Category: Sermon Supplements

My wife loves the game show network.  This is ok with me until a certain dude’s voice comes through the speakers.  A man should not sound like that, it makes me cringe.  Really it makes me want to vomit.  My response is an alloy made with more sin than grace.  Here is likely another man who never had a real father and has likely never had the gospel radically revamp his idea of manhood, and rather than feeling sorrow and compassion I just get angry.  The gospel he needs I deny him in my self-righteousness.  Nevertheless, for illustration purposes, his voice is irritating; to me.

In contrast I love Morgan Freeman’s voice.  He really should be the only one allowed to do TV and radio commercials.  If an audio Bible ever comes out with Morgan as the voice, be assured I will buy it.

Still greater is God’s voice, His Word.  ‘Greater’ is an adjectival understatement of colossal size.  His voice is majestic.  It can come to us in awesome thunderous booms (Exodus 19:19), or in the softest whisper (1 Kings 19:12-13).  His voice both causes (Psalm 29:3-5) and calms (Mark 4:39) storms.  No one talks like our God (Psalm 33:6).

Sadly sin causes us to run from His voice.  Adam hides when he hears the sound of the LORD God.  The word translated sound here is more often translated voice.  It is dense in the Pentateuch, especially Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 5:25; 8:20; 15:5; 18:16; 26:14; 27:10; 28:1, 2, 15, 45, 62; 30:8, 10).  In Deuteronomy we see that the voice of the LORD is something to be obeyed.  When Adam hears it he is further disobeying.  He does not come forward in broken repentance, he hides.  Sin makes us to vomit with fear at His Holy voice, its purity makes us cringe.  How evil is the evil that could make me hear such a golden tongue in this way?

But Adam is not allowed to hide; the divine words confront and interrogate him.  Yes, they expose his nakedness and his guilt, but keep listening, they also hold out promise.  The thunder of judgment turns to a whisper of promise.

God has thundered against the Son, so you might hear the whispers of His eternal love for you.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.  – Genesis 3:6

She took… and ate: so simple the act, so hard its undoing.  God will taste poverty and death before ‘take and eat’ become verbs of salvation.  – Derek Kidner

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’  – Matthew 26:26

Dating without any reference to marriage is as dangerous as shooting a gun without any reference to a target.

Genesis 2:18-25 gives us the context for intimacy between a man and a woman, it is marriage.  Do not decontextualize the intimacy of marriage and place it in dating.  Courtship should correspond to marriage the way a Nerf gun corresponds to a handgun, there will be similarities, but they are drastically different. 

Please don’t carry the analogy too far though.  Dating may be the Nerf gun, but it is still serious.  Be faithful with the lesser Nerf gun of dating, and you will be prepared to be faithful with the real gun of holy matrimony.  Date with purpose, not for leisure.  A marriage that expounds the mystery of Christ and His Church is the target – AIM!

God has Defined The Relationship. 

I think most people in the west make two deadly assumptions concerning their relationship with God.

1)    It exists and it is good.  They have never had to do anything to gain it, but they most assuredly have it.  They are not super serious about the relationship from their side, but they are convinced the Divine is intensely serious about them.  Here God is a Cosmic Care Bear, a Santa Clause on steroids, and a Mr. Rodgers who is everybody’s neighbor.

2)   They deny such a relationship exists altogether.  They may or may not be adamant about this.  Most likely this exists in a soft form of apathy.  Whether or not there is such a relationship to be had they just don’t care.

With the rise of an ethereal spirituality in the US I think most people place make the former assumption.  They are like the 5 year old whose girlfriend is their kindergarten teacher, the relationship isn’t really real.  They “talk to God” kind of like the 30 year old guy who lives in grandma’s garage “talks to girls” online while wearing Star Wars pajamas – the relationship ain’t really real.

We only relate to God within the structures of covenant.  Covenant relationships are serious, and this is the most serious relationship of all.  Now it is true that all mankind does relate to God as their creator, and God has a posture to general benevolence toward all of mankind, but man as a whole is in violation of covenant, this covenant (Hosea 6:7).  The favor and blessing of God are absent.  We are excommunicants of the covenant, we are now a dying death.  Relationship with God is so serious that the only basis for it is perfection. 

You are saved by works.  Covenants are unchangeable.  They may be superseded, this one never was.  This covenant was not annulled, it was fulfilled.  Again, you are saved by works, the catch is that they are not your own.  Every time you read the gospels, think to yourself as you see the perfect living of Christ, “that is my righteousness by faith”.  Every time you read the gospels, think to yourself as you see cursed death of Christ, “that is my curse”.

You are either in Adam or in Christ.  You relate to God in one of these two ways.  God has defined the relationship.

From my limited study of culture in America I will venture to say that generation gaps are a recent development.  Just a matter of decades ago the radical preference differences between teen and parent would not be so obvious.  To be in anyway like your parents as a teen is now often uber-uncool. 

Our society which places stress on the individual adds to this.  You must find out who you are, you own style, your own way.  Customize you life.  Too often this results in rebellion.  You want to run from anything that would conform you to the mold of you parents.  Take heed, how you respond to this authority tells of your attitude toward the ultimate authority that placed you under such dorky parents.

It is a good thing to have good parents.  God designed the parent child relationship, it is good.  It is good to imitate their faith and look like them as they look like Christ.

Imago Dei , the image of God – the implications of this doctrine are so intense.  The more I reflect on it the more I am left in awe.  In the original rebellion man was not content with being made in the image of God, he wanted to be God!  He rebelled against his Creator.  He wanted to customize his image, upgrade.  Unfortunately like many rebellious fashion attempts of teens today, this was a tragic downgrade.  Identity was not found it was lost.  We devolved.

Jesus comes to restore the imago Dei.  In fact he takes us beyond mere restoration.  After our final glorification we will be in a better position than Adam.  When vile sinners who are exposed graciously to the glory of God break in contrition, their identity is not lost, rather they begin to find it.  In repentance and faith our humble humanity is restored.  And our humble humanity is glorious.  What is man that you are so mindful of Him?