2nd Sunday after Pentecost, 6/22/14
2 Peter 1:20-2:3
Faithfulness to God’s Word Has Two Sides!
I. Uphold it.
II. Defend it.
More than one of you has told me over the years, “You know, sometimes the children’s message really helps me understand your sermon for the teens and adults.” Perhaps that’s already happened for you this morning. Two sides. Same coin.
You see it in sports teams as well. Take the game of football for instance. You have your offense and your defense. Almost always they are not the same players. Two squads of players. Different function. Same team.
But in many other teams sports you do both. In baseball you play the field and then you hit. In hockey it depends on which team controls the puck at a particular moment. In basketball and soccer, it depends on which team is controlling the ball. If your team does, you’re playing offense. If the other team does, you’re playing defense. You’re either advancing towards the other team’s goal or you’re protecting yours.
In a way that’s what we do with any blessing we have. Parents, one of the most precious blessings God has given you is your children. On the one hand, you want to enjoy your children as much as possible while you can. On the other, you want to guard and protect them from harm and danger. Or consider something materialistic that you possess, especially something that has value. You possess it to enjoy it for yourself, but you also defend it from loss, theft, misuse and any element that will ruin it.
Our God has given us many great spiritual gifts worth more than all the money in the world. He’s given you the forgiveness of sins, Jesus as your Savior, faith in Jesus, membership in his kingdom, eternal life. And his word through which those gifts come to us.
Today our God calls on us to be faithful with his word. Just what does that mean? Like a coin, it has two sides. Faithfulness to God’s word has two sides. The Apostle Peter explains what they are in this morning’s text. May our love for our God lead us to be faithful to his word!
Part I.
When did it happen that people—even Christians—no longer considered the Bible to be the word of God? Many would answer that question by pointing to the late 1800s when rationalism had taken hold among the learned people of the world. Theories were developed about how the Bible came into existence apart from anything supernatural. It became popular for university professors to teach that the Bible was simply a collection of various humans’ thoughts about the divine being, if one even existed.
It would be true that such a terrible teaching about God’s word dealt a huge blow to it and to the Christian church on earth. But actually, that type of thinking about God’s word—either written or orally conveyed—has been around ever since the fall into sin. Think about it. Adam and Eve had a clear word of God from God himself. Don’t eat of this tree. But they came to the deadly conclusion that either God wasn’t serious about what he had said or he wasn’t telling them the truth.
Noah had a clear word from God. Repent because world-wide destruction is imminent. But the people ignored what Noah proclaimed.
King Jehoiakim of Judah had the original scroll of the Book of Jeremiah in his hands. But as it was unrolled and read to him, he carved it up with a knife and fed it into the firepot in the room to take the chill out of the air.
The scribes and Pharisees had none other than the Word of God in human flesh standing before them speaking God’s word to them, but they concluded he was none other than the devil himself.
My point is this: Throughout the history of the world there have been low opinions—dreadfully low opinions—about the word of God. Faithfulness to that word moves us to uphold it for what it is—God’s saving truth.
Peter reminds us of that very thing this morning. He states, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Contrary to what “learned professors” may say, the Bible is not a collection of the spiritual thoughts of human beings. Peter plainly says that prophecy—in other words, God’s word—never had its origin in the will of man. No writer of the Bible ever woke up one morning and stated, “I think I’ll write a book of the Bible today.”
Instead, the Bible is a product of the Holy Spirit’s work. Peter says the writers of the Bible were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Another way of saying that is that he was conveying to them what to write as they wrote it. St. Paul uses the phrase “God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16). The Holy Spirit inspired the writers with the thoughts and words they were to write. He used their personal style and experiences, but what they wrote was exactly what he wanted them to write.
That makes the Bible God’s truth, not the spiritual thoughts of well-intentioned but fallible human beings. That’s what sets this book far above all others. That’s why we stake this life and the life to come on the word of God. Faithfulness to it demands no less.
Faithfulness to God’s word has two sides. The one side is to uphold it as the word of God.
One important way of being faithful to your marriage vow is to honor your spouse by respecting what he or she says. One important way of being faithful to the God of your salvation is to respect what he says in his word. Having a high view of God’s word is likely one of the reasons you are here today and not in a church of another denomination. Having a high view of the Bible means that we are up against our government, our world, every other religion in the world, and even far too many denominations of Christianity. We just sang about that word, “By pow’rs of empire banned and burned, by pagan pride rejected, spurned” (Hymn 291 st. 3). That’s daunting enough. We hear and see it every day. But we’re also up against from within ourselves. It’s not just pagan pride that rejects God’s word; sinful pride does too. Whenever I sit in judgment over the word of God, whenever I am unwilling to believe and do what it says, whenever I decide that I will think and say and do as I please, I am unfaithful to God’s word. I have a low opinion of it. God be merciful to me—to you too. And that’s what his word is all about—a merciful, loving, gracious, forgiving God. This is the word of the God who loves us so much he sacrificed his Son for us and he wants to share that saving word with us every day of our lives. What could be greater news than that?! Be faithful to that word and uphold it as God’s word!
Part II.
It never ceases to amaze me what people will believe. This past February Rev. Jamie Coots of Kentucky died while handling snakes as part of his congregation’s worship. Why would you believe God wants you to do that? It’s a gross misinterpretation of one passage of the Bible.
Almost 2 centuries ago Joseph Smith claimed he received an addition to the Bible from the angel Gabriel, an addition that contradicts all sorts of clear teachings in the Bible, including the eternal deity of Jesus Christ and what happens? Today millions of people believe his lies. It never ceases to amaze me what people will believe in spite of what the Bible clearly says.
Peter reminds us that it’s always been that way. “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.” Among God’s Old Testament people there were countless false prophets. At one time wicked King Ahab supported 450 prophets of the vile idol called Baal.
Peter saw it happening among the believers in ancient Asia Minor. He warned them, “They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.” Their false teachings sound good. They appeal to the people. They may even sound loving. But they’re deadly. God calls them shameful. He has reserved destruction for such false teachers at just the right time—his time.
So watch out! Jesus warned about wolves in sheep’s clothing. Yes, I’m here to help you watch out for them, but realize that, all too often, the wolf in sheep’s clothing is standing behind a pulpit. It’s always up to you to compare what the preacher says with what God’s word says. And when the two are at odds, you must defend the truth. That’s what being faithful to God’s word is. Defend it!
You realize, I’m sure, that defending God’s truth is not easy in a world that only embraces this one truth: absolute truth doesn’t exist. It’s all subjective, personal, individual. But God didn’t share his truth with us in order to vex and trouble us. He shared his truth with us in order to bless and save us. The God who is love shared his truth with us. Love for him and for the salvation he won for us moves us to protect and defend his truth from all error. One of the reasons we’ve come together as a congregation of Christians is to encourage each other in faithfulness to God’s word. May our God bless us as we uphold his word and defend it. Amen.
June 21, 2014
June 18, 2014
Look What Creation Tells You About the Triune God!
1st Sunday after Pentecost, 6/15/14
Genesis 1:1-2:3
Look What Creation Tells You About the Triune God!
I. All he creates is very good.
II. He creates humans in his image.
III. He entrusts his creation to us.
Men, remember when it used to be a “guy” thing to work on your own car? Not so much anymore. All the time it takes is one reason for it. But the bigger reason is that we don’t feel competent (although we hesitate to admit that to anyone except perhaps a counselor who cannot share confidential information). So we accept that we don’t know how our vehicle works; we just know that it does a nice job of getting us from point A to point B in safety and relative comfort.
Likewise for cell phones. Don’t ask me how I can use this device not only to call someone on the other side of the world, but also to take photos, calculate my BMI, pay my bills online, check the weather and help me navigate my way from point A to point B in the vehicle which I don’t understand either. It seems that no matter what you want these days, there’s an app for that. I don’t know how to make this work. When I want to find out, I ask my children. The only thing I know is that it does what I want it to do. In other words, I know it because of what it does for me.
OK. So we admit that most of us don’t know much about our vehicles and our phones; so now tell me about the inner workings of our God. Tell me how he can be three persons but only one God. Tell me how he knows and sees all things. Tell me how he can create all things out of nothing in six days using only his almighty word. Explain how he came up with the laws of nature. If God is everywhere, is he outside of our universe? By the way, what is outside of our universe? And if it’s nothing, how can you understand that?
Our God knows that, as incredible as human wisdom is, it’s limited. We can’t understand him; at least not fully. But he does reveal to us what we need to know about him. And we can know all sorts of wonderful things about him as we look at the way he created all things. We have that blessed opportunity this morning. We have before us the creation account. Look at it with me. Look what creation tells you about the Triune God.
Part I.
Two weekends ago I spent about 10 hours spreading mulch around my home’s flowers and shrubs. When I got done I stood back, admired the job I had done through eyes smarting with sweat and said to myself, “Good enough.” Good enough?! Is that all? Two days later I noticed a spot I had missed. There was too much mulch here and not enough over there. Mulch spilled onto the sidewalk in one spot and covered a small flower in another. “Good enough” meant I was not going to make any more effort to make it better. “Good enough” meant I was willing to admit it wasn’t perfect. In fact, it meant I knew I was incapable of a perfect effort.
Not too many people, if given the chance, would step back from our world and proclaim it “good enough.” In fact, most would state our world is a mess. Another school shooting. Al Qaida is alive and well. Storms bring death and destruction. And then people wonder, “Where is God in all of this? Why doesn’t he do something about it?” And then it dawns on them that it’s always been this way. We live in a world gone wrong. And their conclusion? This is all God’s doing. It’s his fault. This is the way he made things.
Such people either don’t believe or haven’t read our first lesson for this morning. They miss or deny this little, but so important verse of God’s holy Word, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” That’s the Hebrew way of saying there was nothing wrong with it. It was perfect.
First, that means it turned out exactly as he wanted it to. He didn’t start out to do a perfect job but once he got into it and realized how difficult it was decided to settle for good enough. Everything turned out exactly as he planned it to. All things worked in perfect harmony. The entire universe beamed with the glory of the almighty, perfect God. He had created a perfect world.
That also means the world was morally perfect. There was no evil lurking deep within just waiting to emerge and ruin everything. There were no evil intentions even within Adam and Eve. There was no sin. There was no death. There was no destruction. There was no frustration. Just goodness. All over. All the time.
Look what creation tells you about the Triune God. All he creates is very good.
So, would you say that things today are getting better or worse? I don’t have the results of any poll before me, but if I had to guess, I’d say only a small minority of people would say that things are getting better in our world. It’s evident to the vast majority of us that things are getting worse. There are political powder kegs in our world just waiting to be detonated by some madman. We still have energy and pollution problems that we can’t seem to solve. That person who seemed so nice to his neighbors was actually despicable. Too many times each day the medical expert tells his patient, “I’m sorry. There’s nothing more that I can do for you.” What happened to “very good?” We know what happened. Sin happened. And we contributed far more than our share of it. So what’s the solution? Jesus Christ. He came to make all things very good between us and God. He did that with a gruesome death on Calvary’s cross. He came to make all things good for us forever. He did that with a glorious resurrection from the dead. He will come and make all things very good for us again on the Last Day. And that’s what we need to know. Look what creation tells you about the Triune God!
Part II.
Do you realize how often every day you’re confronted with your image? It’s a huge advertising gimmick. If advertisers can just get you to consider that you should look different, they’ve done their job. Now you’ll listen to want they’re pitching. And it doesn’t even have to be physical. Consider the “subliminal messages” You should be smarter. You should be more active. You should be more popular. You should be happier.” It’s all about your self-image.
This first chapter of Genesis also contains information about an image. Not ours, but God’s. It says that God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” Adam and Eve were created in God’s image. Just what does that mean? Well, let’s state clearly what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean they were God. They were humans. Nor does it mean that they looked like God because God doesn’t have a body.
What does it mean? Scripture states that by faith in Jesus we regain the image of God—true righteousness and holiness. For Adam and Eve to be created in the image of God means that their will was in perfect harmony with God’s will. What they wanted was exactly what God wanted. Their desires about each other and all of God’s creation were holy.
It also means their intellect was holy. They thought about things the way God thinks about them. They didn’t reason how they could use something for a sinful purpose, but only how it could be used for the way God designed it. They didn’t think—either intentionally or unintentionally—about how to ruin something.
What a world! What marvelous human beings! Look what creation tells you about the Triune God. He creates humans in his image.
We might not be so bold as to say, “What I think and what I want are right because it’s what I think and want,” but that sounds fairly familiar, doesn’t it? Given a particular situation or issue, and we can easily conclude on our own what’s right for us. And the corollary to that thinking is, “Who is God to tell me?” How far we’ve fallen from being created in the image of God when our thinking and our desires were in complete harmony with God’s, not in utter discord! This creation account reveals the sad truth about us. But as we read further, we see how God planned and fulfilled the way to restore his image in us—through faith in Jesus as our Savior. Jesus won our forgiveness. Jesus makes us right with God. Jesus will fully restore us to the image of God when we enter eternal life. Look what creation tells you about the Triune God!
Part III.
A loving and generous father takes the keys to a brand new car and hands them to his daughter on her graduation from high school. Can you imagine it? Yeah, it happens. A father spends 2 years restoring a vintage car to its original condition and, as soon as he’s done, he hands the keys to his son who just got his driver’s license. Can you imagine it? Most of you are saying, “I’m not picking up what you’re laying down, Pastor.”
Now imagine this. God takes the perfect world—the entire universe—which he had just created out of nothing and hands it to Adam and Eve to use in a perfect way. Can you imagine it? That’s what happened.
God told Adam and Eve to fill the earth and subdue it. The Hebrew words here indicate that they should use God’s creation in a way that God designed it. They weren’t to abuse it. And before the fall into sin, that’s exactly what they did.
It was all here for them to enjoy. They were amazed at the marvelous way God had created all things, from the beauty of a small flower to the vastness of the night sky. God takes the keys to the world and hands them to humans. What a loving God!
Look what creation tells you about the Triune God!
He did that knowing they would ruin it all with their sin. And we wonder why. I can’t answer that because God doesn’t tell us in his word. But when they did ruin it, he immediately announces a fix to it all—he will send a Savior. Now that’s love! Astounding love! Love like no other. That’s his love for you. Look what creation tells you about the Triune God. Look, and be eternally grateful! Amen.
Genesis 1:1-2:3
Look What Creation Tells You About the Triune God!
I. All he creates is very good.
II. He creates humans in his image.
III. He entrusts his creation to us.
Men, remember when it used to be a “guy” thing to work on your own car? Not so much anymore. All the time it takes is one reason for it. But the bigger reason is that we don’t feel competent (although we hesitate to admit that to anyone except perhaps a counselor who cannot share confidential information). So we accept that we don’t know how our vehicle works; we just know that it does a nice job of getting us from point A to point B in safety and relative comfort.
Likewise for cell phones. Don’t ask me how I can use this device not only to call someone on the other side of the world, but also to take photos, calculate my BMI, pay my bills online, check the weather and help me navigate my way from point A to point B in the vehicle which I don’t understand either. It seems that no matter what you want these days, there’s an app for that. I don’t know how to make this work. When I want to find out, I ask my children. The only thing I know is that it does what I want it to do. In other words, I know it because of what it does for me.
OK. So we admit that most of us don’t know much about our vehicles and our phones; so now tell me about the inner workings of our God. Tell me how he can be three persons but only one God. Tell me how he knows and sees all things. Tell me how he can create all things out of nothing in six days using only his almighty word. Explain how he came up with the laws of nature. If God is everywhere, is he outside of our universe? By the way, what is outside of our universe? And if it’s nothing, how can you understand that?
Our God knows that, as incredible as human wisdom is, it’s limited. We can’t understand him; at least not fully. But he does reveal to us what we need to know about him. And we can know all sorts of wonderful things about him as we look at the way he created all things. We have that blessed opportunity this morning. We have before us the creation account. Look at it with me. Look what creation tells you about the Triune God.
Part I.
Two weekends ago I spent about 10 hours spreading mulch around my home’s flowers and shrubs. When I got done I stood back, admired the job I had done through eyes smarting with sweat and said to myself, “Good enough.” Good enough?! Is that all? Two days later I noticed a spot I had missed. There was too much mulch here and not enough over there. Mulch spilled onto the sidewalk in one spot and covered a small flower in another. “Good enough” meant I was not going to make any more effort to make it better. “Good enough” meant I was willing to admit it wasn’t perfect. In fact, it meant I knew I was incapable of a perfect effort.
Not too many people, if given the chance, would step back from our world and proclaim it “good enough.” In fact, most would state our world is a mess. Another school shooting. Al Qaida is alive and well. Storms bring death and destruction. And then people wonder, “Where is God in all of this? Why doesn’t he do something about it?” And then it dawns on them that it’s always been this way. We live in a world gone wrong. And their conclusion? This is all God’s doing. It’s his fault. This is the way he made things.
Such people either don’t believe or haven’t read our first lesson for this morning. They miss or deny this little, but so important verse of God’s holy Word, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” That’s the Hebrew way of saying there was nothing wrong with it. It was perfect.
First, that means it turned out exactly as he wanted it to. He didn’t start out to do a perfect job but once he got into it and realized how difficult it was decided to settle for good enough. Everything turned out exactly as he planned it to. All things worked in perfect harmony. The entire universe beamed with the glory of the almighty, perfect God. He had created a perfect world.
That also means the world was morally perfect. There was no evil lurking deep within just waiting to emerge and ruin everything. There were no evil intentions even within Adam and Eve. There was no sin. There was no death. There was no destruction. There was no frustration. Just goodness. All over. All the time.
Look what creation tells you about the Triune God. All he creates is very good.
So, would you say that things today are getting better or worse? I don’t have the results of any poll before me, but if I had to guess, I’d say only a small minority of people would say that things are getting better in our world. It’s evident to the vast majority of us that things are getting worse. There are political powder kegs in our world just waiting to be detonated by some madman. We still have energy and pollution problems that we can’t seem to solve. That person who seemed so nice to his neighbors was actually despicable. Too many times each day the medical expert tells his patient, “I’m sorry. There’s nothing more that I can do for you.” What happened to “very good?” We know what happened. Sin happened. And we contributed far more than our share of it. So what’s the solution? Jesus Christ. He came to make all things very good between us and God. He did that with a gruesome death on Calvary’s cross. He came to make all things good for us forever. He did that with a glorious resurrection from the dead. He will come and make all things very good for us again on the Last Day. And that’s what we need to know. Look what creation tells you about the Triune God!
Part II.
Do you realize how often every day you’re confronted with your image? It’s a huge advertising gimmick. If advertisers can just get you to consider that you should look different, they’ve done their job. Now you’ll listen to want they’re pitching. And it doesn’t even have to be physical. Consider the “subliminal messages” You should be smarter. You should be more active. You should be more popular. You should be happier.” It’s all about your self-image.
This first chapter of Genesis also contains information about an image. Not ours, but God’s. It says that God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” Adam and Eve were created in God’s image. Just what does that mean? Well, let’s state clearly what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean they were God. They were humans. Nor does it mean that they looked like God because God doesn’t have a body.
What does it mean? Scripture states that by faith in Jesus we regain the image of God—true righteousness and holiness. For Adam and Eve to be created in the image of God means that their will was in perfect harmony with God’s will. What they wanted was exactly what God wanted. Their desires about each other and all of God’s creation were holy.
It also means their intellect was holy. They thought about things the way God thinks about them. They didn’t reason how they could use something for a sinful purpose, but only how it could be used for the way God designed it. They didn’t think—either intentionally or unintentionally—about how to ruin something.
What a world! What marvelous human beings! Look what creation tells you about the Triune God. He creates humans in his image.
We might not be so bold as to say, “What I think and what I want are right because it’s what I think and want,” but that sounds fairly familiar, doesn’t it? Given a particular situation or issue, and we can easily conclude on our own what’s right for us. And the corollary to that thinking is, “Who is God to tell me?” How far we’ve fallen from being created in the image of God when our thinking and our desires were in complete harmony with God’s, not in utter discord! This creation account reveals the sad truth about us. But as we read further, we see how God planned and fulfilled the way to restore his image in us—through faith in Jesus as our Savior. Jesus won our forgiveness. Jesus makes us right with God. Jesus will fully restore us to the image of God when we enter eternal life. Look what creation tells you about the Triune God!
Part III.
A loving and generous father takes the keys to a brand new car and hands them to his daughter on her graduation from high school. Can you imagine it? Yeah, it happens. A father spends 2 years restoring a vintage car to its original condition and, as soon as he’s done, he hands the keys to his son who just got his driver’s license. Can you imagine it? Most of you are saying, “I’m not picking up what you’re laying down, Pastor.”
Now imagine this. God takes the perfect world—the entire universe—which he had just created out of nothing and hands it to Adam and Eve to use in a perfect way. Can you imagine it? That’s what happened.
God told Adam and Eve to fill the earth and subdue it. The Hebrew words here indicate that they should use God’s creation in a way that God designed it. They weren’t to abuse it. And before the fall into sin, that’s exactly what they did.
It was all here for them to enjoy. They were amazed at the marvelous way God had created all things, from the beauty of a small flower to the vastness of the night sky. God takes the keys to the world and hands them to humans. What a loving God!
Look what creation tells you about the Triune God!
He did that knowing they would ruin it all with their sin. And we wonder why. I can’t answer that because God doesn’t tell us in his word. But when they did ruin it, he immediately announces a fix to it all—he will send a Savior. Now that’s love! Astounding love! Love like no other. That’s his love for you. Look what creation tells you about the Triune God. Look, and be eternally grateful! Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
