken with David, my servant, that he should not have a son
to reign over his throne and with the Levites, the priests
and ministers. Well, no, it cannot be broken
as God has promised until the time when the earth remains no
more. So today, may we be able to go
in the strength of the Lord God, make mention of him, even of
his righteousness only. Amen.