Sermon in Minneapolis 16.11.2008

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, let us begin our services with opening prayer and thanksgiving.

Dear Heavenly Father, again this evening we wish to thank you for this opportunity to gather around your holy word. Father, we ask for your protection and guidance, and that you would feed us with your everlasting gospel, the word of life. And keep us on this straight and narrow way in the fellowship of your kingdom, and bring us one day to our everlasting home in the glory of heaven. All of this we ask in the name of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Today is the next to the last Sunday in the church calendar. We are now approaching Judgment Sunday, which is next Sunday, which reminds us of the end of all times and the final judgment. And so, likewise, today's theme speaks of that image and the approaching of the final day, and admonishes us to be watchful in faith.

The Old Testament psalm text for today is from Psalms chapter 90, verses 1 through 6, and 12 through 15. And we will hear the following words:

Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as a flood; they are as a sleep. In the morning they are like grass, which groweth up. In the morning it flourishes and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth. So, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? And let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O, satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Amen.

It was the year 1912. On the day of April 15, the captain of a large ship began the day by giving a morning devotion to all of his passengers. And there were over 1,500 passengers on that ship. At the conclusion of that devotion, everyone sang a song written by Martin Luther. One verse of that song says that time is like an ever-rolling stream, soon bears us all away. We fly forgotten as a stream. Time dies.

Sixteen hours later, the 1,502 passengers on the Titanic realized very clearly and fully the truth of the words of Martin Luther's song that he had written, on the basis of this psalm text that we read tonight from Psalms 90: "Thou carriest them away as a flood; they are as a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up. In the morning it flourishes and grows up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth."

How many of those 1,500 passengers survived to see life? We are reminded in this psalm text and in the theme of today that life is brief. Life is short. We as human beings are mortal, and each one of us will one day pass from this life. We will not live here forever.

So the psalm writer is not David. He is not David. And I would ask you, in the audience, can you guess who wrote this psalm? The author of this psalm has written only one psalm, one of the psalms, and he lived long before King David. His name was Moses. And according to historical data, apparently Moses wrote this one and only psalm that is recorded here in the Bible.

We remember that Moses led the people of Israel those 40 years in the wilderness. He led them out of the bondage of Egypt into the wilderness toward the promised land of Israel, Canaan. God gave unto Moses and then Moses unto the people his holy law. Moses was able to lead the people through the wilderness for those many years up to the borders of the promised land. But Moses was not able to enter into the promised land. He was buried outside of the land of Canaan. And to this day, his grave has not been found.

According to historians, they assume or they estimate that perhaps 2 million people of Israel departed from Egypt for the promised land of Canaan. And the Bible relates that of all of the people that departed on that journey, only two were able to enter into the promised land of Israel.

So if we take 2 million of the people departed from Egypt to the promised land and divide that by 40 years, we have 31,580 people who died per year. That calculates to be 87 people of that throng of the people of Israel who died per day during the wilderness journey. So we can say that the wilderness journey turned out to be for them a very large and great cemetery.

This psalm text that we read this evening that was assigned for this Sunday is known as a psalm of death or a funeral psalm. It is very commonly used at funeral occasions. And here Moses, the author of this psalm, is putting in juxtaposition or in comparison to each other God the Creator and human beings who are mortal and have a transient life here on this earth.

So the psalm writer begins in this way: "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations." God has been our dwelling place. It is interesting to note how when the apostle Paul was visiting with those philosophers in that locality of that time, Paul was inspired to deliver a sermon unto them when they had erected a statue and dedicated it to the unknown God.

And so the apostle Paul began to speak about God, God the Creator, whom these philosophers considered to be an unknown God. And Paul said in this way that in Him, in God, we live, we dwell, and have our habitation.

The church father Augustine said in this way that we have been created with an everlasting soul, an undying soul, and it is God's purpose and intent that we would one day be able to be all, hopefully all, of course that will not happen because of sin and unbelief, but He would desire and hope that human beings would be able to be with Him there one day. That was God's hope, wish, and plan.

And so therefore the church father Augustine says that the human being's soul is restless, is not at peace until one is able to find rest, that true rest and peace which is with God.

Moses writes in his fifth book of Moses, which is known as Deuteronomy, about God in our inhabitation with Him. He says, "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And He shall thrust out the enemy from before you and shall say, Destroy them."

So before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. So God is omnipotent. He is all-powerful. He is omniscient. He is all-knowing. He is everywhere at the same time. And not only this, but He is the Creator. Before the world existed, God was there. At the time of creation, as the Bible says, God was there. Even while we were in our mother's womb, God was there. And one day when this world comes to an end, ceases to be, will be destroyed, will burn with fervent heat, God will still continue and He will be God. And so God is eternal. God is everlasting. God is the Creator of heaven and earth, things that are visible and things that are as well.

So then the psalm writer Moses then turns to talk about us as human beings. And in verse three: "Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest, Return, ye children of men."

One Sunday school child had then at Sunday school, and there they listened to the Sunday school lesson from the teacher. And the teacher was talking about human beings, that we are mortal, we are transient, and was talking using the words that are used at funerals: "From dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. Jesus Christ will raise you on the last day."

Of course, children are very sincere and think in a very concrete way. They are not able to think abstractly and so on and so forth. So the child comes home and happens to look at the bed in the bedroom and these dust balls that hadn't been cleaned and goes to tell the parent that there's someone underneath the bed, but I don't know whether the person is coming or going. So I thought it was a little comical little story about a young child trying to relate to the dirt that he learned in the beginning. This was a child that had been there together: "From dust thou art, unto dust thou shalt return. Jesus Christ our Savior will raise you on the last day."

The child did.

"For a thousand years in thy sight are but yesterday." This is what the psalmist quotes, and this is a portion that Peter uses in one of his epistles. And he says, "A thousand years are like a year in the eyes of God, and one day in the eyes of God is like a thousand years."

We know that this has been misinterpreted over time. And when people have tried to literally interpret it, they have thought that this means that God created the world in 6,000 years or six days, that means the world will be only 6,000 years old, and then on the seventh day will be the day of rest. God will rest from His work, and that will be the end of the world.

And so, fundamentalistically interpreting that scripture portion, many have, or some people have, come up with this idea that the world will last only 6,000 years, and then God will rest. The world will come to its end.

But this is only a metaphor. This is only a picture. And what it is wishing to say is God and His time are not equal to our time. We do not know as human beings how long it took for God to create and do His work of creation on each of His days. It could have been thousands of years. It could have been millions of years each one of His days of creation.

We as human beings were not even able to calculate time as we do until the fourth day, when the lunar bodies were created and placed into the earth's atmosphere: the sun and the moon and the stars. Isn't this how we began to calculate time? One day is one complete revolution of the earth. Sun rises in the morning, sets in the evening, and when the sun rises again the following morning, that is one day, or as we call it, 24 hours.

So simply, what the psalmist is wishing to say, and what Peter the epistle writer is wishing to relate to us, is simply this: God's time is not equal to our time. God is above and beyond the realm of time. And God is everlasting. We are mortal and transient human beings.

"For a thousand years in your sight are but yesterday, when it is past, and as a watch in the night."

Here then he is referring to the Jewish way of dividing up the period of night time, which is from six o'clock in the evening when the sun sets until the sun rises in the morning, six o'clock the following morning. The Jews divide that 12-hour period of time into three watches, each having four hours in length.

And if we think of us as human beings, when we lay our head down on the pillow at night and fall asleep, and then we wake up in the morning, and we say, even though we had slept six, if we're lucky, maybe eight hours or more, doesn't it seem like just a wink of an eye? We had just laid our head down on the pillow, and all of those hours have quickly passed by.

And so that is why he is saying, and comparing the time of this earth and our lifetime as human beings, that we are quickly carried away as a flood. The destruction of a flood, which may happen very suddenly, very quickly, and be but for a very brief time. And it is as a sleep. Happens very quickly, and seems like a twinkle of an eye.

In the morning, they are like, or human beings are like grass, which begins to grow. In the morning it flourishes and grows up, and in the evening it is cut down, and it withers.

So then, later on, he continues that the days of our years are three score and ten. So here the psalmist is saying that the average life of a human being is seventy years. And if by reason of strength they be four score, or in other words, eighty years, yet it is their strength, labor, and sorrow. For soon it is cut off, and we fly away.

So the psalmist is wishing to, in connection with the theme of today, remind us that we as human beings will not be here forever. One day we will have to leave this earth, leave this life, and go and meet our Creator. One day the world will come to an end, and the graves will open up. The sea will give up all of those individuals that have drowned within. No one will be able to escape that final day.

A believing brother was one time visiting with an individual that he met in town, an unbelieving individual. And they were talking about the end of time and the final judgment. And that unbelieving individual said, "I will not be there at that final occasion, at the final judgment."

The believing brother responded, "You won't be asked whether you want to be there or not. Everyone will be there with no exceptions."

And this is what the Apostle Paul confesses when he was before Felix while in Jerusalem for his last time. When he was a prisoner, when he was brought before King Agrippa, then Felix, and was there one other person, was there one other temporal ruler that he was brought before? Anyways, before Felix, the Apostle Paul says that this is the path, this is the way that I wish to travel, even though people in the world around me are calling it a way of heresy.

And you are a follower of Christ. And this was a very, very derogatory name at that time. Those who believed in Christ and followed Christ were called Christians. And it was during the Bible times when that began to take place. But this was a title of derision.

And so Paul says that many times it has been said to me that you are traveling the way of heresy. But Paul says this is the pathway, the way that I wish to travel. And then he confesses that there will one day be a day of resurrection, and it shall be for the just and the unjust alike. No one will be able to escape that occasion, whether they would like to or not.

And so today's theme reminds us to be watchful, watching and waiting in faith. We do not know when our individual departure may happen. There are many who are elders in our midst, and their health is perhaps becoming weaker and weaker. Their footsteps are getting shorter and shorter. And we can almost see the effects of time on this or that individual.

And perhaps when sickness afflicts some individual, it's as if we can see that perhaps the end of time is coming closer and closer for this or that individual. And when death does come knocking, in a way it's as if somewhat expected. But what takes us by surprise and what is so hard to accept for us as human beings is this: when someone is suddenly taken from our midst, perhaps in an accident or for some other reason.

The end will come, as us as individuals or at the end of the world when there will be the collective departure for all of those who are yet living.

As Jesus says in one of his final sermons known as the Sermon on the Mount of Olives when he was in Jerusalem the last time, He said, "When the end comes, it will be like a normal day. People will be getting married. They will be living in marriage. They will be eating and drinking and doing their normal everyday chores during their normal course of life. Then suddenly, one will be taken and one will be left."

During that same week, Jesus was there in the Garden of Gethsemane and He had with Him His three close disciples, Peter, James, and John. And Jesus wished to go off alone and pray by Himself. And so He turned to those three disciples, Peter, James, and John, and He said, "Stay here for but a few moments and remain awake. I will return momentarily."

And three times Jesus went off to pray, and when He returned, He found them sleeping. He woke them up and He said, "Couldn't you stay awake for but a few moments?" And then He continued and said to these three disciples, "We know that the spirit is willing but the flesh is often weak."

And so today's theme tells us to be watchful, waiting in faith, and to be departure ready.

There is a word which is very common in the Bible and it is righteousness. And this word in one other language, the Swedish language—I don't know the Swedish language, but I have read in sources—the word righteousness in the Swedish language means being departure ready, ready for departure.

So what does it mean to be departure ready? It means that we have faith and we endeavor to travel keeping a good conscience so that when that moment arrives, when the call is heard, we will be able to go and meet our bridegroom and He would say, "Come, you who are blessed of my Father, go into the rest of my Lord."

One of the gospels, one of the scriptures, one of the gospel texts for this Sunday, the second to the last Sunday of the church year, speaks about the parable of the ten virgins. There were ten virgins, five of them were wise and five of them were foolish.

And why were five of them foolish? In the outward sense, when examining all ten, they perhaps all had the same kind of clothes, they all looked very similar to each other, they all had a lamp in their hand. So in this respect, one would be difficult to differentiate from the other.

So why then were five of them wise and five of them foolish? There was one great difference. They all had lamps in their hands, and in order to be acceptable to the wedding of the bridegroom, when the bridegroom returns, would be to have a lamp in your hand. And not only a lamp in one's possession, but there must be a fire burning on the wick.

And so it was interesting that while the bridegroom tarried, all ten became drowsy and the Bible says that even all fell asleep. But then the shout was heard and the five foolish did not have oil in their vessel.

And if there was no oil in the vessel, if there were no oil, there was no oil in these two lamps or candlesticks before us, there would be no flame. And in order to be acceptable to the wedding of the bridegroom, there needed to be a flame burning on the vessel.

And so before us we have two candles and each one pictures an individual, an individual believer, a child of God who has a lamp burning on their vessel. And the reason why there is a flame on each one of these candles is because there is oil in that vessel. And the oil is a picture of the Holy Spirit.

And if we would gather many candles together, then this is a picture of the kingdom of God, the group of believers.

And so one old preacher brother said in this way, "What benefit would it be to us if we would have an armful of vessels, candles, which were not ours, but our own individual candle or vessel would not have oil in it and thus with no oil, no flame?"

So it is important that our own personal vessel of faith would be containing the oil of the Holy Spirit and thus that flame would be burning. Even though that flame is many times seemingly so small and insignificant.

Here as a flickering candle has been my life of faith. And oft my feet so stumbling, they waver upon the way. But from the open fountains, which freely flow from Zion, new strength I here receive. From the Cupid I am lifted up there, and from the other side of the cloud, London by amen.

The challenge of the world is better than the burden. The world gathers many kinds of fishes. There are big fish, there are small fish, there are what we call rough fish, and then there are what we call good edible fish.

So many fish get caught in the net, but there are many fish which escape. Some never enter into the net. Some swim around, some swim underneath, and so on and so forth. But the net continues to be dragged throughout the period of the history of mankind.

Sometimes it is so that those that get caught in the net as time goes on, maybe they wiggle loose and they swim free. They are no longer in the net, but in the sea of the world.

But then Jesus says that at the end of time, this net will then be drawn up to shore. Then God sends His angels to the net to pluck out the fish that are yet caught in the net, which is a picture of the kingdom of God.

And yet at that moment, at that time, will separate those fish that are caught in the net into two vessels: those that are acceptable and those that are not.

Those that are not acceptable. This is amazing. Fish are plucked out of the net of the kingdom of God and are yet placed into two vessels: those that are acceptable and those that are not acceptable.

It is very similar to what the resurrected Lord said to John on the Isle of Patmos and what He said to him. He said, and was sending greetings to one of the angels of Asia Minor. And the message to one of these seven angels was this: "You have a name that you are living, that you are one of the fish in this net, but you are dead."

It can be so that we as human beings can be able to live in this net, and we can be able to live in this net, and we can fool or even deceive another. One may come to church, could even greet another with God's peace, sing the songs of Zion, pay their church dues, and yet this may apply: "You have a name that you are living, but you are dead."

Oh, that it would not be that you are dead, but you are alive.

When that net of God's kingdom is drawn onto the shore on the final day, that we would be one of those fish that are plucked out and put into that vessel of unacceptable fish.

What is that substance which makes the fish become unacceptable? It is short. It is simple. S-I-N.

So, where then is our first and foremost place of watching? Is it to look over our shoulder at the one sitting next to us or close to us and wonder, is that person, that individual, an acceptable or an unacceptable fish? No.

Isn't the first and foremost place of watching to turn our gaze into our own heart and with that prayer and with that mind of Christ plead and ask that I would be and always remain as an acceptable one? That I would be given that strength to travel, keeping faith and a good conscience.

Of course, we cannot deny the words that Cain said about his brother Abel, "Am I my brother's keeper?" No, that also is not correct. But as Paul said in his farewell sermon to the elders of Ephesus there in Miletus, "Watch first for yourself, over yourself, your own matters, and then over the rest of the flock."

So today's theme is a very somber and sobering theme that we would endeavor to keep faith and a good conscience, endeavoring to travel on this narrow way of life and dipping from the fountains of grace where we receive new strength, and where we receive the best of things, through the power of God and salvation.

It is alone through the power of the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. It is not left into our own hands, in our own wisdom, our own might or skill. But no, it is simply by faith. It is a gift of God and through the power of the gospel.

So even now, perhaps feeling tired, tempted, and tried, even having doubts, it is my desire, you may think, that I want to reach the destination, but I feel so poor, so worthless, it seems like I often stumble along the way.

God, the Heavenly Father, in the merit works of His Son, wishes to outstretch those pierced hands to reach out to you, to lift you up into His bosom, bless you with the Gospel, carry you with His promises of grace, and bring you to that everlasting home, the destination in Heaven.

So, be encouraged. Renew those promises again. Seem as it may seem. Feel as it may feel. You can believe just as you find yourself, and even now, believe. Even the last doubts, worries of the journey, sins and cares forgiven, in Jesus' name and precious Atonement blood. In Jesus' name, Amen.